The Mordheimm project seems to be progressing at a good pace! Great work on the vampire lady so far, looking forward to seeing her finished.

Thanks guys!

Bellerophon: Cheers! I also really like the Ghoul sculpts. They do look the part.

Maharg: Thank you. You are right, the model is quite tiny and the details even tinier.

Captain Brown: Haha, it seems that the Vampire has achieved the desired effect then.


Some small progress on the Vampire, but no images yet.
I was supposed to finish her this weekend, but as the weather was so nice I decided to go fishing to my parents summer cottage instead.

Nevertheless, I still have something to show you!
Both of my miniature packages arrived on Friday, yay!

Two small boxes of metal & resin goodness.


I ordered 4 different minis that could work as Dregs. I only need three, so I have to decide which of them will be left out.

First guy is a gravedigger from Reaper series. He will definitely be a part of my warband, as there is so much undead vibe in this model.
So far all my dregs have been equipped with clubs, so a shovel could work as one.


Second one is a female plague doctor kind of mini. The model itself was really interesting and I thought I could swap the bottle in her hand to something more appropriate, like a mace for example. This is a strong contestant, as I like the design.



The next two minis are from a company called "Otherworld minis".

An older fellow holding a weapon and a large backpack. Thematically this would be appropriate, as Dregs usually carry stuff around for the Vampire they serve.
The pose might be a bit too similar with the gravedigger.


The final option is this nightwatch fellow. He looks a bit like a soldier, but my thought behind this one was that he could be either an Empire deserter, or a Sylvanian mercenary willing to serve his Vampire mistress. I also managed to find a set of light armor during the campaign, so his armor would not look too much out of the place.


I'm leaning towards options 1,2 and 4. Still have to do some thinking.


This is one of the five wolves I ordered. Really nice molding work, especially for their cheap price. Only thing I find kind of funny, is how thick their... "front part" is.
Will paint three of these and see how they look. If I'm not happy, I will get a box of GW direwolves instead.


Lastly, I bought this skeleton archer. Mostly because the model was quite cool. I have a slight chance of actually using him in the campaign: If I'm able to take down a bow wielding hero and my opponent rolls badly after the game and he actually dies, my Necromancer can turn him into a zombie which will be able to keep all the equipment.



I also played my second game last Thursday. I will post a few pictures and some story about it later.
The hour is getting late and tomorrow is a big day at work.

I like the wolves. They have an offness that will fit in with the Undead band. Also the plague doctress is an inspired choice for a Dreg. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

Woohoo! It's always fun to get new minis. I'm in full agreement about minis 1 & 2, (all four a great choices). The grave digger is something I've almost bought a few times from Reaper. That plague doctor is really cool too. I'm personally more of a fan of mini 3 for your last Dreg over 4 because of the big backpack and worn appearance, but this is your warband and your decision. It's great that you spent some time fishing and enjoying nature.

That wolf does have a strange offness, seems more like a Worg than a wolf, but still a cool mini. Where did you get the wolves from? I like the skeleton archer too, nice choices all around.

Time flies.
I managed to finish the Vampire a couple of weeks ago, but did not take proper pictures until now. No progress other than that. Even skipped a second Dakka painting contest in a row.
First there was a week of intense laziness (the heat wave that rarely hits the northern lands was part of the reason), then I was away for a week on a trip to Spain with my SO and her family.
The trip was really great! I have not traveled very much, so it's always an interesting experience.
During summer I rarely feel like painting as much as doing other things anyhow.

I might not be able to paint as much as I'd like during the rest of the year either, as I'll be doing my bachelor's degree to the University of Helsinki where I work as a software developer at the moment.
To retain my sanity, I will try to squeeze in as much hobby time as possible. Sadly I might have to skip the Armies on Parade this year, as my plans for it are a bit too time consuming. Well, there is always next year

Anyhow, now I'm back and trying to get the warband finished during the summer, slowly but surely.

First things first:

Youwashock: You might be right! They are on my desk eagerly waiting for some paint.

Syro: Agreed! The smell of fresh miniatures is something one can get addicted to
You have a good point regarding the guy with the backpack. I'll paint both of them and decide which will strike my fancy.


Picture time!

The skin and the NMM gold did not turn out as well as I planned, but other than that I'm happy with it. I think the red cloth turned out better than I expected.
I'm slowly learning the quirks of the camera (EOS 450D). These pics are a bit better saturated, but the focus on the first image is a bit off. Sadly I noticed it after packing all my equipment. I might take a better front view pick when I get my stuff out the next time.

Hope you like 'em.









First try of trying to paint a NMM steel sword. The white lines could be neater, but I guess it looks the part.



Thanks for looking!

Missing your work in the painting challenge, always a good entry from you. On the plus side, it's one less entry to finish ahead of me!

Good work on the vampire. Think you're being a bit harsh on yourself, the pale skin and gold sword hilt look pretty good to me. The sword blade could do with some more light/dark contrast though

Good to see you again! She looks great. Like Maharg said, a little more pushing of the value scale on the sword would be good, but the rest is solid. That red dress, beautiful. Hopefully you are able to keep up with the painting at school.

I'm impressed with the vampire, it shows a lot of time and detail went into her. No worries about a lack of updates, I hope you enjoyed your trip, and good luck with the Bachelor's degree

Thanks guys, glad you like her!

Maharg: Haha. Might try to jump back in this month, if I can figure out something to paint! Not sure about finishing ahead of you, your work has been very good!
You might be right. I tend to be a "bit" critical when it comes to my work. It's something my friends mock about every once in a while
The tilt actually worked out pretty well. It's mostly the goblet I'm not too keen about. You are also right about the contrast on the sword. Something I need to practise more.

Youwashock: Thanks! I will do my best.

Syro: Painting her took a decent amount of hours for sure. Thank you!
Also I forgot to answer regarding the company I ordered the wolves from. They are from a Polish company called "Bitspudlo". They also have quite the sortment of cool terrain / basing pieces.


Some small last minute work happening before my third game tomorrow!


I will still have to play with a few unpainted minis, but I'm getting there!
We are having a summer break after this game, so I will hopefully have enough time to finish the warband before the fourth game.

Awesome looking vamp! Really like the tones you've gone for on the cloak and the NMM looks great too!

Good luck in tomorrow's game

That's a very nice looking vampire you've got there. She's going in the inspiration folder for when I get around to doing my Lahmian vamp.

I agree about the wolf. It looks very from heavy. Not a bad wolf all the same though.

Keep them coming.

Very nice work all around!

Thank you very much everyone!

Howie: Glad to hear! I'm happy she could be used as an inspiration.


A week has passed since we played the "turn 3" of the campaign.
My undead, "The Lost and Forgotten" as they are now called, faced a possessed warband "The Bloodbenders" in a bloody battle on the streets of Mordheim.

A warpstone infused mage called "Medumar the Magnificent" has accidentally cast a disorienting spell covering the battlefield, causing warriors to lose their way.
Game play wise this meant some interesting rules for deployment. Half of the models from each warband had to be randomly given to the opposing player.
After that the board was divided into four equal squares. We would then take turns deploying models (our own and the opponent's) to each square in a way, that the next model would be placed into the next square clockwise. We would continue this until all the models had been placed.
Deploying this way was really interesting, as it offered some tactical choices.

As the game started, I had a huge model advantage: My model count was 15 and my opponent's only 6.
The scales were pretty even still, as "The Bloodbenders" had a really strong mercenary (from the campaign market) and two Possessed monsters.

The game itself was just a regular skirmish. The winner would be the last warband standing.
A few special rules were in play: During the first turn, charging, shooting or spellcasting were not allowed, as all the warriors were too disoriented.
During the first four turns of the game, no warband could rout from the field, but every model failing an all alone test (LD test when fighting alone against more than one enemy warrior) would run away from the battle.

The deployment done. All the characters are scattered all over the battlefield. The dice were used to mark the deployment squares.


I packed my models in a hurry before work, so this happened during transportation
Luckily this can be fixed carefully with some hot water.



I tried to deploy the models in a way, that I would have the upper hand in every square possible. It was not hard, as I had almost three times more models than the Possessed.
I managed to deploy the slow moving mercenary warrior to the corner in way, that he would not be a threat during the early turns of the game.

During the first turn, both warbands moved around the battlefield trying to find a good charging angle.
My deployment plan paid off during the second turn, as I was able to get a Direwolf, The Vampire and one Dreg against a single Mutant. Even though the mutant had an armor save of 3+, I was able to finish him off during a single round of combat.
I was a bit over confident and decided to charge a Possessed with three Ghouls. Total of 9 attacks against a single enemy, nothing can go wrong, right?

Well...


I rolled really poorly, only hitting three of the nine attacks (with a 4+ to hit). The Possessed also had the resilient rule, making it really hard to wound him. I did not manage to do any damage.
During the next combat, the possessed took down all of my ghouls with a help from a another warrior (forget what he was called).

On the other side of the battlefield, I had a little more luck. My ghoul hero, "Edgar the Cursed", managed to take down the Magister (possessed leader) before he was able to do anything.


The Magister must have fallen pretty badly from the wall, as he suffered a serious wound while rolling the effects from the post game injury table.

As the two Possessed monsters were tearing ghouls left and right, reinforcements advanced to slow them down. Their goal was to hold them off until my Necromancer would be able to run away to safety with a chest containing most of my campaign assets.


The Vampire, "Valerie", trying to hide from a bow wielding warrior.


During the 4th and 5th turn of the game, a possessed archer managed to get some really lucky rolls, killing one zombie and stripping two wounds from my Vampire.
The Possessed monsters kept taking down my henchmen, while I only managed to take a few wounds out of them.

Both warbands had taken over 25% casualties, so had to roll to see if they would rout. Even though we both succeeded with the test, I decided to bugger off at the start of the 6th turn.
The undead had taken so many casualties, that the Vampire decided to retreat to lick her wounds.

So far: 1 win, 2 losses for "The Lost and Forgotten".

Every surviving character got quite a bit of experience, as story wise it was a really challenging experience to survive from the disorienting spell cast by Medumar the Magnificent.
I was able to roll a quite a few of advancement rolls, gaining some really good advances: various new skills for my heroes (yet to decide which), +1 weapon skill to the already hard hitting Ghouls and a more wounds for "Edgar the Cursed" (the Ghoul hero).
After rolling all the serious injury - rolls, I had only lost two zombies. I was lucky, as I had lost three ghouls and two Direwolves in addition to them.

As a bonus, the Mutant I managed to take out of action died during my opponent's rolls. This means that my Necromancer will be able to bring him back up fighting for the Undead!
He has a pretty poor stat line, but has some cool mutations and good gear, which he will be able to keep.

A bit of rambling there. It's a late hour, so my writing is really inconsistent.

Anyway, it was a fun game and I'm looking forward to the next battle.
The campaign is on a summer break, but we will continue playing in August.

***********************************************************************

A small update from my hobby table.

I quickly painted a couple of chest to represent containers in the game, in which I have to store all my campaign assets.
These were ordered by a friend of mine, so I'm not actually sure where they came from. I have to ask him.


Prototyping my new Zombie mutant. He has a sword, shield and a scorpion tail. I'm trying to create something really weird using various bits, but it's still lacking something. Everything is held together with greenstuff for testing purposes. I might have to find some Nurgle bits to make him look more appropriate. A zombified mutant should look disgustinlgy weird.


I found this beauty in one of the hobby stores nearby and could not help myself from buying it. I thought it would be cool to have some variation with the wolves.


Speaking of variation, I decided to try something very weird with one of the Wolves I still have left over. The image is a bit bright, but I won't go into too much detail just yet.


Quite a long post. Hopefully it was readable. As I mentioned, it's getting really late and I'm tired, so my writing is not the best.
Anyhow, thanks for checking this out and see you next time!

Suppressed a shudder seeing that sword...

Sounds like a fun game. Mordheim was always a favorite. Interested in seeing the wolf's transformation.

Never played Mordheim, but it looks a fun system. Pretty cool that your Necromancer can create zombies in be game too! The zombie mutant is already looking scary!

Ezki,

Nice work on the Vampire...sorry about her accident.

Cheers,

CB

Great work on the Vampire lady. Hope you get that sword straightened without too much trouble.

I'm not really feeling the zombie mutant though. The anatomy/proportions are too off. The waist especially looks freakishly thin. I think the body is in different scale to the GW parts? Of course, the old zombie kit is pretty wonky to start with..

Thanks guys!

Gobert: This is my first time playing too. Really liking it so far, especially managing the warband and levelling characters. Gives me a nice excuse to build and paint some fantasy models.

Mcmattila: Thank you! You are very much right, the Zombie kit is really wonky. The heads are too large and goofy looking and the shoulders just look plain weird. I actually already have taken the zombie mutant apart (it was easy as the parts were not glued on) and tried prototyping with different bits.
I built it one night and decided that if I liked it the next morning, I would leave it as is. Well, I did not
The body is actually from Dark Eldar Wrack kit.


First things first: I managed to fix the sword of the Vampire with some hot / cold water and patience

Been doing some conversion work, mostly jumping from one mini to another. It has been a bit inconsistent: 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Hopefully I can get some painting done in the near future.

The head on the Zombie Mutant was too big and goofy, so I tried it out with a Ghoul head instead. Also changed the right hand to a Ghoul hand. The proportions are a bit better now, but still not digging the left hand that is holding the shield.
The idea behind the Wrack body was that the mutant would look sickly thin, as he would have not been taking care of the nutrition very well.


Swapped the hand holding a bottle to one holding a mace. Now the model actually represents the gear the Dreg has.


The wolves I had were alright, but something was missing. They all looked a bit too similar and not dire enough. As I don't really like the GW Dire Wolf kit, I started looking around the web. I found a few really cool conversions made from old chaos warhounds and Fenrisian Wolves.
I used that as an inspiration and did some tinkering:

This is the same wolf shown in the previous post.


I cut half of it's head away and filled it with a piece from the GW skulls box.

The second wolf is also a bit experimental. I had a few Chaos Warhounds left from my Dark Eldar Khymerae conversion that I did back in the day.
Split both of the wolves in half (the warhound and one of the new resin wolves) and glued them together. Using the dull side of my hobby knife I tried sculpting some hair from green stuff. I chose the warhound body as there are some ribs and muscles showing, so it might look a bit more undead-like.
I don't have much experience using the stuff, but it's high time to start practicing.


It still needs some more greenstuff work until I can prime it.

Not sure how the wolves will actually turn out. They might be a flop, but on the other hand one can't learn very much without trying new things.

Just a quick update from the road.

Did a little bit of painting last night / morning. I took a few quick snapshots before going away for a few days.

Mutant Zombie taking some shape. Need to make the skin look a bit more dirty / pale and start adding more colors to it.
The whole model is not standing straight, as it's not glued to this temporary base. I have a enough painted tile bases for all the uncompleted models.


I built and almost completed painting one more Ghoul. Now I have a full group of 5 ghouls.


The new Dire Wolf I bought. It's a tad bigger than the rest, but I'd like to think that the undead wolves are not identical. They might have been different species or in different sized before they were risen by the Necromancer.


The skull head wolf.


The green stuffed fur turned out pretty good. As I started painting this, I realized that I could have left a bit more muscles and pale skin showing. Might do a bit knife work for it or do that for the next one if I decide to do more of these.


Cheers!

Ezki,

The Dire wolf conversions look like they were designed that way after you painted them up.

Cheers,

CB

I agree completely with what Captain Brown said, very impressive work.

Thanks guys, glad you like them!

I decided to step it up a notch, and get this warband done.
I realized that I'm going to be using these models only for this campaign and maybe for some random D&D encounters in the future (or for more Mordheim, who knows), so I don't want to get stuck with them for too long. This does not mean that I will paint badly on purpose, but I will definitely stay on tabletop standard for the most part. This has been a very fun project so far, but my mind can't rest until I get these done. I can't stand playing another game with unpainted minis

That being said, here are the next additions to my warband. Pretty much complete, just might need some touching up at some point.


With this one I'm not very happy. The conversion looks okay(ish), but I just did not feel it while painting and I think it shows quite well.
Just a quick overbrush and calling it "done".


Well, I don't lose my night's sleep for that one, as this guy has a very limited use and I don't think I will need him later on. Never say never though.


Next up the new Dire Wolf model painted up and ready to go:


The "skull wolf" has a bit weird pose, so it was hard to snap a picture where the skull could be seen properly.


"The rib cage" wolf. I'm actually quite proud of this one, it turned out a lot better than I initially thought. I will do a bit of touching up for the rib cage, as the bones look a bit too bright.




Time has been a bit short once again, so I did not have time to take proper pics.
I will get better pictures from then when I'm done with the warband. I will do a few group shots and a few from the "better" looking models.

In addition, I started brushing the Dregs. After I get these guys completed, there is only the Necromancer left.


Thanks for looking!

Loving the plague doctress and the wolves. I wouldn't be too hard on the zombie, either. His eyes look great.

Those dire wolves are just great. Always love seeing anything Mordheim.

Thank you guys!

Finished painting the Dregs!

Not much to say about the first two, as I tried to finish them quickly in order to get closer to completing my warband.

