LOCS mini - Skink Hero Complete

His base is dry and now he's all done. Overall I am happy with him, the gold does let him down a bit though. I just can't paint gold well. :S Also, for reasons known only to itself and a seahorse in the Indian Ocean, my camera has decided that it won't show the correct colour of the shield. It is in fact a turquoise colour, looks really good, but here its constantly making it into a green colour. I can't figure out why.

Back to the beginning...

On LO there have popped up two dwarf blogs, and one is rather good. Now, I first got into this hobby with the dwarfs. My very first army and probably my largest collection; I own a lot of dwarf models - painted and otherwise. These include the two Bugman limited editions from Bugman's Bar at WHW, three versions of the White Dwarf (incl. version on shield) and loads of others. You might guess I am a big dwarf fan.

So, when these threads came up, I got the itch for the bearded ones again. Not going to start stripping and repainting and army just yet - though I will do - I decided to paint up a single dwarf lord model. I used to hate this mini, dwarfs + winged helmets annoy me, but after seeing a really good paint job on him, I changed my mind. He's now one of my favourite dwarf models. Very dwarfish. Here he is so far. I am particularly pleased with the beard - blonde is not that easy to paint and to make it look like blonde, rather than yellow.

Tis a bloody game...

And tis why its called Blood Bowl. =D

Over the last few days I have submersed myself in Blood Bowlness. It started the other night when I spotted that I had a bookmark for a website called FUMBBL. I signed up and made a team. If you are unsure what this site is, let me tell you... its a method for playing BB games online - a lot like vassal - without the requirement for a table/board or minis or even rolling dice. Its fun, played two games and suck badly (0-3 losses both times), but I'm still getting use to it. Also, they use LRB4, rather than LRB5.

Been playing an orc team, so far done nothing spectactular except fail. Though, one of my four Black Orc Blockers now have the 'Block' skill. Making him even better - S4 + Block.

I need to pay attention to stats and my movement again. I made some terrible mistakes in those two games - often revolving around me trying to dodge. Or failing at blocking. I need to do some reading and learn a bit more.

All this leads up to me wanting to organise a BB FUMBBL based league on LO. I'm hoping to get support, but if it works it could be fun - especially as we could do a lot with it. Awards for teams, teams an LO tournament. I just need to figure out the details etc. It would be a lot of fun.

Damnit. I wanna play BB in person now. I have plans to convert myself a nice orc team, even though I already possess a stripped dwarf team from the boxed set. A project for a later date.


Hey... how about a blogsphere FUMBBL BB league? -__^ hehe. Ideas..ideas...

LOCS mini - Skink Hero (Pt II)

Further progress today. I am quite happy with him, as people have pointed out his colour is unusual. I had originally planned to steer away from the blue/red of the GW scheme, but looking again he is very similar - just different shades. The scales don't show up that well here, but they were taken to a decent red and then washes repeatedly with purple and rehighlighted. I am very happy how they came out. But my favourite part at the moment has to be the shield. I have a thing about turquoise at the moment, and I saw this before - deep, deep shading and quite light highlights.

Overall I have been practising glazing, using it on the belly to tie it in with the skin, as well as on the rat skull. I'm learning more of how to make a glaze and use it properly. Quite handy stuff. As you can see I'm going for a different angle for the gold. As lizardmen are the 'warhammer Aztec' army, I didn't want them to have pure gold. Instead I'm going to aim for a red-gold. A sort of copper-gold alloy if you will. So here I have basecoated it - copper + brass (both VMC) and given it all a heavy wash of baal red; hence the very red look.

LOCs mini - Skink Hero

I'll explain this LOCs thing. A few years ago now, I organised a number of members from my 'home forum' (librarium-online) into painting up some miniatures for charity. It was nicknamed the 'Librarium-Online Charity Sale' or something along those lines, hence its moniker, the previous miniatures and auction is here. That time we did 40k characters and came away with £181 for charity. This time, we have more painters and its fantasy minis. We hope to raise much more. There are some fantastic ones I have seen so far, and the auctions will go up here in case any of you folk not on LO want to get hold of one of these minis.

So, I finally got around to starting this project and my mini for it. Its a skink hero. Now, I wanted him to be different, not the usual bright blue or green people generally expect for their lizards. Instead I started off with sombre grey (aka shadow grey) and have working my way up by adding in ghost grey into it. Its lighter than I planned, and might clash with the stomach I am planning but will cross that bridge when I come to it. The rest, or most, of the mini as you'll see is a red-brown colour. I generally use brown as a base for my golds, and I will be doing the scales a red-brown anyway. Its just for definition and basecoating.

