VonBlogBath

Gaming & stuff...

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Wolfriders 2: Electric Boogarooooooo!

Two quick things to update today. First off is that I finished my next 5 wolf riders today (the ones I whinged about converting HERE.

I do love these wolf models and wolf riders have always been a favourite of mine. Partially because of the rapid movement, but also because of fond memories and fevered imaginings of the battle of five armies from The Hobbit. 

The group shot was too blurry, but here are a few solo shots:

Here's the boss...

Here's the musician, complete with excessively large horn!

Wolf rider making with the stabby-stabby.

So, of course, the reason I was painting these all so frantically, was that I was playing Andrew B's undead horde tonight.

To say it was a game of two halves would be an understatement...

Waaagh Morthang

Horde's Eye View...
Initially, things were almost all going my way. Barring some very unlucky animosity rolls, it all went my way in the first 2 turns.

Turn 1
Morthang swept through the centre of Andrew's army, taking out the Hex Wraiths and the Undead Heavy Cav too. The Spider Riders not only broke the dire wolf unit, they swept into the black coach and (along with the goblin archers who were "suffering" under animosity) destroyed it to. The Spiders' poisoned attacks were very lucky, and Andrew's ward saves were very unlucky.

Meanwhile, though, my savage orc big uns and orc boyz were going nowhere fast, as they failed animosity test after animosity test.

Morthang ended up in combat, alongside the wolf riders, with a skelly warrior unit. It should have been a bloodbath, but the Wyvern rolled poorly, as did the wolf riders, and though beaten, the undead hung on.

At this point we made a wee rules mistake, and assumed Morthang (who was no longer in B2B) would be free from the combat, as he'd wiped out all the skellies he was in B2B with. In truth, he should have been moved into contact again. As it was, he was out on his own, and a combination of a Tomb Banshee's howl attack and a Cairn Wraith chill attack killed him. The Wyvern broke from combat and was killed. Gutted. I gave him the Trickster's Helm, but against those special undead attacks, it was totally useless. Bah. Lesson learned: against undead, you need a ward save!

From this point on, it was downhill for the greenskins. Andrew's general - Eichengard - is nuggets. Fencers blades, plus a ward, plus a couple of blood gifts, make him a combat wombat. There was just nothing my lesser characters could do against him. Morthang, on Wyvern, would have done alright, I think, but a Big Boss just ain't that big.

I plugged away, and my boyz did OK, but he was killing 5 to 8 boyz a turn. We stood no chance (though bigger units may help in the future...).

Penultimate Turn
In the end we were left in the odd situation where Eichengard and one skelly were in combat with my unit. Eichengard kept offering challenges then obliterating my characters. With hindsight, I probably would have been better refusing the challenge (unOrcy though!) and hoping some boys were left in B2B to hurt him. Also, again, bigger units may have managed to overcome his insane amount of damage.

What was odd, was that if there had been more skellies there, my savage orcs would have killed them, meaning they won the combat, meaning Eichengard took wounds and died. As it was though, they just stood around like plums, watching him slaughter character after character.

So a victory to the undead.

Lessons learned:

1 - ward save vs. the undead.
2 - don't play scenarios where you play lengthways, as animosity is a killer.
3 - I really need bigger units.

Good fun game though. At any point it could have gone differently: If Morthang hadn't been able to be reached by the Cairn Wraiths, he'd have survived at least one more turn, possibly longer. If my infantry hadn't failed all those animosity tests, they'd have been attacking Eichengard at the same time as the small boar boy unit (whose magic banner negated his magic items, though in truth it's the blood gifts that did most harm).

Equally, if Andrew's black coach and/or wolves had survived, or his cavalry...

Already looking forward to the next game (and hoping my ordered stuff arrives soon!).






Saturday 13 October 2012

Isn't it? Wasn't it? Standard.

The other day I posted about a couple of conversions I did for my army; given I'm playing Andrew B's shambling hordes on Monday, I figured I'd best pull my finger out and get on with the painting.

So I did.

LEADBELLY: Orc Battle Standard Bearer
Converted from the Avatar of War shaman model, with weapons and standards from the Orc sprues and armour and skulls from the undead sprue. I wanted him to stand out, and since red was the detail colour for my army, it made sense to do his cloak and standard in that colour. 

