Lord of the Waaagh!

The forest near them burst into uproar. Demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green rushed out howling...stark naked save for the paint and a belt was... One Eye.

With apologies to William Golding, but the Lord of the Flies quotation felt apt, as I've painted my first 5 savage orc boar boys. :)

One Eye's Wild Boyz! Oink!

That takes my army up to 1644 points without magic items, a doable 2K with.

Lords - 320
Morthang (Black Orc Warboss) on Wyvern - 320

Heroes - 349
Drogrot Gorkeye (Orc Shaman - lvl 2) - 100
Mord (Goblin Shaman - lvl 2) - 90
Big Toof (Savage Orc Big Boss) - 77
Leadbelly (Orc BSB) - 82

Core - 705
Skargutz Boyz (10 x Savage Orc Big Uns & command) - 145
Da Red Skullz (15 x Orc Boys & command) - 140
Da Stikkaz (20 x Goblin archers & command) - 110
Da Skuttlerz (10 x Spider Riders & command) - 160
Da Howlerz (10 x Wolf Riders & Command) - 150

Special - 370
Da Iron 'Eadz (5 Orc Boar Boyz & command) - 135
One Eye's Wild Boyz (5 Savage Orc Boar Boyz & command) - 135

The extra 10 Savage Orcs I have on the go will add another 110 points, which is a better total for points, pre-magic items. I've also always got the option of demoting a big boss should I need to (or playing sans-Lord on Wyvern, which would save a lot of points!). 

So that's that for now: should have an update on my Bretonnian Lord soon, just waiting on some custom transfers to arrive. More on that anon!

VBB

The Marienburg Stealers

As I sit here, sipping a homemade cappucino, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. While days spent lolling on the couch or playing on the PS3 for 8 hours straight are all well and good, there is an undeniable satisfaction in achieving something on holiday.

OK, all I achieved was to make my mind up and paint some models, but still. Baby steps.

So, my chum Andy Lawhammer's been making a top-ten of GW games (speaking of which +Andrew, where's number 4?...) and at number 5, he placed Blood Bowl. Cue much reminiscing, a brief encounter with Google, and he's bought a copy. And given how much I love the game, it's no surprise I  wanted in on the action.

But what team to pick? Initially I planned to buy my own copy of the game and convert the plastic humans to become a Bretonnian team (like this chap on Warseer), and indeed I may well do that in time (as if nothing else it'll give me an excuse to buy and paint some Knights. And I do like knights.)

But for now I plumped for those nefarious ratmen, the Skaven. Now, the GW Skaven Team are fine (you can see them here), but they're 30 quid, there's only 12 of them, and they're in metal. No thanks. Instead, I picked up a plastic box of clan rats from +Baz Morrison's shop and set to converting. They're all converted now, and I'll paint them up over the next week or two. Some I'm pleased with. Some, like the throwers, are not brilliant, but they're OK for now.

So, without further gilding the lily and with no more ado, I give you the first two players of the Marienburg Stealers.

Blitzer 1 - Krikt

Blitzer 2 - Vurk

On the whole, I'm quite pleased with them.

I picked more armoured heads/torsos, to fit the blitzer look, and I added a couple of spare savage orc "plumes" (hairsquigs?) to make them stand out from the linemen. A couple of other random orky bitz went on too, to give them shoulder pads (which the linemen will be lacking...).

They're not well painted, nor are they thoughtfully converted, but you know what? They'll do.

I haven't put numbers on yet, and I'll probably flock the bases eventually. The name, Marienburg Stealers, is obviously derived from Pittsburgh Steelers. I was going to do them in black, but it didn't look right and I have a lot of green paint. :)

Speaking of green, I also had time to finish off the first of my new Orc units for WFB (a bigger post on my Waaagh in a week or two): my sister in law +Gillian Bruce got me some Savage Orc Boar Boyz for my birthday (ta!) and here's the first of them: the standard bearer.

