Stomp, Stomp, Stomp

As a break I started painting these Stompers. Aas far as I remember they constitute a complete formation in the game. I have never used them so I am unsure. There has been a lively showing of photographs on the Epic:Armageddon facebook site. That got me in the mood to paint these. I thought they would be quick enough to do rather than a formation. However these ended up taking longer than I anticipated. I did cut some corners when doing them but the object was to get a break from painting my Malifaux stuff rather than learning a new technique. I hope you like them?

Painboy - revisited

I have recently been painting some Orks and I thought it high time to update some of the ones I had painted previously. First up were the Nobz and that meant getting the Painboy looking good.This basically involved getting a lot of cecked designs onto the model. I have been getting better at painting these while doing the orks and now it isnÄt so much hassle to get them painted even if they can be a little rough at times. Here is the previous plain painboy if you are interested in having a gander. I also took the chance to tidy up the model a little and add a few highlights where needed. The skin should have also received some attention but then I would have needed to redo the skin on the entire force and I don't want to do that. The updating of the models is really just something fun and quick to do! I will put up the Nobz soon as they are almost finished too. Once they are done I have to tackle one of the larger mobs. I am not looking forward to that!

More Orks

It took me a little longer than I had anticipated but here is a second formation for Epic Armageddon. This time some ork infantry. I definitely have s econd formation and I intend to paint it over the coming days. I doubt though if I added up all that I have here in Germany that I would manage to field an effective army. The nobz took the longest time to paint as I did a checked design on the back banners. The are noticably taller than the boyz and I guess of a slightly larger scale. The boyz are detailed well enough for a 5mm miniature. Just enough detail that you have to pick it out even if, like I, you skip the highlighting of each individual piece. The grtchin are also well detailed and more or less the same size as the boyz reinforcing the fact that the models are of a very slightly different scale.

Gunwagonz incoming!

I sadly wasn't able to get my game of Epic:Armageddon in last night so instead I scoured around in my bits box for something related to paint. I found my first formation of Gunwagonz.I actually have a few formations worth of stuff hidden away so maybe I will get to painting them. There are at least two infantry mobs and probably a few extras I hope. The main bulk of this army is in Ireland. Like my SAGA stuff I will have to wait to get this project really rolling. It is no matter as it isn't like I am getting that many offers for games here. Hamburg is an Epic:Armageddon desert.

I wnet for a Bad Moon scheme to match what I am painting for my 40k army. I once had a dream of somehow linking the two systems. Who knows it may come to pass and it is best to be prepared! I also added a good few black and white checks in places to break up the yellow and I think it worked out well considering the scale! I thought it would be really hard to do but actually I can do this pattern decently well in no time at all. It looks regular enough until you get up really close! I will see if I can get one of the infatry formations together tomorrow and paint it up. I don't envisage it taking too long.

Plasticard and Looted Wagons

I have been looking around for the last while for some cheap sources of Plasticard. I have a nearby architects store. It is quite bizarrely stocked but it does have a3 sheets of 1mm plasticard for about €10 which seems reasonable. I am eager to get another Looted Wagon made. I really enjoyed making the last one and it needs company. While checking through the Imperial Armour Vol.8 there are some technical drawings for some of the Ork vehicles. They don't look to hard to make it is just a question of scaling up what I have done before.This Gun Wagon would definitely be something I would like to try but the Skullhamma would also be really tempting. According to the Forgeworld website they aren't much bigger than a Battlewagon. I looked around for some other inspiration and I found these Looted Wagons. They are really great looking and some of the ideas I might have to steal.

You're all going to burn!

Okay so it is back to the Orks. This time yet again a vehicle. I picked up the Wartrakk Skorcha with the buggy from last week. It took a lot less conversion thankfully.

This model is fairly old already, from Gorkamorka I think and I wonder when this model will be updated. I guess when the next book cycles through? Both this and the Wwarbuggy really could do with an update. This one is fine but the driver had to be changed. Again the bike driver fit perfectly fine and only a few adjustments were needed. A glyph on the front finishes the conversions. I didn't like the large flat plate there and why freehand a design when you can stick one on ready done!



