Harvestland Artillery of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

I promised more troops to join my other my Wars of Ozz figures from the Lesser Pumpkin Heads – and here they are – the Harvestland Artillery and Crew.

In my last post I shared about the Lesser Pumpkin Heads infantry regiment, who joined their kin King Jack and the Great Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest. These artillerists have – yes – a catapult to launch pumpkins at their enemies. Their catapult counts as “light artillery” and the crew are supposed to be armed with carbines as secondary weapons. The figures are metal and 28mm in scale. The SKU is #OZZ522 and it can be seen here. There are 5 Lesser Pumpkin Head (LPH) figures, a catapult, and a stack of pumpkin “ammo” for the model. I’m not sure that the ammo came from any intelligent source – but as of all the pumpkin heads, only King Jack can speak (and he won’t tell) – so the mystery continues…

Similar to my LPH infantry, I wanted these to appear to be a rabble-type force. Again I varied their clothing no two of the five figures would appear to be alike. I did use the basic colors of the Great Pumpkin Heads for this battery – especially the yellow-green eyes. And again, I also needed to show scarecrow straw stuffing coming out of the holes in their clothes and near their wrists.

As before, first I’ll share a few WIP shots and then I will show some eye candy. I worked on the LPH, GPH, King Jack and one other Harvest unit in various states of completion at the same time – (that other Harvest unit being my next post’s surprise).

I’ll start with assembly of the figures (which was easy) and then describe the painting process. I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested (and for my own reference in the future should I need that information).

My motivation to get these done was to have some relatively long-range fire capability for the Harvest Brigade. However, there is one other unique game aspect to this unit that is pretty cool:

Pumpkin Patches:

Before the Game begins, King Jack can convert one field to a pumpkin patch. When a lesser pumpkin unit is in the field and King Jack is in contact with the unit, he can use his activation to raise…up to two hits on the pumpkin head unit…

Wars of Ozz addendum

With this, the Harvest battery cannot get bigger than its original 5 figures, but if placed in a pumpkin patch effectively, this means that the unit would be very hard to kill. The LPH infantry could also take advantage of this similarly, but I think the main advantage is for the battery, which could recover up to two hits per turn. The question of LPH artillerist training is not addressed, I guess they just sprout ready right out of the ground – that certainly saves training resources!

WIP Shots…

The unit and movement base as received – started on April 5th.

I used the artillery sabot base (SKU #OZZ-BAS2) for the unit similar how I built my Munchkin and Winkie batteries.

After filing and washing, the battery dries.
As before, I drilled out the MDF base and glued small steel bases under the base and inserted 1/8″ round neodymium magnets into the holes. I also glued another set of 1/2″ square steel bases under the figures’ round MDF bases. This will allow them to both stay in place and be easily removed during a game. For the catapult, I did a similar action with a larger steel base under the catapult, so that it could show either “limbered” or “unlimbered” status.

By April 11th, I had primed the unit and started working on the component figures. I primed the catapult green and the figures black. I also painted in the wells of the sabot base and the LPH eyes with the glowing green color I’d been using. In my view, it is supposed to be the color of the Harvestland figures inner animation – or their blood – or both – you pick.

April 11 progress

By April 19th, the unit was painted, varnished, flocked, and its base was done.

So it’s time for some Ozz-inspired…

Eye Candy

As you see, the battery is very colorful. These photo groups will be two image galleries for the figures.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Group shots

That’s the Harvestland Artillery. Hope that you enjoyed seeing it and my processes. The next “surprise” unit that I will share for my Harvest Brigade is one that I had a lot of fun painting. Though it was actually devoid of any Vitamin A…I think you’ll enjoy seeing it shortly.

Thanks for taking a look and for sharing any feedback you’d care to write in the comments section.

And yes, I still have more to come…

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS HARVESTLAND ARTILLERY BATTERY:

  1. MDF sabot base from Wars of Ozz miniatures, OZZ-BAS2
  2. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  3. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
  4. 1/2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  5. 1.25″ x 1″steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  6. Gorilla Glue
  7. Poster tack
  8. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  9. Reaper “Black Primer”
  10. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
  11. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Russian Green”
  12. Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
  13. Battlefront “Gunship Green”
  14. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  15. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  16. Vallejo Game Air “Escorpena Green”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Sand Golem”
  18. Vallejo Game Color “Moon Yellow”
  19. Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Blue”
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  22. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Gravelord Grey”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Camo Cloak”
  24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  26. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  27. Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
  28. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  29. Vallejo Model Air “Green Brown”
  30. Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
  31. Tamiya “Orange”
  32. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
  33. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
  34. Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
  35. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
  36. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Alchemy”
  37. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  38. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  39. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  40. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  41. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  42. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  43. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  44. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  45. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  46. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  47. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  48. Small stones (flocking)
  49. Small oak twigs (flocking)

Again, as you may want to check out the Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and the figures are available from the following two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Winkie Light Artillery Battery (Wars of Ozz)

Any good brigade in Wars of Ozz games will need a bit of artillery. As I mentioned in my last post on the Winkie Sharpshooters, Winkies (the orcs of the world of Ozz) are much more interested in fighting hand-to-hand in melee with a foe versus shooting a weapon at one. Winkies are not overly bright in general, and certainly are not very educated. According to the Wars of Ozz rulebook,

“…Winkie artillery is something of an afterthought. Numerous battles and sieges have shown the usefulness of a strong artillery arm, but it is simply not a glorious or honourable role according to the Winkie mindset. Few Generals are chosen from the ranks of the artillery. Chieftains’ sons would much rather be leading a regiment of spearmen or jaegers. The artillery requires too much thinking, the guns can’t compete with the workshops of the Munchkins, and there is too much heavy lifting to be glorious. Consequently, the commanders of the batteries are an eccentric lot. They range from brilliant to simply odd. Except for the master gunners, most of the crew are conscripts secretly happy to be well back from the front line.”

