Status update, Orks and Ogors mostly

I don't have any pictures to show off for this update, but there has been some progress in the hobby room since I last posted here. 

The biggest updates are on the looted Cargo-8 for my Ork Waaagh. It is almost ready for the tabletop now, as a transport of some kind. The Cargo-8 is mostly painted up, I am missing the wheels, the cago container (the flatbed is done though) and just a few details (like the teeth) on the Ork driver and his companion Grot. I managed to squeeze the grot in beside the driver where the gunner usually would be, so now he points forward while looking at the driver. I like the pointing Grot, and I hope to make some other versions of him for future builds. The body is from the Ogor Gluttons box where he is standing lookout on the platform on top of the banner (if you choose to use that option). Since I have some banners where this option isn't used I have some spare. I plan to use this body with a fitting head in future projects as well. I don't remember in what set I found the head for this Grot, it just sort of lay around in my Ork bitz boxes. Hopefully I will manage to finish painting this model next week as I have a day off on Thursday.

I have also assembled a unit of six Ogor Gluttons with command. Since my first box of theese has a banner with both a lookout and a horned skull, I only used the horned skull for this icon bearer. I also found a different head for the bellower so he didn't end up identical to the one from my first unit.

My plan is to assemble one more Ogor unit and then prime them and add them to the pile of unfinished Ogors I already have on my desk (but I might make two boxes as well once I start).

I went with snow bases back when I originally made the unit that I have given a new skintone, and I have no interest in cutting them off their bases and making new. So instead I decided to try and make them look a bit more detailed, as just plain white snow looks a little dull. So I have started to experiment with adding some contrast paint to make patches of ice, and then I plan to add a new layer of snow on top to blend it in. On some of the bases for the bigger figures in the army (like Stonehorns and Thundertusks) I would like to add some mud as well (still with a little snow on top), to tie the army closer together with the other AoS armies I have. They will also get the green rim around the base as that is something I do for all my AoS minis.

I have started to paint my Witch hunters Galen and Dora ven Denst for my Cities of Sigmar army, and so far I have finished their coats and Doras classic hat. I decided to paint it in brown to give it a tough leather look instead of the classic black that the old witch hunters wore. They will not b in uniform, so I am a bit more free when it comes to painting their clothes.

The Walpurgian 3rd has also gotten some love, I have not gotten around to paint the big guns yet (they are primed and ready to paint), but I have started to paint the Castellan and the Commissar from the new release and the plan is to paint the Castellan with a light skintone and Commisar with the same skintone as I use for my Ogors for AoS. Then I will see if I can "sneak" in some more units with a darker skintone as an army with just one skintone might look a little dull. Since the Walpurgian have integrated other units in to their army over time then that is a good back story for different skintones, and Commissars rarely come from the same planet as the units they serve with so that is yet another good argument to paint him different from the other units. 

I've also started to think of unit markings for my armies. I think I know how I want to make unit markings from the Gatekeepers (my Space Marine chapter) and the Walpurgian 3rd, and I have started to think of how to do it for my Votann and Mechanicus armies.

Ork Looted Cargo-8 Ridgehauler is completed

The looted Cargo-8 Ridgehauler is done for now. I could not fit a gunner in the front compartment, so I am thinking of trying to add something on the roof, but that will come as a future improvement. 

I am very happy with the driver. He was made from spare bitz from my boxes. I think his head and torso is from one of the ork flyers, and I belive his right arm is from a biker and I have no idea where the left is from. I'm thinking someone carrying a two handed weapon. The arms doesn't really fit as well as I was hoping, but the most important thing was to get them on as they won't be very visible once the roof is on.

I think the Driver should have some sort of assistant and I found this Grot body in my Ogor bitz and a head among my Orky bitz so I decided that he could get the job. Not sure why he is pointing the way he does (well as a matter of fact I do as he originally stands on  lookout-platform on top of a banner pole) or even if he will be standing in that seat or on the other side. If I get him on the other side he points out the direction the wagon is going so tht might be nice, so I will see what I can do. I will paint both him and the driver compartment before I glue him in anyway.

Here are the details of the left and right side showing how I glued the front pice of the battle wagon on to this. The plates are spares from some Imperial Guard vehicle, I think it is the Chimera. I had three plates that I glued together and then cut them in half to get one for each side. With a little modification on the connection of that battle wagon front it fit rght in. 

