Bad Moon Warphead (Part 3)

Finished!

As I said in part 2, the painting on the main miniature was almost done. The next step was to work out how I wanted the bells to appear. Using Shining Gold, I painted it up to gold first, but as I suspected, it clashed too much with the Bad Moon Yellow garments.

Shining Gold bells.

So I toned them back to a more copper-like look by applying a red ink wash over the gold. I liked how this turned out.

After this I finished it off by painting the teeth on the Warphead and the double-moons on his staff. One of the final steps was dry brushing Snot Green onto his hair. I really liked how that turned out also.

Finished painting on the main miniature.

The hero base had another layer applied to it. For this layer I used Indian Red, an Apple Barrel craft paint, which is a good rusty-like color to use for this sort of thing. I am debating with myself (something I find myself doing with more alarming frequency as I age...) with exactly how I want to this thing to out. I am strongly considering making it match the snowy ruins I painted for my local gaming store back in January.

Indian Red layer. 

Inspired by the model from January I kind of just went for it and knocked out the base fairly fast. I added the patina by sponging it on, and the orange rust was done with deliberate applications of Orange Ink.

Finisbed base.

The most stressful stage was removing the miniature from it's old base. Being metal it could chip easily if not carefully handled. I wrapped him in a paper towel while I used a pin-vice to drill two holes into his feet.

Pinned feet.

I painted the bottom of the pins with white paint and while they were still wet, placed them on the base where I wanted him to go. This left two dots which I then turned into two holes with the pin-vice. After that, he was fitted on with superglue.

Glued into position.

I am tempted to add a marine head to the top step behind the Warphead, but I am trying to decide if it really needs it or not... I can always add one later I suppose.

Rear view.

And there we have it, a leader for my Bad Moon battalion! A classic, yet rarely seen, miniature from the later days of Warhammer 2nd Edition, updated for the current game. Hopefully he'll perform better than my Goff Weird Boy has so far.

Warhound Titan's eye view.

Now, back to the Meganobz...

Bad Moon Warphead (Part 2)

Continuing on from the first part of this saga, I have made considerable progress on this warp-crazed ork. He is almost done. Here are the steps that got him up to this point:

Primed.

A fairly "no frills" step, but Chaos Black spray is expensive so why not celebrate it? The next pic is  a basecoat on the stairs. I haven't done anymore than this to it so far, so expect more in depth discussion on this piece in Part 3 or 4.

Basecoat on the base.

The ork flesh was basecoated using Caliban Green. The yellow parts were basecoated in Fiery Orange. The "black" area had a layer of an old Citadel dark blue color (the name of which alludes me currently -it is from the old Epic set) applied to it.

Basecoats.

Goblin Green was the next layer on the flesh, which was followed by a wash of green/yellow ink.

Goblin Green!

Sunburst Yellow was painted over the Fiery Orange. But I felt it need a bit more depth... as did the "black" areas. I drybrushed on some Shadow Grey highlights to those areas.

Sunburst Yellow

Applebarrel Kiwi was layered on the flesh. Nuln Oil was washed over the "black" area to tone them back down. I used two washes of Nuln Oil to get the look I was happy with.

Kiwi on the flesh.

The added depth came to me in the form a fairly new color that I have added to my palete; Bloodletter! This was washed over the Sunburst Yellow.

Bloodletter ink wash.

Sunburst Yellow was this carefully applied over the this layer, and I think this worked well improviding the depth in tone that I sought. I may go back to the Meganobs and apply these steps also, but I have yet to scrutinize them in this regard. Sunburst yellow was also applied to the flesh as a final highlight.

Sunburst yellow 2nd application.

Next, I turned my attention to the yellow highlights. I used Bad Moon Yellow for this. I mean, it's only proper, right?

Bad Moon Yellow highlights.

I used an old Ral Partha Bronze on the bells and staff. These are not done, as I will likely take them up to Shinning Gold before I probably bring them back down with an ink wash.

Bronze on the bells.

And that is where I was forced to stop. Until next time!

Bad Moon Warphead (Part 1)

This project was initiated rather quickly. However I have only just begun it and there has been way too little progress to show you much, so first, a manifesto if you will:

As some of you know, I have been working on my Bad Moon Mega Armor Nobz and that, along with my recent nostalgia kick with the 2nd edition era Goffs, had got me thinking about how to truly complete this army. I know, some of you scoff (Da Masta Cheef likely just sprayed his morning drink across his monitor), but I do aspire to it. This vision of mine is rooted in the 'Ere We Go/2nd Edition Codex Orks approach to how a Waaargh comes together: mobs of Orks, gather from a variety of Clans to rally behind the strongest leader. The variety of clans favor certain combat roles and aspects from each other.

Since 3rd edition came along I really only thought about painting my Orks like Goffs, but this approach felt... incomplete. I loved my 2nd edition orks. I had Snakebites, Goffs, Bad Moons, Blood Axes, Deathskulls and Evil Suns all rallied under one leader and it was cool. But when 3rd edition came about the clans were greatly marginalized. The Design Studio had come to feel that the clanz were getting a bit too silly and wanted to return them to the earlier days of Rogue Trader when they were more maruader-like. Which is fine, but damnit couldn't we have the best of both worlds? In time, the clanz returned and we now do, indeed, have the best of both worlds.

And I am embracing it. My idea is to break my forces up into micro-armies. Battalions are probably the best way to represent this idea. Each specifically favoring a clan theme. As you can see from the two links in the 1st paragraph, the Goffs and Bad Moons are rolling along. I have huge plans for Blood Axes as well. They will dominate this blog at some future point. Deathskulls will mostly be my Lootas with a few Boyz mobz and some support. Evil Suns will be the vehicles and mechanized support. And my Snakebitz will be last simply due to the amount of time and space I will need for the Squigoth and also because there hasn't been a proper Feral Ork list in years!

And each of these will need a leader. Ror Ruk is my Goff Warlord usually. And I have ideas on who the Blood Axe and Deathskull Warlords will be. But I was stuck on the Bad Moon one. And earlier this evening it leapt out of the case at me: the classic Bad Moon Warphead!!! The really crazy one!

The crazed Badmoon Warphead.

And instead of trying to finish those Meganobz (you can see them lurking in the background) I set about starting on this guy. I was right about to greenstuff up his base to match the expanded bases on the Meganobz when I decided that he needed something a bit more....epic. Or rather heroic. Then I remembered the Hero Bases set, the first of which was used on She Who Milks,  the second one is being used on a Chaos character I have yet to post about (I think you guys will like that chap) and now this one, the broken Imperial Stairs.

A stairway to the stars.

I chose to use this one because the box for this basing kit has on it a Space Marine Librarian looking all powerful and bad-ass while standing on these stairs. I figured this Warphead, also being a psyker, will look like a defiant power-mad villain daring the gods to challenge him!

I added a few skulls to the stairs prior to taking it, and the Warphead, out for priming. But I might add more before it's all done. The Dark Angel heads are always a hit after all...

Good health to you.