The Bronzecast Ogrions & the Normalites of Vanillashire.

Hi everyone,

Nearly every time I play with my proxy ogre army, my opponents ask me routinely if the ogre warriors have the phalanx rule.  They ask this question because they see my proxy ogres (Stormcast Eternals) with Spears.

The only reason they have spears is because they are the Stormcast I actually have and I did not want to buy new models.  It would have defeated the point, but I admit they have a point.

So I decided to take all my Stormcast and convert their spears into hand weapons.  It was actually easier than I feared initially.  Most of them I just shortenedthe spear into a hand weapon.  The second type of conversion is a bit more complicated.  I had to cut of the spear arm from the forearm and replace it with another part.

These parts came from 10 cheap older Stormcast I bought off Ebay on a Auction.

Now that this pet peeve has been put to bed, I can focus on other aspects of this army.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

I have been working on several things, but foremost in my endeavors is this army, and especially this monster.

I took the time to sit down and drill holes and add rivets into the armour.  The rivets come from a water filter and they were fixed in place with watered down PVA glue.  You can buy these water filter replacements from hardware stores and they are not very expensive.  Open them up and store the  little balls inside in a container.  It will last you a life time.

The last step is the most time consuming, and that is the belting.  Not only will I have to make and fit belts to the armour, but I will also have to re-sculp a lot of fur due to the cutting and fitting of the said belts.  I am not looking forward to it, but that is for another post.

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

So I have had some time this week to work on this army again and I dedicated my time to the Proxy Mammoth.

This model was originally a Cosmo Wolf (whatever that is or means?) from some roleplaying game world.  All I know is that I bought this model, the giant and the sphinx from WizKids for pennies on the dollar so to speak.

The only problem was that all the war-mammoths I saw had armour, so I decided to amour mine up as well.

The putty I use is exclusively Milliput and Magic Sculpt.  I will eventually use Greenstuff for the leather straps and belting.

Below is a photo-diary of the progress.

The next step is to add some details like rivets and belting, but that is for the next post.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

The second unit of Normalite LIght Cavalry (proxies for Red Goblin Scouts) is now ready for play.

They were painted up like the previous unit, that is the rider in acrylics and the horses in oils.

Now I just need to field them and put them to the test… or at least to good use!

For the next post maybe I will start working on something bigger!  Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

A quick post tonight.  I have finished painting up my first troop of four cavalry units for my Ogrion army.

The painting was done in the same way, but the horses were painted in oils, because usin oils is way faster when painting wide areas.

The shields are over 20 years old from Citadel miniatures, and do not come in the plastic set from Perry miniatures.

Now I have to start the second unit of cavalry which I will paint in the same way.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

So as I said last post, I worked on this a bit at a time, during a the week in between other projects until I got it done and dusted.

Like all the other miniatures in this project I tried to reach a good tabletop standard, but in the least time possible.  I also painted it in colours that would tie it into the army as a whole.  That is why I painted the armour like the Ogrions and did the livery in the Normalite colours.

My Battle Sphinx (Goblin Slasher) is now ready.  I still have the Normalite cavalry to do – basically 4 units – so I think I will start those next.  As for the monsters, I only have my proxy mammoth left.

Therefore, until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

I haven’t posted in a while, but it was not because of lack of interest.  I actually have just finished a campaign with this army (and lost miserably! One of the worst performances of my wargaming life). Now that the campaign is over, I can start to focus on finishing this project.

I decided to work on the Battle Sphinx (Proxy Goblin Slasher), which I used very badly during my games.  I worked on the armour over the weekend.  Now I have only the face and skin, as well the carriage to paint up.

In between paint layers on the armour, I also worked on the crew.  The plastic cannoneer holding the cannon ball and wearing the splendid crotch guard armor, is a part of an old Warhammer kit.  The other metal archer is also an old figure, but I have no idea from which company.

