toaae presents: WAAAAGH! Tortoof

[FlamingDeth]

You get to be that jerk playing wound allocat -- oh wait wrong edition, I'll go sit in the old person corner now.

[toaae]

You get to be that jerk playing wound allocat -- oh wait wrong edition, I'll go sit in the old person corner now.

 

That unit in 5th is probably the biggest reason I picked up Orks. I loved the concept of a unit of individual characters and the modeling options that entailed. I never got to build or play it, but it has always been a fond memory for me.

[toaae]

An update:

 

• Deffkilla Wartrike

• Warboss on Bike

• Weirdboy #2

• Weirdboy #3

• Big Mek w/ KFF

• 17 Choppa Boyz

• 19 Choppa Boyz

• 40 Grots

• 2 Mek Guns

• 7 Nob Bikers

 

Key:

 

Underline: To acquire

Bold: To paint

Italics: To assemble

Strikethough: Finished

*=converting

 

With just over a week left, I've finally got everything bought, assembled, and even primed. I had to make a few changes to the list, which just came down to a regular Warboss replacing a 6th mek gun and 4 boyz. I have over half the Choppa Boyz finished to the bare minimum. No picture, as it's just too poor to be worth sharing. I plan to hit the grots and the three characters with the airbrush tomorrow, get the skin knocked out. A lot of the remaining models are just going to have their skin down, paints painted, and bases painted brown with black rings. Not much else to say than I'm a slow painter and time is not on my side.

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by toaae

[toaae]

Ok, so with three days to go, I'm managed to get everything to the minimum acceptable 3-color-and-based* requirement for LVO. It's been a slog, but at least I managed to hit that mark. I'm looking forward to going back and painting up to my proper standard. Painting a horde to a minimum has not been an enjoyable experience.

 

With the two nights of painting sessions left, I'm going to try and get the nob bikers and Warboss on bike as good as I can manage. Grots and boys looking mediocre is one thing, but the fat, signature unit and warlord should probably be a little tidier.

 

In other, related news, last night was my 30th day of hobby in 2019, meaning I am 10% through my 300 Days of Hobby goal! And today is the 36th day of the year, so I'm making good progress. I was waking up before 6am to paint before my son woke up and wife left for work, but I'm starting classes this week. They are all late night classes, ending at 10p, and my wife has to leave for work earlier so she can come home and take over caring for our son when I leave, so I've decided to switch to painting after class, up to midnight.

I'll be back next week, hopefully with a bunch of photos, some battle reports, and maybe even a victory or two from the world's largest singles tournament in 40k!

*= Clean, consistent basing; in my case, painted flat brown with black rims to match my properly based, finished minis.

[toaae]

I am back from Vegas, and other than a new marriage and an unexplainable tattoo*, I had a great time!

 

The boyz of WAAAGH!!! Tortoof gave some beatings, took some beatings, stomped, were stomped, and overall gave it as well as they got it. I finished 3-3, which is better than I had hoped for, and was competitive in pretty much all the games. Not the first, so much, but that was a warm-up game. Yeah, warm-up.

 

So, on Thursday, my family and I got into Vegas at about 7pm. I missed the GW preview, but got my wristband so I could skip the line the next day (it was a doozy). For the 5th time in 24 hours, I laid out my army and counted it:

 

 

167 models of greenskin goodness. Everything was accounted for and I got a good night's rest.

Game 1

 

Vs. Orks. He had like 190 models, and with Unstoppable Green Tide by both of us, the game easily featured over 400 orkoids. There isn't much to say about this game, because I was just a mess. I mis-deployed my Nob bikers, who should have been great in this match-up. Instead of putting them back, where I could have easily avoided my opponent's two units of tankbustas and use the Kult of Speed stratagem to still easily set them up for a turn 1 charge, I deployed them right smack dab in front of those damage 3 rokkits. When my opponent got the first turn, I was left with 2 nob bikers, and one ran away.

Furthermore, I forgot to deploy two of my weirdboyz, and forgot to shoot my mek guns on the first turn. All told, I feel lucky that I was able to get 19 points, cause I badly misplayed the deployment and first turn. My opponent was a great, fun guy, though. It seems he dropped after the first game the second day, finishing 2-2.

