Showcase: Orcs and Goblins complete!

First post of the new year.  I have now finished all my Orcs and Goblin models. Took pictures, put them away and will probably forget about them.  Not sure what I'll be doing until I can buy some new stuff.

Showcase: Grimgore Ironhide

 Well here it is the first newly painted Orcs and Goblins model in the better part of 3 years.  Icy Orcs Grimgore Ironhide.   Really enjoyed painting it. Used some blue tint on the dead skin to make it look dead and lots of Blood for the Blood God. 

Working on spider riders.  Hopefully I'll be able to afford some new 40k models soon.

Portland Armies on Parade

Well last Saturday night was the Portland Games Workshop armies on parade. There were only 6 entries. I thought it would have been much bigger considering how loose the rules were.

I didn't place. I was very disappointed of course, but meh stuff happens.  At least the Seahawks won.

I finished the last 10 of my hand weapon/shield guys. Didn't bother to take pics, because it's nothing exciting. They look just like these 35:

Still having a horde of Orcs is pretty impressive looking, even if not that great. GW really needs to bring Orcs up to the level of Orks. They should have the same base stats and cost. 

Anyway, I'm almost done with Farsight.  Pretty simple paint job, for a pretty simple model.  I might do something else with the sword, not sure yet. If not, all that's left is the basing.

That's it for now!

Clan of Gork's Snowshoe: Savage Orcs complete!

It's easy to get things done when you get laid off.

I finished up my Savage Orcs and repaired my display board so I'm all ready for next weekend.

The idea behind the Savage Orc color is that they are a "hybrid" between the Icy Orcs and normal Orcs they have encountered and conquered. The blue-green algae is taking over the green algae quickly, but not quite yet.

Each model has individual warpaint, but trying to come up with 34 different ideas isn't easy.  I still like how they came out though.

The final color also pops really well against the white basing, which is what I was hoping from the start. I also added some tufts, man I love these things.

Enjoy the pics!

Trying to get some space wolves painted for the first time.We'll see how that goes..

Real quick update..

There probably won't be much going on for the next couple weeks as I rush to finish my Savage Orcs. I also need to repair my display board for OFCC fantasy at the end of the month.

You can follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/sorienor

There is a lot of non-40k stuff on there, so if you don't want to see that don't follow. I'll understand.

When I'm done with that though, I plan on making a display board for my Orks/Tau at OFCC 40k, and doing a complete series on Commander Farsight. 

I probably won't be doing any more Talking About Orks.  The next codex is probably too close.  The only exception would be going over the 6th ed codex books. If I have time.

Anyway.  That's it. More updates soon.

No time to post..

Not much has been going on other then painting Savage Orcs.  Last two weeks I've played my mobile Tau list and so far it's pretty good. The suits put out a lot more firepower then I was anticipating and Longstrike..well.just freaking awesome.

I might try out something different next week.  An Ork/Tau infantry horde list.  I'll see.

Anyway just an update pic on the Savage Orcs.  They need to be done by end of June. 

I still want to jump on the Dakkajet project but can't stop working on these guys. I am in the process of doing 4 more which will be the front 3 ranks done. Once I get there, I 'm going to force myself to stop and work on the X-1.

So that's about it.  More stuff coming soon, if I can put the paint brush down.

Hobby Update: Savage Orcs

I've been working on my one big must-do project and that is getting my unit of Savage Orcs (and Savage Orc Warboss) painted.  The stumbling block has been the color. I didn't want the same blue I used on the rest of my army, but wanted a kinda hybrid Blue-Green to show the (relatively) recent addition of the savages to the Clan of Gork's Snowshoe.

I mixed a lot of colors, many times. What I did find is that no matter the ratio, the greens would always dominate the blues, like the green pigments are always much more powerful.  It was really frustrating.

So I had abandoned the idea and decided to jump into painting them starting with Sotek Green.  It's very close to the old Hawk Turquoise. I then washed using my favorite Coelia Greenshade and then layer up with Sotek Green, then highlight twice with mixes of Sotek Green and Space Wolves Grey.

This got them painted but left me wholly unsatisfied with the result. Then I decided to try something completely out of the blue: I washed the first models with Thrakka Green.  This *almost* gave me the result I wanted.  Almost.  Next day I hopped on down to the game store and picked up the Waywatcher Green glaze.  This worked great, getting me very close to the vision I had in my head. 

First time I had really used a glaze, but the learning curve is pretty short. 

Still need to do the warpaint.  The other issue with these guys is now simply tedious they are to paint. Bone, leather, stone and skin.  Browns and beige oh my.  I was able to speed up the process by going to a drybrush on all the bone parts. 

