Tag: tabletop wargaming

Jungle Bases from Wargames Terrain Workshop

As you saw in my Sculpting Jungle Bases for the Maya post, I have been putting together jungle terrain for the coastal area of the Yucatan. These are for my Feudal PatrolTM  game of the Battle of Centla using my Civilizations Collide supplement. To recap the battle history:

The scenario involves a beach area with a jungle nearby and a Maya city. The Conquistadors start on the beach and try to move inland. You can see a description of the game in my recent TotalCon 37 recap post. Below is a set up of the battle – note the seven printed green card stock areas at the juncture between the jungle and the beach near the ends of the jungle paths. These areas I described as being easy to cross (no movement penalty) but providing a degree of concealment and cover – basically a scrub-type area.

I used these card stock pieces in lieu of the 7 scatter terrain jungle bases that I ordered from our blogger friend Dave Stone of Wargames Terrain Workshop in the UK back at the turn of the year. I even sized my card stock pieces to match the ones that I ordered from Dave.

Dave built them post-haste – and sent them to me via the Royal Mail on January 11th – so we both thought I’d get them in time to prepare for the February 23rd TotalCon37 convention. Unfortunately, a combination of a cyber attack on the Royal Mail and labor strikes in the UK combined and conspired to keep them from arriving at my home until Wednesday February 22nd – one day before the convention. As I wanted to detail them for the game, and I did not have enough time to give them the justice I wanted with less than a day’s preparation, I decided to work on them after TotalCon 37 so that they’d be ready for Cold Wars. I want to say that Dave was great in following up with me and this situation was definitely not his fault. The seven bases that I bought were as follows:

  1. 2 of the Scatter Scenery – Jungle Base (large), Dimensions: 11.25″ Length x 5.9″ Width x 0.2″ Depth; (metric) 285mm L x 150mm W x 5mm D
  2. 2 of the Scatter Scenery – Jungle Base (Medium), Dimensions: 7.9″ Length x 6.3″ Width x 0.2″ Depth; (metric) 200mm L x 160mm W x 5mm D
  3. 3 of the Scatter Scenery – Jungle Base (Small), Dimensions: 6.5″ Length x 5.33″ Width x 0.2″ Depth; (metric) 165mm L x 135mm W x 5mm D

I started them on February 27th and worked on them alongside some Winkie cavalry (that I will post about next). All of the 7 bases came unpainted with a very generous supply of different plastic foliage on sprues – which allowed me to customize them. The bases themselves were resin with multiple small conical prongs with which to attach the plants. Dave recommended attaching them with green stuff – but I went with Apoxie Sculpt as I had some mixed already for a box handle I needed to repair.

The first steps were to wash the resin and the foliage so that paints and washes would adhere properly.

Washing the plastic foliage and the bases.
Two of the washed resin bases showing the prongs, right before priming – on the right!

I primed the bases green-brown and let them dry overnight. I list all the paints and other materials at the end of the blog for those interested in that type of information.

Five of the seven bases primed and drying.
Lots of available foliage!

Then, I then mocked out where I would apply the foliage with 1.25″ washers. When I was happy, I applied the foliage with Apoxie Sculpt to 5 of the bases and let that cure overnight. Why five and not seven? Well, as I said, I was also working on Winkie cavalry, and two of the primed bases were hiding under a paper towel and I missed them.

Small base with foliage affixed with Apoxie Sculpt.
The 5 non-missing bases with the foliage attached as above – plus the extra prongs have been removed down to the base level.

The next day, the Apoxie Sculpt had cured, I did a quick inventory and I was concerned that I did not buy enough bases! After finding the hidden two, I decided that I did not have the luxury of time to wait another day to wait for Apoxie Sculpt to cure on these last two – so I went with hot glue – which worked great and instantly. I then painted over the Apoxie Sculpt and glue with a couple of green craft paints. Next, I applied three successive green hobby washes to the foliage, and let that dry. Then I cut off the remaining prongs, and applied brown texture paint over the places where the prongs had been removed.

Glue gun to the rescue.
The 7 bases are shown here after I added the brown texture paint over the removed prong locations. These are shown over the card stock stand-ins I used at TotalCon 37 – so size-wise I was pretty close. Note that the washes on the foliage have lessened the plastic look significantly.

At this point I moved on to adding multiple pigments (like 7!). My goal was to blend the edges to look as if they bordered a beach, with a more jungle-like ground surface towards the centers of the bases. I added the 7 pigments, and fixed them with Vallejo thinner and let them dry.

First pigments session.

I was not satisfied with the first go with the pigments. I felt that the blends could be better – especially the transition from the beach areas inward. I also was not happy with the beach-bordering areas themselves. With that, I gave it a second attempt to address the shortcomings. That did address the issues – and then I added some scatter leaves and some laser cut low lying Gamers Grass plants that I bought from Things from the Basement at TotalCon – plus some Shadow’s Edge Miniatures jungle tufts.

I was pretty happy with the final products seen below.

The seven bases completed. Note the added low-lying plants and tufts.
Close up of a medium base with a conquistador halberdier and an “underdressed” Maya novice for scale. For the Maya’s sake, let’s hope there are very few thorns.

I can see using these bases for many other games – and I believe that they work well with my jungle bases with the palm trees. As to now storing and transporting them – I modified a 32-liter Really Useful Box with hot glue and posterboard/foam board into a three-level “apartment” Jungle Box. The bottom level is lined with adhesive magnetic sheets (my jungle bases with the palm trees have steel washers embedded underneath). The jungle paths also fit in here rolled up with the trees being upright. The next two levels fit the seven bases described here – four on one, and three on another. Both levels are made of posterboard and are resting on posterboard pieces that I hot-glued to the walls of the box. I did need to make the level that is immediately above the trees into three pieces so that I could get it by the supports of the top level (which is in one piece). No levels will crush any foliage (thankfully). Voila – a Jungle Box ready for Cold Wars transport!

The top level – rests on one solid piece of foam board.
Side view of the Jungle Box showing the three levels.

I hope this was useful to those of you considering similar projects. I do highly recommend Dave Stone’s stuff – I also previously shared his Aztec Style Serpent Statues that have been very popular at my games. Check him out!

My next post will be coming (hopefully) somewhat quickly as I need to finish preparations and packing up for Cold Wars. It will show my Winkie Zilk-riding cavalry – stay tuned! For my fellow bloggers, I’m trying to keep up with you, and know that I always read your posts and try to give you feedback. This month is, however, nuts, so I might be a bit tardy, mea culpa. As always, much thanks for taking a look – and let me know what you think!

