In my last blog post I promised something “fungal” this time – and here it is – a regiment of Mushroom Creatures for Wars of Ozz!
This unit was yet another part of my painting scramble to get ready for HUZZAH! 2023. It joins my other forces for the Great Land of Harvest. The unit is composed of 10 figures to be based each on 5 stands, 2 per stand. Similar to some other Great Land of Harvest regiments, the Mushroom Creature Infantry Regiment is comprised of 10 metal figures armed – with differently-sized stone sledgehammers and hammers. The figures are of different heights, but did not need assembly as each figure came in a single piece.
The photo of the unit on the Wars of Ozz website served as a starting point for me for painting. I liked the spotted mushroom caps – but wanted to have a greater variety of colors. This is, after all, Ozz! Plus I had a lot of new Speed and Contrast Paints to try as I got the 2.0 set.
I varied the different models so as to create a variety of bases. I took the same approach with the colors so that no two bases would be the same. They are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is pretty strong at 7 out of 10. Their Elan and Resolve values are the same as the other Harvest units at 6 out of 10. In fact, they have the same stats as the Great Menacing Hammerheads.
These also have a facial look of intent to do great harm to their enemies, but were pretty easy to paint up. Again, to match my other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green (Tesseract Glow). I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the Mushroom Creatures regiment. I’ll briefly describe the painting process that I used with the contrast and speed paints. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested in that stuff.
WIP Shots…
The figures as received – very cool and pretty easy to paint up. I mounted the figures on 3/4″ steel washers, then onto poster-tack covered specimen jars for ease of painting.I primed these white so I could get the best results on the mushroom caps (the most visible feature on the tabletop). That white also “absorbs” colors from Speed and Contrast paints the best. You can make out the penciled dots that I have placed on the caps – which I would line out with black and then regular white paint before adding colors.Very simple to paint! I decided that the caps should vary, but that the rest of the figures colors should be relatively uniform.
Once painted, I airbrushed these with two coats of varnish sequentially – first a coat of gloss then a coat of matte. Then I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops.
Who doesn’t love anthropomorphic mushrooms armed with stone hammers anyways?
How about some…
Eye Candy
As the figures are really uninteresting from behind , I decided to stay with frontal shots. Sorry to disappoint all you miniature mushroom figure butt fans out there…
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Stand 5
Group shot
Similar to what I found with the Great Menacing Hammerheads, photographing these was difficult – this time due to the mushroom caps shading the figures. I think you get the idea of how they look in the group shot. From above they look quite fungal!
I did find that the contrast paints tended to have cracks/microfissures on wider surfaces like the mushroom tops when they dried and were “stretched out”. Adding a second coat was enough pre-varnish to fix that problem. Not my finest work, but I like them, and they will be just fine on the tabletop.
That’s all for the Mushroom Creatures Infantry Regiment. Like me, I’m sure you want a pizza now with mushrooms now! Well, I always do…
I hope that you liked this slice of Ozz wackiness as much as I did.
I currently have just 2 more Ozz blog posts in the queue and then I can get back to painting more stuff – so stay tuned.
My next post will make you consider – who would work for or under King Jack?
Thanks for taking a look and any feedback is always appreciated
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 MUSHROOM CREATURE INFANTRY REGIMENT:
Gorilla Glue
3/4″ steel washers
Poster tack
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo Premium Surface Primer “White”
Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
Army Painter Airbrush Primer “White”
Battlefront “Black”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
Citadel “Mechanicus Standard Grey”
Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Swarm”
Army Painter “Speed Paint Medium”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dusk Red”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Familiar Pink”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Battleship Grey”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Caribbean Ocean”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Beowulf Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
Small stones (flocking)
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 my painting scramble to get ready for HUZZAH! 2023, I painted a number of regiments, leaders and individuals for my Wars of Ozz games. You may have noticed several of them in my last post. Most of these projects involved regiments from the Great Land of Harvest. One of them was the Great Menacing Hammerheads, SKU#528. The unit is composed of 10 figures to be based each on 5 stands.
The photo of them on the Wars of Ozz website intrigued me:
What exactly are these?
Great Menacing Hammerheads on Wars of Ozz website.
They are listed in the rules as part of forces available to the Great Land of Harvest. Still, again…
What exactly are these?