Another part of that is getting in more color.  Reds really add to the look of the unit, but it's hard. There is some lizard skins on some of the models so doing red and green skins helps a lot.  I also painted the standard as they show on the GW website, with a transition from red to yellow.

That's about it for now.  I need to finish assembly on Farsight, then get him going.  Plus I'm getting the scratch building itch again, who knows what will come of that...

Tournament cancelled; Hobby overload.

So sad, the tournament I was going to was cancelled due to lack of turnout. At least I didn't have to drive down there.  Still not happy, was really looking forward to it. Oh well.

I spent the weekend staring at stuff. There is so much I want to do, that I'm locking up not able to decide how to proceed!   I did however, make progress on two things. I assembled all my Warmachine models. I now have an official 15pt list ready to play.  I think I'm planing my list along the lines of the way I play 40k. This could be fun, or a complete epic failure. Not sure yet..

I also actually started on my Savage Orcs! I'm still not 100% sold on the skin, but it's close to what I had in mind and easy to do.  I plan on doing a simple job, and if I have time go back and add layers. I have two months to finish 35 models.  They are, as expected, easy but tedious...so getting motivation is hard. If I don't get them done I'll mix in some of my regular dual-hand weapon boys to fill the squad.  It will look funny, but be painted.

It will look better after the basing with snow.

I have the savage orcs to work on. I have a bunch of kits and bits to try and build another Dakkajet. I have the warmachine models to work on.  I have ideas for Chaos allies for my Orks. I have more firewarriors to paint for Ork allies.  I have my Farsight to work on. Ugh. I want them all done now! 

Plus with Eldar on the way, I might try to pick up some of that for Tau allies..

Anyway for now I'm trying to focus on savage orcs, but who knows how long that will last..

Games Workshop has changed, for the better, and we should all celebrate.

How much change has GW gone through in such a short time?  For someone who borders on a GW fanboy even I had to admit that last year at this time it didn't look good for GW in the long haul.

Codex creep GK was domination the tournament scene.  Finecast continued with quality issues with GW apparently indifferent to the consumer about it.  No support for events/tournaments.  It's like they were rolling along on past success with complete apathy. Units in books without models.  Oh, and the international sales embargo.

Oh what 12 months can bring.

What sparked this post? Today's announcement of a brand-new White Dwarf.  The final bad apple has been plucked and a whole new life has been brought to the Games Workshop hobby.

Check it out here: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wnt/blog.jsp?pid=4200016

A whole new team. A whole new approach including featuring models painted by the community from email and Flickr. How cool is that?  Only time will tell if WD will return to past glory, but I'm hopeful.

So what else has happened to completely turn around my attitude towards GW?  A lot. Necrons brought non-power armor into the forefront of the competitive environment.  Timely and useful faq updates. More and more attendance by GW at events such as Adepticon and GenCon.

Then came 6th edition.  A whole new approach to 40k that to me is a wonderful game. With the latest round of faq and errata eliminating the deathstars and bringing the last little bit of balance to the game.  I always thought 5th edition was wonderful. It was, but 6th eclipses it by far.  Other then the challenge rules, I have no complaints about 6th. It is fast, fluid, cinematic and a whole lot of fun.  I think the challenge can be fixed really easy too, make it just like fantasy where unit champions can decline without penalty.

Still only rumors but the leaked release list includes some very interesting tidbits.  Mainly the idea that they will release small army lists in WD that can't play on their own but can be used as allies.  I consider that the ultimate win-win.  The company gets to sell more models, while the players and hobbyists get to try out new things, new models, new lists without the expense of a full sized army.  Specifically the older gamers with multiple armies that may not be buying as fast or as often as they once did, will be enticed into new purchases.  The final cherry on top is you'll never know for sure what you will come up against.   I honestly think 6th edition eliminates the "meta" entirely.

Oh ya, can't forget to mention the awesomeness that is Dark Vengeance.  For once, GW has put out a REAL starter set.  I've seen Macragge, Black Reach, Island of Blood, and none of them really qualified.  I looked through the book that came with Black Reach and I can't imagine a new player trying to figure out the game (basically it just had arrows pointing and referring to page numbers) and of course the fact that Island of Blood came with no stats at all..they had to release a pdf.

DV changed all that. There are missions that walk you through the rules adding more in each time. Heck there is even a *single player* scenario!!  Nicely made stat cards gives you all the information you need to get stared in 40k.  All this for the same price as Black Reach.  Don't forget the completely amazing models included in the set.  GW is still the king of models, especially plastics.

