Goats, Cows, and other things that lurk in the old world forests

Starting with my classic middlehammer GW Doombull model, I quickly realised his feet aren’t exactly flat. This would be a bit of a problem when it came to basing him so I used some cork sheets cut out and stacked on top of each other with super glue to sit on top of the 50mm base.

Once dry I used a sharp knife to follow the angled edge of the plastic base to carve away the cork to create a nice topper. Chunks were then cut in and out of the cork to add some natural randomness to it.

I then positioned the Doombull on the cork and used a sharp to draw around his feet so I had an idea where I needed to build up the base.

With the pen marks as a guide the offcuts of cork were added to create some height for the left foot to stand on and for the back of the right to make contact with. All of the cork was then brushed with a watered down PVA glue solution to help fix it in place and reduce the absorption rate of the cork when I come to paint it.

With the PVA drying I moved onto my other bases. I arranged 35x 25mm bases into one of my movement trays (because I still need to build command models to go with the 30 gor warriors) and the 3x 50mm minotaur trays into another.

The plain bases were then coated in an AK-Interactive Muddy Ground texture paste. Whilst the paste was wet I liberally sprinkled over some Forest Floor “Instant Base Scatter mix from Rival Crafts https://www.rivalcrafts.co.uk/store/Instant-Base-Scatter-c49671987. This mix contains all sorts of debris perfect for adding some randomness and natural feeling to the base. Finally, I used a blunt tool to scrape in between all of the ranked up bases to remove any overspill.

This process continued with the Minotaur bases and the Dragon Ogres, first using the texture paste then the forest scatter.

We the PVA dry on the Doombull’s base this was also given a work over with the paste to help smooth out and fill in the contours of the cork where it needed to be risen up.

And that is the first batch of bases done. The models were then glued to the bases ready for priming. The forest scatter will get painted with the primer but this is fine as it will become the undergrowth, with a final finishing layer of scatter applied at the end to add some natural look again.

It’s been a while since I updated this but progress is definitely being made.

I have built some movement trays following a great tutorial from Matt’s Hobby Hour (see below) and I’ll post some photos of these when I make another batch.

I then proceeded to remove all 150 components for the Gor units from their sprues, clean them up, and then assemble the goat boys.  I had forgotten how mould-line heavy late 2000’s GW plastics were. This was aided by using Tamiya extra thin glue to help melt away some of the lines that ran over details like the fur and fingers, and I also used a batch of sprue-goo (chopped up plastic sprue melted in Tamiya extra thin) to help fill in any joints and gaps. The great thing about sprue-goo is that you can use “clean” tamiya glue then to then blend the goo in….. Just make sure you have plenty of fresh air blowing in as the fumes can get quite intense.

After that slog I set about working on the Minotaurs and Dragon Ogres.

The cow warriors aren’t the best sculpts in my opinion, I do much prefer the Zealot Miniatures Minotaurs (which I think may now be available as 1s&0s files somewhere) but again I’m try to mg to keep this GW official (as much as I can) for now. I may build my Zealot Cows when I inevitably push this army to 2-3000 points.

I built my cows with hand weapon and shield (for points reasons) but wow, the shields are pretty pathetic. I do have Zealot Miniatures shields and they do look much nicer, so I may see if I can magnetise them to swap out for GW events if needed.

The Dragon Ogres were much nicer to build and I have to say they weren’t my favourite sculpt when I saw them released all those years ago, I purposely didn’t add them to my 8th edition chaos warriors. But after building 3 they have grown on me.

They’re a decent size model and when you see them with a Minotaur and a Gor they look quite impressive.

So that’s most of the models now built. I have the Ungors and a Shaman to go but this is definitely the majority out of the way…. So it’s now into some basing.

Realisation has set in, I need to get this army and my game practice underway.

The 2009 Battalion box I have gives a solid starting point for my Beastmen.

• 20x Gor
• 10x Ungor
• 10x Bestigor

I need 1000 points so I fired up https://old-world-builder.com/ and started to work out a plan. I desperately needed more core units and some heroes, and the something with a bit of punch.

Researching The Old World has swiftly told me that Magic is a very powerful threat, and there could well be Dragons to deal with, even in 1000 points.