The rulebook is silent on this, except to suggest that these creatures may be one of many mutations that occurred after the Madness Bombs fell 300 years ago. I am by no means expert on the original Baum Wizard of Oz works that inspired the game. With a little digging on the old internet, I found a couple of clues. Apparently these do appear in the Oz books around the year 1900 – and are quite xenophobic and weird. There is an Oz Wiki site – and there I found this:
“They had nearly reached the first rock when they heard a rough voice cry out, “KEEP BACK!” “Who are you?” asked the Scarecrow. Then a face showed itself over the rock and the same voice said, “THIS HILL IS OUR HILL, THE HILL OF US HAMMER-HEADS, AND WE DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO EVER CROSS IT!” “But we must cross it,” said the Scarecrow. “We’re going to the country of the Quadlings to see its ruler, Glinda the Good Witch, so we must.” “BUT YOU MUST NOT!” Replied the voice, and there stepped from behind the large rocks the strangest man the travelers had ever seen. He was quite short and stout, standing no more than three feet high and had a big, oversized head, which was smooth on the top and as flat as a hammer. The head was supported by a thick, long, fat neck full of many layers of wrinkles. But the body had no arms at all, not even stubs.“―The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
A little more digging found these images from the original books:
It appears that their attack mode is a whipping-extending forward-head-butting action. How they button their clothes, tie their shoes, or perform acts of personal hygiene are certainly left to the imagination…
Another site (The Creature Codex)shows an interesting artist’s concept of these as monsters as shown by the photo below:
These look more menacing and Ozz-like, but lack the “hammerheads”. As for why the Great Menacing Hammerheads (let’s call them the GMHH) are listed as part of the Great Land of Harvest forces, I am not 100% sure given the above. I can accept that given the previous quote and their alleged xenophobia, they probably would only fight alongside their nearest neighbor mutants? In any case, I happily bought them and proceeded to build and paint the regiment.
Similar to some other Great Land of Harvest regiments, the GMHH unit is comprised of 10 metal figures, and each is unarmed – save for their heads, which are different types of hammers. The figures are of different heights, and needed assembly insofar as each figure came in two pieces – a torso and a long neck/head combination. The figures reminded me a bit of malevolent sneetches – if Dr. Seuss had disarmed them…(sorry for that)…
Let’s move on to the figures shall we?
I needed to assemble the unit and affix the two pieces. I decided to channel my inner Roger and use green stuff and sculpt a type of sneetch-inspired ruffled collar on them which would also serve as a bond for the models. I varied the heads so that no two bases would be the same. They are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is pretty strong at 7 out of 10. Their Elan and Resolve values are the same as the other Harvest units at 6 out of 10.
I wanted them to look wild and crazy – and certainly as “menacing” as I could. Their varied head positions helped with this as did varied base flocking. Lastly, to match my other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green (Tesseract Glow).
As before, I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the GMHH regiment. I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing 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 in that level of detail.
WIP Shots…
The GMHH Regiment assembled with the green stuff-sculpted “collar ruffles”.After priming and some initial work on their flesh. I went with green flesh as they are part of Harvest forces.Made their hammerheads quite metallic, and their bodies brown like a quail. The neck collars are fiery orange.Close up of face and body work – left 4 figures……and 6 on the right of the work area.
I varnished these with a coat of gloss followed by one of matte. Then I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops. How about some…
Eye Candy
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Stand 5
Group Shot
Photographing these was difficult due to the number of heads that were downward facing – such that illuminating them was tough – let alone catching their faces – but I think you get the idea of how they look in the group shot. From above their hammerheads resemble – well – actual hammers. And I think that is the point.
I don’t think they are the best I have done – but they are ok, and will be fine on the tabletop.
That’s all for the Great Menacing Hammerhead Infantry Regiment. I hope that you liked their wackiness as much as I did. This makes 128 figures that I have painted for Ozz this year! I do have three more posts in the queue and then I can get back to painting more stuff. The next one will be quite fungal…
Thanks for taking a look and any feedback is always appreciated
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 GREAT MENACING HAMMERHEAD INFANTRY REGIMENT:
Green Stuff (kneadatite)
Gorilla Glue
Poster tack
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo Premium Surface Primer “White”
Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
Army Painter Airbrush Primer “White”
Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
Battlefront “Black”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Forest Sprite”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Zealot Yellow”
Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Citadel “Runefang Steel”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
DecoArt/Americana “Honey Brown”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
P3 “Blazing Ink”
Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
Small stones (flocking)
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:
I have been continuing to build and paint up regiments for my Wars of Ozz Great Land of Harvest Army. This time, I might get a bit corny…
Ok, that was really bad. Mea maxima culpa.