The pictures aren't that good, due to his light shade, the white paper didn't work - washed him out. So I'm using an old grey tshirt for the moment, but will try and seek a better background if I can.

Black Templar Complete

Finally got this guy finished, quite happy with the final outcome, but there are some things I can say I was not fully pleased with. But overall, I think he's not bad.

Black Templar (Pt VI)

I got a bit of work done on the banner. Its OK, I am happy enough with the scrolls but the actual Maltese cross took me ages to get to where it is. You might be able to see where I kept altering the lines etc. I'm happy enough with it, like I said , decent.




I also added something extra to the base. A sort of last stand or defiant act. Guess why. -__^ I think it'll look decent when painted. Or hope so.

Wagons at the ready! Steady! GO!

Excuse the corny title, I just felt like it. =P

Having spent today assembling an Ork Battlewagon, I felt like I should discuss my views on these beasts. To start they are the toughest Ork vehicle with 14/12/10 to the respective locations. Most vehicles in the Ork list are 10-12 AV, so having a nice big, juicy 14 is great. In addition to this, the vehicle has some nice options. An increased transport capacity to 20 models or 10 in Mega Armour, this allows you to ferry a nice large boy unit across in relative safety and have lots left to assault with. The next is the BWs weapons options. It may have the following:

• Killcannon
  
• kannon or lobba or zzap gun
• 4 big shootas or rokkits

This beast can be toting loads of firepower, then on top of these you can have upgrades such as ard case, extra armour, a deff rolla, grot riggers... pretty much all vehicle options. So, where is the downside?

The downside is these weapons, in my opinion, are wrong for the main use of the wagon. To me, it is a more resilient transport that can ferry larger units where you need quickly and not blow up at a stiff breeze (otherwise known as Pulse Rifles). To slap on all these weapons defeats this point. The BW should be moving 13" a turn (Red Paint Job), which - due to it not being a fast vehicle - means it will not be able to fire anything, thus negating the points spent on the weapons. It could be a mobile weapons platform if you wished, but the choice of weapons it has isn't really the best options for it -

Killcannon; 24" S7 AP3 Ordnance Large Blast

Looks good on paper, but for less points I could have an extra 12" +1S by taking a looted wagon. Sure it lacks the armour, but if kept well positioned then it would be getting a cover save to help make it last. This weapon just doesn't seem worth it to me, the short range and the fact its below S8 makes this an expensive and weaker demolisher cannon.

The lobba; 48" S5 AP5 Heavy 1, Blast

Being a barrage weapon this could hide and fire, however. Ork BS is terrible and generally blast weapons just scatter far (2D6-2), coupled with its low AP, this weapon wouldn't really be on any use except against masses of low T and Sv armies/models (Nids, Orks and Guard come to mind).

The cannon; (frag) 36" S4 AP5, Heavy 1, Blast
(krak) 36" S8 AP3 Heavy 1

This is a bit better of an option, giving you chance to take down vehicles. But, again the BS of the greenskins fails them. A single shot hitting on 5s is not something to put your belief if. Most the time you won't hit. The frag version suffers from the lobba's problem. Not high enough S or AP.

Big Shoota; 36" S5 AP5 Assault 3

Better. More shots equals more chances to hit. decent S and range, but once more the AP value means you won't be dropping many marines. In addition, on the BW, these are not defensive weapons due to the S5. Making them less useful unless you're crawling at infantry pace.

Rokkits; 24" S8 AP3 Assault 1

Again, much like the krak cannon round, the one shot relying on 5s is not a good idea. In addition the short range of 24" is not good, unless you've rushed.


As you can see, the options available to the BW in terms of weapons requires it to sit still to make the most of them all. Or to move a little and use one. For the points paid for it, I'd rather it was a glorified taxi. Cheaper and more effective, in my opinion. Add some points for say extra armour and you can now keep coasting forwards, ready to do the job it was made for. Letting loose loads of boyz! To this end I would keep it open-topped, allowing you to disembark after moving, and anywhere within 2" of the vehicle, not just exit points. Mine would read something like so:

Battlewagon; red paint job, armour plates, reinforced ram, 1x big shoota. (115pts)

It would also allow me to take another, if I wish. They're cheapish. One thing, as well. They're a fire magnet. People hear "Armour 14" and panic, spraying it with lots of firepower to try and down it quickly. In the mean times, my AV10 trukks just crusie on past and drop 12 Sluggas ready for a fight. If the wagon makes it to the enemy and drops the boyz off, then good stuff, if not - well... see above.

