Author Archives: Alex

Stylites

08 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in Terrain, The Chapel

≈ 29 Comments

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Greetings Terrans, I trust you are all well. I have a bit of a different theme to this post – no fun RT Orks to share at the moment, but a more grimdark vibe from the Inq28 side of the hobby fence. The background to this is that I was lucky enough to have Mark from Heresyofus pop over on the last weekend of September, and he brought his beautiful Stylites board with him:

As you can see, the board is a stunning piece of work, but Mark and I appreciate that not everyone would be in a position to devote the time or space to such a specific piece of scenery. As a result, Mark gave me my own set of 20 Stylites, with the simple instruction of ‘go do something with them & showcase a different way of using the pillars’… No pressure!

So, me being me, I approached the task with maximum flexibility in mind. Naturally, I wanted my Stylites to look like they belonged in the caverns underneath The Chapel, but equally, I wanted them to look at home in an underhive sump, or towering over the ruins of the frozen city of Felstad…  I also wanted them to reflect the tortured reality of the battlefields of the Mortal Realms, or even provide a chaotic backdrop to the far-flung battlefields of the 41st Millennium… In short, I wanted them to work anywhere and everywhere that I like play toy soldiers.

As a result, I decided to base my pillars individually, and to integrate other scenic items into the bases to give them some utility beyond the Stylites game itself. After some thought, I went with the Shardwrack Spines for the basing detail, and I made this choice for a number of reasons. Firstly, the spines have a lot of height, and I felt this would work well with the tall columns of the Stylites. Secondly, Stylites is a truly lethal game – one slip and you’re dead, and the Shardwrack Spines look like falling on them would be believably terminal. Thirdly, they have rules in 40k (and I think in AoS?), and fourthly, they look like an interesting kit to work with! Decision made, I got to cutting and fitting the bases, and cleaning up the mould lines… this took bloody ages, but was worth doing properly, and eventually, I got to this point:

Now I just needed to decide how to paint the buggers… I had a vague notion of going for some colour, but I didn’t want to go to crazy-town like on the box art. I settled for a subdued purply-grey, with gold used to pick out the nodules and a little Nihilakh Oxide around the cracks… the idea is that these spines are mineral rather than organic, but also that they can work either way if the game demands it. The rest of the base was done in a fairly generic way, while the Stylites themselves were washed & drybrushed in an ad hoc and gunky style. I’ve managed to complete five so far – see what you think:

I have the other 15 Stylites built, basecoated and drybrushed, so I just need to add the wash & detail. My plan is to do this in and around the ongoing work on my Space Orks project, and once I’m done, I’m going to set up some photos to showcase the Stylites in a few different contexts. Happy days!

Anyway, that’s it for now – I’ll catch you all soon with more Orks and more Stylites to share! Have a good one dudes 🙂

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More Wolf Time Orks

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in OldHammer, Wolf Time

≈ 22 Comments

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Greetings Terrans, I have another unit of ‘Ork Warriors’ finished for the Wolf Time campaign, (35 down, 67ish to go). This is another ‘Bolters and Bolt Pistols’ Warrior skwad, and will defend Gov’ner Kulo in the final scenario of the Wolf Time campaign. As with all the squads so far, I wanted a clear spot colour to help with tabletop identification… I’ve already used purple, blue, green, yellow, red and orange… I’m reserving white for the final Ork Warriors unit, grey for the two ‘teknishun skwads’, keeping black for the power-armoured guards, and brown for all ‘Scumbos’… Basically, I’m running low on options here, so this skwad gets a slightly unusual choice of spot colour:

Now, I know that this is a pretty unconventional choice, but pink is lovely with the green skin tone, and I really like it! I imagine that the skwad adopted it because it’s the same colour as humie skin, so it’s bound to be terrifying to the enemy 🙂

Also, this unit is notable for the inclusion of LE1 – the original and firstest ever GW Space Orc! He’s the chap in the middle with the bigger base, and is the leader of this skwad. I really like the aesthetics of this mini – he has a more simian, hunched appearance than his successors, and this really helps to make this Ork look a lot more alien and bestial than later RT Ork minis. I believe that Bob Naismith sculpted this chap, before Kev Adams took on the range and cemented the more cartoony look that we all know and (mostly) love – a look that arguably still defines the range to this day. However, I really, really like the aesthetic of LE1 – in fact, I prefer it to Kev’s interpretation, (*gasp!!*), and I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if Naismith had been kept working on the range…

 

In other news, the excellent Mark of Heresyofus fame came to visit me over the weekend for a few games of Stylites, and to show me the development of a new (and very clever) board system that he’s been working on! Keep an eye out for a proper post on the subject from me later in the week, with loads of cool photos & info from the weekend, but here’s a little teaser for you in the meantime 🙂

Have a good one folks!