With the “strange” release schedule for The Old World I knew I needed to buy some more models from the Age of Sigmar range as an official Beastmen Brayherds release is most likely many many many months away. I could easily go with 3rd party options and proxies, but I actually want to head to Warhammer World to play Warhammer at some point this year (mid-life bucket list thing) so I want to keep it as official as I can.

Checking out the options available to me in Age of Sigmar, the Beasts of Chaos Vanguard box seemed the perfect place to start as it will give me more models for the Gor, Ungor, and Bestigor units, as well as bundling in a Bray Shaman character. It will also give me 3 Dragon Ogres which “the Internet” tell me are a pretty good choice for Beastmen right now. SOLD

This will give me around 750 points:

• 30x Gor
• 20x Ungor
• 20x Bestigor
• 1x Bray Shaman
• 3x Dragon Ogres

I need something extra though, I can’t just rely on my dragon ogres and Bestigor. I need Cows!

After much deliberation and playing around with army lists (as well as rummaging through my miniatures archive) I have decided to go for a Minotaur hero in addition to the Shaman using an old metal Doombull I’ve had for quite a long time, and a unit of Minotaurs. I have also chosen to reduce the dragon ogres from a unit of 3 down to 2 individual Shartak champions, drop the Bestigor, and split the Gor into 2x units of 15.

Firing up Excel I wanted to visualise what this may look like……

• Shaman
• Doombull/Minotaur Hero
• 2x units of 15 Gors with Champion and Standard,
• 10x Ungors to skirmish with bows
• 2x individual Dragon Ogre Shartaks with Great Weapons
• 3x Minotaurs

Quite happy with that (on “paper”) and relatively cheap for me to assemble as well, so, hi-ho hi-ho it’s off to the (local friendly game) shop I go….

I’m still not fully decided on the exact options I will take, I’m torn between a Doombull Minotaur Lord for some killing power and a Level 2 Shaman for magic support, or all out magic with a level 4 Shaman and a Minotaur hero for lesser combat dominance but is still pretty tough.

This choice will hopefully get worked out as I get some games in.

It was winter 2009.  Snow everywhere. I couldn’t get to work in my car, so had to walk into the city centre to get a bus out to where i worked. Got into the city only to find that all of the busses were cancelled. Consoling myself with the thought of not being able to get to work I set out to walk back home, via a Games Workshop.  I left the store with a bit of a random purchase, a Warhammer Fantasy Battalion box of Beastmen.

A bit of history……

I first collected Beastmen during the 1997 release of Realm of Chaos, having some chariots, big block of gor and ungor, chariots, and special characters. I ran this into 6th edition by which time I had amassed a massive Chaos Warrior army as well, but I switched back to my Dwarfs for the Dark Shadows/Albion campaign who’d been tucked away since 5th got released.

After a few years hiatus from the hobby (university) I returned to it in 2007 when i picked up some Dark Angels, again going back to an older love as it was Dark Angels I collected in 40K 2nd-3rd editions, but my Fantasy armies stayed many miles away at my parents, i watched Warhammer from afar in the pages of White Dwarf and on Portent website, but rank & flank was not on the cards.

I can’t recall what exactly led me to pick up that Beastmen box that snowy day, but I do remember the snow melted and I had to go back to work. The box went in the closset for a future snowy day.

Skip forward a few years and Warhammer 8th Edition is in full swing, a new GW store opened up near to where I was living at the time, I dug out my Chaos Warriors and, brandishing a mark of Khorne, charged headfirst into it with my Chaos Warriors, having lots of fun smashing up openents at the store and taking part in the various store campaigns.   Then the End Times came, and my Chaos Warrior horde grew and grew, taking part in a massive escalating campaign which ran for a few months, but then….

I preordered the Age of Sigmar box.

I played a demo game in the store.

The box never got opened.

The game never got played.

I soon after moved house, leaving GW, my gaming buddies, and Warhammer behind.

The Big Blue Book is here. My YouTube and socials feeds are full of square-based glory in the Old World, and I have a hankering to get involved.

With my Dwarfs and Chaos Warriors still in their cases, I’ve decided I want to go back to the goat men and cow warriors. With very little armour and no war machines i really like what I’ve read about their army options and play style. So i have dug out my Beastmen Battalion box and bit the bullet…. I’ve bought a ticket to a local tournament ?

I have some miniatures on sprue, a new ruleset to learn, no games under my belt, and a tournament booked for 4 weeks away.

And this is where my journey begins!