Monday, January 30, 2012

More Bad Moons WIP

From Mars' Project Blog
Last week was busy in my non-hobby world, meaning slow within my hobby world. Even still, I was able to make some progress on the small batch of boyz I have been working on. Painting seven models at a time is seeming rather daunting, which doesn't bode well for my intended push of 20 models at a time for the next mob. I will move up gradually one more time before taking the bull by the horns.

One nice thing about building models is that I can be far more mobile in doing it than when I paint. I was able to cobble together the Nob squad I wanted to run, largely in part to a generous donation of kombi-shootas from Brian Haler. They were assembled almost entirely during the viewing of Burn Notice with my wife, via Netlfix's streaming service.
From Mars' Project Blog

I liked the idea of my Nobs being shooty rather than chopp because there is a very heavy shooting element to my ork army. Furthermore it seems to fit in alright with the Bad Moons theme. I had a great deal of fun putting together my Pain Boy, Dr. J. G. Matthews, OMD. Although not a very orkish name, it?, he? does take his/its namesake from a very generous and incredibly inspiring person who has made this ork project possible. Dr. Matthews, so enamored of the way Space Marine apothecaries are able to heal the Angels of Death, he has decided to emulate them, in order to better patch up his boyz.
From Mars' Project Blog

Thanks for reading,
T

Monday, January 23, 2012

Bad Moons Boyz Test Complete +

All in all, these three models weighed in about 6 hours. Not bad for my slow-painting ways. I would hope that that with practice I can get it down to less than 2 hours a model. The build on the black parts/pants went rally quickly, as I just highlighted it up with a mix of khaki, followed by straight khaki. I have already started on the next group.

I played in a team tournament this last weekend with Tallarn from Still Practicing. It is always a good time playing with or against him. The game table at my house has developed something of a reputation for hating me, well specifically my dice. I am not much of a believer in bad dice. They happen, so do good dice. You will pretty much see what ever you are looking for, luck wise, if your are in the frame of mind that your dice are good or bad. Furthermore, I have a little bit of a dice obsession...
I am sure there are people who have many more. But I have my fair share. I refuse to believe that they all suck on my table. Even still, Tallarn was unwilling to risk my multitude of "bad dice", or the off chance that it was just my table that hated me. When I arrived he handed me these:
I was confused but enthusiastic. I mean they were dice, and I always need more dice. But, according to Tallarn, these dice were unlike any I had, outside of color/design, because these dice were blessed. To hear him tell it, no kidding blessed. Like they were purchased in Germany and blessed at a Belgian monastery before being sent over to him. I am not sure on the logistics, but either way it was pretty awesome.

So how did the blessed dice work? Friggin' awesome! Our poor turn two opponents could only shake their heads as I rolled ten "5ups" on twelve dice. Be it divine, or the fact that is was all BS and I just had the plastic cube equivalent of Dumbo's feather, the dice were going crazy. I am a firm believer in averages, so to anyone out there who rolled a lot of crap this weekend, I am sorry. I was riding the high side of the curve. Thanks for taking one for the team and riding the low side of the curve in order to keep the universe in balance.

Tallarn and I didn't win. We were five points out or something, though I still got a prize.

Thanks for reading,
T

Friday, January 20, 2012

Bad Moon Boyz Yellow

Getting pretty close to finishing this lot. Just the black areas left. I am not sure I am sold on the yellow, weird I know. I really like the color, but I may try working the tone something brighter and warmer. The real hurdle was whether or not I could pull off a quick weathering technique I envisioned and be happy with?

A canny viewer will notice that the sword choppa looks wonkey, weathering wise. That was where I started, and I realized I was doing the technique backwards. Pro, I know. After I got my mind right I was able to accomplish what I was trying in a short amount of time. Hoping it will get better with practice, but it suffices for now.

So will I go back and fix that sword-choppa? Almost certainly not. It will be one boy in a mob of at least twenty. Got to keep moving forward. Backward be damned!

Thanks for reading,
T

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Bad Moon Boyz Continued

Keeping on keeping on with the boyz.

I upped the presence of metallics a little from my original base color. I am striving for more menace than comedy with my Ork horde. Between the severe shading and metallics it might give me a leg up in this attempt. I relied heavily on some washes in order to accomplish this in a "quick" fashion. I feel like it is just enough to add interest, but will not be overwhelming within a horde in effort or appearance. The washes were as follows:

"Silver" metallic areas- Based in Boltgun Metal, washed with 1:1:1 Chaos Black/ Badab Black/ Water, washed the recess with Scorched Brown, washed recesses again with Vermin Brown, and finally highlighted with Chainmail.

Bronze metallic areas- Based in Tin Bitz, raised areas painted with Dwarf Bronze, recesses washed with 1:1 Dark Angels Green/ Hawk Turquoise, and finally highlighted with Chainmail.

That is where we are at for the moment. Eager to get back to them, though I have a feeling I will be spending a few hours behind a snow-blower this week.

Thanks for reading,
T






Monday, January 16, 2012

Bad Moon Boyz

This holiday season an amazing person, whose generosity is pretty much boundless, ended up hooking me up with a bunch of Orks. It came at an interesting time, as I have decided that this year I will focus all my efforts into painting a 2,000 point army. Of course I would come to that decision when the edition I have been playing unpainted for fiver or so years is coming to a close. So, Orks it is. Why Bad Moons, well the wife picked the klan, and my daughter's favorite color is yellow, though she is just shy of two so I imagine that will change at some point.

In order to do Orks, I needed to be able to paint green skin. I just tried a scheme straight from a few GW tutorials.
Right now the shaded areas look really severe to me, so I will be curious to see if it is still as severe when the other colors are brought up. I decided to use a fleshy tone for the lips just to break up the green.
If you know me, or have followed my blog, you may be thinking, "Why is the world's slowest painter painting Orks!?"

My retort to the doubter is, "You're right. It is a crap idea. Wish me luck."

Thanks for reading,
T