Did I mention every unit in the Necron codex has a model?  That is something new, and if the rumors hold then from now on every codex will have available every unit in it within a month or two. This may mean that some books are delayed, but that is a compromise I can live with.

There is no way to know what motivated this change.  Ultimately I have have to vote for the idea that sales were slumping, or at least flattening, and they realized the competition was coming on strong and they couldn't sit on their laurels any longer.  It really does come down to making money after all, and I will never berate them for that.

Edit: Totally forgot to mention the digital products!  If only they had them available for general computer use not just iSuck products.  maybe in time..

Not everything is perfect of course. The draconian clamp down on rumors.  Finecast still hasn't reached the quality it needs.  Price increases.   But overall I have to commend Games Workshop for the almost revolutionary way it has responded to complaints by it's customers and fixed a whole big chunk of it's issues, and in such a short amount of time.

I'm really looking forward to years of enjoyment with the current state of Warhammer 40k.  What's even better is the local people and community I play is huge, growing and simply amazing.  The Pacific Northwest is a huge gaming area.  There are about 12 active game stores around the Portland area alone, which means there has to be a lot of gamers out there spending money.

If you want to see what we do here, check out our club Ordo Fanaticus and it's forums.

Well that's enough for now.  I am still planning on hitting up the Bay Area Open next year, so subscribe to get updates on my plans for that over the next 6 months.

A quick look through the project box

I'm sure everyone has one, a box or bin or something where projects sit for months..years..between times getting touched.  I keep mine close by.  In addition to the box, I have large bins I use for more current/pressing/larger projects.

So left to right. First is a misc bin with old bases, part of a Finecast KFF mek, and 3 Wargames Factory stormtroopers I put together for painting practice...and are still primed. Plus some bits and other misc models.

Next over I have a couple single model projects. Mainly is a Hawk Lords tactical marine I've been trying to get back too for a very long time. I'm using glazing to do the highlights, and really like the results so far.  I need to finish it, and I'm sure it wouldn't take long if I actually did it.  

I also have a Finecast Boss Zagstruck. It's been kinda waiting for me to get to cleaning up the stormboys.  Very much back burner. Also have the mek from the stompa kit, I want to paint this up and put him on the stompa.  Lastly is the Dwarf I won from Badgrendel's giveaway. I was going to try NMM on him, but he has so very little plate showing I decided to wait.  I did a drybrush of black metallic, then doing zenith highlights of boltgun and chainmail, finally a black wash.

Hair and beard will be done as grey, representing his character status.  getting to the face is going to be hard with the shield in the way.

Last bin has a few mushrooms I made for my Orcs & Goblins, the bits from the stormraven. I finished hightlighting these things, just waiting on the finished product. I got the first highlight on the flyer itself at least!  I also have my objective markers I made for the 6th mission with 6 of them. But I realized as I was making the last one they should have been on 40mm bases. Still trying to figure out how to work around it..

So that's my project box. Other stuff I have in bins is the 10 remaining Orcs with HW/Shield and Grimgor, and the jet battlewagon.  Other non-wargamming projects is the Revell helicopter and the very long-forgotten ME-262 model.

So that's the stuff I have sitting around being ignored. What's on your "project box" list?

More Orcs & Goblins, 6th ed markers

Finished my Spider Rider musician and Goblin shaman.  That's 7 out of 19 models done.  I kinda started in on the first set of boys.   Well, I do have more models ..9 spider riders and 10 or so goblins.. which I don't need to even build much less paint.  Also the boar boss does not really fit in with the army, so I'm not all gung-ho about painting him. I need another polar bear or something instead.  I mean I want him in my army, he's awesome for 105pts but the boar has got to go!  Just the legs are integrated with the boar so conversion isn't easy.  Ice boar maybe?

Next thing I plan on working on is a set of 6 identical objective markers for the mission with hidden points values. I will use insta-mold and green stuff.

Should work out.   I really need to get crackin' on the storm raven highlights.

Don't forget I'm now taking commissions, looking for my first customer!  Contact me at sorienor  AT gmail.com

Hobby update

Hobby stuff is kinda slow right now. After so much effort to get ready for OFCC fantasy it's nice just to leisurely decide what to work on.

I had 19 Orcs and Goblins models left to paint, and I've been kinda working on them. The 5 Night Goblins archers are done (need varnish and flock) and I'm working on the goblin shaman. It's from the Arachnarok kit. After these I have 10 more Boys with HW/Shield, a warboss on boar, a spider rider musician and Grimgor.  I wouldn't mind busting out these guys just to get them done, but no hurry what so ever!

