OWAC V June's rank & file month - the might of the Dragon Company

Rank & File Month

 Who need a dragon when you have an entire Dragon Company.

Ulther: We will be eternally in debt for your kind help and guiding our company in such a dangerous adventure.

Snow White: I accept your gratitude and there is no need to worry about the perils of our journey. I am very happy to help my friends, your brave companions… and abandon such a boring fest. You know, I love my husband but do not expect me not to run away after four days of such boring court fests.

Ulther: Well, lucky we were there during the fests when the news about the orc advance reached the castle. Without your assistance, we didn’t know this path to the valley and probably won't reach our friend Lord Kazador in time. 

...About your friends… we will avenge those seven brave engineers, my lady.

Snow White: Do not worry also for my friends, if I am also showing you this path is because maybe we need to reach fast and help king Kazador even more than my friends. Specially if they have deployed one of their… how to say, creative solutions. 

Remember that story when my stepmother tried to poison me?, my friends chased her along the valley and in the end a rock fell by accident over her... Let’s say that I knew very well our home deep in the forest and I do not remember having a trebuchet in the garden before I fell asleep.

 
Ulther: Do you think that they may have repelled the mighty and unglorious orc warlord Gorfang?

Snow White: I suspect more than you want to know. I hope there is still a mine shaft and not a giant crater instead when we arrive there.

...

King Kazador: We must start to retreat to our lines. We can barely resist their massive waves.

“Doc”: My lord, but if we retreat now we cannot bring with us the part of the treasure that has not been sealed in the lower levels.

King Kazador: And what exactly do you expect me to do in order to stop these filthy orcs? Bring a dragon to burn ‘em all??

[bang bang bang]

A dragon! A Dragon!

King Kazador: Well, Doc, that’s your dragon. Now let start loading that frigging gold and run away from this damned hill.

Ulther! My friend! Your help is more than welcomed! Now show those beasts how does a proper dwarf shieldwall work!

 
The last month requires a final bang before saying goodbye to the current edition of the OWAC. And this unit was the perfect candidate for such an honour.

Thanks to Mariano, this unit was my introduction to the oldhammer community. It has travelled (almost) all around the world before settling into my desk. Probably 5?Even more years ago? Unfortunately , they were still in their box, untouched, eager to be deployed.

Let’s finish the OWAC with a regiment of renown.

Besides of the legendary miniatures, the Dragon Company awesomeness allows me to completely break my previous painting scheme, like I did with the Jes Goodwin's eldar pirates from the last year.
I will probably follow this strategy in order to not getting burned during a challenge/painting schedule.

I got catch by The Lost and the Damned painting of the Dragon Company and tried to replicate the approach to the shieldwall heraldry, but with a not-so-small twist. Adding an patterns to their imperial dwarf tabards and armour styles too, so almost every dwarf is unique.

I loved the opportunity to paint checkers, halved patterns, etc. and bring out their armour. The repeated sculpts are not so easily recognisable and therefore not a problem at all in the final result.
So, less talk and show you the migh of:

Prince Ulther (dwarf hero) and 14x Dragon Company with full command (count as Iron Breakers) - 430 points

Yes, yes, the last month I was 100% legal and didn’t claim the slayer hero because I didn’t paint him in the leader month. But Ulther needed to be with his fellas, doesn’t he? I am not cheating, did I?

I am not totally proud of the banner because at this point I was running out of time as I needed to finish everything one week ago!!

Probably I will touch it again in the future. Improve the dragon and add several motifs.

At least I had spare time to bring to the ranks this little friend that was magically recovered when me and his proud seller thought it has been lost in the UK mail system. Two months later it pops up, returned to the sender! So I wanted it anyways and in time before the challenge ends.

Also, there is now Seven Dwarfs without Snow White. Another year, another great idea by Lissane in the comments that I NEEDED to include in the army. I had this civilian laying around and thought, spot on for the cause!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the freehand on my dwarf warrior banner, a personal shame that I should finish when I improve the Dragon Company banner or else take the slayer oath!

And with those words, let’s see you in the recap.
Until then, Adrian’s out!

OWAC V May's slayed rank & file month

Rank & File Month

 

Instead of troubleshooting, we called the troublemaking department.

It is not a proper dwarf brawl until the orange angry naked guys appear.

