Retro Waaagh!

 So a fella on Instagram is working on a Rogue Trader era Ork army. (check out his stuff HERE) Actually there are quite a few people working on Oldhammer stuff, but in this case it turns out the gent in question lives locally. After a brief chat we made some reasonable trades between our collections of old school minis (All done responsibly) and I set my mind to building my own Retro Waaagh!

As I had acquired quite a few Goff Ork models over the years, it seemed right to go with what I had to hand and add little bits as needed after. A couple of weeks back I posted the WIP shots of the 2nd Ed plastic boyz I was converting. Today I'm back with the finished results, a big ol' mob of boyz.

The rokkit launcher is an old school space marine piece that needed some rebuilding and additions to fit on the ork's shoulder.

And ofcourse every self respecting Goff mob needs a big Boss to keep order... with a big stick! After painting the back plates on the boyz for practice I went ahead with the Boss' banner. This was an experiment to see how this style of banner would look. The intention is to have similar designs on every Nob in the army as well as Ghazkull's battle standard when I get to painting him.

These photos were all taken with a new light box that got. I've been playing about with it and it really has improved the quality of the pictures for blogging and to show off paint jobs. I also got a ring light to help with battle reports and move around my gaming table, but that's for another day.

Well, the first mob of orks for the Goff Army is done. That's proof of concept sorted and I'm happy with it. Now I need to get to work on the rest of the army. Short term the plan is to build an army to fit Rogue Trader rules. Loads of randomized wargear and bits for the boss' and leader with one exception, I'll be using the 2nd Ed Ghazkull model to lead everyone so he'll be as is, but it means everyone else could get some truly odd combos for weapons and bioniks. Most of this won't effect the models, but some stuff may see heavy conversion work done. Time will tell.

Rotten Stables

 Been a while since I did anything for Turnip28. I built these knights for it a little while a go, but only painted them recently. Once again, painting stuff for Turnip28 is super quick, but this time around I struggled a bit. 

I'm not sure why, but mid way through painting these minis I really started to hate them. Despite following the same style and colours are previous minis, I just didn't like where things were going. Maybe it was because I painted them as separate pieces from the horses and the shields, I really don't know. 

Thankfully, once they were muddied up and glued together, everything worked out fine. I'm much happier with the finished models now and I'll make a start on another batch of dirty cav soon. For now I want to try some cleaner paint jobs by way of some Oldhammer Orks.

The fellow on the left is the officer.

Back Into The Field

 This week was a chance to return to some gaming. Namely Rangers of the Shadow Deep. The household adventure is progressing nicely as we're most of the way through the Core Book's second mission. I've neglected to take photos this time around. (No excuse, I just forgot). A couple of weeks back we cleared the cultists guarding the river crossing and this time we had to enter the captured tower Tor Varden. 

We had to clear the lower levels of the Tower, fighting cultists and beasties before ascending the stairs to the tower top and the final confrontation. We went into the first room boldly looking to slay the cultists, but things turned on us as our trusty Dog companion was killed by one of the cultists. Not injured, not taken out of action, KILLED, DEAD. That's right, season 2 of our epic series of fantasy adventures and we lost the dog. The missus was not happy and promptly took matters into her own hands. Leading the charge and claiming vengeance before entering the second room.

Once again we kicked in the doors and charged the cultists. The cultists were in the middle of a ritual to summon a demon, making time a factor. We were able to wound the Shaman with a well placed arrow, but yet again, things turned on us. Cas was laid low by a cultist, as was Rufus the Guard. We killed the Cultists, but they had done their twisted duty and delayed us long enough for their Shaman to complete the ritual. So we had to fight this monstrosity...

Despite being horribly injured from the previous room, having no healer and lost our dog, we still managed to kill the demon and the Shaman AND get into the next room before the timer ran out. 

We entered the final room to see a battered tower guard being brutalizer by a Cult Champion. After defeating the Demon, the remaining cultists and there champion were no match for the battered Rangers. Thus ended this second act of our adventure. 

I've got a few pieces of scenery and a suitable boss model I need to get painted before we play the final scenario so give me a little while to get that out of the way.

Check Out The New Wheels

 As promised here's the second Trukk for the Diggas. Bigger than the first and has been given a heavy duty ram for those all important head-on collisions. (Seat belts optional)

Plus I rebuilt and modified one of my older Trukks. I was never completely happy with how wide this trukk first turned out so as accidents go (got knocked off a table during a clear out), this provided a chance for me to correct a nagging complaint of my own work.

Here's a picture of the original build for comparison.

Finally, a quick look at the next bright idea to catch my attention. I've been hording old school orks for a while now and though my standing army is a wonderous mix of models and parts from multiple editions and decades, I only really add the odd unit as needed and this has lead to a very eclectic mix of colour schemes, conversions and styles of minis. (I'll need to do an up to date army photoshoot when my FLGS reopens.)

I've seen a few people pop up on my Instagram feed in recent times building full Oldhammer armies. Using old school colour schemes and building the army using rules from the older editions of the game. One such project by Mr. Young really inspired me. After a brief chat and an exchange of ideas I dove in with the drive to build an army to Rogue Trader specs and style. Tom had done a marvelous job on his Bad Moons, so I didn't want to copy him and went for something different. As I had a lot Goof models, including the 2nd Ed Ghazkhul, it seemed only right to build a Goff army. And of course the best place to start with a Goff Ork army is with this guy...

...And several of his cloned mates.

I would struggle to find the energy to get these done in this lifetime if I had to paint the same model 10 times. At least what conversions I have done will help keep to keep me interested. Painting wise, I'll be keeping to the 2nd Edition black and red scheme. My normal Orks are largely black and yellow so it's familiar enough to do quickly.

I'm going to try and keep things as close to the old style of weapons and vehicles as I can. 3D printers will cover a lot of the older vehicle designs, but I can fill in the infantry and characters with parts I have and some minor conversion work as already seen. Long term, everything will get incorporated into my normal army as further re-enforcements, but right now, the intention is to have a 1500pt Rogue Trader Ork Army. More on this project in the future.

Desert Dregs

I posted these on instagram the other week and felt it only appropriate to post them here too. These are my Digga Mob for Gorkamorka. I've another Trukk in the works to carry the rest of the mob, but I wanted to put these up here for now. These were a great little range of models from back in the day, shame they're so hard to track down now, but I love the character they hold.

Next up I need to finish off the second trunk for these lads and make some repairs to another trukk that got damaged during some tidying. Then I've got bitten by the bug for another long term painting project, but more on that another day.

Constructive comments always welcome.