 

Pictures:

 

 

 

Game 2

 

vs. Necrons, featuring the big construct from Forgeworld. This was a tight game. He got the first turn and shoved that large, beautiful model down my throat. Now, I didn't know what it was capable of, so I didn't really think of why he would do that, outside of wanting to charge me instead of letting me charge it.

Well, turns out, the thing explodes spectacularly. So, yes, I did bring it down, but it took some stuff out, like my nob bikers, and finished my footie warboss in the explosion. In all, I wasn't able to knock out his doomsday arks, which I had marked for death, and the game came down to the wire. I took it 21-20. This was another fun opponent, with a great attitude. He finished 1-5.

 

These boyz would be vital for me, charging through ruins to lock down some destroyers, preventing them from over-watching my weakened Wartrike and Warboss. Anyways, my wife took this photo cause she loved the look of them approaching under that arch, and I agree.

 

 

Game 3

 

vs. Genestealer Cult, pre-codex. My last game of day 1 was another nail biter, against a list with two units of genestealers, an IG detachment with the artillery specialist detachment (complete with a wyvern and basilisk), that IG flyer with the 40x S5 shots, and other mean, gribbly things, including that aberrant unit that is so mean. This game was the first time my nob bikers shined, as I held off throwing them out until turn 2. I actually had the first turn, and only moved my army up a bit, spreading out but making sure not to distance myself too far apart. I did jump the mob'ed up choppa boyz, who, combined with all my shooting, killed a genestealer unit, a neophyte unit, and a broodlord in the first combat phase. They would get counter-attacked hard, but the Nobz showed up, blowing more neophytes away and crushing whatever they ran into.

 

The game came down to me using Unstoppable Green Tide on the last turn played to get a charge off onto an objective, that got me the VP for "Kill 1", a point for recon, and when my opponent charged his last two aberrants into the unit on his turn, I cleaned up Marked for Death. The game ended with me taking a close 23-22 victory. Once more, I had a fun opponent, and a very competent player who I think had some poor luck, got caught a little off-guard, and made one small mistake that lead to the loss. He finished 4-2.

A fun moment: he charges a mek gun with the hover-ing IG flyer, and I killed it in overwatch. It exploded, and killed the gun.

 

​Game 4

vs. Ynnari. I'll go ahead and admit, I have almost no experience against Ynnari, having last played them back before the FAQ that made it so they couldn't souburst in the opponents turn. This game was also Hammer and Anvil, so I was trying to cross 36" of terrain to get onto my opponent's stuff, to no avail. She played very well, and managed to hold out against all my assaults. I don't have a lot of commentary, cause it was just a frustrating game of me failing to get on top of her reapers. Still, a fourth opponent I was happy to play against, even if the game itself wasn't my favorite. She finished 5-1.

 

Game 5

vs. Drukhari. This is also a game without a lot to say, but because my opponent's dice thoroughly screwed him. This is the kind of game you joke about, in hyperbole, when you're talking about poor dice. His dice were just that bad. I did throw him off by giving him the first turn, and as he had deployed very conservatively to take an orkish horde charging in. As a result, he wasn't able to attack anything, losing out on VPs for "Kill 1", "Kill More", and "First Blood." After that, his dice made sure he couldn't attempt a comeback. I mean, I killed like 7 grotesques, at Toughness 6, with my nob biker's S4 and S5 shooting. Was just gross.

He rallied and finished LVO 3-3. Maintained a good attitude throughout the bashing, so I'm 5-for-5 on having positive, fun opponents. At this point, I was starting to get tired, and mis-reported my score. I scored 35 points (out of a near-impossible-to-achieve possible 42), but reset my primary score in turn 3, writing down 5 points instead of 11, and just adding onto the score from there. C'est la vie.

Game 6

vs. IG, with a knight. I couldn't believe I hadn't had a single Imperium opponent before this round. And it was a crusader, not even a castellan! I'll consider myself lucky.

This game had lots of cool moments, but I was generally on the backfoot, trying to wreak my havoc on his lines, with no answer to his two IG flyers with those 40x S5 shot guns. I did manage to eventually get into the crunchy center, but by then, I didn't have enough to finish the job. I did play my objectives well, though, and the game was close, with him winning 27-25.

