My Waaagh

[tvih]

Some kind of rabble rousing going on here...
http://www.tvih.net/stuff/wh40k/orks-rabble-rousing1.jpg
 
Needless to say things haven't been going according to schedule, they never do. 6+ hours of painting today, which equals 3 ork boyz. And that's with the skins already done when I started. While I'm liking the end results and while it did double my number of painted boyz, my slooow painting speed really is a constant bummer. Needless to say that for the ETL I'll focus on getting the bigger-ticket items done first. As for now, three more boyz and I'll have a table-legal infantry unit... yay?

[tvih]

Well, the first model for the ETL is more or less done. I figured it was only appropriate to start with Warboss Grakkh Gitcrusha:

Doesn't quite look as good as in person I think (not that it's that superawesome or anything) - I really ought to set up a proper spot to take these miniature pics at and get the lighting set up properly and use my "real" camera instead of taking these phone pics at random spots in random lighting Problem is I have basically zero free space in my entire apartment!

That aside still a decent result. You may notice his non-standard head. While I don't play Fantasy, I quite randomly got an Ogre Kingdoms sprue into my possession a few years back which included this head, and I figured it works nicely enough on the warboss to give him some slight customization for minimal effort.

[tvih]

Trying to get ahead of the curve since I know I'll be slacking sooner or later:

I'm not sure how I spent basically all day on these because with this color scheme they're supposedly rather fast to paint?

[tvih]

Second warboss, ostensibly named Morgor Goldtoof. For some reason or another not really all that happy with this one

[Trask]

I think the paintjob looks good man.

[tvih]

As expected I've been slacking - RC car outdoor track opened finally for the summer and has been eating up my time!

 

I finally started working on a nob biker, only to run into a mild modeling crisis while painting. While they do all have nob torsos and heads, some of the arms were non-nob, and I'm trying to "fix" that. Tricky in some like cases, like for this nob i'm working on I had to convert a choppa arm into a steering arm. I reckon half the nobz (I have 6, of which 3 vowed currently) will end up with no hands on the steering, but that's orks for you I guess!

 

With my luck as I'm finally painting these guys they'll come up with an actual nob biker squad kit with the codex release, including bigger bikes and whatnot. I guess at that point these will be "noob bikers" with their inferior bikes! Another "problem" with the current ones is that since the only "loose" nob torsos I have are 2 from the warbiker sprues and 4 from boyz squad sprues, it's not exactly a huge variety.

[tvih]

First one more or less done:

Probably gonna give him - as well as the other bikes - some "bosspoles" to further set them apart from normal warbikers.

Gotta try to start on the second one later today. I think what's holding me back currently isn't as much the painting as it is cleaning up the models for painting - I really hate doing it. At least painting feels rewarding when you're done, cleaning mold lines not so much

[tvih]

One thing I've recently been contemplating unit-wise is tankbustas. They seem like a fun unit. It just sucks that the kit is only available from GW direct, so I don't know if/when I'll get around to it. I figured it'd make a good core for the unit, and then I could make some extras from boyz sprues and random bodies - not using the 4 rokkit launchas for anything else and there's also some of those AT mine-looking things which would work nicely for tankbusta bombs. Making a few tankhammers would be easy too, but while kind of a funny concept at least with the Index the tankhammers seem rather meh in terms of gameplay - you don't want to charge with the tankbustas now that tankbusta bombs can't be used in melee, after all. A pair of rokkit pistols shouldn't be too hard, either.

 

I figure they could hole up in a trukk or something, like I was thinking with my lootas as well. Or if both are in the same list, maybe do an un-orky things and put lootas in a bunker - given their long range - and the bustas in the trukk.

[toaae]

I had written a bit about various tankbusta conversions I have planned, but then I accidentally went back and lost it all. The shame. The point was, except for the bomb squigs, I think it's fairly easy to convert tankbustas from boyz with rokkit launchers by strapping some tank pieces as improvised armor or trophies. I don't like tankhammers or rokkit pistols, and I hate finecast, so I'm avoiding the kit (even though the squigs are great looking).

In game, I've used them in trukks well. They aren't cheap and neither are the trukks, but I've generally found that often my opponents don't prioritize them. Sometimes the trukk gets wrecked quick, but often my opponents don't put enough firepower into them to finish them off, instead opting to deal with the green crush descending on their lines.

[tvih]

I don't mind resin myself, generally easy to clean up and paint on. It's metal that's the true pain - and yet I have two metal armies... sigh :P

 

With 7 models in the resin kit, the 4 rokkit boyz and maybe one converted rokkit pistol model would already fill up a trukk - at least I don't recall anything in the unit entry saying squigs don't take up space. Although a nob would be nice for the extra wound for the price of a regular tankbusta at least in the index, who knows when codex hits. But would need a converted rokkit launcha unless codex will allow a kombi-rokkit - and without costing an arm and a leg for it (and a few squigs on top). It really is quite silly how much orks pay for kombis given their utter lack of aim. Hopefully we'll get the codex soon, then we'll know what the options are. No practical reason to buy new units yet with not enough existing models painted to fill a list, so I can probably make myself wait 'til the codex at least.

[Smoke Frog]

Fantastic looking warboss.

 

Grakkh Gitcrusha looks especially lethal with that helmet, almost like a gladiator.

[tvih]

Another down, one to go, 'im bein' da first ta not be usin' da hands:

Although not really visible in the photo much, 'e's a bit shiney cuz da varr-nish iz aktin' up 'n' shiney-ing up da thingies.

Probably gonna work on the trukk next.

