Waagh if you wanna go faster!!

The Christmas season is looming fast. My cans of primer are too cold in the garage and it is already dark when i finish work. Luckily working at home means i can nip out at lunch and prime the odd model for painting. Spray cans have to have a good warming hug for a bit as well as the traditional rattle before using. It hasnt stopped me painting, but i have slowed down a bit. Mainly because my leadpile is running pretty low. So low in fact that i have decided not to take part in the Analogue Hobbies challenge this year. I just don't feel I have enough models to paint and post about weekly for a full three months. (I mean I'm not saying i have nothing, the day I have my entire collection painted will be a miracle day.

Gaming wise though it's been pretty busy. We have been playing Heroquest at the club, tried the new Dragon Rampant 2nd edition rules and we are starting a Bloodbowl league. It has been like we are tabletop gaming in the 90's again. Using my Bloodbowl models I did realise they are looking a bit battered and the painted quality is not up to todays standard. I'd like to maybe give them a Biostrip bath and repaint, but I'm not sure I would get them turned around before their next match. It is very tempting to buy a new team though! 

The youngest has done his Warhammer wish list. It's a completely confusing list with models from about four different armies. Trying to explain to the staff member that our kid just wants the models so he can put together his own amalgamated army for Xenos Rampant rather than playing 40K just generated a befuddled reaction. I did try gently pushing the choices towards models i would prefer to paint as it is muggins here that will do the task. I must admit to being bored now of painting Ultramarine Space Marines. 

My own wish list has some more bits to go with my new Ork army i have been having fun painting. The army does now fill the storage currently assigned to it, maybe that is a sign to stop, or buy a bigger box. I wouldn't say no to a Battlewagon. I have already added this beast though:

It had to be painted red as we all know, say with me, 'paint it red and it goes faster!'

I did enjoy the following in the instructions of the 'Snazzwagon':

Turns out it isn't 'quite difficult' it's downright impossible. I ended up snapping his wrist on the arm holding the rollbar. Some extra Tamiya and a pair tweezers solved the issue though.

 The whole project involved building it, pausing midway through, painting details that no-one would see, then continuing the build. I can assure you there is realistic leather super tiny cracking detail on the seat rest of the driver that noone will ever see. All the effort went on the interior and the outer shell you can see was a rush job as I began to tire...

I never thought I'd do it again

Meet Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. I've painted him

 before (the guy on the right). That is the model from

 the 90's, but why did I feel the need to supplement 

with buying the brand new version? Yep, they are the

 same Ork. Something to do with Orks getting a lot 

bigger if they survive long enough to live a long life. 

Well, no I am not taking up 40K again after a many year hiatus. I still think the new modern game is no longer in the spirit of what I discovered back in the 90's. I kind of accidently made this army.

It all started with finding a bargain, a handful of modern Orks were looking like a bargain in one of those bit part magazines. So, I bought a few just for the painting exercise. Instead of painting in a classic Goblin Green, I thought I would try a modern colour scheme. 

It was fun, so I bought a few more, until I had four squads of ten.

After all, I had to try the other options out for combinations of weapons.

They were super fun to paint. A base coat of Orruk Flesh (Orruk? I mean really? Orks people, Orks. It's bad enough they changed it to a K rather than a C) With a wash over of Plaguebearer Flesh on top makes a great looking modern Ork flesh look. The rest was just colouring in the details of their clothes and weapons. Finding and painting all those teeth (some not in the mouth) was the tricky bit.

Well, I had made a start now, next I got some Deffkopta's as they looked fun too. It gave me a chance to try out some free hand checker pattern work.

So now I practically had the beginning of a small army, I felt like I had to continue. The Dreadnought was a bit tricky as it was split between two issues of the magazine. I don't subscribe so it was a risk buying part one as there was no guarantee I would get part two. Luckily, the super helpful staff at my local WHSmiths put the issue to one side for me and I could finish the dread.

Well, we are nearly there at this point. So I had a delve through my other boxes and found a reasonably modern Ork with a big gun that I had picked up in a job lot of older Orks recently. I just needed to repaint the base as it was a lovely Goblin Green.

