This thread was originally posted in the DCM section, to keep things somewhat under wraps before the event. Now that it's over, I thought it might be nice to share it on the general Blog board for anyone interested.
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Because, you know, you can always be just that little bit busier...


So, here in Brisbane there's a big (hopefully, it's their first time) con going by the name of Auscon coming up at the end of April, which is promising to be pretty huge and a lot of fun. Tournaments, demo games, painting comp, seminars... it's all happening.

I was asked if I was interested in running a modelling seminar, and because I have issues with time management I agreed... So I'll be going along to run a couple of tutorials on building Space Marine Quad Bikes. Along the way, I'm also hoping to get together a couple of entries for the Wizards of Oz painting comp, and am looking to enter the 40K tournament... which will be my first tournament in nearly 15 years.

In the hope of keeping myself motivated enough to actually get everything done that I need to get done, I thought I might start a blog-ish thing to detail my progress... if anyone is actually interested enough to read it, that's probably good too



So, kicked things off yesterday by dusting off my Orks and jotting down a rough army list, to see if I actually have enough stuff sitting there to make a halfway viable army. Turns out that with a little tweaking I have some sort of army... how viable it is I have no idea, since mathammer was never my thing. Army list to follow later, (when I get home and have the time to write it up properly) so people can point out to me just how rubbish it is, if they feel so inclined.


Along the way, I also need to do a couple of test-builds on my Quads, to find the easiest and quickest way to get them built, and then design a tutorial that I can present in some sort of fashion that people can follow well enough to build their own quads on the day while I show them how.

And, of course, make a start on some painting comp entries... I have a couple of ideas brewing away, one of which should help resolve a commonly griped about Space Marine 'issue'...

More later.

I have my practical exams for general practice on the weekend after Auscon.

I will not be attending. :(

Good luck on the tutorial. The quad bikes are excellent.

Waaagh! Biglug 1750 points

HQ
Waaaghboss Biglug
(counts as Ghazghkull).. 225


Big Mek
Shokk Attack Gun
Ammo Runt
eavy Armour ................103


Elites
Nobz Mob - 5 Nobz
Painboy
Orderly
Cybork Bodies
2 x Powerklaw .............210


Troops
Nobz Mob (Ghaz counts as Troops) -6 Nobz
Painboy
Orderly
5 x 'eavy Armour
Stikkbommz
1 x Big Choppa
2 x powerklaw
1 x Twin Shoota
1 x CombiSkorcha
1 x Waaagh! Banner
1 x Bosspole...........................276

Trukk
Reinforced Ram
Armour Plates..........................50


Boyz Mob - 11 Boyz
Big Shoota
Nob
Bosspole.................................80


Boyz Mob - 11 Boyz
Big Shoota
Nob
Bosspole.................................80


Grot Mob - 19 Grots
Runtherd................................67


Fast Attack
Warbikes - 5 Bikes.....................125


Warbuggies- 3 Buggies
1 x Twin-linked Rokkits
2 x Twin-linked Big Shoota.........95


Stormboyz - 10 Boyz
Nob
1 x Powerklaw .........................155


Heavy Support
Dreddnought
Rokkit Launcher
Megablaster
Armour Plates ...........................110


Killa Kanz - 2 Kanz
1 x Big Shoota
1 x MegaBlaster ..........................95


Big Gunz
3 Kannons
3 x Ammo Runtz
Runtherd...................................79


Total
1750 points
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I fully realise that it's a bit of a dog's breakfast... The groups I've gamed with over the years have generally gone for the 'throw in whatever you feel like' approach to army building, so my armies have never been built with competitive gaming in mind. I don't have a lot of time for widespread changes, but if anyone has any useful feedback, it would be appreciated.

Buckling on down, and juggling multiple projects at once...

I went out and stocked back up on plastic tubing on the weekend, so started plotting out the quad bike conversion for my tutorial session.


This will be a little different to the previous quads I have built. That's not too unusual, since pretty much every quad I have built has been different from those that came before, as I tweak the design a little to improve them each time. This one, though, is also being built with the idea that it needs to be a little quicker and easier to do, so that I can realistically get potential conversion newbies to do it in a single session.


Also started on this:



And started rebasing my Orks. They had originally been based on snow, which I was not entirely happy with due to it being done over a period of several years, using a couple of different techniques and paints... so never really looked consistent. So I'm going from the snow to an arid base, (which I had already started with my SAG Mek and Kannon crew) thusly:


With that in mind, I started stripping the 'snow' off of the rest of the army, ready for new texturing and paint. The two slugga mobs first...

