A bit of an update

So, what have I been up to?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's been more Orks...

There is a bit of a distraction due to the Warmachine Tactics beta, which has slowed down progress a bit, but here's what I did get done:

Painting Table:
-Though work on the alternate Gaze of Mork head has stalled, the Stompa itself is now primered.
-2 Meks (one with KMB, one with KFF are also primered.
-The Grot riggers for the Stompa, as well as the gun crew for my classic Lifta-Droppa are on the painting table.
-Speaking of Lifta-Droppa, it's also primered and ready for paint.
-Along with the other Grots, Kneecappa the Megagrot is also encountering brush and pigments...

Workbench:
This is getting cluttered, it's occupied with:
-5 Nob bikers I'm converting  and otherwise working on as/when the muse strikes.
-The stagnated Gaze of Mork stompa head build
-The last two unbuilt metal Meganobz I had in my stock.
-A half painted Meganob Bannerbearer (Which hasn't been possible rule-wise for quite some time, hence the long term half painted status) who is getting refurbished and updated.
-My painted MegaBoss, two regular Warbosses and my three Meganobz who have had their bases stripped and are awaiting refurbishment along with the previously mentioned refurb jobs.

You may be asking: "Refurbishing, what does he mean?"
Well, I started my Orks way back at the transition from 2nd to 3rd edition of 40K. As a result they still had the old school goblin green bases covered in green flock. Plus I was rather sparse with my chosen clan's signature colour, yellow.
When I started my second painting and modelling push on my green horde, in anticipation of the previous Ork codex getting released (around 2007-2008 I think?) my skills and tastes had changed.
I wanted more of the 2nd ed and Rogue trader style to my Orks, plus the tatty green bases were starting to annoy me.
So alongside building and painting new units, most of my old units also passed my workbench, to have their bases stripped and redone, the paintjob touched up (with more yellow) and small conversion added to give the lads more character (clay pipes for shroom-tobacco, bright yellow mohawk and goatee squigs, forage caps, stuff like that).
This process of updating, or refurbishing, isn't yet completely finished. I had several units still to update and upgrade. These include, from the top of my head: My Meganobs and Warbosses (who are now on the workbench), my Kommando's (the classic 2nd edition ones, I love 'em!) and I believe there are a few vehicles I still need to take a look at. Other models won't get refurbished, as they are no longer useable under the newer rules. They will remain a relic to my army as it used to be. These include my converted Weirdboy with Minders, my Snotling bases and my first 10 Gretchin, who are on Gorkamorka bases.

See you next time!

Pedal to the metal!

The buggy, it is finished!

Here it is with the twin Big Shoota in place:

The grot crew for the Stompa has arrived, so I can proceed on that one. I'm currently building the Gaze of Mork for the swap-out head. It'll still take some building though, before that is finished. I'm currently contemplating starting paint on the Stompa before the second head is finished and just adding it at a later date.

All this greenskin activity was spurred on by rumours of a new Ork codex and the first new releases. I'm finding the current ork releases a bit of a mixed bag though. The flash gits look really good (but are spendy, even for GW), but I'm far from convinced by the "Walkin' Fridge" or G/Morkanaut as it's officially known. I got a real kick out of seeing the old weirdo artillery return, but again the realities of high price and low utility dampened my thrill (the difference between the guns is in fact no more than the nozzle of the gun and the gubbins on it's spine. This also means that to kitbash several guns out of one kit, to mitigate the price point, you'll need to scratchbuild effectively the entire gun!).
So far the theme, for me, seems to be "Nice, but...". Especially since a codex Orks is yet to be (officially) anounced, I'm in a wait and see mode, not really capable of getting really enthousiastic.  Am I getting jaded and cynical (I mean, even more than before?), or is this release just less exciting and fun than it could be? Has GW's "slow burn" approach to this release drained the hype and excitement instead of building it? And is it affecting sales? I know I'm holding off buying any new Ork kits until I have a codex and know what all the new Ork releases will be before I choose where my money goes. And this attitude seems to be mirrored on a fair bit of the fora I visit. That could be a distorted view, caused by the usual vocal minority effect, but I'm not sure. I'm not exactly seeing the fora flood with new kit WIP threads either.

In the end, it did give me a reason to have fun modelling  and painting little green men again and I'm quite happy to be doing my own thing, regardless of GW's plans and schemes...

Anyway, here's Kneecappa the Megagrot to wave you goodbye:

(He's nice and pristine white now, but will be primer black soon...)

