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.

Everyones Favourite - Kossites

Following on from yesterdays solo syndrome I have a different painting disease to discuss: regiment rot. I hate painting units. These guys have been on my desk for well over a week. Only the rare alignment of a productive weekend happened and I managed to make good progress on these. I bought the Kossites as they were on offer and I assumed they were good. This was before I really got back into Warmachine. I have as yet never used them but I doubt they can be as bad as everyone says... right? I hope they will get a unit attachment soon to bolster them a little. Painting these was a little bit annoying. The detail is a little strange, a symptom of early Warmachine models. I kept the colours neutral. They don't fit the colours of the rest of the army but as they are an irregular unit I don't think it matters. They will still look cool on the battlefield.

Witchdoctor

I think it is impossible to paint this miniature without singing the damned Witchdoctor song. It was stuck in my head for the entire day after I finished. That song is a most infectious earworm. I loved this model the second I saw it. It is quite subtle which I think but that is good. I guess this model could easily have competed with the factions Warlocks if designed poorly. Despite having seen the artwork ages ago I thought that he might come with a mask. This would have been too similar to Calaban. Too much robes would have been similar to Barnabas. The model is really nicely detailed. The skull level is acceptable. I hate models that are really bedecked in skulls. I guess a Wwitchdoctor can be expected to have a few.

Painting this model was fun, much more than expected. I guess this is due to solo syndrome. As I have stated all to often I love painting solos. It is one model and it feels like I make a lot of progress quickly. I followed the brown scheme I used for the rest of my Gatormen. This presented a problem as my other gators don't have clothes. I didn't want the brown on the clothes to blend too much in so I went for a colder brown than I usually would. I think it contrasts nicely. I have seen on the PP fora a nicely painted Barnabas model with a green tinge to the robes. I was tempted to copy it but maybe I will keep it for one of the Warlocks.

I have used the model in a game and he was fairly useful. He would have been much more useful if I had understood how sacrifical strike works. I used him with a Posse in an eBaldur list. Adding tough to a unit benefitting from Baldur's feat bonus means these guys are not going anywhere soon.

Circle Flags

I have been wanting to make some 'flags' for my Circle army for a while. I wasn't sure what to do as flags aren't really defined except for their rules. In Steamroller they are pieces that need to be captured generally to win the game. The Circle isn't really an organised military force and has really low technology. I wasn't sure what I could make to represent an objective/flag. I have been playing a lot recently with Gallows Groves and they get killed in every game. The thought came to me that the stumps would make cool flag markers. I had been thinking of using some corpses on bases but I wasn't too inspired by this. It could really represent any army. Using some form of flag or standard isn't really that interesting either.

The stumps were easy enough to sculpt. I built the body out of normal modelling clay and then I made the top. It was just a small lump of greenstuff smoothed out and then I carved small rings into it. A few cracks were added to make it look a little decayed. Once all this was dry I added the sides. The sides were quite uneven as I wasn't too careful about shaping the base lump of clay. This is good as it stops the stump from being too regular. I still want to add a few small details like fungi. I have already added a few skulls to tie the stumps in with the Gallows Grove.

I think these came out fairly well and I am actually considering making some more to use as terrrain. I think they could easily be used to represent a harvested forest. Basically it would just be an interesting piece visually on the board but would otherwise count as a forest. I still have quite a few terrain projects to finish first though...