Waaagh Mo'Dakka - Dakkajet painted

Another week, and another Kill Point completed for the Dark Future Games Kill Point Painting Contest League Thing. Hit the link for more awesome work from Old School Terminator, CVinton and the rest of the DFG crew!

I couldn't ignore the roar of Mork and Gork in my head any longer - they demanded I "Stop paintin' dem humie gits and work on sumfink Orky fer a change". I honestly needed a little break from the white and blue of the World Eaters and the Dakkajet was just the thing!

 

There are still a number of Orks lurking in the Closet of Doom, consisting of a number of different clans - I have a predilection for the Bad Moons (as my last name is Moon), but I like to include other clans as well for fluff purposes and in order to give me an opportunity to paint other color schemes. It seemed to me that the Dakkajet ought to be painted up in Speed Freek/Evil Sunz colors - which also allows for the use of the "Red Paint Job" upgrade.

 

I usually go with a heavily weathered look on my Orks, though the technique is rather different than how I've been doing the Marines. Rather than paint it up pristine and then weather it down, I started by giving the entire plane a heavy metal drybrush, then went over the main panels with the red paint colors, leaving the edges of the armor plates' metal finish exposed. I painted a couple of the panels various other shades of red to add to the ramshackle look, and added some yellow flames  to give it some spot color.

I thought the underside of the plane needed something, and a little insult from the pilot seemed appropriate! Overall I have to say this kit was an absolute blast to build and paint, and the amount of options and bits provided in the kit were fantastic. I'm quite looking forward to building a Blitza-Bomma at some point soon!

But for now, back to the World Eaters!

Waaagh Mo'Dakka rises?

So I've been doing really well keeping on task with the World Eaters recently. Feeling good about the progress, and am on track to finish up the army in another month or so. There haven't been any hobby distractions recently that would... interupt my... um...

Dammit.

Da Soopa Grotz - Ork Killa Kans

Not a lot of hobby time this weekend, but I did manage to finish up the three Killa Kans I've dubbed "Da Soopa Grotz". I absolutely love the new Killa Kan models, they provide for some excellent conversion material, as well as just being a fun kit to assemble as intended!

I knew I wanted to model them stomping around, that was a given! I also wanted to advantage of the Gretchin pilot's staggering BS3 and armed them all with Rokkits. Originally I was going to run another trio called "Da Doopa Grotz", but instead rendered the kit down for bits for other nefarious projects...

Da big, bad, biker boyz!

A bit more progress on Da Orks over the last week - I decided that I'd take some time and finish up the Nob Bikers. I'd purchased the Ork Warboss on a Bike from Forgeworld as the model is just beautiful. On the other hand though, while I do like the look of the FW Nob Bikers, I find them to be prohibitively expensive, so I built mine out of the bits that come from the GW plastic warbikers.

The warboss is a seriously imposing model, and I really liked that they included a terrain base to go along with it. The model was missing a bracket for one of the mudguards, but rather than write them for a replacement for such a little bit I just made one out of plasticard and called it good. Once it was primered you can't even tell the difference.

I did make two specialist Nobs that aren't available via the regular plastic kits. First up, the requisite Painboy. I used a few bits from the Trukk sprues and build an 'Urty Syringe out of some plasticard, a slugga and some guitar string. I also included a Grot Assistant on a little fighting platform - he carries the anasthetic (in the form of a big club)!

Lastly, my favorite of the models, the Waaagh Banna. I wanted to build him in such a way that he really looks like a raving loon, so instead of sitting in the saddle, he's standing on it, steering with his foot and shouting. It worked out pretty well - he looks like a lunatic!

With that, I'm deciding what project to work on next, I think it may be time to swing back over into the Ad-Mech and work on the Scions of Mars for a while...

Ruzzbot - Proxy Battlewagon, Part 2

Spent some time finishing up the Ruzzbot - I kept it fairly simple, going for the 'less is more' approach on a vehicles of this size. I think I may end up weathering the edges a bit more, it ended up looking a touch too 'clean' on the upper portion of the hull.

Overall I'm happy with how it's turned out - at this point I'm considering what to paint up next. It's a toss-up between more Orks (likely the Stormboyz) or taking a crack at the Hypaspists for the Adeptus Mechanicus army...  Hmm.

