WAAAAAGH GORMATH (Month 4 Completed!)

[Disco Stu]

Yeah the Shokk attack gun is a cool piece of kit, but you are right that every ork and his squig uses one. If I were to get a Big Mek for my orks I'd probably get the one with the force field generator on his back.

[ash]

That is also a great model. I may even have a go at mashing the two together....

[majordodo]

Sounds awsome. I dont care if everyone uses it i still <3 the shokk attak gun. so much fun to be had, especially when you fail your rolls and get teleported into the fray!

[ash]

Time for me to report in!

Well what have I done in the 2 days since this all began?

Well Saturday was the release of the much anticipated Assault on Black Reach and man the wait was worth it!
There are so many miniatures in this box!
They are all of high quality and it really feels like you are getting what you paid for. This really does have the same feel as it that Battle for Skull Pass has for Fantasy.

Anyways I bought 2 of the suckas!
After having a general look at everything and spending some quality time fondling my Nobs I sat down and started some major assembly.

My first goal was to make as many of the boys as unique looking as possible. This was no mean feat as the models are made up of the same components and many are clones but there is enough different parts to get a unique look to each model. I sat down and divided each of the pieces into like piles and proceeded to grab one bit here and one bit there making sure the same legs/torso did not receive the same head or weapon more than once. Upon completion of this I sat back and yakked the rest of the day away at the Dice and Deck before leaving.

The next day I returned and and started the much hated process of demoldlining....
I barely made it through 20 Ork Boyz before chucking it in for the day. I ended up finishing the demoldlining at my place in front of the TV while watching Aliens on DVD. I spent the entire time with my head down as I scraped away at the joins in my models until I was finished. Some may say this was a waste of the movie but I have seen it that many times that I can place the scenes to the sounds in my head.

Tuesday will see me adding further pieces to certain models in order to give even more variety to the clones and I should end up with 2 nice looking Boyz units!

I will also be picking up a Shokk Attak Gun in order to begin my Big Mek conversion. This will utilise the Ork Warboss from AOBR and of course the Shokky itself. Not exactly sure how i'm going to go about this but I have a few ideas.

Wednesday will see a major chroming session as I bulk undercoat the 20 Boyz and Big Mek down at the store and after that its painting time!

I'll knock the skin on every one over in a day or two (Thursday and Friday) then do all the metal over the weekend. After that its just a matter of painting straps and cloth with a nice camo scheme and jobs a good 'un!

Pics will be posted tomorrow of the work I have done so far!

[ash]

As promised here is some pics!

First off the bat is a picture of the new Orc Warboss from the Battle for Black Reach.




I included the above photo for those who have not yet seen this awesome model and to also give a comparison for the following shots:




These shots are of my Big Mek in the making. There is still a ways to go on it yet but so far this is what I have done.

I was not going to use a Shokk Attak gun in my original army as I thought that it was getting a little tiring seeing everyone use this model. Its an awesome model but I like to be a little bit different. The sway towards the hilarity of the weapon itself was enough to get me to do this conversion.

(forgive the previous paragraph as I am very tired right now... I think I have contradicted myself or something not sure though. Anyways I decided on the conversion and thats all that matters!)

The model is obviously based on the new plastic Ork Warboss from Black Reach. I converted him with parts from the Bog Mek with Shokk Attak Gun as well as a bunch of space marine offcuts for the backpack/power pack.

The composition of the model itself is a little busy with no real focal point for your eyes to zoom in on and the lines itself draw your vision all over the place but I'm still happy with it. I think it looks suitably orky!

There are at least 10 pins holding the guy together especially when it came to attaching the gun to his body and the head.

The biggest challenge for me was extending the vacuum hose out to his Power Klaw. The nozzle was originally going to be slung under his arm but that made the model look way too bulky. In the end I opted for the final position out of necessity and ease of construction. I did not fancy putting too many bends in the hose and as Jacob pointed out:

"He can now smash his opponents with the claw and fire them back at their comrades!"

Their is nothing I could think of worse than having your commanders remains fired into your power armour through the warp! Hilarious.

