Orks - Deff Korps uv Krieg Battlewagon

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!

Going down to Memphis, Part 3 - A walk down memory lane

Third of four posts on the Memphis trip, this time around all the pics are concentrated on a pair of cabinets tucked away in the back hallway. It was a wonderful trip down the halls of memories for me for sure!

 

It was amusing to go through the case with by buddy Dave saying "Had that... Had that... Several of those.."

Battlefleet Gothic was a blast, but sadly my local group never really got into it. Still have an Imperial and an Eldar fleet banging around in the Closet of Doom.

These two really tripped my nostalgia trigger. Adeptus Titanicus was sadly missing from the display, but I had multiple copies  of both of these back in the day. How I wish I still did! Sadly the pic of the next shelf down didn't turn out, but it held my favorite Specialist Game of all time - Necromunda!

 

The original Space Hulk, DeathWing and Genestealer were played hundreds of times with the neighbor kids when I was growing up. Still have the yellow book, but neither Dave nor I had ever seen that "Space Marine Assault" box before. Was quite a shock!

Gorkamorka and Digganob were interesting, but I only ever played it one time. Loved the vehicle rules, but the setting didn't grab me as much as its big brother Necromunda did.

The old Horus Heresy boardgame! Never owned it myself, but played a friends copy several times. On the stack to the right, the Rogue Trader rulebook (sadly buried in the back, for some reason), the red Compendium (which holds the genesis of the Mordian 7th), and a 2nd ed Battle manual.

In the next cabinet was a bunch of old boxes of minis. Loved seeing the RT-era Devastators box again. Squat mole mortar, guard tarantula and a marine land speeder all in one set! ...For some reason.

Speaking of Squats, front and center in the middle of the cabinet. Bam! Still have half a box of these guys lurking in the CoD.

Back in the rear right is the first box I ever bought. Good old RTB001! I remember that day vividly, when I first saw the box and the Rogue Trader book in The Game Keeper, a store that no longer exists in a mall that has also been bulldozed and rebuilt (more than a decade ago, now). The late 80's came rushing back!

A selection of older and well not newer, but less older boxes. The old Predator box is lurking in the back there, really loved that old kit!

This shelf really made me remember the 'good old days'. Three Rhinos in a box for twenty bucks. ...And TWO Land Raiders for not much more!

While the original Rogue Trader rulebook was down in the bottom of one cabinet, they had a nice walk through time in the next one. 2nd Edition was mental, unbalanced, and a hell of a lot of fun. I think it's still my favorite edition, though I'll readily admit that's likely rose-colored glasses, as I haven't actually played a 2nd ed game in going on twenty years.

3rd Edition didn't really leave much of an impression on me. Couldn't tell you the difference between 3rd and 4th at this point, other than it felt rather watered down following the insane asylum that was 2nd. I do think that 5th and now 6th editions were much better systems, but when all is said and done Rogue Trader and 2nd Ed will always hold 1st and 2nd place on the podium for me!

One more post coming up with some pics from the games that Dave and I got into while we were there...

Going down to Memphis, Part 2 - The Cabinets

Brace yourself for another picture dump! This time around it's the pics of the display cabinets which were chock full of some great armies:

In broad categories, there were Imperials:

A beautiful Eldar army (I had no idea the FW Phantom was that big!):

And their dark kin:

This just blew me away, I had a chance to chat with the guy that built it, and it was part of a campaign they'd run, with this being his take on what would happen if the dark eldar got a hold of a Phantom.

There were some cool conversions in this dark eldar army as well:

A few Necrons:

And a slew of Orks:

As well as some fun fantasy armies:

The bug eyes on these guys just crack me up:

Next up is a trip down memory lane with their 'historical' cabinets!

Going down to Memphis, part 1 - The Tables

Back from Memphis, where we were nominally going to run the Heresy Weekender at the Battle Bunker this past weekend. Sadly, we had absolutely everyone bail at the last minute, which meant the event didn't happen. Not really thrilled about that, but what can ya do? I decided that I wouldn't let that ruin my weekend, and my buddy Dave and I got in a couple games (and took a boatload of pictures) nonetheless!

The battle bunker is a really cool store, and James and Co. were all great chaps. Having gone to Warhammer World in Nottingham, I can say that the Battle Bunker carries the same vibe and attention to detail and history. Of course, they don't have a Bugman's so there's one big mark in favor of WW, but that's a state/zoning issue rather than a deliberate omission on the part of the guys in Memphis.

I took a ton of pictures, so rather than doing one massive picture dump I figured I'll break it up into more manageable chunks. Today, the tables! Inside, the bunker has the same sort of wall facings and hangings that give it a great feel, and there were a dozen beautiful gaming tables which I absolutely loved. Buckle up for a whole wodge of pics!

There were a couple tables I thought warranted a series of pics for future inspiration for my own tables, first up the imperial sector:

And a gorgeous fantasy table:

Another fantasy table/display table:

There were a ton of cool scatter terrain, I was particularly impressed with these four floating islands each dedicated to one of the four ruinous powers:

I quite liked this floating pool:

And one serious cool but improbably difficult to store piece like this:

Next up are some pics from the display cabinets - some very, very cool stuff to be seen!