Creating More Mechanical Men for Professor Nitpik’s Army

Convention season has arrived! So, I needed to finish off a few regiments in anticipation of several games between now and June. This time, I needed to augment my forces of Professor Nitpik and his Mechanical Men. Click the link to learn his back story.

Luckily, my first group of mechanical men miniatures for 2026 is now done. By group, I mean 41 figures for my Wars of Ozz games.

The Mechanical Men would need help in 2026 defending against marauding Munchkins. They would also need help chasing them down as they attempt to steal technological secrets. I chose to build and paint up two regiments of axemen (OZZ-511). Additionally, I chose two regiments armed with napalm blasters (OZZ-539 – not sharing a link as the picture is incorrect on the website). I also had a mechanical wizard, Androit (OZZ-543).

Luckily Buck Surdu has changed the basing rules for these such that a regiment has 10 figures, not 20. They still do come in 20 figures though! This is why I was able to turn each SKU into two regiments of each!

These were completed in early January, 2026. Therefore, they all qualify for Dave Stone’s PAINT WHAT YOU GOT 2025/2026 Challenge.

I wanted to give these bad bots a colorful metallic shine. To that end, I experimented by mixing Vallejo “Metallic Medium” with Army Painter Speed and Citadel Contrast Paints. I even tried this with a few of the 1.0 versions that have a reputation for “bleeding”. I am happy to report that no bleeding occurred with this combination.

The group all cleaned up and ready for assembly and priming.
Here you see the two regiments of axemen in progress. These regiments would be “The Jade Automata” and “The Pink Nightmares”

The two napalm blaster regiments would be yellow-themed (“The Lemon Drop Legionnaires”) and orange-themed (Morin’s Monsters). Buck edited his flags for me and named that last one so I just had to give that moniker!

Below the axemen in progress:

They have gun metal arms and legs, but colorful torsos for Ozz! The Metal Medium and contrast/speed paint combination worked well.
The command bases of the 4 regiments with their nice new battle standards.
Top view.

I also painted up Androit, plus 4 crates as game markers for the games to come. These represent stores of Professor Nitpik’s technological secrets.

First Androit:

And the crates – I think I got these from Armorcast years ago.

Crates of unknown technological secrets from before the Last Great War…

How about some eye candy (they do already look quite sugary, no?)

Completed Eye Candy

Morin’s Monsters

The Lemon Drop Legionnaires

The Jade Automata

The Pink Nightmares

(Apologies to Ralphie.)

Androit The Mechanical Wizard

Group Shot

I also posted a short video on Instagram showing these mechanical men up close:

As I write this I have just returned from Cold Wars in Lancaster, PA. These miniatures debuted in their first game, “The Great Munchkin Heist”. In upcoming posts, I will share that game and some photos from Cold Wars.

Below is the flyer for that game.

The game went exceptionally well and I look forward to sharing it in a post in the near future. I also intend to share more apocalyptic terrain that I made it for this and another scenario. I also hope to do a 2025 roundup post as well…again, I said hope!

AND I hope to see some of you soon at conventions!

Final Notes and Links

Want to learn more about Ozz and its world? If you want to check out the excellent Wars of Ozz figures’ range, there are two places to get them. You can also get the rules there. (I make no money from this.) The game rules and the figures are available from the next two places:

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

And the new Wars of Ozz Supplement is available as a PDF download from the next two websites:

As for the paints I used here – the list is extensive. But my memories are not always – so they are as much a resource to me as to you. Given that I have so much wreckage on the mechanical men’s bases, it does add to the variety.