Once the glue had set I painted it up as normal. It awaits weathering but again I need to base it. I have been looking for 5mm plasticard that doesn't cost the earth. Once I get that everything that is on wheels will have a base and then be weathered. I really wish GW would base their 40k vehicles. It would make everything a lot simpler. I am eager to get a squadron of these too but the models rarely come up on eBay and even then they fetch a decent sum. I have another Wartrakk somewhere in my collection from the original Gorkamorka set and maybe I can figure out a way to convert it into a Skorcha.

Looted Wagon, now this was a project and a half!

A project and a half and it still isn't finished! I was reading Vol.8 of the Imperial Armour Series, which is great by the way, when I got the idea to make a Grot Tank. I checked online and there are quite a few people who had the same idea. Using those as inspiration I started with some scrap pieces of plasticard from my last terrain project. I made the two track sections first in a scale I thought was fine. Once I added the body I realised I had made a monster. I guess it isn't that much bigger than the actual Grot Tank models but it is fairly close to a Rhino. I am estimating it is a little wider and about and inch shorter. So it has become a looted wagon instead!

I am not sure what made me take the design of this the direction I did but standing back and looking now I think it reminds me of a Leman Russ. The silhouette is very similar. I am already thinking what I should make next! Plasticard is impressively expensive though so I am unsure if I really want to invest. It is good fun and I think the results are good. However as I don't play with the army I don't need to go crazy building stuff for it. A solid weeks work went into making the Wagon and if I go for something bigger I know the time will multiply. I am tempted to make a KillKrusha though...

First up however is to wash this model, base it and then get to painting. I will do it fairly similar to the rest of the army, so yellow will predominate. I might get fancy and try to make some of the panels look like they came from an imperial tank. I do want to find a grot though to put somewhere on the back near the engine housing. So far I haven't had much luck.

Bad Moonz Warbuggy

I picked up this buggy and a Wartrak on eBay a while back. They were fairly cheap. I picked up the two of them for about €10 including the postage. I have seen them sell for a good deal more so I was happily surprised. I have been lurking on eBay for a while but finding a deal is a very rare occurence! About two weeks ago I started converting and painting. The orks it came with were of the last editions style and were tiny in comparison to what the orks are now. It was a difficult task to convert this as everything was put in place with polystyrene cement. Some digging and many curses got the driver out while I actually had to drill out the weapon mounting. In the process I broke the banner at the back but that wasn't so bad as I had intended changing it anyway



The driver was easy enough to replace in the end as the biker legs fit into place nicely. I added the arms from the bikes too as they fit to the remnants of the steering mechanism. It was a victim of the drivers removal but fortunately it fit together perfectly. I just changed their angle and rebuilt the shoulders to fit the torso. I added the platform on the back as with the bigger driver I had to give some height to the gunner. He is from the battlewagon as is the gun. I made the armour from some scrap pieces of plasticard. The gunner didn't fit perfectly but that is fine. One of his feet sits on the engine more than the platform but that is the only way he would go. I added the grot as I wanted to represent a rigger. I have no idea if they are useful in the rules but they sound good!

I added to the front another piece from the bike sprue and a few more armour plates to give the driver some armour. I cut the glyphs and plates from plasticard and added them liberally around. It breaks up what is a rather boring vehicle. I would love to get a full squadron of these so I can be a little more adventureous with the next ones. I haven't done any weathering with this one yet as I don't have a base. Once I do I intend adding mud and rust liberally. The effects should be similar to those on the Grotbot from earlier in the week and will really improve the overall look of the buggy.

Grotbot... exterminate!

Time passes quickly. I can't believe it has been four months since I last posted. I have been painting albeit slowly. Here is something fun I finished recently, a Grotbot.I have been painting a lot of Ork stuff recently. As to why I am really not sure. I haven't played 40k since the start of the 3rd edition. I have been playing since Rogue Trader but fantasy took over and I have only rarely ventured back into the 41st millenium. I still love Orks though and I have a huge amount of them lying around in various stages of completion. Mainly I have been updating the units I painted before. They needed some tidying up and detail work. They still won't be winning any competitions but they are looking much better now.