Given his rag-tag, mismatched armour, I decided to paint the banner as if it had been looted. So I painted it up with a black chevron, intentionally aping the design on the shield of my wolf rider musician. The idea being that Morthang's Waaagh have tangled with a Bretonnian army before, squishing some Knights Errant in the process. Then I slapped some orcy glyphs on top. The skull design has been repeated across my army, but I added a crude, stylised flaming sword, as he is Morthang Da Burna's standard bearer. 

I'm super-chuffed with how he turned out. He's virtually unrecognisable as the same model as my shaman Drogrot Gorkeye. 

I was concerned he'd look more similar from the rear, as the cloak has a lot of detail. It is amazing, though, the difference a paintjob makes. A shield slapped on, and a banner to draw the eye, combined with a lick of red paint and Gork's your uncle. 
Leadbelly from behind
I decided to "dirty up" the banner and his tattered red cloak. Initially I was going to use a brown wash (Agrax Earth Shade to the rescue) but it turned the glyphs a funny pink colour. Once that dried, and I redid the white glyphs, I opted for a drybrush of bown/black instead, and it worked really well. 

Once I put him in the unit, he looks even better, nicely offsetting the red of the shields. Here he is with the Orc Boyz unit "Da Red Skullz" and their boss Grak Skulltaker.


Leadbelly in situ with Da Red Skullz
 Finally, before I sign off, here's a shot of Leadbelly and Big Toof, my savage orc big boss. I did take a shot of Big Toof in Skargutz' Boyz, along with Drogrot the shaman, but Big Toof's sword is blocking Drogrot from the camera, so I'll try that again later.

Da Big Boss Men. Or rather orcs. 
Here's hoping the Ld boost and battle standard (which allows a reroll on all Ld tests, as well as an extra +1 combat resolution) will prove handy. I know Big Toof's attacks will...

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

As I mentioned last post, I'm doing some converting just now: to whit, one Battle Standard Bearer (as well as some more wolf riders). I'm using the Shaman model from Avatar of War, as I ended up with 2 by accident, and I knew I had lots of spare Orcy bits. Behold: Orc Big Boss and Morthang's Battle Standard Bearer.

Leadbelly
 Flash has killed the detail on the metal bits, but hopefully you can see well enough that it's hardly recognisable as a shaman. The head and sword-hand, as well as spear/banner are basic Orc Boy bitz, while his armour is from the skelly warrior bits, donated by Andrew B. One breastplate looked too small, but I had the idea to put two on him, as if he was too big and fat to get armour that fit him. A green stuff belly and a dab of glue, and he has a name: Leadbelly. Some more undead bits and bobs finish him off, hiding the handle of the staff, and a pile o'skulls on the base. Trophies and what not.


Leadbelly from the rear
He looked pretty different from behind, too, but I popped a shield on his back to hide some of the detail, to make him look different, and to keep him in line with the Orc Boyz he'll be accompanying to battle.

`Remarkably fast to do, and I think he'll look great once he's painted.

So, on to the wolf-riders.

I wasn't planning on posting anything about these guys. I've already blogged about GW's awesome Fenrisian Wolf models, and how good they look as wolf-rider mounts. However, when I went to make my next five, I encountered a problem. Maths.

I had miscounted when I checked I had enough bitz left over for 10 riders. Specifically, I was shy right arms with bows and, more worryingly, left arms. Not just left arms with the right pose or weapon, but left arms. Period.

D'oh!

Time to adapt, improvise and overcome! To deal with the bow issue, I mostly used spears. I made a few in a throwing pose, and ensured they all had quivers and bows on their backs. This will mean I can split the spears up and say the units just have bows or, if I ever want a unit with spears, I can put them together and hey-presto! Spear unit.

The other arms were trickier though. In my first Frankenstein's monster, I used two bits of different right arms chopped up and put together to make something that looked roughly arm and elbow-like. The hand was a round stump, but that was easily hidden behind a shield. Turned out OK, in the end.

From the rear: messy
From the front: OK

So, buoyed by my pleasant surprise, I turned to the musician. I am sick to bits of the Goblin musician. There is just one instrument - a horn, gripped in the right hand - and so far I've done one for my archers and my first wolf-rider unit. I couldn't face yet another, but luckily I didn't have to as Andrew B's undead sprues contained an enormous horn, which was just too comical not to use. 

Problem was, it had a skelly arm in it. So some snipping, and finagling, and I had a goblin arm in there. The hand is a touch too small - being a skelly hand, but once the shield's whacked on, it looks grand. 