Before I fitted everything I also wanted to make an Ork gunner to stand in the gunners position, but it turned out the driver Ork was so broad shouldered that he couldn't fit after all. Still this must be the tallest, slimmest ork of the lot. I took him apart again after so I can use the torso for something else, and maybe I can glue the back on to the legs again and build the gunner like he was supposed to be built so I can use him for another project in the future.

My plan now is to paint the model up. It has 8 wheels so that means it must be fast, so becaiuse of that I will paint it red  as that is the right color for a fast vehicle. I will paint some of the sides, the cabin and the "plow" red with some rust and bare metal showing to make it look like some of the paint has been worn off. The chassis under the cargo container or flatbed will be painted in darker metal, also with some rust, an I plan to use either grey or dark green on the fenders on the back. They will also be rusted up.

Looted Cargo-8 Ridgehauler almost compltely built

I have done some more bulding today, and the Cargo-8 Ridgehauler that has been looted by the Orks is almost done. I am missing the crew, and I plan to go look for that in my storage unit tomorrow. I will need to cut up some Orks no matter what I find, as their legs are to wide to fit inside the cockpit. I tried today to place one of the gunners from the Battle wagon on the side of the gunner for this set, and his left leg ended up in the middle of the driver's seat. So either I must have a Grot crew driving and defending this wagon, or I must reposition the legs of some Boyz. Maybe I take an Ork gunner and driver and a Grot co-pilot. I will see what I find. 

I got the idea to take a Deffkopta pilot to drive the Cargo-8 as I had a box handy, but the pilots were attached to the Deffkopta so it would have to be a lot of cutting and also it would leve a unit one pilot short so I decided against it. 

This is what a standard Cargo-8 Ridgehauler looks like without a crew. The spikes can be left off if one chooses, but I think in hostile terrain having sort of a battering ram would come in handy. And since the special Battle wagon front fits outside it I decided to put it on. I also glued on the lights as they fit with the front as well.

Here I have placed the front, but it is not glued on. It stands on the ground in this picture, but it will be raised a little higher so that the top of the plow will stick to the bottom of the headlights. 

This is another challenge that needs to be solved. It turns out the front is just a little thinner than the Battle wagon, so the plow doesn't attach against the sides of the Cargo-8, but I plan to fix that by cutting up some spare vehilcle parts from my bitz boxes and glue it on to the sides to block it out, I figure that would be something the Ork Meks would do, not caring that much about estethics but more about function. I think I know what parts to use as well, so that will be done tomorrow. Then I will add the ladder parts above to hide the holes on the driver side of the vehicle where the ladder is supposed to be.

The Cargo-8 comes in two configurations. One with a flatbed and one with a container. I was thinking to use the container for this vehicle, but now I'm not so sure. This is what it looks like with the container standing on top of the flatbed, but I am thinking I might have both unglued so I can swap beween them.

Here is the container seen from the top. As one can see there are hatches on top of the container, and it is designed so that you can add gun turrets on top of those hatchs and get more firepower. I think the Orks would like that, but then I think I will need the turret parts from a Battle wagon or a plane to get the right size for an Ork or Grot gunner to work the turret mounted weapons. 

This is what the vehicle looks like with the flatbed. It is quite a bit of room, so if I choose to keep this modular and not glue it in place, I can add some sort of gun on this platform. Forgeworld has something called an Ork Supa Cannon that I think would look geat on this, but I might also be able to use a Mek gun (I have several that is still in ther boxes on sprues in storage either at my storage unit or at my cabin) or I might even design my own sort of scrap cannon. Maybe if I find an altrnative gun-arm for a Stompa, I could use the huge gunbarrel that works as an arm on the regular Stompa as the barrel of a self made gun. I am alredy thinking on trying to find an alternative arm for the one that will get the long bellygun, so I will see what I come up with, and I do love to make veird conversions so this could be an interesting challenge...

Some Orky goodness in progress...

A while back while being in my local Games Workshop store I started to talk with one of the staff members about making one of my Cargo-8 Ridgehaulers in to something else. We talked about entering them into the Astra Militatum as suppport vehicles and I might do that but I think it can be done without any real conversion work, It can probably be done with a paintjob and by changing the drivers and the gunners to troopers by using Astra Militrum body parts. Since I have three Cargo-8 Ridgehaulers one could serve with the Astra Militarum, one could be a regular "civilian" wagon train on regular duty, and the third would be converted to the Orks. We talked about how the front that is used for the Gun Wagon and Battle Wagon might look cool as a front on a looted Cargo-8. So this is what I will do with this one. I just tried to see if the pieces for the front would fit, and it looks like it will fit quite well and maybe just with some minor modifications, so I am exited to see what I can make of it. This is where I am so far...   