Wolf Time Orks

24 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by in OldHammer, Wolf Time

≈ 27 Comments

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Greetings Terrans, how goes it? It has been a busy couple of weeks, with lots of building, sculpting, and general hobby ‘admin’, but not much in the way of finished stuff to share! That said, I do have another unit of ‘Ork Warriors’ finished for the Wolf Time campaign, (30 down, 72ish to go). As with the ‘Red Skwad’, these guys are all armed with Bolters and Bolt Pistols, and will lurk in Gov’ner Kulo’s inner sanctum (fnaar fnaar). This time, I’ve gone with a rather fetching orange as the squad spot colour:

 

These guys were slightly slow to get finished, mostly because I had a ‘small’ terrain project jump the painting queue last week. That project hit a bump & won’t be ready to show until next week, but here’s a teaser for you:

Hmmm!!! Mysterious, no?

 

I’ve also been prepping the next round of Orks to paint, which necessitated some more Greenstuff shenanigans. Here’s a sample WIP of some Ork Teknishuns wot all needed Greenstuff swords & pistols to go with their Plasma Guns (of course…):

Ok, so I know some of these are actually flamers, but fuck you internet – I’m calling them Plasma ‘because Orks’ 🙂

 

Speaking of ‘pain-in-the-arse’ non-existent minis, I’ve also been thinking about the remaining Orks that I need to sort out – all of which have few or no ‘official’ models… You’d think that Skumbos (sword & pistol), and Ork Guards (Bolter, Chainsword & Power Armour), would be plentiful and easy to source, but they are not. I’ve already moaned about the complete lack of power armoured bolter/chainsword combos in a previous post, but you’d think that at least the Skumbos would be plentiful enough, right? Er… no. There are about 5 ‘official’ Rogue Trader RT02/4402 pistol & sword minis of the right age… and I need 25… *sigh*

My current plan is to use fantasy Orcs of the correct vintage, but, of course, they’ll all need converting to some extent. With that in mind, I’ve been playing around with press-moulding bits so I can produce the correct weapon options for these sods… I have had very little success so far, but I will persevere… You can say what you like about this sanity of tackling this project with such strict self-imposed restrictions, but it is definitely developing my hobby skills!

Until next time people – have a great week 🙂

Green-skinz & Green-stuff!

10 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by in Scuplting, Wolf Time

≈ 32 Comments

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Greetings Terrans! I hope all is well with you and that life is being kind. I have quite an exciting post for you today – I have another skwad of Orks completed & ready for Wolf Time, and I’ve also been pushing some Greenstuff around in a pretty major way! First up the painting – this time I’ve tackled one of three Ork Warrior units that are needed for the campaign – the list shows them as armed with Bolt Guns, Bolt Pistols and Combat Accessory (these all have a small pistol tucked away somewhere on their person):

I’m happier with these guys than with the first few skwads – I forgot to take a green glaze with me on holidays so didn’t use it on the first batch of Ork skin, but I tested it on these guys and am much happier with the resulting tone… I’ll have to remember to go back and glaze the others! Also, I cheated a bit on this unit – the leader (Thrug Bullneck no less!) was already painted on hols, but I re-did his trousers & shirt to tie him in with ‘Red Skwad’ a bit better, (and I also glazed the flesh).

 

I also had a look ahead to some more units that are needed for the scenario – the Ork Guard Units. These Guards are a bloody pain in the arse… They are meant to have Power Armour, Bolt Guns & Chainswords – all fine and good, except I can’t find a single OldHammer mini that matches this equipment loadout! All the Power Armoured Nobs of that time have Power Gloves, and all the sculpts would be really tricky to weapon-swap on in a convincing way… I could go for some newer Ork minis, but I really don’t want to deviate from the era too much. It’s a pickle, and one that I’ve been mulling over for several weeks now!

Anyhoo, yesterday morning, I had a brainwave – I thought I’d try and attack the problem from the other angle and try and sculpt power armour on a correctly armed Ork, (funnily enough, Thrug again)… I mean, how hard can that be, right? Well, turns out that it is bloody hard – several hours of fun later, and I got to this stage:

Hmmm… I am both pleased and frustrated at the same time – pleased that the basic shape is there, and happy that it clearly reads as “Hey fuckers, look at me! I’m that mythical non-existent Power Armoured Ork with Bolter and a Chainsword that Rick Priestley wrote into the Wolf Time campaign!”, but I’m also frustrated that it is so rough. Of course, it isn’t finished yet, but I’m in totally new territory here – I’m not sure how much I can refine it, whether it should be more refined now, how to add stuff, etc. I’m basically learning as I go, and have no idea were to pitch my expectations – the uncertainty is somewhat uncomfortable. Also, I’m thinking of the bigger picture – I need 19 of these buggers! 19 re-sculpts will take me bloody ages, and I run the risk of them all looking like kneeded dog shite at the end of the process… on the other hand, my sculpting will have improved hugely, and they might end up looking absolutely awesome… Decisions, decisions!

