Ian's Goblin Army (part II) - OWAC IX - May : Rank and File #4

At last, the horde is done. For this year. 

In May I painted 5 more Goblin Wolf Riders and 3 wolves without riders because I couldn't care to find more. I also added some muscles with 2 trolls from the 2nd edition Blood Bowl range. The Wolf Riders comes from different Citadel models and my favourite is the Fanatic Wolf Rider !

Here's the whole army as of June 1st, 2026 :

OWAC IX Goblin Army (4th edition)

January 2026

10 Goblin Wolf Riders with spear, light armour and shield - 130 points

February 2026

10 Goblin Wolf Riders with spear, light armour and shield - 130 points

March 2026

18 Goblin Wolf Riders with spear, light armour and shield - 234 points

April 2026

5 Goblin Doom Divers - 500 points

May 2026

5 Goblin Wolf Riders with stuff - 65 points

2 Trolls - 130 points

3 Wolves - extra, no points

Total : 1189 points

The only miniatures I want to paint in June are my leader and is little pet : Skarsnik, Warlord of the Eight Peaks, and Gobbla.

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #3

Grey dawn crept over the hills when Rugluk’s ragged warband reached the ridge. Below lay a lonely farmstead: a few huts, a barn, some fences, and a handful of humans still asleep.

Rugluk scratched his chin. “Right then. We sneak down quiet-like… nick da food… bash anyfing wot wakes up.”

Behind him a troll belched and scared three crows out of a tree.

Rugluk sighed.

“Quiet-ish.”

Just as they were about to move, a deep growl rolled from the trees behind them.

A band of savage orcs stepped out. At their front stood a massive brute with a feathered head dress.

He looked at Rugluk.

“You da boss wot bashed Gronk Skullbasha?”

Rugluk straightened.

“…Might be.”

The brute grinned wide. “Good. We like a boss wot stabs bosses. Keeps fings interestin’.”

Rugluk blinked once.

“…Right.”

The brute pointed at the farm below.

“So… we bashin’ dat?”

What followed was less a raid and more a small natural disaster.

Savage orcs smashed through the fences howling. The trolls wandered into the barn and snotlings chased chickens with never ending enthusiasm.

Within minutes it was over.

The huts burned. The food was looted. The savage orcs were laughing and mixed in with the boyz.

Rugluk stood in the middle of it all.

The savage boss slapped him on the back hard enough to nearly knock him over.

“Good raid, boss!”

Rugluk nodded slowly.

He looked at the smoking farm, the squabbling goblins, and boyz already chanting for another fight.

For the first time in a long while, Rugluk allowed himself a proper grin.

Hello again! Another month has passed and another batch of miniatures has been painted. I decided to paint some of the miniatures left over from the past months, along with some extras to avoid monotony. I'm behind from my initial plan, but miniatures are painted and progress is being made.

I managed to paint 10 Savage Orcs to complete last month's unit, as well as a troll, a giant, and a wagon. The purpose of the wagon will be revealed next month.

For some reason, the wagon draws the Giant's attention. I wonder what he's up to.

This month in points:

We also had the chance to play a game of 3rd edition Fantasy Battle with a group of friends. Rugluk’s orcs clashed with my dwarf army. The battle was neck and neck until Rugluk defeated the dwarf king in a duel, and the green tide swept over the remaining dwarves.

The hill in the middle has been in use since the ’90s-back when it was pretty much the only piece of terrain we had. I’m making new ones to match my current basing style and mat, but I’m sure this one will always see play.

Goblin Fanatics wreaked havoc among the ranks of gnomes, dwarves, and goblins alike.

And that’s it for the month. I can already feel the pressure lifting as there’s not that much mandatory painting left. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the challenge, as the final stretch has been the most enjoyable part in previous years.

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #1

The warband crested the ridge at dawn, tired, hungry, and down to numbers Rugluk could count without taking his boots off.

Smoke rose from the valley below.

Rugluk narrowed his eyes. “Dat’s a camp.”

Hope stirred. Maybe a tribe. Maybe deserters. Maybe lads wot hadn’t heard about the whole “failed siege, mutiny, near-death” business.

They marched down, weapons ready.

They stumbled into a circle of snotligs arguing with a cooking pot. One snotling kicked the pot. Another tried to wear it. The only weapon in sight was a spoon. Bent.

Rugluk stared.

“…Dis is wot fate sends me?”

One of his orcs scratched his head. “Dey’s enthusiastic, boss.”

A snotling looked up, saw Rugluk, and pointed. “Oi! Big un! You 'now how ta make stew?”

