Green Stuff

Did my first job with greenstuff today, it seemed to work pretty much like blu-tac, except apparently it sets and goes hard. Will inspect it tomorrow to see how it turned out.

For next time I'll have to remember to shave off much less at a time and bake it together. It started setting quite fast and I only had time to use about one third of it.

Washes and stuff

The boyz are all washed now, looking great! The paint smoothes out mistakes, enhances shadows, and makes the colours much more alive. Now I need to get to the nobz and bosses...

I am using the Boltgun Metal instead of the Gunmetal for the nobz and bosses. Compared to the Gunmetal it's a dream. Comes on smoothly, doesn't need constant stirring - hardly any stirring at all in fact - makes a nice, even surface full of lustre.

Well, it makes sense for the nobz to have better looking weapons. They're nobz after all!

What's worse than waiting for paint to dry?

What's worse than waiting for paint to dry? Waiting for glue to dry. Especially when you have to sit there and hold the pieces of the model together until it's hard enough to stick. Especially annoying when you're almost guaranteed that the piece will just fall apart again seconds later when the glue sets enough to become brittle.

This is another reason working with the tin models is a pain in the ass. Not only do they not look as good as the plastic ones, you can't get the parts to stick together properly either. I contemplated using a soldering iron to warm the surfaces up a bit and then get them to melt together, but the potential disasters in that plan kept me from it.

Quotes #1

Why purple? It's a question that keeps coming up, so I'm gonna let the orks themselves reply.

Boss Fingsnik:
Why purple? Coz everyone in da warp wears purple ya git! Da pointy 'eads wear purple, an' dem beakies wiv de horns wear purple, an' dose things wiv all da claws...

Runtherd Gobmop:
...An' the gene sneakers dat we make the clothes of is purple too. Dats a good reason.

Ugwask the Kommando:
Because purple is ded sneaky, dats why. Didja ever see a purple kommando? Didn't think so. You don't sees us 'til it's too late.

Mek Kogshok:
Red wunz go fasta, but purple ones are warpier. Even a grot knows 'at.

...and there you have it.

Whew! Lots of paint!

Whew! A lot of painting done, and some still remaining. Most of the boyz are painted up to the stage where I wash 'em. I was gonna get started on that today but I bought the wrong wash. Got a duplicate thraka green instead of the badab black.



Just look at 'em! I even deployed them all in their own special fashions. The stormboyz by deepstrike (I forgot one of them that had rolled behind the brush jar), the kommandoz have outflanked, and the boyz have simply reinforced.

I still have a neck and face of one of the nobz left, and the same for the three deffkoptas, plus I gotta paint the grot orderly and the warboss, but then I'm done with green for a while. At least I hope so.



I also gotta paint the killa kans. As you can see I'm still trying to come up with a good paint scheme. As you can see, I still have some way to go to get there... suggestions are welcome.

Kommandos, WIP

I decided I'd put my two burna boyz into action in a group of kommandoz. I had a bunch of spare boyz and figured I could kommandofy some. I picked out the ones that stood out the most, which were the ones that dual-wielded their weapons.

I bought a bunch of used models from a friend, and he had been more creative with his kit than I could be with my starter models. The result being that some boyz have two sluggas or two choppas.

I decided these guys were trying to look tough and so picked them out for kommando duty.

To make them even more kommando looking I went with the current trend in computer games. That is, the more kit you're carrying around, the more elite you are. So I started painting and clipping out ALL the spare bitz I could find and attaching to the kommandos. They're looking really kommando now! Just look at these WIP pics.

Scratch build!

I tried my hand at a scratch build. Using mostly some leftover clippings from sprues, a few leftover bits of metal thread from other projects, and also some other junk like dried-up blu-tack I made this objective marker in the shape of an orky gadget of some kind.









As you can see, da worky bitz up front connect to da know-wotz at da back thru dat fing wid da gubbins, an dat makes da gizmo run. Took me five lever-pullin' grotz before I figgered dat out.

