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A few weeks ago the newest addition to my regular gaming group asked me a funny question. We were chatting about painting during our first game and he asked me how long it takes to paint 30 Orks. I laughed. Told him I'd let him know!

Now, I'm far from new to playing and painting Orks, having gotten started with them during the transition from 2nd - 3rd edition. However, like many others I often suffer from a severe case of gamer's ADD, which led to my first love being left by the wayside for various other projects.

Fast-forward to now and I find myself with a new codex, a bunch of new models, and a new approach to building an Ork army. I used to run mobs of 16 boys with an eclectic mix of various unit choices, but soon learned that my old army just wasn't going to cut it any more. Finding mobs of 30 to be the way to go, combined with the fact that the main colour in my old army came from a company now long-defunct (I was using Ral-Partha's Cleric Brown, highlighted with - I believe - Sun Tan) meant that it was time for a fresh start.

Naturally, with the number of Orks you get in the Attack on Black Reach box, picking up a couple of them seemed like the best place to start. That was about a year ago...

After a few delays from life and the aforementioned gamer's ADD, my first mob is finally complete! Now, like many before me, I hope to use the P&M forums as a motivator to keep me moving forward with the army. I hold no illusions about my ability to work solely on Orks, especially since I'm working on a couple of projects for other people, so updates will end up including a little bit of everything.

With that out of the way, on with the blogging!
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I opted for a simpler colour scheme this time. I've a lot more Orks to paint this time around! I'd have liked the browns to be a bit lighter, but now that they're done I'm pretty happy with the Scorched Brown/Graveyard Earth combo. Snakebite Leather may have been closer to what I initially had in mind, but I was working with what I had on hand at the time and I've no desire to go back and repaint 30 Boys!

And now, on with the pics!
(Sorry for some suckiness! Still working with the new camera and working out a better setup.)

Nob and some of the Boys


Class photo!


Powerklaw Nob




Thinking I may go back and add some highlights to the Nob's metallics to give him a little more standoutiness.

Just in case there were any doubts as to the randomness that the title of the thread promises, here's a peek at what's next on the paint station:

A Lion Warrior Marine for porkuslime's Deathwatch volunteers (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/307185.page)


With GS'ed shoulderpad by yours truly


...well, you get the idea. I'd retake the pic but the wife stole the camera for the weekend

Awesome! I really like your ork horde.

Thanks Munch! Not much of a horde yet though. More of an unruly mob.

I like it.

I'd do some higher highlights on the skin though with a 50:50 mix of Goblin Green and Tallarn Flesh

Gives a skin like this:

RIGHT-Titan wrote:
I'd do some higher highlights on the skin though with a 50:50 mix of Goblin Green and Tallarn Flesh

Nice work! Looks a little too realistic for my tastes though. I like my greenskins greeeennnnnn Guess I'm just old-fashioned! It doesn't show well in the pics but there is a Scorpion Green highlight on the Goblin Green.

Coming along on painting the Lion Warrior, but working on my 1:1 "Human Dwelling" terrain piece has cut into my hobby time this week.



I've a feeling NMM has gotten so popular because as hard as it is, it's nowhere near as bad as getting good coverage with gold metallics. I've only used gold for tiny bits in the past, using it on a whole model is a PITA!

Using thin coats to avoid brushstrokes and loss of detail, it took three coats of Burnished Gold followed by two more of Shining Gold to get a colour and coverage I was happy with. Then I went and undid it all with a wash of Brown Ink! That's the point I'm at so far, now I just have to go back for some cleaning up and highlighting before getting to all the other bits of the model.

Time spent waiting for paint to dry was spent assembling these guys:


who will join these guys:


who will in turn be joining these guys:


bringing their numbers up to 66!

I'd like to say I'll stop there because assembling Warriors and all their fiddly bits is also a pain, but I know I'll probably end up taking the total to 80 eventually.

So sleeeeeeeeee....zzzzzzzzzzz! Sleepy! Been working on the Lion Warrior for a bit but I can't keep my eyes open long enough to focus on the details, so some quick WIP shots before bed.

Man, close-up photography is unforgiving!


I'm thinking white for the aquila's wings, or at least what you can see of them. All the other black (on the body, not including the weapons) will be staying that way, getting a grey highlight.