Cool moments: Three mek guns died in his first shooting phase (he went first). The other two managed to deal heavy damage to a tank commander, helping reduce the damage it could do. Even better, I wanted to bring my warlord warboss with Da Killa Klaw into the knight, but only had two wounds left thanks to being targeted by ratlings for two turns, so I first charged with the remnants of a boyz unit (4 models), and managed to get 1 through the overwatch, allowing my warboss to come in and clean up the knight.

Conclusion

I had such a great time, and I can't wait to go to another major event. In fact, I think I'm going to reevaluate my plans this year. Talk with my wife, see if we want to make more trips to more of this major events. She had a great time, loved a lot of the nerds we met, and my son was adored by all. It was a good time.

Personally, I'm really happy with my results, and I'm considering cranking up the competition level. The nob bikers were fun, but using those points on lootas would have been a much bigger help. Things to consider.

For now, I'm happy to be back to painting minis to finish. Working on 5 of the boyz I did for the ETL this past summer, who were just lacking highlights and multiple metallic colors. Edited February 13, 2019 by toaae

[Magos Takatus]

Glad to see you had such a good time. I was surprised you bumped into so many Vulture gunships. I assumed they had been discontinued, but the kit is still in production. It must have been fun to face down that huge Necron construct too.

[Brother Casman]

I'm also glad to see that you had a good time, toaae - I certainly couldn't compete in a tournament like the LVO. Thanks for sharing the pictures, too. Always useful to get ideas for terrain and such.

[toaae]

Small update:

Back in the regular grind. I got those 5 boyz done, now working on the Warboss I did for ETL. Here is a snippet of him:

 

I love that orks are a great canvas, where you can go a little overboard with colors and get a phenomenal result without messing up the color balance of the model. These are his two back up shootas, Da Lucky 'Un and Da Qwiet 'Un.

 

 

Glad to see you had such a good time. I was surprised you bumped into so many Vulture gunships. I assumed they had been discontinued, but the kit is still in production. It must have been fun to face down that huge Necron construct too.

 

Thanks. I only happened upon them in two games, but oh boy, were they a hard counter to me. The IG player with two of them won that game simply on my inability to do anything to them. It's an absurd number of shots, even with the to-hit penalty from moving. The GSC play was just unlucky with it, as I was able to move it into damage brackets pretty quick, reducing its effectiveness.

The construct was cool, and that opponent even cooler. He gave me a handful of throat lozenges. I grew up in Arizona, but after two and a half years on the coast, returning to the dry, desert air and doing all that talking was burning out my throat. I appreciated that.

 

 

I'm also glad to see that you had a good time, toaae - I certainly couldn't compete in a tournament like the LVO. Thanks for sharing the pictures, too. Always useful to get ideas for terrain and such.

The terrain was great, especially when you consider that they had like 360+ tables or something. Every table looked good, at a minimum, with many really cool ones.

I was a little apprehensive about going to the LVO, especially competing in the Champs tourney, because I am not a hardcore competitive player (yet). I feel fortunate that I had 6 wonderful opponents who didn't make the game a chore. Staying in the hotel was certainly great, too, as was having my wife and son there. This tournament had a later start than SoCal, probably cause it's Vegas and all that entails, but the lunch break was just half an hour. Luckily, my wife brought me lunch both days, so I could eat in the hall without having to scramble for time. And after 3 games, it was nice just walking back to the hotel room without having to leave (though, to be fair, it wasn't exactly a short walk; Vegas casino/hotels are massive).

In all, I loved it, but I couldn't imagine playing in a 4th game on Saturday and then another 3 on Sunday. That is so much, and the guys who did that are Ironmen was well as being good at 40k.

[toaae]

I've been putting off posting anywhere because I wanted my 1000th post to be an update in this thread. So, here it is, my 1000th post on the B&C in the 15 years I've been a member!

Also, I haven't posted here because I just didn't have anything to post about. I've knocked out a few more boyz, started working on grots, painted a banner for my Blood Angels, just all a bunch of stuff I didn't feel like was worth posting about. I also haven't played a game in weeks, an unfortunate side-affect of having a Saturday class. I did want to go to a Sunday RTT, but I didn't realize they only had 10 spots and it sold out before I could get a spot.