Wars of Ozz by John R. “Buck” Surdu, Section 2.2.2.5, page 25

I therefore decided to have a Winkie Light Artillery Battery (WLAB) for my Brigade, and save some points for other troops. This unit (#OZZ306) has 5 figures plus the gun in total. I use an MDF sabot base for all of the figures and the gun similar to the Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery that I completed earlier. The WLAB is also 28mm in scale, and the figures are metal. It is worth 4 points versus a regular Winkie infantry unit which costs only 5. In the game, light artillery has a short/long range combination of 6″/18″ versus that of a medium battery which is 8″/24″.

The WLAB are supposed to have red coats, with white vests and trousers. Of course, being Winkies, the carriage of their gun had to be yellow. To me, their uniforms evoked a British look with the red coats. I again felt that the Winkie fur caps HAD to be black (but I think I’ll be changing some future Winkie units’ headgear on that score).

I began prepping the unit back on December 22nd in anticipation of my end of year surgery. My goal for the mass priming was to have some more units ready for painting in early 2023. I started painting the WLAB in earnest on New Year’s Day – and managed to complete the battery on January 5th.

This unit also qualifies as my second entry for for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge. As is my custom, I will list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested. This list really is mostly for my own use for later reference as well – I do forget stuff on occasion – and this listing has saved me on multiple occasions when I need to repeat a painting process! First, I’ll share some (well a few) WIP shots, then some eye candy of the WLAB.

WIP shots…

I mostly followed my usual process – but here are some photos of the WIP below. I primed back on December 22nd in a mass-priming exercise as noted earlier. The rest of the WIP photos are from January 1-January 3rd.

Primed on December 22nd. I waited until New Year’s Day to work on them.
January 2nd progress.
January 3rd progress
January 4th progress – almost done with flocking here.

I finished the flocking on January 4th, which left me only to add a wisp of smoke (a shred of painted pillow batting from one of my smoke markers) – to the match wielder on January 5th – and the WLAB was done. On to…

Eye Candy

The WLAB is on an MDF sabot base – that I also magnetized for easy transport and playability.

Group shots

The WLAB with the gun in limber position (facing backwards) and a crew member removed to show the neodymium magnet. Each crew member lost results in a combat die being lost.
Top view with the gun unlimbered.
Head-on view.
Front right view.
Front left view.
Rear view.
Good view of the WLAB.

I am definitely going to continue to build my brigade of Winkies in 2023, as well as more Ozz goodness. I have now completed 104 of my 268 planned figures for the game – so I have a ways to go. It’s only slightly fewer figures than my Spanish Conquest/Mesoamerican period stuff, but hopefully it will go quicker.

And note to Roger of Rantings from under the Wargames Table, yes, Roger, I do have an Excel spreadsheet for all these figures! Like Roger, I hope that you will stay with me on this path. And also check out Roger’s blog too.

As a second side note – and another recommendation – coincidentally my Aussie buddy Luke (IRO – the Imperial Rebel Ork) is also working on some black powder fantasy stuff for his Turnip28 project. Think anthropomorphic marsh rutabaga trolls (try to say that three times quickly)and Napoleonic zombies. So, he’s doing black powder fantasy as well. He’s even getting into sculpting for it – so I recommend you check him out. He’s done some cool artillery that you can see here and here is his sculpt post – both of which are outstanding, but there is a lot to see on his blog. His stuff is more grim dark than Ozz, but very cool, and it’s quite interesting that we are on a similar wavelength at the same time cross-globally.

Lastly, I had planned for this post to be about a 2022 roundup and my 2023 goal setting – but that will be the next one sometime this week (sorry Roger – but I do promise at least one Excel shot next time for both you and John from Just Needs Varnish! (another fine blog indeed).