A little bit of plastic work:



And the NewQuad prototype coming together:

Its just painful to see those two units of Nobs walking around on foot.

You desperately need to scrap together a Battlewagon of some sort and slap a Deff Rolla on it.

Then put one squad of Nobs in the Battlewagon (with Ghaz included) and the other into the Trukk.

Then combine the other two Boyz squad together into a mob of 20.

Finally, if there's some way you can swap out the Shokk Attack Gun Mek for a KFF Mek (maybe just make the SAG 'count as' a KFF?) you'd be in much better shape overall.

The army would still a hodge-podge, but at least it wouldn't be a crazy disaster.

yakface wrote:Its just painful to see those two units of Nobs walking around on foot.

You desperately need to scrap together a Battlewagon of some sort and slap a Deff Rolla on it.

Then put one squad of Nobs in the Battlewagon (with Ghaz included) and the other into the Trukk.

The Troops mob is already in the trukk. The lack of a battlewagon was largely just down to the fact that I hadn't got around to building one yet. Having said that, I think I do still have most of a Land Raider sitting down in the shed...

Then combine the other two Boyz squad together into a mob of 20.

I had considered that, but figured it was better to have the extra scoring unit, since they all tend to die fairly quickly.

Finally, if there's some way you can swap out the Shokk Attack Gun Mek for a KFF Mek (maybe just make the SAG 'count as' a KFF?) you'd be in much better shape overall.

That would probably be smart. I had the SAG in there because I have the model, and there's a whole lot of nostalgia going on there from my original 2nd edition Ork army... Which probably isn't the best reasoning, tactically

The army would still a hodge-podge, but at least it wouldn't be a crazy disaster.

Well, that's honest Thanks for the feedback.

That landraider sounds like it desperately wants to become a battlewagon before the end of April .

I would have travelled a long way to attend a modelling seminar by you! Any chance of having someone video it and upload it to Youtube, for those of us on the other side of the globe?

Also, Auscon is one sweet name for an event!

As it happens, there's a very good chance that a video may wind up online. The Auscon guys are organising to video tape all of the seminars.

insaniak wrote:
I had considered that, but figured it was better to have the extra scoring unit, since they all tend to die fairly quickly.

The only time two smaller units of boys are better than one big one is when mounted in a Trukk (because you have to). Otherwise the Mob Rule makes taking one bigger squad much more effective. With two mobs of 10 each, all it takes is for 3 Orks to die from shooting (not hard to do) and you're having to take a morale check on Ld7. Even with the bosspole re-roll that's not something you really want to have to deal with.

So since they're footslogging, you definitely want to go with one big mob over two.

That would probably be smart. I had the SAG in there because I have the model, and there's a whole lot of nostalgia going on there from my original 2nd edition Ork army... Which probably isn't the best reasoning, tactically

The thing about the KFF is that he can ride in the Battlewagon and since you measure the range from the BW's hull you get a big bubble to protect your Trukk, Buggies, Kans and Dread...not to mention your walking Boyz mob (although they can be screened by the Grots as well...although the grots are probably better used to screen the Kannons if you don't have cover to deploy them in).

You do have a fair amount of vehicles, so having that one KFF model will generally make most of your army 50% more durable! And the Mek can fix damage to the Battlewagon without even getting out of it!


So if you can get a Battlewagon scrounged up and play the Mek as a KFF you'd be much, much better off. You're still going to run into problems if you face mech armies (which it seems most armies are nowadays) because you don't have any Lootas to pop transports. You do have the Kannons, but they sure ain't Lootas! The other problem you have is that you have mixed weapons on your vehicles (2 buggies with Big Shootas and 1 with Rokkits all in the same squadron, same with the Kans and also the Dread), so you kind of have they 'jack of all trades master of none' syndrome going on.

The positive you have is a LOT of powerklaws: Warboss, 4 in the Nobs squad, 1 in the boyz (assuming you combine them together), 1 in the Stormboyz, 2 Kans and the Dread...which is why it is so important that you get more of your army mounted up and across the table quicker. Having your killy Nobs walking is just going to give your opponents ample time to pick them off at their leisure.

