Birthday Times!

Not my birthday obviously! It's been a year since the first post arrived (via a stork and left to be found under a lettuce) on this journal and I'm pretty stoked on how I've been able to use it as a guide of sorts to plan projects and get enthused about current ones. I've had some really nice feedback on my painting and I'm stoked to have got know of so many other amazing painters out there through lurking from one blog to another - you people rule, thanks for being a constant source of inspiration!

For 2016 I've a few projects that I want to concentrate on. Thankfully, there's no wallet-worriers amongst them as I'd like to work off stuff that's been accumulating in the bits box. There's some real treats in there too! Firstly I'd like to finish off the Orks as I'm pretty close to finishing them off now. Here's where I'm up to so far,..

Weirdboy and Minderz.

Not 100% pleased with this as I'm not sure the purple pyjamas were the best choice. I may try and add some stars and moons and make him look like a cartoon wizard one day. Also, the staff is a stand-in until I get more confident with sculpting - spooky glowing eyes though!

These guys are the best!

Seriously, when did GW decide to ret-con Snotlings? These guys are awesome. I'm so impressed at how Kev Adams managed to sculpt so much detail on 10mm figures. The expressions and musculature is phenomenal! This is the first of four Snotting bases - that should be enough for the size of games I'll get to play hopefully!

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only mullets.

Squig-pup.

Finally managed to paint up this amazing proto-Gretchin and Azzbutt's pet Squig! The original target of twenty Gretchin will probably end up being more like ten as I'd like to maybe get a small squad of Madboyz (that and I'm running out of case-space!) The old Squig models are super fun, really characterful tangents that add a great deal of atmosphere to the Ork background.

Wagon with new axles!

This thing is going to be so awesome to build. I've finally managed to track down and fit some new brass axles that will strengthen the overall wagon structure as the old axles had to be removed and were notoriously spindly anyhow. Going to be making a proper go of this thing soon so expect loads of WIP photos! After that there's only a few personalities and I'll leave the green skins be. Pretty sure they clock in at around 1500 points with wargear which is a respectable amount for what I'd want to do with them.

As well as the Orks, I'm going to finish off some Genestealer Hybrids that I was kindly given a few months back. I've also got some amazing sculpts from the 'Wild in the Streets' game which are begging for some attention. I've recently acquired a RTB09 Terminator set, so would love to finally paint up a RT era Blood Angel Terminator squad for use with Space Hulk. Moreover, I'd really like to make an effort to paint up some Fantasy Chaos stuff as everyone around here seems to be on that right now - plus it's a massive excuse to paint up all the old Beastmen that I've had lying around - made a start on this in late December!

Cannot un-hear Skeleton vs Beastman now,..

Finally, I'd like to try and speed up my painting as I struggle to finish anything off in less than six hours. I think this is down to a combination of motivation, paint-scheme and model choice as the recent figures I've finished have all been done under three hours - the thought of finishing off anything in an evening seems unreal; it'd be so good to achieve that!

Only three hours!

I think the main aim for 2016 is to actually play some games. I only played one game of 2nd Edition 40k last year and two games of Space Hulk which is woefully shameful. I'm lucky enough to know loads of people who play various games and I'm hoping that they'll actually believe me when I say I'm going to at least try to roll some dice with them this year. There's already tentative plans for a meet up around late February with Pob and Melon for game and I'm hoping that I might be able to get a few more 2nd Edition battles in with Dave too. Also, I'm sure Stu wouldn't mind if I bullied him into playing Space Hulk once in awhile!

Ooof, that's enough for me to be getting on with then! Hope everyone else out there has a super fun and productive year!

Orks! Tens of em'

It's been a really productive past few weeks for me, with a whole squad of Orks getting done along with a small Dreadnought and some Gretchin too! I've also made good progress on prepping and basing some new additions to the force and have almost finished tidying up the Battlewagon. It's been a refreshing change to have maintained full enthusiasm with this project and so far I've not had any problems other than running out of plastic left arms! Things will probably slow down a little in the next week or so because of Yuletimes, but I'm sure I'll have the majority of this mini-army done for the end of January. I've decided against amassing 20 Gretchin in the immediate future as the ones I'm after are too expensive to really justify buying right now, so I'll probably aim to pick a few up here and there throughout the next few months - plus I'm really fed up with the smell of dettol in the kitchen! Anyway, here's some models,...

We'll maybe hit some things,..

The Boyz! Some great Kev Adams sculpts in here! Particularly like the classic Bad Moon guys with their rad pointed caps. Really stoked on the Boy I chose to be the Nob too, he's a fantastic figure and is covered in great little details - glad to have finally found a home for the old Yarrick power claw that has been idle in the bits-box for nearly 20 years too!

Ugulhard, is a bit like Wattie from the Exploited, but less of a prick.

The only issue I had with these figures was that the plastic arms (particularly the left open-palmed type) don't accommodate weapons very well without green-stuffing. I imagine this is because they were primarily designed for the plastic Boyz that came out around the same time. I also must admit I'm not overly fond of the heavy multi-melta as it sits too high on the shoulder. However, there's little I could really do to lower it save severely hacking into it, which would have probably ended up being a real mess knowing my modelling skills. The Lascannon fella looks rad though!

Imagine painting 40 of those fuckers? No thanks!