Anyways, in preparation for the upcoming HUZZAH gaming convention in Maine, I have managed to finish off four regiments, plus some leaders and individuals. I will post each group going forward – starting with this one – a regiment of Corn Creatures, yet another anthropomorphic Ozz unit. I already called the Carrot Creatures Regiment the CCR in my last post – so let’s just refer to these as the Corn Creatures, or CC. The CC are part of the forces of the Great Land of Harvest and their SKU# is OZZ518, and can be seen here.
Similar to the Carrot Creatures Regiment, the unit is comprised of 10 metal figures, and each is armed with a combination of two weapons – spears, pitchforks, rakes, axes, sickles, and scythes – but in this case one in each arm. These guys look quite crazy with two weapons (even if one is a rake).
I needed to assemble the unit insofar as assigning a weapon to each of the two arms for Melee.
They also have a “kamikaze”-style missile attack – a “popping” attack:
Popping Attacks: Once per game one unit of corn creatures can conduct a popping attack against an enemy to their front within four inches. The corn unit makes an attack as if firing light artillery at short range. This is the unit’s firing action for the turn. After conducting the popping attack, the corn unit receives two hits (all those popped corn creatures are less effective now). Typically, this is done to pop at the enemy and then either withdraw or charge.
Wars of Ozz addendum with new factions
Now that is a different missile attack to be sure – short range artillery fire to boot!
The bigger-than-people figures are just the kind of vegetables to give you nightmares. As with the other 10-figure Harvest regiments, they are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is 5 out of 10, as is their one-time marksmanship rating – so very average. Their Elan and Resolve values are the same as the Carrots at 6 out of 10.
Here, my goal was to get the right shade of yellow on them – and as with orange, most of us understand that this can be difficult. Similar to my other Harvest units, I mixed up their weapons and flocking such that no two of the five bases looked exactly alike – and to match my other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green (Tesseract Glow). Like the Carrots, the figures are great – they look like berserking ears of corn to be sure (but you can judge for yourself).
As is my habit, I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the Corn Creature regiment. I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting process.
Here again I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. To get the right shades of yellow – and I hope that I did achieve that – took a few iterations. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested – and selfishly for my own future reference should I need that information – I do forget things!
WIP Shots…
The Corn Creatures as received showing the 4 poses and weapons variety – as well as the filings I made on them on the paper towel – I hate mold lines and I give the bases a good filing as well so that they stick to the washers.After assembly and mounting to 1.25″ washers.
I then primed the CC in white and started with working on the yellow. My first try was Army Painter Speed Paint (new version) “Maize Yellow” – which ought to be just perfect – but was a bit too dark for my tastes for the corm kernels (remember I said iterations – plural). It did help as a base with shading for later additions.
After assembly mounted the Corn Creatures on the specimen jars with poster tack. This is the first yellow – “Maize Yellow”.
The choice that I made for the leafy corn stalks was a yellowy-green Citadel Contrast Paint “Striking Scorpion Green”. I liked it – but in contrast it made me really want to upgrade the corn color.
Adding the “Striking Scorpion Green”.
I also found that highlighting each kernel in white and then adding yellow helped, as did Army Painter washes. To lighten and brighten the yellow on the corn, I went with another Citadel Contrast Paint – “Bad Moon Yellow”. Then I made the eyebrows orange, and the lips “Panther Yellow”. Lastly, it was time to make the eyes glow an evil green.
Painting progress on the yellow. So much yellow…
Then it was onto painting the weapons, which I tried to make look a bit varied as well in terms of the handle colors and the metallics. Lastly I did the hands in the same green leafy color as the bodies and made the corn “hair” the original “Maize Yellow” washed with Army Painter “Light Tone”.
All painted and ready for varnish.
I varnished once again with a coat of gloss followed by one of matte. Then I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops.
Time for some (no, not popcorn) – some…
Eye Candy
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Stand 5
Group Shot
That’s all for the Corn Creatures Infantry Regiment. I hope that you liked their corniness as much as I did. This makes 118 figures that I have painted for Ozz this year!
Thanks for taking a look and any feedback, especially on the yellow colors – I am again curious as to your thoughts.
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 CORN CREATURES INFANTRY REGIMENT:
Gorilla Glue
1.25″ steel fender washers
Poster tack
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
Small stones (flocking)
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 my last post I said that I was next going to share a “surprise unit” – and I hinted that it was actually devoid of any Vitamin A…and here it is – the Carrot Creature regiment of the Great Land of Harvest.
Well, as far as I know, metal figures are not nutritious – so that was an easy claim. Please, as a public service announcement…don’t eat your figures!
Back to the figures! The Great Land of Harvest not only has produced the Great Pumpkin Heads and the Lesser Pumpkin Heads. There are many other mutations and oddities that have armed themselves and organized for the defense of their homeland – or to attack their neighbors – or alternatively mercenary service in other factions’ armies. This regiment is one of them, and I have several more Harvest units that I will be able to share shortly. But, let’s focus on the Carrot Creatures Regiment (we’ll shorten that to CCR but that has nothing to do with Creedence Clearwater Revival…).
Initially, when I looked at the Wars of Ozz website, there were not any photos of the CCR. That since has been remedied and now you can see the website shot of them here. The CCR are part of the forces of the Great Land of Harvest and their SKU# is OZZ532.
The unit is comprised of 10 metal figures, and and is physically armed with axes, shovel handles, shovels, and scythes. The unit required no assembly other than assigning the arm holding the weapons. I said “physically”, because in the rules the CCR is also armed with bows (which are treated as carbines). Rather than either ignore that aspect, or modify the figures, I chose to modify the bases to reflect this weaponry as you will see below. I really did not want to modify the figures for the bows – and I believe specifically bow-armed Carrot Creatures will eventually be made available for purchase. As I wanted my Harvest troops to have a few more missile troops, this choice was ideal.
From the addendum showing the CCR data. From left to right, Marksmanship, Melee, Resolve, Elan, maximum per brigade, Movement Modifier in inches, Regimental Commander (Y/N), point cost, and notes.
The figures are larger (as befits big monster-sized carrots) and are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is 5 out of 10, but their marksmanship is 7 out of 10 (remember why your Mom said to eat your carrots!). Their Elan and Resolve values are at 6 out of 10 – a reasonably stout unit.
My goal was to get the right shades of orange on them – and we all know how painting miniatures either colors of orange or yellow can be challenging. I thought they should be a bit ruddy – to reflect their subterranean lifestyles (I am assuming here, I don’t personally hang out underground).
Similar to my other Harvest units, I mixed up their weapons and flocking such that no two of the five bases looked exactly alike. To match the other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green. The figures are great – with a suitably cartoony and menacing look. I thought they looked quite like Tasmanian devil-inspired carrots.
As before, I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the CCR regiment. I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting process. I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. Orange is not a simple process. 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 – I forget things!).
WIP Shots…
Filed and washed, the CCR awaits assembly.Close up of a figure before assembly.
As with the pumpkin heads, I primed the orange parts of the figures in black, then dry brushed them in white, followed by a dry brush of a couple of oranges, and then highlighted and shaded them. For the leafy “hair”, I primed that in green, then moved to highlights and shading. I mocked the unit up on their bases to make sure that they would fit both vertically and horizontally. This has both an aesthetic purpose and a practical one – as I did want them to look good without having their weapons in the other figures’ faces or hanging off of the bases to get wacked in a game.
The CCR mocked up and primed. The figures are actually on smaller 3/4″ square steel bases for attachment to my poster tack-covered specimen jars. Attachment to the 2″ larger bases would come later.Showing the figure dry brushed white on the specimen jar. Turned out priming the hair green was not overly relevant!A “conga line” of orange dry brushed carrots. I would need a good amount of color tweaking to get the orange where I wanted (which was not what you see here). But, it’s a process…Next, I did the “hair”. Note I label the jars to show where each one will go on their final bases, right, left, front, back.Progress on adding highlights and washes shown here.
After varnishing (gloss, then matte), I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops. Additionally, I added some small crossbows that I had lying around to the fronts and backs of the bases. I painted these crossbows a brighter green – and hopefully they can serve as player reminder that the CCR actually has a missile capability!