With a Battlewagon and KFF you'd move the Battlewagon forward 13" on the first turn (red paint job) with the Trukk hidden behind it and have the Dread & Kans run to keep up. Turn 2, whatever survives between the Trukk and the Battlewagon then surges forward to hit the enemy (which is much more likely to happen with the KFF in the army) along with the Stormboyz (and maybe the bikes), with the Kans, Dread & walking boyz potentially running again to keep the pressure on. Turn 3 you should have the Kans, Dread and Boyz (and the bikes if you didn't assault with them) really near the enemy and ready to do some damage along with the battlewagon still running around Deff Rolla-ing stuff.

Having the Battlewagon will basically totally change the complexion of your army in a good way.

Without it, the opponent will take out the Trukk with their first shots and once that's done they can focus on the Bikes and Stormboyz. Once they're finished killing those two units they'll then turn back to the Nobs, Dread, Kans and boyz...all likely before any of it gets near the enemy.

Did someone say Battlewagon?




Thanks for the run-down, Yak. Definitely some food for thought...

Awesome start on the 'Wagon! And really looking forward to seeing the video.

Revised list, to fit the Battlewagon in...

Short version: Consolidated the Nobz mobs, switched the Mek's SAG for a KFF, switched the trukk for a Looted Wagon, dropped a buggy and shifted to both buggies with Rokkits, switched the Kanz to Grotzookas, Consolidated the Boyz, switched out the Dread's Megablasta for another rokkit, and dropped the Runtherd from the Kannons... although I'm debating dropping a couple of Grots from the Grot mob so I can put him back in to make the Kannons that little bit less prone to running away.

insaniak wrote:Revised list, to fit the Battlewagon in...

Short version: Consolidated the Nobz mobs, switched the Mek's SAG for a KFF, switched the trukk for a Looted Wagon, dropped a buggy and shifted to both buggies with Rokkits, switched the Kanz to Grotzookas, Consolidated the Boyz, switched out the Dread's Megablasta for another rokkit, and dropped the Runtherd from the Kannons... although I'm debating dropping a couple of Grots from the Grot mob so I can put him back in to make the Kannons that little bit less prone to running away.

I definitely like the weapon swaps...you don't really need the mega-blasta shots anyway because you have enough Powerklaws to deal with well armored infantry (which is what the KMB would want to shoot at). Now you've got a bunch more Rokkits to pop open the enemy transports allowing everything else to get in there and squish 'em.

Although consolidating the Nobs into one squad and dropping the Trukk means you've now got all your eggs in one basket. I kind of liked the other approach since it meant that if the enemy immobilized or destroyed either the Trukk or the Battlewagon you'd still have the other unit still threatening. The lone Battlewagon can work, you're just relying on it to soak ALL the enemy AT firepower, which certainly can happen with AV14 front and a KFF 4+ save...but its just still not something I'd personally want to do.

And Looted Wagons...well, they're a lot of points for something with extremely low armor and with the 'ability' to freak out on any given turn. I think they're pretty bad, but again that's just me!


And I agree with you that if you're going to take Big Gunz you need to get a Runtherd in there with them otherwise its pretty much an automatic rout. Although using his Squighound becomes really painful if you're not taking any additional Grots in the unit (as the D3 the squighound eats for the re-roll will invariably mean you lose the ability to fire at least one gun).

If you're looking for a few spare points, the KFF Mek definitely doesn't need to have extra armor. If the Battlewagon survives to drop the Nobs off he can simply stay in the vehicle providing the KFF bubble 6" around it, or if he does get out with the Nobs then the wound allocation rules mean you'll be able to choose how many/what types of wounds go on him and you'll always have the 5+ save from the KFF he provides himself as well.

Battlewagon looking awesome!

I agree 100% with everything Yak's posted about the army list, FWIW.

While Maria spent the afternoon stripping snow off the rest of the army's bases, I got a little more done on the 'wagon.





Still a load of detailing to go, but it's shaping up nicely, I think

It looks like an Orky combine harvester!

That 'wagon conversion is sweeeeeeet.

On the army list...

I initially went with the Looted Wagon based on the 'less work required' approach to get some more firepower in there, but did have reservations myself on just how much use it would be.

So, a few more tweaks... Short version: Killed the Looted Wagon, added a mob of 6 Tankbustas, switched the Buggies to Big Shootas (partly for a little more anti-infantry cover, partly to avoid being pegged on Comp for rokkit spam), removed the Mek's 'Eavy Armour, added the Big Gunz Runtherd back in, and added Armour Plates and Riggers to the Wagon to increase its survivability.

I'm debating whether to try and squeeze a bosspole in there for the Tankbustas' Nob.