First fellow, Viktor:




Plague doctoress Yvonne:




Now when painting the third one, I wanted to take the opportunity to try something new. I thought that the lantern shouts for some object source lighting - effects.
At first I decided against trying it, as I was afraid that I would totally mess it up and have to paint the whole mini again. After pondering for a while, I grabbed the brush.
He is named Cascoigne (after Father Cascoigne in Bloodborne) as my girlfriend insisted. Gotta admit, he kinda looks the part.







It's far from perfect and looks pretty horrible up close, but I think it does the job as a tabletop mini. Positively surprised.
Might give it another go in the future.
Anyway, now it's only the matter of painting the Necromancer until my warband is finally done!


Keeping this short today, but I've been busy with some crafting!
Just a small teaser for now:


More to come!

The OSL works, man. Good job on a potentially risky undertaking.

Your warband is coming along nicely Ezki. The OSL looks pretty good, especially around his face he looks to be basking in the glow of his lantern. Looking forward to the necromancer rounding out the set

Warband is looking excellent. I occasionally play Undead in Mordheim (though I frequently quit in frustration as my buddy takes the usual better warbands and shoots me to death immediately)

I went with a bash of Frostgrave cultists and adventurers for my dregs, etc. The warband I wanted to love

Love the latest additions to the gang, really characterful bunch. And the OSL looks pretty good to me

Ezki,

Nice work on the war band.

the lighting effect on Cascoigne is especially nice.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks for the comment everyone! Glad you like them.

Elbows: Thank you! I know the feeling. I'm getting pretty much torn by the shooty warbands (only four games under my belt me so far). In the campaing I have lost 2/3 games, but I'm playing the long game and trying to hoard as much wyrdstone as possible. One good thing about the undead is that I don't have to (can't) buy any gear for all the henchmen.
I was also looking at the Frostgrave cultists, they looked really interesting!

gobert wrote:Your warband is coming along nicely Ezki. The OSL looks pretty good, especially around his face he looks to be basking in the glow of his lantern. Looking forward to the necromancer rounding out the set

Gobert: Thanks! I'm surprised that the face actually turned out pretty well, as I spent the least time "lighting it up". It proves that time spent and quality don't always go hand in hand.


Note, the following post is quite long and picture heavy!

Well, it seems that the OSL had a warm welcome, which is always nice. Especially for a technique that is completely new for me.
Regarding how I made it: I'm not completely sure. I tried to watch quite a few reference images and plan my techniques based on them. The very first experimentation was on another primed mini, where I just drybrushed a layer or two of orange. It did not look very good, so I decided to make the first layers by glazing on the actual model. I kept mixing different shades, light and dark, and let the brush guide my way without too much thought. On some areas, I relied on drybrushing or sharp edge highlighting. When I try this next, at least I know a few things that I might try differently and hopefully the process is a bit more consistent. When I get it figured out, I have to write it up so I will remember the technique a bit longer than a few days

As I said last time, I have been busy doing some terrain crafting!
We had a terrain building day with our Mordheim Group. As the group mostly consists of people who I have never met before the campaign, arranging a hobby day is a good way to get to know them.


We have quite a lot of urban terrain, but we need more rural terrain for the upcoming games. So we decided to build a few different rocks and hills.
I wanted to try a few new things while building my piece. It that works out, I will make similar kind of terrain pieces for our 40k games sometime in the future.

First I cut a few pieces of styrofoam with a foam cutter.


Then used a knife to create some rocky shapes on them.


Using foam board, I made a base for the rock. I wanted this piece to have a bit more life and detail to it. I have used foam board only once: when making the bunker for my Armies of Parade entry last year. I'm really starting to like this stuff. It was quite easy to sand the edges and this stuff is really easy to cut.


Before priming, I covered the base with a 50/50 mix of PVA glue and water + some toiler paper to create a ground like textrue. Few smaller rocks were created from cork.
I applied just a little bit of sand and small stones on top of the base and rocks, just to create a bit more texture. Lastly the whole piece was covered with another mix of water and PVA, just to make it a little more durable.


The only bad thing that I found about foam core is that when it's painted or glued, the paper sucks a lot of moisture. When it dries it starts to shrink, possibly warping the large piece. This of course happened, but luckily I was able to straighten it by applying some water + PVA mix on the other side, so that both sides of the foam board would shrink the same amount. This worked out almost perfectly, just a teeny tiny bit of curliness is present.
The drying time for this was very long (~12 hours to be sure) so I decided to take it home and finish it here.

The whole thing was primed using black Gesso acrylic paint. Getting the paint in all the crevices was a bit of a pain, but I could not use a can primer as the foam might melt. An airbrush would be perfect for this step, but sadly I don't own one.


The first layer of paint. Acrylic brown and grey from a hobby store. It needs a few highlights and some foliage and then it's ready to go!



In addition to this, I made a few simple props from balsa wood. Even though our theme was to build outdoor terrain, I'm always to keen to make a few props to make the indoor sections look a bit more interesting.


A quick priming with black Gesso, some dark brown, wash and a layer of dry brushing to finish them up.



To make some details for the bookshelf, I wanted to try and make a few scrolls.
I mixed PVA glue, water and yellow wash and used it to dip some basic printer paper stripes. Using a simple toothpick I rolled the stripes to a correct shape. This was quite messy and the mixed stuff got everywhere. But if I'm being honest, the messy steps are the best ones.


To add even more detail, I wanted to make some "rope" to seal the scrolls. It was time to sneakily dive into my girlfriends drawer and hunt some thin thread. There was no brown, but I decided to try and dip some white thread in a bottle of brown ink. It turned a lot better than using brown thread, as it has a bit more depth to it.


Cutting the thread and making small knots took quite a while. I was supposed to just a few of these, but I got a bit carried away. Watching some youtube videos while doing this brainless task proved to be quite effective. Now there is a bit more than a few.


The last image is a bit dark, but when they are completely dry I will try to take a better one.

That's all for now. I'm going to keep on working with these for a few more days and hopefully get them done by the end of the week.

Edit: fixed some typos. Writing while tired tends to leave a few mistakes...

Those scrolls are going to look GREAT.

Yeah, the OSL came out well. I have never tried it, myself. I also really like Yvonne. Pretty cool model!

Love the furniture and scrolls!

Nice work on the terrain, the little details like the scrolls really help bring them to life. Thanks for summarising the build process, will make for some handy tips if I ever get around to making some

A marvelous place for playing King of the Hill with your minis. Nice write-up, too.

I like the terrain, furniture, and especially the scrolls. That is impressive dedication on the scrolls, I used thin wire to tie single scrolls when I made them. That's really impressive to be managing with thread.

Thanks for the comments and compliments guys!

Maharg & Youwashock: Cheers! Trying to write a summary about all the new techniques I come across, so that they can be used as reference for others and for myself too.

Syro: Glad you like them! It was quite difficult to make the knots, and boy was it time consuming. But I think it paid off in the end.
I was browsing your thread and actually came across the scrolls you made, looked ace! It also seems that every terrain / prop idea I get, I could just go and check your thread on how to achieve it. I was creating a prototype of a fireplace, and I cracked a smile as I noticed that you had already done it


Been actually thinking about making a thread that would focus only on terrain. That way it would be easier to find the different techniques I have used and that way I could also use it as a "terrain notebook" for myself. My gaming group also keeps asking how I did certain terrain elements, so it would be easier to link that thread instead. Need to think about it. Time is a bit short during the autumn. If I end up doing it, it will be a lot less active than this one, as my "terrain building sprees" tend to happen once or twice a year. Got a ton of ideas though...

But for now, let's continue the journey right here:


Here's a close up from some of the scrolls.


After making the knots, I applied just a bit of glue to hold the thread in place. A few of them came out a bit too yellow, as I dipped all of them in the yellow wash (the wash mixed with the glue did not give enough color). Now some of them have been glued to the shelf. I will post a picture of that when it's complete.

As an experimental project, I tried to do some bricks out of Milliput. I did not have the right tools, so they came up very different sized.


The idea was to build a fireplace out of these bricks. As I was piling them, I realized that they are so uneven that it would never work. So instead I decided to try and build one out of styrofoam.
If that succeeds, I will post a small write up about that process as well. Okay well, even if it does not succeed, I will do it regardless.


Then back to main "main project" at the moment.
I painted the rock and its base by dry brushing different shades of light brown and grey. After that I started applying some GW grass flock, but it looked a bit bland. I wanted to give the rock a bit more natural look. After browsing a ton of reference images, I got an idea about making some sort of moss on top of it. I have read / heard (not quite remember) that someone did foliage out of tea! I had to give this a shot.

I cut a small piece of styrofoam to use as a test base and went to town.
I used three kinds of tea as they all had a bit different kind of texture. I also made a few different mixes with and without green wash.
The base of every mix was PVA glue and water. Note, quite a many tea bags were harmed in the process.


After drying over night, I did some dry brushing with different tones of green to see which combination would work best for this project.
The one on the very right is made out of smoke tea with long grain. It did not look that good for the purpose I had in mind.
The on in the very middle is green organic tea with really light colored grain.
The ones on the left and bottom was twinnings fruit tea and it seemed to work the best.


The rest is just some random mixing with grass flock etc.

It was time to kill a few more tea bags and start mixing!



A shame, it seems that I don't have any pictures from this point to the completion, but I'll try my best to explain the steps:

The mixture had to be quite thick, so that the water and glue would not run down the steep surface of the rock. It was also easier to "mold" this way. I started applying the stuff with a brush, but it was really hard to shape the stuff that way. Instead I put some rubber gloves on and used my fingers. I tried to make different sized and shaped moss areas. This step was really messy: in the end I noticed that some of it was on my table and all over the floor. It was vacuum cleaning time.

After the mixture had dried, I applied one more layer of green wash to each moss piece. As a future reference, I might use actual green paint with the mixture instead of wash.
Then it was simply dry brushing different light green tones on top of them.

As for the GW grass flocks, I applied one layer -> then some green wash to break the color -> one more layer of flock to make it thicker and further break the color.
After that, I applied a few different kinds of grass tufts from army painter.

And with that, it's finally complete!
(Bigger pictures in the gallery)










It turned out pretty neat!
Only thing that bugs me is the front face (first picture). The foliage looks a bit unnatural. Not sure if it's because there is too little of it or because the moss was applied a bit too dot-like fashion.
Nevertheless, for a first try with quite a few new techniques I'm really happy with it. I might very well do a few grimdark versions to decorate our 40k gaming table!

The other small props (fireplace, shelf and benches) are almost complete, as I was multitasking with them quite a bit while the different mixtures were drying.
So I'll get back when I'm done with those (hopefully in a day or two).

Until then, keep on rocking!

Rocking is an understatement. That thing is awesome. Such fantastic variation in the foliage.

It also seems that every terrain / prop idea I get, I could just go and check your thread on how to achieve it. I was creating a prototype of a fireplace, and I cracked a smile as I noticed that you had already done it

Heh heh, Thanks Ezki. If I give your great work any inspiration, it's a good thing Nice work on the scrolls, I still can't imagine how hard it must have been to try those mini knots.
Your terrain piece looks absolutely stunning, and so varied. Are you going to be okay with people battling on it, when it looks that good? Even the test piece looks surprisingly nice, what were the three different kinds of tea you used? I mostly use Chamomile, but have plans to try black tea (the two kinds I drink).

Youwashock: Thank you very much! Variation is what I aimed for.

Syro_ wrote:Nice work on the scrolls, I still can't imagine how hard it must have been to try those mini knots.
Your terrain piece looks absolutely stunning, and so varied. Are you going to be okay with people battling on it, when it looks that good? Even the test piece looks surprisingly nice, what were the three different kinds of tea you used? I mostly use Chamomile, but have plans to try black tea (the two kinds I drink).

Thank you!
Tying them up required some patience alright. I found out that it was a lot easier to do them with a very long piece of thread, and cut the ends off afterwards. At first I tried doing it with a tiny piece using my tweezers, but that was just frustrating.

Here's a picture of the tea brands and their grains. Hopefully you get some idea how they look:


The one on the right is the one I used on the terrain piece.
The middle one is black tea with a hint of smoke and it has a long grain. It did not work that well, but maybe my mixture was off a bit. It might still have some potential.
The one one the left is just organic green tea and really light colored. It was used on the center of the test piece. It did have the look that I aimed for, but it might very well work for foliage in a swamp area or something.



I got the fireplace almost done during the weekend, but did not quite manage to finish it. Here's some WIP shots and a quick summary:

I wanted to create one more quick prototype so I could try a few more things.
Using a knife, I cut a few test pieces out of foam. I would have used my foam cutter, but I forgot the regulator to my garage.. And when I get an inspiration, it has to be done immeadetely


Some incisions were mad using a hobby knife...


... which then were roughened up using a mold line remover.


Some balsa on the top (roughened up with a wire brush) and some foam core to work as the back wall and the bottom of the fireplace.


Base coated black with acrylic and dry brushed with grey and red.


This is a technique that I read somewhere a while back.
Using some modelling compound, I covered the whole outer surface. Before it dried out, I used a piece of toilet paper to wipe off the excess stuff, so that the "cement" would be left in the crevices. Some of the stuff was left on the surface to create a worn out messy look.
As the paint was still a bit wet (on purpose), the compound got a hint of red tone on it. Real tiles emit some color, so I think this might look a bit more realistic for an old piece of furniture.


Just some finishing touches and it should be ready!

Ezki,

Excellent tea foliage hill. Never seen anyone do that before.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks for the tea comparison, Ezki. They fire place is looking excellent, I'm especially impressed with the brickwork and how you aged it with modeling paste. Out of curiosity, do you watch "Bard's Craft" on Youtube? The foam you used for the fire place looks just like what he always uses for crafting. It's a foam I've never seen where I live.

 Syro_ wrote:
Out of curiosity, do you watch "Bard's Craft" on Youtube? The foam you used for the fire place looks just like what he always uses for crafting. It's a foam I've never seen where I live.

No I have not actually watched that channel before. Thanks for the tip! Checked a few videos and got some new ideas already.
After a bit of searching (and by his accent) he also seems to be finnish, so I presume he is using Finnfoam. If that's the case, it's the same stuff I used for the rock, fireplace and the armies on parade board.
Finnfoam is a finnish product, but it's very similar (if not the same) to basic XPS foam (Extruded polystyrene foam), used in home insulation. The more common name for it might be "styrofoam".
It's very common here in Finland, so you can get it basically from any store that sells house renovating supplies.

Note: the stuff that is usually used to support electronic devices in their store packages is EPS foam (Expanded polystyrene foam), which is different. Sometimes the names for these are confusing...

Hopefully this made at least some sense

Thanks Ezki, yes I was curious about the type of XPS foam, it makes sense that you described it as Finnfoam, which I assume is more native to Finnland. Also thanks, I couldn't palce his accent. Here in America XPS foam is usually pink, gray, green, and maybe blue. That translucent milky look of Finnfoam is what stood out to me as an XPS foam that I didn't recognize.

Hey guys.

I have had a small break from the hobby once again.
Time has been really short, as I'm currently working full time and spent the last three to four months working on my thesis. I did not have the energy to paint or build minis during that time.
I have not even browsed the forums, as I know myself well enough that I would have gotten too excited about the projects other people are working on and I might have lost the focus on the school stuff.

But all that is behind me now: I have finally graduated to an IT engineer and working full time as a software developer. My major was actually game applications (design and programming), so maybe in the future I might start working on some sort of game projects. Or finish the ones that I started during my studies.

This means that I have more time in my hands for all of my hobbies, including wargaming and miniatures of course.

I can't promise that I will be as active as I was 6 months ago, as there is still a lot to do (other hobbies and real life stuff).
Maybe it's for the best if I start painting and posting slowly, so I won't burn myself out before I know it.

Regarding the Mordheim campaign / game testing: We have played seven turns (seven games that is) so far. We have lost two players who were not so interested in wargaming after all, so there are seven warbands currently in the campaign. I've not had the energy to post battle reports, so sorry for that. Long story short: my undead is the leading warband when it comes to wyrdstone shards. I have won 4 games, lost 3.

The current composition of my warband is the following:

- Valerie (Vampire)
- Laurentius (Necromancer)
- Cascoigne (Dreg)
- Viktor (Dreg)
- Yvonne (Dreg)
- Edgar the cursed (Ghoul hero)
- 5x Ghouls
- 2x Dire Wolf
- Zombie mutant (risen by the necromancer)
- Zombie black skaven (risen by the necromancer)
- Anna Montez (Mercenary)


During last week, I finally started working on the Necromancer and building the recently acquired zombie skaven.
I also found a mini to be used as Anna Montez (mercenary in the campaign).
With these guys I wanted to start the painting process casually and slowly and actually for once paint them to be just "good enough".
Calling them done after a single evening felt quite good. Plus I did not scare myself so that I would hide my brushes back to the drawer

I don't yet have any pictures from the Mordheim guys. I will post a Mordheim focused update later, where I will go into more detail regarding the campaign and the minis.



"Show us some pictures already"
- Okay okay, just a little bit of text

So last year we had a 40k "session", where we were playing and painting for a whole weekend.
Well I decided to host a similar gathering to celebrate my graduation and the fact that now I actually have the time to do so.
We have been building minis for the last ~8 hours now and will continue tomorrow. The sudden hobby rush made me want to write a few words once again.