Well, I guess the thing to do is go balls-out to finish this guy to the best of my ability & then make a decision. I have some clay shaping tools on order (recommended by Jon – thanks dude!), plus some brownstuff (recommended by Jesper – thanks dude!!), and a cable rolling tool, so at least I’ll have the right gear to take this ‘eksperiment’ to the next level. I also ordered some mould making material, so at least I can make my own ‘period’ chainswords, and maybe even try and mould whole figures! Exciting times dudes and dudettes – it all feels deliciously old-school 🙂

Anyway, that’s it for today – catch you homies all on the flip-side!

Orkin’ good holiday

01 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in 215th Praetorian

≈ 25 Comments

Greetings Terrans, I have a sneeky quick peek of ‘wot I dun painted on me hollibobs’ for you. I apologise in advance for the shit pics, sub-par painting, and general sameyness of the subject material – I’ve been working through the RT era orks I prepped for doing the Wolf Time campaign, so lots of 5 ork squads with 3 Bolters, a Heavy Bolter, and a leader with Bolter & chainsword! All the painting was either done on a deck in sunlight, or in a caravan… less than perfect lighting conditions! Still, it drove a certain approach to the process, which was basically to do the main ‘accurate’ stuff by day, and tackle the less fussy wash & drybrush by bulblight at night. I’ve deliberately left out the fiddly details – they’ll get added later & with better lighting.

Anyhow, enough excuses – here’s what I’ve got:

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Yellow squad – Heavy Bolter (left) has a converted gun

 

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Purple squad – again, Heavy Bolter (second from left) has a converted gun

 

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Green squad – converted heavy bolter again (second from left), plus a chainsword weapon swap for the squad leader

 

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Blue squad – as nature intended

 

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A selection of characters from RTB02 – leaders in their own rights, but destined to be mere squad leaders under Governor Kulo!

 

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And a final group shot – a great start to the project!

So that’s all for now folks, back to normal next week – i.e. a batshit crazy catch-up week with work, followed by a weeklong business trip, followed by who-knows-what!  Hopefully I’ll manage to get a few more Orks marched through the painting queue in and around the madness 🙂

Peace out

Organised Chaos

17 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in OldHammer, Side projects

≈ 28 Comments

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Greetings Terrans, I hope this finds you all well. It has been a hectic time in Leadballoony-land – the idea of running the Wolf Time campaign next year has got me motivated to paint some Greenskinz that I have been hoarding for far too long… I’ve been examining the campaign (in the Book of the Astronomican) to get an idea of the forces needed – and the answer is ‘bloody loads!!’ Quite a few can be re-used between games, but the effort of matching models to stat lines is quite the challenge… I’m determined (for now) to stick to late 80’s lead where possible, and to apply the WYSIWYG principle. I have the first raft of Orks based, primed and ready to take on holiday for a spot of al fresco painting, and I’m super excited about it because the bulk of this lot is made up of RTB02 Space Ork Raiders…  Thing is, the RTB02 boxed set was my first ever Warhammer purchase, and Thrugg Bullneck was my first ever ‘proper’ paint job, so I’m really going way back to my roots with this project, and boy, does it feel good! Here they are, ready to enter the carry-case dropship to painting Valhalla:

I’m going for a general militaristic desert theme for these guys – Wolf Time happens before the idea of Ork clanz Is firmly established, when Orks were really more like savage humans than anything else! As such, I primed them black, and then gave them a light zenithal coat of Zandri Dust – the perfect (and quick!) start to any desert scheme. The theme itself seems like a good fit for the minis – it isn’t particularly novel, but it works for the pre ‘red-era’  period of the Book of the Astronomican, and they’ll fit nicely with my Praetorians too… (Last Stand at Glazers Creek anyone? 😀 )

It hasn’t all been preparation though – I also managed to paint a thing this week! He’s a chaos warrior from the Pantheon of Chaos range, and I absolutely love this mini. I keep having the urge to do a chaos warband one day, and he has been primed and ready for painting for quite some time, but I never seem to actually get around to doing anything with him! This week, I had some time to paint but didn’t want to start anything big – long story short, I picked him up and gave him a tickle with my hairy stick:

I have the vague recollection that this guy is supposed to represent Malal – a mysterious anti-Chaos chaos god from the pre-Slaves to Darkness era. I don’t know much of the lore personally, but Orlygg has put together a brilliant piece of research on the subject – you can find it here. From this research we can learn that Malal is all malicious and insecty, that he despises the other chaos gods, but that he isn’t a friend of the ‘good guys’ either, and that black & white skulls is his vibe… As such, I kept the palette restricted, but I did try out a thin wash of violet over silver to give a rather pleasing metallic purple on the armour. I have never tried this technique before, so I’m dedicating this to Azazel’s ‘Technical August’ challenge 🙂

Anyhow, that’s all for now – I’ll be off the grid for a couple of weeks, but hopefully I’ll be back with a decidedly big green bang in September! Peace out dudes, and be excellent to each other  🙂