I that roundup post, I’ll review and hold myself accountable for my 2022 predictions and goals of a year ago. I did fall short in some areas, which I am hoping to improve upon in 2023. I will set my 2023 goals in “blogging stone” as well. I am really going to push myself to finish as many Ozz figures as I can until preparing for conventions or even (shudder) playing a game take up more time – after all I need to game sometimes…

And I still have more Ozz stuff to come…

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS WINKIE LIGHT ARTILLERY BATTERY:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  3. Artillery Battery MDF sabot base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  4. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  5. Poster tack
  6. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  7. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  8. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  9. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  10. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
  12. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  16. Createx Airbrush Colors “Pearlized Black”
  17. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  19. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  21. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash/shade)
  22. Vallejo “Gloss Varnish”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey”
  24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  25. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
  26. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
  27. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
  29. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
  30. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  31. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  32. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  33. Army Painter “Red Tone” (wash/shade)
  34. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
  35. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  36. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  37. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  38. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  39. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  40. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
  41. Pillow batting (for smoke)

Again, as you may want to check out the Wars of Ozz figures range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and the Wars of Ozz figures are available from the following two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery (Wars of Ozz)

Any Munchkin Brigade needs a good dose of heavy firepower to fend off the enemies of the Emerald City at long range. For my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz games, I finished off a Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery with Crew (OZZ107). Let’s call it MMAB.

In the game, the MMAB is the stronger of the two artillery choices (the other being a light battery). For comparison, a medium battery can fire at targets up to 24″, while a light battery range is out to 18″, with musket range being at max of 14″. In the game, firing at half ranges is more effective as one would think, and short range for the MMAB is 8″, while a light battery is 6″, and muskets are 7″. So this MMAB gives the brigade a bit of standoff firepower.

The artillery batteries in Wars of Ozz are composed of 5 figures plus a gun. For close combat, they are armed with carbines (which are slightly more than half of the range of muskets – but hopefully they don’t have to get into melee – but the odds are that they will!). While an infantry or cavalry regiment has 5 bases – each of which can take 4 hits – the battery can take 5 hits (one per figure). Each hit removes a figure and loses a die for attacking. The scale is 28mm and these figures are metal.

I started parallel-working on these while I worked on Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment back on November 25th. When I needed to let something dry, I did a little work on this unit. The gun with its carriage required assembly. With the carriage needing serial painting – so as to get the right bluish look per Ozz canon (pun intended – see how I did that!) – and the gun being pretty big, the parallel approach got it done without causing me impatience. I followed the same procedure as to painting these figures as I did with the previous units, by priming in white, then washing with a dark shade, then painting, highlighting, and shading.

A major consideration for me was how to paint up the cannon and carriage. First, there were undersides to the gun and carriage to consider for painting and assembly. Second, there were the choices of colors. I experimented with several blues and bluish craft metallics for the gun. Initially, I went with a classic grey gun metal look for the gun, but changed it to brass as I liked the look better. As Munchkins are being very fond of blue, I thought that was appropriate. As is my custom, I list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the MMAB.

WIP shots…

As discussed, I started on November 25th. This was mainly preparatory work on filing, washing before priming. My main effort was the CTTIR during this time.

There is an MDF base available for artillery batteries with slots for the gun and figure – that even allows for removing casualties and for denoting if the gun is limbered or unlimbered. That needed assembly, so another thing to do while other things were drying. I also was thinking about transport and storage – so I added steel bases under the MDF ones for the artillerists and the gun.

Then, I slowly worked on painting the cannon and carriage components and assembled them by December 1st.

The cannon painted and varnished resting on its MDF base. Above, you can see how I traced so that I would be able to score the base under the tracings. This would get a better hold for gluing.

The figures came next, but unfortunately do not have any WIP shots of them. I followed Ozz canon (yes, I did that again) for the colors.

On December 4th, this brought me back to completing the magnetizing the unit for gaming, storage, and transport. My artillerist figures were mounted on 3/4″ steel washers. These would be glued to the MDF bases, which had 1/2″ steel squares glued to the their undersides as seen above. I drilled out 1/8″ holes in the center of each of the base’s recesses. Then, I glued another 1/2″ square steel base below the holes with 1/8″ neodymium magnets in each hole. In the end, the figures were removable from the base (but won’t fall out), and the base will store safely in my magnetic sheet-lined Really Useful Box with my other units. You can see this below in the photo.

By December 7th, I had the unit painted and was ready for final assembly and flocking.

December 7th progress

And…by December 9th I was done!

MMAB DONE!

How about some…

Eye Candy…

The unit can be shown as limbered (as above) or unlimbered as you can see below. A casualty is taken out on the right.

My favorite shot:

So now I am up to three units plus two Wizards. The Munchkin Light Cavalry is next. As you may want to check out the figures range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and figures are available from the following two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Thanks for checking this post out and please let me know what you think in the comments section. Yes, I still have more to come…

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS MUNCHKIN MEDIUM ARTILLERY BATTERY:

  1. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  2. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  3. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  4. Gorilla Glue
  5. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  6. MDF Artillery base from Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  7. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
  8. 3/4″ steel washers
  9. Poster tack
  10. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  11. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  12. 1 1/4″ x 1″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  13. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  15. Armory “Dark Blue”
  16. DecoArt “Peacock Pearl”
  17. Tamiya XF-6 “Copper”
  18. Vallejo Model Color “Dark Prussian Blue”
  19. Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  22. Army Painter “Blue Tone”
  23. Secret Weapon Washes “Golden Brown” (wash)
  24. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
  25. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  26. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
  27. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  28. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Frostheart”
  30. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  31. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  32. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
  34. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
  35. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
  36. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  37. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  38. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  39. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  40. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  41. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  42. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Dark Blue Tufts” (flocking)
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