Grots

 

Every Ork army should have a few Grots.

These guys are only 3 points a model, and a scoring troops choice.

A minimum squad of 10 models, with their Runtherd is just 40 points, which is a great cheap option for sitting on your own board edge claiming objectives in your own deployment zone, and of course they are really fun models as well.

I enjoyed painting these guys, and i used the same system of a yellow undercoat (Daemonic Yellow from Army Painter) I used a Sepia Wash on yellow, and picked out the metal with Lead Belcher with a black wash. Their skin is much lighter so I gave it a single wash of Biel Tan Green ink.

They turned out really well, were so much fun to paint and I know will find a place in my army lists so I’m very pleased

Ork Deffkoptas

 

I do love the plastic Black Reach Deffkoptas.

If you have a look at my list you will see I have eight of them to paint, and I’ve painted my first four, which gives me a minimum sized squad to field in my games.

I used the Daemonic Yellow Army Painter spray for the undercoat again with the Strong Tone  wash from Army Painter. Then I used two Biel Tan green washes for the skin and picked out he metal and teeth and some patches of blue as per usual.

They turned out pretty well I think, one thing I had to do was mend the broken flying bases. Anyone who knows GW flying bases will know they can be brittle and snap off in the model. SO for a couple of these I have drilled the base and used some wire from a paper-clip to replace the flying base stem. They work quite well I think.

I’m very happy and I look forward to painting the next four.

Dark Vengeance: Interrogator Chaplain

 

This model was an absolute pleasure to paint.

My friend Jim gave me the Dark Angel models from the Dark Vengeance box set, and part of that was the limited edition Chaplain.

All the models from this set are so nicely modelled that it’s great to paint them.

I went fro a simple paint scheme and I think he turned out really well.

The smoke wasn’t hard to paint, and I was a bit worried about painting it, but I decided to go for simple white/grey smoke  rather than something crazy.

Again a very enjoyable model to paint.

The State of Play

With only a couple of months to go till we are officially one year into my ‘Clean Slate Challenge’ I wanted to have a quick look at how things stand at the moment with my list, and see how I’ve progressed so far.

So first off let’s have a look at what I have painted so far, I think it’s quite impressive:

 Painted so far

2 Cyclone Missile Launchers

1 Azrael

4 Twin linked Lascannons for Razorbacks.

1 Dreadnaught

1 Leman Russ Conqueror Turret

1 War Mammoth

1 Mephiston

1 Chaplain Cassius

1 Asmodai

3 Scouts with Heavy Bolters

1 Scout with Missile Launcher

1 Chaplain

1 Scout Sergeant

14 Terminators

12 Forgefathers Heat Cannons

12 Forgefathers HailStorm Cannons

1 Scribor ‘Napoleon’ Space Dwarf

5 Forgefather Squad Leaders

1 Scribor Space Dwarf

11 Assault Marines with Jump Pack

1 Librarian

19 Assault Marines

5 Scouts from Advanced Space Crusade

7 Scout Snipers

29 orks

1 nob

1 Ghazghkull

1 Marauder Warlord

29 Ork Slugga Boys

1 Nob

1 Big Mek

1 Weirdboy

10 Tactical Marines

3 Grmyn

5 Deathwing Terminators

1 Kosoro Khan

1 Interrogator Chaplain

7 Warbosses

4 Lootas

14 Grots

1 Squig

3 Orks with Big Shooters

22 Shooter Boys

5 Slugga Boys

4 Defkopta

1 Runtherd

So my maths may be off a bit but I reckon that’s around 260 models painted, so an average of 26 models a month; that means I painted on average 1 a day, if I take the weekends off from painting. I think that’s pretty good progress as I haven’t dropped my quality by that much. I freely admit that I’m not painting all these models to the very best of my ability, but I am making an effort to keep them at a reasonable level of quality, as I don’t want to finish and then be too embarrassed to put them on the board, or have to go back and do them all over again.

Now you may have also noticed I’ve included the models I’ve painted but have yet to put up on the site. This is because about half way through the year I was contacted by 40K Global and asked to contribute to their Age of Armies campaign. This is where I paint new units for my army every month, and write a report on my growing army. I’ve promised the guys I will let them have first dibs on my reports, so I post them on their site first and then on my site here. This has led to a bit of a back log on posting my Orks, because basically I’ve been painting faster than I’ve been writing, but I’ve included them here for accuracy.

