Of course, regular readers (shout out to Roger, John, Pete, IRO, Whittlesey & the crew!) will remember how it was Willy’s unfortunate encounter with my hungover foot that brought on this decision to paint an otherwise (almost) mint Heroquest set.. happy to say that Willy survived surgery involving superglue and rapid dry PVA and is almost 100%.. As with the Undead contingent, I wanted to follow the box art as closely as possible – because you just don’t mess with the classics – and went with the trick of priming white and prewashing with Vallejo Smokey Ink.
Flesh tones were a mix of craft skin tone & Vallejo Skin Wash, browns were Vallejo Filthy Brown washed with Brown Ink, metallics were Mithril Silver over a black base and washed with Smokey Ink.. and everything got a unifying drybrush of craft bone – basing was the same trick as the Undead, brown and yellow washes over a white base (nicely scuffed by all the collateral painting damage up to this point), followed by a thin black wash, black drybrush and then a drizzle of dust and flock to tie them to the theme of aged flagstones.
Got to say, they look a bit cackhanded next to the box art – the LIDL version of ‘Eavy Metal painting – but given the startling decline in my short range eyesight over the past six months (go on, make the jokes) that was probably to be expected, and I reckon they pass the “Two Feet Away” test without too much trouble – really looking forward to our first game with everyone painted up, that’s going to be some next level regression/nostalgia right there.. so till then, stay thrifty and Slavia Ukraini..
Smoke was rising over the dawn horizon as the tired sentry swigged the last of the water in his canteen. Squinting over iron sights, he peered down into the valley below and was suddenly snapped back to wakefulness.
The horde below seemed to have multiplied during the night. The Orca warhorde they had been tracking was far larger than intelligence had led them to believe – their brute warchiefs bellowed orders in their foul tongue, and although much of the camp was wreathed in smoke, the vibrations through the ground betrayed the steps of some far larger creature.
Could it really be true? The machinations of this new warchief that had been terrorising the northern quadrant had all been to summon some abomination from beyond the veil? The possibility was to hideous to contemplate, yet in the face of such terror, the Sky Marines stood tall…
The bushes rustled behind him. The next watch was arriving. He turned and hissed the password “Thunder?”
No answer.
“Thunder?” he hissed, irritated.
With inhuman swiftness, the chittering shadow leapt upon him, it’s blade cleaving a bloody arc through the man’s battledress.
“Die-die, man thing!” hissed the Ratman, wiping the Sky Marines’ blood on its’ cloak…
Well, it’s been a long time coming but we’ve finally managed to bring the Hyperian Warsmini-sort-of-campaign to a conclusion! And now the Orca horde of Warchief Ghazhrag The Bloody have established their status as Senior Baddies by beating seven shades out of Lord Ratticus’ Virum Nascii, we figured a suitable climax would be having them team up against the combined forces of humanity, the Ancien Regime and the Grand Alliance 301st Skyborne! And in doing so, we figured we could shake down the Hyperian Wars ruleset by seeing how it coped with a battle fo this scale and complexity…
Grab a beer, this is going to be a good one 😉
The stage is set… Baddies to the left, Goodies to the right – humanity’s Thin Red Line
Baddies new toys come out to play…Virum Nascii support teams deploy in the ruins, backed up by Slave archers.. note the Assassins infiltrated forwards into the fieldWitch Colonel Alecius Murphy sets up shop in the ruins – cavalry ready for a counterattack, the Ironclad and Steam Tank make ready to spill the blood of Beasts this day!The Dauntless and Whippets deploy out of sight behind the rocks with the intent of being one of the claws of a pincer movement, the oher being the Ancien Regime cavalry & armourAncien Regime grenadiers draw a bead on the Virum Nascii Assassins that have infiltrated forward into the cornfield…..this backfires as the Assassins achieve Frenzy and pile into their lines! Some opportunistic little buggers make a beeline for the Sky Marine squad deployed in the trees on the flank…Humies put up a stiff resistance, however – resulting in a few fallen Sky Marines and Grenadiers, but a completely annihilated regiment of Assassins!Virum Nascii superheavy leads the charge toward human linesVril