On The Table - Warbuggies

Painting progressed on the Warbuggies. this is my first time doing stripes and crosses on such a large scale. I am going forward with the "dukes of Hazard" theme but nothing more overt than blue crosses on orange background with some white to be added later.

At this point, the base colors and patterns are down. The whole mini will be washed Agrax Earthshade then drydrushed either Ironbreaker or Runefang Steel. Then the real work begins. the red aread need to be layered up to orange. No ide how many layers that will take but the last two colors are going to be Wild Rider Red and Troll Slayer Orange. How bright the blue ends up being will depends on how bright that orange ends up being.

I have been mulling around how to "fix" Warbuggies. Their current rules are crazy. AV 10 vehicle at 25 points does not seem to represent what they are on the table top. It is cool that they recently got Outflank as a special rule in the most recent Codex but 25 points seems steep for them being so paper thin in the armor department.

On The Table - Ork Warbuggies

It is not all Power Armor here at Tiny Metal Men. We do a little of everything. I've wanted to start work on these heavily converted Warbuggies. I was inspired by these conversions but ultimately took thinks my own way. I am not completely satisfied with how they came out. I did not intend them to all look like trikes but they did despite my efforts. I also wanted to use a biker for the driver of one but skipped that. I have far more Defkoptas than Bikes.

I re-purposed one old Wartrakk into an updated model. I had to replace the driver because that ugly old Ork had to go. I had to make a platform for the gunner to stand on so he could shoot over the head of the new bigger driver.

I magnetized most of the guns. I don't need everyone to be able to swap out weapons. The Wartrakk can of course mount a flamer in addition to a twin-linked Big Shoota and a Rokkit Launcha.

I can't wait to start painting them. I think that I'll use a "Dukes of Hazard" inspired theme but skipping all the Confederate flags. I am going to use orange as a main color with blue accents and white sparingly. Depending on how successful this is, I may do the Bikes in the same colors. 

Finished - Ork Big Gun

No idea why this conversion jumped to the front of the painting line. Maybe it was getting excited about defogging my Battlewagon or maybe it was seeing piece of shit Earthshaker Cannon poking out of my bits box. Perhaps it was because I was too drunk to paint but you are never too drunk to ruin a mini by converting it to Orks.

All I did was glue some magnets to the bottom of the Earthshaker platform that matched where the magnets are on the top of the 'ard Case bit for the Battlewagon. After that, I just glued a bunch of crap to it. There is not really a formula to it. I also put some magnets on the cannon s it locks in either a level or elevated position.

I regret that I didn't magnetize the whole cannon so it was removable. That would have been useful for Weapon Destroyed results but also if I wanted to use this mount for a Liftadroppa or other weapon.

This would make a good proxy for a Kill Kannon if it was not for the fact that the gun is fixed and does not rotate. 

A Christmas Miracle

Last year, I had problems with clear coating and it fogging my miniatures just at the point of completion. The Tomb Blades and the Battlewagon were the worst affected but the Flash Gitz and a whole Slew of Deathwatch minis also got fogged. I was so upset at this that I listed them for trade.

Since this snafu, We have moved to a new house. In the finnished basement, we have a nice dehumidifier that runs all the time. It is the least humid basement that I have ever been in. While I was clearcoating some other minis inside ("use in a well-ventilated area" my ass), I decided to test out re-clearcoating some of the frosted minis. The test Deathwatch Terminator came out almost perfect. Encouraged, I did a few more. It worked again! I even took out the old Flash Gitz and they were rehabbed as well. Setting my teeth, I did the Battlewagon and it too looked better. Aside from the 40% humidity or less that it is inside and not using that Krylon MAXX garbage, I don't know what I changed to make this Christmas Miracle happen, but I am very happy it did.

Finished - Badrukk

Holy cow this is deceptive mini. You look at it in the books or even when it is painted and think, "Yeah, no big deal." Painting it is a whole different story. 

I made a few choices when painting it to adapt it to my painting style. The 'eavy Metal kids painted glyphs on all the metal plates and that was way outside of my skill. I dislike freehanding because it is too hard touch up later. What I opted for was painting the plated a solid color and then drawing on glyphs with a 0.05 pen later. 

The Badrukk in the Codex has a treasure map painted on his loin cloth. While that is thematic, fluffy and bad ass, it is outside of my skillset. I just painted it simple and brown. While this is a lot less fancy, it also does not draw attention away from the other detailed areas that I did paint well. 