Looted wagons are useless, take it from me. I ran one for a good while when it came out and it rarely survived or did anything.
I think bosspoles are almost always worth it on small mobs, but 6 dudes is verging on throw-away so you might want to keep the unit bare bones cheap. (I mean, with 6 dudes, you run a serious risk of having 5 vaped by shooting and the bosspole being useless for the morale check anyway because the nob has no one to nut!)
Also, how tight it aussie comp? I would never ding anyone for rokkit spam!

Da Boss wrote:Also, how tight it aussie comp? I would never ding anyone for rokkit spam!

I have no idea, to be honest. From what I've heard, it varies a lot from event to event, but the last tournament I participated in was before comp really got started over here I've been in exactly two tournaments in my gaming 'career'... both in 2nd edition, and neither with comp. And to complicate things further, the guys running the tournie at Auscon are still finalising the rules. They just decided a couple of days ago to switch from peer-based comp to having the judges do it, but beyond that there's no real details out there yet on just what they're basing it on, so I'm trying to play it safe.

I think your list is really varied and "soft", I wouldn't expect a harsh comp score (from what I'm used to, anyway!)
I used to get compliments on my orks for comp, and they had like...12-15 rokkits?

It just occured to me that with the Mek riding in the wagon, I really don't need the Grot Riggers... so I'll drop them out and add the bosspole for the Tankbusta Nob.

I love the deff rolla on that wagon- Wow!

Moving right along...

Maria's cleaning up some Black Reach Boyz for me to turn into Tankbustaz. In the meantime, I finished off the construction of the Battlewagon.









The Deffrolla is magnetised, for easier transport and so I can run it without if I feel so inclined down the track.

Painting will hopefully start through the week sometime. Time to go finish of a bottle of Sauv Blanc with Maria and give my back a rest...

I didn't realize how big it was until the comparison shot at the end! The raised front makes it look even more like a combine. My only suggestion was that it might be nice to have rails along the outer edge of the flat top of the treads in back, in case an ork wanted to stand there and to make it feel like there is a nice side to it. But it may be that it's just hard to tell what it will look like now as it's unpainted, and there it seems to be a small railing along the inside edge already.

Arrr the front tires are too thin for that monster I would use monster truck tires for better scale.

Started work on the Tankbustaz. I'm basically just assembling these guys from Black Reach Boyz with assorted missile launchers butchered and slapped on.



I'm exceedingly happy with the rokkit-krossbow, though

Looks great, can't wait to see them with a lick 'o paint!

I agree...great looking stuff! I also agree that the tire on the Battlewagon feels a bit underwhelming considering the rest of the vehicle.

I think the tyres will work better once everything's painted, so they doesn't stand out so much. I didn't really want them to be too large, is the wheels on the front are largely just there for balance.

The Rokkit Crossbow is really awesome.

I do think those tires are a bit narrow as well. Though paint may make a difference.

We'll have to see how it paints up, then, I guess... I don't have time to track down different wheels at this point. But I think they'll be ok.


Meanwhile, Tankbustas assemble!



The Quad Bike is exhausted:



And I started work on this:

That battlewagon is un-freakin' believable! :-)

I love your tankbusta's too. You might consider putting them in something. Since it's a small mob, a truck would do. It helps reduce the Glory Hound issue as you can disembark them from the vehicle & use it to block line of sight, so if you really need them to shoot at troops rather than some vehicle well out of range... it can often be "arranged" by putting them on the other side of the truck.

B-Wagon just rocks dude, awesome work and good luck!

I love the mysterious bits...what does it all mean?!?

I also agree that if you're going to take Tankbustas (as you assuredly are) then you definitely would want them in a vehicle to help control them...of course I have no idea how you get a Trukk for them given your current army build (as they can't take a Trukk on their own), so oh well!

That would be a problem... I usually toss them in a battlewagon so I've never thought about it. Guess I should pay more attention to my army list options.

At work at the moment, so can't check... Can Boyz only take a trukk if they're 10 or less?

To be honest, the Tankbustas were a mistake... I had misremembered Yak's advice about needing firepower to pop transports, and went with it while I was excited

At this point, though, they'll probably stay in there. I don't have time to build a squad of Lootas as well, and I like how they turned out, so want to put them on the table.

So at this point, it looks like I need to figure out if it's possible to fit two trukks back in there... one for the Nobz (to split them back into two mobs) and one for the Tankbustas.