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

For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE JUNGLE BASES:

  1. 2 of the Scatter Scenery – Jungle Base (large), Dimensions: 11.25″ Length x 5.9″ Width x 0.2″ Depth; (metric) 285mm L x 150mm W x 5mm D
  2. 2 of the Scatter Scenery – Jungle Base (Medium), Dimensions: 7.9″ Length x 6.3″ Width x 0.2″ Depth; (metric) 200mm L x 160mm W x 5mm D
  3. 3 of the Scatter Scenery – Jungle Base (Small), Dimensions: 6.5″ Length x 5.33″ Width x 0.2″ Depth; (metric) 165mm L x 135mm W x 5mm D
  4. Vallejo Primer “German Green Brown”
  5. Apoxie Sculpt
  6. Hot Glue
  7. Americana “Apple Green Satin”
  8. Americana “Hauser Light Green”
  9. Coelia Greenshade (wash)
  10. Poster tack
  11. Biel-Tan Green (wash)
  12. Hexwraith Flame (as a wash)
  13. Vallejo “Earth Texture Acrylics”
  14. Vallejo “Desert Dust” (pigment)
  15. Vallejo “Light Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
  16. Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
  17. Vallejo “Natural Umber” (pigment)
  18. Vallejo “Burnt Umber” (pigment)
  19. Vallejo “Faded Olive Green” (pigment)
  20. Vallejo “Green Earth” (pigment)
  21. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  22. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “12mm Jungle Tufts”
  23. Gamers Grass “Laser cut plants – Elephant’s Ear”
  24. Gamers Grass “Laser cut plants – Black Magic Taro”
  25. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  26. 4-Ground TSW23 “Loose Foliage – Brown Leaves”
  27. 4-Ground TSW22 “Loose Foliage – Green Leaves”

My TotalCon 37 wrap up – 5 games of Feudal Patrol in 4 days! Lots of pics too!

This was a fun convention. I promised that I’d share some photos and some descriptions of the 5 games that I ran here at TotalCon 37. The five games were all Feudal PatrolTM  games using my Civilizations Collide supplement. Check out the photos to see what it was all about – and if you played you might just recognize yourself! There are a LOT of photos – hell I ran 5 games!

It’s not easy to both run a game and take pictures. Let me add a caveat – it’s not easy to do both and do justice to the game and to the players’ needs. I was fortunate this time that a lot of the players had experience with Feudal PatrolTM  and were very helpful to the new players. It’s been a week since the end of TotalCon 37 – so without further ado, let me get into the games that I ran.

Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli

This game took place on Thursday the 24th at 1 PM. It pits the Aztecs against the Tlaxcalans before the Spanish Conquest. I have run this game many times – and it has won awards at both HUZZAH! and Fall In in 2022. I had not run it at TotalCon, so I thought it appropriate to do so.

I had 8 players for the game.

Happy gamers ready for battle. The Aztec players are on the right, the Tlaxcalan players are on the left.
The Tlaxcalan defense prepares.
The Aztecs mounted a strong attack right down the middle with Jaguar and Eagle Warriors.
Tlaxcalan bows took a heavy toll on these attackers.

The Aztecs assault in the middle faltered due to accurate bow shots of the Tlaxcalans. On the Aztec left, a force of Arrow Knights and Jaguar Warriors took the long way around hoping to flank the defenders. On the Aztec right, a veteran/novice force moved up – reinforces by the elite Shorn Ones – and also took some casualties before making it to the very gates of the Temple and the Tlaxcalan leader Xayacamach.

Despite the Tlaxcalan bows, melee finally happens.
The Aztec right closes on the Temple.
Things are looking desperate for the Tlaxcalans. That Temple is worth a LOT of VP.
Tlaxcalans begin to drag away Aztecs as prisoners for sacrifice.

At this point, the Tlaxcalan leader Xayacamach sortied with his signaler, put himself at personal risk, and engaged the Aztecs. His actions reversed the Aztec elites’ attack. The Tlaxcalans also held off the Aztec veterans who were on their left flank and threatening a food resource. back on the Aztec left, the long march of the Arrow Knights and the Jaguar Warriors reached a critical juncture with a threat to the Tlaxcalan corn supply and the rear of their bowmen. With the middle assault no longer a threat, the Tlaxcalan bows redeployed to face the new threat. Loosing a deadly barrage, they killed the Aztec Warband Leader and scattered the remaining attackers.

The Tlaxcalans defend their food.
The figure with the “W” is the soon to be mourned Aztec Warband Leader.
The Tlaxcalans defend the Temple.
The Tlaxcalan defense is successful!

The final score was 95-41 in favor of the defending Tlaxcalans.

La Noche Triste – Bloodbath on the Tacuba Causeway

I had 7 players for this game which took place on Friday the 24th in the morning.

The game set up.

The Tlaxcalans on the mainland managed to drive the Shorn Ones away from the causeway entrance. Meanwhile, the Spanish took a long time to get the bridge installed – and by that time the war canoes were hitting them with missile fire from two sides. The rear guard lost a couple of cavalrymen, but managed to perform their role well against a surge of Jaguar Warriors.

The Tlaxcalans engage the Shorn Ones with missile fire – and eventually drive them away.
The Spanish took a long time to bridge the causeway gap.
The Shorn Ones flee.
Still no bridge…

The war canoes made an effort to harry the Conquistadores.

War canoes approach.
Still no bridge…
I survey the scene – (pic from Facebook)
Still no bridge…

After Turn 4 the bridge is automatically installed and the Spanish get a “Burst of Exuberance” move as they try to make it to the mainland! This was an important objective as getting as few as 1 figure to the mainland would negate a 100 VP for the Aztecs.

The bridge is in! Vamanos!
Rear guard battle.
The Spanish race to escape…
…but the few remaining Aztecs and the war canoes threaten their success.

On the last card of the last turn, the Spanish had one chance to get at least one figure to the mainland – Cortes’ Catholic priest. The priest had 11″ to sprint – and made 14″! (Good thing he had no armor to weigh him down!).

That effectively took away 100 free points for the Aztecs and won the game for the Conquistadores at the last possible moment. The final score was 71-22. Had the Spanish failed, the score would have been 122-71.

The Battle of Lake Texcoco

On Saturday the 25th, I ran two massive games of the Battle of Lake Texcoco, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon.

Morning Game

The morning game was all mayhem – lots of boarding, canoe ramming, and cannon fire. I had seven players.

Game set up from the Aztec side.
Game set up from the Spanish side.
Close up of El Dolar and the dashboard for this brigantine.
Happy gamers!
Forces close…
El Gregorio fires her cannon and sinks a war canoe.
Boarding about to happen!

El Dolar ran aground and was swarmed by Aztec boarders. The other vessels continued towards their goal of shelling the Aztec capital (at the end of the mat where the Aztec players were).

Boarding!
More boarding!
El Gregorio goes full sails towards the city walls.
El Dolar is boarded on two sides!

El Gregorio, El Marcos, and El Perro de Guerra moved up to the city (well El Gregorio slammed into it at full speed but got lucky on damage). Cannon fire from El Marcos and El Gregorio rocked Tenochtitlan for 50 points apiece.

Fire at the city from El Gregorio!
At the end of the game.

The battle was cinematic to be sure. In the end, the Spanish won 383-269 – with their successful artillery fire gaining the win.

Afternoon Game

I then reset and ran this game again with 8 players – unfortunately with fewer photos.

