Jaakko and Rugluk - Wild card month

Act 5

The fort still stood.

Days passed by. The dwarfs behind the walls hadn’t so much as flinched. Arrows bounced off stone, rocks bounced off heads, and the snotling pump wagon seemed to bounce off everything, and mostly off orcs.

Rugluk was pacing again. Not marching. Not stomping. Pacing. His armour was smeared with ash and stew, and he’d taken to talking to himself.

“Dey’re all lookin’ at me wrong,” he muttered. “Dey think I can’t see it. But I sees everyfink.”

Outside, around the firepits and tents, the whispering had grown into full-on muttering. One night, under a blood-red moon, a small crowd gathered near the boar pens. Snagrat, Ruknob, and a few others who’d had enough.

“Da plan’s simple,” Snagrat hissed. “We bash ‘is head in, pick a new boss, an’ stop chuckin’ snotlings at walls fer fun.” “Yeah,” said Ruknob. “Dat ain’t even that funny no more.”

They crept toward Rugluk’s tent with clubs and cleavers. But Rugluk was already waiting. The flap flew open, and he burst out screaming, eyes wild and teeth bared.

“You lot think you can take me?! I AM da one wot was promised! I’m da Wyrm’s git, da real boss!”

A swing, a clash, a lot of tripping over goblins-and then a squelch.

When the dust settled, Rugluk stood hunched and bleeding, but grinning. Half the mutineers were groaning, the rest running.

Then he looked down. A knife. In his guts.

Behind him, a little goblin blinked. “Er… sorry boss. Got caught up in da moment.”

Rugluk, swaying on his feet, yanked the blade out, blood running down his leg. He looked at it and grinned. “Nice try,” he growled. “But da real boss don’t die eezy.”

He limped out of the tent, raising the bloodied knife high.

“WHO ELSE WANTS A TURN?!”

No one answered.

Welcome back! I've had a good hobby month and was fortunate to spend some time on two parts of the project I’ve been wanting to tackle for quite a while. While most of my focus went into the Siege section, let’s start with an update on the regular army project.

I managed to paint a baggage train. We usually play 3,000-point games, which means I would typically need three carts and 15 baggage guards. However, there’s an extra wagon here-I got the wolf-drawn prison cart in the middle from a local hobbyist and couldn’t resist adding it to the mix. He had already started painting it, so I won’t include it in the model count. I’ll fix up and paint two more wagons from his collection (along with more baggage guards) later on. The extra wagons will open up possibilities for larger games, potential narrative scenarios involving O&G supply lines, and so on.

 This month in points:

 

 

 

The OWAC adjusted model count was used in the same way as with chariots and war machines.

 

SIEGE

Let's move on to the Siege section.

I painted two Citadel Warhammer Siege Towers and scratch-built a third. As you can see in the pictures, the other Citadel tower was incomplete, so I made a few modifications to make it work. I’m happy with how it turned out-and I might even prefer it to the standard version.

The battle pictures featuring imposing scratch-built siege towers in Warhammer Siege were what got me into this project. So I knew from the start that I wanted to build one myself.

The scratch-built tower, as shown in the photos above, is made from wooden sticks and coffee stirrers. I added some load bearing structures to the insides of the walls. The build feels surprisingly sturdy and I have problem in trusting it with my heavy metal miniatures. Instead of painting it with regular acrylics, I chose to stain it and then gave it a drybrush with Morghast Bone, aiming to preserve some of the original, faint wood grain pattern. I wanted each tower to have a slightly different look, but I think I should have used a darker stain on the scratch-built one to better distinguish it from unpainted wood. Still, it's okay (for now, at least).

Siege towers are moved across the table using the same rules described last month for the Sow. Once the tower reaches a wall, you can lower the drawbridge at the beginning of your next movement phase. The drawbridge serves as a direct entry point to the rampart. Each level can hold up to four models from each side, and models can move between levels in the same way as within the castle. The points cost of a siege tower depends on the number of levels, whether it includes a drawbridge, and its crew capacity. These three towers cost between 30 and 40 points each, depending on how many crew they can carry.

 

And that's it. Only the Leader month remains, so I guess I'll start painting Ruglug next.

 

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #4

Act 4

The dwarf fort jutted from the foothills all grey and unfriendly with it's thick walls and murder-holes. It looked like it didn’t want visitors. Rugluk Backstabba glared at it from his makeshift war throne.

“Why won’t da stunties come out?” he growled.

