Real Life(tm) continues to be heinous to my schedule of late, so while the following pics were taken back on Saturday I'm only just now able to get them posted up on the ol' blog. That said, Da Boyz are 99% complete!


I say 99% as it's inevitable that during the sealant step that I identify some step of the process that I've completely overlooked until then. In this case, I missed out on painting the tongues on all of the Orks with open mouths. Doh!


That final cleanup notwithstanding the units are complete and I am really happy with 'em. It was an absolute blast to paint some Orks again after so long and was really refreshing to use the strong greens and yellows - colors rather underutilized in my other recent projects! I'm planning on getting them touched up and boxed up to send over to the rally point for the army later this week, and then it's time to dive back into the Heresy - got a Box o' Resin Joy heading my way from Forge World with some new Thousand Sons goodies to add to the force, can't wait!

Oh so very close to the finish line now! Over the last few days I've been doing battle with the house refinance so that's eaten up some time, but I did manage to finish off the detailing on Da Boyz!


Got all the black flames done, added in the copper jewelry and bullet casings, and got the spot colors laid in on the Rokkit Boyz. Also went back and picked out all the little teef and leather I'd missed here and there one the way through the lot. Phew!

Next up is a little further work on the Rokkits, then on to the bases - hurtling towards the end!

In other NOCF news:
-Zab has started laying in the base shading on some Ad Mech goodness!
-Greg has started working on the Grots and pressed on with the Deff Dredd (which is shaping up to be a corker)!
-Celso has done a frankly astonishing job on a battlewagon for the force as well!

More to come!

...More leather straps than a Judas Priest concert! As we near the finish line on da Boyz, we start to get into the little fiddly details - the goal over the last couple days was to knock out all the leatherwork, and there was a lot of it! Early steps in the process can be pretty messy, relying on subsequent steps to clean up any slop but at this point I'm having to be very careful not to overspill which slows things to a crawl. However perseverance it key!


Next up is the copper/gold jewelry and shell casings, the rest of the black flames, and general cleanup of stuff I'd missed. Getting ever closer to the finish line!

Real Life(tm) has been a bear recently so not as much brush time as I would have hoped. I did manage to squeeze in a couple more colors since Saturday, but sadly I've fallen well behind my initial plan to crank out two colors a day. Curses!


Got the boltgun metal painted in and washed with a pass of Agrax Earthshade, which gives the metal an oily, rusted look which is rather fitting for the Orks! Also started a bit of the shoulder pad detailing, painting on the Bad Moons typical flame motif here and there.


So far it's just been the yellow flames on the black shoulder pads, but the yellow pads will also get the treatment with some black flames (a couple have been done so far). Once those are done it'll be time to pick out all the leather and fur which should really help the look. Right around this mid-point is where I usually start to get discouraged in the batch process but I have to say I'm still really digging painting them. If only I had more time to do so! Planning to carve out a good chunk of time this coming weekend with a goal of getting them done up to the point where I can start painting the bases. Fingers crossed!

Got a fair bit of brush time in this morning, and after getting the eyes in I got cracking on with the next set of colors for the Boyz!


Started off by basecoating any area intended to be yellow with Vallejo Beast Brown, which covers fairly well over the black and provides the subsequent yellow a bit more of a warm tone. I decided that I'd do up half of the models with black trousers and yellow shirts, while the other half would have yellow trousers and black shirts which will help distinguish the two mobs as well as keep me from going mental painting 40 of the exact same pattern 40 times!


Next up to bring the color up a bit the brown got a further pass with Vallejo Scrofulous Brown, which is a nice ochre color and shines nicely under the following step.


The last step of the session was the additional highlight of Vallejo Medium Yellow. This is one of the Model Air range of paints and is extremely translucent, it's almost more of a glaze consistency when applied with a regular brush. The shoddy pic-in-progress shot blows out a lot of the highlight it seems. Next up is cleaning up all the areas that will be black, then on to all the leather colors. They're starting to look like proper Bad Moons now!

...Da better ta bite yer wif!

In the process of refinancing my house so it's been frantic home repair for the last several days to take care of some cosmetic stuff prior to the appraiser making his rounds. That being the case, not as much painting time as I would have liked - just one color a day for the last two days, but it was a fun couple sessions.


Painted in the teeth with a basecoat of Vallejo Earth, followed by a pass of Bone White. They'll get a final highlight of Ghost Grey in the next step to give 'em a bit more pop, but I have to say that getting the teeth painted in really snaps the models into focus. ...Metaphorically speaking that is, my actual camera skills are as questionable as ever!