The main theme of the gathering is to get my friends Imperial Knight army ready for the tabletop. I decided to help him by making some bases.
I recall that I posted one of them a while ago (a year ago maybe?).

I started playing around with foam core and did some experimental "concrete blocks".


I added the blocks to a large base. Also got the idea of making a broken fence, which the knight has crushed under it's foot.
The mini itself is not glued in yet, just checking the positioning.


Here's the result for today. The painted base is the one I made earlier.
The new bases are now drying and I will continue working with them tomorrow.


After I put the bases away for a while, I wanted to start working on some of my own projects.
I browsed trough my cabinet and could not find the inspiration on pretty much any of my "todo" projects. While I was grabbing a box from a shelf, some poorly stored WIP stuff dropped on the floor (luckily no damage). Among the pile of grey / half painted pile was one of my oldest WIP projects: My looted wagon.

I started this guy like ~7-10 years ago (can't really remember). It has not been worked on since.
The last time I took it out from the cabinet was a year ago, while I was doing a headcount on my orks. I even posted a picture here and thought about finishing it.
(Reposting the same image)


One of the things that have kept me from working with this guy, is that the looted wagon does not actually have any rules. Except for open games, which we don't play.
The other one was the fact that I could not decide what to do with the turret. In it's current state I was not really happy with it.
I also considered using it as a battlewagon, but the model is just too small.

I inspected the tank for a while trying to get some ideas how to proceed.
Then it hit me: I remember proxying this thing as a truck once. So why not convert it to a truck? That would also solve the turret "issue".

The thing looks a bit beaten up at the moment. The flame grille in the front is one of my first plasticard trials.


I decided to take the thing to pieces. I had to consider the decision for a while, as I have put a good number of hours for this back in the day.
But I realized that in it's current state I just won't have the inspiration to finish it.

So, I took a breath, grabbed my tools and went to town.


The trick how to make the best orky conversions: use the tools that orks would use. And use them like an ork.
I tore off half of the roof and the whole rear end. A first iteration of the new passenger area can be seen in the picture, but I proceeded to tear that off too. The reason for that is the fact that the old rhino is pretty flimsy, so the plasticard I used was too thin and would not hold the tank together.


So I made a new one from a thicker card. Had to tape it together while the glue was drying. Will continue this a bit tomorrow too.


We made quite a mess in one evening..



That's all for now.
A really messy update, but an update nevertheless.

We will be working with the knights tomorrow and hopefully get a game or two with them. They are still unpainted, but my friend really wants to give 'em a go. I'll let it slide

See you!

Good to see you back Ezki, and thanks for including us in your busy weekend. Congratulations on graduating and finishing your thesis, what a lot of work that must have been. I think you picked a great way to celebrate. I thought your looted wagon looked good, but I'm excited to see the truck it will become. Keep us posted.

Good to see you back again Ezki. Congratulations on your degree and new job (more money for minis?), a hobby weekend with friends seems a great way to celebrate! Hopefully today was productive for you guys too!

Welcome back, and congrats on the new job!

Thank you guys!

A hobby weekend is indeed a really good way to celebrate. We decided that we have to arrange these more often. It just seems to be hard nowadays with all the boring responsibilities etc. At least compared to the days of youth.

gobert wrote: Congratulations on your degree and new job (more money for minis?), a hobby weekend with friends seems a great way to celebrate! Hopefully today was productive for you guys too!

Hopefully so. However my pile of shame is so big at this point that I have to try and contain myself

Syro_ wrote:I thought your looted wagon looked good, but I'm excited to see the truck it will become. Keep us posted.

From the angle in the image it actually looked quite alright. It's just that it was not finished and lacked some details and paint, especially on the turret. I have thought about working on it many times, but every time I took it out on my workbench I just got stuck, lacking all inspiration. One of the factors has been the lack of rules for the thing.
It was not easy taking it apart, but maybe this way it can finally show up on the gaming table in some form. Trying to get rid of all of my "infinity projects"


So, days two and three were quite productive. Not as productive as I thought they would be, but pretty good still. Some time is always spent watching stupid videos on the internet, discussing on unrelated things and going to sauna of course, which takes time from the actual hobby. But that's not a bad thing, as the main point after all is to get together with like minded friends.


Firstly, I finished the bases for my friends knights.

I tried to find a way to finish the bases in a few hours (not counting the time it took for the materials to dry). The large base for the Castellan took the most time, as I wanted to try a few new things with it.




For this piece I played around with foam core. My goal was to make a collapsed building, that has already been conquered by some vegetation. I thought about using the tea leaves to make some foliage, like I did for the hills. But alas I lacked the materials and we wanted them finished over the weekend. There is still at least one more large base to at some point, so maybe I'll try it again then.


I also made a hole to the fence, where the Knight's foot would have crushed it. The model is not glued in yet, just testing around with the legs.


My friend was really happy with these, and so am I.
He promised to return the favor by helping me to magnetize a few projects in the future (I don't enjoy gluing magnets) and also to help me around in the garage.

The knights were built and magnetized to the point where they could be used in the game. As I previously mentioned, they were still grey, were not glued in their bases and lacked some parts. Nevertheless, it was fun getting them on the tabletop. I have never played against knights before and my friend was using them for the first time.

Sadly I don't have any pictures worth posting. Long story short: we played a 2000pts maelstrom game from the new chapter approved book. I was playing with my speedfreaks against ~1750pts of knights and ~250pts of imperial guard. The knights opened fire first and blew off one of my Dakkajets, one trukk and reduced one battlewagon to one wound. On my turn, I retaliated by making a first turn charge with a battlewagon and deffkilla wartrike, taking out two armigers. On the turn three I managed to pull ahead quite a bit, but my anti armour was already lacking at that point. My guys were wiped from the board on turn 5 and the game ended on turn 6, making it possible for the knights to claim a few more points. The end result was 12 points on the Orks, 14 points on the Knights.

A really fun and even game. We liked the new draw system for the objectives in the CA2019 book. The fact that you can make your own deck out of the cards for each army was quite interesting.


Back to the pictures.

I got some more work done with the "looted wagon to truck conversion" - project.

Started building the crew hold by covering the plasticard with balsa wood.


I cut the front part off and made the peeking hole on the top a bit larger. The hole looks really nasty this way, but luckily a turret look-a-like thingy will cover it. These conversions are not always so good looking on the inside


I pondered quite a bit what to do with the front of the vehicle. It's still undecided, but I wanted to broaden my options by making a driver for the vehicle. This ways it's possible to leave some of the front open. it would look too lazy if the cabin was completely empty.


Testing with the driver and an unfinished spotter from one of my battlewagons.


To finish this off, I glued the track pieces back. The flat parts on this tank are really flimsy and bend easily, so I had to use a lot of tape to hold it together while the glue dries. I would not be surprised if some of the "side walls" would have been bent when this thing was new. I threw all the bits I think I'll be using into the crew hold and put the vehicle aside for a while. Will continue it from here.



Lastly I started refactoring my existing battlewagons and trukks. I have been using the so much in 8th edition, that it's finally time to do so.
They have never been completely ready. Tabletop quality yes, but to my standards? Far from it. I painted them ~8-10 years ago really quickly. There are a bunch of unpainted details, paint splatter and broken bits. All that little stuff, that others might not see but makes me insane. Especially the empty turret spots on the battlewagons. They looked a bit bland compared to the rest of the army.

I added some small details to each one of them. In this example I added a door and one spotter on top.


Here they are. This is a really bad picture, but hopefully will give at least some idea. I splashed some thinned down red on the battlewagon in the middle, just to mark it as my first target. I will repaint most of them, or at least add some more character with different colors and battle damage.


I think I will be working with these for quite a bit. Will be posting some Mordheim stuff too whenever I finish something. I still have one Mordheim update coming up when I get around taking some proper pics from the whole band.

Hey again.

So, it's time for that Mordheim update I promised.
As an afterthought, it might have been better to write a whole different thread based only on the progress of the warband and the campaign itself, but hey ho.

As I previously stated, we have played seven games so far. Waiting for the last game to be played, until we can start the 8th turn.
It's hard to write any battle reports, as the games were played during the autumn and I can hardly remember the details that happened.

As a summary, the last three games were the following (in the spoilers):




Back to the modelling side of things.

Speaking of Bob the zombie guy, I made him a model after the 6th game.

I used some nighthaunt glaivewraith stalkers as a base for the conversion. It was just sort of an impulse purchase, as I though the models looked quite cool.
I did a couple of prototypes by combining some ghouls legs into them.


I did may iterations with greenstuff trying to hide the legs. This was one of them that got torn off after a while. I'm not really good at making cloth, but practice makes perfect.
The model has a spear, as Bob also does have one. I did not have any bits for a flail, and I think this looks a bit cooler. The tail is from a daemonette.


Here is Bob after priming. I think this side turned out a bit better. The seam where the greenstuff starts can be seen, but other than that it's quite alright.
I tried to get some texture on the cloth using liquid greenstuff. Not sure how it looks when painted.


He is not yet painted. Will get him done before the next game.


I also got a model Anna Montez (the hired sword). I proxied her for two games, as I was not sure if I was going to keep her in my band.
After making that one lucky shot and killing one other guy in the next game, she has earned every bit of coin given to her.
It's a cheap reaper bones model. The details could be better, but she works well enough for a model that won't see much use after the campaign. Unless I figure something out.


Painted her and the Necromancer. I was too lazy and placed them both in the same picture. These were the first models I painted after the ~4-5 month break, so I wanted to finish them quickly to tabletop standard, rather than try to get stuck on small details and get frustrated. I actually painted them three weeks ago, but it took this long to take the pictures.




With the Necromancer finished, the warband is finally done! Not counting all the zombified models of course, but it's impossible to predict what I'm able to get.
Started making the warband in april or may, so it took a while. Granted I spent a lot of time trying to find the suitable models and making some conversions, but still.

Without further ado, here is the whole band.
I recommend checking the full sized images from the gallery.



From a slightly different angle.



Seeing them together in one picture, I'm actually pretty happy how they turned out. It has been a really fun project.
After the campaign, I really have to play Mordheim again or find some other use for these guys.

Phew, this was a long one. Thanks for checking this out and see you again!

PS. I will get back to other peoples plogs as soon as I can. I have a lot of catching up to do and I don't want to skip the prior updates

Edit: Fixing the never ending number of typos.
Edit: blah, I noticed that some of my earlier images have disappeared as the hosting service I used back in the day went down. Need to sort that out at some point.

They're a wonderful warband. Congrats on finishing them up. Your hired sword is lovely, as well. Great cape. Glad to see you back in the mix.

Hadn't seen this plog before. First up congrats on finishing your studies and really marvelous stuff. Your ork vehicles look really well painted before you start to improving them. Excited to see, how they'll look afterwards!
And good to see some Mordheim action. Playing a campaign atm with three friends and your warband puts ours to shame

Wow! Your gang look fantastic all together, with a nice backdrop of your miniature furniture too. They were very worth the time and effort if you ask me! Looking forward to seeing your trukk conversion develop too

Those good looking paint jobs are just tabletop standard? You're going to make me feel bad about myself
Great looking warband you've made, and it really does look amazing all together and zoomed in using the gallery images. Also it's good to see you back and posting.

Thanks for the comments guys and as always, I really appreciate it.

@Youwashock: Thanks man! The cape turned out pretty good even though it must have been the least effort black cape I've ever painted. If nothing else, it tells me that I might be trying a bit too hard at times!

@Viterbi: Thanks a lot and glad to see you here! The tanks look a lot better in the images as the unpainted parts are not shown in there. Mordheim is such a cool game and I bet your warbands look really good!

@Gobert: Thank you! I think so too. The trukk conversion is advancing slowly but surely. Trying to get it finished before a big game in a month or so.

@Syro: Cheers! Nah, your painting is good! Maybe it would be more fitting to say that I did not try to over do it with those models. Many times I get stuck doing a single detail for hours which in the end might not look any better than a quickly painted detail.


Warning, a long post coming up:


So, the new decade has started. The last year was left behind with many good things regarding the hobby and stuff outside of the hobby as well. Painting wise I learned a great many things and had many fun projects. Most notable was the Mordheim warband, which took a great portion of my hobby time. As a tradition and to keep the rediscovered posting motivation up, it's time to review the last year. Well, I've done it once and about to do it the second time, so maybe I can call it a tradition already


The year 2019 started with a bloodbowl team, which I painted as a commission to a school mate.
It was a real challenge, as it was a first time when I was painting for someone else. It was hard to decide when the models are done, as everyone sees them a bit differently. In the end, the guy whom I painted these for was really happy and paid quite a sum (at least for a first ever commission). I was really happy especially with the troll. The skin turned out just like it was ordered.




The second unit I finished, was a bunch on Ork Tankbustas. This was one of those projects, that had been on the "todo list" for many years. It was good to get them finally done!
I don't have a good image from all of them right now (will take one and add it here when I get around to taking pictures again), but here's a few of them.


The third unit was a group of Death Riders. When painting these guys, I really pushed myself. I started practicing wet blending and took some time to really focus on the details etc. They are far from perfect, but I'm really proud of them. Painting these guys took me almost a month, if I recall correctly. I actually cut my thumb while doing the bases and had to go the ER to get my thumb patched up. After gluing it in place of course, so there might be a drop of blood mixed in one of the bases somewhere. These guys snatched the 2nd place in the Dakka unofficial painting contest.


After the riders, I wanted to paint something a bit more simple. So I did a 10 man squad of regular kriegsmen.


Aaand a bunch of grots. These dudes were painted in a one sitting, as they were really quick to do.


As a first conversion project of the year, I created a Bik Mek on Warbike with a Kustom Force Field. This was a really fun project to do. Maybe one of my favorites.
As I might have mentioned before, in addition to modelling I like to fix cars on my free time. So I really enjoy creating Ork vehicles. I especially like doing small details that represent parts that are found on real vehicles. This took the 4th place in the Dakka painting contest. Plus it has seen the tabletop quite ofter during the last year or so.


I wanted to keep working with Orky vehicles for a while. So I painted the new Deffkilla Wartrike boss guy. This one does not have any conversions, but I enjoyed carelessly abusing my brushes while making it look weathered. I was also happy how the flames turned out.


Next up in the list was this fellow, an Ork Warboss on a bike. I created him solely because I wanted to give that model a try in the games. He actually fared so well, that he is now a regular addition to my Ork roster.


After three Ork vehicles, I wanted some change on my palette. I decided to paint two harlequins. I actually bought a box of them after these, but they are still WIP.



At this point, I had acquired a bunch of Space Wolf Terminator bits from a friend of mine. I think the original purpose was to use them for a conversion or something. As the theme for the Dakka painting contest was to paint a space marine, I decided to try and do a single display miniature for my cabinet. This fellow was the first marine I have ever painted. It was also the first time I tried out non metallic gold. Learned a lot during this project, and noticed that I have still a lot to learn. One of my friends actually said that I should paint his terminators the same way, but I have not yet been up to the task. Would take a while and cost him a bunch of beers.


This girl was yet another Dakka painting contest submission. It did not actually fare very well in the competition. Maybe because of the poor photography or the failed skin. I was quite happy about the conversion itself, but the painting side did not go that well. The model is actually an Drukhari Succubus, but she looks so Slaanesh that she is usually mistaken as a herald. The inspiration behind her was a Dota 2 hero "Queen of Pain". She is to be added to my 2000pts collection of Drukhari. I would really really like to start working on that army, but can't decide the color scheme. They have been painted with desert colors, which I'm not too happy about.



At this point, my break from 40k started. I got invited to play Mordheim and to test a new campaign book, called "Mayhem in Mordheim". It will be released somewhere in the future.
As a first step, I decided to take out the old crafting tools and create a few props, which I then donated to the group.


Another terrain pieces which I created for the group were the rock piece, a fireplace and a book shelf. From the latter I don't yet have any images, but they can be seen in the Mordheim warband shot from my last post. Making this rock piece was most enjoyable. I tried out many different things in which the weirdest and maybe most successful was using tea leaves, PVA glue and green paint as foliage.


As a final project, I created the Mordheim warband. I started painting them in May or June(?) and finished the last guys couple of weeks ago. It took me a while because of two things: firstly during the summer I find it hard to find any painting motivation and second I had to finish my thesis, which took pretty much all the energy out of me.

Now I won't post the warband shot again, as it would be funny to post the same image two times in a row. But as a recap here are a few of them:

This fellow, a mutant from a Possessed warband, was risen by Laurentius the Necromancer. It was a fairly quick conversion and even quicker paintjob, but does the job.


With this guy, Cascoigne the Dreg, I practiced object source lighting. It turned out okay for a first ever try. Will have to give this another go in the future. Regarding on how I did it: no idea actually. I applied some colors, then painted over them only to apply them again. I tried blending, dry brushing and just plain old layering. The end result is a mix of those.


The model I spent most time painting for this warband, has to be the Vampire, Valerie. I'm showing a picture from behind, as I think that turned out the best. I was happy how the red worked out on her clothes. It was a mix of layering and wet blending.