It might be fun to develop special table rules for it. Maybe it projects a field with a 6" range that does something. Like deflects projectiles, or interferes with teleports, or something?

Yellow!

I added a couple of bits of yellow and blue and red here and there on the boyz, it helped liven them up a bit.

I remember reading somewhere that the orks held the view that rokkits painted yellow make bigger explosions. I liked the idea of yellow rokkits, so decided to make mine yellow too.

The paintjob isn't perfect, but I have over 30 of these guys painted to this stage, and ten more to go, and that's just the boyz. The nobz, all the vehicles, and the bosses are still left to paint. So at some point I'm going to have to call them ready for a wash and then table ready...

Also, the photo reveals a critical weakness in the stormboyz.

The annoying bastards won't stay upright!

Oh, and I resolved the butterfly problem by vacuuming it up. A truly orky solution.

Monster! In the studio!

I was going to go paint but there's a monster on the floor of what I have come to term my studio. The monster is a butterfly. While they're not dangerous I still find them, to quote the ork codex, "unnatural in the nastiest possible way".

It looks like it's dead... which only means it won't go away on its own...

Red eyes!

Went over all the boyz and gave them red eyes, also added blood splatter to their choppas. The red looks pretty good as blood straight out of the can, and you can make light brushes or cake it on thickly for various effects.

I also painted a couple of armbands, hair squigs etc. red. Going to go over the boyz with yellow and blue paint and then I think I can actually just give them a basic wash and call them table ready.

They've still got black boots and gloves, and they haven't got any separate colour on details like straps and belts, but what the hell...

White teef!

A bit of white on the teeth made a world of a difference on the orks. They've got faces now! Sorta. Some of them got way too much white on the teeth, and some were hard to paint because I couldn't make out the teeth under the black undercoat (it doesn't exactly help you find contours) so I'll have to redo some of them. But still, smashing result! With little beady red eyes they'll be almost ready for battle.

I'll need to add a little red to the weapons to make 'em look used, and then fix up some details.

Still can't figure out what to do for straps and pouches... Oh, well.

Metal models

Bought two metal models, a Painboy and a Big Mek with a Kustom Power Field (who'll be getting a skorcha too). I can tell you I really dislike the finish on the metal models. Leftover material all over, they're very crude looking in general, and some parts need a lot of work.

The neck on one of the models was just a rough square block that had to be filed into a neck. Did I mention it had very sharp edges? Blood for the blood god. I'll tell you, the finish on the plastic models that came with the Assault on Black Reach set were pretty damn shoddy compared to the ones you buy separately, but these models? They make the Black Reach ones look good.

It gets more amusing when you see that they can get it right. On the tabs to be slotted into the bases they had cast copyright notices in raised letter, perfectly detailed and legible despite the smallness. Of course, the copyright notices meant the tabs were too thick to fit in the slots, so I had to spend a bit of time and energy on defacing them.

There's a certain illicit pleasure in filing off serial numbers...

The 500/500 army

I was thinking about putting together my first 1000 points in such a way that they can be split up into two complete 500 point armies consisting of an HQ and two Troop choices.

I thought I'd make the two halves distinctly themed according to their respective HQ choice. That is, I'll have one half be the Warboss with his Nob retinue as one Troop choice, and a meat screen of Boyz as the other Troop choice.

For the other half, a Big Mek with accompanying burny Deff Dread, and a mob of Boyz as meat screen/fire support.

I'll make the second boyz mob with shootas since I already have 30+ boys with sluggas and choppas. That'll give me a bit of variation and let me see which boys do better.


Now I just need to put together the actual lists. I have the models for the Warboss half, I'm just not sure how to put it together.


The Warboss has a Power Klaw and a Bosspole, putting him at 90 points. Not much room for variation there...