In the next couple days I need to get started on the final highlights on my Stormraven for OFCC 40k which is first weekend in August.

I also assembled the Venom I'm donating for Toys for Tots this year. I wanted to do more but money is so tight right now.  Did I mention I accept commissions? :)  This will probably be my August challenge model.  Should be fun, doing something I've not done before.

I have so much to do, but I've been busy the last week doing almost nothing hobby-wise. And enjoying it. I finally got around to working on my computer, putting in a new CPU (well, new to me) and installing Vista so I can fully utilize my DX10 card (I told you, I'm poor!).  It's great being able to play games again, with no DX9 resource crashes.  Man, I love Vista. My favorite o/s ever.

If you play Need for Speed World look me up,  Sorien in-game.

Black Knights build done

Finished putting the black knight riders on the old horses. No complaints, works perfectly. 

I have 2 more of the horses so when I break out the next box I'll finish them up.

Now to make a list..

6th edition FAQ's up, and Vampire Counts?

The 6th edition FAQ's are now available.  My take on the Orks:



Not bad. Still confused on how Profit of the Waggh! works now, but I guess I actually need the rulebook, eh?

So while waiting on the FAQ to post I dug out some Vampire Counts to work on. Betcha forgot I have a good-sized VC army?  I spent a lot on it when the book dropped, so I have a lot in boxes. Still need 1-2 boxes of the monstrous infantry guys and a mortis engine.

I might try to get a 1500pt game in tomorrow. I put together 5 hexwraiths and my finecast Varghulf.  I remembered how much I do love the finecast material, it's so easy to work with.

I really wanted to get the hexwraiths out of the way so I can try to put the plastic black knight riders on the old plastic horses. I hate the metal hybrid black knights. I'll give that  go later.

For now, bedtime and then a run to get my book!

Winners!

Hell ya! My team won OFCC Fantasy 2012!  I can't freaking believe it!

So  my team was 3 people, myself, Ogres and Skaven.  The Skaven player completely smashed face, getting close to max battle points. I didn't do bad either going 3-1-1 getting 73 out of a possible 100pts.  The Ogres ended up 3-1-1 as well.

My army was one of only 2 at the event (74 ppl) with max painting score, but the other one got more favorite army votes (he had a Cthulhu-based VC army) so I got second there.

My team got 2nd overall battle points, 2nd overall sports and 5th overall paint.  Enough for the win!

I didn't take much video the first day, and 2nd day I forgot the camera. It's ok I really didn't want the added stress of filming. I just wanted to have fun.

Some great moments:

Game 1: I fired the rock lobber at a unit of tomb guard. It scatters 10" directly over the middle of a sphynx, killing it outright
Game 2: I Lost the game entirely, but about 1400 victory points but got full bonus, so I ended up with more battle points then my opponent lol!
Game 3: Was really close from the start. This game we were fighting over a hill.  His first shot killed my troll, made the archers and all 3 war machines panic.  However after that the warmachines were golden. In the bottom of turn 6 a mangler and the warmachines completely cleared the hill, leaving only the mangler to claim it for bonus points. It was amazing.
Game 4: By far the closest and best game.  Key moment was when 2 units of Knight Errants charged my big'uns. One unit passed over a mangler, but made all but 2 saves. The other unit, however, charged over a river and lost 5 to dangerous terrain. The Black Orcs were wiff-tastic, being locked in with 5 knights for most of the game.  Oh, and lost the spider to Heroic killing blow lol!
Game 5: Amazing game. Gork came out and did a lot of stomping, killing 15 out of 18 Khorne warriors along with most of the marauders protecting the casters.   The moment of the tourny though was when my spearmen charged a kited-out Chaos Lord on chariot in the rear.  He killed 5, but I had ranks and charge and won by 1.  He then failed two LD8 panic tests, and then rolled 2-2-1 to flee, and the gobbos ran him down!  It was epic!

Things I learned:
-Foot Showshoe of Gork is the most amazing spell, ever.  There is no doubt I'm going to dual- level 4 casters in big games.
-My new strategy really works out. I move from having the big'uns ready to do all the damage, to having my NG horde and deep HW/Shield boys out front. with the BSB and general nearby they are both very, very resilient. I then use the chariots, big'us and spider to come up and actually kill things. I never got to use sneaky stabin' though or had many flank charges, but I didn't really need too either.
-Jury is still out on the chariots.  Really, these guys are interesting. People put more effort then I think it is worth killing them, as the usually don't do anything. But they are great for harassing, flanking,  and just generally being a pain.  I might go to goblin chariots due to the extra movement.
-I could probably use a Calvary unit, maybe replacing the chariots.  Speed is something I lack.