The last special mention goes to this Dire Wolf. It was my first time using greenstuff to this extent. The fur from starting from behind the front legs is sculpted using a hobby knife and a mold line remover tool. Yeah I know, I should get some sculpting tools. The back side is from a chaos hound(?) kit. I decided to make this guy (and the other skull wolf shown in the post regarding these) because the wolves I bought did not look mean enough.



My hobby year of 2019 started with a lot of enthusiasm. For the first few months, I painted at least thee to four times a week. As the months passed, my pace slowed down a bit. During the summer, I hardly managed to paint at all. Even worse, the last time I took out my hobby equipment during the autumn was at the end of August. Only just before Christmas, did I take out my hobby tools again and tried to apply some colors once more. It's not always possible to keep the pace and motivation, but trying to force it is even worse.
Still though, during these last two years, I have managed to paint more than in the last six years before that. And I think that is actually quite an accomplishment.

As numbers, my last year looked something of the following:

- ~90 painted models (ork vehicles etc. count as one)
- 4 completely converted / scratch built models
- 2 slightly converted models
- 7 terrain pieces (if the tables are counted separately)
- first time trying object source lighting
- first time trying non metallic gold
- first time trying wet blending
- discovered a bunch of new terrain making techniques, like using tea as foliage
- a dozen or so games of 40k and seven games of Mordheim
- endured many battle wounds from my hobby tools (luckily nothing too serious)

So a lot of firsts and a successful year after all!
Looking forward all the new and cool hobby challenges I come across during 2020!

As a goal for the next year could be the following:

- Learn to take consistent photos of my minis
- Keep on practicing the new techniques I tried out last year
- Try to learn when to call a model done. I'm a bit afraid of the camera so to say, so I try a bit too hard sometimes when it comes to basic troop models. This sometimes leads to "hobby exhaustion". I don't mean that I should rush the models, but I'll have to try to find the right balance regarding when to use quick and simple techniques and when to spend more time with a model.
- Lastly, try out new things and enjoy the discovery!


Sorry once more for a really long post.
I have gotten a bit carried away during these last updates. Maybe it's my way to compensate for the quiet time I had during the last months.
I promise that the next update will be a lot shorter

Thanks for reading. And if someone actually read the whole thing, I appreciate it!
And I just wanted to say thank you to the whole community. You guys are the best!

See you around.

"Perfection is the enemy of finished."

Nice wrap-up post. Good to see those models again. Good luck and happy painting in the coming year.

Thanks for the recap Ezki It was fun to see the orks and tables for Mordhiem again. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in 2020 (And knowing when painting a mini is finished is something we all struggle with)

Wow, really great stuff. I love the Death Korps models. Banner, horses, everything looks top notch. The terrain and furniture looks so good. Your wood technique is superb and all those little details of papers and cards and things really just brings it to life and takes you into the world and the scale. I love it.

Thanks for the recap post! A lot of great stuff and a very impressive output, considering you didn‘t paint through the whole year!
The death riders really are a highlight between so much good painting. I hope that GW never releases plastic ones, so I‘m not tempted to get some myself

Thanks a lot guys!

@ Riddle of Steel: Thank you! Nice to see you here. Glad you liked the stuff. The wood technique is a combination of trial and error, a bit of luck and some hints from other hobbyists (shoutout to Private Benjamin). I also like doing all those small details on the terrain / prop pieces, as the details can be used to tell stories or picture some passed events.

@ Viterbi: Cheers! I was a bit surprised as I counted the all the models. Granted the grots and kriegsmen took the number up quite a bit, but still it's a great amount of painted plastic. I can only imagine the buyout rush if they would ever release plastic kriegers!


I have done a little progress on the Trukk conversion, but nothing worthy of pictures yet.
I also started painting the zombie skaven just to get him out of the WIP area on my table.
I'll post some pictures later this week, as I get some more done.

As promised, a lot shorter update this time.

I finished painting the zombie skaven. For some reason, I did not find painting him very pleasing. Not sure if it's the fact that I messed around with the greenstuff for so long, or if it's something else.
Anyhow, I just sort of splashed the colors on him with some sloppy highlights. Overall I think the conversion turned out pretty well.

Images are really dark, as I used my phone and a single desk lamp this time.





Did some more work on the Looted Wagon / Trukk thingy.
I think the vehicle is now finally assembled. I might add a few details but other than that, I'm happy with it.

EDIT: Forgot to add these two images that I took before priming. Here is the old rhino all built up and ready to receive a new layer of paint. Some of the old paint job is still remaining here.




I'm using a turret from a battlewagon as the big shoota for the trukk. I added a couple of details to the turret itself. The original grot had a boring looking head and his hands were hidden inside the turret (only the shoulders showing), so I swapped the head and cut one of the arms. I then used a random grot arm from by bits box to replace the one I cut away.


The vehicle and a few battlewagon turrets / gunners primed. I masked a few parts of the tank before priming in order to preserve the old paint job.


Started base coating the thing when I realized that the wood does not look worn enough. Decide to use a wire brush more heavily accompanied by a hobby knife to cut off some pieces.
Now that I look the picture, the sides might need a few more details. Not sure yet, as it might also look a bit too crowded. I'll figure it out when it's almost painted and some weathering is added to it.



That's all for this update. Thanks for coming by!

Another quick update showing some progress on the looted rhino wagon trukk thingy.

I applied the base colors, some checkers and slight weathering. The grot and the driver is still unpainted, so I'll work on them next.
I might have gone a bit overboard with the checkers (at least that's what I certainly felt whilst painting them), but I've always liked how they look.







Some more weathering needs to be added as well as a few highlights etc. Slowly getting there, but I'm thinking that I'll get this thing finished by the end of the week.


At the start of the year, I thought I would get back at working with my Eldar of finally start rebuilding my Drukhari army. But alas, my inspiration has once again turned towards painting orky vehicles in order to finalize the look of my speed freaks.
I'm having a 3000 points game against a friend in next month, so it would be cool to get all these vehicles done until that. Not sure I'll manage, but I'm trying my best.

There are a handful of projects in my ork army that have been more or less in progress for years now. I used to have a bad habit of starting to paint something and then switching to another model before finishing the first.
As a result of that, the paint job in most of my older Ork units has been half assed. It actually really bothers me when I'm playing with these guys.

I'm setting a goal for myself to finish most of my unfinished projects before starting too many new ones, so I can regain my sanity

Sometimes having a project that I want to finish in a certain time frame results to stress if I don't find the time to paint. The other end of the spectrum is that I keep using all my free time on painting, which leads to hobby burn out.
That's not good and it has happened before, so I'm trying to find the balance this time. I just need to remind myself that the minis won't disappear anywhere if I don't reach my goals. It's just a hobby after all.

That being said, inspirations come and go so it might be possible that I paint a few other units from different armies between my orky adventure.


Look at me rambling again. Well, that's all for now. Until next time!

Classic Ork ride there . It’s got all sorts of style to it and would fit right in with the studio paint jobs.

Thanks theo!

Finally finished the looted rhino! Actually I finished it a couple of days ago, but it took me a while until I managed to snap a few pics.

I decided to go hard with the weathering, as the surface of the tank was not in good condition (due to some abuse it has endured over the years).



Full size image


Close up from the turret.


Close up from the driver. I painted the details on this guy pretty quickly, as he is not very visible from the outside.




The tank does not pop up with bright highlights as some of the other vehicles I have in my ork army, but I wanted to try something different.

This was a fun project, yet a little demanding as these larger conversion projects usually are. Most of the time spent on this project went on conversions and trying to figure out how to build the thing.
Sometimes it's really hard to figure out how to achieve the vision I have in mind. It's also sometimes hard to choose the final look between a few different variations that I try out.

Overall I'm happy how it turned out.


Currently finishing up my bikers. Pictures from them coming up soonish.

Thanks for checking!

Nicely done! The weathering and damage seems apt for such a vehicle l, especially having gone through multiple guises. The grot turret and the converged gunner came out really well!

Will the bikers be taking a similarly dark turn or will it be back to the bright highlights?

Nice looted rhino, great additiion to the orks. Well worth the extra effort to make your own ork vehicles unique

The turret driver not having a close combat weapon to hit someone with is the only part that doesn’t scream old GW . Maybe he is pointing at who he’s about to hurl a grot at .

Nicely done

Very nice Ezki, I think the hard weathering was a good choice and makes sense for a looted ok vehicle. I especially like the heavy scratches on all the edges as you know those ork boyz wouldn't be very careful as they move it around.

Thank you guys! Glad you like it.

Gobert: Thanks! Yeah the weathering sort of hides some of the roughness on the surface. This thing has indeed gone trough many iterations and all those attempts have really taken a toll on the plastic.
Regarding the highlights, that's a good question! Currently I'm leaning towards bright highlights on the red parts, as it would fit better with the biker HQs. I'm sort of "speed painting" the bikers, so bright edge highlights are also an easy way to bring out some definition.

Maharg: Cheers! I think so too. The thing I really like about orks is the fact that they have so much potential for conversions.

Theo: Haha! That must be it.

Syro: Yeah I think so too. As a bonus, the weathering part is maybe my favorite step of the painting process!

Arakas: Thanks!


I've not managed to finish the bikes yet, as time is a bit short while we are making some preparations for a short trip to Germany with my girlfriend.
Also I have been a bit lazy when it comes to painting, as I've been spending a bit too much time playing video games

Painting the bikes has taken a lot longer than I thought it would. The original idea was to finish them while my friend was at my house to do some painting. "Yeah, I'll finish these in a day and a half".
Far from it. Well, they are just a few highlights and details away from completion.

On a related note, I helped my friend to figure out a color scheme for his Cadians that will be used as allies for the knights.
He wanted an easy color scheme that could be painted really quickly. The purpose is to get them painted with little effort, but in a way that they look reasonable on the battlefield.

He gave me a challenge: 15 minutes on the clock (not counting the drying time), as many paints from his collection as possible and no fancy tricks.
I happily took the challenge and finished with the following result:





Painting him took ~15-16 minutes. The timer was put on pause while the washes were drying.
Naturally with this speed, the skin for example is just cadian fleshtone with some wash. I did not even try to paint the eyes in this time frame, as the rest of the models would not have them painted either.

I think he turned out pretty great!
This challenge worked well as a mental exercise: it's not always worth it to overdo it. Decent results can actually be achieved with the simplest of techniques.
Speaking of simple, the clothes are painted with black wash on top of a grey primer with a handful of brighter highlights.

I got excited and did a couple more, with the timer still running:




And on an unrelated note:
There was a sale on a games store near my workplace.The store is moving, so they are selling their whole stock with a discount.
I could not resist and had to add some stuff to my pile of shame:



The trukk will solely be used for bits. The kit contains a ton of cool stuff to be used in future conversions.

I'm also making some plans for future additions to my Eldar and Krieg armies which I will start working again after I have grown bored with orks. Not yet though.

Getting out me stabby-bits.

Phew, bikes are finally done.
As stated earlier, it took a lot longer than I anticipated. The original idea was to finish them during the weekend in a day or two.
On the other hand, I only had two small painting sessions after the weekend.

I laid all the bikes I had in a row and started fixing all the broken down bits.
Most of them had some bits torn off, like the exhaust barrels, ork hands, boss poles etc.
In fact, some of these guys were pictured as nobz with various configurations, as nob bikers were one of the "cheesy" things back in 6th(?) edition. Neverless, these guys were never properly finished, even though I have had the bikers for ~10 years.

I had a total of 18 bikes. Three of them were missing some wheels and other crucial parts, that I had used in some conversions (mostly the ones I did last year).
That left me with 15 ~intact bikes. I decided to have a enough for a full squad, so I left three of them to my bitz pile for further conversions and started painting 12 of them.

After fixing the broken parts, a few of the bikes are still missing their exhaust pipes. I might sort that out eventually, but I don't have any extras and to be honest, it's not that noticeable so it does not really bother me that much.

The name of the game was mass production. I mainly wanted these guys done for two reasons: to field them with a good conciense compared to unpainted models, and to finally get them off my never ending todo list.
A few of them had some paint splattered all over and a couple of them even looked quite decent, from 2 meters away.
I took my large basecoating brush and went to town.

At some point I realized what 12 bikes actually means: it's 12 "mini vehicles" and 12 orks, which both required a different color palette and especially the bikes had a ton of details.
Even though I cut some corners, painting these felt like forever. Without the company of my friend who was painting his minis, my motivation might have disappeared quite quickly.

The corner cutting can be noticed for example from some of the weapons, which are just drybrushed metal.

Nevertheless, I think they look decent enough, especially in a group.
And I'm really happy that I finally managed to finish them after years and years of storage.

As you can see, my lightbox is way too small for these fellows.
Did not have time to build another photo booth, as I wanted to snap a few quick shots before going on our trip for the weekend.

There is a banner guy that I converted back in the day. The banner itself is just red at the moment.
I either add a transfer to it, or try to do some sort of free hand on it. When I figure that out, I'll snap a better pick from him.










That's it for today! Thanks for looking.
Have a great weekend and keep on wargaming!

Good job getting through all those bikers, they look great together. I find bikes/cavalry the worst things to paint, as you say there are so many bits to them and you need so many. I've always liked the idea of fast attack bike armies but the thought of painting them has always put me off

I mean, your rush-job cutting corners is still a better paintjob than 95% of the stuff in the Gallery.

They look great.

Yeah, I wish I could slow paint as good as your rush job! Great looking mob of bikers. I always found vehicles a slog back in the day, so it’s mighty impressive to get through that many bikes in such a short space of time!

That mob of bikers is sweet. And the speed painting is very impressive.

Those bikes look great. I love mobile armies and the speed aspect is really fitting for the orks. And I'm amazed how fresh those old models look with your paint job!

Nice bikes! I'm a little sad the red got toned down so much, but I like your conversion so I split the difference. Anyway, orks!

Way too long since I've passed through here and left a comment, so let's fix that.. First off, great work with the Trukk! I was a big fan of your original, but I'll admit that this is an improvement! The new turret looks ace! And I think the weathering did a nice job of tying everything together. My only bit of critique is that the troop compartment could use a bit of extra detail, like rivets/bolts on the planks, or some graffiti.

Also, the biker gang looks really good. As you said, even if an individual biker isn't painted to your best standard, as a group they look great. Though tbh, can't really find much fault with the individuals either

Wow guys, I'm flattered! Was not expecting these bikers to receive any praise. Appreciate it.


Maharg: Thanks! Tell me about it. With so many small details and hard to reach places they sure take a lot of time to paint.

Excommunicatus: I would not go that far, but thank you kindly! Glad you like 'em.

Gobert: Heh, thanks! They definitely aren't match for your best work.
I love painting singular vehicles, but when there are a few or more of the same kind, it surely feels like a chore sometimes.

Youwashock: Thank you youwashock!

Viterbi: Thanks Viterbi! Every game I've played with orks in the 8th edition has been with a speed freak kind of list. Lot's of fun.
"Cheated" a little bit with the bright highlights. It makes them pop a bit and fools the eye out of the more lazily painted parts.

Warboss_Waaazag: Thank you! Yeah it got toned down a little too much. At least more than I originally intended. Anyway, looks like it has been in the hands of the orks for quite some time.

mcmattila: Nice to see you here! Thank you very much.
You are absolutely right regarding the troop compartment! I was so focused on making the wood look worn, so I did not even think about any rivets or bolts. Will certainly add some in the future.
Glad you like the bikes too! The point was indeed to make them look good in a group.
There are a ton of mistakes and general laziness if you know where to look but then again, it might be just me and my self criticism.


****************

The three guardsmen and the bikes have been a good mental excercise. I'm trying to learn that not every tabletop model needs to look better than the last.
I'm trying to learn that sometimes it's okay not to paint every belt buckle with three different tones of metal
I think the problem is, that I'm a bit afraid of the camera. Or a close inspection for that matter. I can't forgive myself for missing minor details (like a belt buckle that is hidden behind an weapon).

Not saying that being too accurate and spending a lot of time on a single mini is a bad thing. Not by any means.
What I'm trying to say is, that if I'm painting all the bigger units with the same standard as I paint my HQ-units, it would take 42 billion years to finish everything in my pile of shame (well, not quite. But still).
I'm starting to realize that every time I've had a "hobby burn out", the main reason has been a bigger unit / group of models, that has been dragging on for too long,

As I've said before: I'm trying to learn how to find the right balance. When to spend a lot of time on a single mini / unit, and when to get them done as quickly as possible.

That being said: I will always be a self critical perfectionist who paints the damn belt buckles

****************

During the trip to Germany, we went to see Sabaton. A great band by the way.
Anyway, while listening to the live show and observing the art work at the stage (WW1 themed), I got a sudden urge to order some more kriegers.
It might have been the.. "adult beverages", but if I would have opened the Forge World web store during the gig, I would be really poor right now.

I'm not sure for how long can I fight the urge not to order some Death Riders and a Malcador.
The urge grew even larger when I heard that the Imperial Armor units (including kriegers) will get new rules sometime this year! That's like... the best news I've heard for a while.


****************


Modelling wise, I'm currently in "build mode". Trying to get as many ork vehicles built and converted as possible.
Trying to feed from all the inspiration I've gathered from various sources.

I'll post some pictures when I got something worth showing. So far I've been trying to figure out how to build certain things and which bits should go where.