Rugluk’s eye twitched.

They heard loud noises and the ground shook.

THUD.
THUD.

Two trolls stood behind the snotling mob, blank-faced, drooling, watching the fire with empty eyes.

One sniffed a snotling.

Rugluk’s grin spread slow and mean.

“You two - you’re hired.”

Hello again! This is one of my favourite stages of the challenge. The first month of OWAC is behind us, and the first batches of painted miniatures are starting to emerge before our eyes. Last season, I focused a lot on the core of the army to meet the minimum requirements in the Warhammer Armies army list. That meant many large units and a lot of batch painting. This year, I hope to add some spice to the mix.

I decided to start the challenge with snotling bases and trolls. I caught a nasty flu and didn’t achieve quite as much as I would have liked, but I’m really happy with these guys. I managed to paint five bases of snotlings (with 28 snotlings) and two trolls. A third troll is nearly finished and will join the force at a later stage.

Enough talking, let's move on.

These little guys are full of character, and I really loved painting them. I hope to paint more at some point, and I have enough of them to fill a few more bases and man another pump wagon. But, they are also tiny, and the bases are quite crowded, so I don’t mind moving on to something else for a little while.

Painting the trolls was also a lot of fun. Trolls from different eras have one thing in common: they are all amazing sculpts.

This month in points:

And that's it for the month. See you later!

Adrian January rank and file: Vile rune and Severed Hand orcs (193 points)

Rank & File month #1

Grashak Kra supports the minions of the Severed Hand tribe massacring the dwarf garrison in the mines of Ashak Rise outpost.

The Kwae Karr orcs were not alone in their revenge. After King F’yar blow against the Grand League killing their king, other tribes started shifting their opinion of their previous overlord. Given that he could strike at the heart of their enemies, it may redeem him in the eyes of the other chieftains. This may be the opportunity for the wished revenge against the pale faced races.

The Vile Rune orcs stormed first in the outskirts of Fendal Forest. The Kacha Pass guarded by a small garrison of elves won’t be an easy target. But that didn’t stop the savagery of the orcs.

Fangor Gripe has another objective in mind as well. It is not only necessary to move swift to met with the other orcs tribes at Orc’s Drift. The Kacha Pass garrison has a half orc spy. It may have interesting information about the movements and commanders of the pale-skinned armies. He also know that Fangor Gripe was absent the day of reckoning at the last Goblin Wars. None shall know this secret if he want to keep his position and maybe don’t end with a dagger in the bowels.

This month I played safe just to see if I’m kicking again. After a year of not painting at the pace needed for a challenge, I needed to have a little practice or give a measure to my limits.
I painted the rest of the Vile Rune Orcs I need for the scenario and also want for my army. I’m pleased with the results except for a lack of evil faces in the shields that I totally forgot to paint during the month, so maybe I come back to any of the shields to have a little fun later on the challenge. I am undecided, because all the shields of these orcs are textured.
Lovely miniatures the C15 and Fantasy Tribes orcs, they’re my favourites.

I also added Grashak Kra, the hobhound handler of the Severed Hand Orcs, unfortunately without the hobhounds for now. As well as Silas Meel the half orc spy jailed by the elves at Kacha Pass.

Lastly, I can add another troll to my unit of oldhammer orcs, and none other than the now tiny Rock Giant, Guthrum Mane.
He has some alcohol problems and I reflected that in the colours of his face.

In terms of points.
10 Vile Rune orcs, including a level 5 chieftain Fangor Gripe: 128 points
Guthrum Mane (here as a single troll): 65 points
Gives a total of 193 points, 13 miniatures.


That’s for now, next month we will continue with the Linde Way militia probably.
Until then,
Adrian’s out

Adrian's Blood Bath at Orc's Drift

 

Long time, no see. 

After a long pause for a year, I'm back on track with the objective of completing yet another batch of old metal miniatures.

 

I've been thinking about how do I want to expand and round-up the orc army I am collecting and was my first entry on the OWAC. With the colours, motifs and the clan heraldry chosen is no secret that I got in mind collecting the entire Blood Bath at Orc's Drift army and after that, maybe adding some more trolls, a giant and some warmachines. 

As I doubt I will get my hands in the amazing Man Mangler in a foreseeable future and doubt if having a unit of boars and some wolves, the army lacked the last punch to get another complete run on the OWAC, which not only I love participating. It is an opportunity to complete entire projects that are sitting in the shelves unpainted. THE opportunity (don't skip a challenge if you can get here or start one with your friends, you'll notice how your projects get completed at last!).