Could possibly just drop the Kannons and go for everything being a little more mobile. While they are again a unit that I love putting on the table, they generally don't actually do a great deal... That would open a few points back up. Then I would just need to make some adjustments to get the second trukk in there somewhere...

Trukk has a capacity of 12 models.

I've never had any luck with lootas thought I've used them over and over again... I just don't roll well enough to make them worth it. However my squad of tankbusta's w/ 3 bomb squigs perform spectacularly nearly every battle I use them, and they look a lot cooler than the loota's do (I scratch-built most of them). They always blow up something, even if it is one of their own kans (stupid grot) or an allied deff dread...

(yes, both have happened in tournament play)

Gitsplitta wrote:Trukk has a capacity of 12 models.

Yup... but can the Boyz take one if they number more than 12, or are they one of the codexes that restricts the transports to unit size?

Sorry, misunderstood... let me check.

*pause*

Nope, only 12 or less (they can't combat squad or anything like that).

Hmm. Thanks. Will have to have a look at it when I get home. Well... probably not tonight. Off to see Weird Al tonight

yakface wrote:I love the mysterious bits...what does it all mean?!?

The various unlabelled bits are pieces of entries for the painting comp (The Wizards of Oz) for Auscon. I'm working on a bunch of stuff all at once, and wanted to show off what I was working on while still maintaining some semblance of secrecy

So there will be more random bits over the next few weeks. I'm curious to see if (or at what point) anyone will manage to piece them together

Don't carve up the boys squad to get a Trukk...it ain't worth it. You'd then be taking one effective unit (20 boyz) and one ineffective unit (the Tankbustas) and making them into 3 ineffective units (2 walking boyz 10 strong each and one Tankbusta unit riding in a Trukk which still ain't all that).

You've got the Tankbustas, just rock 'em and see how they do for you.

Gitsplitta wrote:Trukk has a capacity of 12 models.

I've never had any luck with lootas thought I've used them over and over again... I just don't roll well enough to make them worth it. However my squad of tankbusta's w/ 3 bomb squigs perform spectacularly nearly every battle I use them, and they look a lot cooler than the loota's do (I scratch-built most of them). They always blow up something, even if it is one of their own kans (stupid grot) or an allied deff dread...

(yes, both have happened in tournament play)

While I certainly can't dispute your own experiences, you did experience them after all. I can tell you that Lootas are worth their weight in gold. Put them in any codex in the game and you'd see them in every single army, they're just that good for the points, especially in 5th edition where you need a bunch of long range transport punching ability. The 48" range for Lootas makes them so valuable in an Ork army because you have so little other shooting with any kind of decent range.

I know, everybody loves lootas. But I've fielded them many times and they've never performed well. Just too dice dependatt and I'm a terrible roller. I've given up on them for now. Maybe if I invest in some good dice I'll give them another try. Tankbustas have been great and can be very effective if used correctly.

Not as much time to work on stuff as I would have liked this week so far.

Started in on painting the Battlewagon, though:

Nope, those BW wheels still look too small and/or not Orkified enough.

I think you'd basically need to have at least two of 'em glued together to get the kind of thickness that would look right for that model...or as a stop gap at least I'd put some plasticard 'armor' plates on the outside edge of the wheels.

Of course, time is also running out, which makes everything end up looking a bit better!

I kind of like them as-is... somehow having them be small makes the whole thing look more like a Combine:



Although technically, it looks like they have even Smaller wheels in the back... go figure! But I like the huge custom deffrolla on the front being emphasized, rather than the wheels. It also avoids some orky stereotypes and makes it more unique, imho

insaniak wrote:Started work on the Tankbustaz. I'm basically just assembling these guys from Black Reach Boyz with assorted missile launchers butchered and slapped on.



I'm exceedingly happy with the rokkit-krossbow, though

Somehow I missed this on page 1- how did you "string" the rocket crossbow? (Floss / fishing wire, maybe?)

RiTides wrote:I kind of like them as-is... somehow having them be small makes the whole thing look more like a Combine:

That's right----and it harvests POWER ARMOR.

/Try the veal

yakface wrote:Nope, those BW wheels still look too small and/or not Orkified enough.

I think you'd basically need to have at least two of 'em glued together to get the kind of thickness that would look right for that model...or as a stop gap at least I'd put some plasticard 'armor' plates on the outside edge of the wheels.

I had considered the second option... We'll see how I go for time. Down to five weeks to go, and I have a lot of work to do...