I chose a simple color scheme for the mini and stuck to red and yellow as accent colors. I did this because I didn't want to turn him in to an Orky rainbow. Also, these are two colors that I am more comfortable with and they contrast well with the green skin. 

Finished - Kaptain and last of the Flas Gitz

Finally, the Gits are done. This was a monster project. In the time it took me to paint a single git, I could have painted 4 Space Marines. The bodies are the size of Nobz and take the same amount of time to paint, but their guns are huge and have layers of armor over them. Once that is done, then there are the thrice-damned back banners. So much detail everywhere.

I spent a little extra time on the Kaptain as is warranted by his station. I most often see people paint the trench coat model with a black coat but I wanted something ostentatious and nothing is more stone-cold pimpin than a purple coat. I really wish the gun did not cover up the front of the chest so it was more noticeable. 

Finished - Two more Flash Gitz

Only two more and Badrukk to go before all the Gitz get done. 

I got bored (and started to run out of) the interesting back banner bits for the Flash Gitz so I had to start improvising. I used a shield from the Feral Orks and a glyph and gunshield for make shift back banners. 

Other conversions include a scope for a Gitfinda and a terminator shoulder guard. I also experimented with konverting the gunz in decidely non-Chapter Approved ways. In addition to the power plant bits, I added extra muzzle bits to the opposite side of the gun for a exhaust port of sorts. I repositioned some bits to align in odd angles so that nothing on the gun was square. 

On the table now - Badrukk and IPA

 I can remember a time when I would unwind with video games or movies at home. These days, all I want to do with my free time is paint. Nothing is better than throwing on a podcast or Netflix and painting for 6 hours. 

Except maybe having a beer with it. 

I used to like stouts and porters, but have been gravitating toward IPAs lately. While mighty tasty, beer (and IPAs in particular) tend to have a high ABV. That makes it difficult to enjoy more than one and still have the manual dexterity to put paint to plastic. 

BEHOLD! Introvert Session IPA from Left Hand Brewery. Session beers are typically under 5.0% ABV as opposed to the 7.5% or higher for most IPAs. Some can have less flavor to go with the lower ABV, but not this one. This gives me everything that I want from an IPA but a manageable amount of alcohol.

My current project is the King of the Gitz, Badrukk. I got a resin one when I bought the big box of him and his boys, but recently picked up a metal one for a sing on Bartertown. I like metal character over resin ones so decided to paint the metal and sell the resin. 

Finished - Two More Flash Gitz

I am really excited to have these two Flash Gitz finished especially the one on the right. Not only does this give me a total of 7 Gitz, but I am super-pleased with how one of them came out. 

This is a story about converting and how a single bit can get you thinking about building a whole mini around it. It all started with the cigar bit. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I had to use it. Initially, I wanted to use it for the Kaptain as he smoked and directed his Krew while a few Grots carry and fire his giant Snazz Gun. This proved far too complex to pull off so I settled with using it on a Git. 

At some point I knew that he would need an ashtray. I wanted him lazily gunning down Beakies or Umies while ashing to a hand made ashtray set on his gun. Since he was smoking with one hand, this dictated that there would need to be a handle on the gun. Also, I didn't think it would be stable enough with one hand on the gun and the shoulder strap to keep the ashtray from sliding off. Also, I wanted to have the gun resting on the ground to add the lazy factor. I had already used the "ground claw" looking gun mount so I opted for the bipod mount. 

I also wanted more of the Git's chest exposed on the mini as opposed to the other Gitz to draw the focus to his face and arm and add the laziness of the mini. This necessitated having him standing at a larger angle from his gun and not hold it so close to his chest. I had to trim part of where the arm and shoulder meet to get this angle. Easy enough and this is an old trip covered in old GW books and maybe even the 3rd Ed main book. 

Even with the 40mm base, it is crowded. The gun hangs off the edge and only one of the bipod feet was on the base. On the other model with the "ground claw" mount, I just hung it over and planned to glue to some sand to the bottom to cover it up. On the bipod, I didn't feel this was acceptable, so I broke a rule. I changed the shape and size of a base. The mini was already glued down, so I could not just mount him onto a 50mm base. What I did was cut a semi-circle into a 25mm base and glue it to the edge of the base. It is hardly perfect but it does draw attention and it is functional. 