 

Oli: Do you think that this is the right direction?

Plissken: I cn assure you that I already smell those orcs, we're near them.

Oli: We shouldn't have gotten into that fight with the giants, maybe the main orc army has reached the mine! Or they're fighting and overnumbering our lord Kazador retinue!

Plissken: tsssh, then we're now on an infiltration mission to save the presid.. I mean, the King.

...

Look. Orcs.

Oli:We must kill them silently before they make any nois..

 

AAAAIIiiieeeh! ORCS! ORCS!

ONE IS MINE!

*extremely loud drum noises* I'LL SMASH YOUR 'EAD!

BRING IT ON!

OOOOOORRRCsssssaaAAAAAARGH!!!

Plissken: Fine, probably all the valley knows we're here!

Snorri: Don't worry, they're just ahead! We've caught them by their backs! TROLLS! Plenty for FOR EVERYONE, GUYS! KILL 'EM ALL!

I imagine that most of the time the slayers are something like the Gutbuster brigade from Forgotten Realms. Tragical and suicidal warriors ruled by their death-oath, yet silly and unruly, as you can't really take too seriously a bunch of orange haired kamikazes.

This month updated comes with

Snorri and his troll slayers (x10 Slayers) - 141 points

I do not claim the points of the leader as Giant Slayer because I didn't paint it in the month leader, so basically he's just a cool dude.

 

As I said in the intro iirc, this special slayer came without the dragon head, but Drew's unused troll heads from my orc and goblin army came to the rescue and are a pretty good substitute.

To my surprise it fits the 20mm base with the troll head. So I am quite happy with the result.

The unit overall was pretty fun to paint, with lots of options for tatoos, body painting, details in the clothes, etc.

 

 

Berserk tatoo!

 

 

 Svend D. "Snake" Plissken, of the special slayer forces of Karak Azul

I liked the idea of different races or skins for my dwarfs but too often there's nothing but small tonal changes like in WoW, and few to none real cultural changes. This slayer came from the very south karaks of the Old World, even farther than Karak Azul.

Not only I played with skin variation but also changes in the tattoos. The southerner has a slightly more central african "dwarf-ish" tattoo than the others (sadly I didn't check my photographs because the half angry face in his belly is hardly seen in the lot).

Whereas the most pale skinned dwarf has a traditionally viking-looking tattoo and freckles.

Again, didn't check that I had no good picture of him, the guy with the spiked ball, with the macro lens as I had to make the photos on the go. I can blame my assistant for not pointing out the quality of some pictures during the session.

Always blame the assistant.

Now, for the last batch of miniatures and the recap!

Until next month

Adrian’s out.

OWAC V March troop month - It is Hammer Time

Rank and File Month #2

Another month bite the dust. 

Today it is the turn of the heartguard of King Kazador. His hammerer unit, the Hraesvelgr Guard. Or what it is left after the disastrous siege of Karak Azul. Reformed after the massacre of the Throne Room during the brief occupation of the hold, they want to seek vengeance for their King, the king's kidnapped heir and their relatives killed in the assault. 

When Kazador seeked to launch his vanguard in a mission ahead of his army in the valley, they were the first to respond and to arrive next to the clansmen of Hammergrim.

The orcs launched a fierce attack, with several big ‘uns sperheading the assault. They thought that the seven dwarves have spent their last ammunitions and would be, at last, an easy prey. 

They did not expect such a strong defence and counter attack with the king’s guard leading the carnage. Wave after wave crashed again and again against the dwarf defences, unable to reach the mine shaft. The orc commanders wondering what have gone wrong with the initial plan. Yet again.  

March was a bit more treacherous than February as I suddenly had less spare time to get to the brushes. It was a productive month nonetheless. 

9x Dwarf Hammerers -  217 points

The selection of old models I chose for the hammerer unit was pretty easy to paint, even more than usual dwarves. They are pretty much covered in mail armour with decorated plates, usually in gold or bronze. 

 

I added some tone variation using blue and red washes instead of the black/smoke tint. But that’s it, pretty doable in the few time I had. 

Too easy to finish here. It was necessary to add some spice to this month. 

Here comes the shields, random motifs and the banner. I came first with the winged hammer design before searching for a proper name to the unit. For the moment there is no champion, so it is not “someone’s regiment of renown” apart from Kazador’s guard. 

