I set a goal at the beginning of the month, and I’ve been kicking and screaming against it ever since. I wanted to get the rest of the Orks from the Warhammer 40k Armageddon Launch Box finished, and what better motivation than the big, rampaging annual tradition of Orktober?
My primary goal was to get the rest of the infantry (Boyz squads are already done) and command done by the end of the month, with a bonus-points awarded if the two vehicles manage to get finished along the way. I’m happy to say that the primary goal has been crossed off the list!
Gretchen Infantry
I’m not sure how they operate without a handler, but the 10 sneaky gits in the launch box came along pretty well! I struggle with little guys because I want to go all out on them, but they don’t need much to reach a good tabletop standard.
Painboy
He’s a creepy fellow, and his assistant grot really ads a lot to the fun! I spent a little extra time getting fresh and old blood on his smock for a little contrast pop with the green.
Bannernob
I painted the whole army with a mild pirate theme, and wanted this guy to stand out a little more, hence the vivid pink jersey.
Weirdboy
Probably my favorite model in the box, I love how the scenic part of the base looks like his psychic onslaught is just warping the hell out of the ground he’s standing on. I might make his eyes a little freakier, but for now? He’s good.
Warboss
He’s freaking huge. And such a cool sculpt. I put a lot of rust on the command models, just to make them look like they’ve been hauling that gear about for a while. I went ahead and made his look positively corroded. I’m really happy with the result!
I just realized that I forgot to photograph the Big Boss, so I’ll get him posted up tomorrow, possibly with the Wartrack and Big Mek Dakkarig! Happy Orktober, everyone!
I don’t know if I have ADHD in real life, but in my hobby life I tick every damned box. I struggle to stay focused on any one project for more than a week, and I start getting antsy and resentful when I DO manage to buckle down longer than usual. Luckily, our hobby spoils us for choice, so those moments of crazed manic outbursts tend to be short.
I do, however, get cranky, too. When responding to Kuribo on my previous post, I appear to be really angry at the Ork project that I wanted to finish before the end of October, being Orktober and hoping to ride that wave of themed-project goal endorphins into the next month.
Well, I might still make it. But, to keep myself from going insane and binning the entire project right when it was getting close, I decided to take a couple of days to distract myself with other stuff.
Old World Wood Elves
One of the classic armies from Warhammer Fantasy that I always wanted to paint up, and I managed to get a pretty good deal on a sizable number of the old model range. They’re really showing their age, but I really love taking that trip to nostalgia land. The first thing I finished up was a test model for my Glade Guard:
While I was working that out, I remembered that I have some Warhammer Quest models that haven’t done anything but sit in boxes for a while, and decided that needed to change. The first one done is the Elf Outcast from Cursed City, and I decided to paint and base her to be a Waystalker for the army. I freaking LOVE this model!
This centaur is another cool mini from the Darkwater box, and he’ll be leading my Glade Riders. I think both of these models will go a long way towards adding some variation to the army, and the autumnal theme will help them stand out a little (although a ton of people are doing autumnal wood elves right now).
Fantasy Skirmish
Bren Tylis is a knight from the Darkwater box, and I love how disheveled she looks. Like she’s been on the road for ages and can’t be bothered to fix her armor because there’s too many monsters to kill. I painted her to look like she’s given everything a fresh scrub before entering the city, inspired by Ser Duncan always cleaning up before entering the lists on Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
She’ll be another good mini for my fantasy skirmish collection, which will be used for Pulp Alley, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, Frostgrave, and Black Death City/Mordheim. That’s a lot of utility for one miniature!
Now, I need to buckled down and finish these orks before Saturday night! I have three Grots and four big command models to knock out, and maybe I’ll get the half-track and stomper finished if I really focus!
Actually, I needed a break from greenskins. My plan is to still have 100% of my current 40k Ork army painted and ready to rock by the end of October.
That leaves me half a squad of grots, a Painboy, a Weirdboy, a Bannaboy, a boss, a half-track, and a walker to finish in two weeks, but they’re all in some state of painted, so that shouldn’t be impossible!
With travel, my birthday, and some home repairs behind me, I should be able to lock in! First, though, I needed a palette cleanser.
I’ve been collecting Star Wars: Legion models pretty much since they came out, but I’ve also been selling off that collection pretty much since they came out as well. I decided to stop doing that, stop whining about the rules to the game that I don’t care about, and just paint cool Star Wars minis. Plus, with Pulp Alley, I have some ideas for a cool themed campaign I can run with the models as I finish them!
Anyone who has read Michael Stackpole’sRogue Squadron books knows how good they are, and with those novels as inspiration, I’m building a Rogue Squadron crew. This will be some of the characters from the books, plus a few of my own for fun. My first three characters are going to be on a covert ops mission to get some information on an Imperial Remnant group and what nefarious plans they have in the ruins of a city that was bombed out during the Siege of Lothal.
A recurring character in the Rogue Squadron books and comics, Ardele was instrumental in training rebel pilots in Imperial TIE fighter combat tactics. While never having actually enlisted in the Academy, she was trained heavily by her planetary militia, which used Imperial gear and munitions to prepare their best and brightest for service.
For game purposes she’s a Sidekick level character, which means she’s better than average, but not the biggest ass kicker out there. I wanted her brawling and shooting skills to be better than most, with strong cunning. She’s also pretty agile from her Imperial training, and can lay down burst fire in a gunfight.
This miniature is from the Rebel Operatives pack, and with blonde hair she’ll make a good miniature for Feylis.
Rook Ty’Fekk
Rook is my own creation and does not feature at all in existing Star Wars lore. He’s a Duros operative working Outer Rim missions for the New Republic, and in this case is helping Ardele search the ruins on Lothal.
Rook is an Ally level character, a little better than average shot due to his training. I’m using him as a sniper type to help Feylis stay safe while checking objectives.
Bait
B8-C4 is Ardele’s astromech droid, and has joined her on her mission after securing their X-Wing in the nearby forests. “Bait” doesn’t understand his nickname, and it appears that Feylis only uses it as a joke… although she does tend to send him out ahead of her to scout things out quite a bit.
Bait is a follower, pretty much average in all things. He doesn’t have any brawling ability, but has better than average dodge and finesse. He’ll run objectives and try not to get blasted.
I had to come up with B8 on my own since I couldn’t find any mention of her actual astromech unit. I still have the books, but I’m not quite ready to buckle down and read them all right now!
Gamma Squad
The Imperial Remnants left a small detachment of scouts behind to patrol the ruins, and they will stay hidden for the most part and only engage if the primary objective is uncovered by the Rogues.
In game the troopers are armored, which means they’re slower but a little more resilient in battle. They’re all Ally level characters, and I’ll be bringing in another trooper with Marksman and a Sidekick to lead them. There’s a team perk that lets you bring more level one and two characters and have them lead by a Sidekick character, which I’ll be doing.
I’m going to save the actual mission for the battle so that it maintains a little bit of mystery, but that should be done within the week!
