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Hey everyone, first post on dakka dakka. From my lurking around I can tell that the community here is really friendly, and I finally decided on joining (original huh, I can hear some of you yelling for this to be moved to the welcome forum). Any ways, the idea behind this blog is as the title states, to document my start to the game of 40k as well as learning some tips from you knowledgeable folk, and getting to know a few of you.

Well, 40k is a game that has interested me for a long time, I used to spend large amounts of time looking at the Games Workshop website and picking out the coolest looking minis. I was at first driven away by the cost and the lack of people to play with. One day though, my friend offered to start playing with me, as he had gotten a download of some paper tanks and minis, however after one afternoon of trying to glue these cardstock creations together and we decided it would be more interesting to buy models to paint and game with. So, we decided on each picking a battleforce to get us started and then we would play a few games. He settled on the Space Marines, while I chose the Space Wolves. Somehow however, he managed to convince me to play orks and we ended up splitting the cost of AoBR.

After a week of collecting the tea inside of teabags, reading dozens of tutorials on everything warhammer 40k, and picking out an army theme as well as an army list, the box arrives at my house. I eagerly slice the plastic bitz off the sprues and begin to glue all of my boyz, nobs and warboss, (nicknamed Krumpty Dumpty) together. My friend comes by and picks up his Space Marines and we prepare for our first game. Two days later, and all of our models are sanded, glued and primed and we get together for our first showdown. Our first game was riddled with errors, it consisted of about twenty minutes of game time, and an hour and a half of flipping through the rulebook. Two games and several arguments later and we're on our way to understanding the intricacies of the assault phase. I claimed all three victories that day, however this was mostly due to my friends poor luck with the dice, and his lack of understanding some of the more intricate space marines rules.

The next day started a whole new adventure, painting, I originally was going for a more deserty looking ork that would be yellowish with a black wash, however, I didn't have any black wash, and the yellow looked crap by itself, so therefore decided to just paint him green. I learned a lot while painting. and took a giant leap forward, mostly because I had never really used paint or done much art. I was surprised with the end product (which I will post pictures up in the very near future) which as it turned out looking very nice indeed. However as this one boy took about 4-5 hours (I paint slowly), looking at my massive seeming army was quite daunting.

Today, with my first model complete, I got together with my friend again to play a few more games. This time, he had figured out a thing or two about using the Space Marines and we we prepared for our objective battle. We placed one of our scratch built scenery ruins in the middle and called it the objective. In the the second round, he quickly set up a defensive perimeter inside the ruin. Somehow however I was able to break through and get to the objective. Unfortunately the game ended right as I got there, and not knowing what to do in a draw, We decided that he would win since his Marines had been controlling the objective for longer. Unfortunately I had to leave, but after all those games playing as the orks, I decided that I really didn't like their playstyle, I hate rolling tons of dice, and hitting with so few. And though they make a great first time painting army and are good for learning the game, I think I will be moving on to another army. My dilema is which... Probably the witch hunters though, I love the idea of charging into every battle yelling something like "Vile scum, you are charged with heresy! How dare you threaten the emperor!" Much more interesting than a throaty Waaagh!!!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my first post, its a little long but hey, it's a blog.

KrumptyDumpty

I demand pictures or atleast cookies!

I would suggest not choosing witch hunters as they have a very old codex which puts them at a disadvantage rules wise.

Should be an interesting journey Krump, glad you're willing to share. As this is a P&M blog (you brought it up...), you might want to post a pic of your painted ork. That way you can start getting help & feedback (and not incur the wrath of the mods).

Well, I finally figured out how to upload photos, I really hope that they aren't too big. I'd like to apologise ahead of time for the blurriness in some parts of the photos. Im currently using my dads camera (which is a lot nicer than mine) and the last time he used it he changed some settings around. Not knowing much about cameras I don't really know how to change it. But i'm sure one of you guys out there are a part time photographer or something who can help me out. Anyways about the pictures, I have to say that the model looks a lot worse close up, I can already see a bunch of places where the yellow is still sticking through the green and a few places I even forgot to paint, however as this was my first model/painting project since elementary school, i'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

So what do you guys think, as of right now I think i'm going to drybrush a light green on to the arms to highlight it, as well as touch up on any errors. Any additional suggestions or comments? Also I did post up quite a few pictures, let me know wether it was too many, too little, wrong angles, too big, too small, etc.

Also, schools starting up for me, which is going to put a bit of a damper on my painting project, but thats what weekends are for... : )

Have a great week guys,

KrumptyDumpty

Good start... but remember... washes are your friend!


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And a lighter green for some highlights will add definition.

Well RaptorsTallon, thanks for the feedback, Im not planning on being extremely competitive, and I read some rumors on another website about a Codex: Inquisition being released within the next ~2 years. Do other people agree that playing the inquisition is not a good idea, because it seems to me that a lot of the other codexes are also outdated?

Are you using a primer before you paint? My first suggestion would be to get a pallete (anything flat and plastic will do) and use it to thin your paints with water on until the brush strokes don't show. Just try to concentrate on getting a clean even and solid coat on each area. to do this you have to use multiple thin coats. I use Six or seven some times depending on the colour. If you do this you can always improve or add to your minis later. Also pick up some of the GW washes. they are talent in a bottle. I would recommend the colours Badad Black, Gryphonie Sepia, Devlan Mud, and Thraka Green. If you have any painting or modelling question please, feel free to ask. I'm sure you can get lots of help.

Looking good Krumpty, despite the paint being rather thick, you are very neat and definitely off to a good start.

If you try watering the paints down a little first for your next model, it would be great to be able to compare the differences

Watering down tends to be trial and error, but if you aim for the consistancy of full fat milk, you should hit the right level. You want the paint to flow nicely but still have solid pigment. Just wetting your brush and letting a small drop drip onto a brush full of paint is usually enough.

Thanks guys, I actually have a bottle of black wash in the mail right now. And yes, I do prime my models, however i've been using automobile primer, which I believe works. Also, is there a good ratio or way to know how watered down your paints should be, I had a lot of trouble with getting the paint to the right consistency.

As long as the primer is smooth and doesn't fill in any details it should be alright. As for thinning when I do basecoating I basically thin them until they go on smooth and dry totally flat, Any thinner and it will not go on evenly, which it should for basecoating. Consistency is such a tricky thing to put into words. I would say add water until it start to go on unevenly, as in the paint looks much darker in the recesses. If this happens you know you have added to much water. For basecoating atleast. You will get a feel for it. If the paint isn't totally smooth you need to add more water. Also imo milk consistency is to thin for anything but highlighting, although alot of people would disagree with me.

What color is the Primer? Black is a great under coat for orks.

Hey there "krumpty" ;D
I experienced the same thing doing those marines, they look pretty snazzy up untill you take a close up picture. Still have to get some pics of that raven guard mini you saw. It might be more time efficient to do 5 minis at once, doing a thin layer of paint over them, then doing a second layer after that on the first minis, which should be dry by the time you finish the last one. this way you get the advantage of a thin coat (even finish, no detail loss) while not spending MUCH more time.

Also, once (if) you pick those other minis up, I might collect on those orks. I had a great time when we swapped armies for a game!