I cleaned them up, then primed them; and finally managed to block in all the base colours before posting this article. Now I just have to highlight them.

That is all for today.  Hopefully, work permitting, I will finish this sometime next week.  Then I will start some Normalite cavalry.

Until next time, have fun and stay safe.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finally finished the Normalite Archer Horde.  I still have yet to test it out on the tabletop.

As regards the campaign I am playing, things are going badly.  Out of six games, I drew 2 and lost 4. This means in the next phase of the campaign, I will start out as a subjugated nation. To add insult to injury I am subjugated to Ratmen!!!  The one faction I have never liked.  I hate my life so much right now!

This means my lord and furry commander can order me around and can decide where my army goes and who it will fight.  What a nightmare!

That is all for this week. I might start something more ‘showcase’ and less ‘tabletop’ next.  I also want to get back to practicing my oil painting.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I played my first game this Saturday morning – I lost miserable – but I failed to paint up all my units.

In order to maximize my options, this week I spent most of my free time buiding up all my remaining units that were still in their respective  boxes.

Now I can slow down, and try to paint up a unit every two weeks instead of every week. This will give me some time to paint up other stuff.

Below are several photos of what I built up and have left to paint.

So that is all for now.  I will continue to paint and finish this project but at a more casual and less regimented routine.

I failed my goal, but the army still looks good on the table. Now to try and win a battle!

Stay safe and have fun!

NR

Hi everyone,

Today all I have is a quick update for the Archer Horde I am painting up.  I managed to finish the second line of archers and now I have to paint up the last line.

This will be the last unit I will be able to finish before the campaign starts on the 5th of April. Therefore, I will start gluing things together in order to play with the units that are not painted up.  These consist mostly of the Normalite cavalry and all the characters.

This will be the last push before gaming starts.  I hope nothing pops up to misdirect my efforts to finish this unit. So wish me luck.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have been using up all my spare time with the Ogrion army, trying my best to get it ready. Today I have finished the first part of my last Normalite Infantry unit – a horde of archers.

I decided to make an archery horde because my army lacks shooting and is more melee focused. Hopefully this with help address that deficiency.

I will placing roughly 30 models onto the base and I will work one line at a time starting from the back and moving forward.

The statues came from old tourist souvenirs.  They were the top part of a pen! I kid you not. I repainted them in oil paints.

Next up were the archers. In the Perry Miniatures 100 year war English army plastic box set there are only 24 archer models.  Therefore I needed 6 more.  I took these from some plastic Dark Age archers from Gripping Beast.  I just made some minor conversions with the heads.

Like all the other Normalite regiments, I wanted this horde to be led by a mounted nobleman. I just decided to give him a bow instead of a lance.

Hopefully by next week I will have painted up the second line, and maybe – just maybe – they will be ready for the first battle (but I doubted it. They will be on the field for the second battle).

Until next post, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have just finished the last Ogrion Infantry regiment in this army. This is also an Ogrion Archer Regiment (Ogre Boomers). There were ten models in a box so I could make 3 regiments from them altogether.

These are the only Stormcast Eternal models that I bought brand new and at retail prices. This is because I could not find them cheaper and second-hand. If anything I found several lots that were painted up (very basically) and selling at triple the cost!

Now all I have left to paint up are my last two proxy ‘monsters’, a proxy chariot regiment, one horde of Normalite archers (goblins),  two regiments of Normalite cavaly, and several characters (which I will leave till the end).

There is no way I am going to paint up everything in this army before the first week of April.  I have to resign to the fact that it is not going to happen.

Therefore for the next post I am just going to build as much up as possible.  That way at least I can play with them.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

A quick post this week.  My second regiment of Ogrion Hounds (Crocodogs).  This now leaves me one regiment of archers and a regiment of Ogrion Riders (Ogre Chariots). I also need to finish painting up the Slasher, Mammoth and Characters besides three units of Normalites.

