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Finished! I was going to just fill in the bottom jaw w/ teef like the ones on top, but since the theme for the challenge this month is "Primal", I made him a bit more... tusky. Also, here's a couple more lessons learned I forgot to mention in my last post...1. Dip your tools in water often to keep them wet while working; this keeps the greenstuff from sticking to the tool and pulling off the mini. 2. Have an image handy as a guideline. I was looking at the codex bomb squigs for this one, and it came out much more traditionally Citadel squig-looking than my last attempt.
Here's the final sculpt, and the painted version:
Right

Left

Front (A face only a Runtherd could love)

and Painted:

May's painting challenge is over (theme: Boom!) and I was crazy busy the whole month w/ RL stuff, so I got as far as painting both lobbas and all 4 crew, but didn't manage to base the little grotz until after the comp was over. I kinda inadvertently suggested the theme, so I feel inclined to finish what I started. Here's the final pics:
Red and Blue


Brown and Yellow


Da Gunz


Da Grotz


All Together Now


and Lobba by the Lake (I've been experimenting with photographing on reflective surfaces and I kinda like the effect. Too cheesy maybe? You decide. They're not actually on a mirror, just a clear piece of glass.


Process was paint on prime white (I have spray primer black but just couldn't motivate to do it once we finally got some nice days here), several washes of white primer mixed w/ black paint (with these metal minis, I try to mix in a little primer every step of the way to prevent chipping), then metallic dots and drybrush for all the (millions of) little rivets and things. I also noticed that before I started, the color change after washing these guys with a little dish soap was dramatic, so I'm going to make sure not to skip that step in the future for everything I paint.

Lovely work on the Lobby guns!

EDC

I quite like the reflective surface. Makes for a very interesting picture.

The beautifully painted artillery and crews make for a very interesting picture too but the glass adds to the visual appeal.
It'd be a great technique for miniatute ships or something water related.

Sorry I haven't been too active w/ the blog, lately it's all I can do to paint a mini and get it photographed for the monthly competition. So I did a mek w/ killsaw last month that I'm pretty pleased with, and may post more pics here if I get around to re-shooting them with a different background (got some feedback suggesting my background should be darker, so I'm going to experiment some). I made a shoebox lightbox and honestly am really pleased with the results (maybe someday I'll post some pics of the setup for it, too).

More recently, I've scratchbuilt a big shoota and cobbled together an ork boy to wield it, but painting will have to wait for another month (maybe next month's challenge "the Brutal"?).


I also whipped up some crates out of wood for objective markers which I'll be painting for this month's comp. If anyone has any tips on how to paint wood crates to look like wood crates, I'd appreciate some suggestions.


I'll probably put some bullet holes and such in them to make them look a little more battle worn. I've actually gotten a couple games in recently with a friend by splitting my ork army in half and now that we've got the mechanics down, objectives seem like a fun way to add some interest to the game.

Thanks for checking in!

You're not kidding when you say BIG shoota!!!

Looking good buddy.

EDC

Love the big shoota proper orky. The crates look good. Think stain rather than paint. And lean toward grey rather than brown.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Here's my super-budget photo setup, the shoebox lightbox:


The French dictionary is my "tripod", and I normally have an overhead lamp (ordinary desk lamp) to shine through the top too, but I just finished my project at 11:45 PM and wanted to just snap something quick without having to mess too much with the setup..

...and the results (final image for July's painting competition, "Fun and Games", my crate objective markers):


A few notes about painting real wood to look like real wood:
If you're mixing paint, mix a lot! Wood really soaks it up; I would paint one side, turn it over, paint the other side, and then come back and the first side would look faded, because the wood had just pulled the paint in along with the water.
This was a rush job but in the future, I think the method would be very very thin coat of paint on primer, wash with a dark grey for stuff to sink into the recesses, then super thin/drybrush applications of final colors (maybe 2-3 layers).
Just buy plastic crates. Carving solid blocks to look like planks is really time consuming (probably more time than they're worth), and painting plastic is easy in comparison to wood.

I am super excited to have them for games, though. My favorite video games ever were the Command and Conquer series, so to have mysterious crates on the battlefield which could change the outcome of the game really appeals to me.

I think you could do with some bigger lights!

Crates look great.

Painting a mini a month is hard enough, finding time to properly photograph them and update a blog is more than I can consistently commit to, so I've got a few minis completed since my last post. For August's "Brutal" challenge, I finished this guy:


and had included another in my proof pic, because I was feeling ambitious and all (2 ork boys in one month, whuuuuut?) and of course it didn't happen in time. I did however, finish him a week or so after the comp ended and finally managed to photograph him:




It's kind of a shame the way that worked out, because wielding that giant mace, I think he fit the theme much better.