Ruzzbot - Proxy Battlewagon, Part 1

I spent some time working on the Ruzzbot - Holy moly was it a whole lot of Yellow! I started off by giving the whole model a fairly heavy dry-brush of Boltgun Metal and overlaid that with Blazing Orange and Fiery Orange on the parts that I intended to end up yellow. Once I had the oranges laid down, I went back over them with Golden Yellow, and did some extreme edges with Sunburst Yellow. I find that GW yellows are too translucent to cover properly directly over a black primer, but an orange undercoat has fair coverage and 'shines' through giving the yellow a nice rich glow.

Once I had that done I went back over the model and tided up the parts that I want to be exposed metal with Black and Boltgun Metal once again.

After that I started blocking in the various black flames and checkerboard patterns, though they still need highlighting. Plenty of detail work remains to be done as well, but it feels good to have the majority of it complete!

In game, the Ruzzbot is a counts-as Battlewagon with the 'Ard Case and Kilcannon upgrades, as well as a Reinforced Ram and 4 Big Shootas. The big claw is represented in game by both the Grabbin' Klaw and Wrecking Ball upgrades. I also wanted to include a dedicated-transport Battlewagon but opted to keep the points cost relatively low - 4 Big Shootas and a Deffrolla. It's intended for the Bad Moon Nobz so it will also need to get the yellow treatment!

Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated...

Well it's been a seriously hectic past three weeks and I had very little hobby time unfortunately - Real Life(tm) had me very, very busy. Couple that with the fact that I managed to misplace my camera for the better part of a week and I was unable to take any pictures of the little bit of modeling and painting I did manage to complete. However, the camera was found, and I was finally able to snap a few pictures!

As I'd mentioned I was suffering from "Guard Guilt" as I haven't done much work on them recently. I took a bit of time and assembled the Thudd Gun I'd picked up a while back and got the initial base colors on the model. Can I just say that I am sick to death of the red/grey paint scheme? I suppose that's bound to happen after painting 5000+ points in that scheme, but I have to say it's getting harder and harder to get excited about painting it.

During the downtime I got the most recent package from Forge World so I took a little time to build and paint up the Mekboss Buzzgob that I'm using for my Bad Moon Bigmek. I really enjoyed his oiler grots, especially the faux-Opus Machina one of them is carrying!

While I was at it I cranked out the AoBR warboss in Bad Moon colors to accompany the unit of Nobs. 10 PK-and-Big Choppa-wielding Nobs and a Warboss makes for a darn scary unit!

Also in the box of FW goodies was the belly gun and head for the Stompa. I'd never assembled a Stompa before and it was way more involved than I expected although it was a hoot to build. The FW additions to the kit? Not so much. The parts were warped rather badly and even after hours of hot water dips and bending they still didn't seem to fit very well. I ended up having to utilize a fair bit of plasticard and rivets to cover up a few unsightly gaps, but once it was primered you can't really tell the difference. I left the arms separate to facilitate painting, we'll see how that goes. It's going to be a lot of black and yellow once it's done!

Last but not least, one other package arrived - the Iron Brotherhood models I'd ordered way back in April for use as Hypaspists for my Adeptus Mechanicus army. Due to the Yyjafjallajokull eruptions, the order was delayed for the better part of a month. Disappointing, but hey, what can ya do? The models were cleanly cast and although they looked a little static initially, a bit of mix-and-match with the arms and weapons sorted that out. They were nice enough to throw in a set of extra models as an apology for the delay so I'll be building a unit of Sagittarii (heavy weapons teams) as well, though I'm still pondering how I want to build the weapons platforms.

Here's hoping this month will be more conducive to hobby work!

Da Sunz and Da Moonz...

Ron's recent collaborative post got me thinking about army composition and theme, and though I didn't have the means to participate at the time (cursed scrapcode!) I thought I'd share "Da Kunnin' Plan" along with some pics of the other recently-accomplished lads!

When I was planning the army, I knew I wanted a strong visual theme. My last foray into the Orks was almost exclusively Bad Moons, and while it turned out quite striking, I also remember suffering from Green-And-Yellow fatigue pretty quickly. To that end I settled on a 'two army' approach; One group led by a Bad Moon Bigmek and his Dreadmob, the Nobs and a Shoota Boys Bigmob (after all, the Bad Moons have more Teef and are more likely to own their own Shoota). The other group would be led by an Evil Sunz warboss, and his packs of Nob Bikers, Warbikers, and Trukk Boyz, and would allow me to switch back and forth between the red and yellow palettes and hopefully stave off the dreaded Army Painter's Fatigue, 

After I painted the Nobs, I thought I'd take a crack at the Evil Sunz Trukkmob - it would allow me to test the paint scheme on a couple boyz before committing to a particular method for the Warboss and all the bikers (that, and it's always good to get Troops choices painted). In doing so I found that the flame motif also serves to tie the two forces together artistically - an unintended but pleasant realization! Painting flames is a bit of a struggle for me, but I'm pleased with how they turned out more or less.