In recent NOCF news, Zab over at Almost Perftec got cracking on with several of the individual models that will be up for auction. Definitely worth checking out! In addition, the raffle for the two beautiful Dark Age armies painted by Dave Taylor are ending this coming Sunday!

I have a reasonably open schedule on Saturday so I'm hoping to get at least four more colors on to make up for lost time. 'Ere we go, as they say!

...But it's getting easier!

Few more steps on the Ork skin last night - nothing glamorous but it's actually been rather fun!


The first stage was to paint in the flesh again with Warboss Green, followed by a mix of Warboss Green and Nurgling Green, hitting successively less of the area with each pass and leaving the darkest green in the recesses.


Next up is a highlight of pure Nurgling Green on the uppermost surfaces of the skin where it would catch the light.


The last step of the evening is a pass of Waywatcher Green glaze to help blend the layers together. Much like the final step Monday night, the glaze really needs to dry thoroughly so the models are left to dry overnight. Moving right along!

In addition to the Ork and Space Marine armies that will be raffled off later in the year, there are already a couple forces up on the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation site, both painted by the phenomenally talented Dave Taylor - Definitely worth a look, and it's for a great cause!

'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go!

It had been cold and snowy for the last five days here and as such while the Orks for the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation raffle were all built they'd been hanging fire until the weather turned. Which it has! Over the next week it's supposed to get up to 85F (gotta love springtime in the Rockies!) and I was able to get all of 'em prepped and primed after work yesterday. I'm planning on going through the process step-by-step and documenting it here on the blog, so that you will be as sick of Orks by the end as I am. Hah! The plan is to try and get two or three colors a day done until they're all complete, so today's post is just the first two colors.


The paint recipes were provided to everyone working on the force in order to ensure that all of the models end up with the same color scheme (more or less, they are Orks after all), and as it generally the case I started off with the skin tones first as it's the sloppiest part of the recipe for the orks and any overspill onto the clothing will be cleaned up in subsequent passes. The recipe calls for a GW Warboss Green as the base color, so the models got a couple thinned coats.


The second step in the recipe is a wash of Thrakka Green which helps darken down the tone and settle into the recesses for some initial shading. You gotta let washes dry thoroughly before moving on so this was the last step of the evening (the wash is still damp in the pic as you can see), the models are left to dry overnight in preparation for the next couple skin colors on deck for tonight's painting session! 40 models is really about the limit for batch painting for me - any more than that and it REALLY starts to get tedious. Still, I'm really enjoying this project so far, it's been ages since I painted any Orks, and the color palate is radically different than what I've been working on recently which is very nice.

A couple other fellow bloggers have started posting their work for the NOCF as well, and I'll do my best to keep up with them (drop me a line if you're taking part and I've missed your posts):

Zab at Almost Perftec is painting up some Malifaux and Wrath of Kings models that are looking awesome!
Greg Hess at Feed Your Nerd is working up some Grots and a Flying Deff Dread!

More links to come as people get cracking!

Orks!

Earlier this year the phenomenally talented painter Zab over at Almost Perftec suggested that I speak with the further thoroughly talented Dave Taylor of his eponymous blog about pitching in on the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation project for this year, and I am honored to have been invited to do so! One of the two 40k armies that will be up for raffle is a rather fun airbase-themed Ork force, and the various participants put in requests for their preferred units - there have already been some really cool looking WIP shots coming out around the blogosphere, so I have some tough acts to follow!

Of course all proppa' Ork armies need a couple bigmobs of Boyz, and as I have no real fear of batch painting I volunteered to build and paint up the pair of 20-strong Boyz mobs included in the force. Not the most glamorous part of the army perhaps, but where would a Warboss be without his Boyz, eh?


Rooted around in the Closet of Doom for bits and have started getting things put together. I had the better part of the first mob already assembled, just needed to pop 'em off their previous bases and get 'em onto the rather cool resin bases generously donated by Secret Weapon Miniatures. While the basic Boys sprues provide pieces for a Nob, I decided to use a couple from the separate Nobz kit as they're just a bit more intimidating in my opinion.


The second mob is still in the assembly phase, but I did get the 'fun' models of the squad built. Still some more detailing to add to both squads as well, there's shoulder plates, knives and stikkbombs yet to be added, as well as the occasional hair squig! Hoping to get them built by the end of the weekend, and take advantage of the nicer weather forecast to be on the way to get 'em primered so I can get stuck in on some colors that aren't red or gold for a change! The deadline for completion looms for these (though not quite so imminent as the Thousand Sons were recently), so expect to see a slew of Orky posts over the next couple weeks as the Greenskins thunder down the painting table at me!