RiTides wrote:Somehow I missed this on page 1- how did you "string" the rocket crossbow? (Floss / fishing wire, maybe?)

Guitar string. Something I've only just started using, and am now wishing I had picked up years ago

Genius. I'm assuming they're "lights" or "extra lights", and the thinnest E string... not sure why I never thought of this, and I have a ton of them! So far I've avoided armies with bows/crossbows for fantasy due to not wanting to have ones with no strings, this might change that.

I'm hoping all the bits shown earlier are for a pogostick ork stormboy nob.

My imagination is vivid, my skillz lacking.

RiTides wrote:Genius. I'm assuming they're "lights" or "extra lights", and the thinnest E string...

No idea. I know nothing about guitars... just walked into a music store and bought a pack of assorted strings out of a discount bin

We're making progress, yes...


Still needs some detail work and some dirtifying.

Threw together a Runtherd for the Big Gunz:


And a KFF Big Mek:

Also for the Big Gunz: Ammo Runtz and 'Squighound'

Is that a Grot in Wolf's clothing?

Awesome!

It's a Gnoblar in a wolf pelt, that comes with the Ogre Hunter. I think I got him out of the OK army box back when it was released, and yeah, he was too cool to not use for something. A not-squighound seemed like the obvious choice

I love the KFF Mek! That staff is awesome... is there a pin all the way through it, or is each piece glued to the next, stacked on one at a time? It seems like that would be too fragile...

RiTides wrote:I love the KFF Mek! That staff is awesome... is there a pin all the way through it, or is each piece glued to the next, stacked on one at a time? It seems like that would be too fragile...

Yeah, there's a rod running right up the middle.

Some dodgy, under-the-lamp pictures...

Tankbustas just waiting on final detailing and basing:


Ammo Runtz, Runtherd and Squighoun, ready for basing:


And the Mek, also ready for basing:

That Big Mek is priceless! Brilliant conversion insaniak!

Finished off the demo quad bike, and threw together a full Scorpion, to show off in the seminar as a sort of 'this is where you can go with a few more bits' option.


It's kind of awesome that after 7 years of building these quads, Auscon has finally given me the excuse to build a couple for myself


Also decided it was about time to finish off my Jetbike. Added a rider and base, and will paint it if I have time.


This will be something else I can show off at the seminar, as a 'what to do with the other bike' sort of thing.

WAAARGH...'s the rest of me teef?

Practising the base-ics...


The Klaw!


Feeling a little saw...

Very cool!

Quad bikes with some paint on...

Loving the scratch-scuplted ork head (!!!) and the klaw broken out into all the separate pieces. You crazy converters, you

Quad bikes are sweet, too, but I crave orks

Tusks and a tongue...

You know, it must be nice to say "Oh I want another Ork head, guess I'll sculpt that up"....as opposed to "Guess I'll hit the swap shop and start bitz hunting..."

Looking great.

Some final tinkering with my Ork army. Submitted my army list this morning, so it seemed about time to make those final model changes that I needed.

So I ripped the rokkits off one of my buggies, and replaced them with twin-big shootas:


Added the rokkits from the buggy onto the Deff Dread in place of the mega blasta:


And managed to drop my (3rd ed, all metal) Storm Boy Nob on the tiles, which popped off both of his arms and the attack squig (in this edition stand-in powerklaw) that was perched on his jump pack. So I figured that was as good an excuse as any to build him an actual powerklaw in place of the squig. Still WIP:


And a little more tinkering:

The things you can do!

WHOA!

That stuff is awesome - and intricate!

Do your fingers and eyes hurt after a session of building stuff like that?

Not so much. Although I'm finding that spending all day hunched over a table wears on the back a little more than it used to...

Incredible stuff, as Ken said. The intricacy and detail is top-notch.

Do you have a tutorial for that jetbike conversion? It doesn't require parts from other models, right? It's just a "what to do with the leftover parts after you've cannibalized a couple of wheels for your quad", right? It looks really good.

The tutorial is linked in the text just above the pic

It uses the leftover bike parts and a jump pack. Although now that it has a rider on it, I'm thinking that the front end is perhaps a little stubby. So when I have some free time, I'll have to have a look at making a MkII with a slightly extended or bulked up front end.

Although at some point I'm also looking at the possibility of getting this eagle head cast up:

I took a quick resin cast of it before sending the original off to the client. Figured that, aside from using it on a jetbike squad for one of my own armies at some point, it would be a nifty piece for detailing buildings.