lightning cannons purt the hurt on the Ironclad!Seeing the sheer mass of what’s heading their way, the Dauntless crew realise there’s no time for fancy strategy – we need every gun firing, and NOW!Virum Nascii losses are appalling, but they’re carving off casualties right and left off the human forces and the Orca haven’t even been touched yet!Orca are approaching in strength, but it’s the Virum Nascii paying the price.. so far!Carnage in the centre as the Virum Nascii and Ancien Regime super heavies take each other out!Orca magic takes a toll on the DauntlessThe first wave of the Beasts have been almost wiped out, but not without cost to the brave human defenders..You didn’t think that was IT, did you?!?“CONTACT FRONT!”More Orca crash into the Ancien Regime lines!The cavalry are hit in the flanks…..and annihilated!With the Orca rolling up the left flank, peppered by fire from the surviving Virum Nascii weapon teams, humanity prepares a last stand under the rocky outcropsWhippet squadron makes a desperate counterattack…The surviving Ancien Regime grenadiers decide to die gloriously!Sky Marines desperately try to stop the approaching Orca horde!Not entirely successfully…. this is how you earn combat pay, lads…“Enemy to our front, left and rear.. they can’t get away now!”Virum Nascii weapon teams bring down the Whippets!Listing, smoking, damaged by Virum Nascii special weapons and Orca magicks, the Dauntless makes her final stand… Vrilfire missiles and cannon take a vicious toll on the Beasts!The last remnants of the Orca horde try desperately to overhwelm the few remaining human defenders..The last grenadier falls and the Orca crash into the Sky Marine rifle squadHumanity not going down without a fight!And when the smoke clears…. the last handful of human soldiers and the surviving crew of the heavily damaged Dauntless look across a sea of bodies, human, greenskin and ratman..
Phew. Well, we did it – just. Humanity held this day, despite appalling casualties and some real nailbiter moments! In fairness to Dan, this was a “beta test” style game, working out some kinks and it’s easy to see that once we’ve got the Orca magick system a bit more fleshed out the shamans will be a LOT more effective.. plus we had to bodge the initiative system a bit to account for the different Strategy Ratings of the four sides.. but overall, immense fun was had, and the system got shaken down very thoroughly! The Beasts of Hyperia will be back, you’ll see…
Warchief Ghazrag surveyed the seen and grunted. His Waaagh God Avatar had been banished back to the ether, most of his ladz and practically all the Ratmen were slaughtered – it was time to pull back while he still had enough troops to rebuild.
He shrugged. It had been a laugh, after all. And you could always come back for anuvver go. “See you soon, ‘oomie”, he grunted and gestured for his lads to follow him from the battlefield…
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Particularly in a decade that has chosen to define itself so far through plague and war.. it’s easy to think back to earlier times and believe it was all better.
It’s bollocks, of course. Back in the 80’s, we were al going to die of HIV and AIDS and there was an actual Soviet Union with thousands of guns, tanks and ICBMs trained on us over the Berlin Wall. But you know what we had?
This:
“I’ll use my broadsword”… well, quite.
Dan and I both have Heroquest as a major part of our childhood memories, and I’m willing to bet a fair few of you out there do too, and so it was with much wondermemnt that I unwarapped a promising looking box a birthday or two ago from my other half and discovered a magnificant specimen…
Box, cards, furniture, miniatures all present and correct. What a find. And everything in pretty much mint condition.
We’ve had a few games and although I had initially fancied painting it all up, I began to veer towards the “keeping it mint” point of view, as let’s be honest, this is a piece of history right here. So Brian the Barbarian, Eric the Elf, Dave the Dwarf and Willy the Wizard undertook their first few quests au naturel. However, my hand was forced somewhat after I made the mistake of leaving a game out on the floor and the following morning the intrepid band of adventurers suffered their first casualty – not from Orcs or Goblins or the powers of Chaos but from my foot, as I trod on poor Willy and broke him in two.
Dan was pretty philosophical about it, needless to say – “They’re not mint anymore then. You might as well paint them.”. And he was right.