If interested, here you go. If not, thanks for looking at these bots. Until next time…

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

For my earlier posts on Wars of Ozz games, view this page. It includes figures, units, and other related projects.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE TWO REGIMENTS OF NITPIK AXEMEN:

  1. Polystyrene sheet
  2. Gorilla Glue
  3. PVA Glue
  4. Popsicle sticks
  5. 2″ Square War Games Accessories Steel Bases (21)
  6. Vallejo Surface Primer “Black”
  7. Vallejo Mecha Primer “White”
  8. Vallejo Thinner
  9. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Familiar Pink”
  10. Vallejo “Metal Medium”
  11. Citadel Contrast Paint “Striking Scorpion Green”
  12. Popsicle sticks
  13. PVA Glue
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Concrete”
  15. Vallejo Model Air “Tire Black”
  16. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  17. Army Painter Warpaints Metallics “Gun Metal”
  18. Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Steel”
  19. Vallejo Mecha Color “Off White”
  20. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Polished Silver”
  21. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Red”
  22. Citadel Contrast Paint “Moon Yellow”
  23. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Blue”
  24. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Green”
  25. Vallejo Model Air “IDF Sand Grey”
  26. Reaper MSP Core Colors “Pure Black”
  27. Army Painter “Red Tone” (wash)
  28. Secret Weapon Washes “Red Black” (wash)
  29. Secret Weapon Washes “Ruby” (wash)
  30. P3 “Red Ink” (ink)
  31. Vallejo Game Air “Red Terracotta”
  32. Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash)
  33. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  34. Citadel “Astrogranite” (texture)
  35. Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” (texture)
  36. Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
  37. Vallejo Flow Improver
  38. Vallejo “Satin Varnish”
  39. Juweela 1:35 Debris
  40. Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty
  41. Juweela 1:35 Bricks
  42. Wood shards
  43. Vallejo “Old Rust” (pigment)
  44. Vallejo “Carbon Black” (pigment)
  45. Vallejo “Light Slate Grey” (pigment)
  46. Vallejo “Titanium White” (pigment)
  47. Pendraken 12mm dice frames
  48. Nitpik flag design from Wars of Ozz Facebook page (printed on card stock)

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE TWO REGIMENTS OF NITPIK MECHANICAL MEN ARMED WITH NAPALM BLASTERS:

  1. 2″ Square War Games Accessories Steel Bases (21)
  2. PVA Glue
  3. Popsicle sticks
  4. 2″ Square War Games Accessories Steel Bases (21)
  5. Vallejo Mecha Primer “White”
  6. Vallejo Thinner
  7. Army Painter Speed Paint 1.0 “Zealot Yellow”
  8. Vallejo “Metal Medium”
  9. Army Painter Speed Paint 1.0 “Fire Giant Orange”
  10. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Red”
  11. Createx “4011 Reducer”
  12. Vallejo Model Air “Tire Black”
  13. Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Steel”
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  15. Turbo Dork “People Eater”
  16. Army Painter Warpaints Metallics “Gun Metal”
  17. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
  18. Vallejo Model Air “Black Metallic”
  19. Vallejo Mecha Color “Off White”
  20. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Polished Silver”
  21. Citadel Contrast Paint “Moon Yellow”
  22. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Blue”
  23. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Green”
  24. Vallejo Model Air “IDF Sand Grey”
  25. Secret Weapon Washes “Yellow Snow” (wash)
  26. Secret Weapon Washes “Sunshine” (wash)
  27. Army Painter “Red Tone” (wash)
  28. Secret Weapon Washes “Red Black” (wash)
  29. Secret Weapon Washes “Ruby” (wash)
  30. P3 “Red Ink” (ink)
  31. Vallejo Game Air “Red Terracotta”
  32. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  33. Citadel “Astrogranite” (texture)
  34. Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” (texture)
  35. Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
  36. Vallejo Flow Improver
  37. Vallejo “Satin Varnish”
  38. Juweela 1:35 Debris
  39. Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty
  40. Juweela 1:35 Bricks
  41. Wood shards
  42. Vallejo “Old Rust” (pigment)
  43. Vallejo “Carbon Black” (pigment)
  44. Vallejo “Light Slate Grey” (pigment)
  45. Vallejo “Titanium White” (pigment)
  46. Pendraken 12mm dice frames
  47. Nitpik flag design from Wars of Ozz Facebook page (printed on card stock)