My, that's a big horn. Fnar fnar etc.

The rest of the wolf riders look pretty good. The spears are dynamic and I like this rearing (slightly out of control?) gobbo. If I ever need a boss for the unit, he'll do!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

So all converted up. Now I just need to paint the buggers!


Monday 8 October 2012

Victory! (and not quite victory but not quite utter defeat either!)

As Andy Lawhammer mentions here, and t'other Andrew mentions here, I played a couple of games on Saturday.

The first, against Andrew Bell's undead, was an overwhelming victory for my ladz. Cue happy orcs.

ERMAHGERD! WE WON!
My army mostly performed well. A little bad luck, and a little good; Andrew B was hamstrung by the theme of his army. He wants one led by his PC from our RPG, who is not a vampire, so he has been having a necromancer lord as his general. It turns out necromancer lords are allergic to Black Orc Warbosses. Who knew? Ultimately, my plan was to wipe out his general and back up necromancer. With Orcs, that wasn't so hard. We called it quits in turn 4, as I still had most of my army alive, and he'd lost a chunk of units and both necromancers. That'll do, Orcs. That'll do.

(Andy Lawhammer and I prevailed upon him to use the vampire rules to represent his character (Eichengard) as it's a better fit. Eichengard is tough, a skilled fighter, and rubbish at magic. A rock hard vampire with level 1 necromancy is a much better fit than a level 4 necromancer who is squishier than a marshmallow.)

Not Eichengard
So, to the second game.

As we are still taking a while to play (though we are getting slowly faster, if that makes sense), we decided to make our next game a threeway (steady now!) using the battle royale scenario.

Would it be gauche to mention the lack of a Cathay/Nippon GW army?
We diced off, with Waaaagh Morthang forced to deploy in the middle, the Nulners on one flank and the Restless Dead on the other. I made the decision to focus on Nuln first, as my orcs hadn't eaten any 'oomies for a while, and I knew that if I got bogged down in the undead army, the Empire would fire their cannons and handguns at us both to devastating effect.

I'm hungry for manflesh. Oooer, fnar fnar!
While my orcs did rout the Imperials, it was at devastating cost. My Warlord fell to the Imperial General: Black Orc and Wyvern both underperformed, and the lack of a ward save / anything more than heavy armour meant he fell too easily.

Ultimately, I could only put up a token resistance to the undead, and our final VPs (based on generals, and objectives held) were Undead 3, Orcs 2, Empire 1. If the Wyvern had rolled more than one on his Thunderstomp Morthang would have lived and I'd have got a tie. Still, such are the vagaries of fate!

Lessons Learned
So the games gave me a few things to think about.

Firstly, I need to bulk up my units, especially my Orcs, Savage Orcs and Boar Boyz.

Secondly, I need a couple more characters, including a beefier Savage Orc and a Battle Standard Bearer.

Thirdly, if I'm playing undead, I need a few magic items. Stinking Ethereal units.

I've ordered some more troops, but I have movement on the characters already. Ladles and jellyspoons, I present...Big Toof.

Big Toof. Waaagh and what not.

This is another Avatar of War miniature and I love it almost as much as the shaman. Almost. I did a SHOCKING job on the mould lines, but I tried to make up for that with some more elaborate warpaint. This guy will go with Skargutz's Boyz, giving them a bit more oomph (and, against the Undead, having a cheap magic weapon to let him wade into those stinking ethereal units).

I am looking forward to seeing how he gets on.

Tomorrow I'll be picking up the annoying second shaman model, which I'll be converting to a battle standard bearer, thanks to some Undead bits and bobs given to me by Andrew B.

So that's all for now. The army continues to take shape, and with our first crushing victory I can feel the Waaagh energy growing!

Friday 5 October 2012

Drogrot & Morthang

Drogrot & Morthang...sounds like a firm of Orc solicitors. I can't imagine there's much market for Orc legal advice though...

''Ello, Drogrot & Morthang!"
"I was bashin' stunties and Grimfang stole me squigs!"
"Well?"
"Can you 'elp?"
"Yeah. Bash Grimfang an' get yer squigs back!"

I don't remember Ally McBeal being like that.

Anyway, to business. Or pleasure, rather, Drogrot and Morthang are, in fact, the two characters I've just painted for my army. Wahey!