Thankfully Willy underwent surgery involving superglue and a bit of greenstuff and is now fully restored to health, but I took it as a sign! And first on the block were the Undead, as I figured I should get my eye in painting the easy stuff first.
These were a white prime and prewash with thinned Vallejo Smokey Ink – which I find is a phenomenally useful trick now I’m getting older and a bit Mr. Magoo – then craft tan, wash with brown ink and a couple of layers of drybrushing with tan and bone to bring out he details. Metallics were Vallejo Mithril Silver washed with Brown Ink to make them look weathered and beaten, and for the bases I went with the “leopard spot” technique of splodging yellow and brown on the base, before washing it all with thinned black baint and then drybrushing up. Final touches were a bit of flock and some Garage Floor Dust (TM) drizzled on the bases to make them look suitable ancient and dusty.
Skellingtons..Zombies…MummiesWith box art for comparison – stuck as close as I could to the originals here… you wouldn’t mess with the solo to “Stairway To Heaven” would you? So you don’t mess with these…
Willy, Brian, Eric & Dave are up next after their varnish is dry, then it’s on to the Orcs & Goblins and of course the furniture – and we’re both stupidly excited about giving this a go with everything painted, just to see the difference it makes! So we’ll be bringing you a battle report in the not-too-distant future… Meanwhile there’s something else brewing out in the shed, so stay tuned, stay thrifty and we’ll see you soon!
Cast your eye over these holiest of places. This, this, is where Humankind came to Hyperia so many centuries ago, fleeing the dying world and the ceaseless war. Here our prophet planted his flag and said “Today mankind stands reborn!”.
Many are those who have left to seek fortune elsewhere, to explore and conquer this world. Humanity - or those close enough to fit the genus – raises it’s flag on every island and continent on Hyperia. But here is where it all began. Here, on this, hallowed ground. Here the Ancien Regime was born, and in the unnumbered millienia of our history, here is where we have weathered every storm, beaten back every would-be destroyer, built our world anew. This is humanity’s rock on which all others will dash themselves.
Here we are with the fourth and (so far final) instalment of our Hyperian Wars escalation project, focusing on the Napoleonic-meets-Tolkien-meets-The Empire from Warhammer faction of humanity – the Ancien Regime! This massive, continent-spanning empire represents the numerically and geographically greatest of the various human societies, and its kings and nobles all claim (with varying degrees of legitimacy) to trace their lineage back to the First Leader who brought humanity from it’s dying home to escape a war they believed would consume humanity and end the world (wonder what he could be referring to…) – but they have also stagnated technologically and regressed into mysticism and Vril-worship to keep their creaking empire rolling.
These guys are actually seasoned veterans, having been featured in the blog when it was nought but a bairn, and came as a part of a massive 2012 Ebay haul… and it was while we wondering what the bloody hell to do with a bunch of Napoleonics and WW1 Brits that the concept of Apocalypse: Earth having a fantasy/steampunk/ VSF cousin, and featured in the very first test game back in 2016… and in that game, you may notice the Mk. 1 Dauntless – rather less refined than it’s successor – and a superheavy steam tank called the Ironclad.
Which having got 90% ready, then sat unfinished until September 2023. Of course. And it was during The Summer Of Tidying that we decided to get the Ancien Regime faction properly finished and tarted up. The Ironclad (which began life as a papercraft from Landships II, the Holt Steam Wheel Tank in 1/48 so suitably imposing for 1/72) got a new paint job (matching the repainted A7V Steam Tank) and because it looked pretty undergunned as was, I strapped a massive howitzer onto the back made from a defunct pen to ensure the lads had some sort of parity with the horrors that Hyperia has to offer.
So, pics:
The Ironclad Lives!Went heavy with the sponge chipping as I figured this old girl would have seen some action..Flags, as is de riguer in all Hyperian militariesOverhead shot of the massive Bombard howitzer, giving a welcome indirect fire capabilityThe lads formed up on on parade..Big Brother and Little Brother at the backWill it be enough to hold back the Beasts?