As for the Nobs, there's plenty room. I have five identical ones, they're plain 21 point vanilla Nobs with stikkbombs. Additionally I have one Nob with a Powerklaw and a Bosspole (51 p), one Nob with a Huge Choppa (26 p). I want a Nob with a Waaagh banner to make them hit a little better (36 p) and I also want a Painboy (51 p) to make them a bit tougher. The Painboy will come when I get around to buying one, and the Waaagh banner when I figure out how to make one...

The boyz are largely complete. They have a Nob with a Powerklaw and a Bosspole (40 p) and the rest of them are just plain boyz. There are also two heavy shootas and one rokkit launcha, although these heavy weapons may of course be redistributed.

We're looking at a lot more than 500 points here, so if I want to make this 500/500 split I'm going to have to make budget cuts. Maybe remove some of the vanilla Nobs and some of the boyz?

Assaultin'!

Da boyz are assaultin an Eldar avatar! Get dat panzee! Waaagh! De orks! Dakkadakkadakka!

Hexagonal board, part two

I was thinking more about my idea to have a hexagonal board.

The way I figured it, there were two simple alternatives for the dimensions. Either I make a board which is 4' across from edge to opposite edge like a regulation one, or I make a board which has 4' edges. The latter option is because the quickstart guide recommends at least a 4' wide deployment area.

I did have a couple of doubts though. If I went with option a, the table that's 4' across - how much space would the players have to deploy on? And if I went with option b, a table with 4' edges, wouldn't it become very large?

Mathematics is pretty much a mystery akin to magic to me so I got an engineer who designs killer robots for a living to do the calculations for me.

It involved sines and other know-wotz.

Apparently, choosing option a and going for a board that's 4' from side to opposite side will result in a table with 2.3' of space for players to deploy on. Not a whole lot of space to cram even 500 points into!

Option b seems better, even though it will give us a table where it's 6.9' across. This might seem like a great deal, but keeping in mind that there will be enemies on the sides as well you might want a bit of space between you and the guy opposite you!

Also, you can reserve the middle of the table for a dramatic centrepiece like Da Fing or a huge cathedral or something too. I'd recommend something big that breaks line of fire so the shooty armies won't get an unfair advantage.

Da Warpwagon

The idea behind building a planet-sized gargant is so simple and genious that only a mek could have come up with it. It follows the simple logic that since the more powerful the ork, the bigger the ork. Therefore, Gork and Mork must be much, much bigger than any other ork. Perhaps even as big as a planet.

It stands to reason therefore, that a gargant fit for Gork and Mork must be bigger than any other gargant. Perhaps even as big as a planet.

Once da Warpwagon has been rebuilt into a gargant the size of a planet the Ulkriderz theorise that Gork and/or Mork will enter into it, and then they will go into the Warp to show those other gods once and for all who's biggast.

Waaagh!?

Some of da boyz are drying off after another layer of paint. I placed them randomly, but they do rather look like someone rolled a 1 on their Waaagh!™ movement.

(For those who aren't fluent in the Ork Codex, rolling a 1 for your Waaagh!™ movement means the boyz get a little too caught up in the excitement and begin fighting among themselves.)

"Move yer hide ya zogging runt!" "Who're ya callin' a runt, ya git? I'm gonna teach yas a lesson!" "Ya couldn't teach a squig how ta eat, ya sniveling grot!"

...and that's the end of that charge...

Not that pink, is it?

My original plan was to have the orks mainly purple, and with the armor bits pink (or cerise, or liche purple, whatever you want to call it), but there's a bit of a problem with that. Observe these two models.

Not very pink is it, the one on the right? I need to come up with something more to paint pink. Maybe have all the straps pink too?

Too much paint

I was wrapping up the painting, putting a daub of paint here and there on the last boy and calling it a day. I close the lid on the paint and put it with the other orks that are drying up, and put the freshly painted ork on the shelf with the rest of the paint, and then I went to wash up the brush.

Halfway through that, my brain catches up to me and asks me "what was that you did just now?"

Good sign it was time for that break huh?