The start of a Gretchin Mob. Not really into the Perry sculpts at all, but this guy with the stick-bombs is pretty awesome! Massive soft-spot for the old plastic mono-pose guys too, but not that massive that I'd want to paint more than a few of them! When finished, this Mob will not be uniformly equipped, but will probably be played as such.

Yellow peril.

Really hyped on getting to paint this Dreadnought. I had the option of making the classic version with two ranged weapons, but wasn't feeling the sculpts for either of them. I think he looks far better with just two claws anyway. Sadly this set was missing the hatch and banner pole, but luckily I had one of the old Battlewagon exhausts in the bits box to tidy things up at the back. Bonus Snotling lurking on the base because they're awesome!

Left arm coming soon!

Just this evening finished off (well mostly) the Shokk Attack Mek! Always had a fascination for this model and it was a joy to paint. The detail on the gun is wonderful and it oozes a sense of ramshackle menace. Sadly, this figure was in a real state when I received it and as much as I tried I couldn't quite remove all the paint, so some minor spots aren't as smooth as I'd like them to be. However, it's more than worth the smell of dettol when you get to finally get the excuse to paint loads of Snotlings!

He's having fun, honest.

Currently in the work pile I've this excellent group sculpt which should be finished up next week, loads of Snotlings for the Shokk Attack Gun and a whole Battlewagon! Got a bit too excited about the latter and gave in to painting up the engine block - can't wait to get into the rest of it! I've also got a little scenery project on the go for this army which is slowly taking shape - very much looking forward to having a little Ork Village for these guys to hang out in!

Bodywork optional!

There's a few plans floating in the pipes for next year too. I'm hoping to use Frostgrave as an excuse to paint up some rad old Fantasy figures and I'm really keen on painting a load of old Terminators to use in Space Hulk - really fancy getting enough figures together to roughly play through all the scenarios in Deathwing and Genestealer with the recent edition floor-tiles. Then there's the second edition Tyranids to finish, The Ravenwing, the old Chaos war band for Warhammer, the Wild in the Streets Goth Gang,....

Realistically it's never going to end is it?

Grooving in Green

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to be sent parcels from friends for my birthday. I'm really stoked to have so many friends who skate and either used to, or have an active interest in little men. By some strange quirk of fate, two of these packages included classic Ork kits and models; more specifically 90's Kev Adams Bad Moon sculpts. I've always had a soft spot for the early aesthetic of Games Workshop Orks, particularly through the medium of Paul Bonner's wonderful artwork and Kev Adam's characterful modelling. Although GW fluff makes it clear from the start that Orks are brutal killers, there is something childishly naive and charming about the Ork background during this period.

All getting along together then

Paul Bonner's artwork was everywhere at one point and he had an excellent style that could portray any of the Warhammer 40000 races with accuracy and personality. His work on the Deathwing expansion in particular is excellent. However, it is his Orks that his work really shines through. It would be hard to reconcile the rather 2D characterisation of the present Orks with these creatively comical fellas. Bonner captures the naturalism of Orkish nature as a tumbling, bumbling dangerously out-of-control boulder of a force that crashes from one planet to another in a never-ending pursuit of war - because that's what they do. There is no over-arching, galactic political motive, no honourable quest, just Orks fucking things up. And that's beautiful in it's simplicity.

Awesome.

Anyway. Back to the miniatures. Having no (urgent) projects on the go, I've decided to put together a little Ork army to try and capture the spirit of Bonner's illustrations. Using only Kev Adam's sculpts (which should be easy as he sculpted nearly 99% of all the Orks until 1994) I'm hoping to get the majority of the force done before Christmas. This may seem a little optimistic at first glance, but I've just discovered that painting green is actually really, really good fun.

I'm serious, it's such a good colour.

Since I can't seem to get away from painting yellow and that I've ended up with several specifically Bad Moon figures, it's going to be a pure fluff Bad Moon gathering. Thankfully I don't need to be as nearly as precise or as clean with the colour as I was with the Alaitoc Eldar, so that should save on many agonising hours of holding my breath attempting not to ruin or smudge yellow areas!

The boyz.

So far I'm planning to keep the war band really small and simple. Thankfully I've not needed to spend much on additional bits as I've had a few models kicking around for awhile now. The only additional purchases have been some vanilla boyz and a Shokk Attack Gun with Snotlings. I'll probably add a few character figures in due course, but here is what the first phase looks like,..

Warboss Azzbutt

10 x Ork boyz

1 x Battlewagon

1 x Dreadnought

1 x Shokk Attack Gun

4 x Snotling bases

20 x Gretchin

The Gretchin are going to be mostly made up of the smaller proto-Gretchin 'Runt' figures as they have so much more character than the later models. Plus, it makes more sense in my head to have a rabble of badly armed little guys running around trying to impress the Orks. Obviously this list is not meant for play, but I imagine if I did play them, it would be a hell for leather 'ere we go, all guns blazing not hitting anything tactic - because that's well Orky. So far I've the Warlord painted along with a few Gretchin and some boyz - shall do a proper photo-drop when there's more to show!

Azzbutt.

The painting style is going to be as close as I can to the RT greens, but pretty rough and ready for everything else. I'm really looking forward to modelling and weathering the original Battlewagon, which in itself is an amazing kit for the time - thanks to Pob and The Melon for being so rad and sending me more rad old stuff to paint, you guys are the bestest.