I created the Grotbot firstly as a Stompa. I built the body and then realised that it was slightly out of scale. I then added some 40k shoots and a gretchin pilot. A little bit more work and this is what I ended up with. As to what it is exactly in game terms I have no idea. It is the result of leaving too much useful scrap around the grot tents maybe. I painted it up in the yellow scheme of most of my army. I added a moon symbol as I rarely use it even though I should. As this guy has a base I weathered him up. I haven't really done this with my vehicles as without a base I would just end up picking them up via the panelling and smudging the weathering. I think the rust effect works out well on the yellow but not so much on the blue.

I have a huge amount of work to put up from my break in posting so I intend doing that over the coming weeks. Hopefully I can get back into a positive blogging habit again! You can expect a lot of Orks and also some Circle or Orboros stuff to come.

More Goff Boyz

Some more Goffs got finished last night. I feel like I am flying through models at the moment. The Orks have really simple schemes and while the Goffs are somewhat more involved than the Bad Moon Boyz they are still quite fast to paint. The check pattern makes these guys really distinctive in comparison to the other mob I have done. I might eventually revisit the Bad Moons to use some stronger yellow to them. I did most of them in fairly boring colours. So next thing for these guys is to get a heavy stubber in there. I never know if they are that useful but it is better to have them and not need them I guess.

Killa-Kan Mob

I got the Killa-Kan mob finished over the weekend. These are a nice addition to my small Ork army. I have inventoried what I have left to paint for them in the pile. There are two bike mobs, a Deff Kopta mob, a Battlewagon, some Nobz, and some small random bits. I want to get the Goff 'Ard Bozy finished so I will progress with them. I will probably have the Battlewagon as their transport so I will paint it black once I have the whole squad done. I want to get back to the beastmen and my Khador soon too.

Friday Showcase- Ork Trukk

This model isn't finished! I am kind of cheating my putting it up on my Friday showcase. All that needs to be done is to finish the tires. However I don't want to do that without basing the model. I know that 40k vehicles don't come with a base but the model doesn't look finished until the base is done! I don't know what to use but I would like to have it similar to a normal GW base. Maybe one of the new fantasy bases would fit, something a little bigger than a chariot base. I have to find another that fits the battlewagon, that is going to be an even bigger pain!

Another Kan

The Killa-Kans paint up really quickly. I have the second one finished. It helps that I kept the paint scheme really simple. Balck and yellow go together very well and Iyanden Darksun (GW) really allows me to get great coverage really quickly. I just washed the yellow with some Gryphone Sepia (GW). This shades it down perfectly. I pick out some of the highlights in a brighter yellow. Then I add the battle damage with some red and silver. The metals are really dark as close to black as I can get them really. I do some extreme edging highlights to break up the dullness and to define the shapes. I then pick out some of the details in a bright red. The addition of some checking and that is it, really simple!

Killa-Kan

I seem to be plumbing the depths of miniatures backlog at the moment. I bought the Killa Kans when they came out. I was still enthusiastic about collecting Orks at that point. The models are great and I really wanted to have some. The metal ones were fairly boring and expensive. These are relatively cheap. I painted them up to suit the Bad Moonz rather than the Goffs. A simple black paint scheme would have been really fast to do but I wanted them to match the main part of my army. This model was fairly fast to paint up. I think it took about five hours from start to finish which for this standard seems reasonable. I didn't do much for highlights and kept the scheme very simple. The more metal the faster it goes!

One of the problems with these is that you don't really get weapon options. I would have prefered to have more rocket launchers on them but I had to arm them as shown as the box just doesn't have to options available. I guess it would only be a problem in tournaments. Putting the kits together was interesting. A lot of the pieces are fairly complex in comparison to what I expect from GW. These must have been digitally sculpted. I should get a second finished tomorrow!

Friday Showcase - Burna Boyz

Only four Burna Boyz come in the box for some weird reason and so I only have four of them built and painted. I had intended using them as reinforcements for a Kommando squad and then I decided to just build the rest even if I don't use them. I think I have a second set buried in the unassembled pile here so that would give me eight and the possibility for a Mek. I would like to get a custom Trukk for these sometime down the line but that is just dreaming!