Edit: Well I found one picture. It's nothing much, but maybe it's better to add a bit of content other than just plain text.
A wheel assembly made out of sprue. It's not pretty, but it works.

Sabaton is awesome. I hear you on trying to learn when enough is enough on a mini. It's a battle, because the obsessiveness helps when doing fine work, but in quantity it becomes just as much of a hindrance.

Hey again.
Did some more building at the end of the week.

As I've shown earlier, I started reworking with the old trukks and battlewagons I've had for years.
They were left half painted back in the day and they all looked very similar. Especially in an ork army, I don't like things to look almost identical.

In the last post, I showed a picture displaying a couple of wheel holders made from sprue.

They were part of this project:


I decided to swap the tracks in this wagon to a set of wheels from a trukk, and the other way around.
The russian APC "BTR-80" worked as some sort of inspiration for this one.

The front "suspension" for these things is really flimsy. That resulted to losing one of the wheels while building. Had to drill a couple of holes and pin the wheel back in.



I forgot to take more WIP shots, but here is the whole wagon built with wheels and stuff.




Originally this wagon did not have the side panels attached. I replaced them with spikes (seen in the picture), but I thought it looked a bit bland.
Most of the small conversions are old stuff I did 10 or so years ago, like the open hatch at the back and the big shoota gunner.
I added a few more details to it. The grot and the grappling hook are not glued in yet, they are there for demonstration.

I also started working with one of the trukks.

I cut off all the wheels and played around the tracks. The tracks were a bit too big to be fit under the crew hold.
So the only sensible option was to make the crew hold longer. I used some bits from the spare trukk kit I bought a while ago.






Then I added some side panels and a ladder to the back.




Some of my earlier sloppy paint work can be seen from these trukk images. They were not that badly painted, but just really lazily.
That can mostly be seen from the engine which, is just plain black primer and the bottom side of the trukk which was just quickly dabbed with red paint. Similar lazy work was present all around these vehicles.
Usually I like to hold on to my older paint jobs, as I can see the progress trough the years. But most of my orks were painted like this, with no sense of completion. That's what bothers me. Especially now that I use them a lot in games.

I started working with the mounting system for the tracks during the weekend. If I get it working, I'll post some more pictures.


Additionally: I once again took part in the Fang 2020 painting competition hosted at the local Games Workshop. I was not present at the price ceremony, but I'll get my results when I'm around the store once again.
I was also recruited by my friend who is running the store to take the pictures from the entries to be posted on their Facebook page. I'm definitely not a professional photographer by any means, but it was good practice and a lot of fun.
I suspect it will take a couple of nights to filter and post process all the images.

Thanks for checking and stay tuned for more!

Tracks to wheels conversion looks to have gone well Ezki, the grot in the raised hatch is a great idea too. Will the second trukk have a grot stowaway hiding somewhere?

Wow, you're keeping busy Ezki! I like the conversions, and I wouldn't be so hard on yourself about past work. Especially about being sloppy with orks, that's kind of expected

Gobert: That might be a good idea. Maybe not on the current trukk I'm making, but will surely add it to my "todo" conversions list!

Syro: You are right. Though I just can't help noticing the unpainted areas
I used to buy a ton of models, assemble them and play with them before they were painted. Then I mostly just quickly overbrushed them before a bigger game. That's why a huge proportion of my old armies are half painted.


Progress with the turkk has been slow, but I have managed to do something at least.
I have kept working with the axle assembly for the tracks.

After test fitting with a dozen of different configurations, I started making the necessary modifications.
I took out my hobby saw and went to town.


I cut out the front leaf springs and moved them back and higher.
Then I added one more leaf made out plasticard to the middle ones.
And lastly, I cut a piece of the frame from the spare trukk and fitted it on this one.


The tracks have three "main wheels", which all need an axle and some sort of suspension. As always, I'm trying to build these things in a sense that they might work in theory. At least in ork standards
I'm still amazed how well the mechanical details are done on these things. I mean, even the ball joints and steering racks have been modelled!

Then it was time to drill some holes to the wheels for the axles.


Assembled and drying.


When the tracks have dried, I need to attach some thick metal wire / plastic tube to work as the drive shaft.

That's pretty much it so far.


********************************************

Regarding the Fang painting competition, I managed to snag two trophies!

2nd place in the vehicle category for the looted wagon.


3rd place in 40k single category for the ork warboss I did last year.


I'm really happy with the results. Especially as originally I though about not attending at all, as I did not have time to paint any models particularly for the competition.


********************************************

For the last couple of nights I have been post processing the pictures I took of all the entries in the Fang competition.
~500-600 pictures, that I had to browse through and select the best ones. Then I had to correct the white balance, add labels with the name of the entry and attendee etc.
Took a while, but it was fun and gave me a good routine for basic photo editing. Taking the pictures was also good practice, as many of the miniatures were darker than the others.

I guess that also counts as hobby time.

Anyway, the pictures will be posted to the warhammer Helsinki store Facebook site sometime later this week. They are far from perfect, but definitely an improvement compared to pictures they took last year.


That's all folks. Will keep you posted when I get some more progress done.

Congratulations of the wins and the trophies Ezki!

Congrats, man!

Good work on the 2nd and 3rd places, well deserved! The others must’ve been a sight to behold! The trukk tracks are looking neat too, I agree that the level of mechanical detail is insane for an Ork toy!

Congratulations Ezki.

On your placing and the conversion of the Ork truck.

Cheers,

CB

congrats on the painting comp, some well deserved recognition of your good work. New wagons are looking good so far too

Congrats on 2nd and 3rd place, highly deserved!

Both well earned. I always appreciate someone who can pull off the Ork style. It’s just not something I can do, but you have it down to an art sir.

Thank you very much guys!

Gobert: Yeah the others were truly amazing. Especially a particular GC Leman Russ that snatched the victory in the vehicle category.

Teophony: Just think (or don't think?) like an ork and it comes naturally


Some more stuff done.
Feels that the progress has been really slow, even though I managed to have quite a lot of hobby time during the end of the week.
It just seems to take a ton of time to play around with the conversions.

We did a mass order and got some more foam. So some of the time was spent cutting some slots for my minis.



To the actual progress:

Managed to finish the suspension and drive train for the trukk. I did a drive shaft out of an old brush cap (cover?).


It's now pretty much done. Might add a detail or two to it before painting.





While some of the pieces on the trukk were drying out, I started working on the Megatrakk Scrapjet.
I really wanted to make this one look like a former biplane. At first I thought about just adding another wing on top.
That looked a bit weird, so I decided to cut off the original "wings" and smoothed the edges with a file.


I did some prototyping. Used two spare parts from the Dakkajet, which also worked as a template for the plasticard wings on the bottom.
The bottom wings are not in a "realistic" position, as they should be a lot lower. But I really liked how it looked.


The only problem was that this way the mini would not be very game friendly. It would be a lot wider than a land raider and it would be impossible to move it around on an urban setting.

I then did another prototype with torn of wings.
I watched dozens of images of old rusty crashed planes for inspiration.


The smaller ones turned out okay, but I'm not sure of the large top wing.
I added a layer of really thin plasticard which I first wrinkled in my hands. It tries to represent the aluminum coat on the wings, which usually wrinkles a lot when the wings are broken.
The metal wiring represents the structure found inside the wings.

I might have to make the hole on the top wing a lot larger and add some more wiring.
I'll play around with it for a while. I fear that while I'm trying to make it as realistic as possible, I might end up making it look too messy.
We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for looking. Catch you later!

Wow you are really cranking out a lot of great progress, it doesn't feel slow to me. Also, you should follow your own inspiration, but I love the love you made by taking the wings off of the Megatrakk Scrapjet. Without any wings it looks like such a cool muscle car. Maybe just put some wheels on it forget about the trakks also.

That scrapjet is going to be awesome!

Brilliant modeling on the damaged wings. The first trukk is great, but I really like the look of the scrapjet body so far. Some big dragster tires in the back would make an awesome hot rod.

Ezki,

Great scratch building on the Truk. Fit for a War Boss to ride in.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks guys!

Youwashock & Syro: Thanks for the ideas! I actually left the suspension parts for the tracks out, as I was considering the possibility of replacing them with wheels. I'm not too keen on the original tracks.
As a muscle car fan myself, I liked that idea of a muscle car dragster so much that I'm thinking of heading to that direction instead.

What helps with the decision is that the top wing failed a bit (I messed up with it a little too much after the last post).
I still want to make a biplane, so I'll try it again when I'm getting another one of these. Or I might convert a dakkajet, as the movement problems turned out to be a real problem...

Captain Brown: Thanks! It will indeed be a fit ride for the big guy!



Nothing to show this time, just messing around with three different kits spread all over my workbench.


Edit: stupid typos.

Hey again!

Got the Scrapjet almost built. Actually I got to this step almost a week ago, but I can't make my mind on the final configuration.

Inspired by Syro & Youwashock and a few images on the internet, I decided to go with a muscle / race car look instead of the biplane.
I used the racers from 30's, 40's and 50's as an inspiration for the "final" look. Especially this Ferrari from 1952 had some similar elements:



The first iteration looks more like the Ferrari in the spoilered image.


I kind of like the simplified look of it.
The only "problem" with it is the fact that I can't seem to find a place for the wing missiles. I don't think It's not that big of a thing if I were to leave them out.

Anyway, I tried another configuration with a spoiler made from a trukk bit:







The second iteration has the missiles visible, which would make more sense on the tabletop. It also looks a bit more mean. But then again, the spoiler breaks the historic look a bit.

So it comes down to the question: closer to the source material or a meaner look?


While I'm trying to make up my mind, I started to mess around with the last conversion project (for now).
It's the Shokkjump Dragsta I bought during the sales on a game store near my workplace (a few updates ago).

Now the model looks cool and all, but in my opinion it looks a bit too much like a F1 car out of the box. Nothing wrong with that, but it does not quite fit my mind set.

So instead, I'm making it look a bit more robust. Maybe make it a bit higher to look like an off road racer or something.

The first thing I'm messing with is the hood. I'm trying to find a way to fit the engine from the Mek Workshop kit to it. I have been saving it for "the perfect project", but as I have not yet figured what that could be, I'm using it for this.
I cut off most of the hood so that the engine is visible. To my surprise, the exhaust manifolds from the Shokkjump Dragsta kit fir perfectly to the engine block. Like they were meant to work together.


Test fitting with a different parts. Almost nothing has been glued on. And the spoiler seems to be the wrong way around


As you can see, I have been messing around with different bits and configurations.
My head is bursting with ideas, but the actual implementation seems to be hard sometimes.

I think I'll get back to painting when these two cars have been built. If I keep building more without painting these first, I might run the risk of setting them aside for months (or years) to gather dust.
Painting four Ork vehicles in a row will be challenging enough. It might be possible that I do a little sidestep somewhere in the middle of that process. We'll see.

I "should" work on my other projects as well, as I feel that the Orks have gotten most of my attention for the last year or so. But then again, one should work with projects that currently feel most inspiring.

Thanks for looking!


Edit: the Ferrari is from 1952, not 1925

I like the top car with the spoiler. The bottom car is looking good. The custom engine is sweet.

I love the muscle car/scrapjet Ezki! Honestly it's hard to say if it looks better with or without the tail-fin. It's funny, I was going to suggest a spoiler, and then the very next photo I see you saying you had tried it out. Either way, it looks great, and good luck deciding on the final build.

Must... resist... Ork... vehicle... customisations...

Inspiring work - keep it up!

Nice work and wouldn't be surprised if the designer's anticipated, that people would try to put the engine into the vehicles and built it as a kind of easter egg.

Your vehicle conversions kick ass! I love the Scrapjet, looks so much better with wheels. I think I prefer the non-winged version, but both look good.

Also, I took a look at the WH Helsinki's FB page, you've definitely taken great photos! And of course, some brilliant models on show, congrats for the medals! I would've loved to take part, even though I wouldn't have had a chance, but living on the other side of the country made that impossible..

Thanks youwashock, Syro, Arakasi, Viterbi and mcmattila! Much appreciated.

Syro: Great minds think alike!

Arakasi: Let the inner Mek loose!
Checked your old Ork thread and I gotta say, you got it! Likewise a great source of inspiration.

Viterbi: Might very well be so!

mcmattila: With your skills, I think you would have fared quite well in the competition!
Your tips and links have certainly helped with photography, so thank you for that! Sadly FB does nasty things to the quality of the pictures. They edited pics look a lot better on my PC...



Regarding the Scrapjet, I think I'll make the final choice when I'm actually starting to paint the thing.

Some more progress on the Shokkjump Dragsta.
I decided to make it look a little less like a "dragster" and a little more like an offroad vehicle.

As an inspiration, I'm using the traditional looking off road RC cars with a combination of a buggy style look.

Something similar to these images. These pictures and NOT mine.


The final look will (hopefully) have some similar elements to these kind of vehicles with a twist of orkiness.

I started by cutting the track suspension parts from the Scrapjet in two, and used them as mounting points for the tires.
The back side of the suspension part was hollow, so I added some plasticard there. Still needs some rivets, but I'll do all of them in one go to all the vehicles.
The tires are from the trukk kit.



I had to carve out the original mount point a bit. It's not pretty, but it will be hidden.



The front tires were a bit harder. I had to saw the mounting points off in order to get them lower.
The end result is not pretty here either. I cut a bit deep as I wanted to preserve the mounting points completely, without losing any material on them.
I need to sort those marks out somehow. Or just dress them as battle damage. Here I'm test fitting with the original front tires.



While fiddling around with the front tires, I noticed that the front "spoiler" is a bit problematic. So I did the natural deed of cutting it off. It was quite bold, but hey ho.
I also cut a little more material out of the hood and added some plasticard on the rear to cover some empty space behind the engine.



Test fitting with the first iteration. Most of the parts are pointing in funny directions, as they are either held together with tape or static pressure.
I still need to figure out what to do with the front of the vehicle. I have a couple of ideas and I already made a prototype of a metal plate full of spikes. The glue is still drying, so I'll grab some pictures when the vehicle is complete.



Many of the parts in this kit (after and before conversions) are in hard to reach places. So I think I'll have to paint it this way and assemble it later.
The shokk engine that goes to the back (on the right corner) is held together with two sided tape in the picture. It still comes off to five different bits.


Thanks for looking!

Talk about a trip to the chop shop. It is looking very cool, though. Some glue and paint and weathering will have it all meshing together just fine. Most ork buggies scream Mad Max, but this one really looks the part.

Looking at your inspiration pics, it may look better to go with all the same size wheels - ie all back trukk wheels.

Thanks for the comments!

youwashock: Thanks! I actually just finished the third movie from the original trilogy for inspiration. It was the only one I had not seen yet.

Arakasi: Thanks for the comment! Now that you mentioned it, you are absolutely right! I gotta acquire a set of tires from somewhere.

Alright then. Got the Shokkjump Drags... Buggy completed.

It was definitely the most demanding and time consuming one out of these last four vehicles I have built over the last month.
That being said, it was maybe the one I had most fun with.

I decided to follow Arakasi's suggestion by switching the front tires to match the rear tires. It truly looks better this way. Thanks for the hint!
As I said I did the bold move of sawing off the front spoiler. It took me a while to figure what to do with the front. Ended up using one of the pieces from the spoiler as a cover plate on which I glued some spikes.

I tried to figure out something different instead of the saw blades. At first I added a piece of plasticard to cover the hole and tried to build something from there.
Decided to go with the saw blades in the end. Should have gone with them to begin with: in my opinion they fit the final look pretty well after all!

To finish the Mad Max look, I created some spikes to the rims from plasticard. I think they make the overall look a bit meaner.

I primed some of the parts black before hand (not glued in yet), so the details blend in a bit.








I'm quite happy with the result so far!
Might have to fiddle with the tires a bit while making the base for it.


It's been a month since I touched a brush. Being full on in building mode has actually been pretty fun. I managed to feed from multiple sources of inspiration and keep myself in the same headspace all the time during the project.
There are a bunch of things I still want to build, but I think it's good to do some painting for a while.
I have never built this many conversions in a row, so painting them all will be a major task. Though I have a feeling I will enjoy it.

All four of them primed (except the Battlewagon) and ready to be painted!
Just managed to clean my desk from all the plastic residue etc. So I quickly threw a couple of printer papers on it for the pictures. Lazy me.







Before signing off, I want to show one more thing.
I decided to prototype just a teeny bit with the leftover parts from various kits.
I have always wanted to build a Max Max style Hot Rod for Orks. Like a proper Hot Rod.
So I fixed the Trukk frame I had previously ripped apart with some sprue and plasticard and harshly fit a few bits to get the general feeling for it.
It's nothing much, but it's a start.



Where many might see a pile of bits, I imagine it as a base for a 30's Chevy or a Ford.
With some bigger tires on the back, headlamps beside the radiator, a chassis from plasticard... I can already hear the engine roaring...

Anyway, enough of dreaming. I won't build this until I have game tested the two new buggies to see which I like the most on the tabletop.
Plus I will try to keep focused on finishing these things first

Thanks for looking!

I can definitely see the open-front-end-hot-rod you're seeing there, it'll look great with the driver's compartment perched in back!

--B.

Beautiful set of vehicles Ezki. It's been fun watching you build them. I always get into big building and making models, and put off painting.