The characters themselves were actually created by Andy Lawhammer for our WFRP game. When I decided to make an Orc army, and to have a Wyvern-mounted war boss leading it, I recalled our PCs facing a Black Orc on a Wyvern. Well, I say facing. He swooped down, his Wyvern ate our rock-hard NPC henchman in one gulp, and we ran away.

So Andy filled me in on some of the details, and lo and behold! Morthang da Burna.

Morthang da Burna, on his wyvern
That flaming sword represents the Grudgebringer sword, as featured in Dark Omens and Shadow of the Horned Rat. The sword, once borne by Captain Bernhardt, found its way into the hands of this mighty Black Orc. I converted Azhag the Slaughterer with a burning wizard sword, graciously donated by Andy. In game, I'll use the Ruby Ring of Rhuin to represent its fireball attack.

A more detailed view of Morthang.
I'm pleased with how the flaming sword has come out. You may just be able to see the hint of runes I did at the base of the fire (Grudgebringer, in our canon at least, is one of Alaric the Mad's Dwarven runeweapons). Obviously Morthang has attached it to a bit of bone to give him a proper, Orcy handle (the original plan was to strap the sword onto a huge Orc choppa, but it looked silly).

The reasons for his red crown are twofold. I wanted his helmet to stand out. His armour looked rag-tag, so I wanted to paint it all bashed, rusty iron. But the helmet looked cool, with the little crown-like peaks and what-not. But, when I got to painting it, I realised I had a limited palette of colours to use. In particular, I've yet to pick up a gold colour (hence Morthang's bone hilt). I'd already done one model, an Orc Boss, with a red helmet, and liked the effect, so that's what I went for.

In a full game, when I can afford the points, I'll probably give him The Trickster's Helm. It's a pricy magic item, but quite useful for a tough old Black Orc (it forces enemies to reroll successful to-wound rolls). There's also a nice connection to my WFRP character, Adhemar, that would take too long to explain here.

Morthang from the side! From the side! (obscure Lee Evans reference)
Overall, he's painted more roughly than I'd like. I'll probably tidy some bits up (I've manged to get red in the wyvern's armpit. Wingpit?) and some of the drybrushing's a bit rough. But once he was based, he really came together, and I'm pretty chuffed overall.

Now, Andy also mentioned that Morthang was accompanied by an Orc Shaman, Drogrot Gorkeye. This fanatical visionary is convinced Morthang is the reincarnation of Mork himself, destined to bind all the Orcs together in the greatest Waaagh the world has ever seen.

Now, while the Warhammer Orc shaman is a cracking model, it didn't really capture the steely-eyed intensity Andy was describing. So, I turned to Avatars of War, who do some cracking figures. Their Orc Shaman, in particular, is wicked, and looks the part. So he became my Drogrot:

Drogrot Gorkeye; driven
I love this model. The detail, the pose. Brilliant, and really fits the character. His cloak has some cool details on it too, severed hands and skulls and what-not.

Detail on Drogrot's cloak: pleased with the severed hands!
Through an online shopping debacle, I've ended up with two of this model: I intend to convert one to become a Battle Standard bearer, but more on that later.

I've wittered on for quite long enough, all that remains is to tot up my points so far...

Lords - 320 (25%)
 Morthang on Wyvern

Heroes - 190 (15%)
 Drogrot (level 2), Mord (level 2)

Core - 615 (49%)
 10 x Savage Orc Big Uns, 15 x Orc Boyz, 20 x Goblins, 10 Spider Riders, 5 Wolf Riders

Special - 135 (11%)
 5 x Orc Boar Boyz

Total - 1,260

Not bad, not bad at all. I should also mention here that I'm using Quartermaster, an army building app that is aces. Love it.

I still have a Savage Orc Big Boss to finish painting, and a BSB to convert, and I think I'll buy myself some Savage Orc Boyz this week too. Time Skargutz's Boyz got reinforced.

Waaaagh!


Thursday 4 October 2012

Arooooo!

So, after Sunday's dejection, I have repaired my wolf riders. And I'm still pleased with them, even though the poses aren't *quite* right.

The first unit of five has no boss - all a boss gives you is +1A; not much use in a 5 man scout unit with bows. I did include a musician though. That +1 to rally attempts will be handy, especially if they end up out with the general's Ld range.