Of course, no Ork army is complete without some Grots to be bullied, so we needed a couple of Orks to encourage them forward. The kit has two different build options, so I had to do them both. I love the pet Squig.

Grots are one of the best inventions in the GW lore. I feel for the poor little underdogs. I highly recommend reading the Mike Brooks Ork trilogy of novels, it gives you an insight into just how poorly treated they are, those poor Grots.

The variety in the models isn't huge, some are monopose and the rest only have one choice of arms, but you do get to choose which heads go on some bodies. 

So, I had an army. As I said I'm not intending on playing 40k any time soon, I'm going to use something like Xenos Rampant, or possibly One Page Rules (someone at the club wants to give it a go.) But an army needs a leader, so that is why I felt the definite and compulsory need to get the new Ghazghkull. His little friend Makari has not grown much in stature over the years, but the rumour is it isn't actually the same guy (they just keep the same name to avoid upsetting the Boss.)

I've worked out I have around 2000 points worth for One Page Rules so I think that will be plenty for now. This has been a fun exercise in modern style but I do miss the Goblin Green bases. (I will not miss building kits that have over 40 parts for one model!)

Double hobby challenge update

 I know, I know I missed January. I was busy though, busy posting on the Analogue Hobbies Challenge over here. (I go by the label PeterB, the link should take you to a list of my posts). I have just about managed to keep up with the self inflicted target of posting at least once a week. I have managed to kill at least three brushes and had to buy extra paint on numerous occasions. Yes, February is almost over too, but thanks to it being a leap year, I have an extra day to get this blog posted! 

I have been using the Analogue Challenge to encourage myself to continue with the plan of recreating a second edition style 40K tabletop game. Only in models though probably, more than likely I will use Xenos Rampant rules. I have not been able yet to find a reasonably priced period Ork Dreadnought though, so in true cheapskate style I recreated a copy of the cardboard standee Dread that came with the 2nd edition starter set. I made a base for it out of an old slotta base and added some bits of sprue offcut to make a raised slot for the card to slip in.

The project is not yet done though, I have a period Ork Warlord model to paint and I am looking for some kind of battlewagon proxy. I will probably also paint up a Rhino and some Devastator Space Marines, both of which I already have. They just need a strip and repaint.

The Illustrious Opponent has also announced a Hobby Challenge for the beginning of the year that I couldn't say no to. A version of a Tale of Four Gamers, each of us has an equivalent of £30 each month starting January to buy models for a 20mm WW2 force. Once we have enough, the Illustrious Opponent intends to host a gaming day with scenarios designed to test them. In honour of one of our number having emigrated to Australia, I declared I would try an Australian force. 

They have been fun to paint, mainly because most of the work is done by the Sepia wash they all get. I paint them a base white, the webbing tan and the socks brown and tan. Then the model gets a wash and then extra details are added. 20mm is a new scale to me, large enough that I can manage to paint them without squinting, small enough that I don't get lost in painting loads of detail. (In fact I basically paint them with the level of detail I used to paint 28mm!) 

In other news the local club has been dipping a toe into the new Warhammer the Old World rules. Obviously getting hold of any models for said rules is like finding hens teeth. Luckily regular readers with good memory will recall the Night Goblin army I painted up back in July 22. It's almost like I predicted the rules would come back! I decided to paint up one more unit for them to add that extra character and will be giving the army it's first outing next week. I expect to get a proper drumming of course, newly painted model syndrome will most likely be in effect. (Plus I am a terrible Warhammer commander)

I have also been playing a fair bit of Masters of the Universe at the club. Its nice to actually get the models on the table after all that painting, especially with all that terrain I had to paint. I'm looking forward to Salute in April when I can hopefully get my hands on the Princess of Power herself, She-Ra. With Swift Wind obviously.  Finally, in a similar style I have been painting some models from Crooked Dice. People of my vintage may recognise them...

These were super fun to paint. The sculpts from Crooked Dice are really high quality. It's nice that you can still get good quality metal models.  It isn't all plastic or 3D printed yet.