Yup, looks much better weighted with the larger front wheels.

Amazing looking buggies Ezki!

I'm trying to build an old-style hot rod too, maybe based on a '32 Ford roadster, or a '36 one. Will be interesting seeing each others work

A great set of buggies and wagons you’ve pulled together Ezki. The Shokkjump Drag Buggy is real triumph of Ork engineering! Your hot rod idea is really cool too, will you be buying a ford/Chevy model as a starting point or making it from scratch?

Those are some Speed Freaks!

Cheers,

CB

Thank you very much guys! Glad you like 'em.


Gobert: Thanks! At the moment I'm thinking about making the chassis out of plasticard. Not sure yet. I will at least try to make it myself.

rakkzul: Indeed! Be sure to post some progress when you get to working with it!


Syro: It's so easy to get carried away with the building process. I have to be careful not to over do it, so I won't actually add to my pile of shame

Briancj: Hopefully so! I think I'll start building it when I'm done with these four.




The painting process has been slow so far. Granted I have not been able to paint more than a few times over the last week.
I thought about posting my next update when the first vehicle is ready, but it seems to take a while so I decided to show at least some progress.

I decided to start with the trukk.
Base coating it was painstakingly slow, as I did the stupid thing of gluing all the parts together before adding the base colors.
All the tight corners under the hull and between the axles were a pain to paint.
Luckily all that's left is the fun part: weathering and painting all the details / highlights!


So far I have added a layer of red and metal. I also started a little bit with the weathering by adding the first layer of brown to make the metal look rusted.
It's a bit messy so far, but hopefully the details will pull it together.







Will keep you posted!

Sweet ride, but who’s driving it? I guess you’re planning to paint the driver separately?

That last buggy turned out fantastic. It's all teeth, like some kind of road shark.

 Ezki wrote:

So far I have added a layer of red and metal. I also started a little bit with the weathering by adding the first layer of brown to make the metal look rusted.
It's a bit messy so far, but hopefully the details will pull it together.

Red one's go faster.

Cheers,

CB

The Trukk is starting to come together!

Love the ladder/ramp thing on the trukk! Some enteprising orc biker may use it to jump over the trukk

Thank you for the comments guys!

Gobert: It's a ghost trukk! Just kidding. Yeah the crew is patiently waiting on my workbench for their ride to come out of the paint shop.

Youwashock: A road shark might be a fitting name for it!

CB: Indeed they do!

Viterbi: Would make a cool diorama!

Not much more to show yet. Just some more rust colors added etc. Been too busy during the last week, so I have only managed to paint really short sessions here and there.
Will most likely get back to it next week.

Huzzah! The trukk is finally pretty much ready!
Took a lot longer than I hoped (not that there is any hurry). I wen't back and fort with different colors and techniques with the rust effects.
I did not try to do anything too fancy: I'm trying to paint all the Ork vehicles in a way that they look good on the table without too many fancy techniques.
So, no glazing, minimal layering etc.

That being said, I played quite a bit with the rust and weathering, as it's something I really enjoy doing.
Sadly I did the stupid thing of adding some wash without shaking it properly: the tracks and a few other bits started to shine. So I had to do some more dry brushing in order to get rid of the shine.
The rust looked a bit better a few steps back.

As the trukk has so many details that easily blend together, I went with bright edge highlights as I've done with the bikes.
The lines are not the most accurate, but good enough I think.

I did not manage to build by photo booth at this time, but I still wanted to show some finished "teaser" pictures because it's been so long since I last posted.







I might still fix a few small details before taking the final pictures.


I also started working with the battlewagon during the weekend. The most jarring phase, base coating, is almost complete.
What's left is the fun part: weathering and painting all the details.








I will post the proper finished pictures sometime during next week.
Thanks for looking!

Trukk looks good. Battlewagon should too after the same treatment.

It’s amazing that your Ork vehicles start off with such a bright basecoat! It’s testament to the rusting up I suppose that they come out so grimy. Great work as ever

Ezki,

Yes, it is funny how painting gets so much more interesting after the base coat is down.

Cheers,

CB

Nice going, that will be a really great Waaagh! that's gonna be steamrolling its enemies.

Thank you guys!

Arakasi: Thanks! Hopefully so. Going to be using pretty much the same techniques.

Gobert: Cheers! Yeah I start with reasonably bright colors and make them more grim and weathered step by step from there. Not sure it's the best way to go about it, but seems to be working. Plus I can see how a newly painted vehicle gets more and more worn over time

Captain Brown: Indeed it does!

Viterbi: That's the goal!


Got the final pictures taken and edited.
Here they are as promised:



Full size image here

I added the bottom image just for fun.
I think the details, like the drivetrain and suspension, can be seen a lot better when they are painted.

Slowly making progress with the Battlewagon.
As always, thanks for looking!

Excellent work Ezki.

Exalted.

Cheers,

CB

Great pics of your wagon Ezki! The underside looks so detailed, I would’ve thought the Orks would use more liberally applied grease on the drive train than that tough!

Sick stuff mate! love the unique buggies and the rescue of the old tank.

Thanks! Glad you guys liked it.

Captain Brown: Thanks for exalting!

Gobert: True. I thought about adding some ATF oil spillage on the rear casings and the shaft, but I was too afraid it would look a bit weird. Maybe next time though!

stonned_astartes: Thanks and nice to see you here!


Got the Battlewagon done!
Even though the painting process took hours and hours, I managed to get it done in a week or so.
Due to the recent events all over the globe one has little else to do on their free time than play video games or paint minis.

At times the process felt really sloggish. Especially painting the bright edge highlights and every single bolt on the vehicle
I did try a few new and old rust techniques in combination and managed to get a few good results.

After a final 4 hour session last night, the vehicle was "complete". When I started taking pictures, I realized that the metal chipping looked really bland. In fact, the whole vehicle looked a bit bland.
This was due to the "new" GW stormhost silver not doing it's job properly: it reflects light a bit too well and does not cover well enough in my opinion.
So the metal chipping looked just like an unpainted area from the wrong angle. I have really started to dislike that particular color.

Luckily, I still have some good old mithril silver in an old pot. That has yet to fail me.
So, I went around and applied some more color to every single one of the chipped areas, which once again took it's time.
I will have to give the Vallejo metallics a go, as mcmattila suggested in his thread.

I thought about touching up my other two battlewagons sometime soon, but after fighting with this thing I think I might move that project a bit further.
I'm not saying I hated painting the wagon, but there were times when repeating the same step for a couple of hours straight started to feel a bit too boring.

I really enjoyed painting the rust though!

Without further adeu, pictures!



Full size image in the gallery


I think the deffrolla and the rusty front panel turned out pretty good.
I used some orange on the crevices to replicate water pooling in there and making it rust a bit faster.


I might have applied a bit too much wash to the rolla, but in general it looks a bit more rusty than just "brown".
In the image the deffrolla looks a bit more washed out than it actually is. Still though, maybe one more really careful layer of orange or yellow would have sealed the deal.

I could have used a bit larger variety of colors on the vehicle or just use some more black. I think it might be a little too red for my tastes. Not sure.
All in all, I'm fairly happy with it.


Next time (possibly) one of the new buggies, which I have eagerly waited to paint.
Unless I grow tired of painting worn out orky red

Thanks for looking!

Lovely stuff!

Another great Ork vehicle.

Cheers,

CB

That's a very good looking battlewagon Ezki. it looks like it was taken straight out of the pages of white dwarf.

That’s one beat up old wagon! Can’t hardly believe it is started out all kleen and bright red! Awesome job as ever Ezki!

Marvelous battlewagon! You may try some blood on the deffrolla to break it up a little, it should work nice with your rusty look.

Wow Ezki, both the truck and the wagon look great! It was funny to see the "pre-weathering" wagon as well, which looked pretty much like a toy truck. What a difference weathering (and highlighting and detailing) makes!

Regarding the chipping: I think the reason you think the chipping looks a bit bland is that it's pretty uniform and even across the vehicle. All the bare metal bits are quite large, and there are no small scratches anywhere. It looks a bit like it has all been done with an angle grinder rather than wear and tear or bullets. Now, I've got a suggestion (for future projects, of course!). Have you tried using a sponge to do the chipping? I've noticed that using a sponge is perfect for vehicles as you can make random patterns and cover large areas much quicker than with a brush. You'll also get bigger and smaller "chips", which makes the effect more natural. It's also good for creating rust textures! I've got a couple of examples in my thread, like this ork dreadnought, which had absolutely zero highlighting with a brush, just weathering with a sponge. Or something a bit more restrained like this sentinel. You can go nuts and first sponge with dark brown, then highlight all the bigger flakes by brush!

Thank you all, I'm really flattered!

Syro: Your words make me blush! Thank you kindly.

gobert: Some washes, rust and metal chipping work wonders!

Viterbi: Thanks! That's a good idea. I thought about it but did not dare to try. I have played around with blood effects previously (both red paint and the "new" technical paint), and all I managed to produce was a really sloppy result.
I might give it a go on the next deffrolla. If it turns out good, I'll be sure to apply a similar effect to this one!

mcmattila: Thank you sir! And that's a really good advice!

I have seen some results (yours and others) when using a sponge to do the weathering. They all look really nice.

I used to use a stippling brush to do the weathering on my krieg vehicles, and it produced a lot nicer effect than a large dry brush. Couple of examples here and here.
I don't currently have a set of them, so for big vehicles like these, I have been a bit lazy and just used a dry brush.

So even though I've seen the results and heard that one could use a sponge, it just did not somehow occur to me to actually use one

I've been doing this same chipping technique for a while now. Partly because I look how it looks (other than the uniformity of course) and how easy it's to do, and partly because, well I've got used to it.
It's easy to get "stuck" to old habits. Especially when trying to produce a lot of similarly colored models in a row.

I think that for the next one I'll do a combination of both. I like the well defined metallic edges along with the bright edge highlights, but I also want some character on the flat surfaces. That's where the sponge will come along next time!


*********************************************************************
A lengthy one coming up:


During the last couple of days I've been doing something a bit different for a change.
One reason is that I want a bit of variety for this thread. Lately it's just been red vehicles one after another. I will shortly get back to finishing my speed freaks, but for a couple of updates, it's space elf time!
The other reason is the fact that I've been doing the same thing for a while.
At some point repeating the same techniques over and over might start feeling like a chore. I'm not there yet (except regarding the base coating and highlighting all those darn bolts). I intend to keep it that way.

I also realised that this thread is a bit messy. Not that it's a bad thing at all, I like variety. It's just that it might be hard to find all the finished models from each army.
So a while ago I created a showcase thread for my Orks: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/785520.page.
I intend to do one for each one of my armies in the future.

Oh, and I went back to the first pages and started reuploading some of the lost images.
There are still a bunch to go, but it's a start.


Now, to the actual content.

Over the last year or two I've been thinking about restarting my Drukha.. Dark Eldar army.
I've actually talked about some of the plans here as well. I have yet to decide the actual theme of the army, but I've finally taken the first steps in bringing it back to life!


Couple of days ago I decided to do an inventory check and see which models I still have around the house.
Most of them were luckily stored in foam trays, but still pretty badly damaged. This army has seen the tabletop last time somewhere during 6th or maybe early 7th edition.

It took an hour or two to gather all of them and assemble all the bits and flying bases.
For my own surprise, I have actually magnetized most of the vehicles. Even though the younger and more impatient version of myself built them.

Here's the whole bunch:




I have one Razorwing Jetfighter as well but alas, I realized it after taking the pictures and putting these guys back in storage. So it did not make the picture.

The whole bunch in numbers:



What a trip down the memory lane!
Some of these models were the ones that started this thread back in 2012. They can be seen on the first page.

A couple of shots:

Baron Sathonyx conversion


Wyches. Same models are on the first page of this thread.


Kabalites. Edit: lol, it seems that some foam from the tray is still stuck on her



This is one of those armies, that I never actually finished. Heck, most of the models are half finished.
The Talos is maybe the only one that I can call finished.

It's always been hard for me to choose a color scheme. I picked the desert yellow for these because I got the urge to do a "desert raider" style army.
In the end, it never actually grew on me. And one of the reasons these guys have been in storage for so long is the fact that I could not decide whether I like the scheme or not.
It got to the point of me almost considering to sell these guys. Luckily I did not, as I would have regretted it later.

Restarting this army will be a long project, but I'll do it in small steps. Unit by unit, model by model.
I have also decided to change the scheme. I want it to look cool on the table, but simple to paint. If I'm trying to do a too complicated scheme, I will never get these on the table

I've been thinking about purple. I know I know, my Eldar are already purple. And so are my Harlequins. But I like the color.

I did a few really really quick tests with couple of different shades:

These are really bad phone images and as the edges are the only things that are painted, I had to use a flash (blah) to get it showing.
So far I like the middle one the best.


Then I did a test run of different configurations on my wyches. The red one is based on the Succubus conversion I did last year.
I really liked the theme on her, but not sure if I want to do a whole army of red guys and gals. Red is not something I want for my vehicles.


Last trial was to use metal colors on the armor pieces. I actually quite like this one, but not sure yet.
If I were to use metal, it will not be used on the Kabalites.


Regarding the skin color: I've been thinking of painting it a bit bluish / greyish. Inspired by a different array of night / dark elves from various games and art. Not sure abot that either.

These are just a random experiments and it's very possible that I go with something completely different.
But at least I've taken the first step.


I have managed to do some actual progress as well.
While going through the various bits and I got the sudden inspiration of doing a quick Warlock Skyrunner conversion.
I have half a dozen of unbuilt Eldar bikers which I don't currently have any other use, so I decided to use one of them instead of buying a new model.







I tried to use one of the visored Dark Eldar heads, but that lacked something. When I glued on a head piece from the Dire Avenger kit, it looked just weird.
So I decided to go with a wych head in the end. I also thought about adding a banner or something on the back, but from previous experience I tend to break or lose them during transportation
This is purely a game piece inspired by the current meta.


Phew. That was a lot of text.
Thanks for looking and catch you next time!

Those stark highlights look really cool, almost makes me want to try my hand at dark eldar, but then I realise my pile of shame is MASSIVE! Green might be a good alternative if you’re not wanting red or purple again, maybe an extreme edge highlight against black plates?

Your battlewagon looks great! Cool trip down memory lane with the Eldar. Never sad to see more space aelf-daris.

Thanks Gobert and Youwashock!

gobert: I bet you could pull the Dark Eldar look really well! Maybe when your massive pile of gray plastic is a bit smaller.
Green is always a good option for dark eldar. Making bright green highlights on a dark base could look cool. Thanks for the suggestion.
It's just that there are so many green kabalite forces out there, that I might want to do something different. No wonder that it's popular, as it's a classic and a good looking scheme!


Been doing a bit of this and that lately. Firstly, I cleaned my storage cabinets once again and finally stored my Krieg vehicles in a set of foam trays.
On the painting side, I've been doing a few projects at the same time. With so much more unallocated free time it seems to be hard to keep on focused on one project at a time.


Firstly, I did some base coating on the Megatrakk Scrapjet. Even though I said that I need a small break from orks, my inspiration tends to jump from one place to another.
It does not help that I have a handful of different unpainted projects sitting close to my painting station.






Secondly, I also did some base coating and started working on the "nigh sky" pattern on the jetbike:





I wanted to try painting a "planet" on the bike. After the first steps it looks okay, but in hindsight I maybe should have positioned it somewhere else than on the front.
Time will tell how it'll look like when I get a bit further.


Then I did something completely different.
As I'm thinking of painting the dark eldar guys purple (still pending), I started thinking that I want to distinguish the spikey and non spikey elves somehow.
While I was thinking about that (and listening to some inspiring Wintersun), I got the idea of rebasing the whole army with snowy bases.
Well, more like painting some snow effects on top of the bases rather than completely rebase them.

I really enjoyed doing the snow work on my krieg and on the AoP board, so I thought that I would enjoy this as well.

This was not the first time I thought about this: the color scheme is so dark, that the white snow could work as a good element for contrast. Plus the bases on my guardians look so... pale.
I'm not sure if it was the music I was listening to or the current quarantine situation, but I decided to go ahead and give it a shot.

At first I painted a single biker base with some white acrylic, PVA glue and baking soda:


Then I did a couple of models. The original bases can be seen on the right:


Aaaand then I wanted to see a bit bigger group with snowy bases:


I did the test bases a couple of days ago, and while I've been looking at them every now and then, I think that I'm really liking the snow.
I think I'll go for it and do the same step for the whole army. It will be relatively quick, as I just have to mix the snow and brush it on.


Well, that's all for now.
Thanks for looking!

Some nice progress Ezki.

Cheers,

CB

Snowy bases look really great and complement your scheme perfectly!

Yep, snow bases look good, and work better than the old versions with the purple scheme.


Oops, almost forgot - love the Megatrakk scrapjet!

The new snow bases look really good.

Thank you guys!

I proceeded to add the snow effects to the whole army.
I had to do 12 new bases for my jetbikes, as their flying stands have always been just clear plastic.

It's hard to mix the right amount of the snow stuff: it dries in ~30 minutes, so I always seem to mix a bit too much of it.


