We's da biggest an' da strongest! Redux, part 1

Not a whole lot of hobby time recently, as the new incarnation of the band I'm in had our first gig and we spent a lot of time polishing up the tunes over the last week. However, I did manage to get a little paint on the first unit in the new Ork army: Nazbog's Bad Moon Nobs:

One of my goals with this army is to try out some new units, and build some new kits. When I build the last Ork army the new Nobs kit wasn't yet available, so I went with the ever-popular Fantasy Black Orc route. This time around however I wanted to take a whack at the new Nobs kit and overall I had a blast building the models. The Big Choppas are awesome, and the Power Klaws had a lot of variation. Plenty of head variants and trophies meant that even though I combined bits from two boxes, each nob turned out rather different from the rest, which I really liked.

Still a bit of work to do on the models of course - all the leather, wood and gold, plus all the requisite black flames and scowling moons. The Waaagh Banna is from the Ogre Bulls kit if memory serves, otherwise the unit is pretty much straight out of the box. In the pics there are two more Nobs than are strictly allowed by the FOC - Two of the Nobs are going to be set aside for those times when I feel like breaking the planned 30-strong shoota boyz bigmob into 3 10-strong units.

I have to say that I absolutely love building Orks. Each model has so much character - the new sculpts are absolutely awesome, and I love all the extra bits GW include. While I feel the new Cadian and Catachan command sprues are awesome in that regard, the recent re-cut guard vehicles have been a letdown for me.

So far I've enjoyed painting this unit, but later when I'm contemplating assembly-line painting 40-some-odd boyz I'll probably change my tune... Heh.

Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks...

So with the Crimson Fists as complete as they're going to get, and some Guard finished off to stave off my guilt, it's time to turn my goldfish-like attention back to Da Boyz. They will be serving a dual purpose: One, the Rogue Trader campaign I'm running is going to be taking the players into Ork-held territory in the near future, and I'll need some minis for that, and Two, they're just so much fun to build! While the Imperial Guard is hands down my favorite army, I have to say I have the best time building and converting the Orks. The seed of the new Waaagh started with the new Ork Deff Dread and Killa Kan models. I resisted for a while, but I knew eventually I was going to have to submit to the will of Mork (or possibly Gork) and so I finally picked up a box of each and got stuck in. At the moment they're just assembled, primered and have had the first drybrush of metal applied prior to blocking in the colored plates:

I am sticking to my plan of setting out with a clear idea and army list in mind for any new project. This go around with the Orks I'm planning on a core army centered around a Bad Moon Mekboy and his various 'Kontraptions', with some allied units from other clans - Evil Sunz warbikers and a Trukkmob, Blood Axe Kommandos and Stormboyz, and some Deffskull Lootas. So, the planned Waaagh Mo'Dakka Gutzmek looks something like this:

My FLGS was able to get a hold of one of the old Ork Megaforce box sets which is a fantastic deal, possibly one of the best GW has - For $200, you get about $285 worth of Orks (if you bought them separately). While that box set will provide the models for a good chunk of the army, there's still a bit more to be purchased. I intend to pick up the new Big Mek Buzzgob from Forge World to represent Mo'Dakka Gutzmek, as well as the Ork Warboss on a Warbike to lead the Evil Sunz contingent, one of the absolutely gorgeous Mega-Dreads and the Mekboy Stompa Head and Lifta-Droppa arm. Of course, it's going to require a bit of time and saving before I place that order!

In the meantime I've been rooting around in the bits boxes left over from my previous foray into the Orks to see what else I could come up with, and I was able to crank out a pair of models to represent some Big Gunz, using leftovers from the Battlewagon sprues. There is one more Kannon in the works, but somehow I've managed to run out of 60mm bases so the last one is on hold. Curses!

While I'm definitely looking forward to the frenzy of building all these models, I have to admit I'm somewhat apprehensive of painting another 60+ boyz. Ah well, it'll be back to the assembly-line method when the time comes. Whee.

1st & 2nd Platoon HQ - Complete!

At last, the platoon command squads for 1st and 2nd platoon are complete! These two squads have been in a half-painted state for the better part of a year, and it was high time to finish them off!

Both command squads are kitted out similarly, adhering as closely as I could to the 'original' Mordian 7th list. In the old 1st edition lists, the command squad consisted of 2 guardsmen toting Lascannons in lieu of the Voxcaster (as it hadn't been brought in to common service at that point), but a melta gun will have to suffice these days.

Last but not least, I also managed to polish off the Lascannon heavy weapon squad, which I painted such to allow them to be interchangeable with the heavy weapons in 1st platoon. Technically speaking I need to replace 4th squad's Autocannon with a Lascannon to match the original force organization.

The painting chart continues to turn green which is heartening - definitely in the home stretch now!

One step forward, two steps back...