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON ANDROIT THE MECHANICAL WIZARD:

  1. War Games Accessories Steel Bases (FOW1)
  2. PVA Glue
  3. Popsicle sticks
  4. Army Painter Warpaints Metallics “Gun Metal”
  5. Vallejo Thinner
  6. Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Steel”
  7. Vallejo Model Air “Tire Black”
  8. Vallejo Model Color “Red Leather”
  9. Vallejo Mecha Color “Off White”
  10. Vallejo Model Color “Light Brown”
  11. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Red”
  12. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Aztec Gold”
  13. Turbo Dork “People Eater”
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Ivory”
  15. Army Painter “Soft Tone” (shade)
  16. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  17. Citadel “Astrogranite” (texture)
  18. Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” (texture)
  19. Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
  20. Vallejo Flow Improver
  21. Vallejo “Satin Varnish”
  22. MDF Base
  23. Juweela 1:35 Debris
  24. Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty
  25. Juweela 1:35 Bricks
  26. Wood shards
  27. Vallejo “Old Rust” (pigment)
  28. Vallejo “Carbon Black” (pigment)
  29. Vallejo “Light Slate Grey” (pigment)
  30. Vallejo “Titanium White” (pigment)
  31. Pendraken 12mm dice frames
  32. MDF placard and printed label

Support Your Favorite Bloggers: Follow This List…if you dare!

My blogger buddy in the UK, Roger, from “Rantings Under the Wargame Table”, has a novel idea in his recent post. Or rather a challenge.

https://wordpress.com/reader/feeds/17667794/posts/5920125115

In short, (if you don’t want to click above) he has a list of folks who blog that he follows (most of them are the same ones that I also follow).

To quote Roger:

Well, What I’m asking you to do is, if you look below you’ll see a list of blogs that I follow (or should follow!), some are great painters (actually all of them are) 3D printers, game writers, DM’s, Sculptors, Convertors etc.. The one thing they all have in common is they are all entertaining writers! So if you can I’d like you to follow each of the links and take a look around, now some of these have not had new posts added for a while, but don’t let that put you off, have a look around check out some older posts, you never know there might be something you like or find useful, if so make a comment, follow (or if you have too “like”), let’s give these people some love and hopefully get them posting again!

So, take a look. I know some might not be up your alley, but if you’re into hobbying or modeling etc, most will. Of course my blog does also have some golf in there, but that’s just another addiction you know…

Here’s the list from Roger:

Azazels Bitz Box

Bogenworld

Carrion Crow Buffet

Dead Dicks Tavern

Fantorical

Gisby’s Gaming Blog

Guru Pig

Imperial Rebel Ork

Just Needs Varnish

Leadballoony

Mark A Morin

PM Painting

Pat’s 1/72 Military Diorama’s

Skinflint Games

SP’s Projects Blog

The Imperfect Modeller

War Through The Ages & Other Dark horrors

Wargames sculptors blog

Anne’s Immaterium

Dragons Of Lancasm

Fawcett Avenue Conscripts

 The wargaming erratic

Rantings From Under the Wargames Table

Anyways, just a thought and a hope for fun amongst you as you read these.

I’ll be back with some new content myself very shortly!

Happy New Year!

Mechanical Mini Swarm with Pulse Blasters (Wars of Ozz)

And now little bots from the apocalyptic ruins of the Industrial City!

This unit is a part of Professor Nitpik’s Industrial City Army. This regiment is composed of 40 mini-mechanical men (robots), deployed on five 2″ bases. The figures are metal and 28mm in size.

I have described my work on the good Professor’s background and army in three previous posts that you can check out:

I decided to go red on gold again. I really liked the effect I got on the artillery battery.