But I did finally get around to getting pictures of the warboss. Again, he was painted like 80% this past summer for the ETL, so this was just finishing him off. I'm still happy with how he turned out, especially the choice to paint his gun. So, here is a before photo:

 

 

 

And here are the afters:

 

This miniature is so cool. Assault on Black Reach was such a great set.

Hopefully I'll get a game in this weekend, at least something for me to post about. I'm just working on painting all the stuff I had for LVO, though I could always take a break to paint my Ork kill team. That would be worthwhile.

[toaae]

February and March have felt like slow hobby months, though I've been painting nearly 6 days a week. Since LVO has ended, I've finished 10 boyz with a Nob, 5 grots, a Warboss, a Blood Angels Banner, and two nob bikers. Not a whole lot considering the boyz and warboss were like 80% done in last years ETL, but nonetheless, it is progress.

Oh, did I say I finished two more nob bikers? I suppose I should share some pictures of them:

 

Zog Off

 

That's 4/9ths of the unit complete. Doing these two at a time is great for my sanity.

I've got a few things in the planning stages coming up. I'm working on a side-project for AoS to break up painting Orks, but I can't every stop planning my next project. For this years ETL, I'm going to focus on characters and vehicles, IE, individual model units with high points costs. Also, with the reveal at Adepticon of the new Apocalypse coming (even if there weren't any details), I'm definitely going to be adding a Stompa to my project board. If it doesn't get its points dropped before ETL, I'll benefit on how grossly overcosted it is.

One character I'll be doing is a Mega-Armored Warboss converted from a Necromunda Ambot. I've seen a few online since conceiving this idea, but most of the time it's just a few bits added on with an Ork head shoved awkwardly on. I'm planning on a big conversion, something as ambitious or more so than anything I've done yet. I love the overall frame of the Ambot and the fact that it actually looks powered (an issue I have with the AoS megaboss a lot of people have been using), but there is still a lot I want to do. I'll probably post a lot about it once I start on it.

[FlamingDeth]

How's the size? I was under the impression that the ambot was meganob sized or very slightly bigger. Also, that's a good strategy for ETL, I'll have to loot it and actually finish my weirdboyz.

[toaae]

How's the size? I was under the impression that the ambot was meganob sized or very slightly bigger. Also, that's a good strategy for ETL, I'll have to loot it and actually finish my weirdboyz.

 

That's probably close to true, though I haven't checked. Maybe some additional bulking out will be necessary.

[toaae]

Not an update, but a bit of retrospection. As of today, the first quarter of the year is complete (actually, 24.66%). My goal was 300 Days of Hobby, and as of tonight, I'm completed 71 (23.67%) days of that goal. I'm not counting days where I play games but don't paint, so to be so close to on track despite losing 4 days to LVO and starting the goal a few days into the year.

So, this is what I've accomplished in that first quarter:

Assembled:
​1x Deffkilla Wartrike

2x Mek Gunz

30x Grots

 

Converted:

1x Warboss on Warbike

1x Big Mek

2x Weirdboyz

7x Nob Bikers

 

Painted to ITC minimum:

1x Deffkilla Wartrike

1x Warboss on Warbike

1x Big Mek

2x Weirdboyz

2x Mek Gunz

5x Nob Bikers

36x Boyz

50x Grots

 

Completed:

1x Warboss

2x Nob Bikers

5x Grots

11x Boyz

 

​My goal was to put in the time and the results would come. Looking at that list, I'm fairly positive that that is the most I've accomplished in any 90 day period in my nearly 16 years in the hobby. So, the goal for the second quarter is to keep at it. If I paint at least 6 times a week through the end of June, I'll be just ahead of schedule.

[toaae]

 

How's the size? I was under the impression that the ambot was meganob sized or very slightly bigger. Also, that's a good strategy for ETL, I'll have to loot it and actually finish my weirdboyz.

 

That's probably close to true, though I haven't checked. Maybe some additional bulking out will be necessary.