I brief the gamers for game two (photo by Peter Bostwick).
At the start of the second game.

In this game, there was a lot less boarding by the Aztecs and a lot more ramming of war canoes – sinking a lot of them. As a result, it was a bigger Spanish victory – 391-145. The brigantines El Conquistador, El Perro de Guerra, and El Marcos all hit Tenochtitlan with solid shot for 150 VP.

At the game’s end.

Arofan Gregory took a very nice photograph of El Marcos (thank you sir) and put it on Facebook – and I’ll share it below:

Arofan Gregory’s photo of El Marcos.

The Battle of Centla

This was a very full game – 12 players on Sunday!

The battlefield set up.
A happy full table!

The Maya were fighting a delaying action – they needed to keep the Spanish from reaching the city or incapacitate half of them. The Spanish needed to incapacitate half of the Maya or reach the city. The Maya can randomly get reinforcements from the dead pile – making it harder for the Spanish to reach that 50% Maya killed level. The Spanish get no reinforcements.

Spanish move up.
View from the city.
Maya fight stubbornly.
The Spanish assault well – and use arquebusiers to good effect.

Meanwhile, Tabscoob’s (the Maya chieftain) leadership held his forces together – but taking on the Spanish directly in melee did not go their way.

In the end the Maya were unlucky with reinforcements and the Spanish were effective in their onslaught – resulting in a historical repeat – a Conquistador win.

I really want to thank all the players and especially Leif Magnuson, Brad Gosselin, and Chris Comeau who went above and beyond. I also want thank the whole staff – its a big convention and takes a lot of work. I want to highlight the work of Steven Parenteau and all his staff. Lastly, a big thanks to the incredibly helpful Bryan Clauss who headed up the miniatures section and who assisted in getting me the right table sizes.

Leif, myself, and Brad

Painting Contest

Finally, like last year, there was a painting contest. This year, I entered my Conquistador cavalry in the unit category – and won! Yay!

That’s it for TotalCon 37!

Going forward, I’ll be bringing “The Battle of Lake Texcoco” and “The Battle of Centla” to HMGS Cold Wars next week, plus “The Surprise Raid on the Spanish Outpost”. At the end of March, at HAVOC, I’ll be bringing “The Battle of Lake Texcoco” and “The Battle of Centla” as well as two “Wars of Ozz” games. I need to submit my games for HUZZAH! in May – and I’ll be doing that shortly.

I hope that you enjoyed this post – it’s been hectic with preparing for these conventions all so closely spaced together – but in the end I was very happy with how TotalCon 37 went – and I hope to repeat this at the other two planned gaming conventions.

Sculpting Jungle Bases for the Maya

As convention season is upon me – starting with TotalCon 37 this weekend – I wanted to make a quick post on some jungle bases I have sculpted for my new Maya scenario. I bought some inexpensive palm trees on Amazon – the one on the left was for cake decorating and the other on the right marketed for use on railroad dioramas. I had 30 trees in total – and they looked pretty shiny as one would expect of plastic. And shiny is not what I wanted.

The basic preparation of the trees involved removing mold lines (lots), washing them, and making a plan for their use. I needed some single trees for use on a beach (sandy bases) and some larger more muddy looking bases for the jungle around a Maya village. These are for the Battle of Centla Feudal PatrolTM games I’ll be running in upcoming conventions. In addition to removing the mold lines, I lightly sanded and filed the plastic which gave the bark a more friable look.

After cleaning up bad mold lines – wash time…
…and drying time

I then mounted the trees into poster tack on specimen jars and used three different washes on the foliage (all the paints and materials that I used are listed at the end of this post for those interested).

Mounted for applying washes to the plastic foliage to make them look more realistic.

Next, I needed a more detailed plan – I wanted to make the bases such that the 30 trees were varied across all of the bases and spaced far enough apart for good gaming with miniatures. I decided to make one 5-tree base, one 4-tree base, two 3-tree bases, three 2-tree bases, and 5 single bases. The single ones would be beach bases and the others jungle bases.

The plan – with a shot of my game map as a planning guide.

For sculpting, I went with Apoxie Sculpt, a 2-piece resin that is very workable but hardens like a rock. I needed to have some support for the trees – otherwise they would have just drooped excessively while the Apoxie Sculpt cured and hardened overnight. To solve this, I removed the little tabs on the tree bottoms, and glued the trees to steel washers. I gave a few a little bend as well.

For the 2-tree and 3-tree bases, the washers were easy to sculpt around and provided support – and I added some popsicle stick supports connecting the washers that I encased with Apoxie Sculpt and sculpted over. For the two bigger bases, I made supporting bases out of several popsicle sticks, then glued the washers with the affixed trees to them. I sculpted over the bases. More or less, these actions provided structural support and allowed me to make the bases strong. I needed to make sure that I used a putty knife to lift them from time to time off of plastic plates and cutting mats else they would cure permanently to them.

Apoxie Sculpt
The larger bases gleed and setting up.
Washer-mounted trees
Trees on washers now glues to a 5-tree base.

After curing to tremendous rock-hardness, the next steps for them were to get painted and flocked. For the single-tree beach bases, I used chinchilla dust over PVA (thanks again TIM!) that I have used in the past. For the jungle bases, I used a texture paint, pigments, and different flocking materials.

Bases curing – a couple of jungle paths are in front. These I got from Buck Surdu and I muddied them up with a couple of inks.
Early flocking drying – pigments still wet.
Close up of beach bases with chinchilla dust and glue drying.

After the texture paint dried, I played around and added multiple (3) pigments, and let them dry.

5-tree base with pigments drying.
Pigments after drying.

At this point, I wanted to add some tufts, debris, and low-lying foliage. I had some old 4-Ground leaves, and a Ziterdes “butterbur” laser-cut foliage that had been hanging around for years with no home. I mixed those with some tufts to create a hybrid jungle-looking plant. I learned butterbur is not native to the Americas, but with the tufts it looked fine.

The completed bases – showing the debris and low-lying plants.
A close up shot of the base with a Maya warrior for scale comparison.

I have also acquired some more bases from Dave Stone’s workshop that I will eventually work into the game. These are very nice and I will also flock them similarly to match mine. Unfortunately, the UK cyber attack delayed them getting here in Massachusetts until today so they won’t get done until later – not Dave’s fault!

I hope that this was interesting – certainly it was a diversion from my recent Ozz stuff. I’m still going to run Mesoamerican games – and will be adding Ozz games too. I certainly have room for both!

Thanks for taking a look – let me know what you think!