The eyes were done in Blazing Orange, with a dot of Bad Moon Yellow and a slit pupil for a more feline look.

Sideview


As with most of my artistic endeavors my satisfaction with the shoulderpad flip-flopped, but now that it's painted up, I'm pretty happy with it.

And the Jump Pack


As with the Marine himself, the piping will stay black with a grey highlight. As for the pack's vents, I'm undecided on going metallic or leaving it black. I'm leaning towards black, as that big of a metallic area within the gold would probably look out of place.

While this guy's just a one-off, the closer he gets to being done, the more I like him. I doubt I'll ever do a whole army in this scheme, but I made a greenstuff press mould of the shoulderpad just in case. Who knows when it could come in handy!

hungryp wrote:

RIGHT-Titan wrote:
I'd do some higher highlights on the skin though with a 50:50 mix of Goblin Green and Tallarn Flesh

Nice work! Looks a little too realistic for my tastes though. I like my greenskins greeeennnnnn Guess I'm just old-fashioned! It doesn't show well in the pics but there is a Scorpion Green highlight on the Goblin Green.

I'm the same way. The greener the better. I like the darker look myself also.

Well, it took longer than it really should have, but the Lion Warrior is finally done...well, except for the missing shoulderpad, but that's out of my hands



And, the side and back views...


Fancied up the bolt pistol, and tried the same idea on the length of the chainsword but couldn't get a look I was happy with so I left it straight black.

Overall, happy with the way this guy turned out. Too bad he's getting seconded out... I'm gonna miss the little guy

But.. he is going to such a good cause!

It is a pity that his new boss is such a lousy tactician.. but the more games with this army I get in, the better I will be.

Thanks tons man!

Well, with the Lion Warrior done I spent some time finishing up assembly on my 21 new Necron Warriors, only to realize I'm out of primer . I also used the knowledge of no primer in their immediate future to put off finishing assembly on my next mob of Orks. Instead I've been focusing on finishing up a long overdue project for a friend.

After listening to him complain about the available Demon Prince models for a few weeks, I offered to make him one I thought he'd like more. Now, I've done some large sculpture work in different media, and the odd little bit of greenstuffing on minis, but I've never attempted a full small-scale sculpt before, so I decided from the start to document the process for posterity. Unfortunately my camera got smashed partway through the process, so a good chunk of the step-by-step got missed, but here's where things are at:

Using my metal CSM Demon Prince as a reference for height, I rigged up a sprue and wire skeleton:


He was a little tippy at this point, so I decided to start with some feet:


As the previous picture shows, I started off with greenstuff, but as I realized just how bulky this guy was going to be, I decided to use a synthetic modelling clay that I'd worked with before to do the bulking out of his basic shape. At this point I fit the head and *ahem!* codpiece, which would be bits from some GW kits, to ensure proper placement and a snug fit:


While waiting for that to cure I set to work on his weapon. It just wouldn't be properly Nurgley without a scythe, now would it? A sword and banner pole from the Ogre Bull kit came in handy here, and I greenstuffed a little Nurgling-like face at the join for some extra character:


Back to the body, I began filling out the final shape with greenstuff:


And that's where I was when the camera got hulk-smashed. Well, hulk-dropped really . Pics of progress up until now will be coming soon: they're taken, just need to be uploaded to the computer. He's almost finished at this point, needing only his arms and shoulderpads to be finished off.

Cool.. cant wait to see your nurgle prince and how he turns out.

The last set of pics showed this guy on one of the SM Dreadnought bases, but that was just to help get the pose right. I thought he deserved a base more in keeping with his character so I set about making a bunch of greenstuff maggots to fill a pit of filth. The rocky part of the base was made of the same clay I filled out the model's body with, but it shrank far more than usual, leaving a rim of base around it, which I was not too happy about. I'm going to paint up the base to see how it looks in general, as I know I can do better. If it doesn't paint up nicely, I'll probably end up redoing it .


And this is roughly where I am now. I've trimmed down the shoulderpad on his right shoulder to make it closer to the size of the left one, and started work on his arms. Almost done!

Front


Side


Back


Sideview, in all his winged glory!

Are those LOTR troll bits.? Lookin good. are you planning to fatten up his belly and his legs a little.

