Ork Truk Part.....Uhh..It's Done?

Well, I've a little bit of touch up and detailing to do and I'm intending to add some additional weathering too. However, I'm at the point where I'm not sure what I want to do and the things I'm trying aren't giving me the result that I want. Generally speaking, that's a pretty good indication that it's time to put the model down, do some research and playing around and come back later when things are fresher. The fact that the model is quite table worthy at this point helps too.









The nice thing is that I actually learned a fair bit from this model. Prior to the Trukk, the largest and most complicated thing I'd painted was a Deff Dread. More pieces to this one definitely and painting in stages and assembling is definitely worth while. The lessons though are pretty simple. First, larger brushes are good on larger models (yeah, yeah, shocking I know) and I've the feeling that a larger dry brush would have been handy here. Second, the layered approach I used (doing the metal and then the red paint job) worked, but I really need to start painting chips and things like that since it's far more efficient. Finally, the weathering with salt bit didn't work for me. Admittedly, I tried it late one evening and opted to go from memory. I'll have to reread the article on Brush Thralls and give it another go at some point.

At any rate, that's the Trukk. My next bit of work will be an objective marker I started for Sean last year. After all of those bits and pieces, I'm going to do something simpler. I'll probably try some free hand work on this one though.

Ork Trukk Part 3ish - Most of the Rest of It

Well, it seems I've done the same thing here I usually wind up doing when I do project logs. I always seem to have a section where I do a fair bit without documenting it. Such is life.

Moving right along, I've had the majority of the Trukk assembled for a couple of days. I wound up reassembling some parts today when I added in the turret mount. I'm not sure what's more annoying, the fact that the images in the assembly guide are flipped or that it took me this long to realize it. At any rate, the Trukk is pretty much done in a bare metal finish. I've got to add the crew and essentially the 'fixins' such as boarding planks, rams, etc.

From there, I'm thinking I'll go with a weathered Evil Sunz paint job, then apply sufficient blue to use it as a looted Trukk for my Death Skullz. I've applied salt water to several sections of the panels with the intention of painting over and then stripping the areas off to create a chipped paint effect. I'll have to see how that one turns out. If anyone is curious about the technique, I found it here: www.brushthralls.com.

Today was a 1850 point tourney at the Gamer's Lair. Since I'm finally back in Barrie, Sean and I made our lists, packed up our armies and headed over.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. Sean took Best General and I had a fun couple of games. Some very nice armies there.

Here's my list:

Mugwort’s Mad Horde – 1844 point Ork Mob

HQ:

Mugwort da Warphead – 90 points

Mad Dok Grotsnik – 165 points

Troops:

30 Grotz & 3 Runtherdz – 285 points

30 Grotz & 3 Runtherdz – 285 points

19 Grotz & 1 Runtherdz – 167 points

19 Grotz & 1 Runtherdz – 167 points

Fast Attack:

3 Wartrakk Skorchas – 150 points

3 Wartrakks – 120 points

Heavy Support:

4 Flash Gitz & Painboy & Ammo Runt & Grot Orderly – 310 points

Da Orkalith (Battlewagon)– 125 points

3 Killa Kans – 185 points

All of the infantry had Cybork Bodies and the Flash Gitz were fully kitted out.

So, far from a competitive army, but it's always fun to play and play against.

I brought my first Grot army to the first Gamer's Lair tourney of 2009 and it was great. This year, I actually missed the first tourney (I was still in San Antonio at the time), so I decided to bring the Grotz to this one. Two things stood in my way. First, I didn't have enough Grotz. A mob of thirty Grotz just wasn't going to cut it in a tournament this big, no way, no how. Nic came to the rescue with an additional 68 Grotz! Definitely a step in the right direction, but I was still light, so we put in Mad Dok Grotsnik and the Orkalith. Then, it became the game of 'what haven't I tried much?' in came the Flash Gitz, Wartrakks, Skorchas and the Warphead. In terms of scoring, I came in dead last in Generalship, but they're Grotz, so it's OK. I did however, learn a couple of things.

First, Wierdboyz are good and weird and entertaining. I figured it'd get old after a game, but it didn't. These guys aren't built to last though. The 5+ Invulnerable Save from the Cybork Body got used a fair bit, but even that is pretty much base level. The Warphead upgrade is pretty much crucial to giving him a shot at surviving his own powers. Fun unit, but a soft target, I'm thinking he's probably got a better home with a Mob of Shoota Boyz than a mob of Slugga Boyz.

Flash Gitz are also fun. If you want to soak points, the guys are second only to Nobz. I like the idea of the Snazzguns and the funky upgrades. You'd think it would take something besides random AP to make these guys fun, but that's about it. I'm probably going to make some Flash Gitz this year (I used Nobz with various Shootas to proxy at this tourney) because I've got some great ideas.

War Trakks. These were a huge win! Yes, I lost a total of four of them to failed dangerous terrain checks in the course of two games (losing two Skorchas that way during Turn 1 of my first game just made me shake my head), but the mobility was great and they were fun to use. Once I'm done with my current Orky projects, I'll likely add some bikes, buggies and War Trakks.

My army on the first game facing Deathwing.

Some Light Work Today

Between work and some errands after work today, I wound up pretty tired.  I put the firewall and gear shift onto the model and detailed the panel.  I also got most of the next batch of parts cut from the sprue and prepped.  I also took a look at the next few stages of assembly and realized that I'm mostly down to the smaller detail parts, which is pretty cool.  I'm pretty impressed with this new kit.  Like most of the new Ork stuff from GW, there's lots of detail (and sufficiently Orky detail at that) and it goes together well.  In retrospect, I think my only real regret on the model is not getting to it sooner.