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

For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE PALM TREES AND BASES:

  1. Scicalife Model Tree Coconut Palm Trees
  2. HUIANER Palm Tree Model Trees
  3. Coelia Greenshade (wash)
  4. Poster tack
  5. Biel-Tan Green (wash)
  6. Hexwraith Flame (as a wash)
  7. Vallejo Primer “German Dark Yellow”
  8. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  9. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  10. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Mantis Warrior Green”
  11. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  12. 1.25″ Everbilt Fender Washers
  13. Gorilla Glue
  14. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  15. Popsicle Sticks
  16. Apoxie Sculpt
  17. Vallejo “Earth Texture Acrylics”
  18. All Living Things Dry Dust Bath (chinchilla dust)
  19. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  20. Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
  21. Vallejo “Burnt Umber” (pigment)
  22. Vallejo “Faded Olive Green” (pigment)
  23. Vallejo “Green Earth” (pigment)
  24. 4-Ground TSW23 “Loose Foliage – Brown Leaves”
  25. 4-Ground TSW22 “Loose Foliage – Green Leaves”
  26. Ziterdes 79554 “Pestwurz (butterbur)” laser-cut foliage
  27. Army Painter “Jungle Tufts”
  28. Army Painter “Swamp Tufts”

Meeting Engagement Rematch (Wars of Ozz)

As you saw in my last battle report, there was a game of Wars of Ozz between the Munchkins and the Gillikins. Chris’ Gillikins won 21-15. I wanted a rematch, and Chris Comeau agreed to one. We agreed to again use the meeting engagement scenario with random deployment zones as before. This post will show how this game went this time, mostly with pictures and a bit of narrative. It had a lot of excitement to be sure! We ended up playing in my cellar as opposed to the nice garage – as my wife was not feeling well and I wanted to be nearby in case she needed me.

As a side note, yes, this is a late post, but my wife Lynn and I had a subsequent unwanted medical “adventure” the day after this game – which I will describe at the end.

Back to the game – the forces were the same as last game. I did, however, end up drawing excellent characteristics for my two infantry regiments. The Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment (ZGIR) was already the best musketry unit on the table – and I the “Well-Drilled” attribute which gained me an additional 2″ of range to both my long and short firing ranges. For Colonel Tik-Tok’s regiment – I got the “Impatient” characteristic which gave me first hit capability in melee. My Munchkin cavalry got the “Charismatic” attribute which only affects routing distance. My brigade commander drew the “Magical Protection” attribute which helps when your enemy has a witch nearby. My opponent was slightly less fortunate – as one of his two regiments drew the “Blind” attribute which hurt his marksmanship. His other infantry regiment drew a good attribute, “The Fortunate”, which allowed a reroll of a bad result during the game. His goat riders got “The Impetuous” attribute which improved their elan. I don’t remember his brigade commander’s attribute, but it was moderately positive. By the way, artillery batteries, allied units (like skeletons), and witches and wizards don’t get these bonuses.

Zoraster’s Guard Infantry and Zoraster the Wizard
Munchkin Brigade Commander
Munchkin Medium Battery
Munchkin Light Cavalry and Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment
Gillikin Goat rider cavalry
Gillikin Infantry and Medium Battery
Skeleton Regiment and Gillikin Infantry Regiment. Arella the Witch is close by.

The deployments were as shown below. The Munchkins are on the left and the Gillikins are on the right. I had my two Munchkin infantry regiments at opposite ends of the tabletop – one near my wizard and my medium battery – and one next to my cavalry. My opponent had a skeleton regiment screening one of his Gillikin infantry regiments on one end and his goat riders, medium battery, and the other infantry regiment on the other end.

The start – Munchkins to the left and Gillikins to the right.
Chris again used his skeletons to screen his Gillikin infantry. Here they advance with Arella the witch close by.
This time, I moved closer to the enemy. Here the ZGIR advances to engage the skeletons with musketry. Normally, skeletons are less vulnerable to musketry – lacking, well, organs.
The Gillikin Medium battery unlimbered and faced both the Munchkin cavalry and Colonel Tik-Tok. The “blind” Gillikin infantry shouldered their muskets in column and moved up quickly, with the goat riders to their left flank.
The Gillikin infantry moved up and into line formation, while the goat-riders went into column trying to close with the Munchkins quickly.
Meanwhile, I moved both the Munchkin Light Cavalry and Tik-Tok into line.

Then I decided to try to improve the ZGIR’s marksmanship with an “Uncanny Marksmanship” spell from Zoraster. This would raise my already strong marksmanship from a 7 to a 9 out of 10 hit probability at short range (on top of the increased range bonus)! As you may remember, a spell needs to roll under a spell level on a D10. Zoraster, with a level of 8, needed only to roll anything but an 8, 9, or 10. A 10 is a critical failure (which last game caused his head to explode). Sometimes a critical failure has a bizarre result that can be positive. In this game, I rolled a 10 no less than 7 times out of 12. With different dice!!!!

Luckily, this time the critical failure did not cause a head explosion, and I even got some good results. Below, I rolled my first of 7 critical failures (the zero) and got a 17 for the following result roll. This let the spell work, but lowered my spell rating to 7 for the remainder of the game. Which, when you roll 10, is largely irrelevant! In any case, my ZGIR was even more deadly – even to the point of negating the skeletons’ advantage versus my musketry.

A critical spell failure with a positive result – my best unit now hit 80% of the time (70% versus skeletons).
My Munchkin cavalry attempts to hit the Gillikin cavalry on the flank – exposing their flank to the Gillikin “blind” infantry and the Gillikin battery. They get only one hit and disorganize the goat riders.
Overview of battle at this point. The Munchkin Medium Battery aims to take out the Gillikin battery. You can see the other two fights here as well.
The Gillikin cavalry reacts and turns to face the Munchkin cavalry, which shortly after this got hit by both flanking infantry “blind” fire and in the rear from the Gillikin artillery. Not good for me.
After firing, the Gillikin infantry then tried to hit the Munchkin cavalry in the flank – and they moved away to the left to escape the trap before it could close – however now the enemy medium battery had another flank shot – which succeeded in routing the Munchkin pony riders for the second game in a row. This left Tik-Tok alone on this end of the tabletop facing three enemy units (but in a ray of sunshine as an omen perhaps?).
Flanking fire hitting the cav…
…and Munchkin cavalry routs yet again…
Meanwhile, the ZGIR was doing massive damage to the skeletons with musket fire.
In response, Arella the Witch successfully cast a “Raise the Dead” spell and raised a new and separate base of skeletons (from the casualty pile) to engage the Munchkin Medium Battery before it could hurt their own battery.
Undeterred, the ZGIR continued to pour lead down range and routed the skeletons through the close-following Gillikins, disorganizing them.
An overview of the battle at this point. The new skeleton base damaged the Munchkin battery, but it was also wiped out in the melee attempt. Arella then hit the battery with successive fireballs, and the Gillikin battery also pivoted and hit the enemy battery. Shortly thereafter, the Munchkin Battery would be wiped out. Shown here routing away are the both the Munchkin cavalry and the skeletons on opposite ends of the tabletop.

At this point in the game, I was down to my two infantry regiments, plus my wizard. The Gillikins had two infantry regiments, plus a medium battery, a damaged goat-rider regiment, and a witch.