I was a bit hesitant to do the snow effects to the flyer base. There were a lot of elements to cover and I was not sure if it would mess the base up.
After all, I spent quite a bit of time building it.

In the end, I think it turned out pretty good.
I might add some icicles if I can find some clear plastic to melt.





Here's the whole bunch.




I built a quick "poor man's photobooth" to get the pictures, as the models were too many and too big for my light box. It was really hard to take the pictures without the snow getting too exposured. So it looks a bit too bright in the pics.
But hopefully you can get the idea.

Flyer base came out really nicely - well done.

What an absolutely gorgeous force! I'm in awe!

That's a heck of an army shot. Really nice models, and the new basing seems to make them pop even more.

Great choice to redo the bases. The white of the snow helps to make the minis stand out even more. The flyer base turned out really good too, the positioning of the snow looks really realistic. Icicles would be a great touch... don’t you have some clear plastic flying bases? Not sure how you’d melt them without changing its appearance though

Thank you for the compliments guys!

youwashock wrote:That's a heck of an army shot. Really nice models, and the new basing seems to make them pop even more.

Thanks youwashock! Yeah I'm a lot happier with them now.

Inevitable_Faith wrote:What an absolutely gorgeous force! I'm in awe!

Thanks! Glad you like 'em. There's a lot more where that came from. Four grav tanks with the same scheme did not make the picture, as my table was too small :(
There's also ~2000 points worth of half painted / half broken minis from my earlier hobby days. Maybe some day they will too make the shot.

gobert wrote:Great choice to redo the bases. The white of the snow helps to make the minis stand out even more. The flyer base turned out really good too, the positioning of the snow looks really realistic. Icicles would be a great touch... don’t you have some clear plastic flying bases? Not sure how you’d melt them without changing its appearance though

Thanks gobert! I used the mental image of last year's winter as a reference
I have actually made some icicles out of the sticks in flying bases a while ago. Post regarding that here here.
To make them, you need a heat source (a candle worked really well) and a pair of pliers. And a lot's of patience.

The finished result here.


I do have some a bunch of flying bases, but not too many spare ones that I would dare to melt. During the last time, ~half of the icicles were ruined, so it would take a half a dozen of those sticks to create a few of them.
As most of the hobby stores are now closed during these times, it's hard to acquire more. Plus I need to keep some spares because I'm really good at breaking them
Will definitely do that though when I get some more of them!

That's a really nice army shot, thanks for taking it.

Wow, that throwback to the space wolve is amazing. Such a lovely paint and base job! Those icicles show real dedication.

And I second the others, lovely army shot, great scheme and basing!

Great army shot, looks lovely.

And nice work on the flyer base, came out looking just right

That is a great army shot for the Eldar. No harm in having Dark Eldar that match them, at least to some extent.

I much prefer your colour for your Space Wolf to the GW Space Wolves, also.

I’d forgotten all about your space wolf and his icicles. They’d look cool hanging from the street furniture

Thanks a lot guys! Appreciate the comments.

Fifty: Thank you! Yeah you may be right regarding the similar color schemes. Even though they might have the same colors, I'm trying to paint them a bit differently.
Regarding the terminator: I was not too keen on the light scheme that GW uses. Wanted mine a bit darker

gobert: Indeed, I'll be sure to add some in the future!


Some more progress done:


I started to work on the weathering on the Megatrakk Scrapjet. As per mcmattila's tips regarding a sponge, I've been using a piece of soft foam from a miniature tray (I did not have a sponge at hand).
I also decided to go trace back to the same rust technique I've been using with my Krieg. It was a lot easier with the piece of foam than it would have been with a brush.







In addition the jet seer is almost complete. Just some small touching up and then the base.







I'm pretty happy how she's turning out.
I practised a bit more with wet blending and glazing on her chest. I was able to get quite smooth transitions, but the top layer could maybe be a bit brighter.
I'll get some better pictures out of her when she's done.

Thanks for looking!

Jet Seer is looking very pretty. The starscape is beautiful.

Wonderful canopy on the Jet Seer Ezki.

Cheers,

CB

The way you painted that jet seer's bike is

Both vehicles are looking superb as expected Ezki. The transitions on the jet bike are lovely

Yep, got to follow the crowd and say that canopy is lovely.

Nice rust on the scrapjet

 Ezki wrote:
Then I did a couple of models. The original bases can be seen on the right:

Love them purple dragons!

Gotta chime in, the stars on the jetbike are amazing! Scrapjet is also coming along nicely. Love that model and am still looking for a way to include it in my Imperial Forces

Thank you youwashock, Captain Brown, Syro_, gobert, monkeytroll and Boss Salvage
Did not think the pattern was worth such praise!


I finished the base and took some better pics with my DSLR camera.



Full size picture

I'm running low on materials to do any more snow: I barely had enough to do a mix for this base.
Gotta acquire some more, but I'm not too keen to go shopping more than necessary. I might be able to score some more PVA glue from the market close by.

That's all for today. I think I'm going to finish the Scarpjet next. Then maybe another jet seer, or some Dark Eldar test models. Not sure yet.

Thanks for looking!

Looks great, love the highlights in the hair.

Yeah, the Seer looks great! The space scheme on the bike looks wonderful as always, and the runes on the yellow strap are really neat. The hair's my favorite bit though, great contrast there!

Looking forward to what you do with the red on the Scrapjet, the rusty and metallic bits look great already!

Beautiful model, absolutely love it.

Awesome finish. Lots of detail, but still super clean.

Ezki, wonderful work on the Jet Seer.

Cheers,

CB

Thank you for the comments and compliments guys.

While painting the hair I was worried that the colors I chose for the highlights were a bit too bright. Apparently not
I have been slow to realize the importance of bright highlights in certain areas. In the past, I used to pick colors that were only slighty brighter than the actual base color.
Only lately (over the last year or so) have I dared to try brighter shades.

Not sure if anyone noticed, but in the first picture there is the Orion constellation as an easter egg amidst the star pattern. Or at least something close to it.
The proportions are a bit out of the place



I finally finished the Megatrakk Scrapjet a few days ago. Took me a while to take the pics and to sit down and start posting.

As for the base and the positioning of the model, I wanted to make it a bit less static.
As a first step, I glued the front tires to a turned position.
To help with the stance of the vehicle, I decided not to cover the whole base with 'asphalt'. This way I could give the model a slight angle to increase the effect.

I also made some tire tracks on the base (somewhere in the top left corner of the picture), but the effect is not very visible. I only got the idea after the first layer of the basing paint and did not want to scrape it off.



Not sure if the "momentum" comes through from the images, but in reality it looks quite alright.



The model itself has not been glued to the base yet. I'm thinking of magnetizing it to ease the storing and transporting.

A couple of close ups:



The 'radar' is far from realistic, but I just added a few radar like elements to the screen.



The weathering process was fun, but I went back and forth with a few bits a couple of times.
There were a few other steps that felt like a slog, like the checker pattern and the missiles (I really disliked painting the yellow on them).
But I think the time spent playing around was worth it. This was a really fun project in the end. I'm eager to paint the last converted buggy, but I will finish a couple of other things first.

Thanks for looking and see you next time!

Great job on the finished scrapjet Some nice weathering and lovely rust on show. Good work on the base too, love the asphalt/earth mix.

Momentum is subtle in the pictures, but definitely there - good job .

Rusting and weathering all look ace.

If I was going to quip about anything, it would be those rear big shootas (their lack of drilled barrels - just my personal soapbox )

Vrrrrrroooom...dakkadakkadakka! The swerve is cool. Overall a great piece.

The scramjet looks pretty dynamic to me, looks like the inside front it about to lift! Maybe making the outside of the dirt edge a little taller would convey the turning motion better, or would it spray out a bit flatter and wider? Maybe I need to watch some rally slo-mo footage

That scrapjet is amazing, how great is your work on the base alone Chipping is excellent and I love the radar screen, so much detail in general in the cockpit!

Finished deal looks great. Weathering is real top-notch stuff, and your patience definitely paid off!

Thanks all! Glad you like it.

Arakasi wrote:
If I was going to quip about anything, it would be those rear big shootas (their lack of drilled barrels - just my personal soapbox )

Ah but of course! Somehow I missed that during the building process. And while I was painting, I was too focussed on the front part of the vehicle that I did not even notice.
Gotta fix that right up!

gobert wrote:The scramjet looks pretty dynamic to me, looks like the inside front it about to lift! Maybe making the outside of the dirt edge a little taller would convey the turning motion better, or would it spray out a bit flatter and wider? Maybe I need to watch some rally slo-mo footage

Good suggestion. I think I should have built the dirt a bit more with a few layers or something. Or try to use some other basing material all together.



Excited about painting rusty metal, so I decided to finally finish my second dakkajet.
It was "painted" when I started working on it again, but it was once again one of those old "half finished" paint jobs.

As I have said many times, a younger me used to start painting something and just left it half way there never actually finishing the models.
They look okay on the tabletop, but on closer inspection some general laziness and a lack of anything but the base colors can be seen.




The dakkajet has been in this state for at least 8-10 years now.

So, I decided to give it some more life with rusty plates and chipping.
I did not want to actually repaint it, as I really dislike repainting models completely.
One reason for that is that I like to have painted models from different stages of my hobby adventures, and the other one is that it feels like I'm going backwards.

But the story is a bit different with these sloppy old models of mine. These bother me on the tabletop more than playing with unpainted models.
Don't know why, that's just how it is.

So instead of completely repainting, I sort of refurbished it.
I have a poor lighting setup at the moment, so the pictures have some nasty shadows to them.









Added some rust, chipping and general weathering. I also removed the dome, painted the pilot and the frames.
I did the chipping very quickly, so it's a bit funny in some places. But for a few hours of work, I think it looks quite a lot better.


Thanks for looking!

I’m always jealous of people that can pull off proper Orks. Yours are wonderful .

Snazzy Ezki.

The update on the painting is great.

Cheers,

CB

Dakkajet weathering looks great. Did some one leave it out in a hail storm? Unfortunately, I'd expect less weathering on top and more underneath - but of course, you can't see underneath... Dragging the chipping along the wings, from the leading edge (which you have done perfectly) towards the back, would probably look a little more realistic / add more sense of fast forward movement. Just my 2c.

Also, the tail in the same manner

More wonderful weathering! Dakkajet looking fantastic!

Thanks all! Appreciate the comments.


Theo: Thanks for the compliment, glad you like them.

Arakasi: Thanks! You are correct, the chipping would be more natural underneath. I thought about that, but I figured that as it's purely a tabletop piece, it would be shame to have the weathering where no one would be able to see it.
Regarding the chipping on the wings, that's true. While I was painting this model, I got a bit carried away going over the model with the foam piece.
Did not cross my mind where the actual chipping would be



Bit of a quiet time.
I have managed to do some painting over the couple of weeks, but been a bit too lazy to post any WIP shots.
Staring at a screen for 8-9 hours straight while working seems to be enough for one day. I mean, I still play some games for a few hours here and there but that's different, right?
Plus I have grown a bit bored to the walls of our flat, so I have been cruising around with my summer car just to get some fresh air and change the setting for a few hours.
Been doing it safely though: strictly staying in my car and not visiting any too populated areas


I have been painting the other two Battlewagons I had from the earlier days of my wargaming journey.
As I've said before, they were pretty much half painted. My lazy but never got the finished.

Here is one of them a bit more closely before I started the refurbishing process:




It was not bad per se (this saying is a bit funny to me as a Finnish person), but there were a lot of sloppy areas and even some grey plastic between the tracks.
I thought I would be done with these in a couple of few hour sessions, but in the end I managed to spend quite a bit of time with these. Actually just finished the last one two days ago.
A big chunk of the time went to repainting the same areas again after playing around with the foam piece. A lesson learned: first the rusty metal, then the other colors.
Another "time waster" was the fact that it's sometimes hard for me too choose which parts I want to paint in which color, so I went back and forth in certain areas.
Well, there is no any rush when there are no games to play for a while.

The finished models are nothing too exciting and pretty much more of the same I've been posting lately.
Maybe it would have seemed a bit of a broken record if I had posted some WIP shots of these things.

But here goes:

So here's the first one.
I wanted to break from the all red scheme a bit, as I did with the converted Dread bit over a year ago.
I also wanted to play around with a similar kind of flame effect as I did for the Deffkilla Wartrike.

I had quite a bit of fun painting the first one.
One of the hatches is still open, as I'm using these with only one bigshoota. I wanted to leave it that way, as I might want to create a turret for it later.
Sadly, I lacked the parts to make anything interesting to cover it for now, as two almost identical spotters might have looked a bit weird. Plus I felt lazy.







Might have gone a bit too hard on the weathering on top of the flame effect, but I thought that would make the most sense.



The second one is a bit more rushed. Painting too almost identical models with hard to reach areas was a bit tiring in the end.
The final steps were a bit rushed, but I think it's still quite an improvement.
There are also some old glue stains that I was not able to remove (with a little effort), so I decided to leave it be. Finishing old models feels like going backwards as it is.





I thought it would be funny to create a small "scene" where a grot yelling to his fellow ork to get to the gun.
Bet his gonna get a beating later.


I painted a detachable roof piece for those games where I want to use one of these with the 'ard case upgrade.
The edges of the hole in the middle were filed off and it was covered with a piece of plasticard. I measured it so, that the turret can still be attached.
I did not paint the turret yet, as with the current ruleset I'm not too keen on using it. Maybe later.



With these two finished, that makes three of them in total.

The converted wagon done two months ago is in the middle.







I'm happy that I got to cross these off my list finally. It took me what, twelve years?

I'm pretty determined to get this army finished though. My orky collection is somewhere between 7000-8000 points and growing. Most of it is painted (some now, some years ago).
I definitely won't repaint all of them (that would be just stupid), only those that were never properly finished.

I still have one trukk (from which I have stolen some bits already) and a bunch of Nobs I want to refurbish, but currently I'm done of painting old models for a while (until I start going trough my storage again in horror).

Been playing quite a bit of the Mad Max game on ps4 lately, so it has been fueling my inspiration for rusty ork vehicles.
Really feeling the desire to convert some more of them. Hopefully it will be safe enough soon to go out and buy some more bits.
I've been extra careful lately, as couple of my family members belong to a risk group.

Next up, I'll start working on the converted Shokkjump Dragsta.

Thanks for looking!

Looking good individually and together

Nice group shot and I love the little angry grot yelling at the gunner His lenses are superb and the detail you put on the spanner is great!

Just fantastic stuff. I love me some orks!

Very nice Ezki.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks Arakasi, Viterbi, Warboss_Waaazag and Captain Brown!


Some progress made with the Shokkjump Buggy conversion.

I started by removing the front tires, because I realized that painting the suspension assembly would be a pain with them still attached.
Another reason for that was to get rid off the saw marks left by the conversion process. I initially thought they would not look so bad, but after priming the model, they were way too noticeable.

After removing the wheels (with a saw again, as the were pretty well glued), I used half a dozen layers of liquid greenstuff. Now there would be better tools for this stuff, but currently it's a bit hard to come by.
I then used a file to even the surface. A sand paper might have been better, but mine are a bit too coarse.


The end result is not perfect, but most of the small deformities will be hidden behind the tire assembly. At least it's a lot better than it used to be.

What comes to painting, I've been base coating the various bits, crew and the vehicle itself.


I have been working with this for a reasonable amount of hours already, but the progress is slow. I spent almost two hours just to get the parts of the shokkjump engine base coated.
There are a ton of small details all around the model, but that's what makes it fun! It's just a bit hard to pick the colors for each detail

It will be left to be seen if I can manage to finish this before the deadline of the painting competition.
Luckily as I'm working remotely, I can make use of the time I spend in remote meetings and do some painting while listening to the technical details. At least on those meetings where I'm not using a camera

Thanks for checking and I'll post another WIP update when I get something done!

Beautiful stuff as always Ezki! I absolutely love your Scrapjet model, and the weathering looks the part! The Dragsta seems to be coming along great as well, really reminds me of one of those Tamiya RC buggies. And of course, congrats for finishing the fleet of Battle Wagons, they look menacing and with the different paintjobs and crews, they all have their own identity.

Nice progress Ezki, there really does seem to be a lot of details all over the model. I can see why you’ve gone down the sub-assembly painting route.

Thanks guys!

mcmattila wrote:The Dragsta seems to be coming along great as well, really reminds me of one of those Tamiya RC buggies.

Heh yeah, the RC buggies were one of my sources of inspiration


quote=gobert]Nice progress Ezki, there really does seem to be a lot of details all over the model. I can see why you’ve gone down the sub-assembly painting route.

Looking very neat and tidy, ready for some liberal weathering no doubt!

Thanks gobert!

You asked for some weathering, so weathering is what you get!





Still not assembled, but I'll get to that soon enough.

What's left to do is a few more details, some highlights to define the bits and pieces a bit better and some cleaning. And the base of course!

Edit: I'll also paint over the flames on the edge of the spoiler and leave them only on the middle. It currently looks a bit weird in my opinion. I left the other side black because I could not decide which looked better, but now I've decided.

The Scrapjet is great. The weathering is amazing. I really liked how you blended the Jetseer. The stars really makes the paint job pop.

Having now built a couple of these 'stock', I really appreciate these kitbashes!

--Brian

Thank you guys!

Phew, the Shokkjump Buggy is finally done and just in time for the dakka painting competition!
It was one of my biggest conversion / kitbash projects (tied with the dread and the looted rhino).
Couple of weeks designing and building, three weeks of painting. There were of course many days when I did not touch a brush, and last week I was away for 5 days.

All in all, this was a really fun project. Of course, as all projects, it had it's ups and downs. But mostly ups this time.
There are some aspects, that I hoped that could have turned out a bit better. I could have gone back and forth with different bits and the rust for all eternity, but it was time to put an end to it and call it ready.
On a positive note, I think the weapon and the shokkjump engine in the back turned out pretty good.

In hindsight, I maybe should have left the model to even smaller pieces before painting. But it worked out okay in the end.

But I think the overall aesthetics of the model look pretty much how I imagined it in the beginning. I'm actually quite proud of it, regardless of all the slight mistakes, a bit over the top rust and messy chipping.
It's always nice to finish a big project. I'm eagerly waiting to field this guy on the tabletop.

Without furthed adeu, pictures:





That was the last unpainted Orky vehicle in my current collection, and the 5th converted one this year.
Well, I still have one more trukk, from which I stole some parts for these conversions. But that will have to wait for further inspiration, some plasticard and other bits.

I'll try to take a group shot from the whole bunch next week.


****************************************'

On an unrelated note: My cousin got interested in the hobby once more.
I got him playing Warhammer Fantasy some 10-12 years ago, but he did not stick with it for very long. One thing led to another, and his interest woke again. He ended up browsing the GW website, 40k this time.
He got a bunch of Death Guard models to paint and to eventually field on the tabletop.
I'd like to think that I planted the hobby "seed" in his mind back in the day, and it is finally blossoming

He's been asking quite a lot of questions regarding painting, converting and collecting the models.
It has been really fun to share the hobby knowledge that I've gathered over the years, so he can avoid the same mistakes I've made in the past
It's always fun to help someone, especially when it is related to a hobby that I love. It's always cool to notice, that the stuff I've learned can help someone else.
Sharing is caring and all that.

Hopefully his interest in the hobby will remain, so we could get to play a few games every now and then


Thanks for looking!

Great job on the buggy, looks ace! Lovely paint job to comp!ement the build.

Over the top rust is perfectly acceptable on Ork vehicles, so no worries there.

Congrats on finishing the buggy. It looks amazing, especially all the little details, like the blue glow on the... motor? It contrasts nicely with the ramshackle look of the rest.

Looking very nice! The details and weathering are looking superbe.

Thank you monkeytroll, Viterbi and Honingtomaten! Very much appreciated.

Viterbi: Yeah I think that part is the Shokkjump-motor-thingy that makes the thing travel through the warp. Anyway, the idea was to paint it brightly without any rust for contrast purposes.
Glad it worked

Currently planning on doing an inventory check on my Orks and getting them ready for a grand group shot.
Also getting ready for a game on the weekend. With safety gloves and masks on of course

Hi guys.

No newly painted models this time.

With the completion of the Shokkjump Buggy, I've reached my goal of building and painting the current collection of all the Orky vehicles I have for the speedfreeks section of my Ork army.

So I think that achievement calls for a group shot!
It's been a while since I've done one of these. I quess the last time was on page 5, when I did one for my Eldar army.
Lately this blog has been pretty heavily focusing on Orks, with the occasional Krieg or Mordheim model, or a piece of terrain.
I'll try to include more variety in the future, but I tend to focus on one project at a time. Even if it starts feel like a slog


As last time, I'll link one of the inspirational pieces of music that kept me going while painting this project.
If you are interested, you can listen to it while looking at the pictures.



Without further adeu, let's go:






















I'll post some of the pictures from the recent games we played last weekend in the spoilers, to prevent this post getting too long.


In addition, I took an army shot from all the currently painted models. It was so dark, that the individual models can hardly be seen, but you get the idea.



~4500-5000pts (depending on the wargear) fully painted. Some over the last year and a half, some over 10 years ago.

The army is far from complete though. I still have some unpainted models, like a weirdboy, some meganobz and a mek gun to name a few.
I also still have a ton of ideas for conversions, as I want to expand the Mad Max feel of the army.
But the difference is, that now I can let myself do them every now and then, instead on focusing solely on the orks.
So even though I will try work on something different for now, you will see an occasional ork every now and then. As always, I go where my inspiration leads me.

There is one large project to look forward in the future:
While making a headcount for the army, I once again laid my eyes on the big monstrosity gathering dust in the back corner my cabinet. A half built, unpainted Stompa.
I got it as a Christmas gift from my father almost a decade ago. It was one of those models, that the young me just really really had to have. And there it still sits, waiting for it's turn.
Looking at it in it's current state made me sad. My father suddenly passed away a little over two years ago (around the time I took a 6 month break from the forums), so it reminded me of him and all the good he did regardless of all his flaws.
Even though money was really tight back when I got it, he managed to buy it for me. And I did not even bother to paint it.

So, I will promise you and myself this: I will get it done. Piece by piece if I have to. The first step is to magnetize it, which have been one of the excuses not to work on it.
In the picture above, there is a place for it, just behind the Deff Dreads. There it will one day stand as a centerpiece for this army.

It's not to say that I'll start working on it right away, but I will make it a goal for myself before the end of the year. It's finally time.


Sorry for getting a bit sentimental at the end. Sometimes the thoughts just get the better of me.

To end on a brighter note: my cousin got to play his first 40k games over the weekend, as we had a small 40k get together at a friends house (with safe distances and our own dice of course).
He seemed to like it, and is looking forward to build his Death Guard army to a playable condition


After finishing this project, I actually feel really good.
And if it's right to say so, I'm actually quite proud of the force in front of me. Especially the speedfreeks section.
I really enjoyed making them, and I really loved playing with them couple of times last weekend.


Thank you for looking!

PS. I'll try to figure out what I'm going to work on next. I might "have" to paint the ork weirdboy for the monthly dakka competition, if I don't figure out something else for the theme.

That's a beautiful Ork army you've got there Ezki, I'm glad you decided to take the group shots. They really do look stunning when arrayed like that.

An no need to apologise for the sentimentality - I think it's always interesting when minis take on a greater meaning than just being a regular old model, whatever the reason for it, and I'll be very interested in seeing your progress. That Stompa deserves paint!

It's really nice to see inventive converstions utilizing the new Ork vehicles. I've been so uninspired by them up until now!

Great army shot and I love the one pic from the game, where it looks like the AM tanks are just leaving their comrades

And I second Bellerophon on the sentimentality.

Woah! Now that’s a great big photo dump! And full of win too!

The speed freaks really have a proper sense of mad max about them. The road sections really help with that as does the sense of movement you’ve got in there. I’d love to see you try your hand at a scenic display board for the bikes and buggies.

Looking forward to seeing where inspiration takes you next. I’m really looking forward to the Stompa and I think it’s pretty cool that it’s got a sentimental side to it too. I’m sure you’ll do a cracking job on it as usual!

So shiny, so chrome...

Awesome display, man. Just awesome. A collection anyone would be proud to have.

Looking forward to that Stompa. Serious feels.

The repaints are totally worth the time, the improvements are great!

Love the image with the orks just blundering into the imperial guard column, you can feel the speed

I love the group shots Ezki, thanks for taking the time. I also like the photos in battle, but my favorite is the group shot from the side. You should be really proud of the quality force you completed, but I'm looking forward to seeing the Stompa. Your feelings must still be pretty raw if your father passed only two years ago, but it's funny the things we put off until later and the ones we finish. The very first build I planned when I first got into 40k, I still have never even started, the kit of a defiler (which I love most of all chaos vehicles) is still in the shrink wrap, and my three scratch built stompas have been sitting for years with only primer. So you are in good company. A stompa is intimidating to paint, but I am looking forward to seeing how you do it.

Thank you for all the comments guys! Appreciate it, really.

Bellerophon wrote:That's a beautiful Ork army you've got there Ezki, I'm glad you decided to take the group shots. They really do look stunning when arrayed like that.

An no need to apologise for the sentimentality - I think it's always interesting when minis take on a greater meaning than just being a regular old model, whatever the reason for it, and I'll be very interested in seeing your progress. That Stompa deserves paint!

I agree. The story makes it more meaningful. And yeah, it truly does deserve some paint

DaRealJDB wrote:It's really nice to see inventive converstions utilizing the new Ork vehicles. I've been so uninspired by them up until now!

Thanks! I'm with you on that one. The models themselves are not that inspiring, except the Kustom Boosta Blasta (which I don't yet have). When I saw the new kits, I got interested of all the possibilities the kits offer, as there are a ton of potential bits

Viterbi wrote:Great army shot and I love the one pic from the game, where it looks like the AM tanks are just leaving their comrades

And I second Bellerophon on the sentimentality.

Haha, run away!!

gobert wrote:Woah! Now that’s a great big photo dump! And full of win too!

The speed freaks really have a proper sense of mad max about them. The road sections really help with that as does the sense of movement you’ve got in there. I’d love to see you try your hand at a scenic display board for the bikes and buggies.

Looking forward to seeing where inspiration takes you next. I’m really looking forward to the Stompa and I think it’s pretty cool that it’s got a sentimental side to it too. I’m sure you’ll do a cracking job on it as usual!

Glad you like them Gobert! Mad Max and speed was what I was aiming for.
I actually thought about making a display board for these guys sometime. I just need to figure out where to store it. That might have to wait for a bigger crib than the current one we live in

youwashock wrote:So shiny, so chrome...

Awesome display, man. Just awesome. A collection anyone would be proud to have.

Looking forward to that Stompa. Serious feels.

Thanks Youwashock! Really looking forward on starting the Stompa as well.

Illumini wrote:The repaints are totally worth the time, the improvements are great!

Love the image with the orks just blundering into the imperial guard column, you can feel the speed

Thanks! It's really fun to chase those beefy tanks on the battlefield!

Syro_ wrote:I love the group shots Ezki, thanks for taking the time. I also like the photos in battle, but my favorite is the group shot from the side. You should be really proud of the quality force you completed, but I'm looking forward to seeing the Stompa. Your feelings must still be pretty raw if your father passed only two years ago, but it's funny the things we put off until later and the ones we finish. The very first build I planned when I first got into 40k, I still have never even started, the kit of a defiler (which I love most of all chaos vehicles) is still in the shrink wrap, and my three scratch built stompas have been sitting for years with only primer. So you are in good company. A stompa is intimidating to paint, but I am looking forward to seeing how you do it.

Thank you Syro_! Yeah the feelings awaken from time to time. Luckily not in a particularly bad way anymore.
That is a familiar problem: there are still bunch of stuff in my collection that has been sitting for years. The intimidation from a really big project such as a Stompa is one of the many reasons (excuses) it's sitting on my shelf.
Maybe one day we manage to paint all the long forgotten projects we got laying around, eh?



In order to start working on the Stompa, I need to order some more big magnets first. Storing or transporting it is really hard with all the parts attached.
Alas, as I have assembled most of the hull already, I might have to take it apart in order to get the magnets where I need them. Which is inside the actual hull to do it as cleanly as possible.
I also need to figure out the paint scheme. I think I'm going with the usual mix of red, black and white, with some heavily worn out rusty metal pieces.
More on that sometime a bit later.


I've been doing some more painting. Just an hour here and an hour there.
As last year (and the years before that), I tend to paint a lot less during the summer time. Partly because I have other summer hobbies, and partly because it's hot as **ll in our crib. The air conditioner we acquired helps a bit sure, but it's still not optimal.

I noticed that especially during summer, it's hard to keep the focus going for too long. If I add a long project to this combination, it tends to drag for weeks before I get something done and that is not very motivating.
I decided to try and combat this by choosing smaller projects during the summer, in order to get some sense of progress.

I will also try to avoid any techniques, that are too 'advanced' or slow to do. So I try to keep it to the basics. At least for now.

I'm currently painting this fellow, an Ork Weirdboy. I got him a year or so ago, but did not feel like painting him.
This month's dakka painting competition has a theme 'In a supporting role', in which this guy fits perfectly. So I decided to cross him off from my pile of shame.



I also added a few more colors to these guys. I started painting them over a year ago, but never finished. Not sure why.
They will be easy enough to get done, so I'm thinking they will be next after the weirdboy.


Sorry for the really bad quality pics. Did not bother to get the DSLR out of storage for these WIP shots.

So not much progress, but it's something.
And as I said, I might be posting a bit more seldom over the summer. Will try to make some updates though.

Enjoy the summer and stay safe guys.
Until next time!

Hey guys!

Progress has been a slog over the past few weeks.
Managed to finish the Weirdboy though!

Even though it took me 2-3 weeks to finish it, I did it relatively quick. After all, I did not paint on most days. On those that I did, I brushed away for an hour or so on average.

I decided to go with the basics on this model: nothing too fancy, just a lot of washes and some layering.
The skin was actually base coated with a green wash and the smoke thing on top of the staff was pretty much done only using washes.
The smoke might look better with some lighter tones, but hey ho.

The blade on the ork's hip is looking really rushed, which it was.
I actually forgot the whole bit after thinking this guy was done, only to see it staring at me at the edge of my desk. Well, at that point I just threw some color on it and glued it in place.
Not the best way to approach things, but like I said, in summer time my focus and attention span is really short










That's all for now.
Until next time!

I like the sparkly nebula looking smoke .

Makes you wonder if he really is communicating with Gork....or is it Mork .

Love the effect on his smoke and the red robes are fantastic. Great work.

He looks pretty cool, especially if he was a rush job! The red cloak is especially nicely done, really warm colours. You may not be too happy with his blades, but I think they look pretty good, it kinda works that Orcs would use their blades without polishing them first, I might have to steal that idea! Good luck in the comp

That cloud is top-shelf stuff. He came out great!

That is a pretty sweet paintjob, I love the sculpt and you've done him justice. Your starcloud from the jetbikes really work on the smoke on his staff, looks excellent!

Ezki,

Simple sometimes works best, especially when it lets all attention move to the swirling mist of Waaagh energy and away from other features.

Exalted.

Cheers,

CB

Love the Weirdboy. The top bit of the cape and the smoke look really top notch. Thanks for sharing

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments!

Captain Brown wrote:Ezki,

Simple sometimes works best, especially when it lets all attention move to the swirling mist of Waaagh energy and away from other features.

Exalted.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks captain! Yeah, I have noticed that sometimes it's best to stick with the basics and simple techniques!

Viterbi wrote:That is a pretty sweet paintjob, I love the sculpt and you've done him justice. Your starcloud from the jetbikes really work on the smoke on his staff, looks excellent!

Thank you! I also really love this sculpt!

gobert wrote:He looks pretty cool, especially if he was a rush job! The red cloak is especially nicely done, really warm colours. You may not be too happy with his blades, but I think they look pretty good, it kinda works that Orcs would use their blades without polishing them first, I might have to steal that idea! Good luck in the comp

Thanks gobert! Yeah that makes sense. It's just the scratches that are a bit messy and not very well defined. Will definitely try this technique again later!

Theophony wrote:I like the sparkly nebula looking smoke .

Makes you wonder if he really is communicating with Gork....or is it Mork .

Thanks Theo! Sending smoke signals to Gork or Mork


Been a couple of weeks since the last update.
It's been a bit hard to find the motivation and the right project to paint. The heat and my pollen allergies definitely don't help.

I started painting the Harlequins, but I managed to get one layer of purple until the motivation dried out.
It was mostly because I could not decide which color to put where.

After that, I tried to continue working on my Dark Eldar color scheme. I played around and hit a brick wall while trying to figure out how to paint the weapons.
I have a couple of pictures of them. These are just really rough tryouts:

(Sorry, the images are really bad. I managed to get a small scratch on my phone's camera lens, which messes up with the pics...)

First I tried with yellow, as it generally works okay with purple. Did not like it at all.


Then I went with metal (right) and teal (left). Not sure about them either.


Then I decided to try dark grey and purple (as my cousin suggested). The purple one might get a second round with some more highlights.



Still have not decided which one I like the most.
For that reason, the Kabalite warriors project has also hit a brick wall for now.

So I did what I thought would be 'best': decided to jump to yet another project, which I will hopefully have the patience to finish.
The theme of this month's dakka painting competition is "Objective secured". I thought that this would be a great opportunity to paint the only Krieg model I still have unpainted: the Autocannon team.

I bought this model to be part of my display board, but it never made it to the final version. Mostly because there was no room to put a proper gun emplacement.
Might as well paint it now.

I always seem to forget how fun it's to build these kriegers: tons of casting deformities and extra bits that have to be cut off. And those bent barrels, oh how much have I missed you.


Almost done. Still needs quite a bit of cleaning up.



I will try to finish this before the end of next week, as I'm going for a couple of weeks long roadtrip to the north.


I've been jumping from one project to the next, and will probably do so for the rest of the summer.
If this year is anything like the last two, the hobby spark will truly ignite again on the autumn when the weather is darker and colder

With the current Krieg project though, I feel motivated enough as I know where to put each color and get to build a cool base for it

'Til next time!

I liked teal personally!

I like the metal/teal, too. Sorry about the painting blocks. Hope the HvyWpn team helps you break through.