Orks, again, but different

Another blog post? You lucky bastards! Hope you're all coping under whatever lockdown you're experiencing and following protocols, if not, stop being a cunt and spoiling it for everyone else, yeah? Sound. Anyway, strap in, here we go again!

Now, I've posted about orks before, the last time being here, and back then I was fairly happy with how things were going. But then all of a sudden I wasn't.
Like a lot of you, I spend a lot of time losing hours to browsing other people's blogs, and a few of the ork armies I was seeing really bothered me. Not because they werent any good, far from it, you only have to look at the likes of Nico or the glorious golden nugget that is Captain Crooks blogs to see how it should be done. I was bothered because all of my favourite ork armies all seem to have their own "identity", which makes them stand out from the crowd. So, I did what any impulsive willy would do and sold most of the old lot and started again:

Now, I'm sorry but theres no backstory to these lads yet, but I am working on something so bear with me. There are still individual unit shots though, so here they are:

The gaffer and his mega armoured bodyguard. These lads were loosely based on the cover art for one of the gospels of Orkness:

Its not perfect, but its close enough that I'm happy! The next unit both adds a bit of bulk to the numbers and acts as a wee love letter to the box that started it all off 25 years (jaysus) ago 

Yup, them plastic Goff boys that everyone seems to own. Unfortunately they're not the original lads that I cut my teeth with, they're long gone, mutilated in the name of a twelve year olds creativity, but theres plenty out there and this is the first nine from my new pile. The tenth boy is a skarboy with brand spanking new necromunda goliath arms, that hammer is ridiculous on a human but I think its ideal on an ork! 

Sneaking in to kill you in your sleep and cut your ears off to make a necklace, my take on Blood Axe kommandos. Well, I say my take but the idea was inspired by (totally lifted from) the aforementioned and formidable Nico. I just picked out the most military looking orks from the big box, did a small bit of converting, and here they are:

I have enough to expand this to a ten man (ork? Fuck it, whatever) unit, along with a lovely blood axe warboss to lead them but theres no mad rush to get them done, this is a nice easy personal project, not a deadline job. 

Aaaand finally (phew says you) the first couple of oddboyz

Both are my favourite examples of their craft, the painboy was repainted from the last attempt, the mek is a totally new job, I added a hammer arm from a spare mek and a little robot monkey/helper/forcefield projector or something to his shoulder. I love the idea of orks having little hangers on and helpers, and with luck there'll be more to see in the future. 

So there we are, hope you enjoyed all that folks! Theres still plenty more in the big box to work through, so there'll most likely be another post on the mean green bastards in the future sometime, but who knows whats next here? I certainly dont. Look after yerselves and hopefully see you soon! 

Return of the Living Dead

Hello! Been a while hasnt it? Yet again the pull of miniature painting has been stronger than blogging about them, but with all this mad shite going on at the moment I thought I may as well kick this place in the ribs and see what life there is left in it. I've also come to a point in a project very dear to me where I have a fair bit to show, so here we go

Yep, thats a large chunk of my Kemmler led undead finished, almost totally built from the 4th edition range sculpted by Mr. Gary Morley. I went on about my opinion on his sculpts a ways back on this very blog, and since then my mind hasnt changed, he's still a great sculptor, and you can go and fuck if you think any different. 

Anyway, as with all of my recent projects, I'm trying to both work to a purpose, and also have some narrative running through everything, as you may have noticed with my previous couple of posts (I'll be returning to Schwarzweald soon too, don't worry). So, in the spirit of spinning a yarn, this force, while built with Saga/Dragon Rampant games in mind, still represents a part of the tale of the Lichemaster himself, whos 4th edition fluff hooked me as a young lad more than any other so heres to you little Rochie, you finally made it happen! (and you got laid too, go you!) 

This army of the Lichemaster represents the early days following his resurrection of Krell, and their journey back from the Vaults and into the Border Princes. 

Following his pact with Krell and the dark gods of Chaos, Kemmler drew power from ancient elven waystones, cracked and ruined by time, their corrupted magics swelled his own newly burgeoning powers and allowed him to raise more wights, the ancient and powerful kings of lands long gone once again marching to war 

Emboldened by the surging tides of dark magic preceding the Lichemaster, the ghoul tribes infesting the crypts of the town of Blackheart entered into a frenzy, tearing through the town and its population in a single night of howling bloodshed. Once sated, they returned to their warrens, only to find the Lichemaster and his bodyguard waiting for them. Krell broke their king in single combat, and Kemmler bent the survivors to his dark will

There was one survivor of the Blackheart massacre, the necromancer Laskar had been tucked away in his ruined tower ever since he had been driven from the town for his evil works. Hearing the town die even from a distance, he made his way back, and delightedly reanimated the sparse remains of the townsfolk to serve him as their Lord and master. However, mere days after his triumph, Kemmler entered Blackheart. Seeing how the land lay, Laskar immediately swore fealty to the Lichemaster, adding his shambling packs to the growing legion.

Now further bolstered, the Lichemaster and his growing force begins the march to conquest

Right, thats your lot! Hope you enjoyed reading all that, and stay tuned for more... at some point... Maybe... 

Cheers!