The next step will be to start buiding the driver cabin, and I will have to see how much I can buld before I have to put some Orks inside. I will see what I have avilable in my bitz boxes or in other sets that won't be needed there. If I don't find anyone I will have to try and find what set that has figures I can use an buy that when I can afford it. 

Right now I am thinking I might need a figure from one of the planes or from one of the wagons. If I have to use one from the planes it would have to be the pilot and that mean that I would have a plane without a pilot so that would mean that I would have to try and build a big double plane that has one cockpit to control it and maybe one cockpit tht serve other purposes. If I use a figure from one of the wagons I could take one of the figures ment to sit in one of the towers as yo uprobably would not see the legs anyway. Or I could just take a regular Ork boy and cut him up maybe. That would certainly be the cheapest optian and might also be the best if I could find a way to do it. I think I will take a trip to my storage unit tomorrow and see what I have there. 

I will post more pictures of the process of the conversion as wok goes forward, and I will also post pictures of my second Ork conversion project that I plan to start shortly. I have a Stompa that I plan to convert with a belly gun and maybe some other conversions too as I plan to do something with the arms to make them different from the arms I have on my finished Stompa (Da Punisha). I wil make the chainsword arm into an arm firing a big flamer of some sort, and I have to figure something out for the big gun that works as a left arm on the Stompa set. I have a Forgeworld arm (grabba arm I think it's called), but I plan to use that for my third Stompa. So I will see what I can figure out.

New figures to paint

I have assembled a few figures lately. The first two are stand alone figures from the new Astra Militarum range, and will serve with the Valpurgian 3rd. The first one is a Commissar. He is standing with his trusty chainsword by his side, and it looks like he is about ro raise or lower his boltgun. 

The second figure is the new Cadian Castellan. I am very happy that Games Workshop has given us four different heads and several weapon options for this figure so there is no need to make any Castellan in the army the same. I am not 100% sure what the exact combat role of a Castellan is, so I do not know how many I will need in my army but that is one thing I will read up on in the rulebook and decide on.

I have given this Castellan a plasma pistol and a chainsword. I like chainswords a lot, as they look scary and at the same time they are easier to paint up to look good compared to a powersword that I usually only get to look like a regular sword. 

This figure has a scenic base that is made in such a way that the figure can't stand  on his own feet unless he is glued to the base. But the base is made in such a way that I can modify it a bit to make it look slightly different for the different Castellans.

The next two figures came in one box, and are for Age of Sigmar, for my Cities of Sigmar army. They are the Witch hunters Galen and Doralia ven Denst, a father and daugher duo. 

They will not be painted up in uniform, but will instead have leather coats and Doralia will have a leather hat or maybe it will be black to add some more color. They will probbly work as a separate unit.

summary of the week

This week I've been a little all over the place.

I started last week with a Field Ordnance Barttery, and finished building and priming it this week. I had hoped I could build them with 5 troops and 1 sergeant, but there were not enough arm-options for regular troops to do this so I had to make one sergeant for each gun. That means a big unit will have 6 sergeants unless I can find some arms that I can use in the regular infantryboxes with the new guard models or with the upgrade sprue that I will have go get anyway as I would love the arms holding wrenches to field as crew for my revcovery vehicle. But even if I can make some changes in future sets so I only have one sergeant for every second gun I have come to the conclusion that I will need to make some Ensigns (2nd Lieutennants) to take command of a battery of six guns as that is how I would love to field my guns. I would love to add some kind of unit markings on these guns, especially on the Bombast gun and the heavy las-cannon as they have quite big shields in front that would look rather monotone if I just paint them in black. I am thinking of painting the front shield black and the reas of the gun Mechanicus standard gray as that will match with my tanks. Then I plan to add a vertical stripe of a brighter color as a unit marking on the guns on one side of the shield just like Games Workshop has done in many of the pictures in the rulebook. I will also bring my tanks home from storage just to add the same vertical stipes in the front on each side of the tanks.

I primed up my Lord Castellan Ursula Creed that I talked about in an earlier post. I look forward to getting her on the battlefield in the future. I managed to get her primed separately from the base, so that I can paint both to a good standard (at least for me) before I glue them together. I think I know what colors to use on most of her details, so it is just a matter of getting started.

