Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

I've started enjoying painting flesh tones. Despite it being Dreadtober, I decided to pick up some models that have been sitting unpainted on the very bottom of my display cabinets for years. (much like Angron!) So who am I painting. Points given for picking the right legion and extra points for the specific characters.

Happy painting!

Angron Complete

Despite the varnish problems, I really enjoyed working on Angron. I think my take on the World Eaters is different enough from others out there to merit a small force. It helps that I like pale orange and pale blue colors. With that said, Angron joins his brothers Horus and Fulgrim in my display cabinet. I'm not sure I've posted photos of my display cabinet reorganization until now. In order to make more space, I picked up some clear acrylic organizers and used them as mini shelves. 

Angron WIP

With the major color blocked in, Angron is starting to look like a proper primarch. Oils are next. Seeing him at this state, maybe I should skip the oils and keep painting him with acrylics. I like what I see so far, and oils always have an air of uncertainty. (ok not the oils but the varnish needed to protect the base layers from them)

So Angron is happening, but so is something else so weird I almost don't have words. There is a game of Age of Sigmar going on at my house, and I am not part of it. I have been spouse banished so my wife can play AoS with her new friend. Ok, so this is happing. I'll just be quiet and printed like I don't really want to go out and watch the game. Weird right?

Angron WIP

I've had Angron sitting in a drawer since he came out. Never satisfied with my color scheme for my World Eaters, I let him sit unpainted for years. The thing that made them work for me today was using a very pale blue for their shoulder pads. I am definitely going to paint up a small force of World Eater loyalists now. The pale blue and touch of orange on the bases really works for me. (less so for the camera which struggled here!)

One note about the chains on the wrists of two of the troopers. I know they signify killing a superior officer in gladiatorial combat. One would think loyalist World Eaters wouldn't engage in that kind of activity. However, I think it makes sense that Loyalists would have gone along with gladiatorial challenges as necessary to simply exist within the legion prior to Angron turning traitor. Dueling to the death was simply a fact of life within the legion. I think NCOS and officers would not have had a choice on whether to engage in the practice or not.

*Just learned that the World Eaters are the 12th legion not the 8th! Looks like I put those decals on upside down. So, these guys are the 8th chapter of the 12th legion. How about that! I kind of like the symmetry here. The ones who remained loyal are the mirrored image of those that did not.

30K Ork Dreadnought Size Comparison

I've been thinking out how to paint this taller than usual ork dreadnought, and I think I am going to go with yellow. Yellow is pretty common these days, but I think I can come up with an original recipe for it that works for this model. I am also considering a teal-ish green with cream colored checkers. Ultimately I think my tall Orks should look good with my 30k armies and Death Korps, so they'll get what is becoming my standard basing of destroyed concrete.

Stylistically, if I am to create a 30k Ork force rather than just a one off, I think I need add more realism and barbarism to the models. In my mind this breaks down to super detailing the kit and painting them darker and more realistically. I have a bunch of chain left over from one of my conversions. I think the Orks would make heavy use of it on their vehicles. I am tempted to channel a little mad max and have Orks riding on top of the dread like a boarding party. It might be too much, but I like the idea. Plus it would let me paint up some ork skin tones. Now I just need to find some characterful orks to add.

Dreadtober Ork Dreadnought With Re-Posed Legs

Dreadtober is a who holiday event, where hobbyists from all over the world build dreadnoughts. If you've never heard of it either then you are in the same boat with me. (I think Greg and Todd invented it) If you'd like to participate, and why wouldn't you, head over to FeedYourNerd to get more details and have your name/blog added to the dreadtober roll call. Todd over at SincaiN40k has been making all kinds of cool images for the event.

So this is my first Ork dreadnought. It is also my first Ork conversion. I haven't painted Orks in ages, and even had to add the Ork label to the blog for the first time. I am not sure what type of Ork dread this is, but when I opened the packages there were three little dreads, and one larger one. I grabbed the larger one, and dismayed at the stumpy legs, hacked them apart. One of the nice thing about Orks is that I don't feel totally compelled to do a clean conversion. Reasonably clean is good enough. This makes the build a lot less stressful.

So what Ork clan should this guy be part of? He will be an army of one for quite a while unless I paint that Stompa lurking in my closet.

*Edit added some photos of the dread with arms magnetized on. I think the added height the re-posed legs give really help the model. It still has the hulking Ork vibe, but looks like it could actually stomp around.

Normandy Houses Now With Back Doors!

The game I am running for our club is coming up at the end of October, so it is time to finally finish all of the terrain needed for it. I think I may have reached my tolerance for house building. I think these houses push my total to something like 19 buildings. Unfortunately only a few of the buildings have entrances on the back of them, but with careful placement I should be able to limit the pain for any player stuck trying to assault a house from the backyard. With roads, fields, bocage, trees, and houses, I think the terrain is now set. That is good, since I've become quite a bit sloppier painting these than the first bunch.

Building a Static Grass Applicator Out of a Fly Swatter

I usually stay away from static grass. Like many, I can never seem to make it come out standing up. Usually I end up with a weird little mashed pile of the stuff. Taking a cue from the name of the stuff, I searched online for a solution. It turns out that all I needed was a negative ION generator. Enter the bug zapper. 

It turns out that a bug zapper will do what I want. The basic principle is simple. Replace the racket head with a metal tea leaf basket and attach one of the two wires inside the device to the new static grass basket. Once that is done, take the second wire and attach it to a nail that will be positioned near any area needed static grass. Presto, a static grass applicator.  

So following that online, I made one.

These are the two wires I was mentioning. I cut away the originals and soldered on replacements.

In the photo above I've already attached the tea leaf strainer to the handle of the bug zapper, and have inserted the long wire into the test piece. I used regular white glue for the test. One gotcha here is that the current generated is not terribly strong, so the basket needs to be close to the nail. I'll improve this later. For a test, I think it worked pretty well.

After I had the device built I grabbed containers full of static grass that I haven't used in years and started experimenting. I think the results would be better if I had some different lengths of static grass, but I think it still worked pretty well. The model railroad guys seem to use a variety of lengths. I've seen them apply grass right over the top of a base layer of previously applied grass.

So, what do I do with this now? I've already experimented making tufts of grass. I know how to make patches. I played around with a pen mashing down areas of the grass to make it look trampled. I suppose I could add static grass to something big. Any ideas? What would you do with this?