This is all just theory from me. I will try out all various configurations, and will do this by magnets. You will see below that there is no weapon in the main gun housing, this is because I will magnetise the various options allowing the one mini to be quite versatile. Also, the rear casing is not fixed on, allowing for it to be closed or open topped.

Black Templar (Pt V)

Well today I realised just how soon the LOCs deadline will be upon us, and I'm still working on the BT. He won't be finished until after next week - busy, as I'm going home for most of it, then to Leeds for a party at the weekend. Busy. I have the mini undercoated, and should be OK. I don't want to rush it.

Now, I haven't been lazy today. Admittedly I haven't worked on the Templar much, however I did do something that I felt was a cheat fix for something but works well with the Templar:

Black Templar (Pt IV)

Ok, well he's pretty much done. I have his banner to attempt and he'll be finish - minus the base. Overall I am sort of happy with him. I ran into a few problems;

I cannot blend properly, getting a bit better but its not quite there. The grey highlights just don't quite look right, and I can see the layers in the sword.

I attempted to make the icon on his shoulder pad and shield look aged and cracked. To this end I used VMC cracking medium. I don't believe its meant for use on such a small area, and I applied it quite thickly. It nearly ruined the minis. I managed to just about pull the scrolls and crosses to an OK level - but the skull just looks crap. Something to remember for next time.

There are a few scratches I put on the mini, but the metal with a grey highlight just don't look convincing enough. :( I'm going to finish him, I'm just not entirely happy with him at the moment. He's OK, but isn't that good looking. I do like the robes and scroll work, its the zenith highlighting that has thrown me really.Anyway, here he is...

Black Templar (Pt III)

After a good relaxing weekend - girlfriend visit, Star Wars: Force Unleashed + big TV (due to housemate) I have picked the brush up once more. I gave the helmet another bash. It not amazing, but its better than before; sort of works. I have finished the other red, though it might look a bit dark in these pictures, and begun work on the parchment. I'm not going to take it too bright. I want it to look dark and old, so it won't be the usual newer looking colour.

I haven't shown the backpack off yet as to be honest there isn't really much to show. I am not sure what to fill it with. I have considered a great big red cross with two pieces of scroll on it (top and bottom) saying "Suffer not the" and "alien to live". But more ideas are welcome.

Black Templar (Pt II)

I've done some work on the Templar. I think its too early to say how good he looks but I'm still uncertain - I often find they look bad until suddenly it all comes together and works. I'm hoping this is the case here.

First Off I went for zenith style highlighting on the black armour, as I felt that edge highlighting would not suit. I think I sort of pulled it off, but my blending skills still need work (also black to light grey isn't actually as easy as it seems), the arm and shoulder pad are fine. The helmet is the worse area - it was too bright so I dulled it with some washes, now its too dark. I need to look at it again I think.

The red robes are pretty much done, I think. The secondary red will be a lot darker than the robes. I shaded the red with green for the first time and was surprised as to how well it worked.

That's if for now. My girlfriend is visiting for a few days, so chances are painting will not be high on the priorities list.

Ork Objective (Pt VI)

The fourth objective is complete. The sign was done to appear like wood. It wasn't easy as the piece was flat, I had to mark out the wooden planks first. But, so far its my best attempt yet. Some of the shading is a bit too thick, but its not too distracting. For those wanting to know, I used this tutorial from Brushthralls : Wood Grain 101. Despite the site is for Privateer Press stuff, I suggest people check it out as pretty much everything there can be used for GW minis as well.



Then came the writing. I decided that it should be in turquoise as it will tie it in nicely to my army. I know what you'll think when you see it - and yes I did sort of run out of room, however as its orks I figured it works quite well.



So, that is four out of five objectives complete. I have just the grot left for the final one, but I'm going to concentrate on the Black Templar at the moment and then the Lizardmen for the LOCs project.


Just to recap, here they all are:

MANz and Nobz

Despite never using one version of them, I wish to compare the two nob types - Mega Armoured Nobz (MANZ) vs Normal Nobz.

Starting off, both types have the basic ork rules: Furious Charge, Mob Rule and Waaagh!. And taking a warboss allows for a single mob of either type to be taken as a troops choice (per warboss in the army) thus making them a scoring unit. The stats are the same, each having WS, S, T4 W2 I, A3 LD7.

The differences arrive in the form of armour, weapons and wargear.


Mega Armoured Nobz (MANz)

These beefy orks come clad in heavy duty armour, gifting them a 2+ save in combat. This makes them great at soaking up firepower, along with T4 anything less than a bolter spraying spree is not going to result in many dead nobz. Instead it'll take higher strength/AP weapons to take these guys down.