Then, for last month's "Armor Up" competition, I decided to try my hand at scale mail armor which was primed white and then just laid over with successive very thin black washes. I also tried some NMM (see also: grey) on his weapons:


Pretty happy with the way he turned out. The funny thing is I think I figured out the image sizing issues I was having, although of course I figured out what was going on after I had posted my final pics to the comp page and was headed out of town for the weekend just as the comp was ending. I took the photos from appropriately far away that the whole mini was in focus, and then cropped them in photoshop to what I thought was the right size, except that in PS, I was viewing them at 1/3 or 1/2 actual size, so by the time I posted to Dakka, they were blown up big enough again to make every brushstroke visible and chalky-looking. Long story short, I think I am finally getting my photography sorted out, and have high hopes for next month's images.

All 3 lads are part of a Freebooter Sluggas squad which is now half done:


Since I need to finish out the squad, and since October's theme is "Fright Night", and since giant green monsters who also happen to be pirates (or pirates who also happen to be giant green monsters) feels pretty Halloween-y to me, you can expect more Slugga-weildin' Freebootin' Gitz shortly. As always, C&C (and gallery votes!) always welcome.

Here's a quick update; October's (generally spooky-themed) competition entry was another freebooter slugga to keep plugging away at this same squad. He was done in a "headhunter" theme, and I'm pretty pleased with the results:






Then, for November's "Hold the Line" competition, I made a veteran "skarboy" for the same squad:






and now, since the squad is almost up to 10 models, for this month's challenge, I'm working on the nob for the mob (here he is assembled, primed, and kinda almost base-coated):






I offer these WIP shots as an insight into my process so that other aspiring horde army commanders might follow a completely different path altogether, given that I paint at the rate of 1 ork boy per month. At this rate, I should have my army done by the time GW releases the (11th ed.) ork codex!

I also have something extra special planned for the next post, so stay tuned! C&C always welcome.

So in my last post, I promised something special, and here it is! I was digging around in my parents garage hoping to find some of my old RT stuff, and didn't find any sourcebooks (I had a first ed. Call of Cthulhu RPG, Freebooterz, etc) or troop models, but I did find my old battlewagon!!! It's in pretty bad shape, but it still has the mast with the marine crucified on it, the mastodon skull hood ornament (with suitably orky nosering), and the chrome rims on the front wheels (wth was I thinking? I guess it was the apex of the gangsta rap era...):




It's a good day to be a warlord. Maybe I'll fix 'er up for this March's "Space Marine" competition and return this particular marine "to his post".

Also, here are the finished pics for last month's open challenge, my freebooter nob w/ slugga, bosspole and klaw:










I'm pretty pleased with the results. I don't know what I'm going to do this month; don't have time to paint three minis which is the minimum for this month's comp, we'll see.

the chrome rims!! ...y'know, I've been tempted for a long time now to do up a trukk or a battlewagon or something in some sort of stupid, orky "pimp my ride" style, probably as a transport for some flash gitz ...big gold wheels (preferably "spinners" ), some kind of gaudy paint job/interior, a huge sound system, loads of superfluous screens and stuff...just full-on all-money-no-taste hotrod/boyracer abomination ...I feel like that could be kinda great, in an utterly awful kinda way

Do it!!! Transpo for flash gitz is a perfect excuse to go totally over the top. As for this wagon, I think I’m going to try and add a bunch of different platforms and levels so that it actually holds the number of models that it should in a game.

That's some nostalgia right there And a double-decker BW sounds splendid!

This month's theme was "A Few Good Men", and I tried for the minimum entry of 3, but only managed to get 2 painted. So no competition entry, but these two complete a couple of mobz so that I now have 4 complete squads of boyz (1 ea. Deathskullz shootas and sluggas, and 1 ea. Freebooter shootas and sluggas). I've been getting a few requests for full army shots, so those may be forthcoming if I get the time. Without further ado, here's what I finished for the month of January:

Captain Hook (I ran out of the arm bit that cradles the shoota, and had the thought that there was nothing more pirate-y than a hook hand, so...)









and a new Deathskullz slugga boy
The first time I saw da Goff Rokkaz live in concert, I was like:








I hope you like 'em, if you want to see them before paint, there are proof pics in my gallery.
I'm looking forward to next month's challenge, because the big shoota that I modeled up a while back is finally gonna get painted. C&C on all this stuff always welcome, thanks for stopping by!