Ork Trukk - Part 2 - The Box & Engine Block

This was actually one of the pieces of the Trukk which had me a little worried in terms of assembly and painting. The engine was the second. Both have been a breeze thus far, though I've not connected the various pipes to the engine yet. All in all, a pretty sound reason for me to read the instructions before planning a model.

Without further ado, I wanted to use pretty much the same paint scheme with the box as the chassis, but I also wanted it to look a little different from the remainder of the model. I went as before, but dry brushed Reaper Shadowed Steel to give the metal a darker look. Blackened Steel and Honed Steel were both used on the patch plates, but I can see having to go over them again since they don't stand out much presently. The inside of the window cuts was done with Reaper Honed Steel. I plan to follow up the remainder of the detailing similarly. The glyphs on the side were done in Reaper Sunburst Yellow. The wrappings on the roll bars were done in Citadel Grave Yard Earth, then dry brushed with Reaper Half-Orc Highlight and Reaper Leather Brown, then washed with Citadel Devlan Mud. The bed of the Trukk also recieved a dry brush of Reaper Half-Orc Highlight to try to make it look a little dusty. The verdict is out on that one.

The engine block was base coated with Reaper Adamantium Black. From there, I added a 50/50 mix of Reaper Rust Brown and Adikolor Rust to a few spots on the block. I dry brushed the entire thing with Reaper Tarnished Steel. I'm not entirely sure that the rust mix gave me the effect I was looking for, but I'll get some pipes test fitted to the block and take a look from there.





I seem to be using a lot of dry brushing on this model. I've found that's the best way to get a good, crappy, scrap metal look for Ork stuff. I'm planning to apply some colour using a fairly heavy over brush once the model is assembled. Hopefully that will give me a beaten up and cobbled together look for the Trukk.

Ork Trukk - Part 1 - Wheels and Chassis

So, the first bit of my Trukk is largely done and assembled. The whole model was primed Skull White on the sprue. From there, I put on a base coat of GW Charadon Granite Foundation to darken the colour down. The metal frame was done with Reaper Shadowed Steel. The shocks and the plates on the wheels were painted with GW Tin Bitz, then dry brushed with Reaper Honed Steel. The rims are GW Tin Bitz with Reaper Shadowed Steel dry brushed on. The tires are a 50/25/25 mix of Reaper Pure Black, Reaper Blackened Brown and Reaper Stormy Grey with some matte medium mixed in.



Next up is the engine block. As with the frame, I've based with GW Charadon Granite and so far, applied Reaper Adamantium Black. I'll be adding some highlights and dry brushing for a used metal texture, I'm just not entirely sure of the scheme yet.

Work Started - Sort Of

It's one week until the tourney and I've started on the Trukk.  I was a bit delayed by a tired week and deciding to install Windows 7.  At any rate that's done and I'm working through the wheels and chassis of the model as we speak.  The good news is that building the Trukk seems to be much simpler than I originally thought.  Always a bonus.  I'll get some pictures up tomorrowish.

And the Winner Is....

Looks as though my Ork Trukk is my next project.

The 7 Similarities Between Women and Fish

Oddly enough, this came up in three conversations with three different countries today.  Very strange.

1. Both attracted to shiny objects
2. More fun to catch while drinking
3. You must document great catches or no one will believe you — video preferred
4. There’s others in the sea and/or bar
5. Three words: catch and release
6. Both travel in protective groups
7. Can hook either with a great line

Another Model Finished

I got the Chaos Warrior finished up for Nic.  On to another project.

New Stuff From GW

I got a look at the new Deff Dread and Killa-Kans from GW and those are some nice models.  They went from reasonably klanky cans with legs to some really over the top engines of Orky destruction.  The Deff Dread looks to be a little pricier than the current version while the Killa-Kans are the real deal of the lot.  Going from $35 a piece for models which don't fit together well to a trio of models for less than twenty dollars more is simply excellent.

On the Guard side, the Basilisk and Chimera look like they'll be fine things to loot.

The big loser of that release has to be the Flash Git though.  With all of the effort put into describing the Snazzgunz an the Flash Gitz, I kind of expected them to look cool and that model just doesn't.  It does a fine job of a Shoota-Boy with a double barreled shotgun, but that's about it.  Makes me glad I picked up some extra metal Nobz last year for the bodies.  I'm thinking I'll stick with my plan to convert some Flash Gitz.

Regardless though, I won't have to worry on the new kits any time soon.  I've more than enough to paint as it is.

I'm working on some sort of Chaos thing for Nic at present.  He's coming along alright.  I just need to finish his, well, whatever the Chaos equivalent of a Bosspole is and his head, then a bit of detailing and a wash with smoke and he should be done.  I was trying for a partially glowing armour and playing with washes and dry brushing.  The playing with washes on metals worked out alright.  The glowing and burned armour, not so much.  Live and learn I suppose.

Once this one is done, I'll have to talk to Sean and see what he wants to bring to the tourney on the 20th.  If he wants more Possessed for it, I'll probably wind up working on them.  If not, I might try to get my Trukk built and painted.

Well, I'm Back

I came home a little over a week past.  Despite the cold, or perhaps because of it, it's good to be home.  I'll miss my friends in San Antonio, but I find that the past week or so has highlighted my appreciation for my team here.  I take comfort from the singular sense of purpose that we all share.

I saw Avatar with Sean on Friday.  To my surprise, the story was fairly descent, though I think the real win for the movie was the blending of live action and animation.  I think special effects have pretty much reached the point which video game graphics reached a couple of years past; the point at which they're simply not going to get much better.  Just as well by my mind.  It may force Hollywood to concentrate on telling stories rather than just making things bigger.  We shall see though.