Then, the Gillikin infantry tried to engage the ZGIR in a firefight. The ZGIR sent the Gillikins high-tailing after the already routed skeletons. Both Gillikin units would then would leave the game for safer places. Then Arella moved in to throw a fireball at the ZGIR from the rear. The Munchkins activated and performed an about face. Arella then activated and threw her fireball and missed. The ZGIR returned fire and took her out with one volley.
Arella right before her demise. Zoraster tried to throw a “Poor Luck” spell on her and – yes – rolled a 10. However, this critical failure resulted in a the gaining of a new one-base unit for the Munchkins – a giant bear! The bear immediately turned towards the beleaguered Tik-Tok regiment which was holding but getting surrounded.
Colonel Tik-Tok’s regiment with Gillikin Infantry to the front and badly damaged goat riders to the rear. The bear would aim to engage the goat riders.
The bear is coming to the rescue, oh my!

This move took the pressure off of Tik-Tok. The Gillikin cavalry was in no shape to close with the bear, but decided that that was better than being hit in the rear and routed. In the end, the bear base did its job before being eliminated, but the Gillikin Goat Riders routed nonetheless – having had enough for the day. The two infantry regiments got into melee with Tik-Tik getting the better of the exchange (being “Impatient” and getting the first hits in help a lot too). The Gillikin infantry now routed as well. This left only the Gillikin Medium Battery on the battlefield facing the two Munchkin infantry regiments – which closed in on it.

Rout the “‘blind” Gillikins! Tik-Tok holds!
An overview of the battle at this point – all Gillikins are routing away except the battery – which has two Munchkin Infantry regiments on each side of it – and bent on revenge.

In the end, it was the ZGIR which wiped out and overran the Gillikin battery, and won the game 21-18.

The Gillikin battery is wiped out and overran.

It was a good game – and I feel I was lucky to pull out the victory. Certainly the magic critical failures had us both laughing. I will be running two games similar to this at HAVOC in late March/early April.

As for our adventure, I had travelled to Shrewsbury (45 minutes away) for a 7 AM car service – while Lynn got a 10 AM doctor’s appointment at UMASS (40 minutes away) to see why she was having shooting pains in her back. My car took a while. Around 11 AM she texted me that the doctor ordered a “blood clot test” for her as that was a worry for her lungs. By the way, I hate texting but the lab was too crowded for her to speak clearly with me at that point. With my knowledge and background, I texted to ask what the name of the test was (she was unsure) and to ask/tell her not to leave the hospital until she got her results. Unfortunately, when Lynn asked the phlebotomist how long the results would take, and was told maybe an hour, maybe a day. I knew that a potential blood clot in the lung was a STAT situation, and that likely the test was a d-dimer (which I have had myself). In any case, she left and drove home – as I did and we arrived at home about 5 minutes apart around 1 PM.

Within 5 more minutes, she got both an email and a call to go to the ER as the d-dimer test was elevated. So we drove together to UMASS Memorial in Worcester, arriving at 1:51 PM in the waiting room or the ER. It was SWAMPED. We did not get into the medical area of the ER and a bed for her until after 6 PM. We waited for a CAT scan until 11:30 PM, and then a read. It was not sure if she was going to be admitted or not but the diagnosis was pneumonia. At this time they started IV antibiotics – BUT as I recently had had a bad sinus infection I was on and needed to take my own antibiotic dose (which was of course at home). So I left her, drove home, got my own pills, then got a call from Lynn that she was being discharged. I then drove back to Worcester, got her, got her late night McDonald’s (she had not eaten since the morning). We got home about 3:30 AM, at which point I’d been up for nearly 24 hours.

So, good news, she’s already better! Not a fun story, but one I’m glad worked out.

Anyways, I hope you liked the battle report – I should have a couple more posts for you this week on a couple other playtests and some jungle terrain that I built for a Maya convention game.

Lesser Apes & Great Flying Apes (Wars of Ozz)

Whenever I think of seeing the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, on TV in the ’60’s as a kid, I think the most striking aspect for me was appearance of the Flying Monkeys. Of course back then, our TV’s were not always in color, so I did not even know that most of the film was even in color for a few years! Still, those aviator primates were impressively done for 1939 movie and scary enough for me at 4 or 5 years old.

Now, the world of the Wars of Ozz is not the same as that tread by Dorothy. In this world, the Winkies have allies in the form of Lesser Apes and Great Flying Apes due to the efforts of Evora:

One of Evora’s diplomatic coups was convincing the King of the Flying Apes to send her tribute in exchange for leaving his land in the Cold Barren Mountains unmolested. By their agreement each year he sends a number of Great Flying Apes and their cousins, the Lesser Apes, to serve in her armies and follow her commands for the course of the year. While it might seen like a very unfair arrangement, it has kept the rest of the apes safe from her armies, provided an easy way to train his soldiers, and given the old ape king a convenient way to manoeuvre his rivals out of his lands.

Wars of Ozz, section 2.2.2.4, page 25

Both of these ape regiments are available to any force in Ozz, BUT they are cheaper to incorporate into Winkie Brigades. Therefore, I just had to add both to my current Winkie forces – and potentially others in the future if they can pay. The Lesser Apes and Great Flying Apes cost the Winkies 4 and 6 points respectively, while costing other factions an additional 2 points each for each. The Great Flying Apes ignore any terrain effects, and can of course fly over an enemy, land, and try to hit the enemy’s rear. They also will be useful in attacking the Munchkin’s Aerostat Corps Balloon (mine is in the painting queue as well). The Lesser Apes move through woods with no penalty.

As they are kin, I thought it made sense to share both of these together in one blog post.

I decided to paint both regiments at the same time so that their colors could be somewhat aligned. The color theme that I chose for both was purple. While Gillikins are very purple, I thought that a bunch of “grape apes” would look decidedly different on the tabletop versus plain old brown or grey. I ended up experimenting with two paints a lot here – Citadel “Dreadful Visage” and “Ratling Grime” contrast paints. I found that “Dreadful Visage” used over white left a nice shade of purple – more like a light glaze. I also used it over other shades of purples and the “Ratling Grime”. The “Ratling Grime” is more of a cross between dirty black and brown – and I liked it as a base to dry brush over with “Warpfiend Grey”. I also used purple contrast paints and inks. Overall, this gave me the purplish look I wanted.

Besides, the Lesser Ape figures have tails – yet look otherwise like gorillas. They are deployed on 5 two-inch square bases in groups of four figures. The Lesser Apes are SKU #OZZ309, and are made up of twenty 28mm ape figures in several different poses.

The Great Flying Apes are SKU #OZZ308. The figures are large 28mm scale figures deployed one per each two-inch square base. Their faces and poses are varied – but are more dog-like or baboon-like. They needed assembly (two pieces). As you’ll see, I took the approach of painting prototypes for each type of ape and adjusting their looks to suit me.

Neither regiment gets a separate regimental commander or command stand/flag. These two regiments join Evora, the 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment, the Winkie Sharpshooters, and the Winkie Light Artillery Battery in my Brigade.

And, importantly, I am entering both of these Ape Regiments for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge!