The musician's shield was a casualty of Sunday's windy disaster, but making lemonade from that metaphorical lemon, I used a Bretonnian shield graciously donated by Andy Lawhammer. A few scuffs and nicks added, and now it looks like it was scavenged from the corpse of a reckless Knight Errant.

Wolf Rider Musician with looted shield

Wolf Riders

Hang on tight!



Musician from the front

Sunday 30 September 2012

Nooooooooo!

So, once again it seems I have need of the Darth Vader 'noooooooo!' button. (http://nooooooooooooooo.com/)

I was hoping to make a quick post showing my painted wolf riders. Then the stinking wind caught them as I was varnishing them. Whoosh. Splat. Broken. :(

I managed to gather most of the bits, save one shield, and I have spares. Irritating though!

Sunday 9 September 2012

Army Building

So I recently played my second game in our personal Warhammer Rennaissance, this time against Andrew (700 points). Once again, it was a draw, with me ahead on VPs, but not enough to classify as a win (I was 75 VPs ahead, when I needed 100). Nooooooooooo!

Noooooooooooooooo!

Also, it's the second time in a row I've forgotten about my choppas special rule (+1 S in 1st round of combat for Orcs). Not a massive deal, but given how narrowly his necromancer survived, it may have made a difference. Next time I'm going to write it on my hand or something. 

Still, it's a learning curve, and I suspect that when next we meet, I'll be facing more than one necromancer. After the game we had the usual tidying up debrief; Andrew realised having one or two low level spell casters to back up his General would be a plan, and I realised I needed to bolster my army's leadership. 

I also realised that I'd been misreading the rules when it came to characters. I had somehow convinced myself I couldn't take Lord characters unless I was playing over 2,000 points. I have no idea where I got that from, as it ain't in the BRB or the Orc Army Book. I also realised I can have 25% Lords and 25% Heroes. Suddenly, I realised I have a bigger army than I thought, as the wyvern I bought didn't have to sit on the bench for an age. 

GW's awesome Azhag the Slaughterer model: waaaagh!
Here's what I own, right now (not all painted).

Lords: 345 points
Black Orc Warboss on Wyvern (using Azhag the Slaughterer model)
Ruby Ring of Rhuin*
345 points

Heroes: 190 points
Orc Shaman
Level 2
100 points

Goblin Shaman
Level 2
90 points

Core: 805 points
Forest Goblin Spider Riders
x 10, full command
160 points

Wolf Riders
x 5, shortbows, shields, musician
70 points

Wolf Riders
x 5, shortbows, shields, musician
70 points

Goblins
x 20, shortbows, shields, full command
110 points

Orc Boyz
x 15, shields, full command
140 points

Savage Orc Big 'Uns
x 20, additional hand weapon, full command
255 points

Special: 135 points
Orc Boar Boyz
x 5, Spears, Shields, full command, 
135 points

So my totals are:

Lords:    345
Heroes:  190
Core:      805
Special:  135
Total:    1,475

25% of 1.475 is 369, meaning my Lord is just under 25% and my core is well over it. Slam in a couple more magic items (Banner of Discipline? A magic weapon for the Warboss?) and I have a legal 1500 point army!

It's not a great army, by any means, of course. The Orc Boyz and Orc Boar Boyz both need to be bigger. I could really do with some Ld boosting stuff too (Battle Standard bearer? Banner of Discipline? Crown of Command?). 

But it's a 1,500 point army. Cue happy dance!

Numfar! Do the Dance of Joy!
*Ruby Ring of Rhuin - this is actually a sword. It's the Grudgebringer Sword (as featured in Warhammer games "Shadow of the Horned Rat" et al), which in our WFRP game found its way into the hands of a Black Orc. I've converted the sword onto the model, so will always take it for character reasons. More on that once the big fella is painted!

So simply by including the handful of unpainted minis I own, I can more than double the points of my army. Nice! I could also drop a couple of redundant bosses (Goblin archers, I'm looking at you) to get some extra magic items. 

I'm feeling pretty dang pleased with that. And keen to get that Wyvern painted. So enough spraffing.

To the bat-drybrush!


Monday 3 September 2012

'Ere We Go, 'Ere We Go, 'Ere We Go!

So, while my painting speed has slowed down dramatically since the start of term, I have finished my next unit, and the final unit from my battalion: the Orc Boyz.