For Age of Sigmar I primed up the unit of Ironguts and I have also started to paint them and has gotten the first layer of skin color on. Interestingly, I see that Games Workshop now has that unit marked as "Sold out - no longer available online" on their web page and this is a little weird. I am quite sure they are in the new rulebook and will continue to be a unit, so it will be interesting to see what they will do. Usually when they mark them like that it means the unit is going out of production, but it could be that they will release them again in a new packaging. I hope so, as I would love to have more of them as I love their armored heads. 

The final model I have primed this week is the Squigboss with Gnasha squig (ot the seeing-eye squig as I think it looks like with the harness) and I already know how I will paint this model as I have a planned scheme for all my Gloomspite Gitz. 

When I had painted the first layer of skin on my Ironguts I wanted to sit and work more with minis that day, but didn't really feel like painting more so I decided to start on a unit I haven't built before.
I started to build a Leviathan Dreadnought with ranged weapons. Interestingly Games Workshop lists this as both a Leviathan Dreadnought and a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought, but it looks like it is the exact same model with the exact same weapon options. I have two of this unit and one Close combat one, so I look forward to adding them to the Gatekeepers in due time. My idea is to try and weather them a bit by stipling some metal color on the blue paint so that they look their age while still looks like they are being well taken care of. Since they are relics from the Horus Heresy and I plan to have them in my 40K army I think this is only fitting. And if I should play a game of 30K then it just looks like they have been in combat and seen some action and I think these Dreads probaly would be where the fighting is most intense so it would work well there too. 

I haven't yet decided on what weapon options to give them, apart from the very cool four barreled Storm Cannon. There is a Cyclonic melta lance and a Grav-flux bombard to choose from, so I will read a little bit in the rule books to see what the different weapons do and how they seem to work on a field of battle, and either I find that one is so much better than the other that I need to take it for both, or I will make one of each. But I love the look of the Storm cannon, so both of them will field that but I think one would have it on the right arm and the other on the left just for the diversity. I might consider getting a third in the future and give it two Storm cannons just because I think it would look really scary, but I will read the rules and see if that is a legal option first. Also I nned to get the model and an extra weapons sprue first. 

The Leviathan is rather massive and big compared to a regular dreadnought, but still I though they would be even bigger looking at pictures of them. But I haven't placed them beside a Contemptor or a regualr old-style box yet so I might change my mind on them whan I do that nce they are fully assembled. I will post a picture in here for comparison when I do that. 

So far the Leviathan has the legs and most of the torso assembled, so I need to finish the top and back of the torso and add the arms and weapons an then glue it all together. I amsure it will look awesome, and I hope my painting will do it justice. 

A little Astra Militarum update

At the moment I am working on building my first Field Ordnance Battery unit for the Walpurgian 3rd. This is basically artillery pieces mounted on wheels that needs to be pulled in to battle. This is the biggestweapons the Walpurgian 3rd has that is not self propelled.

At the moment I have two sets (each set has two artillery pieces), but I know I will get more over time. This is a new set for this year for the Astra Militarum, so I don't yet know how it is best to field them but that is something I am working on finding out. They come with three different options: Bombast field guns (basically a regular cannon), Malleus rocket launcher (multiple barrels) and a heavy lascannon (looks like it is a bigger version of the lascannon you get with the heavy weapon squads). Each cannon has a crew of 3 with a loader, a spotter and a gunner. The two teams form what is called a Field Ordnance Battery. 

What I am trying to find out is how many sergeants you have in a unit. Is it one for each gun, or is it one for each battery? And do you usually field two similar artillery pieces in a battery, or do you field two different set-ups? I am leaning towards fielding two artillery pieces with the same set-up as one unit, and put one sergeant in charge of that unit. Then I will eventually (as I get more guns) put up to 3 batteries together as one bigger unit with a Veteran sergeant (or any other sergent rank) in charge of 6 artillery pieces and their 3 regular sergeants. But I will see as I build the crew for the first unit if I find out something more about this. I might also ask my friendly Warhammer store staff if they know.

So far I have built the two cannons of the first battery and their gunners. I have made one Bombast and one Malleus and I plan to build the same setup for the second batch. Then when I get a third box I will make two heavy lascannons. Next time I get to sit down and work on my minis will be on Friday, and then I will build the rest of the crew. 

I mentioned earlier that I have built Usula Creed, and I am also trying to find out how I will field her in the army. My highest ranking officer is the figure for Usaker E. Creeed and I plan to keep it that way, but I would like to have Ursula in a regular sot as a high ranking officer, then if I shuld happen to play an official tournament or something (not very likely) then she can be the general. I might make her as Major Belle Boyd, the commander for the 2nd Armored artillery units, if not I will have to think up a higher ranking officer position where I can put her.