Oink!

I was relieved that my ability to speed-paint orcs hasn't diminished in the 6 months or so since I last had time to wield a brush. The boar I'm especially pleased with. The photo doesn't do them justice (I really do need to work on my photography, I know: an iPhone camera in a softly-lit living room is not a photogenic environment!).

Ride the Pig...bash some skulls...

 I was really pleased with the boar's face. This time, I highlighted it all the same: skin, tusks, et al. Gorthor Brown, Tallarn Sand, Ushabti Bone, touch of White Scar on the tips of the tusks. Then I applied an Agrax Earthshade wash, but only to  the skin, not the tusks, and the effect is great.

Yeah, I'm wielding this huge banner like a sword, what of it?

It worked so well, I did the same thing on the rider's leather/wood/bone bits. It's not quite as effective there, but it's so very, very quick I'm going to stick with it.

So there you go. A productive day, by the standards of school holidays, any way.

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!

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.

Mord

A quick follow up to yesterday's post, "Who's the Boss?"

Yesterday I painted Skargutz, my Savage Orc Boss:

Skargutz - Savage Orc Boss

 Today, I've painted my first "hero" level character, Mord - Goblin Shaman:

Mord - Goblin Shaman

Mord - rear view

He's the sneaky git who is manipulating Skargutz's boyz, bringing them to the greater Waaagh, and here they are together:

Characterful...

I really wanted to post this blog for that last shot - the scale difference between the Orc boss and the Goblin is really pronounced!

Who's the Boss?

Yay! I've finished my first unit: Skargutz boyz. I'll post pics of the whole unit once I've based them, but for now, here's the main man ORC himself, Skargutz.

Skargutz: Savage Orc Boss

Not that kind of cold one!

 I'm pleased with how the unit, and Skargutz himself, have turned out. A few of the models, including Skargutz, have scaly skin for their "clothing", rather than fur. As I'm trying to keep these Orcs Old World style, exotic creatures like alligators are out (hence the fur looking like wolves, rather than zebras or tigers). I was stumped as to how to paint the scales, when I remembered that Lindsay Lawhammer is collecting a Dark Elf army. A quick message later, and she told me her corsairs' cloaks (and probably cold ones too) were a dark red up to orange. So now it looks like my boyz took down a cold one or two.

That's the fella...

I made a few other changes to his paint scheme to make him stand out. His face got a slightly brighter highlight, and I painted his top knot red. I also did his weapons differently: I may decide to give him a magical weapon, but his blades are very clearly chipped stone of some type. I considered obsidian (which has anti-magical properties in Warhammer canon), but instead I opted for Warpstone. Orcs are less prone to mutation, right?

Skargutz from above

I also discovered that his right eye is missing, making the eye stripe warpaint that most of my unit have make more sense. On the subject of inspirational warpaint, I tried to think about what Skargutz should have. As well as some on his face, and lightning bolts on his legs, I thought he needed something to motivate his ladz. Since Orcs lead from the front, this meant an impressive warpaint display on his back:

Skargutz from behind

Waaagh! I've used the orc skull glyph on most of the unit, and so it seemed fitting for Skargutz to have it on his back, so all the boyz can see it, and be whipped up into a frenzy. 

So, first unit done, it's time to think about what next.

I've decided to go for a general, multipurpose greenskin horde. While a themed army can be fun, it's also quite limiting. When I worked at GW and so could afford to buy - not to mention borrow - multiple armies, that was fine. But as this will be my only army, a little versatility is no bad thing. That being the case, tomorrow I'm going to pick up the Orc & Goblin Battalion box. It's pricy - at £70 - but the troops included would come to about £85 separately, so it's a decent saving. Plus, its contents - Orc Boyz, Orc Boar Boyz, Goblin Boyz and Forest Goblin Spider Riders - are exactly the units I would take for a starting Waaagh anyway. 

"Battalion" sounds too formal, no?