They’d been chucking boulders for three days straight. The walls didn’t care. Neither did the dwarfs-except to shoot back. A black orc chief had lost his head to a cannonball. A goblin regiment routed when their battering ram caught fire.

Rugluk bellowed at his lieutenants, kicked over the stew pot, and ordered a charge. It ended in complete chaos. A pump wagon broke up halfway across the field, splattering the crew and flattening three goblins who’d been hiding behind it. Then came the arrows. Cannonballs. Boiling oil.

That night, the camp was quiet. Too quiet. Rugluk didn’t like it.

He paced his tent, muttering. “They’z whisperin’. I know it. Gits think I’z lost it.” He scratched his chin. “Maybe I ‘ave. Or maybe it’s them dat needs stabbin’...”

A goblin runner crept in with bad news-another warband had left during the night. Rugluk stared at him for a long time before saying anything.

“Anyone else got ideas ‘bout leavin’?” he shouted to no one in particular.

Outside, the lads kept their heads low. The mutterin’ had started. They said Rugluk was cursed. Said da wyrm lied. Said da boss had lost it.

And Rugluk? He stared at the dwarf fort and thought he saw it grinning.

 

And so, the final Rank & File month is here! There’s still a lot I plan to do, but the heavy lifting is done. I can feel the pressure of the challenge lifting from my shoulders-and it feels nice. I chose to paint a big unit and two war machines, but honestly didn’t expect to finish all of them. The Goblins were quicker to paint than I expected, though I admit some midnight oil was burnt.

 

I managed to finish painting a unit of Goblins, two Skull Crushers, and a Sow (shown later). As mentioned earlier, Grom's Goblin Guard was a priority-Tom gave me part of the unit, so I really wanted to paint it this season. They’re a fine addition to the force, and as you can see, they’ve already successfully stormed the fort!

I like the elite look that monopose units have. A block of Goblins is always fearsome to behold… but yeah, okay-I admit they're only elite in the fluff.

The cheek and neck guards remind me of Roman legionaries and I let that influence the shield design.

I usually varnish my models after taking photos, and naturally, managed to chip some paint from the banner. There's a red checker pattern hidden somewhere under that layer of dirt.

 

I also managed to paint two Skull Crushers with crew. One of the front wheels is a spare made from green stuff.

 

This month in points:

 

 

 

 

I'm very happy with how things are going at the moment, but I understand that painting a horde is an endurance sport. I've already made some outlines for what I'd like to paint next season, but I still hope to reach the minimum army requirements in Warhammer Armies in addition to the OWAC requirements this season. That would mean painting a unit of Stickas, a few more Arrer Boyz, and of course Rugluk.

 

SIEGE

I'm keeping it simple in the Siege section.

I picked up this Sow from Wargames Foundry and gave it a simple paint job. I chose to keep it generic, without anything orky, so I can use it with other armies too. It came with some human crew that I’ll paint later.

 

The Sow is basically a mobile cover that you can push around the battlefield. It's not very manoeuvrable with it's movement of 3" and turn radius of three times the moved distance. You can enter it and shoot through the slits. I imagine putting a small unit of Arrers in it.  The points value depends on the crew capacity and varies between 10 and 30.

 

And that’s it for the month. I think Rugluk will have to wait a while longer, and May will be my Wild Card month, with a focus on the Siege section.

 

 

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #3

Act 3

Rugluk Backstabba stood on the edge of a valley, surveying a mob of orcs, goblins, and whatever else had been dragged along in the valley below. Gronk was dead and the warboss’s name was already half-forgotten. The tribe had come round quick once Rugluk bashed enough heads together. A few warlords needed “convincin’ ”, but after a couple of suspicious “accidents”, no one argued much.

Now, they marched "to da stunties’ fort" while Rugluk looked at the troops he had gathered.

The ground shook as a snotling pump wagon rattled ahead, the little runts cackling as they crashed through anything too slow to dodge. Rugluk watched as it flattened a goblin who didn’t jump quick enough.

“Least dey'r keen,” he muttered.

To their left, a mob of orcs marched, their armour clanking. They were big and as cheerful as a hungry wolf. They only followed Rugluk because he was bigger - and because the last boss who questioned him had been found missing a head.

In front of the main force, a pack of Wolf Riders scouted ahead, their mounts snarling. One of them tried to show off his riding skills - right before his wolf sent him head first into the mud. The rest cackled as he limped after them.

Rugluk smirked. It was a proper mob alright.