Brilliant idea for the hook. Consider it stolen. Both boys are looking fantastic. Well done.

Nice to see old black reach orks getting some love. Great job as always.

This month's challenge is "Carry a Big Stick" and I needed a big shoota to back up my recently completed freebooter sluggas mob, so this was a perfect opportunity to put paint to a mini that I modeled up back in July. Pics:
(Lookin' down the barrel of a gun...)


(Tuffer dan Tuff)






I scratchbuilt the gun out of bread tabs, sprue, brass tubing, and a couple of GW bitz. I got a comment earlier that it was maybe too plain, but I researched machine guns before I made it, and there's really not much to them beyond a box and a barrel.
This was also my first attempt at doing the heat effect on the barrel and I still need a lot of work in that department. I think it naturally would work better on a true metallic instead of the dirty black wash I've got on there but I'm intrigued enough to give it a better shot next time.
I also wanted to step up my basing game a bit and am almost more pleased with the base than the mini. The bricks are made from the same wood that I used for the crates a few months back, and I kind of stippled them until they looked right. Still kind of new to static grass, too but I like the effect.
Hope you like him, as always, feedback is welcome.

I like it the only thing I may have added was an Ork glyph to the gun. But other than that it’s great love the base as well.

That is looking fantastic. Great work on the gun. Those are really snazzy trousers, I want some.

Some really cool conversions. Totally inspired to get back to my ork stuff now

Great stuff, keep up the good work! Really inspires me to put some work into painting my boyz beyond standard "table-top ready" levels of quality.

I've mentioned it several times before, but I'm building out my ork army so that I can split it evenly down the middle and play orks v. orks with a friend of mine who isn't into the hobby (*yet!). My Deffskullz shootas are lead by a nob w/ a kombi-skorcha, so Da Mutineers (my Freebooterz) needed a similarly kitted nob to lead them. I already had the standard ork nob kombi weapon and wanted to customize one. The last time I bought 'oomie weapon bitz, they ended up being too small for even the rank and file ork boyz (so I gave 'em to da weedy grotz), but I figured with "Primaris Marines (read using a manly tone of voice)" being bigger, surely their weapons would be suitable for an ork nob right? Not so:

Is we orks gettin' bigger, or is da 'oomies gettin' scrawnier? Next you're going to tell me that the rinky-dink weapon on the left does more damage in-game, but it is us orks whose "gestalt psychic field" makes things happen just cause we say so right?
But I paid my teef for the bit, so I had to use it, and I'm pretty happy with the result. As I model these lads, I imagine their backstory, and since this guy is a freebooter w/ a Bad Moons color scheme (first Bad Moon I ever painted), I pictured that he had the traditional "too rich for his own good and too big to argue with, so he was ostracized and became a freebooter" upbringing. I picture him using the flamer to light his cigars more often than he actually uses it in combat (if anyone out there wants to model a big ork doing just that, you would be my internet hero).
I've been focused on this one mini since April which means I haven't been able to enter the competitions, but I've been enjoying taking my time. The approach has been to start at his boots and work my way up, getting each part just the way I want before moving on. Enjoy, as usual, C&C always welcome.









There's a couple more pics in my gallery if you're interested.

I was actually going to put down the brush for a bit because I've been waiting patiently for the 8th ed. Ork codex and I've got my army pretty much where I want it. I'm at kind of a spiritual fork in the road about whether to continue painting or pursue other things with my few nightly hours of free time per week.
Then my brother mentioned that he's been playing D&D games, and his birthday was in June, and he consistently plays a female half-elf rogue and the Unofficial Painting Competition's theme for June was "Blades in the Dark". So yeah, I painted a non-ork and it was strangely satisfying ( Quiet you gitz! ).
I had to buy some elf flesh, some purple, and while I was at it, I got the idea to try out an ink wash on the purply parts (I've never used inks before). This model is super tiny, but was a lot of fun to paint. I even got out the optivisor (5x I think?) which I normally don't do because it was a gift and I wanted to do the sculpt justice. The hobby-related business boils down to this:
1. These models are tiny, and have atrocious mold lines, but the detail is good so they're worth the effort.
2. I built up a nice range of shades on the cloak and literally a half-drop of ink applied twice washed all that out, but I feel like there is some extra depth there when you look at it, and in the end, it's a nice looking purple. Will have to practice more with inks. Do you go back and highlight after? Water the ink down more so the stuff under it shines through more? I dunno. Needs more investigation.
3. I am happy with this model until I look at photos of it. Then I realize I probably could have added more detail; the finished product in the pictures looks cleanly basecoated but not much else. For example, I had a little rouge on her cheeks, but it got covered up in one of the layers.
4. The base is actually wood. I flayed the top layer off of some backing material (for bookshelves and such), cut it into strips, glued them to a piece of paper the size of the base, glued the whole mess to the base, poked some nail holes into the part where the boards come together, then painted it with successive washes of XV88. Super happy with everything about it except the scale. The boards could have been even thinner, but maybe she's on a giant ship or something.
5. Pics:

The cape before the wash (mini is basecoated, nothing else):


To give you an idea of just how mini this mini is:


Front:


Back:


Blades in the Dark:


C&C welcome, thanks for looking!

Excellent start, jeez that is a mini mini.

Painted up another boy. I read a thread on here about ork players quietly disappearing. It's all just stratergy; just when you 'oomies has got yer hands full with the great rift and all the horrors coming at ya, and you've forgotten all about yer oldest and greatest enemy, wham! Gee Dubs is gonna drop our codex and you'll realize we been here all along, painting more boys fer da Green Tide.
Here's my latest:








I suspect a lot of other ork players are in the same boat as me, just waiting to see what the codex has in store and what new models we're going to get. Orktober happens to be my birthday month, so I have high hopes about getting a codex, maybe the Kill Team box set, and perhaps even a box of something new and shiny for the Waaagh! In the meantime, C&C (and gallery votes!) always welcome, and thanks for stopping by!

Nice work on the boy.

I'm still ere.

One of the things you can do while (not so) patiently waiting for your codex to drop is to revisit your older stuff. I had a squad of Skullz sluggas that was comprised of a few newer-painted and based models, and 8 that were done before I cared about basing. I'm thinking about bringing the Waaagh! back to Armies on Parade this year at my local GW, so if I based these 8 ladz, I could bring another full squad and not have to make excuses or hang my head in non-based-minis shame.

It was really fun to take a closer look at these guys (I hadn't really paid much attention to them since finishing them the first time) for a couple of reasons. 1. is that each of my minis becomes its own character or personality to me, and I was reminded of how much I liked these ladz after I assembled and painted them. 2. is that it showed me how much I've progressed as a painter in the last 5 or so years. These minis are atrocious compared to my current standard; gun barrels are not drilled, the paint looks chalky and thick (I was using some old Tamiya something-or-other that I don't think was meant for individual figures), the details (like the eyes) are not cleanly delineated, etc. I'm by no means a stellar painter now, but it's a pleasant confirmation that my efforts towards improving my skills have yielded better results.

I tried at first to break the superglue bond with the base using a chisel-point x-acto, but it worked better to just grab them by the legs/waist and break them off with my fingers (although you do have to use some caution as the legs will bend and break at the ankles if you're not careful). If you're attempting this, try one foot at a time, wiggle them a bit, maybe bend the base away from the foot... you'll get a feel for it.
The basing itself was a pretty slap-dash job, but as a squad, they look a million times better now and at the very least are table-ready/presentable.

One of these days I still plan to take proper photos of all my squads, but here are the 8 I re-based along with a grot (who got moved from infantry to artillery duty) and Maxwell the Mek, both of whom got the same treatment:

(^Holy Flock Batman), and... Finished:


If I base 8 more grots, my whole army (except for some Oldhammer metal ladz that I don't use for anything) will be based. So yeah, still here, still tuning up the army, still waiting for just the right moment to unleash the Waaagh! and remind humanity that their hold in this 'ooniverse is tentative at best.

It is funny how a little effort on the bases makes so much of a difference. Also agree totally that going back to old mini's we painted long ago really does show us what really matters in the painting game, our own improvement.

BTW It's funny, we collect the army with a million faces and we treat them completely as individuals, I have several dozen Zogs and Nobby's, but they are all individual as I paint them, adding tiny little details that no-one else will ever notice, but to us they are special. I think it has to do with orks, we have way more models than anyone, but Marines are just a mass produced tin can and have to have special characters to make any individuality, but orks are different somehow. I used to have a grot meat shield back in the day, 80 gretchin with autoguns, can get more "the same" than that, but every one was different in my eyes, I had the lucky bugger who shot at serious range and killed a SM Captain, the unlucky sod who died first shot evey game he ever played. and the small group known as the undefeated, who managed to survive every game I tabled them in. Ah those where the days. Anyways great work carry on.