I've also made one other purchase in the interim - yet to be painted. I've been thinking about characters - all joking aside, Andy Lawhammer has been able to convert a pegasus riding general because he's an extant character in our Warhammer roleplaying campaign. I don't have that basis, so I need to choose something characterful and effective. And, to be honest, right now I don't know what that would be. Do I want a sneaky Goblin Warboss hiding in a big unit of boyz? A powerful Orc Warboss on a boar to lead the cavalry on a charge? Or a Warboss or Shaman on a wyvern? (Ooh, a wyvern...)

But I had a hankering for a character to paint. But what kind of character could I pick, that wouldn't nix any of the other options? Then, it struck me: a Goblin Shaman. He can go in a unit later, if I want, or he can skulk about on his own. What's more, when I saw the Goblin Shaman model, I noticed something cool...

He has a little skull, with a bone in it, like a mortar and pestle. No doubt it's intended to be him crushing up mad cap mushrooms or somesuch, but another thought occurred to me. What if he's the shaman applying the warpaint to Skargutz boyz. That's unorthodox, true, but Goblins are cunnin' and sneaky gits, after all. What if this devious shaman has stumbled across a small mob of Savage Orc boyz, and in that uniquely goblin style of being simultaneously desperate and tricksy, he ends up tricking their boss, leading him out of the depths of the forests and towards a greater Waaagh...?

So I bought the shaman. :)

Meet Ugg...

In a shameless rip off of Andy Lawhammer's "Meet Karl", here's my stage by stage painting guide. I'll assume everything's straightforward; any questions (or indeed advice) much appreciated. See you in the comments. ;)

Stage 1 - Undercoat
Because I am not a crazy mentalist, I opted for a black undercoat. Sprayed black: you don't need to see that, so on to...

Stage 2 - Basecoat Flesh
For this I used Waaagh! Flesh. I applied a neat first coat, followed immediately by a second, very quick "wet brush" (like a drybrush but with more paint on the bristles). This ensured a smooth coat, especially on the larger, flatter areas of skin (like the back muscles).

2 - Basecoat of Waaagh! Flesh

Stage 3 - 1st Highlight Flesh
For this, I drybrushed Warboss Green.

3 - Drybrush Warboss Green

Drybrushing, in case you don't know, is when you put paint on the brush, then wipe most off, before flicking the brush over the areas you want to highlight. It is a very quick way of highlighting. It looks great on sharp angular surfaces, but can look dusty if the surface is smoothly curved, like a space marine shoulder pad, or, say, savage orc muscles...

Stage 4 - Shading

As drybrushing can leave a dusty effect, and there's lots of mice musculature detail, I applied a wash with Athonian Camoshade, a very dark green ink wash. This runs into all the crevices, as well as smoothing and deepening the overall colour.

4 - Wash with Athonian Camoshade 

Stage 5 - Finishing the flesh

The final stage of the flesh is a final highlight of Warboss Green. This is a fairly minor highlight, just drawing out major areas that look too dark. The face gets the most attention, so that all the edges are sharply defined as Warboss Green. 

The beauty of savage orcs is their warpaint. Any mistakes made on the skin tone can be covered by a glyph. Lazy? Moi? 

5 - Flesh re-highlighted with Warboss Green

6 - Basecoat Details

I've always found the key to army painting (that is, painting an entire army to look decent together, but primarily to play with, rather than for display) is to limit your palette and choose straightforward colours that are easy to apply. So my bone and leather details use the same colour range, with the leather essentially being one tone darker.

Leather - Gorthor Brown --> Tallarn Sand --> Ushabti Bone

Bone - Tallarn Sand --> Ushabti Bone --> White Scar

So for stage 6, I basecoated the leather Gorthor Brown and the bone Tallarn Sand. I also basecoated the fur Eshin Grey. 

