Painted: Uruk-hai Berserker

 

This year I managed to paint only one orc for Orctober, a metal uruk-hai berserker. I painted him the exact same way as me other uruk-hai, so the recipe was posted here previously.

Slapchop performs better on models such as this, that is pieces that don't have much metal on them. The other uruk-hai took much longer as they are covered head to toe with metal plates, while this little fellow has a helmet, gauntlets, metal-capped boots and some chainmail at the waist, which made painting him a breeze and it's probably possible to churn out a couple of berserkers in the same time it takes one normal uruk-hai to be ready.

Either way, my Isengard forces have another painted miniature among them. Even after the news that a lot of MESBG models get retired I'm still looking forward to the new edition of the game and I hope that It will be at least as good as the current one.

Motivation idea: Achievements

A few months ago I saw a nice idea to gamify the hobby a little bit and possibly help with productivity. As the title of the post suggest, the idea revolves around achievements. Unfortunately the blog I saw it on cannot be accessed currently. Either way, I decided to try to implement a simple monthly achievement system next year. A simple, short list of current achievement ideas was published on a subpage and the idea is to write a monthly summary regarding how many (if any) achievements were unlocked.

It is possible that in time some new achievements will appear, related more to the blog itself than strictly to buying and painting miniatures, as it may be a way to incentivise doing something more than just publishning photos of miniatures when they are done.

Orctober update: Ork Boyz WIP

Today is the last day of Orctober. It turns out even the minimal plan was too much to fully achieve. Unfortunately I didn't manage to complete (that is, both paint and base) a single orc this month.

This does not mean that I haven't slapped paint on even one orc. Actually, I primed 20, painted 5 to the point that they only need basing and another 5 need a little more work on the metallics and maybe fixing some little mistakes.

Without further ado, the current state of the project:

I'm quite happy with how they are turning out. When all 20 are finished I'll make a (hopefully) better photo and write down the colours used, in case someone wants to use this scheme.

Orctober is upon us!

It is almost a year since I stared this blog. The only model I painted last year was one of the Ork Kommandos for Kill Team. I mentioned multiple times that orcs & goblins were the first miniatures that I bought, assembled and at least partially painted, so I do feel obligated to take out someting orky from my backlog and attempt to slap some paint on it.

In other words: just paint one orc and I'm done, am I not?

Hopefully not. I won't lie, even though this year is already better than 2022 in terms of painted models, health issues, other hobbies and other obligations did not make it easy to just sit down and paint. It was often the case that when I wanted to paint I could not, but when I had the time I didn't have to motivation. Also, I still have some posts in the works and I really should finish writing down how many things I have in my backlog (too many).

In any case, this month is not about all of my backlog, only the orcish part of it. I have a minimal goal of painting the 20 Ork Boyz from Assault on Black Reach, as they have been almost assembled (put together without glue) since 2012. If I manage to that, I will pick some other units or almost units and just paint as many as I can. If I don't base them properly, I will count them as painted for Orctober, but not finished for my list.

I like to make bullet points, so I'll make one for the models that I would love to paint this month:

• Main goal: 20 Assault on Black Reach Ork Boyz
• Addon: 12 LotR Orks
• Addon: 10 Gutrippaz
• Addon: 5 Assault on Black Reach Ork Nobs
• Addon: 1 Assault on Black Reach Ork Big Boss

For some of my friends and people from various discords this list would be really short, but... it's almost as long as all I have accomplished this far in 2023. If I manage to get this far, I'll have to come up with some new goals, but the first day of Orctober is almost over and I haven't pained up any orc yet. But I did prime the first batch of them.

So... keep your fingers crossed and WAAAAAAGH on!

Hobby Update #1: June 2023

 This time I'm posting a short update regarding the wargaming and painting hobbies in my life in June, as I didn't manage to finish any projects. I will also skip showing you the photo of either the Leviathan box or the assembled inquisitorial models, as they were basically monopose. So, without further ado, let's get to the meat of it:

Played games: 2 games of Necromunda (the first was an introductory game, the second was the first game of a campaign) and a game of Kill Team.

Backlog Additions: Leviathan Box.

Assembled models: remaining inquisitorial retinue rom the Ashes of Faith box - 6 models (pistoleer, death world guardsman, mystic, auto-savant, servo skull, servitor).

Started projects: Corpse Grinder Cult gang, 10 Forest Goblin Spider Riders (after I said that I need a break from painting goblins, well...)

Backlog Additions #2: Dreadful May

 Up to May I was able to not buy too many miniatures and the painted to bought ratio was actually quite good. And then came May (June will probably see my backlog grow as well if I manage to get my hands on the Leviathan starter), the month that sees me grow a year older... and that was apparently full of Kill Team releases this year. So, without further ado, let's see what was added to my pile of shame.

The last days of April saw the preorder announcement for Gallowfall. I managed to secure a copy at my FLGS. And friends bought the Corpse Grinder Cult miniatures for Necromunda and that big swamp orc monster for my birthday. I won't lie, I'm quite anxious to build big monsters, but when the time comes it will be a really nice centrepiece for my Kruleboyz.

Then it turned out that she starters for Shadow Collective become increasingly more difficult to buy and that their prices are going up and up. So, thankfully I got my tax return and just grabbed this box and the Essentials Kit. So now I have a small force for Legion.

The little box with goblins is a treat for completing a painting goal (of painting 40 goblins). I know I wrote about posting about it at least once, but I still didn't get to organize my thoughts on the topic. The big box was the true surprise of the month. I didn't expect it to come out so quickly after Gallowfall, but once again I managed to secure a copy at my FLGS.

PS. I managed to assemble some miniatures as well!

Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition? Here we have the leader of the inquisitorial Kill Team - the Interrogator.

The team that mattered for me more - the Fellhorn Ravagers. Assembled and waiting to be painted or played with.

And the Corpse Grinders Cult. I didn't like one of the head options, so I left out the "head cage". Those are currently primed and I will be playing with this faction in my first ever Necromunda game - if nothing goes awry, that'll happen this Saturday!

Painted: Night Goblins with hand weapons and shields

 

I managed to paint another unit of Night Goblins. These were bought around the time I got the Battle for Skullpass box - the shop where I bought my first miniatures was closing, so I caught some discounted boxes - it happened somewhere between 2006 and 2008, when I was in junior high school. I assembled them pretty quickly, but they just stood and waited afterwards.

Once again slapchop proved to be a godsend and those little buggers lend themselves splendidly to that technique. I painted them in the same scheme as the Night Goblin Archers from Battle for Skullpass, the only new colour here was the blue (Highlord Blue speedpaint) that I used for the mushrooms.

I'm quite happy with how they turned out, but after 40 Night Goblins I need a little palate cleanser. We'll see what It'll be, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to tackle some more goblins in the near future, regardless.