Savage Orc Boyz

   Sorry it's been a while - been busy. The american paras are nearly painted now, and I've been getting back into D&D again (since last September-October). I've also been real into the Orcs and Gobbos, with my O.G.Re project. I picked up a box of the new savage orc boyz and painted three of them up. I went to town on these bearing in mind that they were infantry, and I suppose the other 7 will hit hard! For the skin, I basecoated goblin green, washed them in watered down (and with a drop of washing up liquid to keep surface tension, allowing a more even coverage) dark angels green, and then layered on a 4:1 mix of goblin green to sunburst yellow. By the way, adding white to green simply pales it up, add yellow and then introduce white on the higher layers if you want a zany green! A great kit - and fun to paint - !

One Tip to Change your Hobby - Physical Metal

     Here lies one of the biggest tips to rule them all. So big that it is in fact staring you in the face - why paint metal on a model made of the actual stuff? Yes - I'm talking about using the metal of the model, rather than paint it. Don't spray up your mini - you can base coat him later. To do this just take a piece of fine sandpaper/wet wet n' dry, and abrade the surfaces of your model which are meant to be metal 'till they are relatively flat. Then get an object like my trusty 'metal-ended' pen (it can be anything with an edged - not sharp - hard metal surface) and scrape in any direction. You should notice a magnificent polished finish is appearing on your metal model, like a superbly polished armour plate. Just water right down some black paint and wash it into the recesses of the to represent metal parts of your model. When it is half dry, rub your finger in the direction that is not against the recesses, once, on the washed areas - to naturally highlight and remove wash from the higher points of the model. You can glaze it to dull it up/colour it if you want from here, but otherwise - it's done! Very simple, time saving, and as real as the real thing!

I tried it out on an Uruk-Hai - a bit shiny for one, but never the less a great test piece. Came out awesome first time!

Anything like this will do! - Use any metal bit for different tasks!

Warlord Games American Airborne - B.A.R. Conversion

   Just got the set of 12 american airborne paras, pretty good deal - £10 for set with extra bases! RTP £13 without bases! Comes with some M1 Garands, an M1 Carbine, M1A1 Thompson, 30.cal Browning HMG. I converted a Browning Automatic Rifle from an M1 Garand, cut off end, and attatch metal bits/paperclip wire rods.

Da Pack

Unpackaged

Bases

The lot

The Thompson

M1 Carbine

30. Cal Team

You can write with metal minis!

B.A.R. Conversion

By the way, the British Armoury rules for Never Surrender is complete.

Tamiya Scenery for D-Day WW2 Gaming Board

   Yesterday, I went down to HobbyCraft and picked up some Tamiya scenery kits for my 'Never Surrender' game, and D-Day board...

Here is the Sandbags kit - has a lot of potential - heat them up and fold them! The only thing is, you only get around 3 average sized barricades per kit. 8/10

This is perfect for my gaming board, and has anti-tank obstacles, and stakes to make barbed wire fences/coils, but comes with no wire, or plastic wire. 6.5/10, but 'cos it was perfect for me, I'd say 8.5/10 in my instance only.

Rather good for some bombed french buildings, but only contains enough to build 1 medium sized building corner and two small wall corners/barricades. 7/10

   So, it seems Tamiya are rather decieving - false. I suppose that these kits are more just 'casted resources' for the modeller, rather than scenery kits. At only £5 each, this was waiting for my gaming board...

Here is one average sized sandbag formation that I've built, and one anti-tank obstruction (so that's what they were!). Here is also a coil of wire (I wrapped it 'round a pipe') with two of the stakes glued together at either end.

I made these barbed-wire pointy-parts out of some thin wire wrapped around the chunkier wire, leaving the ends pointing out.

Here is a building with a carboard floor ripped for it, with paper-clip pipes and window frame. The smashed window is made from the bottom of a Blueberry Punnet, with clear plastic of course!

And here's the D-Day board with minis for size comparison, and all of the terrain I've built on it!

I am working on the Never Surrender full version rulebook now, but hopefully I can get out the free simplified version out straight after!

Note that all pics on my blog can be opened in a new tab, and zoomed into to see further details!

Project O.G.R.E. - Orcs and Goblins Revamp:

       Hey guys, so, it's project OGRe, which is going to be a venture into the revival of my Orcs and Gobbos army. I started it just over 3 years ago, and was my second army, after Lizardmen, if you consider me not taking the Skull Pass minis as an army, just a start into the hobby and game, which is how I saw it, having had them before my Lizardmen. Of course, this army had alot to be desired, for instance, not a single regiment of Orc Boyz, different bases, only some highlights with drybrushing, and not being able to paint a metal model without the paint chipping, nor getting bright colours bright enough. Not leaving my WW2 models being, i will be starting the revamping of this army. It will include adding extra highlights, washes, all bases the same, repainting some models, and some adding to this army...

            Which brings us to this orc boy project. I have had many orcs, which have been left to eat dust, in multiple pieces! Many second hand orc boyz (hell whoever owned them should never be allowed to keep his genitalia) and some from Black Reach (I never took to Orks), will be repainted/painted, fixed, and even converted from 40k to fantasy orcs (cut off the gun and add a shield for Choppa Boyz). I am making a start, and have 8 done:

D-Day Board Complete! + WW2 Infantry Painted! + Sneak Peeks of What's to Come...

    So, I've been working on some WW2 stuff lately, with exceptions, such as Project OGRe (all will be revealed tomorrow!), and Ugluk, from LOTR. The D-Day gaming board is complete, with painted sand beaches (use Dulux paint, great matte priming finish, plus you've got paint to waste, prime models and boards with it). Later in the weeks an store will open, in which you can purchase my 'Never Surrender' WW2 skirmish rules set, which will be free, however, they will be simpler, and the paid version will come with colour pictures, and a Nazi Zombies rule set! The D-Day board also had some grass mat glued on top. The minis were painted in groups of five in around an hour and a half using washes, so that was good - a painting tutorial will be coming!

                        And above two rather improvised pics of my second trial of the Never Surrender ruleset

Miniature Photography

      Got the problem fixed! Right, me and my cousin - Alex Evans/Marsiblu, took some shots of minis/wargaming related things, trying to get crisp shots (my camera can zoom into previously taken photos, uncovering otherwise invisible details without pixelising), and experimenting with close aperture (crisp, focused foreground, blurry background)...

An interesting dice shot, from Alex Evans

Sweet momma - crisp, with a great sense of direction, it looks very imposing, with a well performed close aperture effect, from my cousin

Just a practice shot on one of my gutter runners, taken by Alex

Simply a crisp-pic! Taken by me.

The same model, at a different angle - not taken by me.

Of similar effect as the warp lighting cannon pic, very interesting (off centered) - interesting background, but not too attention seeking, nice close aperture, taken by my cousin.

Similar, by cous

Close aperure narrative shot - by me

Similar, by me

Similar, by my cousin (or was it the first one like this that was by him??)

Problems with Blogger!!!!

     Guys, I cannot see any pics I upload - there is an error in the process, so I won't be able to post pics 'till it's sorted, hopefully it will only be a day or two - I'm gonna email them now.