[tvih]

Finally gotten some work done on the trukk, it's only been 2,5 weeks after all  Most of the "main hull" is painted, now there's just all these extra things that bolt on to it to do, just cleaning them up for painting now. Plus of course then there's the driver and the gunner... I'd like to say I'll finish this today, but as things go that's likely overly optimistic.

Edited May 29, 2018 by tvih

[tvih]

Trukk's finally mostly ready. Like the other models I'll give it another once-over before turning the vow in the add some finishing touches (still gotta do the tires as a major component).

Gotta say that the trukk was a lot more work than I anticipated. While my paint scheme is quite lazy in many ways, there's so many components and details compared to something like Imperial vehicles that it still seems to take forever no matter how much I try to speed things up!

[tvih]

I just keep getting slower at painting, it seems. I spent at the very minimum 4 hours on each of these three nobz:

[Warhead01]

Looks like time well spent! Good work Boss!

[tvih]

The orks, especially nobz really are proving to be even more of a challenge than anticipated, they are in a sense far more detailed models than most of the Imperials I've painted so far. Not much smooth surfaces, lots of small knick-knacks and whatnot, all conspiring to slow me down. Anyway, only one nob missing from a 5-man squad now. Hooray? Next up probably the third biker nob to round out that squad, though. Given how long the vehicles have taken too, I dread starting the battlewagon because it'll take another forever especially with 4 big shoota crew and whatnot. Still plenty parts on the sprue, as well. And of course the Burna-Bommer is still completely on the sprues. Aaaaargh :P

[Magos Takatus]

The orks, especially nobz really are proving to be even more of a challenge than anticipated, they are in a sense far more detailed models than most of the Imperials I've painted so far. Not much smooth surfaces, lots of small knick-knacks and whatnot, all conspiring to slow me down. 

I know the feeling. For an army that often requires buckets of models the basic Ork Boy is surprisingly fiddly. The details that they do have also aren't terribly crisp either so you have to carefully paint the borders between colours. It's partly the reason why the "Boys before toys" mantra doesn't really work for me. I can paint Grots in hordes and I can paint Kans and Deff Dreads but the in-between of painting basic Orks... I'd rather not. I also learned that resin Kommandos are horrible to deal with. :p

 

I like the models you have painted so far. They are neat and the details are picked out carefully. I'm looking forward to seeing the Burna-Bommer, hope it goes smoothly.

[tvih]

Such painting speed... *sigh* Well, here's the "boss nob" nob biker from today at least:

Had lots of trouble aligning the handlebar arm with the body and attachment point, I really wish it was like with marines where the handle isn't part of the arm. It still isn't exactly right and if I drop the model it'll probably explode again beucase the glue doesn't attach on paint so well, yet gluing before painting makes painting properly impossible. Also my painting style and admittedly partially probably the too thick layers result in the paint coming off the edges when I handle the model. And I can't get crap painted if I can't handle the model freely. Alas, the layers are what they are, I can't paint ten frickin' layers per spot. Somehow I feel like the models are only getting slower to finish (as in time spent per model) and worse when finished, pfft.

Gonna try to get the two foot nobs done tomorrow.

[tvih]

What a tired day. The two nobs are mostly finished but I've managed to lose one arm and also a pauldron somewhere in this mess. Said arm is needed to hold the big choppa, so gotta find it.

[tvih]

Painted ol' Ghaz yesterday:

Once I finally got started on him, I kinda rushed through it. Just wanted it to get done and over with. Given even my "painted with care" standard isn't exactly high, it doesn't show that much I suppose. Hate working with metal models. The trophy pole will also snap off shortly, it bends back and forth constantly and has worn itself out to the point where it'll come off any moment now. I guess I'll have to fashion a replacement rod for it.

[Warhead01]

Looks good!

 

I was thinking you could just pin the pole  but you could add a section of rot to raise it a little.  

 

 

My first one was Metal. But I just turned him into a MegaBoss. 
My second one is fine cast I for from Ebay second hand.  

It does kinda make me wish it was in plastic. I think I've used Ghaz only one or two times in ..um...20 years.  

 

 

 

[tvih]

I have some piano wire that I got for RC plane use, I was thinking if making a new pole from that. That stuff springs back after bending other than very sharp bends. I mainly got him to complete my Armageddon "Quadrumvirate" - Helbrecht, Grimaldus, Yarrick & Ghazghkull. I didn't pay much for him as I recall. Don't know if I'll be using him much either. Also depends on the new Codex I suppose, what with the likely appearance of klan taktiks and everything.

 

Now I'd need to finish the weapons for the two nobs and start basecoating the Battlewagon. I'm a bit worried about whether or not I even have enough spray left for both the wagon and the bommer. Can't afford a new can until the end of the month so I sure hope so. May have to resort to the non-GW sprays for the initial layers, but they're a pain the butt to use.

[tvih]

Plodding away, trying to make the next weekly update deadline. Basecoated most of the Battlewagon yesterday (minus gunners) and painted the deffrolla cylinder - quite behind the goal of having the main chassis painted during yesterday as well.

Didn't feel like painting today yet so instead I have been assembling the Burna-Bommer. Almost done with that. Gotta see how I'm going to differentiate it from the first plane in terms of paint scheme. Assembling it also reminds me that I STILL haven't been able to find the front canopy glass of the first plane after it dropped to the floor over two months ago. I guess it really did enter the warp.

[tvih]

And again I hit a snag. It appears I can't find two of the big shootas meant for the Battlewagon. It seems for some reason back in the day I've detached them from the sprue. And they weren't with the other stuff so given my models and bits are spread in millions of boxes all around the apartment, chances of finding them in a timely fashion are slim to none  Why don't I ever learn not to vow cheap upgrades to expensive models?

Edited July 7, 2018 by tvih