While I was at it I finished off Stompy Da Deff Dread. In looking at it now, I think I need to go back in and add some more flames and/or checkerboard patterns to the front of the main hull. Overall though, I have to say I LOVED assembling and painting this model. ...I should have waited to attach the arms until AFTER I painted it, but love it nonetheless!

While the army will be predominately Bad Moons and Evil Sunz, there are a couple other clans that will be represented in the army as well. The Kommandos and Stormboyz will be from the Blood Axe clan, and will give me a chance to try out some excellent camouflage tips from some of my favorite blogs. Similarly, the Lootas mob will be a bunch of thievin'gits from the Deathskullz and let me add a little bit of blue to the army as well. With the exception of the Big Mek Stompa, all of the army has been purchased and is in various stages of assembly and painting. I'm trying to avoid putting everything together until I get a few more units painted though, as I find looking at a massive pile of unpainted models is rather demoralizing!

However, Mork and Gork will have to wait, as I'm feeling the twinges of Guard Guilt again, so it's back to the Mordian 7th for a turn! I'm thinking it's time the Thudd Gun got some paint...

We's da biggest, an' da strongest! Redux, Part 2 - Complete!

My main cogitator's machine spirit recently suffered from a bout of scrapcode and required many hours of devotions and prayers to the Machine God before it was deemed pure of spirit and functional once more. In the mean time (what with my main entertainment/distraction device on the fritz) I managed to get a fair bit of painting done!

I built the Bad Moon Nobz Mob in two parts - five Nobz with Big Choppas (one of which carries the Waaagh Banna)...

...And five Nobz with Power Klaws. The intent is that I'll be able to mix and match for points and perceived threat, as well as allowing me the option of breaking up the Shoota Boyz bigmob up into smaller units.

Finally, the requisite Painboy. My vision for the army is for the Bad Moons contingent to be very Mek oriented and include a number of walkers. As such there really needs to be a painboy or two to "see to da ladz wot have wires stuck in their 'eads."

In finishing these models I've also come to terms with the fact that I'm going to need to re-base my entire Mordian 7th in a similar scheme to what's shown here. The thought of the 100+ bases that are going to need to be done makes me cringe, but I think the effort will be worth it...

We's da biggest an' da strongest! Redux, part 1

Not a whole lot of hobby time recently, as the new incarnation of the band I'm in had our first gig and we spent a lot of time polishing up the tunes over the last week. However, I did manage to get a little paint on the first unit in the new Ork army: Nazbog's Bad Moon Nobs:

One of my goals with this army is to try out some new units, and build some new kits. When I build the last Ork army the new Nobs kit wasn't yet available, so I went with the ever-popular Fantasy Black Orc route. This time around however I wanted to take a whack at the new Nobs kit and overall I had a blast building the models. The Big Choppas are awesome, and the Power Klaws had a lot of variation. Plenty of head variants and trophies meant that even though I combined bits from two boxes, each nob turned out rather different from the rest, which I really liked.

Still a bit of work to do on the models of course - all the leather, wood and gold, plus all the requisite black flames and scowling moons. The Waaagh Banna is from the Ogre Bulls kit if memory serves, otherwise the unit is pretty much straight out of the box. In the pics there are two more Nobs than are strictly allowed by the FOC - Two of the Nobs are going to be set aside for those times when I feel like breaking the planned 30-strong shoota boyz bigmob into 3 10-strong units.

I have to say that I absolutely love building Orks. Each model has so much character - the new sculpts are absolutely awesome, and I love all the extra bits GW include. While I feel the new Cadian and Catachan command sprues are awesome in that regard, the recent re-cut guard vehicles have been a letdown for me.

So far I've enjoyed painting this unit, but later when I'm contemplating assembly-line painting 40-some-odd boyz I'll probably change my tune... Heh.

Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks...