 

 

A quick update: I started work last night on the warboss conversion. The Ambot is a little larger than a meganob, but I don't think it's appropriate for a Warboss. So, I'm bulking it out a bit and have made it about a centimeter eighth of an inch taller. I'll have a full post about the conversion at the end (much like I did with my kill-team loota), but I just wanted to touch on this point.

Edited April 2, 2019 by toaae

[FlamingDeth]

Aha. Sounds like a good basis for a big mek though!

[toaae]

Conversions coming along great. I'm really pleased how the warboss is coming out. Just taking a lot of time. I'm hoping to finish before I leave on vacation this Saturday.

But on that vacation, I am going to be playing in my first tournament and first 2000 point games since LVO, as I discovered there was a Sunday RTT while I'm in Phoenix. I signed up as quick as I could after discovering it, and I'm super excited. I'll be taking the same list as I took to LVO, which I just posted in the army list forum, because I haven't attempted to build new units to change stuff out with. Should be fun.

I did want to sort of post my brainstorming about future competitive lists. Frankly, the fact that I don't have lootas is an obvious weakness. Now, I don't think lootas are a super unit and I expect we'll see more top Ork lists rely less on them; at Adepticon, Steve Pampreen only took one unit of 15 and he finished 3rd (though, Nick Nanavati still took 15 and 7). But they are good, and they are probably the best answer orks have for a major weakness of the codex: Fliers. I especially felt unable to do much about fliers at LVO. Lootas, with More Dakka!, generate a lot of hits on flyers that will wound almost all flyers on 4+ or better (that FW Custodes flier would be a monster to face). Of course, Lootas are basically good at shooting at most anything, but it's specifically their anti-flier role I'm most interested in.

At 225 points for a unit of 15, I don't want to invest more than that in them. The classic loota bomb is over 300 points and requires a CP to Mob Up. I do say "required", because lootas need grot shields to have any staying power at all, and even if you didn't feel like you needed a super unit that game, not mobbing up would leave one unit (probably the smaller one) without grot shields, which would result in their quick and easy death. Now, with the 300+ points and 1 CP already invested in the unit, it's going to feel more and more like you have to use More Dakka! and Showin' Off in order to justify the investment, and then before you know it, you've got no CP left. Even with 0 lootas, I blew through my CP in every game. So, taking 1 unit of 15 I feel is the right spot. You can/should still defend the unit with grot shields, but you don't have to drop a CP off the bat, and you can have games were they just shoot without any additional CP if that's what the game calls for.

 

Now, switching gears, I'm going to keep trying Nob Bikers. They are certainly not ideal, but I liked what they did for me at LVO, I already converted the models and painted 4/9ths of them, and I think there is some merit to bringing a non-totally-meta list. They will be hard-countered if I come up against someone with a number of D3 shots, but otherwise, they've been pretty stout and pack a lot of shots and S5 attacks. So, I'm going to keep on using them until I am sure they just aren't worth it. Who knows, maybe I get some notoriety as the Nob Biker guy.

 

To fit in Lootas without dropping the Nob Bikers, I'm going to have to drop something else. The boys and grots are non-negotiable, as the former is the real strength and core of the list, and the both types of units are necessary for all those delicious CP. I could drop any of the HQs in the first detachment (Deffkilla, Warboss, Warboss on Bike), and I'm certainly going to take my mega-armored warboss once he is ready. But ultimately, the only thing left to cut is the Smasha Guns. And as much as I love smasha-guns, I feel Lootas would be a better investment in the ITC; in a format were kill points aren't so important, I'd probably feel differently.

In a list where I don't take the Nob Bikers, I could keep the smasha guns AND fit a unit of tankbustas or two dakka-jets. That could be the long-term list. Or, maybe the spring FAQ changes the meta drastically, and we're all taking Deffskullz in trukks. Who knows.

[toaae]

Brakgcrel Nag Krot Tortoof, Mega-Tyrant of Sterik, has a model.