 
Orc Boyz

I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. The models are lovely, and characterful (albeit characteristically difficult to rank up), and I think the unit looks good, despite the very quick, production-line paint jobs. 
Boss
Here's the Boss (unit champion) of the Boyz. I'm yet to come up with a good name for him, though I think "Skull-taka" may be an appropriate epithet. 



Boy
This is a bog-standard Orc Boy. Nothing special about him, except he reminded me of the old Heroquest Orcs, which were the first models I ever painted.


Heroquest Orc - not painted by me!
See what I mean? I suspect the sculptor did that deliberately. Made me smile. :)


Musician

Here's the musician - it's hard to see in the photo, but one of his eyes are white. There was a scar modeled on, so I thought it would be nice to have that eye blind as a result.


Standard Bearer

Yes, once again I went for the lazy option of the totemic standard. Can you blame me? :) I like this model, though he does look like he's walking into a Force 10 gale. He's been counter-balanced with a penny in his base, and he still tips over all the time!

I'll do a post about choices and army building soon(ish), as well as a step by step on my wolfriders. 

Until then...Waaaaaaaagh!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Like a boss

So I'm painting my final unit from the battalion now, my orc boyz. I had a lot of fun sticking them together; there are lots of little extra details - skulls, spikes and whatnot - so when it came to making the boss (unit champion) I decided to go a little over the top. What the hell, they're Orcs!

Boss.

I've given the orcs the same shield design, which features a red skull glyph, which will give the unit some colour. I decided to give the boss a red helmet too, to make him stand out. I think the other Boyz will have metal helms.

Boss from other side (don't ask me for
imaginative captions, I'm tired!)
I like how he's turned out. The ridiculous spikes and skulls look OK actually, and I like the helmet. The photos don't show that the eyes are painted, because they're the same colour as the helmet.

But I'm chuffed. Just 14 more of the buggers to paint and the battalion is done!

Sunday 19 August 2012

Arachnophobes, beware!

Unit #4: done!

I painted my Spider Riders a little brighter, to make the army as a whole more colourful. I'm not 100% happy with the effect, but it definitely fits the army colour scheme. I may, when I do another batch, opt for a different spider-effect.

Not as professionally photographed as Andy's!
One of the things I'm not sold on is the eyes. Red on red is a bit weird, but I couldn't think of another colour I wanted to do them. I could do green, I suppose? I may go back and do that later. Another thing is that they don't photograph well: the standard in particular is leaning forward at a weird angle.

So that takes me up to over 600 points.

That's all for now, first practice games tomorrow... (or later today, I should say!)

Wednesday 15 August 2012

That'll do, pig. That'll do.

Oink!

Unit of Boar Boyz...done.

Iron 'Eadz - Orc Boar Boy Cavalry

Still suffering from excessively bright flash (only sometimes, though - most frustrating), but then I am just using my phone camera because I'm lazy. Nonetheless - here are my Orc Boar Boyz, the Iron 'Eadz. I'm quite pleased with them - again, if I look too closely, I see poorly highlighted musculature etc. But together, they look quite effective. 

Here's a side view, similarly overexposed, of the standard bearer. The use of an iron head as an icon is a lucky coincidence! (and born out of me not wanting to freehand a design on a banner)

Orc Boar Boy Standard Bearer
So, lets look at the points total:

Previous Total: 325 points

Boar Boyz: 135 points
5 x Boar Boyz: (80)
Shields (10)
Spears (10)
Boss, Musician & Standard (35)

TOTAL: 460


Waaagh - 500 points
Which means, add in a magic item or two, or turn one of the Orc units to Big 'Uns, and I'm playing a 500 point game, hopefully Sunday afternoon, with the Lawhammers.

Now, while I'm very pleased with the progress I've made (I've been pushing myself during the school holidays, as from next week I'll have a lot less free time) the army is a little bit...brown. It's most notable in the Boar Boyz: brown boars, brown leather, rusty metal...

It's no bad thing - the limited palette will make them look cohesive, and I always prefer naturalistic to day-glo, cartoony, but it is still a bit dull. The splashes of red do really stand out though. So I'm going to do my Spider Riders next, and I think I'll do the spiders themselves a very dark red colour. That ought to brighten everything up, but maintain the Waaaghsthetics. ;)

Monday 13 August 2012

Iron 'Eadz

Well, a swifter update than I had imagined, as I've painted the first of my Boar Boyz. Behold!

Iron 'Ead: Boar Boy Boss
 The boars I've painted quickly: wetbrush brown over black, brown wash, then drybrush brown, sand, bone, then white. A little painted on wash over any patches that are too heavily drybrushed.