6 - Basecoat the details - Gorthor Brown, Tallarn Sand, Eshin Grey

7 - Shade the details

Again, when army painting, laziness is a virtue. It's all about efficiency, and Agrax Earthshade is very efficient. It's a brown wash, which, conveniently, works on my bone, leather and even fur. What's more, if a little seeps onto the orc skin? It looks fine. 

So, a quick wash over the bone, leather and fur really picks out the sculpted details.

7 - Shade the details with Agrax Earthshade

 8 - Highlight the details
Now it's time to highlight the details - the end is in sight! I use the colours listed above to finish off the various savage orc accoutrements.

Leather gets a highlight in its base layer of Gorthor Brown, before getting a fairly heavy highlight of Tallarn Sand and a final edge highlight of Ushabti Bone (in some places - don't want it looking too pale.

Bone gets a Tallarn Sand highlight, followed by a fairly heavy Ushabti Bone highlight, with White Scar to finish.

Fur gets drybrushed with Fenrisian Grey, then White Scar. I don't rehighlight with the Eshin Grey, as I want a starker contrast on the fur.

8 - Highlight the details

9 - Flint Weapons

I left the flint weapons to last because they're the aspect I'm least happy with. The box art has them painted a bright grey, almost concrete in colour, and I don't like that. I've opted for a darker grey, highlighting black with Eshin Grey and Fenrisian Grey, then washing with Agrax Earthshade. I'm still not 100% sold on it. 

The problem is that there's lots of chipped flint detail, but it's not sharp enough to really require a line highlight. 

I'm reasonably happy with the effect, but I may revisit them before I varnish them.

Highlight the flint weapons - Eshin Grey then Fensrisian Grey, then Agrax Earthshade Wash

10 - Finishing Touches

The finishing touches really make the model - eyes and warpaint (plus any tidying up required). 

The eyes are Screamer Pink, Evil Sunz Scarlet and a tiny dot of Squig Orange. You may think you can't see three colours there, but trust me, if I missed any of those stages out, it would look worse!

The warpaint is Fenrisian Grey, then a White Scar Highlight. I've opted for an arm band on the right arm, and a lightning bolt on the left shoulder, plus some face paint. That's the general theme for the unit, with variations on each orc as the fancy takes me.

10 - The finished Ugg!

Ugg rear view

 Part of the fun of savage orcs is their crudeness (not that way! Although, that being said, also that way!). So my clumsy, childlike attempts at drawing symbols and glyphs look authentically orcy and "in character". Score!

I painted another orc at the same time as Ugg:

The Third Orc

So my little unit is up to three painted orcs, with two more half-done. Here's how my boyz are looking now:

Waaagh!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty damned chuffed. Next post will discuss my plans for the army, as well as my painting set up.

Thanks for reading!

One down...

...and significantly more than 3.6 to go!

So I've painted my first savage orc boy (photo below). I'm reasonably happy, though I'm going to hold off on a stage-by-stage breakdown, as I'm going to try and refine my technique to make it a little quicker. But on the whole, happy days. :)

Waaaagh!

Slightly tilted so you can see the jawbone

So a fairly standard looking orc. I used grey for the furs - I'm thinking wolf-pelts, which may explain why I won't have any wolf-riders early on!

The warpaint here was limited to an eye-stripe, mandibles (to echo their boss's jaw), a thorned arm band, and a lightning bolt. Suggestions for other simple, orcy designs greatfully appreciated!

Skargutz's Boyz

OK! So, now the boring preamble is out the way - phew! - we can cut to the chase: the ladz. 

As I mentioned before, I went for Savage Orc boyz to start with; partly this was born out of nostalgia for a previous greenskin army, but also I have an empathy for wild berserkers that cover themselves in facepaint. Indeed, it's a good thing that my time frequenting the Scottish Claymores games predated facebook. 

"Historically inaccurate", you say? "FREEEEEEEEDOM!", I retort.