Still, something nagged at him. The wyrm’s words slithered in the back of his mind. It promised he’d be da biggest, da best… but did it say fer how long?

Rugluk shook his head. “Ain’t no git strong enuff ta take me down” he said to himself. But he wasn't sure if he was convinced.

 

 

Welcome back! Another month has passed and another group of painted models joins the ranks of Rugluk's mob. I wanted to avoid painting another large unit and decided to paint some war machines. That's enough enough talking - let's move on to the miniatures!

I managed to finish two Lead Belcher Goblin Organ Guns and two Snotling Pump Wagons. I misestimated my energy levels and the time taken to paint a Pump Wagon and failed to finish a third one. I try to paint the rest of it next month.

I'm pretty happy with how the Pump Wagons turned out. I could have jammed more snotlings into the big one but I think they are good enough as they are. Also, I'm a bit limited with non-duplicate snotlings that fit them.

 

 

I mentioned the plan of painting war machines every month and I try to stick to it from now on. These Lead Belchers were an obvious choice after a busy February as they have such a small crew. 

 

In the original backstory the face is flayed from a Troll but I went with a skintone more compliant with a Giant. I had forgotten about it but the other gun was incomplete. I dont mind it though, as the chances of these guys killing and skinning two Giants are slim.

 

I wanted to have some variation in the skintones (and painting routine) and decided to paint Snotlings with a colder green. I have previously used this with some Blood Bowl Snotlings and enjoyed painting the scheme.

 

This month in points:

 

 

 

 

I am not sure if the crew in the Snotling Pump Wagons should have been taken into account in the model count but I decided not to. (But I did make a mental note that there are 12 of them for a later tally.) I also separated the siege themed models from the regular models and present them in the siege section from now on. If I stay true to my plans there will be many more siege models to come.

SIEGE

I wanted to include something siege themed to this month and decided to pick a low hanging fruit. These ladders I painted are from the Mighty Fortress and hold the promise of a mighty Wild Card month for season 9 (I have other plans for this season).

Ladders might seem simple but the rules for using them are three pages long. In short, you need a group of 2-6 models to carry them to the wall, and they are erected once your models hit the wall. Then you may climb up (and fight) on the next turn. The long ones reach from the ground to the parapet of the ramparts, and the short ones can reach between levels in a tower or from the courtyard to the rampart.

 

 

 

I end this section with a fitting quote from the Warhammer Siege:

"It is a brave commander who decides to storm a castle. Many troops will be killed as they push lumbering machines towards the walls, and many more will be cast from the battlements or slaughtered as they try to hold crumbling ramparts against determined defenders.

Of course, some troops are simply ideal for this sort of tough, demanding and generally fatal work - Goblins, for example! After all, why waste time having your Goblins build complicated and probably ineffectual machines when they can be doing what they do best - dying in droves!"

That's it, I think I'll rush to paint some Goblins!

 

Byron's Realm of Zargon! - Wildcard Month (565 pts)

 The Home Stretch! 

This month I am very excited to present 

ZARGON: The evil Chaos Lord of Darkness! (565 points)

Sadly the mini minis were too big, so I had to settle
with board squares that were too big rather than a
 proper warhammer-scaled HeroQuest board :/

The door was made from a popsicle stick

There's a lot of nerdy details I want to explain here. So! First, the reference. In the original game of heroquest there are few images of Zargon, at least outside of the canonical sticker album. The most famous is his imposing presence on the front of the DM screen included with the game from which he looms over the heroes. 

The Second image that I am drawing from is from the HeroQuest Winter Special comic book created by Marvel Comics. Now, oddly, in this version, we are told that the old man is in fact MENTOR! the goodly wizard that helps us. And, Zargon is presented as a bland mix of Dr. Doom and Skeletor. However, I loved the image of him playing with the heroes as they moved through his dungeon. 

To accomplish this look I needed a handful of things:

1. a wizard - from reaper bones - he was then heavily converted
2. a board -  I made from a blister pack
3. a table -  from HeroQuest; I replaced the cardboard with plastic from a blister and sculpted wood grain onto it
4. a throne - from HeroQuest; the cardboard was replaced with blister pack and sculpted to look like a cushion
5. A evil shield skull which I sculpted myself to match the icon on the dice as a repeated motif throughout the army.
6. furniture doodads - these all came from the game and include a rat, candle holder, skull, and bottles
7. dice - these are chopped up green stuff
8. Minis for Zargon's board - these were printed from thingiverse and scaled down. These were graciously printed by Roger from the oldhammer community in Portland. 