The CCR completed, and ready for…
Eye Candy
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Stand 5
Group shot…
That’s all for the Carrot Creatures Infantry Regiment. I hope that you liked their quirkiness as much as I did. This makes 108 figures that I have painted for Ozz this year!
Thanks for taking a look and any feedback, especially on the orange colors – I am curious as to your thoughts.
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 CARROT CREATURES INFANTRY REGIMENT:
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
3/4″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#A9)
Gorilla Glue
Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Russian Green”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Poster tack
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Tamiya “Orange”
Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
Vallejo Model Color “Clear Orange”
Battlefront “Gunship Green”
Vallejo Model Air “Escorpena Green”
Battlefront “Sicily Yellow”
Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
Citadel “Ironbreaker”
Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
Citadel “Hellion Green”
Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
Small stones (flocking)
Small oak twigs (flocking)
Small metal crossbows (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 my last post I shared about King Jack and the Great Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest. I’m sure that some of you thought – hey – are all of their inhabitants that big? Surely, to have greater pumpkin heads – there must indeed be lesser ones, right?
Indeed there are!
There are several units of lesser pumpkin heads and individual pumpkin head generals – more human-sized ones anyways. I have completed a couple that I will be sharing, starting with this post on my regiment of Lesser Pumpkin Heads. The lesser pumpkin heads are pretty skinny dudes. They can move effortlessly (without cost) through woods, but otherwise they are an average unit.
The Lesser Pumpkin Heads (let’s shorten that to LPH) are part of the Wars of Ozz figures and their SKU# is OZZ506 and can be seen here. The unit is comprised of 20 metal figures, appropriately armed with hatchets, axes, sickles, and scythes – but the unit required no assembly. As with all standard Ozz units the figures are based 4 at a time on five 2″ square bases, but there is no Regimental Commander here.
My goal was to organize them to appear to be a rabble-type force. Unlike the disciplined units of the Munchkins or even the Gillikins, I don’t see these as being very organized in battle with regards to uniforms and drill. I also mixed up their clothing colors, weapons, and flocking such that no two of the five bases looked exactly alike. I did use the basic colors of the Great Pumpkin Heads for the LPH – and especially the yellow-green eyes. Here though, I also needed to show straw (like the stuffing of a scarecrow) coming out of the holes in their clothes and near their wrists.
I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy. These were also worked on (especially due to the need for orange) simultaneously with King Jack and 4 of his other units in various states of completion at the same time.
I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing 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).
WIP Shots…
The Lesser Pumpkin Heads here all cleaned up and ready for priming.
I chose to “pre-base” the LPH on 3’4″ square steel bases for three reasons. First, so that I could more easily attach them to my poster tack covered specimen jars, second so that they would be easier to paint, and third to make it easier to affix the LPH to their final resting place – the 2″ square steel bases – done later in the process.
The LPH are primed in black here and are on the 3/4″ steel bases with a couple of 2″ square bases in front for reference. Early painting progress on April 11th.
By April 17th, I had made some progress on the LPH.
April 17th progress.By 4/20, the LPH regiment was done.
As you can see, the regiment has a lot of color – which will be better viewed in the next section. Some of these photo groups will be four image galleries and some three.
Eye Candy
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Stand 5
Group shot…
That wraps up the Lesser Pumpkin Heads infantry. I also have a unique artillery unit of theirs next that I think you’ll enjoy. Thanks for taking a look and any feedback.
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 LESSER PUMPKIN HEAD REGIMENT:
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
3/4″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#A9)
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
Small stones (flocking)
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:
Progress continues on my Winkie brigade. This time, I added both Evora the Witch and a Winkie Infantry Regiment to my Winkie forces.
Evora is a “named witch” in the game and costs 3 points. With that, she comes with her own advantages. First, she can act as an overall leader (at above brigade level) with the attributes of “Decisiveness” (this gets an additional activation die in the die pool which increases battlefield flexibility and options) and “Organizational Skill” (which allows her to give pre-game 4 extra points to a subordinate brigade for units or allies) . Second, she comes with free spells – four in fact:
Fire Ball – as an offensive spell
Blood Lust – allows her to force a unit to close with the enemy by automatically passing their next Test of Elan.
Poppies – allows her to create a 6″ square field of poppies that would cause any unit passing through to lose half its movement.
Fear – this is cast on an enemy unit and would cause that unit to lose either a point of Elan or Resolve (spell caster’s choice) on its next activation.