I actually had a free Sunday this weekend and got a fair bit of hobby time in (once I finished all the household chores that so desperately needed doing). As I'd mentioned in my previous post, I feel that I've not given my Guard the attention they deserve recently so I pulled out the handy painting chart (inspired by Admiral Drax) to see what I wanted to work on next.

First, the 'one step forward': At the moment there's a number of odds and bobs that need to be completed in the first and second platoons, so I decided I'd work on the two half-finished platoon command squads, the two sergeants for 3rd and 4th platoon, and the heavy weapons teams. Some of the models had a bit of paint on them already, but I laid them all out and got cracking to bring them all up to speed.

...And then the inevitable 'two steps back': After I spent a couple hours finishing up the faces and getting the red and grey fatigues and armor done on all of them, I decided to take a bit of a breather. My eye fell on the old-style Leman Russ model I'd picked up last week (knowing that it would soon be superseded by the new, less-customizable kits in short order), and deep within my lizard hindbrain Mork and Gork began to roar. Bowing to their will I picked up my tools and some plasticard and got stuck in.

As soon as I finish off and sell the Crimson Fists my intent is to work up another small Ork army - partially due to the fact that I'll need some Orks for use in my Rogue Trader RPG campaign soon, and also because they're just so darn much fun to build. Kitbashing is one of my very favorite things about the hobby and few armies allow for more gratuitous modeling options than the Orks! That being the case I decided I'd take a crack at building another Ruzzbot, and address some of the things that I thought could have been done better on my first attempt.

This version of the Ruzzbot will stand in as a proxy Battlewagon with a Killkannon, Grabbin' Klaw/Wreckin' Ball, and four Big Shootas. There's still quite a bit of detailing to do, but so far it's coming along more or less as planned. The best part about converting Ork vehicles is you really can just bung on parts willy-nilly and it usually ends up looking properly Orky!

I need to add a ton of rivets and plating to the sides yet, and add a bit more detail to the engine workings, but so far I'm pleased with the direction the model is taking. Waaagh Nazdakka will rise again! ...After I finish some more Guard, I swear! Heh...

Back to the Guard - Bane Wolf completed

...And it's about time too! I've been neglecting the Mordian 7th of late and figured it was high time to rectify the situation! In order to ease back into it, I decided to finish off the Bane Wolf that has been sitting forlornly primered on the 'to-do' shelf. I went with an homage to my previous Hellhound inasmuch as rather than doing the standard grey/red scheme I went with a black/red combo that makes the tank look a bit more menacing. The Hellhound (and variant) crews are known for being a bit individualist (if not completely mad) so I felt the tank should look a bit different than the rest. It doesn't hurt that a predominantly black paint scheme is rather quick to do when it comes to tanks!

I definitely enjoyed building this model much more than any Chimera variant that I can remember. I will definitely say that the re-cut kit goes together like a dream, but even so, I was disappointed that GW has seen fit to 'dumb down' the kit's contents. I truly feel that the customization potential of the kit has been significantly reduced with the loss of the individual track and bogey style of its predecessor. On the up side, fearing this to be the case, I'd stocked up on the old kit for use in future projects. I really need to do the same with a couple Leman Russ kits before they're superseded as well... Following this I intend to finish up a couple models to fill in a few gaps in the painting chart, before I turn my attentions back to the remaining Crimson Fist vehicles.

I had a chance to play a game against my friend's spanking new Blood Angels codex list this past weekend, though once the game got going I neglected to take any pictures. There was so much going on looking up new rules and such that it completely slipped my mind until we were packing up and I realized the camera was sitting unused in the corner! We ended up playing a 3500 point game of Planetstrike, as it seemed only fitting that the inaugural game with the new BA codex should be one most suited to their style of play As the defender, I decided we'd be fighting over a spaceport, and included a couple models for terrain purposes - the Aquila Lander, the Thunderbolt and of course the new Old Crow models. I definitely think they added a little flavor to the battlefield.

Suffice it to say the Blood Angels more or less butchered my army by the top of turn 4, though the Mordian 7th did manage to give them a pretty good kicking before they were essentially wiped out. The new codex is brutal, though some of the brutality is likely a function of playing a high point game where the marines can really bring some of their more frightening models to bear. At a more reasonable 1500-2000 points I think the guard may have stood a better chance - I basically ended taking 2000 points of a 'hardcore' army and 1500 points of fluffy albeit questionably tactically sound units that the BA tore through like a bag of wet leaves. Ah well, as a guard player I don't get too worked up over losing. Hah!

Old Crow Civilian Vehicles - Complete!

Not a lot of painting time recently, however I have finished off the Old Crow models that I'd picked up a while back:

And a couple shots for scale alongside a Chimera - the models are definitely 'civilian scale' when compared to the various fighting vehicles of the 41st Millenium, so they will likely only be used as terrain or special scenarios in 40k (like a genestealer cult uprising..) although they will also be useful for Necromunda!

All in all I really enjoyed painting these models and they make a nice addition to the look of the game! I'll definitely be ordering from them again.