Moving along...

The Realm of Zargon

Oof, that underlighting isn't doing it any favors.

The minis shown in this section are there to demonstrate interactivity and do not represent minis that I have painted this month. 

Castle Zargon

The Mountains of Zargon

Lots of skulls so you know it's evil

Shoutout to Lissanne who gave me the Warhammer Quest doors used throughout

This cave is vaguely inspired by the artwork on the front of the box.
Two doors with steps and a big broad step. When the heros are done
I will mock them up with the monsters to pose like the box art.

Sadly, I didn't have time to finish the two bone piles I had also glued together... next month I suppose...

Finally...

How I did it.

Throughout the process I've shared a few WIP of the terrain and gotten many people asking how I did it. So I thought I'd share my process...

Step 1. Inspiration

I went on google and looked through old sources for inspiration. 3 sources really stuck with me. 

1. Ian Miller's buildings that seem to organically form out of mountains and spire upwards

2. The Squat Terrain from early Warhammer 40k Epic 

3. Castle GraySkull

Step 2. Gather Supplies

With my project in mind, I started to gather supplies to me like Sauron summoning the forces of evil. Basically, Halloween was just over and decor was real cheap online.

I also collected other supplies like carboard and tubes. Right proper materials for oldhammer terrain.

It's important to have a variety of cardboard types, each has its uses.

Parchment paper tubes > paper towel tubes

Additionally, I would note that few materials can beat masonite as a material to base you terrain. 

Step 3. The foundation

In this step I used a lot of hot blue to glue together corrugated cardboard into the rough shape of the castle. Holes were cut for the warhammer quest doors. It's pretty rough. 

take note of the various curved triangular pieces under the walkways and along the base. These will be important for later steps for shaping the mountainy parts/organic stone.

Step 4. Start of the planks and bricks.

I cut out many many many card stones and just started gluing them on with PVA glue. The wood framing is all popsicle sticks. You will also notice I cut out the windows, arrow slits, and doors at this stage. 

Note the use of clothes pins. They are a cheap but effective wood detail.

Step 5. The Teeth

I sculpted some teeth our of polymer clay. Baked them. Then I drilled holes in them and stuck paperclips in them. This allowed me to stab them into the foam skull and play with various arrangements. Once I got the arrangement right I glue them in. 

This was a bad arrangement.

Step 6. Foundation for the rocks

For this step I took these weird cloth-like paper towels that were thick and without a repeating pattern, and I cut them (or ripping works better, it gives a more natural edge) into shapes appropriate to where I was going to put them, submerged them in diluted glue and draped them over the curved triangle bits. This gives more volume to the shape and doesn't have you fighting the runny plaster later. 

Step 7. Doors

I made doors from sheets of balsa wood. The metal components are card. the door hand is a bead with a loop of wire. The doors were then glued in while I could still reach inside the castle.

Step 8. Plaster

I put plaster on the castle. The plaster is a mix of ripped up toilet paper, PVA glue, sand, and plaster of paris. This took multiple batches. Haste makes waste.

Step 9. Texture

I added the texture that represents the plaster/stucco between the timbers. This was gesso and sand. I also used it as the ground/earth texture on the base.

Step 10. Paint it up

I spray painted the whole thing with a dark brown rattle can, then with a darkish turquoise rattle can to make it a little spookier. The rest was layers of dry brushing.

Step 11. Windows

For windows I use these see through drawer liners. I find them with diamond patterns. I cut them into small rectangles and glue them in. You have to do this before you glue on the roof or it becomes impossible

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Step 12. The roof

I start by putting a single layer of card across the top. This acts as a good surface to glue the shingles onto. For the shingles, some people will tediously glue them on one at a time. I don't. I make strips of card and cut little triangles out at semi-consistent intervals. I also cut the ends of each layer inwards like a trapezoid so that the layers all overlap each other. The strip technique is tricky for the cone towers. But basically, It's using a circle of the same dimensions you used to make the cone, and then cutting out rings of different radiuses. 

Step 13. Finishing touches. 

I painted the roof and glued static grass the base. 

The mountains

The mountains were the same technique as the organic rock parts of Castle Zargon but bigger. Large curving triangles were cut, and glued to a base to make the frame of a mountain range. Paper cloth was put in glue-water and draped over the frame. Then plaster was put over it. Spray Painted. Dry brushed. Shaded. Grassed.