Another Fantasy Project - Ozzz - Muchkins, Tin Men Axemen And A New Use For A Winston Chruchill.

 'We shall fight them in the fields and in the forests, in the poppy fields and, if need be in the Crystal Palace..' ,so, in one of his inspiring speeches, said the Great Ozzz.

So why the extra Zs? Well it is a kind of joke really. You see a new fantasy rule set and range of 28mm scale figures has emerged and an extra Z was added to 'Wars of Ozz' to avoid any copyright issues. Check out the Facebook page.

In my usual ad-hoc way I have been inspired to incorporate elements of OZ, and Ozz in my own fantasy toy soldier world. The new range of figures and rules are wonderful but I prefer 1/32 scale and I also don't want to spend the odd $100s or $1000 on a completely new range of figures. I  do want to buy the rules book though as it looks colourful and has some intriguing army lists and rules.

Like most people I watched the Judy Garland movie from the 1930s and enjoyed it immensely but I never read the book nor did I know that L. Frank Baum's 1900 book was followed by 13 others he wrote and numerous others by other authors after he either stopped writing or died (the latter also ensuring the first).

SO currently I have resolved to read all the books or at least the ones written by Baum. I have just finished the first book. Although Dorothy Gayle's age is not mentioned later books establish it at 11 and she stayed that age so long as she remained in Oz. Some differences of the novels from the film: Dorothy was less fearful and stronger in the novels where as in the film she was a little  more of a damsel in distress. The magic shoes were silver, not ruby and there were some other slight differences. For example, the first good witch was actually old and not young at all. Also, the film version made it all into a dream which was not the case in the novels.

I am also researching the races of Oz. The Munchkins are the height of an 11 year old. The first Munchkins she meets wear brimmed pointed hats and all their apparel, fences etc are blue. The soldiers in Oz's palace are also Munchkins or something similar but have 'green tinted skin', green hair and eyes and are and entirely dressed in green.

The Winkies (the bad witch's people are yellow skinned. Their height is not mentioned so I assume them to be human height.

Another race are the Quadlings, that are described as especially stout. The Wars of Oz have figures that look like they are obese with especially pronounced 'beer bellies'.

There are the flying monkeys that the evil witch can command three times. In the movie I think they had purple faces. 

The wicked witch also employed wolves and crows (handy as I have already painted a squadron of wolves).

The kalidahs were  imposing creatures mentioned as chasing the heroes had  bear bodies and tiger heads. Those would be easy conversions.

Wars of OZZ has provision for units of tin men with axes and also undead as well as trolls, giants etc.

Those who know me well know I have plenty of aptitude for whimsy so here I go.  Below are some of my first conversions or material for conversions.

Foreground: a robot with BMC Mexican head and DSG axe. I may also add a smoke stack to make it also useful for steam punk. The human head is more in keeping with the look of the Tin Man and the shako is a nod to the level of military technology as the soldiers of Oz and Ozz have muskets I have assumed to be flintlocks.

                         Undersized figures, fireman, WW2 and metal 18th century gunner - WW2 figures are easier to convert than modern as they have less webbing and the rifles are more adaptable than assault rifles.

                                     WW2 and 18th century go together like peas in a pod.

     Some old 40 mm 18th century metal grenadiers that could be supplemented with converted WW2 and contrasted with a 54mm Prussian.

      I have misplaced my preferred camera so there are a few blurred pics. I am looking for undersized figures to be munchkins. Here are some fireman that will become cannon crews. The odd WW2 figure will also be used.

The Wizard of Ozzz is based on a Microtanks Churchill figure. He is 1/35 scale. Maybe the farmer is a bodyguard. I may extend the hat into a top hat. The general is an old undersized hollowcast which lost its head. The new head comes from the spares box and being a little oversized for the figure actually suits the subject.

                             The resin gnomes I acquired from a clearance shop (Dimneys) last Xmas. I had already converted some into dwarves with axes. These ones I am going to drill and cut out the spades and make muskets for them from wire and putty. The plan is bright blue uniform with yellow hats.

I think the general is going to be my favourite, I might even paint the horse blue with pink spots!

A few years ago I made some flying monkeys that I never painted. I was going to use them in my 1/32 scale versions of Eureka Miniatures Pax Limpopo. I now have an incentive to finish them off - once I locate them. The Wars of Ozz goes further and has units of non flying apes as well.

The Wars of Ozz includes an army list for the Lands of Harvest and has vegetable warriors. I think the pumpkin head warriors look best and if I make some from adding putty heads to figures they could double as Chaos figures.

MY BIG IDEA

A novel by Jose Farmer called 'A barnstormer in Oz' is an adult SF version which includes the possible invasion of Oz by the US Army in 1925. That is not a bad scenario but I may include Ozzz as an undiscovered country in my Bogavania-Fezia-Beerstein world. Actually the denizens of Ozzz are often better armed as they have flintlocks and better cannon (I assume) as opposed to my other nations matchlocks, primitive cannon and bows. 

However, if I follow the magic lists in Wars of Ozz the spells available to wizards and witches mainly influence psychology and lack some of the missile strength of my GW inspired wizards so any invasion force which could find a way through the desert which surrounds Ozzz would do well to include a couple of wizards.

Some racial traits: the Munchkins have good eyesight and are great shots. On the other hand they are short-arses so move shorter distances and they may have a disadvantage in close combat against taller opponents.

However, the Land of Oz is not united so the army the non Oz/Ozz/Ozzz force faces could have quite different abilities.

STRANGER STILL

I once read a wargame report of a battle between Barzoom and Ming's army. By Gad that is a cool idea! So why not have a battle between Ozzz/Ozz/Oz and Narnia? Or against dark Elves, undead armies, orcs etc etc.

ISSUES WITH FIGURE SELECTION

One of the advantages is that various beasts and mythical creatures (as in Narnia) take part in battle and these are easy to locate at two dollar shops with the usual bags of animals and also some tube fantasy sets that recently came out. 

Making the shorter figures involves deciding whether they are dwarf like with larger heads etc or just smaller normal proportioned humans. I can see I'm going to fudge it and include both. Maybe there are sub types of Munchkins.

The Winkies appear to be human sized so I could just use my Napoleonics, notably my French grenadiers. I already have two units painted and also some Mexican grenadiers converted from BMC shako Mexicans to have bearskins. The only thing is I'm not inclined to repaint their faces yellow but then I don't have to be 100% 'authentic'. I think eventually I'll paint some yellow skinned Winkies and mix them in.

I probably won't do the Quadlings, for lack of enough really fat blokes and probably not the armies of the harvest but the Winkies and Munchkins are doable as are the various beasties. The thing a little confusing about Munchkins is some appear to be green toned and others not but the green ones are specifically the Wizard's men.

CONCLUSION

The forces of Ozzz are going to be yet another random factor in my fantasy world that may be pulled out occasionally when they appear by chance or perhaps they may be pulled out many times if they are enjoyable enough.