In addition to this save increase they automatically come with stikkbombz (assault grenades), a power claw and a twin-linked shoota. All this for 40pts per model. The skikkbombz are pointless, being as the claw makes them I1 anyway. The claw is the best thing about them - orks lacking in power weapon options the power claw is the only truly reliable option available to them for cracking things like MEQs, Termies or even vehicles. The shoota is OK, the re-roll for twin-linked makes it a bit more reliable in hitting but nothing really to down an ale over.

The downside to these behemoths is the following rule: slow and purposeful. This rule means that the MANz are slow. At best a 6" move, probably averaging a 4" each turn. This includes their charges being capped by the random roll. Making them less reliable at getting into range and hitting the unit, unless... they have transport. Trukks can get a maximum of 6 in, due to MANz counting as two, and the battlewagon 10.

They have two options, for 5pts they may have either a combi-skorcha or a combi-rokkit instead of the twin-linked shoota.

Nobz

In comparison to the have only a 6+ save and come armed with sluggas and choppas, for 20pts each. Instead they get spoilt for options. They can have the painboy option for 30pts - giving the whole unit the Feel No Pain universal rule and allowing the unit to have cybork bodies (5+ invulnerable save) and 5pts per nob for the cybork upgrade.

Alongside this they have the options for bikes (which I'm not going to look at here) and two upgrades that increase their WS by one point (Waaagh Banner) and allow them to re-roll failed morale tests (Boss Pole). They have access to a single armour upgrade, making it 4+, rather than 6+. For weapons they all have access to power claws, big choppas, combi-weapons and twin-linked shootas. All for additional costs.

Transport wise the unit may have either a trukk or a battlewagon, both being able to hold their maximum size of ten.

The comparison bit

Looking at the options available to each it is obvious that the nobs have the more and better options. Non-wargear wise they have the pick of the litter. They have access to invulnerable saves, making them able to stand up to power weapons - something that is the bane of MANz - and low AP weapons. In addition they get the Feel No Pain rule from the painboy, giving them a second save of 4+ making the unit on a whole even more durable. In comparison, the MANz have only their 2+ save; whilst great against most things any form of power weapons will quickly see an end to the MANz. One thing the MANz miss the most perhaps is the Bosspole option. The ability to re-roll failed morale checks is handy, doubly so for MANz as their high cost means low numbers per unit. The final option is the Waaagh Banner. This gives nobz a +1 WS, making them hit most units on a 3+.

Lets look at the combat skills of these two units;

6 MANz vs 6 Nobs

The MANz would cost 240pts; all armed with power claws
The Nobz would cost 285pts; 2x power claw, painboy, cybork, 'eavy armour, waaagh banner and 2x bosspole

In combat - assuming they charged - the MANz would have:

18 (3+1) attacks at WS4 S9 I1. All ignore armour and instant kill T4 or lower.

Nobs would have:

15 (3+1+1) attacks at WS5 S5 I4.
6 (3+1) attacks at WS5 S9 I1 All ignore armour and instant kill T4 or lower.
4 (3+1) attacks at WS5 S5 I4 ; 4+ poison

Now, I'm not going to do mathhammer - mainly because I dislike it and it generally varies due to good luck, bad luck etc (but if you feel like doing it... then by all means). But looking at that it can be seen that the nobz have in for sheer volume of attacks, but most of which will be allowing saves - making them less ideal vs MEQs due to their high save. On the other hand the MANz are made for MEQ fighting, lots of armour ignoring attacks. Nobz are better at dealing with hordes that have average or low saves - or even just drowning MEQs in dice rolls.

In defence the MANz have 2+ armour whilst the Nobz have a 4+ armour, then 5+ invulnerable and a 4+ Feel No Pain save. This makes them very durable, able to soak up attacks from power weapons, where MANz would just die.

Overview

The two units have different targets. Throwing MANz into a mass of average save models is a waste of their abilities, where as Nobz would eat them up with ease. And in reverse MEQs are for the MANz to handle. That said, Nobz are more durable in terms of taking wounds due to their mulitple saves. Its all about the right ork for the job.

As an aside, the Nobz are cheaper in terms of points and £££.

***********

I didn't write this as a review or proper comparison, due to not having played enough to compare each. However I just wanted to write something for fun and compare for myself if my preference for Nobz over MANz is a good choice. Personally I would say yes, I prefer the high volume of attacks, making them viable against most opponents - the claws deal with armour and the choppas with the squishy stuff.

Taxi! Mounting up for 5th Ed

I'm sure many of the veterans of 5th edition have realised this already, but I have come to realise that this edition is all about being mounted.