 

 

The name comes from the viking myth of the giant eagle that makes the wind when it takes off. It also fits the norse look of the hammerers, especially with those Marauder norse dwarves in the mix. 

Aaaand, I decided to paint something else. Both in the “spice up the month until I’m in trouble to finish it on time” mindset and to have at least 10 models. I didn’t want to cheat with the 9 man (dwarf) unit lacking Kazador, so what other model would I paint? 

Of course, the largest one. 

Here comes

The baggage train - is this thing worth any points??

 

Spoilers, Gorfang will not get this juicy cart of gold, gems and other dwarf goods. 

And that’s it. Next month King Kazador will show, routing the wave of orcs that tried to push when the engineer's artillery went silent. Probably finish the clansmen banner too, I did not forgot that, now that I am eager to paint more motifs after these shields and banner. 

Until then, Adrian’s out.

OWAC V February wild card month

Wildcard month 

Get off my lawn yer pesky greenskins.

The orc scouts were repelled without too much trouble. However, the column down the valley was visible from the mine. Even "Dopey" in his berserker rage won't stop that wave and everyone started to get worried.

An entire troop of orcs was coming for our treasures! 

“Doc”: Hey, listen up. I had an idea, remember the old boiler that Oin was going to fix years ago but was procrastinating? 

Oin “Sleepy”: I was working on it again! Just, not getting in the mood as of late… 

“Doc”: Well, fortunately those old pipes can be handy with a bit of oil. We also had some extra guns from that time that Harald got into the entrepreneurship trend thing and his failed gun company.. 

“Angry”: Not my bad, it is pretty easy to hand the order paper in the wrong way and read a 9 instead of a 6. Everyone can end forging 99 cannons instead of 6!... And remember that the company bankrupted only after that visit to the gunpowder warehouse with Sneezy responsible of the lamp! 

Bronn: It seems that we will be saved by cannibalizing on the left overs of the most iconic and shameful group of roomates. 

“Angry”: Hey, you should be called “mr. smartpants” rather than “happy”. 

“Doc”: Calm down guys. No problem at all! The more the guns, the merrier. The idea I had in mind can benefit pretty well of handling the fire to Sneezy as well. Come here, let me show you… 

----- 

The orc company approached the mineshaft from all the sides. The main group from the front, and a second group of arrer boys getting to the flanks in a display of cunnin’ ad sneaky planning. 

Boss: Oi! Boys, prepare to charge now! They are few and they’re just ahead! They’ll be no match to us this time! 

*KABOOM* 

Orc: Boss! I think that our offensive is having some trouples advancing! The stunties are fortified and ‘ve sum pretty loud contraption in the gate. 

Boss: WHERE ARE MY ARRER COMMANDOS! Shoot’em from the flank! 

*FWOOOSH* 

Orc: Boss! I.. Ithink that the arrer boys have some situation ongoing and won’t be supporting the main assault! 

Boss: Then press harder, how many times do you think that they can shoot with a single cannon until we smack ‘em in the ‘ead! 

*sneeze* 

 

*KA-KA-KABOOM* 

Boss: Urk, come’re. You’re now provisionally in command. I will be checking the rear! Keep attacking ma boyz! 

This month I didn’t had much time, so I played safe. 

I made the mineshaft for the seven dwarves. Initially it has going to be much more detailed, with an ornated stone in the arch. But I didn’t cover the foam properly and accidentally dissolved the details (and the interior) with the primer. Ouch! 

 

Finally, I painted my organ gun. For a long time, I have been making proxies and procrastinating or passing something else in the queue despite wanting to have it painted. It was about time.

 

“Sneezy” controls the trigger. 

While “Happy” marks the enemies that shall be doomed. 

I was going to make the trigger-happy joke with the previous dwarf but I think that this guy embodies him better. Look at his face, that grin, he’s having a fun time. 

“Angry” comes from a newer era, but I do not have the original crew and the one that was in the loot is from the goblobber so he fits better in a cannon or the catapult. 

Maybe in the future I’ll change this guy with the original crew mate in heavy armour. I claim the organ gun – 65 points 

See you in the next post. 

Adrian’s out.

Overlord's note : Adrian gets an extra 50 points for terrain submitted during the wildcard month