The hose itself is sculpted around a few paper clips. The detailing layer is yet to be started so it looks a little plain right now but fear not, all will look good soon.

I had intended the Mek to have the weapon raised at the ready but this bought all sorts of compilations and although it would have made for a better composed miniature I was just not going to deal with those troubles.

I have a few wires and tubes left to model as well as a sling to attach the middle of the hose to the backpack. This will add strength to the model as well as justify the odd stiff looking nature of the hose which in reality would be hanging a little looser.

Anyways until next time please comment on the model.

[Disco Stu]

Jeez that came up altight didn't it! Nice use of the Nobs head for the warboss, I really like iron gobs. And the warboss miniature is one of the best plastic kits they've ever made.

[majordodo]

Yeah thats looking spectacular! I look forward to targetting it with my venerable dred's missile launchers

[ash]

Ba'h, Venerable schmenerable....

Heres an update of the work I have done on it since yesterday.

I have finished sculpting the vacuum hose and added a chain and collar to help keep it off the ground. I have also added some cables coming from the Meks head leading back into his power pack.

I also removed the banner pole which allows a better look at all da gubbins.

Heres the pics:




(sorry about the quality of the pics)

I'm pleased with how the vacuum tube sculpt turned out (but it was fiddly as hell to get all the stitching done!) I basically built it up over the plain green that was completed yesterday. I added another thin layer of greenstuff which was left to cure for about 10 minutes as I cut out some geometric shapes to break up the otherwise drab look.

I then attached the shapes and jabbed the end of a paper clip in order to make little holes at regular intervals around the outside edges.

I rolled out a very thin sausage of greenstuff which I cut into 4mm lengths and pushed laid them over the edges and into a hole at either end. This created the stitching effect.

I also took a look at the left over parts from the original Big Mek model and found the snotling that was originally meant to be sucked into the vacuum backwards. I thought I should really add him in somewhere as it was one of the more characterful parts of the model.

He now cranks up some part of the weapon!



Now all I need is a base and to paint it all up.

Tomorrow will be a Epic Undercoat Session so get into the store for a free high!

[majordodo]

Wow thats looking awsome!

[ash]

Quick Update....
The last two days have been spent at the D&D undercoating and painting the flesh onto 40 ork boyz, 5 kommandos and the Big Mek conversion.
Have a bit to do on the Komms and Meks skin but that should be finished tonight.
Tommorrow will be spent painting lots of metal which will give me a real good look at how its all shaping up.

Pics soon!

[ash]

As I said in my last post there will be Pics and here are a few.
I spent the day painting up some of the metal on my orcs and knocking out the rest of the flesh on my boys.

I have changed from my original color scheme for the skin and have instead opted for the following:

Black Undercoat
Knarloc Green Base
Rotting Flesh Drybrush
Thraka Green Wash (nobs get 2 of these)
Gryphonne Sepia Wash

This gave a very green look but still kept it muted down with a slightly brown hue. I am very happy with the way it turned out.





As you can see the metal is extremely dull and this was intentional. My Orks are from the Blood Axe clan fighting in my ruined cityfight terrain and as its a very drab looking place I wanted the models to fit in. I have no intention for my models to 'pop' out. I like them to match their surroundings.

The metal was achieved with the following sequence of paints and washes:

Boltgun Metal Drybrush
Badab Black Wash
Chainmail Drybrush

During my over enthusiastic drybrushing of the Rotting Flesh on my Orks skins I did make a large mess of the models getting paint where it should not be. At first I began tidying up with Chaos Black preparing for the Boltgun Drybrush but this got tiring really quick. I ended up just drybrushing the Boltgun Metal straight over the top and what RF that did not mask the Badab Black did!

I was very pleased for this shortcut.

The metal still has a few effects to be completed on it (keening of the sharp edges with Mithral Silver and rust simulated through various paints and washes) but should be a good un soon.

I have only completed 10 models to this stage so that makes it 30 to go!

ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

[ash]

Whoops I forgot to add that the barrels of ALL weapons will be drilled out and the eyes will be toned down with the application of Baal Red Wash.

Clothes will be next with all bands being given the leather treatment and pants being done in camo!

[Disco Stu]

That flesh turned out pretty good, I like it. Your ork weapons look very similar to mine.

[ash]

Cheers
I still have a bit of work to do on the weapons like picking out some minor details and drilling out the barrels but they are pretty much done.

How goes your painting?

[Disco Stu]

Ah nothing to report unless you want me to talk about brown......

[majordodo]

Nice man, those orks are lookin pretty awsome. Just done accidently drill straight out the side of the barrel like i did to one of my bolt pistols lmfao

[ash]

I now have 40 ork boyz done to the same degree as the above pics...
It was certainly hellishly frustrating to paint the same thing over and over again but that is now out of the way.

Now all I got to do on the Boyz is the leather straps, packs, pants, shirts and boots......

Good Grief!

The leather will be a siple job of Khemri Brown followed by a Devlan Mud Wash. This will also be the same finish I throw on the packs to make a speedy job of the painting.

Still not sure what I am doing with the pants and shirts though but will probably alternate between Camo shirts and pants on different models leaving the remaining areas a dirty dark grey (Yes, I like my models dark)

Boots will all be blackish achieved once again through foundation paints and citadel washes. God how I love these things!

Pics soon.

[ash]

A slight change in plan regaring the color scheme.
Originally camoflage was going to adorn every piece of cloth minus the shirts but I was slightly bored and chucked some shadow grey with a layer of Asurman wash on the arm bands and gloves and I must say the result is very nice!

I was almost tempted to change from Bloodaxes to Deathskulls but decided against this in order to keep with my original plan.

Now different colored armbands and gloves will denote different mobs.

But I think i'll be adding some Deathskulls down the line sometime in order to show off the awesome blue!

Pics soon!

[ash]

Jeebus was that an undertaking!

I actually finished the first month!
I'lll put up a more detailed account of my month and photos when Meg gets back from Price....

[ash]

Finally got the pictures onto the computer but Photobucket is being a pain in the A!
Will try again tomorrow. You will be able to check out my Bigmek with Shokk Attak And Powerclaw and both squads of 20 Orc Boys led by a Nob with Big Choppa and Boss Pole. Each Mob has two Big Shootas.

My points total at the moment is about 450pts but can be increased to 500 if needed (Stikk Bomms for all the boys adds another 40 points and I'll chukk some upgrades on the Big Mek that I have not yet taken.

I also have had my first 500pt fight with the army in which I beat the hell out of some Chaos Marines. First turn lucky shot with the Shokk Attak Gun reduced two units who were bunched up considerably. The remnants ended up falling to my Ork Shooting (I know that sounds dodgy but I got lucky with the heavy Shootas).

His second turn saw his Daemon Prince swoop in and kill 6 boyz only to die the turn after due to something like 50 choppa Attaks.

Then it was just a simple job to close in on the havoks and knock them out. All was nicely tidied up on turn 6.



What is happening this month....

I have started work on this months miniatures and they will be taking the form of a squad of 5 Deff Koptas 3 with Rokkits, Big Bomms and Buzz Saws and 2 with just the basic twin linked Shootas. They will be fairly heavily converted using bits from the Orc Bikes box and all my other left over bits.

I will also be throwing in a unit of 8-10 Nobs armed in various ways.

I may even pump out a Warboss which means I'll have 3 scoring units at the end of this month (2 Orc Boy Mobs from last month and the Nobs from this month)

I am also painiting up some Rokkit Boys to switch out my Big Shootas in my mobs depending on opponents.

As for the bonus points activity... Will probably be in theme with my looter style army. Maybe some boyz stripping down a crashed speeder or something. Would make for a nice objective marker too!

So thats whats to look forward too over the next 30 or so days. I am pleased with my progress and the effort I put in this month will see me playing even bigger games (1000pts) with a fully painted assortment of minis.

Can't wait for month 3... all the really fun things come out then to play!