Backstory of the Ulkriderz

The history of the Ulkriderz begins with The Lost Waaagh! in 978.M41. When Warlord Grizgutz killed his doppelganger the confusion may have derailed his Waaagh! but some of the ladz felt that the whole concept of travelling throught the Warp was a hoot, and so they decided to take their hulk and go back into the Warp fer anuvver go. This time they wound up far, far away from the Morloq system.

The orks have dubbed their hulk "Da Warpwagon". Da Warpwagon is an enormous, confusing mess of space debris. Some of the Ulkriderz have taken it upon themselves to rebuild the hulk into a moon-sized Gargant with which to pummel everything in the warp once and for all. The others feel plans like that are a result of staying outside too long in the Warp, and are content with just travelling at random through the warp and fighting whatever they come across.

One of the key features of Da Warpwagon is Da Fing Downstairz or just Da Fing. Da Fing is a large amorphous blob of some tar-like substance that lives in a large cargo hold. It's apparently alive and can move by changing shape, usually to grab whatever comes near it with a hastily formed pseudopod. It's got a number of eyes that float around on its surface to observe the goings on around it.

The orks think Da Fing is extremely fun for example to play "toss da grot" with, a game where the orks toss a grot for Da Fing to catch and absorb. This is, of course, hilarious. For the orks.

Liche Purple

The Gunmetal wasn't so bad once I got used to it. It needed vigorous and continous stirring, because as soon as you stopped stirring, it separated. The end result is quite nice. It's got plenty of visible brush strokes, but I'll get that sorted somehow.

The Liche Purple on the other hand, is a complete pain. It doesn't stick evenly to the surfaces but completely runs off some places and adheres to others. It then dries unevenly and gives a rather mediocre result, not to mention dull looking.

I wanted the liche purple for a vibrant, bright, electric sort of look, but when it dries it becomes dull and lifeless.

Another problem is that while I originally intended the liche purple for "hard" surfaces like armor plates, helmets and shoulder pads, that leaves a lot of the boyz completely without any liche purple on at all.

I need to come up with something.

Whew!

First layer of gunmetal done on my 39 orks. Whew! Gonna let the brush rest for a bit now. And my poor, cramping fingers.

Hexagonal board

I had an idea for a hexagonal board, for team games or just duels with a twist. Imagine a three-on-three with the teams opposite each other. Or perhaps a three-on-three with the players taking alternate edges, so that everyone has an opponent on either side of them! It'd also work well for two-on-two-on-two games, or other configurations.

For a real havoc, you could have a game of six players, all against each other, with seven objectives. Each player holds one objective, and then there's a neutral one in the middle. Would be great for an "orc civil war" kind of game.

Instead of having long and short sides you'd have six short sides, which messes with the reinforcement rules. I guess the best way to solve that would be to number every edge and then when your reinforcements arrive, you roll a dice to see which edge they appear from. If you roll the number of your own edge, you get to choose! Huzzah!

I don't want to see another bottle of purple!

Well, not soon at least. The good news is I won't have to since the boyz all have got their purple paint coat on. The bad new is by the time I've finished putting the gunmetal on them I probably don't want to see another bottle of gunmetal.

Especially since the gunmetal tends to act up badly.

I've decided to dispense with the GW painting guides - they paint freakin' eyebrows on the guys - and go with this one instead. It focuses less on using the entire Citadel paint range in one model to make it award winning, and more on getting them table ready. On the one hand I see myself taking home twoscore gold awards, one for each of my boyz, but on the other hand, we all know that's not going to happen, right?

I've decided to first undercoat them all in black, then paint on all the green, then all the purple (which is what I just finished) then paint on all the gunmetal, and then all the fuchsia. Then I'll repeat the process with a detail brush. And then I'll do stuff like teeth and eyes, and washes, and drybrushing. Whew!

And once all that is finished, there's all the nobz to do. And the stormboyz. And... and... and...

My poor starter brush is looking like I am feeling - frayed. It's missing a couple hairs too. So am I.