 

 

 

This is easily my most ambitious conversion ever, and I think my best executed, as well. This monster will be the center-piece of my infantry, for at least as long as it take for Ghazghkull to get a new, bigger model. I'm super pleased with how he turned out, and honestly, it didn't take me as long as I expected. Only 4 days of between 1-2 hours a night, and I only cut myself twice! I still have to do the base. Originally, I was planning on sticking to a 40mm, but after assembly, he really needs more space for an important-unit base, so I'll probably put him on a 50mm, maybe striding over the crushed body of a foe.

It's an expensive model in games, 122 points, but if it's good enough for Nick Nanavati, then I suppose it's good enough for me. I think I understand why you'd take him; the 4" movement isn't a big deal when you're advancing every turn and have the Evil Sunz extra movement, and it's not like the lack of Dakka Dakka Dakka is a concern on a single model with 4, S4 shots. With T5 and 7 wounds, the 2+ armor save means he's going to be really durable against a lot of things, and even the lack of an invulnerable isn't a big deal (unless you're often finding yourself vs. AP-4). Still, it's 42 points more than a regular warboss on foot. Oh well. I converted a sick model, so I'll 100% be using him.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ok, so now I'm going to spend some time talking about the conversion.

 

So I started with the Ambot from Necromunda. I looked at those models and thought "you know what? Those would make a much better conversion than the AoS Megaboss that has been popular." My reasoning for this was that mega-armor, in 40k, is powered armor. Look at the mega-nobz, and you see exhausts, bundles of wires and hydraulics. The Megaboss is certainly heavily-armored, but slapping on a gun, a klaw and some 40k decorations isn't enough, in my opinion, to make it a proper Mega-Armoured Warboss.

Ok, so Ambot. The one striding forward has the perfect pose for a warboss (and it mimics Ghazghkull's), is already hunchbacked, and those close. How can you saw now to a claw WITH a pair of saws? Now, the very next day after I had this idea, I started seeing the ambot used for conversions on r/Orks, but my dismay at not being a special snowflake quickly disappeared when I realized most of the conversions I was seeing were simple head switches and ork bits glued on. I intended to do a lot more for my warboss.

But, as FlamingDeth pointed out, the ambot may not be tall enough. So I held the legs and torso together, and compared it to the AoBR warboss for comparison (with a dread in the back as to provide a "no larger than" comparison):

 

 

It's hard to tell, but the head would be about half a head taller than the AoBR warboss's head. While that is taller, I felt that a warboss would be noticeably taller, not just a little taller. So I knew I wanted to add some height. This would be easy to cover up, as I already intended to bulk out the lower torso. But I also noticed that the legs were too skinny. Orks have some meaty legs, and those chunks of thighs wouldn't fit inside the skinny legs of the Ambot. So now, I'm thinking to try and sculpt some inner thighs, like that the armor is on the outside of his legs.

So I cut a piece of plasticard tubing an 1/8th inch long, cut the bit that combines the torso and the leg assembly, and inserted that tube in to achieve the desired height. I stuck some greenstuff on the inside of the thighs, and tried to do my best to make it smooth and leg-looking (I have never done much more than gap-filling with Greenstuff). The last thing I did day 1 was put greenstuff on the lower torso/hips, hiding the tube, the robotic-groin and providing the structure my future work on the torso would rest on. I also decided the split toes at the front would be better served as like the front of a boot. So, day one:
 

 

I'm pretty sure I did the arms before I continued on with the body, but for now, I'm going to stick to writing about the torso and legs. The next day, I remembered the massive butt orks have, and I made sure to get that going on this unit. I added some ork shoulder pads as knee pads, and that helped hide the thighs, so I'm happy with how the legs are going to turn out, especially once painted.

So all mega-armored Orks have the massive iron gob and I decided I needed to figure out a way to build one. My first thought was to use the bottom jaw-plate from the Deff Dread Kit, and when I remembered that it included massive tusks, I knew I had to make that work (another nod to Ghazghkull's model). Well, it went above and beyond my expectations, both making the gob and taking care of Orky-fying the upper torso. I also used a head from the Nobz kit, originally as a place holder to check fit, but ended up keeping it as the expression was perfect. The head is a little smaller than the AoBR head, but I'm ok with that; it's not so much smaller to be noticeable, and it kind of makes an optical illusion, making the body appear even bigger. A plate on his gut was the last part of my day 2.