That's sick bro!

sennacherib wrote:Are those LOTR troll bits.? Lookin good. are you planning to fatten up his belly and his legs a little.

Nope, no troll bits here. What bits I used were: head, collar, jawbone (the one in his gut), and hands from the WH Giant; ironfist, skull-crotch and scythe (banner pole and sword) from Ogre Kingdoms Bulls; a skull from the Chaos Warriors box (also on the scythe); a Genestealer's back carapace; GW's sweet-sweet wings; some sprue cut-offs (on his face-plate); and a couple old Night Goblin shields.

Well, you can't actually see the shields in the final product, but trust me...they're in there.

And his thighs do look a little scrawny, but they'll probably stay that way, since his future owner's happy with them. Guess he likes that it's a little Mortarion-esque. I am thinking of Nurgling up the wings a little though, maybe add some rot, pustules and pock marks.

Bah! Been far too long since I posted any progress on anything here. Only painting I've gotten done since is to highlight the metallics on the Nob shown earlier. The new pic washed out the colour a little, but I took a shot for comparison.

Old: New:

Looking at the pic makes me want to go back to him again and give the metallics a black wash to tone them back down a little, and this provides a valuable lesson. I was happy with the way he looked before I added the extra highlight and should have left him as he was. Looking at him with his fancy extra detail compared to the rest of his ladz made me want to add the extra level to them too, but I have very little desire to go back and rework (and potentially re-rework) all 30 boyz.

The moral of the story: when you're happy with the paint job - stop! Especially when dealing with footsloggers numbering in the hundreds!

Coming soon: a look at a little modeling project I recently finished for a fellow Dakkaite. Dakkian? Dakkastani?

So, as I mentioned in my last post here, I recently dipped my toes in the hobbyist-for-hire waters, modeling and casting some Ork mushroom spores to be used as basing bits. The final product can be seen here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/337615.page

I also decided to paint up a batch for myself to use as objective markers and a bit of a showcase. I went for a more natural colour scheme, although I'm a big fan of the polka-dotty look. I just thought this would better suit the tone of the rest of my Orks.

Now, without further ado...

wow great looking orks

Very nice work. I especially like the mushrooms The finished ork boy looks exceptionaly good as well, and for a general standard for boyz, I would say that was on the high end

Well, here we go again with another long overdue update to this little thread of mine. Demon Prince is all done now. Not a masterpiece by any means, but I'm still pretty happy with it.



Hmmm....pics not being kind. Bad lighting, but it's way too late to wanna redo them.

Comparison shot

Well, with the Demon Prince out of the way I went and got myself into another modeling project. By the time I'm done, what once was a High Elf on Griffon will be a Varghulf. The original plan was to scratch build the Varghulf and keep the Griffon to paint up, but I'm not sure enough of my sculpting abilities yet to think I could do it as well as the pros, so I opted to hack up the Griffon and let it do most of the work.

Now, I'm sure just about everyone around these forums is more than familiar with the model I'm talking about, but here's a pic of what I had to start with, stolen from the Dakka Gallery. Shhhhh! Don't tell!


I'm going for a look close to the actual Varghulf model, so the first order of business was to get the legs into a more standy position, rather than stretched out in flight. A few cuts, some pins and glue later, et voila!


The feet do actually sit pretty well flat, the pin's just too big right now, and naturally everything will be smoothed over with greenstuff in the end. Next up: the torso.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
After some sawing and clipping, the legs now have a torso to support.



No, I'm not sculpting him some hairy bat junk. That's just a bit of plastic I wedged in between the legs to help them keep some separation while the glue set.

I cut out some of the lower stomach to be able to give the body more of a stooped posture, and cut the torso of the Griffon just behind the harness to shorten it up to a better proportion. Next obstacle: the head.

The simple colour scheme for your orks looks great! I'm really digging those mushrooms too.

Time for a random, sporadic post. Apparently blogging regularly is hard work.

Ever wonder what would happen if you crossed the Blood Angels emblem with the Dark Angels emblem? Me neither. And yet, here it is.



Just a quickie paint job on a sculpted icon, nothing special, but you get the idea.

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to paint some Shoota Boyz so maybe I can post a real update soon.