Having automatic spells is helpful as an “unnamed Wizard/Witch” costs 2 points and has to randomly roll for spells – or buy more with points if the rolled ones are not what the player wants. Evora is metal and 28mm, with a SKU of OZZ300.
According to “The History of Ozz”, after the Madness Bombs fell at the end of the Last Great War, Ozz was founded.
Sometime after Ozz was founded, things began to change. Rumours reached the West that a group of mysterious women had appeared in the east. By all accounts, they had powers to rival the Wizard (of Ozz)…The first witch to appear was Evora in the far east. With her power, especially her ability to raise legions of skeletal soldiers, she quickly dispatched the disunified Winkie warlords and forced the Winkies to submit to her rule…
Wars of Ozz, section 1.4, page 9
In addition to Evora, I also have added a Winkie Infantry Regiment (WIR), which I designated as the 21st. This 21st WIR joins Evora, the Winkie Sharpshooters, and the Winkie Light Artillery Battery in my Brigade.
As discussed on previous posts, the Winkies (the orcs of the Ozz world) consider melee as their preferred means of combat. As for most Ozz regiments, this Winkie Regiment (21st WIR) (SKU #OZZ302) has 21 figures in total. They are on 5 bases – 4 figures with spears per 4 stands, plus 4 figures on a single command stand, along with a regimental commander stand (MDF) riding on a zilk. The 21st WIR is 28mm in scale, and the figures are metal. It is worth 5 points.
I began prepping the unit back on Saturday, January 7th by filing off as many mold lines as I could without obliterating any details. I then washed the figures with soap and water, and then primed it. After this, applied a wash of Citadel “Nuln Oil” wash. As usual, I will list all the paints I used on this unit and Evora at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well – I do like to refer back when I need to recreate a painting scheme).
The Ozz rules say that the WIR are:
“Very irregular, usually khaki trousers, but coats vary by regiment, but yellow is very popular. Armed with melee weapons only”
Wars of Ozz, Table 4-3, page 83
I decided that a few of the mold lines were too much for using khaki and so I decided a dark gray would work better. I also decided to go with black sleeves and yellow caps and shirts. For Evora, I went with a yellow and purple scheme. For the zilk, I went with a deep purple look. The 21st WIR figures had fur caps of two different types, plus three different kinds of armor – to include cotton armor like I had on my Aztecs and Conquistadores (and the Winkie Sharpshooters).
This time I did take more WIP shots), which I will share below, followed by some eye candy diorama-type shots. I managed to finish the unit to include flocking by January 16th, which was a good pace for me (22 figures in 9 days).
On to the WIP shots – click on any to get a better view.
WIP shots…
The group after getting scrubbed and dried.Mounted for painting on the specimen jars.Showing the group after priming with some already washed with the Nuln Oil.
January 10th progress – trousers and sleeves.January 11 progress – skin base, armor, and hatsClose up of January 11 progress on a Winkie infantryman
More progress was made on January 12th below, especially on Evora and the zilk:
January 13th saw more work on highlighting, shading, and touch up. Evora still needed more paint too – all are as shown below:
On Saturday evening (January 14th , after my game with Chris), and on Sunday the 15th, I moved to finish the painting in preparation for varnishing and flocking:
Done and ready for glamor shots!
I ended up airbrush varnishing the 21st WIR with a both an initial gloss then a matte varnish so as to keep the colors bright but not shiny. I finished varnishing on January 15th, and mounting and flocking on January 16th. I chose the 21st Regiment flag for them because it was purple and 21 is 3 x 7 – so maybe three times lucky? Time will tell. As for mounting and flocking, I followed the same processes as I did for the Winkie Sharpshooters. The only real problem that I encountered was that the flags were a bit too big for the standard bearer’s staffs – but not so problematic that I felt the need to redo them. I used blue and brown sharpie pens to hide the cut white edges of the banners. Regarding the size challenge, yeah, I could have reprinted them, but I think the Winkies wanted not to have their banners smaller than the Munchkins (the Winkies subscribe to the “bigger being better” theory, especially with regards to the Munchkins). With that note, on to…
Eye Candy
Evora
I did enjoy painting her a lot. The yellow and purple gave her a distinct look, plus I love that she wears a Munchkin skull on her belt and has one on her staff.
