Another Hole In The Head Pt. 6 – The Last Regiment!

Yes, I’m still avoiding the Marines… but bear with me, I’m almost at the finish line with this project – and when the end is in sight, it seems perverse to switch focus to something else.

So having finished up the “Orcs Of Colour”, that left me with just a single regiment of 30 Orca Warriors left to do.. then there are the shamans, of course, plus I reckon I could probably knock together a couple of stone throwers.. and I have an idea for a “superheavy”…

Anyway, point is, I can see an end to this project, so I took a deep breath and dove straight into the final regiment. Based on 20mm squares of wine box cardboard, white primer, prewash with thinned down black ink – it’s a poor man’s zenithal primer, plus it helps my Mr Magoo eyes pick out what detail is what.. in addition to covering up any gaps that might otherwise be left a glaring white.

Other than that it’s the usual scheme – Army Painter Goblin Green skin washed with Army Painter Green Tone, red bits are Vallejo Hot Orange washed with Red Ink with a unifying drybrush of yellow… The metallics are Vallejo Mithril Silver washed with Smokey Ink for a rusty effect as Orcs of any universe are not known for their weapons maintenance.

So, pics:

As you can see, I gave them a flag – Google Image search for “Orc & Goblin Banners”, printed it out and painted it up… Damn sight easier than trying to do freehand and this may yet be the way forward with the Blood Angels

These pics don’t seem to have come out too well.. guess my phone is unused to the amount of sunlight we’ve been having..

Flags & banners make a huge difference to the spectacle – of course, now I have to go back and give the other regiments a flag each..

The ladz on parade

Warchief Ghazrag The Bloody leads his mighty horde

Regular readers will have noticed the progress of Warchief Ghazrag The Bloody across the world of Hyperia in pursuit of capturing some holy stones…

(had to do it)

So far they’ve battered both Ratticus McStilton III’s Virum Nascii and the Sky Marines of the Grand Alliance, so next up will be a face off against the Ancien Regime now the gaming shed is back in business… Can we make it three in a row? Let’s see!

Stay thrifty out there, we’ll be back soon

Terrain Talk Pt. 20 – Under Golgothan Spires

So I’ve finally got my big DIY project underway – my granny grating Epic Squat army, based around the old 2nd Ed Space Marine battle report, “The Battle For Golgotha” from somewhere around 1993, which was set in the aftermath of Warlord Ghazgkull’s 2nd invasion of the world of Armageddon and (spoiler alert) finished with the heroic Commissar Yarrick being captured by the Ork..

Little did I know that between then and now, GW would immortalise this encounter with a novel and of course the Squats themselves would fall.. and then rise! But honestly? I’m more interested in recreating those gorgeous pictures that hooked me as a nipper.

I mean, just LOOK at this… breathes there man or woman with soul so dead as not to be enchanted??

Looking back through some of the pictures you’ll notice some big jagged rock spires – maybe not the most realistic terrain, but certainly cinematic, and CERTAINLY eye-catching. So monkey see, monkey make..

We start with a chunk of Celotex insulation foam (the same stuff I bought a big sheet of back in 2017, to make hills and stuff from)

And a sheet of what I believe is ePVC – I bought some speakers on eBay, and this was part of the packaging.. Terrain Tutor approved basing material, cut into a wobbly lozenge shape, bevelled and sanded.

Glue one to the other, and start hacking chunks off with a DIY knife

A bit more hacking and glueing of excess bits to create contours and make sure the spires aren’t all the same height

Covered the whole thing with filler (spackle, to our American friends)

Important to cover the whole thing, as spray paint can melt the foam and play havoc with your masterpiece!

Next up, I concocted some DIY Mod Podge by mixing up black craft paint, PVA, filler and water to get in all the nooks and crannys. This also worked as a good “pre-prime” coat to ensure nothing was left exposed to the spray paint.

But first, some detail – cat litter! I splurged PVA into various likely looking spots on the piece and drizzled cat litter onto them.

Cheap & simple, but an incredibly effective trick – I would credit who I nicked the idea off, but it’s lost to the mists of history..

And then…. WTF??? A WHITE undercoat??? Stained with yellow & brown paint washes????

…but then we bring back sanity with a thinned black wash over everything…

Bone drybrush to catch the contours and THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how we apply the “leopard spotting” technique to our rock formations! Credit to Lukes APS for clueing us in to that one.

Finally flocked with Jarvis 3 tone system as used on our board, hills and as espoused by Mel The Terrain Tutor himself, praise be upon him… a little bit of Garage Floor Dust (TM) in there as well. I finished up by sealing it with watered down PVA and sprayed with matt varnish to protect it. Dan’s Blood Angel and Epic Battlewagon shown for scale

This was a really fun little build, and didn’t take anywhere as long as I thought it would, so I think a few more may be in the offing as I’ve still got a fair bit of ePVC and insulation foam..

As Dan mentioned, HQ is down for a bit of redecoration and reorganisation for the next week or so so there’s time to build some more stuff for us both.. in the meantime, stay safe, stay thrifty and Slava Ukrainia!