I also gave gifted some models to friends, now this breaks the rules I set out at the beginning, but hey rules are there to be broken. At this point I really just want to get them all completed so helping a friend out , or giving someone a model as a birthday present doesn’t seem that bad to me right now.

So far I have gifted these:

Gifted

1 Pedro Kantor

1 Valhalln Captain

2 Catachan Missile Launchers

4 Catcahan Loaders

10 Valhallans

10 IG troopers

So that’s the good news, now let’s have a little look a what’s left to be completed: 

To Paint

Grey Knight (25)

4 Grey Knight

3 Incinerators

4 Psycannon Grey Knights

3 Justicar

1 Brother Captain Stern

1 Cherub

1 Imperial Missionary

8 Hasslefree Minis

Space Marine (12)

3 Ravenwing Bikes

1 Commander

1 Dark Angel Captain

1 Space Marine Captain

3 Space Marine Sergeants

1 Librarian

1 Marine Standard Bearer

1 Chaplain on a Bike

Random (11)

1 Grima Wormtongue

1 Cthulhu

5 Drakkarim (warpath)

4 Scrunts with Daschunds

Orks (48)

1 Ork Bike

16 Slugga Boys

12 Storm Boys

2 Burna Boys

4 Defkopta

2 Nobz

11 Lootas

This is a total of 96 models left to paint from the list.

I have painted (or gifted) 280 so far.

This means I’m at 74.46% completion.

I really wanted to finish this project in a year, and back in October that seemed like a real possibility, however realistically I don’t think that will happen. I have two months to paint 90 figures, which is possible but unlikely as I’m finding it hard to find the time right now to paint even one model. I think I will try to get all the Orks finished, that’s a target I can aim for and probably complete. They are the biggest part of the remaining models, so finishing them would be a good milestone. I didn’t have any Orks painted when I started the Clean Slate Challenge, and now I have around 2,000 points of painted Orks to take the field, which I feel is a real achievement.

The other bits shouldn’t take to long to complete; the Grey Knights and Space Marines should be easy, leaving a few odds and ends to paint. A good push for the next 3 -4 months would probably do it,

So I guess in summary the project has been a success as my model collection hasn’t been growing for the last 10 months, and it feels really good to field the freshly painted models. Some models like the Space Marine Scouts have become favourite units, and others see less use. As I said before I have a Ork army now which is painted yellow a colour I never thought I would master; I was always terrified of the sheer number of models I would have to paint.

I’ve noticed that my painting has improved, my brush control is much better than 10 months ago. It’s nice to see the development, and I’m not necessarily better just faster, my blending hasn’t suddenly become awesome,,but I can do the basics really quickly. This is a nice little extra on top of getting all the models painted.

I still plan to have a big game/party when I finish the challenge, and I will keep you posted on that as we get closer to the end of my challenge.  I wish I had a bit more of the enthusiasm I started with as I’m a bit tired of painting all the time (especially when the weather is so hot) and I feel guilty if I haven’t been painting. I feel I’vemade real progress and lets see how I get on in the next two months.

Happy Birthday to Me

 

 

So I’ve had another birthday, and for the first time ever I was hoping I wouldn’t get any new miniatures (not really).

Most of my friends and family know I play miniature games, so I can usually expect a couple of nice new toys for my birthday, and this year I was not disappointed.

Firstly my daughter picked me up some Ork Lootas, which is brilliant as they are exactly what I needed to finish off the unit of ten Lootas I’ve already got . So that was a win straight off.

Next my mate James picked me up some new miniatures of Space Dwarves with dachshunds (yes you read that right), by the great Bob Olley.

Check out his Scrunts on his website:

http://www.olleysarmies.co.uk/home.html

Some of you will know I have a Forge Father army, which I use as proxy Space Wolves, and I will use these guys as something cool in my army. What I will us e them for in the army is another question as yet unanswered.

James also gave me some brush restorer and preserver cream, called the Original B&J “The Masters” Brush and Cleaner & Preserver:

http://www.generalpencil.com/index.cfm?page=content&cid=10

 

 Now I’m not the best at looking after my brushes, I freely admit that, so I’m looking forward to giving the old sticks a bit of TLC and seeing how the brush restoring cream does.

I’m going to add the new miniatures to the big list, so I think I’m now about 75% of the way through the list

As I said previously I have been working a lot on my Orks at the moment, but I promised BJ and the boys at 40K Global that I would let them have first show for all the models I paint for their AOA challenge. So don’t think I haven’t been working away there are many more Orks to come, and I look forward to posting them up.