21st Winkie Infantry Regiment
There are 5 stands of 4 figures each – 4 are similar and one is a command stand with an officer, 2 standard bearers and a drummer (for IRO our resident blog buddy drummer). Once again, I varied the flocking slightly but distinctly – with the hope of having some congruence among the bases and still some uniqueness for each individual base. The zilk-mounted regimental commander goes on an MDF stand with a removable tab for an attribute tab in the game if needed.
Regimental Commander Stand
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Command Stand
Group Shots
The 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.An angled shot of the 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.The 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.The 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear and accompanied by Evora the Witch.
Next, I will next deviate a bit from the Winkies and work on their notable allies, the Great Flying Apes and their cousins the Lesser Apes. Gotta have flying monkeys after all right? After that, I have the Winkie Cavalry (on zilks) to round out the brigade.
I appreciate your readership and hope that this was of interest.
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 EVORA AND THIS WINKIE INFANTRY REGIMENT:
Please note that any paints used on both Evora and the infantry are in bold, otherwise they were just used on the infantry.
Gorilla Glue
Paper clip wire pieces
3/4″ steel washer (just Evora)
1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
Black Sharpie pen
Blue Sharpie Pen
Brown Sharpie Pen
Winkie Flags from Buck Surdu printed on card stock
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:
Now that I have a full Munchkin Brigade (as you saw in my last post), I needed to start building a worthy opponent. I decided to go with the Winkies – the orcs of the Wars of Ozz. Yes, the “oh-eee-oh” dudes from the movie.
My first unit ended up being atypical – as Winkies normally don’t think much of firearms and missile weapons (or those who wield them in battle). The Winkies consider melee as their preferred means of combat. Still, they do have some artillery, and as shown here a small contingent of troops armed with muskets to provide some firepower. My Winkie brigade will eventually have melee troops, light artillery, and Zilk-riding cavalry (zilks are giant ostrich-like carnivorous birds that Winkies capture and train as mounts – though they are known to eat fallen enemy and their Winkie riders alike). I’ll also have some Great Flying Apes, some lesser apes, and their witch Evora. I am trying to get as many as possible done so games can begin, and to that end I am batch-priming and batch-painting as many units as possible.
Back to the WSR – just like most Ozz regiments, this Winkie Sharpshooter Regiment (WSR) (#OZZ303) has 21 figures in total. They are on 5 bases – 4 figures with muskets per 4 stands, plus 4 figures on a single command stand, along with a regimental commander stand (MDF). The WSR is 28mm in scale, and the figures are metal. It is worth 7 points versus a regular Winkie infantry unit which costs only 5.
I began prepping the unit back on December 12th – and was hoping to finish by the end of the year – which I did today, December 31st! This allowed me to accomplish two things. First. I got to break the 200 level of painted figures for 2022 (I actually painted 202 in 2022 with the completion of the WSR). It also allowed me to enter this as my first (and definitely not the last) unit for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge.
The Ozz rules say that the WSS should have “forest green” coats and khaki trousers. And because Evora just loves yellow – a healthy amount of yellow on all Winkies. The WSR figures had fur caps of two different types, plus three different kinds of armor – to include cotton armor like I had on my Aztecs and Conquistadores. I tried to mix them up them on each stand/base for a more varied look. I worked on the muskets first as I wanted them to be very distinctive of the WSR. As I felt that the fur caps HAD to be black, I made the Winkies’ hair to be a bluish grey over w white highlight so as to better stick out from underneath the dark headpieces. I needed to work around Christmas and and scheduled sinus surgery on 12/28 to complete them, so I am happy that I did. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there is a marathon showing of the movie “A Christmas Story” which influenced me and played a part in some of my choices of colors that you’ll see below. A hint, “pink nightmare”…
More on this in a bit!
My goal is always to achieve a good tabletop standard – and you can be the judge about that. As usual, I will 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 – I do forget stuff on occasion). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the WSS.
WIP shots…
Primed in white and ready for painting on December 22ndAfter priming, I added a wash of Citadel “Nuln Oil”, then dry brushed in white. The figure on the right has not been dry brushed yet and is shown for comparison with the one on the right which has only been washed on December 23rd.