I keep thinking if I played Eldar I would be done painting long ago. I would have a dozen finished models, either of which could annihilate my entire warband in turn one and costs 16 points each to field on the table (20 if you also want to make them completely invulnerable, unless you have an HQ unit on the table as well, in which case the upgrade comes free).

I think I'm gonna finish all the boyz first before I do the nobz. I want the nobz to look better than the boyz will. They are, after all, nobz...

Most of the boyz are undercoated with the undercoat black which came in the starter paint set, and not chaos black spray. It gave them a very glossy black finish and the paint doesn't seem to look as good on them.

Oh, well. They'll be table ready at any rate.

That first game...

I mentioned my first test game with the unpainted models. It happened on my dining table which, apart for having rounded corners, happens to be almost exactly regulation size. Imagine that!

The terrain consisted of exactly one piece of impassable terrain, which was a bit of kitchenware that was too large to conveniently remove at the time. I later learned that you should have more terrain than that, and I quickly realised why. It made for a rather boring and one-sided game. The one side in this case was the spacemarines.

The matchup was a spacemarine captain, a tactical squad of ten, and five terminators on the spacemarine side, and on the ork side a warboss, seven nobz, and thirty boyz with a nob.

The game consisted entirely of the orks charging across the board to get at the pesky spacemarines. The boyz charged against the tactical squad, the nobz and warboss charged the terminators.

Needless to say, when the boyz came into charging distance with the spacemarines there were about half a dozen left. They charged, caused no damage, and promptly broke and ran.

The nobz had a similar encounter with the terminators. The warboss and one nob actually made it up to the terminators, and were cut down.

The space marine captain and five of the tactical marines (the squad was split in halves) never even saw combat.

Oops.

Looking back, I realised I had forgotten most of the rules for charging and gave the orks about a quarter of the attacks they should actually have. That would have evened things out a bit, but not enough to cause a win.

Next time I need more terrain. And faster orks.

Gettin' started

I got started the way a lot of hobbyists get started, I guess - a starter box. In this case, Assault on Black Reach.

Actually I bought something else way before the starter box, and that was the orks codex. I had decided long before that I wanted to play orks. Largely because in the bleek and depressive and humourless world of Warhammer 40K, the orks are everything the others are not. They're full of life, colour, gusto, and fun.

Oh, and "'ere we go, dakkadakkadakka, stomp some panzees" is about the depth of tactical thought I can manage...

It took a while to gather up the courage to start gluing the models together. Once I had started though, it got to me. It's fun to put the little pieces together to make those little orks. (Yes, I know there were spacemarines in there too... But this is about Da Ulkriderz.)

Once I was hooked I couldn't leave it well enough alone, so I went and bought a box of boyz, and a box of nobz. Once I broke into the boxes, I was really thrilled. By Mork, the options! There were lots of little heads and arms and stuff to put together, and the bitz! The bitz! Mwa-ha-ha-ha! The painboy in me had really awakened! (With special emphasis on the pain bit when I slipped with the scalpel once... It traumatised me to the point where I get a cold sweat from just looking at it. It just sits there, menacingly... Gleaming evilly and waiting for my blood. I use a hobby knife and clippers instead.)

At this point it was pretty obvious to me I was going to be one of those people who put together an army of units that look fun, rather than one that's competetive. Heck, I haven't read the rules enough to know what is competetive. Besides, I never liked to minmax stuff anyway...

Introducin da Ulkriderz!

Yea, I went and started playing Warhammer 40K. Or, well, so far I have started collecting and painting Warhammer 40K miniatures. I haven't actually played with them. Yet. Apart for a quick matchup where I forgot most of the rules. I need to learn them, eventually.

Once I've figured out how this blog thing works, I'll start writing more about the theme of the army, as well as thoughts regarding collecting and building an army.

Oh, and once I get to playing, I'll be sure to post some about that too. You can expect hilarity to happen - it usually does when I go to war for some reason...