Definitely.

Though I think the link you meant is here...
http://www.underthecouch.net/tutorials/modelling-space-marine-jetbike-conversion/

More complicated than I thought, but as it notes, no putty work necessary. Might even be within my capabilities...

Picked up what will become my army carrier for the Orks:

Just need to sort out some foam for the inside, and maybe 'pretty up' the front a little

Painted the new guns for the buggy:


...and the Stormboyz Nob's new Klaw:


And finished building some objective markers:

Objectives coming together:


Army with their new bases coming along:


And my Quad 'horde' growing... Ran my wife through the tutorial for the weekend to test that I had everything covered and was explaining everything in a way that relative modelling noobs could understand.



So one of those unpainted quads was mine, built as a demo, and the other was hers. Turned out pretty good

At this point, I'm frantically painting to finish off at least one entry for the painting comp. Had to abandon two of my original projects... I started scratch-building a Mega Dread, but just didn't have time to finish it off. And I was going to enter a cut-away rhino into the Open category... but as it turns out, 10 marines actually don't fit into a current edition rhino. There's enough floorspace, but the interior is about a quarter inch too short to make it work without just laying them all down stacked up like firewood.

So, down to the final mad scramble tonight... I think I might actually make it. Everything's sorted for the class, The army just needs a few final touches and then packing away, and my painting comp entry is aaaaalmost done. Got him finished off enough last night to finish assembling him, so now I just need to go back and touch up the joints and add in any other final bits and pieces that I (a)think he needs and (b) have time for.

In whatever spare time I have left over, I'll be skimming through codexes trying to get myself into some vague semblance of readiness for 2 days of gaming against largely unfamiliar armies.

Well, day one down...

Got my painting comp entry finished (more or less... could have spent a little more time on detail, but he's entered in a conversion category that is judged on the build, rather than the paint, so not a big deal) and submitted. Have to wait and see what the judges think of it.

3 games of 5 played in the 40K tournie so far:
Game 1 - against Necrons. Straight Kill-point scenario. I got stomped big-time. Had a bit of a brain fade, and wasted a good two or three turns of potential Deffrolla-ing Necron Warriors. My Nobz mob did manage to take out his Monolith, though.

Game 2 - Dark Eldar. Objective scenario. I pulled a draw in this one, as there were two objectives and we wound up with one a piece. Battlewagon was somewhat wasted again due to the table... it had a river running right up the middle, and whopping buildings in each quarter that blocked the wagon's path. It did at least soak up a massive amount of firepower that could have been directed elsewhere, though.

Game 3 - Ultramarines. Objective scenario. Minor Victory, as I captured 2 of the three objectives and he had the other. Finally got some hot Deffrolla action, mowing down an attack bike and part of a Tactical squad, although the wagon struggled in a table littered with close-packed ruins and rather inevitably failed a dangerous terrain test while I was lining up for the next Tactical squad. Brownie Badge to my Big Gunz for taking out a Dreadnought in the first turn with some well-placed Kannon fire.


So mixed results so far, although I think part of the issue with the first game was just nerves, and not really getting my gak together until game 2. We'll see how today goes.

It's been fun so far... Fairly relaxed atmosphere. All three of my opponents have been a blast, the tables are pretty, with plenty of terrain, and my army does appear to at least not be completely useless

I will be revising the Nobz mob for future home games, though... While they're nasty and soak up an impressive amount of damage, wound allocation is just an absolute pain in the nonce. And I think for the next tournament I enter, I'll be going for something with a slightly smaller model count, as it's a bit of work getting turns happening in a reasonable amount of time.

Nice update! How'd the toolbox work out for transport?

Also, are the pics of the various arms (buzz-saw, etc) part of the army, or your conversion contest entry?

I popped in today for the player's choice and 1st round - Insaniak was battling eldar and his cobine harvester battlewagon is most awesome.

Also the convention staff were fawning over the pogostick ork you entered in the conversion contest - easilt the most cool conversion there.

RiTides wrote:Nice update! How'd the toolbox work out for transport?

Pretty good. it was an only just fit, but everybody arrived safely, and was quick and easy to pack and unpack, so I'm calling it a win.

Also, are the pics of the various arms (buzz-saw, etc) part of the army, or your conversion contest entry?

That was the contest entry. I'll get full pics up when I get a chance... hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I popped in today for the player's choice and 1st round - Insaniak was battling eldar and his cobine harvester battlewagon is most awesome.