Lastly is the ashtray. I am no expert in sculpting and anything that I do that looks good is complete luck. That is why I keep it simple. I rolled a ball of green stuff and smushed it flat. I used the end of a paintbrush to press a half sphere into the now disc. Then I cut cigar holders into the sides with the edge of a hobby knife. After letting it dry, I glued it downa nd painted it blue to contrast with the yellow gun and draw more attention.

Finished - Mega Armored Nob

I had a metal Meganob spare and decided to bang him out as a side project in the same colors as my Geoff Flash Gitz. My idea for the Nobz and Meganobz is to have them drawn from the biggest and baddest of all the Ork Klans. To that end, their color schemes are going to be all over the place. I am going to try to paint up a Nob for each unit if appropriate or a Meganob. Unfortunately, I only had the one Meganob to experiment on. I need to trade for some on Bartertown, but few people are trafficking in them. Those that are often offer incomplete minis which is no good for me. 

The plastic box is amazing but utterly insanely priced at $63 for 3 minis. Even at the standard 20-25% off retail plus shipping, that particular box is priced outside of my reach. 

Since it is going to be a while before another Meganob is Finished, I will have to value it. To replace the mini is a challenging prospect. eBay prices run $15 to and insane $25. I think that if I was patient that I could replace them for $15 each. The paint job is simple but worth $20 for me. I had to supply an extra bit from the Nob sprue because he was missing the Iron Gob. That is worth $5 to me for a total trade/replacement value of $40 for this mini. 

Finished - 4 Gunners for Battlewagon

The Battlewagon has two places in back for gunners and I made the front two doors into gunner spots with the addition of a little plasticard. That gives me emplacements for 4 gunners and the turret. That is all the extra Rokkit/Big Shootas that the Battlewagon will allow. 

I tried to make each of minis unique. I have wanted to do a "screaming two-handed Big Shoota" mini for a while now. While building him, I realized that no one, not even an Ork, could shoot a gun like that unsupported. That is not an issue when he can brace the gun on the side of the Battlewagon's side armor. If this mini was on foot, he would look silly and unrealistic. Normally, I am a fan of "silly and unrealistic" in my Ork army but the mini's pose looked stupid and that is never good. To avoid this stupidity, I magnetized a bipod for him. 

These minis cost me maybe $15 in bits and $20 for the painting. The converting is worth maybe $5. Total trade/replacement value is $40.

Finished - First Five Flash Gitz

A full unit finished! 

I am regretting somewhat painting the guns yellow. This unit was supposed to be Goffs and colored mostly black and silver. While painting the Battlewagon, I got the wild idea to paint the weapons yellow. That might have worked if these guys's guns were not the same size of the body. The effect is that, no matter how little yellow that I use in the rest of the model, the mini comes off as looking like a yellow mini. After discovering that, I tried to keep yellow to a minimum in future minis. 

The old metal classic Flash Gitling really sands out because he is smaller and has a sane-sized gun. My head-cannon for him is that he recently joined to replace a fallen Git. The little feller has not had enough time to amass a stash and reputation enough to build a really big and insane gun. 

Even though this is a Finished post, I am going to wait to make a full post until after I have finished all of the box including Badrukk. 

On the table now - The next 3 Flash Gits

After finishing the first two test Flash Gitz, I started work on the main body of the unit. I knew that I wanted to use the cyborg arm and leg and was struck by the idea of using them on the same guy as if he at one point had a really really bad day. I also did a little head swap to give that mini a more mechanical head from the Nobs sprue. 

Mostly Finished - Flash Gitz

Too drunk to paint, so we type.

Mostly finished these two guys. They are only missing their Boss Poles and Git Finda. I call that pretty much done. I'll post finished pictures of these minis when the squad of 11 is finished.

11 is the perfect number for a squad of Flash Gitz. Even with mounting a Killkannon, a Battlewagon can carry 12 Orks. That leaves enough room for a Big Mek for Kustom Force Field and 11 Gitz. It is also perfect because that is the number of minis that I have and I do not plan of getting more. 

I adore the way these minis turned out. I don't know that I learned anything from them though. I have incorporated a extra stage to my green skin technique of painting on some purple wash to deepen the tone of the skin to maych the overall dark tone of the minis. It works pretty darn well. 