Goff 'Ard Boyz

I gave in. After discussing Orks for the last few months and going through my collection I couldn't resist any longer. I had saved almost all the chainsword wielding Orks from three sets of Battle for Black Reach. I was considering using them, with some conversions, as Stormboyz. I never did anything with them and they just gathered dust. Last week I started glueing some of them together adding some armour pieces so I could use them as 'Ard Boyz. I was going to continue with them as Bad Moonz but I got creative and did them up as Goffs. I just wanted to see how the cheques would work out and I think they came out fine. I have four more glued together and I might get to painting them soon. I kind of scratched the itch and I am not too motivated to continue! Maybe showing off some more of my collection will make me more eager to paint them.

Friday Showcase - Grotz

I love Grotz. I guess all Ork players do. Maybe I should say collectors do as I have never seen Grotz played. I was suprised by how cheap they were, I think €10 for ten. I picked up three boxes a long time ago and painted them really quickly. I imagine they might become more popular especially if mysterious objectives are used. They are the perfect troop choice to send up to find out what a particular objective does. Who cares if the Grotz get killed, that is what they are there for! I have always been tempted to pick up some Grot artillery as they look great, I think Kromlech.eu produces the best I have seen.

Friday Showcase - Ork Nobz

I must resist painting Orks! The more of these showcases I do the worse the temptation becomes. Goff 'Ardboyz are the current flavour. These would of course come with a Battlewagon transport as they need to arrive in style. The worst thing is I wouldn't have to buy anything as it already resises in my collection. Lets see if I can resist. My Warmachine and Hordes stockpile is defintely in decline so eventually I have to paint something else. This week I have some Bad Moon Nobz, with a Waaaaagh Banner. I cut this from some Fantasy Battles terrain and it is almost the correct scale. It is a little unwieldy I guess but thats in true Orky style. I want to add eventually a few trophies and a flag but for now it serves its purpose. I never painted more of these guys as I wanted to give them Power Klaws, reasoning that they would be more effective in the game ths way. Seeing as I don't play this doesn't matter and I should top them off with the missing three squad members sometime soon.

Friday Showcase - Ork Painboy

This week has been really busy for me and while I managed to get some painting done I didn't get anything finished. Hopefully the weekend will provide me with a few hours to get some projects completed. At least I can put up something, the friday showcase. This week I have an Ork Painboy. Orks are a great army full of character. The Mad Dok's have been around for a while and I have always thought that they were really cool. I picked one up for my Nobz squad as a 4+ save against almost everything seems fairly worthwhile for the points cost. I just wish I could get a few of these for my other squads. The model isn't particularly well painted just like the rest of the army. These were an exercise in getting something done quickly without too much of an investment of effort. Aas stated before I wasn't very interested in playing 40k much I just wanted to have some Orks. Now that I have begun showing them here however I am tempted to paint some more. I have far too many in boxes and they deserve some paint.

Friday Showcase - Ork Warboss

I painted this Warboss when the last edition of 40k launched. I picked up three or four sets of Orks fairly cheaply at the time and I have a pretty large Ork force now. I wanted him to be a Bad Moon boss hence the large symbol. It comes from some Night Goblins for Fantasy and it works pretty well. I kept the painting fairly simple just to get him done. I started to experiment towards the end of the model and you can see this in the check design on a small part of the Klaw. I should have used the design in a few more places on the model as the armour painted as I did it is boring. It when combined with the gun makes for a very metallic model which is boring.

I have been tempted a number of times to take out some of the other Warboss models I have and to paint them with a little bit more attention to detail. I wouldn't ind doing a Death Skulls or Goff boss just to try out something a little different. Maybe I will do this over the coming weeks. It is too bad that Knarloc Green isn't available anymore as it was the colour I used for all of my Orks. I hope there is an equivalent in the new range. Although looking at it now it is fairly similar to the green I use for my Khador army. I just need to think of a decent yet simple conversion for this guy.