 

 

Some more greenstuff, mostly to cover the previous greenstuff on the toes and butt, and to make side plates on the belly, was the big part of Day 3:

 

 

Now for the arms. Mega-armored Warbosses have a Power Klaw and a shoota of some kind. The base Ambot arm has the two fingers, the two saws, and a small under-digit. I was pretty happy overall about how the hand looks, but I did want a more substantial bottom claw, so I went to my Blood Angel bits and found the finger from a dread.

I also needed the arm to look like an Ork's arm would fit inside, so I had to either bulk out or hide the skinny, robot arms. Using some greenstuff and an ork plate, I made the fore-arm a solid-looking piece.

 

 

The shoota arm was trickier. The way the arm is mounted to the torso meant I had to be mindful of how the gun fit; to close on the inside and it might rub up on his leg, too long and it might extend past the base, two bulky and it might "unbalance" the miniature. I though about top-mounting the big shootas from the dakkajet kit. I thought about letting him hold the gun in his claw and I thought about trying to sculpt a hand to hold a gun, but remembered that I have no practice sculpting and that would not turn out well. In the end, I decided to cut the fingers off of the claw, and shove some ork boy shoots on there in their place, like a gun arm.

 

 

A detail I like is that I had the guns flipped. One has a magazine on top, the other on the bottom. I would also fill out the fore-arm like I did his other arm, and I added a little loota-rokkit on the outside of the arm to hide the join and I now suppose, to give me the option to run it as a Kombi-rokkit (though I doubt I'll ever do that). Finally, that arm got an ironsight, cause of course the ork has a sight for a gun he can't possibly look down.

For both arms, the question of what to do with the shoulders had me stuck for a while. i could use the ambot's shoulders, but I felt they were too smooth and rounded, as well as not really being substantial enough. I thought about different bits to use, but while looking through left over sprues, I decided to try the bubble-chucka's dented orbs. And, wouldn't you know it, they looked perfect for the miniature. I had to make some cuts and strategic gluing to make them fit, but in the end, they covered the shoulders and the upper robot-arms without impeding the placement of the arms. So spiky Nob shoulderpads on the elbows finished the arms.

So, going into last night, I didn't feel much like hobbying, and figured this project would take me at least another couple of days. But once I started working on it, I just powered through, so enraptured with seeing this guy come together. Afterall, I hadn't seen what he looks like with his arms yet, so I didn't have a great idea of what the whole ensemble would look like. In the end, I made:

 

1. a strap and buckle across his back with greenstuff, looking like the front plates on being held onto his belly
2. an exhaust pipe that I really wanted to make, and am happy with how it turned out
3. two boss poles, to show that he's a big boss
4. a SM helmet held onto the armor with a spike (naturally)
5. a wire to each leg, solving the problem of "how do the legs get power"

And with those components complete, I assembled the warboss.
 

 

Again, I am super delighted with how this turned out.

[Magos Takatus]

That's a pretty amazing conversion. I know a lot of people claimed they were going to use the Ambots to make a Warboss but your model is the first I've seen so far and it's brilliant. :)

[Zebulon]

Fair’s fair, that is brilliant :tu: Edited April 6, 2019 by Zebulon

[toaae]

As I mentioned in the army list forum, I stumbled on an RTT in Phoenix, Arizona, the same time I would be there for vacation, so I took my army along and played in a new place with fresh faces. It was ITC missions and terrain rules with 2.5 hour rounds. And, unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, which is a shame.

Game 1 was vs. a Chaos Soup list, a Death Guard detachment with Blightlord terminators, a Thousand Sons detachment with Scarab Occult terminators and Ahriman, and a Nurgle Daemons detachment with a big blob of Plaguebearers and some nurglings. We got Hammer and Anvil, and I won the roll-off. I chose to go second, and this threw him off, as he deployed far back, intending to go second. He advanced his Plaguebearers in a line across the board, which on my turn I engaged on one end with my Nob Bikers and Wartrike, and a unit of shoota boyz on the other side (the boys consolidated into the daemons, after having chopped up some nurglings). The big point in this game came when he chose not to fall back with the Plaguebearers, because he didn't want to let the bikers and wartrike free to shoot and charge. This meant he was unable to shoot at the shoota boyz with his Thousand son termies, and they failed to finish the squad in CC, so during my turn I used Unstoppable Green Tide, which put those fresh boyz in a position to charge his warlord, and the game just spiraled from there. Unfortunately, we only finished 4 turns, so while I won, I only had like 26 points, meaning I wasn't that big a winner. Still, a wins a win.