And so right now, the Ancien Regime stands (reluctantly) shoulder to shoulder with the Skyborne 301st in facing down the beasts of the Virum Nascii and the Orca in the shed as our slow burning Hyperian Wars campaign comes to a climax! So that’s what you can look forward to in the next few weeks 😉
Meantime, stay safe, thrifty and Slavia Ukrainia – we’ll see you soon
Time marches ever onwards, and it’s startling to realise that the big Hyperian Wars game we’re currently prepping for was one we actually planned to play over the summer holidays… oh well!
You’ve already seen the 301st Skyborne with their new reinforcements and superheavy, Dan’s Waagh-Ghazhrag horde have their big new heavyweights, there’s something due for the Ancien Regime but for now here’s something for everyone’s favourite chittering treacherous hordes, the vile Ratmen – the Virum Nascii (who are absolutely nothing to do with GW’s Skaven, we’re sure)
Now, originally I had planned to make a Doomwheel – and had gathered peanut butter jar lids accordingly – but I just couldn’t get anything together that looked right, so I decided to toss the idea and come up with something that fulfilled the same role but looked a bit cooler – inspired more than slightly by this post from the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts blog.
However, while the Doomwheel was too dopey, a rat-tank just didn’t seem quite dopey enough for Ratticus and the crew, so I hit upon the idea of a roller pushed by a weird scrap construct firing Vril-lightning.. functionally identical to the Doomwheel, but hopefully cooler looking.
I even sketched out a rough concept drawing – I know, check me out! – and then it was time to hit the Pile Of Interestingly Shaped Crap.
Yep, that’s an asthma inhaler. Again. And a pepper pot, and a pair of milk carton lids. My house is a ridiculous place at times.
Cardboard added for the “Horned Rat” superstructure, and kebab skewer for the Vril-lightning cannonsPadding out the booty with corrugated cardboard…Details added! Cardboard strips, blobs of PVA dotted on with a cocktail stick to represent rivets and superglue tube lids for the cannons… you may also notice the tail (!) which was a wire tie thingy, and the cocktail stick legs… why have wheels when you can walk, right?By this point, the Muse had taken me!!! So after having glued everything I had to hand to everything else I had to hand, I left it and when to bed….Yep, that’ll do! Out to the shed for priming – attempting this zenithal business again, so a grey base dusted from above with white….
…and then a brain fart, as either I didn’t take any more photos, or I did and managed to delete them.. but here we are with the finished product:
Of course, flags are now de riguer in our Hyperian Wars armies…Side shot…Showing off the junk in the trunk.. in fact, that’s a mechanical tail capped with a Vril tipped blade, so this thing should be a beast in close combat!And here with the rest of the crew, Lord Ratticus’ horde….
So there we go, one new grand war machine for the Virum Nascii to match the Dauntless Redux and the Orca War God…. just the Ancien Regime to get tooled up and that’ll be everyone!
You’ll be glad to hear that Hyperian Wars now actually exists as a PagePlus DTP file – a whole 7 pages already! So there actually is a chance that we might finally get around to publishing this one before the heat death of the universe and/or the release of Legiones Imperialis… so till next time, stay thrifty and Slave Ukrainia!
If you’ve been a regular subscriber to this blog, you’ve probably seen the on-again, off-again Hyperian Wars sort-of-campaign featuring Warchief Ghazhrag The Bloody’s attempts to acquire all manner of mysteriously sacred stones, and I’m sure the question that’s been uppermost in everyone’s minds is “just what does he want them for?”
I mean, it’s not like there’s anything else to be worrying about right now, is there?
Well, the time has come to reveal the terrifying truth… the Orca have summoned their War God! And here he is!
Yep, that’s the Hulk. Actually, I’ve kind of got Midwinter Minis to thank for this idea – Guy’s repurposing of his Hulk model made me realise that big, green and ANGRY = Orc/ Ork/ Orca, and so I acquired a Hulk of my own off eBay, a little converting (helmet, club), primed and based and here we are!
Greenstuff wrapped around a cocktail stick with granny grating spikes, old paint pot cut open and dotted with PVA blobs to be rivets as the helmet – base covered with Garage Floor Dust (TM) before priming!Paint scheme was the same as the rest of the horde, so no need to go into that again here.