So it is safe to say I will not manage to finish painting up this army before the first week of April, but it will be all built up and ready to play.

Until next week stay safe and have fun.

Regards,

NR

Hi everyone,

I have taken a break from painting and spent the time customizing an Isperia sphinx model from Wizkids.  This is a very cheap model despite its size.

I want to use it as a proxy Red Goblin Slasher, so I had to remove the wings and add a firing platform. The platform is scratchbuilt from an old GW Imperial cannon sprue.

After building up the proxy Slasher, I can know use it on tabletop in my games in April. If I don’t manged to paint it up by then, I can always paint it at my leisure after the campaign.

Until next week, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

The Ogres have three types of shooting infantry: Shooters, Boomers and Goblin Spitters. I have already done a horde of Shooters which are the long range ogre variant.

Here I am presenting the short range alternative; ie the Ogre Boomers or as I call them Ogrion Archers (because they have bows!, what was I suppose to do!).

I think I will do the next regiment of Ogrion Hounds (Crocodogs), because I have a bit too much on my plate at the moment.

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finally finished painting up the giant, and just managed to take the photos and post them before going to bed!

From the last post, I added highlights and lowlights to the skin and apparel.  Everything was done in acrylics in order to match the style with the rest of the army.  If this was not the case, I would have painted this in oils.

As you can see, the armour is painted in the style of the Ogrions, and the clothes have the same colour as the Normalites.

I painted a little object-source-lighting along the legs and arms with blue oil paint.  I just wanted a bit to embellish the lightening. With oil paints this takes only 5 minutes!

I am not sure what I am going to do for next week.  I still have 9 Ogrion archers to paint up, so I might start working on them

Until next week, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

This week I decided to work on the giant.  This is a cheap model of a Storm Giant from Wizkids, that I am using as a proxy for a Mantic giant.  It is not as big as the Mantic giant, but it is inch for inch just as powerful (with all that lightening!).

The model comes pre-primed , but had a lot of mould lines and required a lot of cleaning. I then had to re-prime the model.

The next step was the paint the armour in the same quick method as the Ogrions. Then I painted the clothes as the Normalites.  This will tie the giant into the theme of the army.

Next week I will simply highlight and shade the rest of the base colours.  Unless the end of the world hits us like a meteor, I should have this finished by next week.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

The next horde up are the Ogrion Hunters.  I decided to do these simply because I am getting tired of painting bronze statues and I need to finish them before my morale collapses!

The Ogre Hunters from Mantic Games have a variety of weapons, therefore I had to do several minor weapon conversions to stimulate this on the Ogrions.  I also painted the ‘furs and leather’ as ‘fur and leather’ – in order to show that they are hunters.

Overall, this unit took me the longest to finish, but it is probably my favorite horde.

I am not sure what to do next week.  I really want to start the giant, but I might not have enough time to do it justice.  I don’t want to paint it as a statue, so it is going to take a bit more work than the average regiment.

But that is a problem for next week.  So until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I finally finished painting up my 4th and last Ogrion Warrior horde.  With this last horde of warriors I have a strong core for my army.

At this point, I have enough troops painted up to play. Therefore I can now focus on other stuff for the army like the monsters or characters.

I am not sure what to do for next week.  I have another 6 Ogrion Hounds (Crocodogs) to paint up – I could do those, or I could take a break from the bronze painting and work on the three monsters I bought several posts ago.

I will see how I feel tomorrow morning. Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

This week, I chose to paint a horde of Ogrion Berserkers for the army, because they are a unit I think I would enjoy playing with. Berserkers can be identified because they have 2 single-handed weapons.

Therefore I bought some 2nd-hand early Stormcast off Ebay.  They were very cheap with an inch of paint.  I had to strip them and make some adjustments and conversions.

For next week I want to finish up my 4th and last Ogrion Warrior horde. These warrior hordes form the core of my army, so I want them painted up before the campaign starts in April.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR