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I had a busy modelling weekend, what with an all day club meet that my wife let me attend in its entirety (ok who am I kidding she is an angel and has never interfered in my hobby and in fact has attempted to understand it all). So I have finally managed to get the Empire Knightly Order onto the tabletop (after me having a 10 year absence from the Warhammer setting) alas it was only a 1,000 point intro as neither my opponent or I had strapped on the mantle of Warhammer General in many additions so we had to learn. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. Would have looked cool.

Anyway, I played an all Khorne Chaos Warrior army, that had 2 units of Chaos Warriors (one with Halberds the other with Shields) and a Unit of Knights with an Exalted Champion. I managed to field A unit of 8 Knights with Grandmaster and Warrior Priest, a Unit of 9 Knights with the BSB and a Unit of 5 Knights with no upgrades. The quick result? I won, just, I had 7 Knights and the Grandmaster left and no opponents. What did I learn from my first Fantasy game in a long time? It is a brutal, brutal game that is unforgiving to mistakes in the movement phase. Characters are where the game is really at, between the Warrior Priest and Grandmaster they are what gave me the victory, without them I would have struggled, especially since Chaos Warrior Champions are on almost equal footing to my Hero level characters. What would have been interesting is if either of us had realized is with cavalry having swift stride we may have been able to charge each other on the first turn.....

I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to get a larger game in the near future, hanging out for the Demigryphs to get onto the field. After that I ended up getting 4 or 5 games of Necromunda in, I just can't seem to get my gang going forward, everytime I think I am in a good place with the Razorfang's I seem to get people killed, nobody critical to my plans this time (ie. Heavy's) but I lost another two members and have a Juve almost too crippled to continue the fight. But after all this I still have the highest gang rating in the Campaign, someone needs to explain to me how that happens. I am not complaining too much I only lost a couple of the games and the after battle wash up has generally been pretty good to me, although it would be nice to not keep giving the bonus to other gangs for taking on a higher rated gang.

Finally (and most importantly) I managed after all the furious dice rolling to get some paint on models and I have finished another mob for my Ork army (yay only 2 to go). So pics are below.....


So here are the "Yellow Boyz", they stand out quite well and are different enough from the "Red Boyz" that in a large melee no one gets confused. I kept the clothing the same as the previous mob (some combination of medium or dark brown pants with either red or light brown shirts with black leather where appropriate).


I really don't know how the guys who run mobs of thirty do it. Twenty is a handful to paint and take up a heap of room, I often struggle to deploy my Imperial Guard Army (which is tank heavy) within the deployment zone, I am dreading setting this army up, let alone move them for 6+ turns.


Closer view of the Boss Nob (with his Huge Choppa) and the two big shootas. Plus a heap of Boyz who just wouldn't get out of the way....


The Boss Nob in all his glory, think I did a much better job on his boss pole than the actual model unfortunately, but I just couldn't bring myself to paint him anything but rusted metal. Then I realized he is just rusted metal and skin, so I had a hard time trying to get him to look like anything but a blob, but I do like the boss pole.


A very blurry photo of some of the boyz, up close they are not my proudest work, but as a whole with their bases all detailed up I am more than happy with them.

So another Mob down, just 2 to go and then Nobz, Mega Nobz, 3 converted Trukks, 2 Deff Dreads and 6 Killa Kanz and I thought I was getting through this army. Ah well. I have been pottering with one of the Trukks so hopefully it will be done next, then I will grind out another mob hopefully, but I keep looking at those Dreads and they are looking back at me.

On an unrelated note I have now finished my 6 play throughs of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and have now imported them into Baldurs Gate II: Enhanced Edition to continue the story with each of those characters. Don't ask me why I torture myself as BG:EE is a loooong game and to do it concurrently 6 times was a little crazy, but with those play throughs I used all of the NPC's at least once in a party. I may take a big break from the computer world and focus on the tabletop one sp hopefully more progress for the blog. Yay!

Thanks for reading what ended up being a bit of a ramble.

You don't do anything not big do you? (referencing the BG )

Glad to hear you got in some games, sounds fun, always good to get your painted models on the table!

Necromunda sounds fun, even the fact that your gang is on the out is neat and characterful.

Six simultaneous BG1 runs? Nice. Playing BG and other simple/old games is probably the only reason I really miss my missing laptop-thing, hard to play them at the main rig enough to keep interested.

I think BG2 is my favorite but I still love playing through bg1. Have you seen that they're doing an EE of Icewind dale? May have to pick that up when it hits Steam. Hoping they do a IWD2:EE, it was messing up on the laptop screwing up my last playthru.

Looks like you're trucking right along with those orks, good work

Yep once I am experienced at something I find it hard not to commit to the fullest not matter how foolish or impossible the endeavor.

I started playing BG when it was first released way back when and with the Enhanced Edition I decided I would run 6 games with my favorite D&D characters as the protagonist. Also turns out these 6 were the same that I use in the IWD party (sonce you make all 6) and I ran them through the Black Pits as well. I will more than likely get IWD:EE as well and do it all again.

In regards to the modelling, I really like throwing the dice with painted terrain and opponents, really adds to the hobby. I won't refuse a game on the basis of painted models, but I certainly prefer it.

Thanks for the response.

Another update (I must be getting something done with two updates so close together...). This time however, I bring greetings from Canberra, our nations Capital. I am here on work so unfortunately no modelling progress will get done at all this week (boo hiss). Although last weekend was a pretty productive one an below are the results.

I tried to remain focused on the Orks and managed to knock off one of the Trukks (read looted wagon, now being used as a Trukk). I am pretty happy with it, it screams ORK and has a lot of character, plus dimensionally it is almost identical to an off the shelf trukk which for a gaming point of view is always desirable. Since all of the vehicles will have 'Grot Riggers' I made damn sure to have a few Grotz hanging on to every vehicle. I think they add a nice touch to them. Although I am quite disappointed that the matt varnish I have been using on all of my models so far has left some unsightly white streaks on the model which it has never done before. I may need to throw it out and get some new stuff. Any ideas what may have happened? I paint it on with a brush and generally work in air conditioned rooms so I don't think it would have been an environmental factor. Maybe just old?

Anyway, onto some pretty pictures.

So here is my beer swilling Chimera Trukk.


I added the 'camo' pattern after deciding that the brown was just too plain. I think it works pretty well.


A brave Grot standing out front to make sure the Trukk is going the right way.


A crazy little guy hanging on for dear life.


And a nasty little surprise hiding in the back. Notice all those different Space Marine Rhino doors for extra protection.....


Now the more important gaming creation, a carry case. I have been messing around with this idea since i started with the 2,000 point army ideas and finally pulled my finger out and did something about it. Below is the first box demonstrating the Imperial Guard (sorry Astra Militarum) army fitting inside. I plan to do a box per army just in case I need to transport more than one at once and to my wife's eternal happiness I am now confident to store the armies in our under floor storage so they are out of her hair. The ultimate plan will be to build a man shed where these will then be transferred to for permanent storage, but that is a little way off yet so they will hide under our house....

So the basic construction is aluminium extrusion and plywood. I will one day get around to painting them (maybe) but it is bug tight and pretty solid.


Start with the base....


Add in some models snugly held in their foam.....


A little bit more.....


Then add the top and there you go, custom built army carry case that should be able to hold up to a little rough handling. I hope.


Hope you all find this update interesting and look forward to some feedback (especially about that stupid varnish....

Thanks for reading.

Like the ork stuff, grots really make them more fun.

Case looks pretty damn solid. You could take someone out with it! I guess that's kind of an asset when you live in an area with so many nasty and dangerous beasts roaming about!

The orks look great man!

One suggestion for the looted wagons. Something I've seen done that I thought looked really cool was to severely damage the trucks. Show how the vehicle was disabled (holes in the armor, broken tracks, turret blown off, etc) and how the orks "repaired" it (riveted on sheets of metal or scratch built 'accessories').

Serious battle damage is something I strongly considers, but decided against as I didn't want to make it look like a pile of junk (even though that is pretty Orky) and I am not sure my modelling skills are up to the task. So I will probably just stick with the largish bullet holes I have, although I do have another two to build so you never know I may get creative with the last one.....

I managed to have my first 40k game in quite a while (thanks to Necromunda eating up my gaming time).

Unfortunately I didn't take any pretty pictures (yet again) but it was between my Imperial Guard and a horde of Orks. First time I have ever taken on a Green Tide and it is quite a scary start as you survey all those boyz and wonder just how am I going to kill enough of them to make an impact. Plus when we lined our game up a couple of weeks ago my opponent had yet to decide if he would run a Stompa, love the model and I wouldn't have changed my army (not that I could) if he had.

The long and the short of it was that I killed truck loads of his Boyz at long range and he made a serious mess of my gunline when he did finally make it to me.

Some highlights were:
The first shot of the game was his Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun blowing up one of my Leman Russ Annihilators, its dakka was sorely missed for the rest of the game.
A badly decimated Veteran Squad with 3 flamers and a Sergeant took revenge by frying 16 boyz to ash and then another 4 when they were charged the next turn.
My Tank Commander in his Vanquisher annihilating an Ork Trukk that exploded and killed some nearby boyz and a few of the Nobz that had been catching a ride.
Late in the game my Basilisk trying for a risky close range shot and it scattering back onto itself but failing to damage its own hull.

All in all we decided to call it as the hour was getting late and my opponent gave me a very generous draw as it could have still gone either way, but I feel like he had the upper hand by the end.

What did I learn? Lootas and Shokk Attack Guns should not be ignored. Ork leadership is nowhere near as fragile as I had thought it was. 3 Flamers in a veteran unit IS a good idea against Orks. Orks are a really fun army to play against and I can't wait to get my own on the board.

Oh and on the painting front I am perhaps halfway through the next mob of boyz plus I managed to squeeze enough paint out of my spray can to undercoat the Killa Kanz and Dreadnoughts.

Until next time.

Sounds like fun! Always good to hear people are getting games in, and it sounds like a good motivation to get you through your own orks.

Godo to hear that you've been getting in some games. I like the looted Chimera, and the storage/travel boxes look really well built. What kind of foam have you used in them?

The foam I ordered is from a place called 'Foam Suppliers' real original I know, but they are really good. Quite cheap (as in postage costs more than the foam. They are based in Dandenong and the grade of foam I use is AA29-400.

If I remember correctly a 300*250*25mm piece costs me $1.82.

Time for another update.

It's odd I feel that I am updating a little more regularly than I have in a while, but I just don't feel as if I am getting anywhere with these Orks. Then again the fact that there are multiples of everything each time I finish something off I still have more of them to do. But I have managed to knock off the third of four mobs, this time Shootas. I used blue this time to set them apart from the other mobs and I couldn't help myself but to number them a little like a football team. They were just screaming for it and if I had any spare Bloodbowl balls kicking around I definitely would have added a few.

Without further adieu the latest Mob in my Ork Horde:


The Nob and his Bosspole don't show up very well. But you can see his over under twin linked Shoota for even more dakka.


An aerial shot showing off their shoulder pads showing off their position in the grand scheme of things.


As with previous mobs the Big Shootas are all conversions, this time a former Burna Boy donated himself. I really do love the fact that with an Ork army just about anything goes.

I have in the past shown a few pieces of terrain I have been doing alongside the army's and this time is no different. This went together fairly quickly (as may be apparent) and I still need to get some paint onto it. But the basic design is done. What I would like from the community is an indication if I should add a top line of wire to the uprights on the top of the towers? I initially thought I would need to, but now I am not so sure.




A closer shot of one of the towers where I am proposing putting a top rail.


A back view of the terrain piece. The cross members on the pipes are to allow models to stand a bit more securely on the pipes as I hate when models in suitably heroic positions take a tumble because of unstable terrain.


The final shot of this update. I feel it is a suitably heroic piece of terrain and will only require a little paint to make it pop. It has a few little details glued in place to break up the flat sections. It is the first in a line of pipeline pieces of terrain that I am going to be throwing together as a lot of my terrain is of the natural kind and I thought I needed some industrial stuff.

Progress apart from this mob is pretty good. I have almost done the skin of the final mob of Boyz and have started to block some color onto the next Trukk (this one is a Rhino). So I am hoping that I can get either the mob or Trukk finished by the end of the week and provide another update after the weekend.

I still have my fingers crossed I can get the Orks done and on a table top before the end of the year. I keep looking at all these Ogre Maneaters that I am preparing for the next army and they are starting to prove a bit of a distraction.

Oh and one final question, does anyone have any experience getting paint off of GW finecast? I picked up a couple of models and would like to get as much paint off as possible. Does Dettol eat the resin?

Thanks for reading.

Looking good! Rolling right along there!

The terrain is quite cool and I like the functional design of the piece, helping them to stand is 'doing it right' imo.

I must be on a productive streak as I am only a day later than I thought I would be for this update. So last week saw me alternating between the final Mob of Boyz and the second of my Trukks (based on a Rhino). I didn't manage to get the Trukk finished, but I am very happy to have now completed all 80 of the Boyz that make up the core of my Ork Horde. Like the previous 3 Mobs these guys are also distinguished by the use of a bold color so they stand out on the tabletop. In the case of these guys I chose a slightly unusual color: White. But it does stand out quite well amongst a fairly dark overall scheme.

The final Mob of Boyz (thank the powers that be for that too):


The bases and other colors( pants, shirts, weapons etc.) are the same throughout each Mob so hopefully that will tie the army together (as well as the consistent basing), but I think these guys may be my favorites so far:


I intentionally tried to apply the paint thick so it would get an uneven appearance to make it look like the Orks had found some thick house paint or similar and dunked their helmets into it. I think it works, the unevenness also adds a little bit of natural shading to the helmets:


The Boss Nob with his fully enclosed helmet and over the top twin-linked Shoota really set him apart (plus his too large bosspole):


Here the mob occupies the same position that the previous mob did, but this time I have added a little paint to the terrain. I am thinking I may have gone a little over the top on the drip effects and should have kept it a little more subtle, but its done now. I may try to dull it back with some black wash and see what that does to it. But will probably paint the details first to see if they draw attention away first.


Close up of some of the Orks and a better look at the paint effect on the terrain for comment and critique:


As this army seems to be taking me far longer than I had hoped I though I would throw a work in progress shot of what I have completed thus far. Four Mobs of Boyz, one of the converted Trukks and the Warboss and Big Mek. Not a bad effort so far, but really hope to have them done before the end of November, but I don't like my chances.....


Well that is my latest update and I am very slowly getting through the Ork Horde. I now have left to paint 2 Trukks (one half done), a Mob of Nobz, small Mob of MegaNobz, 2 Deff Dreads and 6 Killa Kanz. I am trying to encourage my wife to have a go at painting at least one of the Killa Kanz so we will see where I end up with that, but I am not sure it will happen.

Thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts.

I do like the white!

The force as a whole is really coming along

The drips on the terrain are a bit strong as you say, but I don't think it kills the piece or anything like that.

I actually really like the drip effect on the terrain. The white helmets definitely stand out, and I actually like them more than the blue mob.

Hve just fixed the last photo so t now shows up.

Thanks for the feedback, I think the blue Mob loses some effect by not having helmets to carry the color, or I should have used a stronger blue. But ah well, in an Army of that many Boyz I can't be expected to like all of them......I needed some bullet magnets anyway.

I will have a play with the terrain piece as I finish it off and see what I come up with.

Another week and another update. The modelling side of my life is moving along full steam ahead. This update sees the completion (well almost completion, but I will get to that later) of the second of my "Trukks". This time it used to be a Predator I think, but looks more like a hollowed out Rhino now. I am cheating a little as this model has been slowly been being worked on for a while. If the internet had been more cooperative with me I would have posted it on the weekend, but it wasn't to be, but I see no harm in an early work (sorry boss) update.

Onto some pretty pictures:


I am really happy with how this one turned out. More so than the previous Chimera. It just seems to have a little more of that Orky character, although nothing is going to top the beer can holding Ork of the previous Trukk. Now I made the comment about almost finished and that is because I didn't realize until reviewing the photos that I missed one of the impaled heads. Internet cookie to the first to spot the stupid unpainted head that means I have to go back and paint it.


I love this photo, it is a pure fluke, but the way that the Gretchen up top looks with his over large pistol to me just looks perfect. There is a little more battle damage to this one compared to the previous as I got a little braver (stupider?) with the cutters and started to hack away at it. But all in all it has turned out well. Particularly happy with the camo cover, the boyz need to keep the sun off obviously.

Some of the more observant readers may notice a similarity between the paint jobs of this Trukk and that of my previously done Iron Hands army. But to me that is the beauty of the Orks and their ability to make use of just about anything. Hence the next sequence of photos....


Right Brothers, we need to move out, everyone mount up and lets get moving.....


Hold up, what the hell is wrong with that Rhino over there?


Whoa! Who the hell pimped our ride?

Hope you enjoy the latest update and I am now trying to get the skin tones right on the unit of Nobz and Mega Nobz, I figure since I want them all looking pretty similar that I would work on that part of them at least at the same time, besides the two units only number 15 models in total, less than one of the Boyz Mobs.

Stay tuned and I am still a little hopeful of being onto the Ogres before Christmas.....

Love the new truck, quite fun and well executed

looks good man. glad to see progress coming along swimmingly

I had a lot more fun on this model than I have in quite some time. I really refreshing change of pace from the Boyz in green....I really should have broken the painting up between the Boyz and other models to keep it all fresh and myself interested. But I was really trying to "encourage" myself to knock the most numerous part of the army off first. I unfortunately think my accuracy and quality may have suffered. But table top standard is what I want and I think I am managing that still.

Thanks for reading.

Just a quick question to anyone still out there.....what is a good brand of spray varnish and where do I get it? I have tried a few paint on versions and it is a ridiculous waste of time hand varnishing when I could just be spraying.

Any thoughts are most welcome.

Testors Dullcote

http://www.amazon.com/Testors-Aerosol-Enamel-3oz-Dullcote-Lacquer/dp/B009FF6DN4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415919652&sr=8-1&keywords=testors+dullcote

Cheers for the input JWMarines, will definitely check it out.

Need as much protection for the troops as possible because I am a bit of a klutz when it comes to knocking the poor guys around and IO want to reduce wear and tear of in and out of their carry cases for as long as possible.

Can you get Krylon products over there? I like their clear coat stuff, i forget exactly what the name is but it's pretty clear what it is when you see it.

Something like 3-5 bucks over here, been using it for the last few projects. I never had problems with Testors stuff either though, ages ago. Not GW stuff, it's hella expensive and as prone to frosting as any of them.

Would it be Krylon Crystal clear flat?

I have found stockists for both the Testors and Krylon, may get one of each and see if I can tell a difference. I have also been recommended Army Painter stuff, so may go for a 3 up head to head and pick my brand....

If I recall the testors is more dull, but maybe thicker about it. It's been years though. I was using one of the badger minitaire airbrush sealers but even the flat was too glossy compared to the proper rattle can varieties. That name sounds similar, probably right.

Not much progress over the weekend, my wife has been HSC marking and that has meant I lost my painting space (oh for a man shed to put my hobby stuff into), but she has finally finished so I could reclaim my table, but unfortunately we had a black out from 2pm on Sunday that drastically cut into my attempted hobby time.

Plus the unfortunate fact that due to my employer having a really tough financial time I was one of the unlucky ones to be made redundant.....sucks being this close to Christmas as it makes attempting to get a new job pretty hard.

But nonetheless looking on the bright side I will have a good couple of months to throw at the painting of my armies before the job market really opens up. But if anyone is in need of an experienced Patternmaker/Industrial Designer then drop me a line ;-)

Oh wow that sucks about the job dude! That's never fun especially around the holidays :(

Unless you like working as a cashier in retail, at least over here they're still hiring pretty hard for those but they'll dry up soon and wont look again till next year. And it sounds like you do something fairly higher than that paygrade anyway

I haven't lost a good solid job yet, but I do put up with seasonal unemployment. It's always a crapshoot as to whether picking up some lame low-hours retail job is worth it for a couple of months. Such a job barely pays for the cost of daycare while i'm out doing it =/

Well, good luck to you, Sir. Hopefully having some hobby fun helps keep your spirits up and you manage to land a solid job soon!

Yeah I am not really interested in getting a seasonal retail job (never having worked in retail wouldn't help my chances either).

May see if any of the local nursery's or tree growers need someone capable of heavy lifting for a few months whilst I decide where I want to end up.

I have never lost a job before so it is definitely an interesting experience. But I have also never gotten a job either, I have always been head hunted, even straight out of uni. So trying the whole application interview process will be interesting as well.