For the second part of the project, I took inspiration from an ooooooooooooold White Dwarf WHFB report which featured an Orc Shaman on a War Wyvern… so I started with a T-Rex toy I picked up for a quid from a local charity shop.
Next, wings – these were cocktail sticks snapped in two and the joints sealed with superglue, and then I cut some wings out of paper and superglued them in place. Then, to make them more organic looking, I rolled a cylinder of greenstuff and smeared/ applied it to the structure.
Next up, priming – grey, dusted with white, and a thinned wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink, before painting. I started with a yellow base and then gradually layered up green with Army Painter Goblin Green and Green Tone ink washes. The cream parts were a craft bone washed with Vallejo flesh wash and then more bone stippled and drybrushed over the top, and I used the bone to pick out the teeth and claws before doing the eyes in red. Then out to the shed for basing and varnish, and that’s that done!
So, pics of Whaaagh-Ghazhrag in full:
Pretty impressive horde, eh? Those Skyborne won’t know what hit them! Stay tuned for our upcoming HW mega smackdown, and stay thrifty out there!
Before we start, allow me to apologise – I’m full of Christmas Lurgi, and therefore, whisky. For it heals ALL – well, I hope it does, at least.
It has been quite the year, and for all the wrong reasons – after the grinding misery of COVID and the shortages and disruptions that followed (and Lewis Hamilton being ROBBED, but that’s another story), it looked like this might finally be the year when the 20’s righted themselves and got going properly. And for a brief window of time that looked like it might happen.
And then… yeah, we all know what happened. A lunatic septagenarian with delusions of grandeur decides to try and resurrect his empire…Â and back we go into permacrisis. I wrote a brief but impassioned – some might reasonably say hysterical – analysis early on but I’m not going to apologise for that. If you’re of a similar vintage to Dan & I, then the world was always divided into NATO vs Warsaw Pact.. and on Feb 24 2022, it looked like the Warsaw Pact was rolling West. Like most people I fell into the trap of over estimating the Russians and underestimating the Ukrainians. That first weekend, watching the Ukrainian authorities handing out rifles to untrained civilians to defend Kyiv, the monstrous Russian column rolling in from the north… you just wanted to weep.
But we were wrong, weren’t we? The Battle Of Kyiv never happened. That monstrous Russian armoured column ran out of fuel and food. The Russians proved themselves to be staggeringly incompetent whilst the Ukrainians have proved themselves staggeringly resilient, brave and ingenious and have managed to inflict stunning reverses onto what we all believed was a peer threat to the US.. I’ve said it several times but I think NATO should be applying to join Ukraine rather than the other way around.
But this is not an analysis of the war. There’s enough of that out there, much of it done by those far more studied than I – and let’s not forget, it’s not over yet. I have a nasty suspicion, for example, that Ukrainian casualties are probably far worse than we’re comfortable thinking about… anyway, suffice it to say that’s why you haven’t seen too much of Lt. Grant and Lt. Polikarpov this year – it’s no fun playing the cartoonishly evil Soviet villain when there’s a real one killing real people near where you went on holiday back in 2013.
So, with our own game on the back burner, what did we get done?
Well, quite a bit, actually. A LOT of red paint applied on Dan’s side of things as the 1991 Blood Angels got a motor pool, some characters and – after a hiatus when my esteemed colleague discovered that freehand painting (if you have never done any of it before) is actually quite tricky – actually got their first game in! And in response, I bashed together all the Ork bits I had to hand and came up with an OPFOR – Da Black Ork Cav! There’s a lot still to do but it’s looking good so far.
I also managed to get my Levy platoon sorted for Firefight and the lads got their first game in, which is something we’ll be picking up again in the next few weeks, but my pet project for the year was (of course) Epic Squats! Evidently GW agreed with me as the Leagues Of Votann are the new big thing in 40k.. but my project is a lot more old school, based on the Squat force Commissar Yarrick fought with in the original Battle Of Golgotha (I’ve even done some themed terrain..)! So far the infantry complement is done, as is the Grand Battery, and although I haven’t tackled the Guild Biker force yet I’ve got some ideas on that… granny grating and greenstuff, is there anything they can’t do? 😉 And you may have seen my recent post in which a defunct asthma inhaler, with the help of some foamboard and various other bits and pieces, became a fully equipped Colossus! Which as we speak is out in the shed helping to shore up the defences of the world of Hazzard against the rampaging Ork hordes of Waagh-Bozzhog.. yep, we’re doing an Epic Rematch, so stay tuned for that!