Buggy tech...

I said I'd grab something from the WIP drawer while I was still working on the Stompa.
Well, this is it:

Yup, a Kustom Ork Buggy.

I got this model in a semi-finished state from a friend some years ago. It was basically just a detailed chassis and a separate gun in a box of parts. I added the wheels and their suspension/acles, the fuel tank in the back, the crew and magnetized the gun so I could swap it with the rocket launcher.

I really like the hot-rod look to it and intend to emphasize it with whitewall tyres, red hubs and perhaps some nice bright red flames painted onto the front (should be enough to give it a red paint job ruleswise).

I really like it's look and hope I can find some more classic car scale models in the future, so I can add more vehicles like this.

Work on the Stompa progresses slowly. I'm still waiting for the replacement Grot crew to arrive. And I've set myself the task of converting an Eye of Mork for it's head. I'm still collecting ideas and suitable bits for it, but I seem to be close to a final concept.

Kneecappa, the mega-armoured attack grot is done and ready for primer, but refuses to be photographed on account of being small and mainly white plasticard...

Going green (again)

A few weeks ago, a small trickle or rumours started about the Orks getting an update. Where the release of 7th edition 40K left me absolutely cold, these few rumours were enough to get me looking at my 40K stuff again. (Apparently spores are thicker than water...)

When I pulled out my Ork stockpile to see what I had again, for some reason the second hand Stompa jumped out at me, so it's now on my workbench getting a thorough once-over. It needed a fair bit of work, as it was assembled less than expertly, and moldlines didn't seem to bother the previous owner. I've fixed all the major problems, but I've still got a while to go before I get to the painting stage. Plus I'm waiting on replacement Grot crew, as they were all missing when I got the Stompa.

So, to get my Ork on until that beast is ready for paint, I looked to my Work In Progress drawer. (I actually have a WIP-file cabinet, with separate drawers for various major or long-term projects. That way I can jump right in with some prepped mini's whenever I want to switch gears and still keep things organised. Keeps my desk from drowning in little black figures too!)
In the Ork drawer, I found the second half of my 8-strong Loota mob. They had been WIP ever since they were instrumental in my latest 40K game....back in 5th edition!
High time they got ready for their place in the glass cabinet, I'd say!

Here they are, my latest Orks:

For some reason the pic is rather blue, the background is actually a white sheet of paper...

As usual with my orks, none of them are built in an off-the-rack, follow-the-manual manner. It's just been so long, I can't properly remember what I've converted about them...
Let's see what I can still recall: First, all of them have parts added or swapped in from fantasy or 40K Ork(/c) Boys, either a set of legs, a torso or their head (as the weapons and arms are a fixed assembly). The leftmost one has a Kroot rifle added to his kombi-weapon...sorry, Deffgun. I still take a lot of inspiration from the 1st and 2nd edition Ork background, so in my mind, these are still Kustom Kombi Weapons.... Anyway, on with the memory exercise; the second one from the left has a crank added to his gun, either to clear jams, or make it shoot faster, probably both. The third one has an extra looted lasgun attached to his weapon, and the final one has a scratch built lewis gun style drum mag on his gun and moon-shaped crosshairs. With him I also made a point of having all visible ejection ports throwing out a stream of casings. He likes his dakka...

Which means that, after several years, the mob is re-united at last:

They're currently lounging in the glass cabinet, drawing envious looks from the boys who have just regular sluggas and shootas...

In between work on the Stompa and painting the Lootas I've also finished the scratch building on Kneecappa Da Megagrot, my count-as Attack Squig for my Warboss. I just need to base him before I show him to the world.
But since neither the Stompa nor Kneecappa are ready yet, I'll have to return to the WIP-drawer for the next painting project... 

"Tha mo bhàta-foluaimein loma-làn easgannan!"