That was game 4. Wound up a minor loss (5 objectives, I had one to his 3... but did manage to kill off his Avatar and Farseer, which netted me a bonus. The Nobs are just tanks), but was an awesome game.

Game 5, not so good. Against Tyranids, straight kill point scenario... I finished the game with 3 boys and my Kannons. He had... er, significantly more. Lost my Nobz to a Tyrgon backed up by Paroxysm from his Hive Tyrant, and it all sort of went downhill from there. Did manage to get revenge on the Trygon, taking its last wound with slugga fire from the boyz in the final turn.

Not sure where I finished overall yet (full results are supposed to go up today sometime), although I'm suspecting it will not be anywhere near the top. The Necron player who blatted me all over the place in the first game was the overall winner... apparently, he's fairly well known for doing awesome things with Necrons.

It was an awesome two days of gaming, and I had a blast in all five games.

Also the convention staff were fawning over the pogostick ork you entered in the conversion contest - easilt the most cool conversion there.

Scored me a bronze as well, which I'm ecstatic about. Presentations are today. Oh, and:

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I'm hoping all the bits shown earlier are for a pogostick ork stormboy nob.

So good call, that man... He's a 'biker' rather than a stormboy, but you called the pertinent bit!


Also, ran the first seminar last night. They didn't end up filming any of the seminars, so those wanting an online version will have to wait until I can put something together for Under the Couch... but that's probably just as well, as it was a bit of a casual, rambling affair with a lot of general gaming chatter mixed in ... but everyone wound up with something that looked like a quad bike at the end, so I'll call that a success.

Congratulations! Looking forward to a pic of the conversion bronze winner

Nice! Sounds like a very successful weekend. Congratulations!

The only necron plyer I saw was the brown/tan paneled necrons.
Game 4 he was giving GKs an ass whooping.

Yeah, that's the one.

Turns out I came 28th out of 31 (30 finishers... 1 dropped out due to food poisoning, apparently).

I scored 92 points total out of a possible 200... 28/100 battle points, 18/40 composition, 19/30 presentation and 27/30 sports. Not the greatest result, but not last, so I can live with it

Day 3 was a little quieter. I was supposed to do a second Quad tutorial at 10am, which had four guys signed up. 1 had called in to cancel, and the other three just didn't show up, so I wound up throwing together a Chaos Quad Bike while I was waiting, and then did a run-through of the tutorial with my wife's little brother.

Then onto the Wizards of Oz presentations. Sebastian Archer took out the Best in Show with an absolutely stunning orange and green bloke who I think they said is supposed to be some sort of weather mage. Beautiful piece of work.

That was followed by a brief Q&A session with the Wizards judges, and then a 'Masters' Speed Painting contest, which I was for some bizarre reason invited to sit in on. 1 hour to paint a skaven clanrat... surrounded by multiple Golden Demon winners. Suffice to say, I didn't win Was fun though.

And that about wraps up an awesome (if exhausting) weekend. I have a bundle of photos of the 40K armies and a few from each game which I'll get up when I get the chance. They took professional photos of all of the Wizards entries, which will apparently be going up on the Auscon website, so I'll wait for those rather than posting what will undoubtedly be far inferior pics of my finished entry.

Congrats! On the invite and the showcase! Please post the pro pics here as well, if you can!

I will post the unpainted pic, though... Looks rather a lot like this:

The Dakkagun sits on the hydraulic arm protruding up over his shoulder.

And my original concept sketches...

Loving the concept sketch on the right

It's hard to tell from the angle, it looks like he has no body (or it's inside the main mechanical part of the pogo stick)? Pretty insane!!

Pogostick Warboss?

I'll take ten!

Battlespace Magazine have some pics of the event up here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Battlespace/203423286347844

RiTides wrote:It's hard to tell from the angle, it looks like he has no body (or it's inside the main mechanical part of the pogo stick)? Pretty insane!!

He has a torso (taken from a Black Reach Nob). The pogo stick connects at the waist.

Painted pic of my Ork, taken by the photographer at the event:



I'll have to take some detail shots later, as the angle on this one really isn't great, particularly on his face.


Meanwhile, they have started adding photos from the painting comp here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150179359226429&set=oa.225108204170600&type=1&theater#!/media/set/?set=oa.225108204170600

Also, for anyone interested, the have a whole bunch of pics from the weekend up here

And final pics of the Ork in the P&M showcase here.