So, we made it out of 2022, what of ’23? Dan has sworn faithfully to finish up the Blood Angels – and in fairness, he’s got the infantry complement complete – and we’ve got the next instalment of the Armageddon Diaries as the Marines can’t leave their gallant Captain Tycho in the villainous hands of Da Black Ork Cav.. for me, it’s building the aforementioned Cav up to full strength and getting the Squats into a more cohesive force.
And hopefully, this could be the year where history just stops happening for a bit – no more war, no more pandemics, no more upheaval. I think we can all raise a glass to that. Let’s end things with a couple of shots of the Epic game currently raging out in the shed:
We live in an increasingly turbulent world. Our cousin races – the Ee’la, the Stoc’d – withdraw into themselves, thinking only of their own interests. The Beasts – Orca, Grub, Virum Nascii, Lacerats – their numbers grow by the day, encroaching onto those territories claimed by Man. The Dead pour from the dark places.. and even while all this takes place, still we turn on each other.
Our Sky Marines perform above and beyond the call of duty but in the face of peer and near-peer competitors it is vital that we shore up our technologicalto maintain overmatch in the face of these perils. And so we are proud to unveil a new generation of Skycutters to ensure that our forces go into battle equipped the very best in firepower and protection from perils both physical and enchanted. To this end, we present our latest and best battlefield weapon – the Allied Sky Vessel “Dauntless”
Her power fields and wards will provide unmatched protection against conventional and magickal attacks, whilst a Vrilfire cannon can cut a swathe through enemy warriors. Vril-tipped missiles equipped with Artificial Cognisance can bring down threats up to and including the largest dragons employed by the Beast races, whilst reinforced liftwood levitation engines ensure maximal mobility. Noospheric networking allows the Dauntless class to network with lesser constructs such as the Whippet, as well as with platoon command sections and Masters Of Artificials on the groundThe Dauntless combines speed, protection and lethality into one construct, ensuring our society has nothing to fear from the Dead, the Beasts, or any other threat that the world of Hyperia may choose to throw against usShe can be seen here flying the colours of the 301st Skyborne, a tried and tested formation who have defended the Grand Allianceagainstmany foesLive fire combat testing proved the efficacy of the design, the Skyborne being highly appreciated of her concentrated firepower
Yep, I got into the recycling again…
Actually, I’ve been meaning to do this for AGES. Ever since I saw this:
This is the lid of a bottle of laundry detergent. And looked at the right way… it has an air of steampunk, Adeptus Mechanicus-style menace, doesn’t it? And given that the previous incarnation of the Dauntless was basically a toilet roll tube with pretensions, I’d long wondered if I couldn’t do something a bit better.Filled the body with caulk and popped a ping pong ball in there to be the liftwood coreSome EPVC (I think) from an eBay purchase provided the wings – you’ll have seen the same stuff used here as base.Bevelled the wings and glued them on using a mix of quick dry PVA, caulk and superglue.Jet thrusters from a pair of now-dead birosChin cannon (thinking steampunk/ fantasy A-10 here, so something analogous to the iconic “Avenger” cannon) – this was made from a mysterious leftover part from an IKEA bookcase!Missiles added for those hard to reach targets! These are rawl plugs, attached to the wings with the same mix of PVA and superglueSomething this big needs a base equal to the challenge! Pretty sure 2005 virus protection isn’t much use in 2022, so this CD will do, with a Tactical Rock added to cover the holeCardboard added for armour plating and rivets daubed on as blobs of PVA with a cocktail stick, and then we bring the primer! White, to match the WhippetCat litter added to the base for scenic effectPrimed and ready for painting…And done! Painting was the same as the Whippet, and the basing mostly used the same idea – I did a little bot of leopard spotting on the rocks before drybrushing them with cream and using the tried and trusty mix of PVA and superglue to attach the ping pong ball liftwood core.. Thumb added for scale!
