Infantry – Page 3 – Mark A. Morin

Lesser Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

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.

By April 17th, I had made some progress on the LPH.

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)
Gorilla Glue
Poster tack
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
Vallejo Game Color “Moon Yellow”
Battlefront “Gunship Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color Green Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Gravelord Grey”
Tamiya “Orange”
Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Camo Cloak”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Highlord Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hive Dweller Purple”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Absolution Green”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
Vallejo Model Air “Green Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Sand Golem”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Alchemy”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
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)

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.

Evora the Witch and a Winkie Infantry Regiment (Wars of Ozz)

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).

And, importantly, I am entering both Evora and the 21st WIR as my another individual and unit for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge!

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.

January 10th progress – trousers and sleeves.

January 11 progress – skin base, armor, and hats

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:

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.