Then came Christmas! After all the festivities, I knew I only had a couple of days to get the unit mostly done before I had my sinus surgery. That surgery would consist of my surgeon drilling out my internal sinus openings so I could drain better – as I have been plagued with increasingly worse headache episodes all year. Yes, this was done under anesthesia and more drugs. The headaches DID get in the way of both golf and miniature painting, as well as all of the simultaneous sinus infections I was having, so this was necessary.
December 26th progressDecember 27th progress
Then it was time to get my head drilled on December 28th. All went well, and recovery is coming along as expected, but I was in no shape to paint!
December 28th – my head was pretty swollen – even more than usual 😁. Normally I don’t have a head like Peter Griffin from “Family Guy”.
Did I mention that as part of this procedure the surgeon applies cocaine? Yup, and I’m pretty much just a beer guy so…yeah…
Anyways, I was back painting on the 29th, and made good progress by the 30th. One remaining major issue for me was how to paint the regimental commander’s zilk. Remember, Winkies look down on missile weapons, and I can imagine that the better-looking zilks would go to the cavalry and the regimental commanders of melee weapon-bearing infantry. I also had Ralphie’s rabbit suit in my mind subliminally, plus add in any residual cocaine…
And I ended up with a bubble-gum pink and purple zilk…
Now, I am not sure how I feel about it, but it’s done now! Wars of Ozz are supposed to be colorful anyway – and hell, I had had that pink paint for a while without ever using it. I ended up airbrush varnishing the WSR with a gloss then a matte varnish so as to keep the colors bright but not shiny.
Base preparation on December 30th – the figures needed extra care for mounting if they were to look good. You can see the Wars of Ozz picture from the web store that I printed off as a guide underneath on the right.
As for mounting, I wanted the bases to have an appropriate look – with muskets facing forward and in parallel. Once the varnish had dried, I removed the WSR from their specimen jars. Then, I needed to use small bits of poster tack on the figures’ actual bases/bottoms – and a sharpie to trace out how they would fit on the 2″ square steel bases. Then I applied an initial flocking around where the figures would not be. After that had dried, I glued the figures carefully to the steel bases and added multiple grasses and flocking to the steel bases and the regimental commander’s MDF base. This took up most of the effort on the 30th as I added three types of grass plus flowers to give the bases depth and to not just see the shapes of the figures under one layer of flocking. It’s probably overkill, but I do prefer to have nicer bases. The flocking was done on December 30th. Then, it was flag time.
Most (but not all) regiments in Ozz have standards to apply to a couple of figures on a command base. One would be for the faction, the other would be for the regiment. These are available on the Ozz Facebook page as free downloads. When I looked for the WSR, there was no specified flag! By luck, my West Point buddy (and author of the Wars of Ozz rules) Buck Surdu had called me to check in on me post-surgery, and told me he would fix that – and boy he did as you’ll see below – Morin’s Sharpshooters! Hmmm, Buck, does this mean I ride a pink Zilk?
Thanks Buck!
As New Year’s Eve is today, I printed off the flags and finished the WSR. I also made a new backdrop for taking photos of the Winkies as I thought they needed a darker and less friendly look than I gave the Munchkin regiments. You’ll see that below in…
Eye Candy
There are 5 stands of 4 figures each – 4 are similar and one is a command stand with an officer, 2 standard bearers and a bugler. I varied the flocking slightly but distinctly – hoping to have an overall match while having some uniqueness for each base. The pink zilk-mounted regimental commander goes on an MDF stand.
Regimental Commander Stand
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Command Stand
Group shots
The WSR in line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.The WSR in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.A side view of the WSR in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.A right side view of the WSR in another line formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.A right side view of the WSR in another line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.The WSR about to fire!
I will continue to build my brigade of Winkies in 2023, as well as more Ozz goodness. I hope that you will stay with and/or join me on this journey.
My next post will be a 2022 roundup and 2023 goal setting one. There, I’ll review and hold myself accountable for my 2022 predictions and goals of a year ago. Hell, somebody has to do it!
There, I will set my 2023 goals as well.
I wish all of you a very Happy New Year – and please know that I am very appreciative of your readership and support!
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 WINKIE SHARPSHOOTER REGIMENT:
Gorilla Glue
Paper clip wire pieces
1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Black Sharpie pen
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Pink Tufts” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Purple Tufts” (flocking)
Winkie Flags from Buck Surdu printed on card stock
Blue Sharpie Pen
Brown Sharpie Pen
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 figures are available from the following two places:
Mark A. Morin 