Below you will see some WIP shots, and then some eye candy diorama-type shots. The units were both primed earlier on January 7th, but the painting and flocking mainly went from January 20th to January 27th. This was again was a good pace for me (25 figures in 7 days). Below you’ll see the WIP shots – click on any to get a better view.

WIP shots…Lesser Apes

My process for the Lesser Apes was to try to paint up a few and see what I liked and what I did not with end results. I ended up going with a mandrill look on their cheeks – which I liked a lot better than my initial more monocolor try – though painting vermilion and white lines on little ape cheeks is a bit tedious (but rewarding too). As I painted these, I also started one of the Great Flying Apes so as to align their color schemes. I used a various assortment of purples and purplish grays – all are listed at this post’s end if you’re interested in that.

January 20th progress on prototype stand – no cheeks yet.
By Jan 21st, I had 6/20 painted – but I thought they needed more than the yellow fangs…
White and red mandrill cheeks and brows were added on Jan 21st and I went back and corrected the previously painted figures to this scheme.
January 22nd progress – 6 fully done and 4 more partially.
Jan 23rd close up
January 23rd progress
January 24th progress – 14/20.
Jan 25th – all are painted minus varnishing
After varnishing a few figures in this pose I added some “earth” texture paint under their left legs.
January 27th – done and ready for eye candy shots!

Lesser Apes Eye Candy

I arranged these such that each stand had different poses in different positions. There are 5 stands of 4 figures each.

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Lesser Apes Group Shot

The Lesser Apes in line formation.
The Lesser Ape Regiment in column formation.

On to the WIP shots for the Great Flying Apes – click on any to get a better view.

WIP shots…Great Flying Apes

These are very large figures!

January 23rd work.
January 25th progress – note the different poses.
Close up of January 25th progress on one figure.
Later on January 25th, I collected rocks from near my driveway (the non-frozen ones), and began to add them and some texture paint to the bases.
Then on Jan 26th I applied the varnish to the model. I used a craft metallic purple paint for the armor – and I like how it came out.
A panoramic shot of the finished figures before I removed them from the poster tack/specimen jar combos.

Now for more eye candy – this time for the Great Flying Apes!

Eye Candy Great Flying Apes

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Great Flying Apes Group shots

Panoramic shot of the Great Flying Apes in line formation.
The Great Flying Apes in column formation.

Family Photo!

A gathering of Apes!

I appreciate your taking a look at this post – as always I appreciate your interest and readership – and hope that this kept you entertained. This makes 52 Wars of Ozz figures that I have painted for January, and 146 since November.

And yes, again, 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 THE LESSER APES AND THE GREAT FLYING APES:

Please note that any paints used on both Ape units in bold, otherwise they were just used on the Great Flying Apes except as annotated.

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  3. Poster tack
  4. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  5. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  6. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  7. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  8. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  9. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Sigvald Burgundy”
  10. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  11. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  12. Citadel “Daemonette Hide”
  13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Dreadful Visage”
  14. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ratling Grime”
  15. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
  16. Vallejo Game Ink “Red”
  17. Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
  18. Vallejo Game Ink “Violet” (on Great Flying Apes only)
  19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  20. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
  21. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash/shade)
  22. Vallejo Model Air “White Grey”
  23. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”(on Great Flying Apes only)
  24. Craftsmart “Amethyst” (on Great Flying Apes only)
  25. Vallejo Model Color “Vermilion” (on Lesser Apes only)
  26. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather” (on Great Flying Apes only)
  27. Citadel “Blackfire Earth” (texture)
  28. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  29. Assorted small rocks and stones
  30. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  31. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  32. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  33. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  34. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  35. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Purple Tufts” (flocking)
  36. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (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:

  1. Fire Ball – as an offensive spell
  2. Blood Lust – allows her to force a unit to close with the enemy by automatically passing their next Test of Elan.
  3. Poppies – allows her to create a 6″ square field of poppies that would cause any unit passing through to lose half its movement.
  4. 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.
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 hats
Close 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.

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. Paper clip wire pieces
  3. 3/4″ steel washer (just Evora)
  4. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  5. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  6. Poster tack
  7. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  8. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  9. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  10. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  11. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  12. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  14. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
  15. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Charger Grey”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  18. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  19. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  20. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
  21. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey”
  22. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
  23. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  24. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
  25. Citadel “Daemonette Hide”
  26. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  27. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  28. Americana “Bubblegum Pink”
  29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”
  30. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Sigvald Burgundy”
  31. Vallejo Mecha Color “Fluorescent Magenta”
  32. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  33. Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”
  34. Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
  35. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade Gloss” (wash)
  36. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
  37. Vallejo Model Air “White Grey”
  38. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Skeleton Horde”
  39. Vallejo Model Air “Sand/Ivory”
  40. Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
  41. Citadel “Lamenters Yellow” (glaze)
  42. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  43. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  44. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  45. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  46. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  47. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  48. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  49. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  50. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  51. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
  52. Black Sharpie pen
  53. Blue Sharpie Pen
  54. Brown Sharpie Pen
  55. 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:

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

2022 Hobby & Blogging Update

2022 was one hell of a busy year. Every year I try to recapture just what the hell I got done hobby-wise – both for miniatures/wargames and golf-wise. Then I try to assess (for my own purposes) what I set out to do at the year’s start and how well I achieved – or failed – to meet those goals. As another year has rolled by, it’s time to take that look in the old mirror. This blog, “Life, Golf, Miniatures & Other Distractions” covers my activities – and I do like to use the blog as an outlet to likeminded folks. So let’s take a retrospective look at 2022 AND a forward look into 2023.

Doing this is an old habit from when I actually worked full-time before retirement. Back then in “the dreaded private sector”, I had sales goals to hit every period – be it yearly, quarterly, thrice annually, or whatever. Of course, there was the inevitable review period where every manager would ask you what “stretch goals” you would “commit to” doing. This was a farce as the sales quotas you were given from corporate were never layups anyways. Plus, you needed to account for the previous year’s performance in any case.

Still, I’ve always set personal goals and found that it’s always good to have a plan and try your best. I also want to be honest with myself and be accountable to my own plans. How well did I do – let’s see…

I set out some goals for myself back last December for 2022. Some were around gaming, some around hobby production, some were around golf, and more.

How did I do versus my 2022 goals?

Paint 150 figures or more.

I did break this one with a strong push in November and December – (see pic below). I managed to finish 202 figures!

My 2022 production. I’ll be adding rebasing figures (mainly for Wars of Orcs and Dwarves games) as a new category in 2023.

Complete the remaining conquistador figures for Civilizations Collide.

I definitely did this! I have a page in my blog that catalogs all things Aztec/Conquistador/Maya/Tlaxcalan here.

Complete the remaining terrain for Civilizations Collide, to include the brigantines.

It was a big effort, but check!

Brigantines in action at the Battle of Lake Texcoco game at HUZZAH.

Complete the remaining Maya figures for Civilizations Collide.

I managed to get these done by November – and they will be on the tabletop soon. This capped 300 figures done for the period since I began.

Complete the scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide.