MVP:
by far the mvp's of the tournament were the warmachines, and specifically the doom divers. Holy crap these things are just amazing.  The doom divers are incredibly accurate, and just love to hit small units of heavily-armored troops.  Not great against mass infantry, but that is what the rock lobber is for.  Second place goes to the Orc Shaman and Foot of Gork.
LVP:
Aracknarok.  Only in 1 game did he do anything (harassing and finally running down a horde of marauders) the rest of the time he was not effective. Being only S5 he can't cut through heavy armor, and just in general isn't very killy or survivable.  Not too bad if you can use him as pure support, but there are much better support units you can get for 290pts.

So that's it!  A year's worth of bragging rights!

Ding dong done!!! Orcs and Goblins army complete!

As of 4:11 am June 17, 2011 I have finished my 2800 Orcs and Goblins army for OFCC 2012.  It has been over a  year of solid work to get here including twice having painted over 50 models in a single calender month.

As a reminder here is the video that started my O&G build on June 1, 2011



Here is a pic I just took of my last unit, the glue for the flock is still wet here:

Keep in mind this is a heavily comp'ed tournament which is all about modeling and fun more then winning.  I have been told I have one of the weakest lists at the event, getting 1-2 out of a possible 6 on the power scale.  Which is fine, that means I won't be seeing any 9 Mournfang/dual cannon Ogre lists or anything like that.

I have a great idea for a quick and easy display base, plus finishing the snowshoe template. I was going to make a diorama-like display base but now I have an idea I'm going to run with that requires only a display base instead. will be much easier.

I have this Friday off so I expect everything to be done before then and I will make videos and stuff talking about my army then. 

After this monumental task (as far as I'm concerned), the question is what's next?  Stay tuned...

The Snowshoe of Gork

Last week while I was getting my face pounded by dwarfs, I was commenting I need to make a Foot of Gork template before OFCC.

My opponent suggested I make a snowshoe, you know, cause it fits with the theme.

I was like "damn it, don't do that now I'm going to have to make it!!"  and tonight I did. Sure it wasn't my idea but it was my execution including watching videos on snowshoe stringing. The knots used are authentic!

I tried to get some square balsa wet enough to bend but I don't think I could have done that in time, so I went with plastic. I'll have to do a faux wood paint job.

I also plan on altering the spell card to say snowshoe and then set it and the template on a small stand next to my army.

This weekend is going to be awesome weather, so after Pokemon with the kids, washing and some buffing of the car I'll start my display board. It's going to be a lot simpler then I wanted, but time is short..

There is no such thing as a break - Terminator Captain WiP

Spent most of today doing  housework, then went out to my WHFB game night and got my weekly ass beating this time at the hands of Dwarfs.  How long does an Arachnarok last to a cannon? 2 turns.  Always.  I did a lot of damage to each unit (only a few guys left in each), but just could not finish anything off.  I only completely killed 1 thing the entire game..when my chariot killed off the cannon. His volley gun blew itself up. Those were the *only* victory points I had. What did I have left?  The Rock lobber, a doom diver and 4 black orcs.  460pts out of 2800. 

In both of the last 2 games, my HW/Shield boys have turned out to be fairly resilient.  That stubborn with the general/bsb nearby is actually pretty good.  I need to figure out how to properly support this unit either with the chariots, NG spearmen or the spider.  I think if I can figure out how to play around that strength I'll do a lot better.

At least I'll have one of the weakest lists at OFCC so I probably won't be playing any VC, Ogres or skaven at all.

So anyway after coming home and getting some sleep I decided to work on the Captain a bit.  Finished the head, and I'm very happy with it.  It really won't take long to finish.

Icy Orcs: Not quite done but close enough..

Finished the shields and got them attached. Then did the re-arranging of the models into the new formation.

Very happy with how things are now. I am actually done enough where I don't have to do any more at all. I will probably do the skin on the guys around the edges, then do the varnish and flock.

For now though I'm gonna push out the terminator captain, then try to get a display board done.

Icy Orcs: Boys done, starting in on shields

All the boys are painted, so it's shield time!  Cranking through all 33 at once.

Also tried out a new trick gluing on the first shield.  Buypainted uses plastic glue through paint when he assembles his models. I tried it and what do you know, it works. The glue just goes right through the paint kinda like when doing the hairspray technique..the paint is porous.

After all the shields are done I gotta get out all the guys and glue them on so they fit in the original horde formation, then rearrange into 5x7 and add a second set of numbers. Fun~!

Oh, and our van through it's serpentine belt today. So much for buying a Dakkajet..