Game 2 was against the meta list: castellan, catachan brigade, bullgryns, ect. We got hammer and anvil again, and my opponent deployed on the far back line. I again went second, and my opponent shot 7 nob bikers, 10 grots and 1 weirdboy to death. Unfortunately, that weirdboy was the one with Da Jump. In hindsight, knowing the castellan could do that, I should have taken Da Jump on multiple weirdboyz. As it was, my first two turns just involved me crossing the table. I chose to ignore the knight, shooting at it once with a smasha gun to make him rotate shields, and I feel that was a good move. In the end, I lost 26-24, and considering I didn't get a kill in the first round with Old School, that was a very close game.

 

Game 3 was against a Chaos list featuring lots of the new stuff, and 3 vindicators. This game wasn't as interesting, though it was the Hammer and Anvil variant with the point, and my opponent went first and used the Linebreaker Stratagem to kill my warlord (I had considered taking the FNP relic, and wished I had). But other than that, it was me swarming and taking objectives. My opponent did forget to fall back once, and this may have played a very pivotal role in the game.

So, in the end, I went 2-1, finishing 7th out of 22 players, with that one loss being very close. I'm very happy, much like I was with my LVO results. I'm definitely going to be building a unit of lootas (started last night) to increase the competitiveness of the army, but I'm still happy with the nob bikers, who have proven to be resilient, fast, and fairly beaty.

[toaae]

I finally joined the 12-months of Hobby Challenge, and I've now completed that vow.

 

This was the Weirdboy I painted for ETL6 last summer, so I finally got around to finishing. A before photo:

 

 

And the finished result:

 

 

Also, this finishes everything I did during ETL6, so that is nicely wrapped up.

Edited April 21, 2019 by toaae

[toaae]

Mini-update:

Finally got the 15 lootas assembled. 9 of them were from the second-hand lot I picked up years ago, and boy, did they require work. There was no attempt to remove mold lines, and super glue was used liberally, almost like a gap filler. Regardless, I've got them ready for priming. Hoping I'll get that done and the skin airbrushed by the end of the weekend.

[toaae]

Lootas are primed and skin is done:

 

 

I'll start work tomorrow night on the first set of these guys. I plan to paint them in sets of each gun type. Way back, like when I started the army, I intended to convert a bunch of lootas, cause I didn't like that they all had similar looking guns. While I may still do that some day, I wanted to get a unit built and painted so I could use it in tournaments, so I just went with the stock 4 patterns of Deffgunz.

 

To still combat things looking too similar, I plan to paint each gun different from the others of its type. And to achieve this, I'm going to paint each type of gun as a set. So, for instance, I'm starting with the 3 rotary-gun ones, and I figure I'll paint two of them in inverted metal colors, and one as if the gun was painted. Hard to really describe, but we'll see how it turns out. My hope is that it won't be obvious on the first look that there's only 4 types of guns.

[toaae]

Got the first three Lootas done:

 

(apologies for the photo-quality; good pictures will be taken when the whole unit is finished)

 

These guys were sort of the test models for the lootas, a proof-of-concept that painting the same guns in much different ways would help hide the fact that they are, indeed, the same gun. I think I'm successful in this. The other test was using orange as the primary color, in an effort to seamlessly fulfill ITC requirements that units in different sub-factions be obvious in some way. This, I'm a little more iffy about. I'll have to see how the whole unit turns out, and how it looks in my army. I think it's going to work, but since orange isn't a color you often see on Orks, it's a little hard to judge for me right now. I don't dislike it, I'm just a little worried it will be jarring with the rest of my (red) army.

 

Onto the next set of Lootas. Probably the ones with the Tau fusion blasters.

Edited May 11, 2019 by toaae

[Magos Takatus]

I think the orange colouration on the weapons is a good move. It's very visible and it looks good as an added bonus. :)