Not quite done – though I have completed fleshing out and writing 9 scenarios, plus I have 3 mostly completed, and 4 in concept mode. All have or will be used at conventions.

Complete my figures for Wars of Ozz, ok at least 40 of them.

Better late than never! This is now the project that I am into quite deeply. I managed to paint up 93 figures for Wars of Ozz in November and December alone. There is now a page in my blog that catalogs these here.

Paint up a platoon from Wargames Supply Dump for Combat Patrol™ .

Never got to this – but will try again in 2023 (sorry Roger).

Try to get my Nomonhan WaT project off the ground.

I did want to get to this, but not enough time.

Attend and run games at conventions or club nights or both, if possible. This would include TotalCon34, HMGS South Recon, HAVOC, HUZZAH!, Historicon, and BARRAGE .

I will give myself a good grade here. I did not go to BARRAGE due to a golfing tournament conflict, but otherwise I did all of these conventions PLUS HMGS Fall In! in November. Plus I won some awards at three conventions – HUZZAH, HAVOC, and at Fall In. My gaming club, the Mass Pikemen, met a few times – and hopefully will do more in 2023. For 2023, I am going to track my gaming progress as well as my hobby production progress.

The Battle of Lake Texcoco at Fall In!

Get the Mass Pikemen more active once the pandemic diminishes.

Could have been better – will work on in 2023.

Celebrate my wife’s retirement (and mine belatedly) with a nice trip.

Nailed this as I wrote here!

Fun in Florida!

Finish the garage+ and launch that baby successfully.

Well, it’s finished and we do enjoy it – just have not managed to play a wargame in it yet. Otherwise, yes indeed, it’s done!

Post on the blog 48 times or more – and in good quality.

As for the quality – the readers are the judge. However, I fell off a bit and only did 42 posts.

Be a good blog follower.

I hope I was this – but certainly not a measurable statistic!

Have multiple Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists.

Success here – if we got together you know who you are and thanks – great conversations and wonderful camaraderie. I’m always open to more!

Go to a golf school and get my golf handicap down below 18.

Mixed bag here – we did go to a golf school during our Florida trip. My handicap started the year at 20.7, peaked in July at 22.6, and I was able to improve to 18.9 by season’s end.

Play golf (in season) at least twice a week.

I played close to 80 rounds this year – and usually played 3-4 time a week in season – so hell yeah!

Win my flight in the Club Championship.

My biggest miss as I got hurt AND played horribly – coming in dead last.

Be a competitive golfer.

Despite the previous miss in the Club Championship, I did manage a few good showings in other tournaments. I’d say in general I was competitive.

Personal Highs in 2022

  1. The Florida trip and golfing with my wife (she’s getting better)!
  2. Getting the garage DONE.
  3. Getting together with family especially my daughter Ellen and my granddaughter Tabitha.
  4. Finishing all of the figures and terrain for Civilizations Collide!
  5. Continuing to serve my Town (East Brookfield, MA) as the elected Board of Health Chairman during the pandemic.
  6. Participating in multiple gaming conventions and winning awards at: HAVOC (the “Al Award” for the game with the most stunning visual appeal); two awards at HUZZAH (2 best in time slots), and a “Pour Encourager Les Autres” at Fall In.
  7. Getting going on my Wars of Ozz figures!
  8. Getting together with Dave Wood, Buck Surdu, Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, and Duncan Adams, Eric Schlegel, and all of the other HAWKS in person.
  9. Being on the Committees for the Tour of the Brookfields tournaments and the New England Service Academy golf tournaments,
  10. Having fun Zoom chats.
  11. And again, being with my wife Lynn, every day (seriously, and she won’t likely read this).
Florida golfing.
My “Pour Encourager Les Autres” Award at Fall In.
My last Mesoamerican figures – the Maya!

Gaming with Buck and Dave.
Two old USMA 1984 roommates (Dave Wood and some out of shape guy).
Tabitha!

Personal Lows for 2021

  1. Losing Caesar. Still hurts but that’s life.
  2. Sinus surgery – though that’s a long-term plus (I hope).
Caesar and Lynn.
Sinus surgery aftermath day 1. I’m getting much better than this now!

My goals for 2023

Well, its time to set my goals for 2023.

  1. Paint 250 figures or more.
  2. Complete a brigade of Winkies for Wars of Ozz.
  3. Complete a brigade of Land of Harvest creatures for Wars of Ozz.
  4. Run and play more games – track them too.
  5. Attend and run games at conventions or club nights or both, if possible. This would include TotalCon37, HAVOC, HMGS Cold Wars, HUZZAH!, BARRAGE (possibly if golf allows), and Fall In.
  6. Complete the scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide.
  7. Complete my terrain for Wars of Ozz, games.
  8. Paint up a platoon from Wargames Supply Dump for Combat Patrol™ .
  9. Try to get my Nomonhan WaT project off the ground. Note I said “try”.
  10. Get the Mass Pikemen more active.
  11. Have another nice trip to Florida.
  12. Post on the blog 48 times or more – make them of good quality.
  13. Be a good blog follower – still a goal but one that I cannot measure!
  14. Have multiple Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists.
  15. Go to a golf school and get my golf handicap down below 18. This time.
  16. Update my golf tournament progress on my blog – either as posts or a page or both.
  17. Play golf (in season) at least twice a week.
  18. Win my flight in the Championship.
  19. Be a competitive golfer.

As far as my figure total for Wars of Ozz, here is my progress so far on that:

My progress – white are completed, yellow started, and red not started yet. 257 figures planned in total – that is unless I buy more…

Again, thanks to all who make the time to read this blog and comment on my madness – Happy 2023 and what do you think?

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.

Winkie Sharpshooter Regiment (Wars of Ozz)

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 22nd
After 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 progress
December 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:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. Paper clip wire pieces
  3. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  4. Poster tack
  5. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  7. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  8. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  9. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  10. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
  11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  12. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  13. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  14. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  15. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey”
  16. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
  17. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
  20. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  23. Vallejo Game Air “Sick Green”
  24. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
  25. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  26. Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
  27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  28. Citadel “Lamenters Yellow” (glaze)
  29. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  30. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Skeleton Horde”
  31. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  32. Americana “Bubblegum Pink”
  33. Citadel “Fire Dragon Bright”
  34. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
  35. Americana “Dioxazine Purple”
  36. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
  37. Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
  38. Citadel “Changeling Pink” (dry)
  39. Vallejo “Gloss Varnish”
  40. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  41. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  42. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  43. Black Sharpie pen
  44. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  45. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  46. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  47. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  48. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  49. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  50. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Pink Tufts” (flocking)
  51. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Purple Tufts” (flocking)
  52. Winkie Flags from Buck Surdu printed on card stock
  53. Blue Sharpie Pen
  54. 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:

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Munchkin Light Cavalry with Command (Wars of Ozz)

I had previously built two infantry regiments and an artillery battery for my Munchkin Brigade. It was time to add a cavalry regiment to my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz. This was a Light Cavalry Regiment, OZZ108 from Wars of Ozz miniatures.