I had hoped that using Daemonette Hide as my base for green skin and washing it green at a later step would provide an adequate depth of darkness and contrast but I have found that the purple base coat seems to be overwhelmed by the green wash. It seems that no matter how much purple that I leave showing under the green paint, it all gets turned green by the green wash. There are bigger problems in the world, I guess. 

I am mostly happy with how the minis turned out overall. The intention was to make them black minis with yellow weapons and highlights. I feel like whatever amount of yellow I use, it overwhelms the mini and makes it look yellow. I am regretting wanting to paint the weapons yellow at this point. 

On the table - Flashgitz

After finishing the Battlewagon it feels empty. It needs some bodies to fill it. The dream has always been to fill it with Flash Gits and devastate everything within 24 inches of it. The Flash Gitz and Battlewagon are in ideal paring as the former can take the latter as a Dedicated Transport. 

To kick things off, I picked a metal Flash Git that predates the current plastic set and one of the minis from the Badrukk's Flash Gits box. Both acquisitions are from Bartertown. The metal guy came as part of a large Orky trade long ago and I got the Badrukk box for 50% retail including shipping from a generous soul. 

Finished - Battlewagon

This big, black, bad bastard really deserves its own epic post but I don't have that kind of time. It took over a week to finish this bad man and I could not be more proud. 

I had a similar problem when clear coating this mini that I had with the Tomb Blades in that it fogged. Humidity was less than 50% and temp was within range. My only excuse was my over-zealotry with applying it. I am going to give my standby of Krylon matte clear coat one more chance under ideal conditions before giving up but I think that they may have changed the formula or something. 

The idea was for this Battlewagon to be a ride for the Lootas or Flash Gits. As the Speed Freak Lootas already had the Wrecka as a ride, I decided to paint this in the same paint scheme as I planned to paint the Flash Gitz colors of black, red and yellow. 

This kit retails for about $90 and the paintjob is passable for me. I used a lot of drybrushing and re-washing on this mini and that feels like cheating a little bit. I would feel bad about saying that this was better than a 6/10 for me. I value the painting at about $60 given the time it took. The small conversions of the Driver and magnets is valued at about $10 for bits and time. Total replacement cost is $150. I don't know that I would trade it for less. Given the complete nature of the kit (with all accessories including Killkannon and Deffrolla (non pictured but included)) and the neutral nature of the color scheme, I feel that it would fit in with any Ork army. Given that, I feel that a fair trade value for this mini is at least $200 if not more. 

On the table now - Something Big

Taking a break from painting (and repainting) tiny minis and bought into a large mini. If you are an Ork player I am sure you can guess what it is by the grill.

Finished - 2 Lootas

 The Lootas finished quickly and I love that. I was missing more bits than I thought for these minis. In addition to missing the connecting struts, I was missing the targeting/extra weapon bit for the side of the gun. 

I replaced the strut bits with sprue. I feel like it worked ok. I wish I had weathered them a bit more or covered them with plates to make them a bit more Orky.

I covered the holes that the targeting/extra weapon bit would have gone in with glyphs. This worked great. 

In the end, They are bodies for the Green Machine and fit in well with the rest of the squad. I updated the value of the Loota squad on their Finished post. 

On the table now - Genestealers and Lootas

 Until inspiration strikes, I am working on some smaller side projects in addition to my main project of Greg's Genestealer Cult. I had some extra bits to make some more Lootas so I banged them out. The down side is that I am missing the supporting structure that links the ammo arm to the gun arm so I'll have to figure something out later.

I am also trying to get my technique down for painting the Space Hulk style Genestealers so that I don't mess up Gregs minis. I think I have a good idea how these paints work. After painting so much red, blue and purple are like a dream. It is actually hard for them not to turn out well. 

Finished - Feral Ork Shootaboys

Stick a fork in them because they are done. 

It took almost exactly two weeks, but they are done and I can't stop singing Deniece Williams "Let's Hear It for the Boy" but I sing it more like," Ut's ere it fer da Boyz." Try and unhear that. 

This fits with my hipster ironic Orks in that Feral Orks would not be using Shootas and painting them as Bad Moons (the richest of all the Ork Klans) belies being penniless, feral, savages. 

I tried to make each of these Boyz unique in their own way. I can't say that each has a conversion, because they are pretty much stock pieces from the Savage Orc kit. The exception are the Shootas that I had to cannibalize. For the most part, I chose to use Shootas with hands already attached rather than use the hands that came with the kit. There is no real reason for this.