So there we go – I’m really, really chuffed with this build, it came together really well and I think it looks the part too… full of menace, hovering across the battlefield dispensing Vrilfire death to the enemies of the Grand Alliance… let’s see what those filthy Greenskin savages, rat abominations or misguided religious zealots can come up with to match her!
Stay thrifty out there and see you soon – we’ve just noticed that it is (drumroll please) Orctober!!! So no prizes for guessing the next few posts themes…
With the Last Regiment finally finished, the end of this project is tantalisingly close… so let’s keep on!
I’d separated out the remaining figures into five “Boss” figures – one of which would be promoted to Warchief Ghazrag The Bloody himself – and ten “Shamans” (one of which played Ghaz in the battle reports). This meant there was going to be a SERIOUS amount of of Orca magic going on.. which was fair enough, it’s not like they get much in the way of heavy weapons or missile troops…
So, I based all the remaining models on 20mm washers using a mix of superglue and quick dry PVA, primed them white and then gave them a thinned black pre-wash to help pick out the detail as the eyes aren’t what they were… you might notice a little bit of greenstuff conversion work to make the figures less uniform, including the odd arm bent up or down, as well as a greenstuff cape on Ghaz himself to give him a bit of extra presence. The jester’s hat on one of the shamans was another greenstuff effort, a tip of the hat to the classic old GW Ork Weirdboy from the 90s, and in case it’s not clear, the stuff coming out from the shaman’s outstretched hands is magic, not an oversized novelty foam finger.
Next up, flags. Having failed spectacularly with my freehand attempts with the Blood Angels, I decided to take a different tack – a Google Image search for “Warhammer Fantasy Orc Banners” got me this:
So much easier when someone else has done the drawing for you..
The paint schemes were the same as thepreviousregiments, and I extended that to the banners – mostly red (Vallejo Hot Orange washed with Red Ink), craft bone paint and Vallejo German Grey for black / dark grey bits.
For banner poles I snipped some black paper clips in half, arranged them in reasonably convincing poses and superglued them in place.. and now the big reveal!
Warchief Ghazrag The Bloody, seen here at the head of his horde doing his best John Travolta impression… you can tell by the way he holds his axe, he’s a woman’s Orc, no time to talk…Orca Boss at the head of regiment of Boyz, now all flagged up and ready to rockGhaz and his Shamans at the head of his regiment of bodyguardsHead shaman rocking VERY fly hatDey’s over dere, GET EM!!!!!The Mighty Horde!!
Now admittedly, Orca strategy is largely:
But it’ll still be nice to have all these Bosses to help keep the assault rolling forward
But before all that, Warchief Ghazrag had the small matter of an Ancien Regime force to match wits with in his quest for ever-holier stones…
The battle lines are drawn…The Ancien Regime forces deploy with their flank anchored by the Steam TankGhaz leads the boys in a pincer movement around the ruined church (or at least that’s the plan)Supported by the Arrer Boyz, the Orca pile forward – Ghaz attempts to lead his bodyguard forward in the centre but is defeated by the terrain..Watching the Orca thunder toward the Ancien Regime lines, the Steam Tank takes cover for a flanking shotAncien Regime Grenadiers fall victim to Orca Arrer Boyz but the line holds… “Let them come on, lads!”Caught in the open, the Orca Warriors fall to the Steam Tank’s firepower!Rifle regiment receive the first of many Orca charges!Despite massive losses, the Rifle regiment holds, buying time for the Cuirassier cavalry to counter attack with a devastating flank chargeGrenadiers join the party, pushing home the counter-attackMeanwhile, the “elite” Black Orcs are hit with rifle fire from the regiment positioned on the cliff, and straightaway fluff their morale check..Not to be deterred, however, Ghazrag and his bodyguard are closing in on their objective!Grenadiers and Cuirassiers make short work of the Savage OrcsMaking a last gasp dive for the objective after Witch-Colonel Murphy manages to teleport him down the hill, Ghaz is felled by rifle fire as the remaining riflemen burn through their remaining command points in desperation… the last bullet hits home, felling the Warchief!