I have only had a few games with my orks, but each time my foot slogging mobs are generally decimated. I started orks, and indeed built them, to have/be a horde army (I have 2x 25 shootas and 25 sluggas), but I am coming to view this as a failure on my part.

Orks need to be in combat to do well - in most cases anyhow - but an infantry mob on foot with a paltry movement of 6" a turn will take way too long to get there. In addition, these units need to be big - 20 strong at least - to survive the shooting phases they will have to slog through. Even the ork weapons are designed for short ranges, the basic shoota being 18". The two special weapons available to the mobs are a little bit better, with the rokkit at 24" and the big shoota at 36". But even with these the average ork mob is not made to be static, to keep with their strengths they must move.

So, what's the best way of getting an ork to where he needs to be? A trukk of course. 13" (12"+1" for Red Paint Job upgrade) followed by the 2" disembarkment and assaulting (got to love open topped vehicles for this) means the mob has an average assault range of 21" (22"-27" if they WAAAGH! that turn). So, this is much more to their tastes - a fast means to get where they need to be. What is the drawback? There are a couple of can think of:

• smaller mob size
• vulnerable/low armour

The first is problematic as orks are only fearless is they number 11 or higher. The capacity of a trukk is 12. Which means once you take two casaulties you're looking at using LD. Granted you can use the units - due to the Mob Rule, but with only a 6+ save, its not looking good for long.

The second means that the trukk - AV10 in all locations - is very easily to stop in its trakks, and reducing the mobs to the same state and problems as their footslogging friends.

How to solve these? I suppose having lots of targets is one. Saturate your opponent with options and a couple will slip through. The other is look at Battlewagons. More expensive but higher capacity and tougher; meaning it'll last longer and there'll be more orks left at the end of it.

What does this rambling mean to me? I means I'm looking at taking more trukks. I already have a battlewagon but only got three trukks. However. I might keep one footslogger so they can camp on an objective and soak up casulties. The rest I'd have to rely on the combat ability of other units to contest or maybe hold a trukk back for those last minute speedy grabs.

Ork Objective (Pt V)

The Templar is in fact being worked on, today he was undercoated. Wooo. As I was waiting for him to dry I returned to one of the objectives, this one is nearly complete just the board to finish. You'll see that its pure brown, that is because I plan to try out freehanding some wood effect (ie grain) onto it. A bit of practice. So hopefully that one will be finished tomorrow.

The skulls came out quite well, I love the ageing effect the sepia wash has, took these up to completion and then gave them a couple of washes and they aged quite well I feel. The helmets I wanted to be kept uniformed, so they're all almost the same colours.

I like this objective as I will be able to add other trophies to it when I feel like it. :D

Black Templar - Painting Contest Entry

I got side tracked. Which means that today I have done no painting on my ork objectives, instead I decided that I wanted to do something different. I am going to enter the LO Painting Contest, for once. If you were unaware, I use to run these - for a very short period and then I decided I could not manage it further, so a member took over. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter - in fact I am happy this idea has continued over the long term. I have seen some stunning entries and some average entries, I am aiming for the former.

The requirements are summed up by the theme setter, Minus_T,

Defiance.
A warrior at his final end, a last act of retribution, or simply someone or something that just won't give up... This contest should be all about the feeling of grit and toughness of a model, the hard core of inner being that will never stop fighting. Even a puny grot about to be crushed by a dreadnought could display defiance to the end!

When I read this I instantly thought of a single thing. A Black Templar marine. In fact the infamous image of them:

Now, I am not good enough to pull that off, and as it turns out I didn't have any banner arms left (no idea where they've all gone too). So I settled on a running Templar with a wide out swinging sword and bringing his combat shield up for a charge. So, I would love to show you pictures of such an cool mini...but I cannot. See, I attempted such a mini, but when I was chopping up the legs of a standing marine to make it look like a running one I discovered that... it was difficult. I just couldn't get the posing right and the GS work was terrible. So, I binned it. :(

So, instead I went for a more static posed marine. But before that I toyed with doing a Dark Angel - but just didn't feel it. So, I went back to the Templar. Changed a few things, decided on others and so far, this is what I have:




His base I'm not yet finished. Maybe. I unsure of what to put onto it, it looks too empty and plain. Any ideas? Look for yourselves:


I want it to be all spaceship like. Maybe even a Rok. Dunno.

Anyway, I have looked up the paint scheme for Templars and the Veterans - Sword Breathren? - have red crosses on a black background rather then the black cross on white. I would like to use red on the tabard on the front due to due seeing how cool this mini looked. But then there would be too much red on the mini if I went with the red crosses. What do you guys think?