Due to Colorado's schizophrenic weather in the winter, we generally sees the temperature yo-yo between bitterly cold, and surprisingly warm. A couple days ago it was 60F and today it was 8F when I woke up. Gotta love it! During a 'warm snap' I managed to get some some more Orks finished and sealed:


First up is the unit of Meganobz. These were interesting to paint - there's almost too much detail on them, and I struggled to get some color into them. My plan to have the armored plates in the army painted grey sort of let me down on these guys, I think these models could really benefit from a more striking color scheme. If I do more Bad Moons in the future, I will definitely be getting another unit of these models!






I took several of your fine readers suggestions and tried to push the difference between the two halftrakks a bit further. I added on some various plates and detail bits, and I think it breaks up their outlines enough to keep them visually separate but thematically similar.



They got the same basic paint scheme as the earlier battlewagon, and will carry the two shoota boyz mobs into battle. Very near the end of this little boutique project, just the Blitza-bommer to go! Since it's dumped a couple inches of snow on us since these were completed, and a big box full of Eqyptian-themed bases arrived recently, expect to see a mess of Thousand Sons build pics to follow soon...

It had been incredibly cold and snowy for the last few weeks and during that time while I'd built all sorts of stuff, it was far to cold to primer any thing and my hobby output sort of ground to a halt. However, a beautiful Colorado day appeared and I undertook a frenzy of primering. So that means it's time for da boyz!


Taking a cue from Colonel Scipio's excellent DKoK, I went with a predominantly brown leather look, with a bit of grey on the helmets to tie them in to the grey armor plating that will be on the various vehicles.


Two ten-man squads will go in the pair of half-trakks, and careen around the battlefield blasting away with their shootas until they inevitably get their ride blown out from under them and bewildered orks are tossed in all directions.


That's the troops choices sorted out - Jobs a good 'un!


While I was about it, i also put a brush to the warboss model, which is just chock full of character. I went with a red sandstone sort of look for the bases, which sets off reasonably well against the blue-grey of the models, but I found my usual reddish-brown base rims just looked poor. Black rims it is!

In other news:


Son of a..!

I'm in for a half dozen of these, and that's no lie.

The ork army continues apace - while we're been suffering through some surprisingly heavy snowfall, I've spent the time building a pair of transports for the shoota boyz squads.


I wanted to keep the quasi Germanic feel with the Trukks, and picked up a couple resin kits from Forge World and ended up combining them, making what proved to be my least cost effective dollars-to-points-value models of all time! Quite pleased with how they look, though!


Of course, the two models would have ended up exactly the same if I followed the directions in their entirety, so I tried to deviate from the norm a bit on both of them with some varying decorative bits.


Some extra armor plates and a tow chain on the back breaks up the look a bit. I'll definitely need to paint various armor plates in different colors when the time comes as well.


Overall I quite like 'em! The halftracks tie in well with the Battlewagon, hopefully giving the whole force a cohesive (yet ramshackle) look! ...Now if it would only warm up enough to primer 'em!

Brief break in the Memphis pics to appease the roars from Mork (or possibly Gork) to post some shots of the first vehicle for Da Deff Korps uv Krieg that I finished recently.


Decided to go with a quasi German grey for the vehicles, albeit a very worn and weathered one. There's been a number of weathering techniques I've been wanting to try, but weren't really suitable for use on the Iron Hands.


The whole model was primered black, then given an all-over drybrushing of Boltgun metal. After that I went in and stippled in Sombre Grey, leaving the edges and corners with the metal showing through. I then hit a couple of the panels in Stonewall Grey. Once that was done, the whole model was given a black wash to dirty it up. The tracks and tires were given a heavy drybrush of Dark Flesh, followed by a lighter drybrush of Leather Brown and a Strong Tone wash. Once that dried, they were given a light drybrush of Boltgun metal (to represent the areas where the mud has worn away).


I tried out a sponged-on rust effect in a couple areas, starting with Charred Brown followed by a lighter sponge pass with Dark Fleshtone. Next was an even lighter sponge of Hot Orange, and then the extreme edges were drybrushed with metal. In retrospect I think it could have stood to have one more pass with Fiery Orange to help it pop a bit more, though.


Finally, I tried out the 'painted on scratches' thing here and there on some open areas that hadn't gotten the rust treatment. They're scattered throughout, though I'm still struggling with how many and where they ought to be applied. Figured I'm better off with a 'less is more' approach to start with.