The regiment is 28mm and metal. It is composed of made of 11 figures broken into 11 ponies, 11 riders (from the torso up), and 11 carbines. The riders also are armed with sabers, so they can also engage the enemy from a distance (although carbines are not very long ranged). The Light Cavalry Regiment (LCR) is worth the same amount of points as the Medium Artillery Battery that I described in my last post. Each base in the game can take 4 hits, even though with cavalry there are only two figures per 2″ square base. This regiment has 5 bases plus a regimental commander on an MDF base.

The rules say that the LCR should have “dragoon green” coats and light blue trousers. The ponies (these are Munchkins) are supposed to be in multiple pastel colors – which allowed me to use a number of Citadel Contrast and Army Painter Speed Paints. I painted the carbines, riders, and ponies all separately. Then, I assembled all after painting and varnishing was completed. I used both my specimen jars/poster tack combos and my painting stand with alligator clips to paint and varnish. The project was started on December 8th, and completed on December 19th. There was a lot more work here than I expected – I really needed to plan out the painting and assembly. I also did a bit of research on Napoleonic cavalry as my Napoleonic painting experience level is – well zero. My goal was to achieve a good tabletop standard – and you can be the judge of whether I achieved 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). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the LCR.

WIP shots…

Filed and washed
The carbines in the alligator clip stand

I actually prepped the bases first and started the flocking so that I would not have to manhandle the painted figures later on.

Base prep/sizing.

Then, I prepped/mounted the remaining torsos and riders for painting.

Mounted and tagged for painting. With each pony having a different color, this was instrumental.

The painting proceeded ok – though with all of the details it took a bit longer than I anticipated. I actually changed the fur cap colors from light blue to black after seeing some pictures on line with the light blue on the cap tops and sides. I then looked to give a lot of colorful detail in red, green, yellow, and blue as you’ll see below.

Then I varnished the group, assembled them, mounted them on the 2″ square steel bases, and flocked them.

Assembled.
Completed!

And now…

Eye Candy

There are 5 stands of 2 figures – 4 are similar and one is a command stand with a standard bearer and a bugler. The regimental commander goes on an MDF stand.

Regimental Commander Stand

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Command Stand

Group shots

The LCR in line formation, moving into melee with the Regimental Commander base in the rear.
A higher angle photo of the previous formation.
An angled shot of the left side of the LCR moving up with the Regimental Commander in front.
The LCR ready to charge the enemy with impetus!

So now I have a complete Munchkin Brigade!

My Munchkin Brigade! Clockwise from the top left: Zoraster’s Guard Infantry, Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment, Zoraster and an unnamed wizard, the Light Cavalry Regiment, and the Medium Artillery Battery.

I will now move on to building my brigade of Winkies (basically the Orcs of Ozz). I am not sure how far I will get this year with Christmas coming plus some minor surgery for me right afterwards (oh yay). I am hoping to get at least one more unit done this month, then do a 2022 wrap up with my 2023 goals.

Again, 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 so very much for checking this post out and please let me know what you think in the comments section. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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 LIGHT CAVALRY REGIMENT:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. Paper clip wire pieces
  3. 1 1/4″ x 1″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  4. Poster tack
  5. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  7. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  8. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  9. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  10. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  11. Black Sharpie pen
  12. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  13. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  14. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  15. Vallejo Game Air “Sick Green”
  16. Vallejo Game Air “Electric Blue”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  19. Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
  20. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
  22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
  23. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”
  24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Akhelian Green”
  25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Pylar Glacier”
  26. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Nazdreg Yellow”
  27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magos Purple”
  29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aethermatic Blue”
  30. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Terradon Turquoise”
  31. Battlefront “Black”
  32. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Basilicanum Grey”
  33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
  34. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  35. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
  36. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  37. Army Painter “Flesh Wash” (wash/shade)
  38. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  39. Model Air “Bright Brass”
  40. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  41. P3 “Midland Flesh”
  42. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
  43. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  44. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
  45. Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
  46. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
  47. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
  48. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  49. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory
  50. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  51. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  52. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  53. Army Painter “Brown Battleground” (flocking)
  54. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Dark Blue Tufts” (flocking)
The Wargaming Erratic

Gisby's Gaming Blog

Miniatures gaming projects, products, and reviews

Carrion Crow's Buffet

Narrative Wargaming, Fiction and General Musings on the Universe

Despatches from Fort Syllabub

An account of fictional adventures on the North West Frontier - and other times and places, real or imagined

Man of Tin blog

Toy soldiers, gaming, Imagi-Nations

Zauberwurfs Blog

Ein Blog über Tabletop und Miniature Wargames.

Frank Tank Rants

musings of a fat old bloke on tanks and wargames

Dragons of Lancasm

Games, miniatures, painting, books and more games

Tiny Painted Heroes

The Adventures of a lifelong Tabletop Gamer, Game Design hobbyist, and full-time Software Engineer

Steve's Paint Brush

Grimdark model making and mini painting

Wargamesculptors Blog

Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions

Dead Dick's Tavern and Temporary Lodging

Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions

Guru Pig - the gaming Guru

Guru's thoughts on wargaming, life, and the universe!

Wisely lead... without a head!

History, Miniatures and Wargaming

Kuribo's Painting

Fallout Wasteland Warfare, Warhammer, and Hellboy Painting, Terrain, Dioramas, and Battle Reports

ADC Gaming

Don't Give Greg Ideas

Seriously, just don't

War Across the Ages, and other dark horrors

A discussion of miniatures collecting, painting and gaming.

Classic Warhammer 40K

Painting diary focused on Warhammer 40K 2nd ed., 5th ed. WHFB, related GW games, and miscellaneous whimsy

Colonel Mustard

WW2 Modelling in 1/72 Scale

Bogenwald

Random painting and terrain making.

Pat's 1:72 Military Diorama's

Scale diorama tips and ideas

Convert or Die

Arcade Dreams

Building the Arcade Dream

Roll a One - Wargaming Blog

P.B.Eye-Candy

Phil's 20th century wargame pages

SP's Projects Blog

A futile fight against entropy or 'Every man should have a hobby'? Either way it is a blog on tabletop wargames, board games and megagames

30mmdave

Wargaming Plausible reality?

The Imperfect Modeller

Miniature Figure Painting and Diorama Modelling

Double Down Dice

Painting miniatures and rolling dice!

Just Needs Varnish!

My ongoing wargames projects!

miniaturepopcorns

Sculpting some worlds

Despertaferres

Wargaming with the ability of a dull nine year old

Dawn of the Lead

Miniature wargaming and the occasional zombie

Rantings from under the Wargames table

Wargames, Figures, Sculpting and Converting Miniatures

Simple as War

Miniatures & Terrains

The Vibe

Life

Buck's Blog

Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions

IRO aka Imperial Rebel Ork

- I model - therefore I am -

Azazel's Bitz Box.

Painting, Modelling, Miniatures, 1:6, Games... Whatever else I find interesting.