Bugger, I cocked that up royally – I tried to keep the regiments together and failed abysmally, leaving them to hit the Ancien Regime lines piecemeal.. hopefully my new cadre of Shamans and bosses will inject some flexibility to round out the army..
There’s still a couple of war machines to build, plus I’ve got a couple of conversions up my sleeve.. and then maybe make some giant spiders.. and this is why projects never really get finished! The Curse Of The Wargamer strikes again…
Stay safe and thrifty out there, we’ll be back again soon
As tensions across the world of Hyperiaescalate, the Grand Alliance coalition of willing floating cities and aero-states are finding it necessary to deploy Sky Marine task forces with increasing regularity. As by necessity these task forces are small in terms of numbers, despite their high quality training and equipment they arevulnerable to near-peer competitors able to deploy overwhelming numbers. To this end, the Alliance military-industrial complexhave been tasked with developing easily deployable “force multipliers”. The Fawcett-Fairchild “Whippet” class Quadrupedal Ambulatory Weapons Platform is such a device, crewed by a single Sky Marine, Vril-enabled Artificial Cognisance enabling it to track multiple targets, prioritise them and engage with twin belt-fed 1-inch canons – all the while networking with “senior” constructs such as the Dauntless-class Skycutter.”
You know that feeling when you see a piece of junk that you’re about to throw out and all of a sudden a voice in your head says “Keep me… I am destined to be more than this..”…
Yes, it’s a junk build. Missed these, haven’t you? 😉
So it was with a simple plastic cap off a bottle of guitar string cleaner – there was just something about the proportions that I thought looked right in 1/72… coupled with the fact that Dan had mentioned a new RTS called Iron Harvest that he reckoned I might get a kick out of…
OK, failed to take any pics of the build process, it seems. So – I began with the clear plastic spray top that forms the body of the mech. Next, I bored some holes in it and used cocktail sticks, snapped in half at the “knee” joints and sealed with superglue to form the legs. A mix of superglue and quick dry PVA did wonders to fix the legs in place to the body.
Next up, the cannons – two more cocktail sticks with sort of grippy bits on them (look at the pic, I don’t know how best to describe them!) – these got the superglue/ PVA treatment straight to the body. This works really well – PVA gives a flexible, sturdy bond but it takes time to dry, whereas superglue is quick drying but brittle. Mixing them seems to do wonders, and there doesn’t seem to be any side effects like Mel The Terrain Tutor describes from mixing superglue and hot glue.
The ammo belts you see feeding the cannons are cut from IDE cable (credit to Zrunelord from TMP there), chopped about 5mm by 10mm and given the magic glue mix, and the shiny thing on top is a defunct watch battery – gives the thing a nice bit of weight.
On the top you can see a chopped down superglue cap, and a couple of thin pieces of card glued to the front for armour plating, and just out of shot are a couple of drinking straws trimmed to represent exhausts:
Old brush bristle got repurposed as an aerial, and the rivets are our classic method of PVA blobs dabbed on with a cocktail stickFinally I drew round a paint pot on a piece of corrugated card for the base. And with that, time for priming!White, as was the style of the time..Prewash with thinned black paint & Vallejo Smokey Ink mix
And once again, I forgot to take pics of the painting process, so here we are with some finished beauty shots:
Basecoat of Vallejo Russian Green, washed with Arm Pinter Green Tone and then thinned Vallejo Brown Ink with a pin wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink.. then drybrushed back with Russian Green, and mixed with craft tan to lighten it. Weathering was Vallejo Skin Wash streaked on to simulate rainwater and then sponge chipping with craft black and Vallejo Mithril silver for where bare metal pokes through (not too much, Sky Marines undertake regular maintenance of their armoury). The brass ammo belts were Mithril Silver washed with Skin Wash, and the base painted with chocolate brown before covered with dry soil, sand and Jarvis flock before varnishSeen here about to kick some greenskin ass.. “They are to our right, left and centre.. they can’t get away now!”
Stay thrifty out there, and if you’re so inclined you can now follow us on Instagram! Just search “@skinflintgames” – see you in the next one
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