Overall, I'm chuffed to bits with how it's turned out, and I can't wait to get to grips with the rest of the army! The Forge World order showed up, so a pair of half-trakks are soon to follow!

I've been taken by the idea of doing a number of small allied forces to supplement my Guard regiment, and thought a small force of Ork mercenaries could be amusing. The last several times I've done Orks they've ended up being Bad Moons, so I wanted to go in a different direction this time - mercenary Orks are traditionally Blood Axes who commonly ape the more regimented guard in their dress and mannerisms, and I've long had my eye on the rather excellent alternate pseudo-germanic/WWI orc range from Kromlech. Thus begins the saga of Da Deff Korps uv Krieg!

While the various packages are winging their way to me, I figured I'd document the process from beginning to end. First up was the army list - as an allied force I decided that I'd restrict myself solely to the limitations of the Allies FOC. That meant 1 HQ, 2 Troops, and 1 each of Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support. ...And that's it. Small, and simple. There's no way this will become an 8000 point debacle of an army. Hey, why are you laughing? Heh.


The HQ choice was simple. Gotta have a Warboss! I love the character in this sculpt, though I'll likely swap out his shotgun with something a bit more suitably imposing as befitting a big boss!


Two Troops choices to fill, but I wanted to keep things simple (and didn't relish painting a huge tidal wave of green), so a pair of Trukkboyz mobs would fit the bill nicely. Kromlech sells a nice 10-man squad, so I picked up a pair of them. I'll likely buy a few extra torsos and whatnot to round the squads off to 12 at some point in the future.


To cart the two squads around I'm intending on picking up a couple of these from Forge World, as they have a nice pseudo-Germanic vibe to 'em.


For the Elites choice, it's hard to go wrong with a unit of Meganobz, and the Kromlech equivalents are absolutely beautiful! I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on these. They'll be getting a relatively basic battlewagon to cart them around, using one I happen to have found lurking in the CoD.


For a fast attack choice, I was torn between going with a unit of Stormboyz (who are generally blood axes) or adding a flyer of some sort, and after the fun I had building and painting the previous Dakkajet I settled on doing a Blitza-bommer this time around. The intent is to build it in such a way as to be reminiscent of a Junkers CL.I, which is thematically appropriate I think!


Heavy Support will be a unit of 3 Big Gunz. Now there are certainly more powerful unit choices in the codex but I really think they suit the theme I'm going for, and for 70 points or so for the three of 'em, they're dirt cheap! Besides, I LOVE these gretchin artillery crew figs, they're simply hysterical. I'm still scheming on colors for the army - I plan on them being relatively subdued color-wise much like their guard namesake, but I'm torn between german greys or leathery browns for their stormcoats. We'll see how the mood takes me when I have the models in hand, I suppose!

Gearing up for the Heresy Weekender in Memphis this coming weekend, it's going to be a blast - expect tons of pics to follow!

Another week, and another Kill Point completed for the Dark Future Games Kill Point Painting Contest League Thing. Hit the link for more awesome work from Old School Terminator, CVinton and the rest of the DFG crew!

I couldn't ignore the roar of Mork and Gork in my head any longer - they demanded I "Stop paintin' dem humie gits and work on sumfink Orky fer a change". I honestly needed a little break from the white and blue of the World Eaters and the Dakkajet was just the thing!


There are still a number of Orks lurking in the Closet of Doom, consisting of a number of different clans - I have a predilection for the Bad Moons (as my last name is Moon), but I like to include other clans as well for fluff purposes and in order to give me an opportunity to paint other color schemes. It seemed to me that the Dakkajet ought to be painted up in Speed Freek/Evil Sunz colors - which also allows for the use of the "Red Paint Job" upgrade.


I usually go with a heavily weathered look on my Orks, though the technique is rather different than how I've been doing the Marines. Rather than paint it up pristine and then weather it down, I started by giving the entire plane a heavy metal drybrush, then went over the main panels with the red paint colors, leaving the edges of the armor plates' metal finish exposed. I painted a couple of the panels various other shades of red to add to the ramshackle look, and added some yellow flames  to give it some spot color.


I thought the underside of the plane needed something, and a little insult from the pilot seemed appropriate! Overall I have to say this kit was an absolute blast to build and paint, and the amount of options and bits provided in the kit were fantastic. I'm quite looking forward to building a Blitza-Bomma at some point soon!

But for now, back to the World Eaters!

So I've been doing really well keeping on task with the World Eaters recently. Feeling good about the progress, and am on track to finish up the army in another month or so. There haven't been any hobby distractions recently that would... interupt my... um...


Dammit.