That's what he shouted at me as he staggered out of the bushes towards us, or at least, that's how it sounded to me.
Several of my men had already drawn weapons and were ready for him, or any hidden friends of his, to attack us. 
As he noticed the movements of my retainers, he twitched and fell over flat on his back. As he lay immobile, a tense second of silence stretched into several seconds, then a minute. My retinue exchanged confused glances. I quietly instructed them to keep their positions and remain alert, but not to do anything...yet. This standoff was broken by him suddenly thrusting a bottle at the sky and laughing uproariously for a full five minutes. 
Still chuckling, he stood up, but broke his bottle in the process. His face turned red and contorted in rage. My men shuffled nervously, as the goblin drew a deep breath. Before they could decide on their actions, he launched into a indecipherable roaring goggle-eyed rant, seemingly aimed at his broken bottle, the skies, the woods behind him, and anything in between. 
I believe, could it understand but a single word of it, this stream of (I assume them to be) profanities would have greyed my hair and bleached my heraldry, such vitriol was behind it! 
At some point, seemingly halfway into a sentence, he suddenly fell quiet, sighed deeply, and started to sniff. Seconds later he was sitting on the forest floor, hands limply in his lap, crying as if all the grief of the world suddenly was on his shoulders.
He cried for quite some time...
All this time me and my men stood there, astounded and confused by this strange specimen of the goblin species, and his indecipherable actions and language.
Just when we were at the point of deciding to move on and leave him be, he suddenly jerked his head upright, wiped away his tears and stood up.
He looked around until he saw me. Then he walked towards me and looked me straight in the eye. He shouted something at me, "Tha gaol agam ort!" I believe it was. At that he seemed himself to blink in confusion, and then said "Is mise cliamain" or something like it, in a more quiet voice.
Muttering under his breath, pointing at various member of my retinue or items in our baggage train, he walked to the rear of the column, and sat in the grass until we departed. When we left, he walked after us.

He has followed us ever since. At least, until 5 months later, when we met another group of traveling adventurers on the road and he apparently decided to follow them along instead. 

Sometimes we encounter him again, always with another group of heroes. Sometimes he joins us, sometimes he doesn't. We still don't know why.
Drunk or sober (rarely!), he hasn't been any more intelligible than on that first day.
He always knew to find the best loot and booze, though...


Gilbert D'Abelard, traveling knight, recounts his first meeting with the goblin adventurer known only as "Mad" McHaggis the Fighting Drunk.

The man himself, along with his three favorite things in the world: A heavy blunt instrument, whiskey and gold. He is well known to be an intemperate and enthousiastic user of all three.

This is the second miniature I got in a gift package from fellow Lead Adventure Forum member Elprez. It's Hasslefree Miniatures' Sparr.
I knew the triangular whiskey bottle is specific to a small family of brands, namely Grant's and Glenfiddich. Of the two, Glenfiddich has a green bottle, and as there would already be a fair bit of green in the model, I opted for Grant's, in their clear bottle. Specifically, he is holding a bottle of Grant's Family Reserve.
Tying in to this theme, "Mad" McHaggis is dressed in the Grant clan tartan, or at least as close an approximation as my eyesight and painting skills will allow.

Here is a shot from the behind:

 Thank you, Elprez, he was a lot of fun to paint!

The treasure chest is from the old GW Mordheim accessory sprue, and will be part of my wife's Warhammer Quest set. I painted it to look old and dirty, but still solid. It's fairly subdued in colours, so that it would set off the richness and colour of the gold. Have to make sure the riches draw the eye...

Bone of contention

Having finished the Knight and his retinue, it was time to give some attention to the opposition.
So, the next group of my dungeon's deceased denizens is done.
Here's a quick workbench snap of them:

What's still left to do is 5 spearmen skeletons, 2 Skeleton Leaders, 1 Skeletal King's Champion/Dread Knight, a Banshee, two Wraiths (In time I'd like to add a 3rd) and the Lich King and Necromancer to lead them.
I needn't get bored anytime soon, I guess...
Currently on the painting table is a belligerently drunk goblin in a kilt.

Until next time!

Tinctures and Metals, Charges and Blazons...

Or, in other words, the stuff of heraldry!

If you're painting knights you can't get around it. To make my life easier when designing heraldry for my knights, I made a little colouring-book style sheet to work out how designs for heraldry would work. Not only on the shield, but also on the horse's caparison or in the livery of a knight's retinue. I didn't want to discover halfway through painting that a certain combo or design didn't work out after all. I'd rather waste 10 minutes and some paper, than spend hours on a miniature and having to strip it...

I mentioned this sheet on the LAF and offered to scan it.

So I thought I might as well put it up here.

Here is the design sheet I use:

(Sadly, scanning it has washed out the lower right area a fair bit.)

This is the one that I used in deciding on a colour scheme for my recently painted knight and retinue:

Like I said, colouring-book style...

If you need a primer on how to design heraldry, this one seems pretty complete and thorough: www.internationalheraldry.com