Then it's detail time: pick out flesh in green, green wash, highlight dark green, then light green (NB: I'm hand highlighting, not drybrushing, as there's not much flesh on show). Then paint metal leadbelcher, leather bits brown. Brown wash over those, then drybrush metal, then paint highlight leather and wood up to sand.

Ta da!

I'm quite pleased with the effect.

As I mentioned last time, I'm envisaging this as something of a rag-tag army of scavengers and remnants. Rather than some great Waaagh massing in the Bad Lands, this is a reconstituted Waaagh reassembling from the detritus of previous conflicts. Hence, Savage Orcs relying on a Goblin Shaman.

I always wanted my Boar Boyz to have shields and spears for that extra cavalry oomph. When I was assembling them, I elected to use all the helmeted heads (much as I avoided them for the Gobbos). It struck me that this made them look like Orc-knights, which amused me, so I tried to get them posed like that too.

And thus, the Iron 'Eadz were born.

Officer: Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!
Soldier: Their eyes are red, sir!
I see this unit of Boar Boyz as consciously aping the heavy knights of the Empire, the Elves, and Bretonnia. I ensured my musician has a spear on his back, and when I increase the size of the unit, I'm going to stick with the metal, helmets, shields, spears look. They look pretty ferocious. And I thought, for the Boss, having him with the most enclosing helmet, and giving his boar the same look, was a must.

So one down, the other 4 boars are drybrushed up, and just need the fiddly bits done. Goal is to get them done by the end of next weekend, at which point I'll be pushing 500 points painted.

Sunday 12 August 2012

Mord's Ladz

Waaagh!

Second unit: done.

As I mentioned last post, I elected to make a unit of Goblins my second unit choice. Mostly because I like the sneaky devious beggars, but also because I wanted to try out some proper army painting.

While I wouldn't describe my Savage Orcs as masterpieces, I did spend some time on them. But a Greenskin horde is, well, as horde, and if I'm going to get it painted, I'm going to need to relearn the skills I honed working for GW: production line painting.

And behold, the slightly blurry results...

Goblin Archers. Fear us.
I'm pleased with how they look en mass. Taken individually, they're a bit scrappy, but as a unit they look good. The bows and skin tones are fairly consistent. The clothes are mostly brown, of various shades, with a little grey in there too. Most of the top knots are grey too, with a little red here and there for a splash of colour. The shields are all different too, with different coloured skulls on them etc.

I didn't want any sense of uniformity: this lot are the scavengers of the Old World, stickin' folks with arrers, then lootin' their corpses. Indeed, I may ask Andy & Lindsay Lawhammer if they have any spare shields or helmets etc. that I can mix in with my next gobbo unit for a bit more variety.

Another reason for the more basic paint job, and production line painting, is that they're much smaller than the Orcs. Less than half the size!

So, with 2 units and a hero choice painted, I've got myself a legal, albeit tiny, army.

So, what's the damage, points-wise? As I track the running total, I'll assume full command groups, but no magic items. When it comes to playing, there will be shinies, and I may not always need bosses in units, but for now, they're in.

No magic items, precious?

Here's my list so far:

Mord: 90 points
Goblin Shaman (55)
Level 2 upgrade (35)

Savage Orcs: 125 points
10 x SOs (80)
Additional Hand Weapon (10)
Boss - Skargutz (15)
Musician & Standard Bearer (20)

Goblins: 110 points
20 x Goblins (60)
Shields (10)
Short Bows (10)
Boss, Musician & Standard (30)

TOTAL: 325
Mord's Ladz: Waaagh!
325 points, eh? That's... not a lot. And both units are only MINIMUM sized. Wow. 

Still, onwards and upwards. I reckon I'll probably invest in another battalion box later, not to mention the converted wolf riders. And I'm definitely getting some nasty skulkers. And maybe a Wyvern. Or an Arachnorok Spider. Or both. But that's all later, when Uncle Visa is feeling less stressed. 

For my next unit, I've opted for Boar Boyz. Orc heavy cavalry. I'd love to say I picked them because they're high points value, but the truth is I picked them a: because the models are wicked, and b: because I knew I was going to give them spears and shields. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to arm my orc boyz or spider-riders, so this option allowed me to delay deciding for a while. 

Until then, Waaagh, and all that.