However, the "special" rules for this year gave me the opportunity to try tinkering the other units of the campaign, with the goal of finish most of the miniatures needed. And following this year challenge, do some cool pictures that resembles the art of the old campaign book.

The (December) workbench

 

I finally got a box of Ruglud's armored orcs. Some of the most awesome orc sculpts out there. My plan is having a big blob of these fellas ranked up, going with the Kwae Karr clan heraldry.
 

They're commanded by the chieftain Magyar Ironfist. I got an old C15 orc shaman to be Bagrash that's still in the mail somewhere. I went for other miniature because the Bagrash model is superb but not so easily read as an orc shaman.

For the Vile Rune orcs I already had a lot of Harboth's archers and C15 orcs painted, so I got Fangor Gripe in my hands and a batch of C15/16 orcs with none other than Guthrum Mane. However, some of the FF orcs and Guthrum needed some repairs.

So they got their scimitar and glaive respectively repaired. Hope that the FF orc spear doesn't break because it has bent several times in the process (and already arrived bent).

Now that I had the putty out, why not repleace some of the heads in a pair of quite characterful hobgoblin and orc sculpts. 

Voilá, instead of repeated sculpts, a new orc and hobgoblin. Normally I would have reserved them for trading, but I love both of them and  think that the conversions works pretty well with the swap.

The Challenge

Now that we got the basics done, it's time to present the units for this year. More or less in the batch I'll try to paint each month bare for the leaders month which will be a mix of the campaign characters.

Brommedir's bows at Orc's drift

I dunno how many elf archers I still have. I swear that this may be the last of the lot but maybe I discover another ton of them in a box somewhere else. 14 monopose elf archers that will have a small shield in the left arm. Brommedir itself is an special, yet pretty new, metal model.

Maybe I'll proxy Brommedir with an elf captain that's also in the mail, because I almost got my hands in one but missed in the last minute.

Osrim Chardz's dwarf engineers

The opportunity to paint the last 5 of my Uther's Dragon Company dwarves and a bunch of awesome dwarf engineer or miner sculpts. The leader is none other than a Dwarf of Legend that I think it's a good proxy for Osrim, which was impossible for me to snipe one in ebay or the groups.

The Linden Way Militia

A collection of Perry Miniatures, Midlam Miniatures and oldhammer citizens (as well as some of the characters still in the same mail as their other friends and foes). I almost got the entire militia unit and all the special civilians.

Oh, and yeah, that's Beli in the mix. Hope I can also get my hands in Gymlet from the personalities at Orc's Drift.

The characters at Orc's Drift will be painted probably in the leader month. Whereas the militia and the townsfolk divided between a rank and file and the wildcard, as I hope to make the entire scenery for the campaign.

Funny thing about the humans, I almost got in my hands the original elf which is the base of Mayor Leofwine sculpt and it's a million times more easy to get. I didn't expect that at the time they crossed scultps between different races (e.g., some different types of characters or units based on the same human, but not from elf range). However, I think that'll proxy him in the future, because it is not a miniature that I like a lot.

The Kwae Karr Orcs

I will probably expand some of them in its month because I want a unit of 20 without the special characters and also to get a Kwae Karr banner without damaging the original Ruglud banner.

The Vile Rune Orcs

I love the classic C15 orcs and some of the FF range too. Led by Fangor Gripe.

Grashak Kra, the handler from the Severed Hand Orcs

Not handling pretty much at the moment. But cannot miss in a challange about the pretty ilustrations of the book.

Last but not least

King Fyar's in his winged serpent

In his wyvern. I'll try to do a conversion that allow replacing the old wyvern shaman and the original wyvern rider. I went for the amazing 4th/5th edition wyvern because it got an official recast with the made to order and it was one of my favourite monsters of all time.

Oh, and don't forget that there are spies among us. An half-orc spy, from the orcs of Midlam Miniatures.

Let's pretend that the orc army is the main one, that will be a total of 669.5 points of orcs to add to my previous army, and 30 more orcs to the horde.

Brommedir elves will be another 246 points as an unit of kith warriors with long bows and armour. Osrim and his sappers another 200 points. And the town militia probably 135 points of human villains with bare minimum. So that gives me a total of 1250.5 points following the traditional rules.

Let see how I can complete the challenge, including the pictures resembling the art from the campaign book.

PS: Mathew Sullivan from the Oldenhammer in Toronto, your army was an inspiration years ago to start this project, and your Harboth's are amazing, so I used them for the intro picture if you can read this.

Until January's update, Merry Christmass, a happy New Year aaaaand 

Adrian's out.