So I took my savage orcs home, dug out my clippers, unscrewed the poly-cement, opened the box, and reveled in the joy that is multipart plastics. I love 'em. I know some people prefer lead, or tin, or white-metal (or, nowadays, resin), but I've always loved multipart plastics. I think it may be early memories of airfix kits and weird knock-off Gundam mechas, as well as the ability to give your models character. 

That comes from the sheer variety on offer. There may only be, essentially, two different body poses, but with the different arms, weapons, heads and accessories, there's lots of options.

Ah.

Options. 

Right, I have to make decisions before I get to stick 'em together, don't I. Bugger. 

As I haven't picked up the army book yet, or indeed the rulebook (coming soon - Baz tells me 8th edition has some significant changes in it) I'm going on historical information and the collective wisdom of the internet. Neither especially reliable. Then again, I'm building an orc and goblin army, so that goes with the territory. I did find this blog to be a really useful source of advice, and I expect I'll be visiting it quite often!

Now, Savage Orcs get frenzy - it's part of their charm - giving them 2 attacks. Not bad. I recall that popular options in the past for them were spears, as in previous editions, that allowed you to attack with a second rank, giving you even more attacks if you were charged. However, some rudimentary investigation implies that things are more complicated now. 

The other popular option was additional hand weapons, giving the models - you guessed it - yet another attack. Quite aside from the tabletop benefit of Orcs doling out 3 attacks each, the image of these maddened, frenzied orcs flailing around like maniacs with both hands is just too awesome, so additional hand weapons it is. 

My first unit - Savage Orc Boyz with additional hand weapons

Now, as I mentioned before, what I love about good multipart plastics, is the ability to build character, as well as choose effective combos, aka being beardy - long story. Now, unlike my beardy mate Andy, I'm not ready to start thinking about army generals yet. I'm not sure if I'm going for an all primitive army (savage orcs and forest goblins), an all orc army (no stinkin' gobbos!), or a more balanced Waaagh. I'm expecting to go balanced, just because that will give me more options, but we'll see.

But a unit needs a champion - or Boss, in orcy terms - and this unit was no exception. The champion model has an exposed torso, and the name "Skargutz" just popped into my head. So, I whipped out the modelling knife, and scarred his guts.

Someone's been in a tussle with Hugh Jackman...

I realised that three thin scores wouldn't actually make any difference once sprayed, painted and varnished, so I actually cut out thin slivers from his body. Hopefully they'll give it some definition when I paint it. 

In terms of back-story, I'm thinking that given orcs resolve their disputes physically, maybe Skargutz got his scars in a leadership bid. Possibly he'll have received them from whichever suitably impressive orc I end up using as a warboss. 

Something else I noticed in the box was the prevalence of jawbones, both in the weaponry of the orcs, and also in their accessories. Skargutz has an extended mandible tusk rig, and some of the others do too:

Skargutz, musician and unnamed accomplice

Now the exaggerated square jaw and protruding tusk has long been a staple both of orcy faces and their iconography. See exhibits A through C:

Evil Suns orc tribe

Old orc icon

Waaagh etc.

So I'm intending to use that iconography throughout the army, and in the case of Skargutz's boyz, I'm thinking about having those orcs without enhanced mandibles to have their warpaint along the jawbone. I'm not sure where, or how exactly, and it may look guff, but we'll see.

I'm also toying with colour ideas for warpaint. Blue is, I feel, a little too obvious. Been there, done that. Red could work, but I'm currently leaning towards white. That would tie with the bone / tusk motif quite nicely, though I'm not sure how well they'll stand out on green.

This chap has done some lovely warpaint, but there's no way I've got the patience (or steady hand) for that! 

Whereas this chap has done some minimalist warpaint, and it looks good.

So, decisions to be made. I plan to pick up paints and brushes tomorrow, so I should have one painted sometime next week. Think I'll paint a basic boy first, rather than starting with the command models. If it looks bad, he can be a back-ranker.

Until the next update...