So with the Crimson Fists as complete as they're going to get, and some Guard finished off to stave off my guilt, it's time to turn my goldfish-like attention back to Da Boyz. They will be serving a dual purpose: One, the Rogue Trader campaign I'm running is going to be taking the players into Ork-held territory in the near future, and I'll need some minis for that, and Two, they're just so much fun to build! While the Imperial Guard is hands down my favorite army, I have to say I have the best time building and converting the Orks. The seed of the new Waaagh started with the new Ork Deff Dread and Killa Kan models. I resisted for a while, but I knew eventually I was going to have to submit to the will of Mork (or possibly Gork) and so I finally picked up a box of each and got stuck in. At the moment they're just assembled, primered and have had the first drybrush of metal applied prior to blocking in the colored plates:

I am sticking to my plan of setting out with a clear idea and army list in mind for any new project. This go around with the Orks I'm planning on a core army centered around a Bad Moon Mekboy and his various 'Kontraptions', with some allied units from other clans - Evil Sunz warbikers and a Trukkmob, Blood Axe Kommandos and Stormboyz, and some Deffskull Lootas. So, the planned Waaagh Mo'Dakka Gutzmek looks something like this:

My FLGS was able to get a hold of one of the old Ork Megaforce box sets which is a fantastic deal, possibly one of the best GW has - For $200, you get about $285 worth of Orks (if you bought them separately). While that box set will provide the models for a good chunk of the army, there's still a bit more to be purchased. I intend to pick up the new Big Mek Buzzgob from Forge World to represent Mo'Dakka Gutzmek, as well as the Ork Warboss on a Warbike to lead the Evil Sunz contingent, one of the absolutely gorgeous Mega-Dreads and the Mekboy Stompa Head and Lifta-Droppa arm. Of course, it's going to require a bit of time and saving before I place that order!

In the meantime I've been rooting around in the bits boxes left over from my previous foray into the Orks to see what else I could come up with, and I was able to crank out a pair of models to represent some Big Gunz, using leftovers from the Battlewagon sprues. There is one more Kannon in the works, but somehow I've managed to run out of 60mm bases so the last one is on hold. Curses!

While I'm definitely looking forward to the frenzy of building all these models, I have to admit I'm somewhat apprehensive of painting another 60+ boyz. Ah well, it'll be back to the assembly-line method when the time comes. Whee.

One step forward, two steps back...

I actually had a free Sunday this weekend and got a fair bit of hobby time in (once I finished all the household chores that so desperately needed doing). As I'd mentioned in my previous post, I feel that I've not given my Guard the attention they deserve recently so I pulled out the handy painting chart (inspired by Admiral Drax) to see what I wanted to work on next.

First, the 'one step forward': At the moment there's a number of odds and bobs that need to be completed in the first and second platoons, so I decided I'd work on the two half-finished platoon command squads, the two sergeants for 3rd and 4th platoon, and the heavy weapons teams. Some of the models had a bit of paint on them already, but I laid them all out and got cracking to bring them all up to speed.

...And then the inevitable 'two steps back': After I spent a couple hours finishing up the faces and getting the red and grey fatigues and armor done on all of them, I decided to take a bit of a breather. My eye fell on the old-style Leman Russ model I'd picked up last week (knowing that it would soon be superseded by the new, less-customizable kits in short order), and deep within my lizard hindbrain Mork and Gork began to roar. Bowing to their will I picked up my tools and some plasticard and got stuck in.

As soon as I finish off and sell the Crimson Fists my intent is to work up another small Ork army - partially due to the fact that I'll need some Orks for use in my Rogue Trader RPG campaign soon, and also because they're just so darn much fun to build. Kitbashing is one of my very favorite things about the hobby and few armies allow for more gratuitous modeling options than the Orks! That being the case I decided I'd take a crack at building another Ruzzbot, and address some of the things that I thought could have been done better on my first attempt.

This version of the Ruzzbot will stand in as a proxy Battlewagon with a Killkannon, Grabbin' Klaw/Wreckin' Ball, and four Big Shootas. There's still quite a bit of detailing to do, but so far it's coming along more or less as planned. The best part about converting Ork vehicles is you really can just bung on parts willy-nilly and it usually ends up looking properly Orky!

I need to add a ton of rivets and plating to the sides yet, and add a bit more detail to the engine workings, but so far I'm pleased with the direction the model is taking. Waaagh Nazdakka will rise again! ...After I finish some more Guard, I swear! Heh...