After priming – a good airbrush application of Createx “Pearl Red” on April 15.

The pearlized red works well with pearlized copper. I faced a downside. It was unbeknownst to me that my spray booth filter needed cleaning before I started. As a result, my basement had some residual fumes after painting, which I otherwise never see. Luckily I always mask up when airbrushing.

Finished hand brush painting these on April 16th, to include a wash.

The regiment does not have a regimental commander. However, I thought it would be good to give them a standard. So I took a wire spear from my unused Aztec bits, and a nut. With some green stuff, I crafted an ersatz standard pole.

The standard pole.

I then varnished all the bots with a gloss coat. This allowed me to handle them and better mount them on the bases without causing any damage.

All glossied up.

I mixed and matched the bots into different places on the bases. I also drilled out one bot claw and base to hold the standard. Next came a generous flocking of Army Painter “Black Battlefield”. I also added rusted bits and brick rubble before adding pigments.

Basing started.

After a matte varnishing, the last step was to add the standard!

April 19th – done!
Close up of the command stand.
The regiment in column formation.

That’s a wrap on this regiment – and for my Ozz painting for a while. I will be starting a new project in support of my upcoming HISTORICON 2025 games. Yes, I will still be running Wars of Ozz games – BUT I’m branching out a bit after painting over 1,000 (1,040 to date) Ozz figures…

Hint – I’ll be plowing new ground – but not totally new ground…yes, TANKS! But for which period and theater…hmmm….do you have a guess?

I will get back to Ozz painting sometime this year, so I can finish off my forces.

Here’s the Instagram link for a video that shows the command stand:

Final Notes and Links

Want to learn more about Ozz and its world? If you want to check out the excellent Wars of Ozz figures’ range, there are two places to get them. You can also get the rules there. (I make no money from this.) The game rules and the figures are available from the next two places:

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

And the new Wars of Ozz Supplement is available as a PDF download from the next two websites:

Below you’ll see the list of paints and the like that I used on this project. They are more useful for me when I need to recreate a color scheme in the future. They are not likely as useful for you as they are for me. I have had to refer back to a post more than once. This happens when I need to recreate a color theme. It also happens when I need to repair a unit. In any case, that’s why I post the lists.

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

For my earlier posts on Wars of Ozz games, view this page. It includes figures, units, and other related projects.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE MECHANICAL MINI SWARM WITH PULSE BLASTERS REGIMENT:

  1. Popsicle sticks
  2. PVA Glue
  3. War Games Accessories Steel Bases (number 16)
  4. Vallejo Surface Primer “Black”
  5. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Red”
  6. Createx Wicked Colors “High Performance Reducer”
  7. ComArt “Opaque Carmine”
  8. Createx Airbrush Colors “Pearl Copper”
  9. Vallejo Model Air “Tire Black”
  10. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  11. Vallejo Mecha Color “Off White”
  12. Army Painter Warpaints Fanatics Effects “Blue Flux” (effect)
  13. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  14. Aztec leftover wire spear
  15. Steel nut
  16. Green stuff (kneadatite)
  17. Army Painter “Black Battlefields” (flocking)
  18. Citadel “Gehenna’s Gold”
  19. Gorilla Glue
  20. Juweela 1:35 Debris
  21. Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty
  22. Juweelinis “Diorama Mix” – various metal scrap, tires, bricks
  23. Vallejo “Carbon Black” (pigment)
  24. Vallejo “Titanium White” (pigment)
  25. Vallejo Acrylic Varnish “Gloss”
  26. Vallejo Flow Improver
  27. Vallejo Thinner
  28. Vallejo Premium Color “Matte Varnish”
  29. Pendraken 12mm dice frame
  30. Card stock
  31. Wars of Ozz flag from supplement
  32. Black Sharpie Pen
  33. Brown Sharpie Pen

If you have any questions or feedback – go for it in the “Comments” section! Thanks for looking as always!!

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