40K

CoolMiniOrNot...

Jack — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 18:35:00 GMT

Everyone that's anyone, or at least someone who was trying to kill time during the dotcom boom, knows about HotOrNot.com. Apparently the guys that designed it sold the engine or something, cause there's about a zillion offshoots, like this one, for people who like porn, and this one, for people who like gay porn.

The RateMyBlahBlah site for people like me, is CoolMiniOrNot.com, which is generally very slow, but has a cool articles section, and, of course, zillions of pictures to rate. In general, they're all pretty mundane, like this one, done by revered 40K powergamer and infamous internet fucknut, Ed Maule.

My summary page is available here, so you can go there and see the pictures I took of crap. I'm doing better with the pictures these days, it takes some serious fuckeling around to get good ones, but I'm getting better at it over time. I still need to go get a tripod, and maybe another light, but for now I can do decent work.

What's also sorta neat is that CoolMiniOrNot lets you point IMG refs to their site, so you can have your scores live on your own site. Like this:

Dark Angels Librarian :
Deathwing Terminator Sergeant:

Battlewagons are hard to make...

Jack — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 11:12:00 GMT

I'm still working on my Battlewagon. Right now I've got a pretty good chassis to work with. I assembled all those individual track links, tacked armor plates onto the hull, and created a nice orky looking base on which to build a superstructure. It takes for-fucking-ever.

I took a break halfway through the build to do some more ork boyz. I added 16 more, 4 slugga boyz, 4 big shootas, 4 rokkit launchas, and 4 burna boyz. That brings me to 32 boyz with a nice assortment of weapon upgrades. But now that they're done, it's back to the Battlewagon, and the going is slow.

I spent a good 45 minutes just staring at it last night, trying to figure out how to mount a pair of rokkit launchas on it. I've got the zzap gun set up and bolted to the deck, and I'm pleased with that, but I still need to figure out how to put the rokkits on there too. I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how to fit them on the deck to either side of the zzap gun, but I think what would work best would be to put them in sponsons. Sponson mounted guns are very popular in the 40K universe, so it should look right... I'd like to convert some grots to crew the wagon, they'll add personality and detail to it. I think about five grots would be good, two manning the zzap gun, one manning each of the rokkit launchas, and then one grot rigger.

Pray for da boyz.

Orks...

Jack — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 19:10:00 GMT

I've got my first 16 Ork slugga boyz done. I like how they came out, I think my process is relatively fast, and provides some very nice looking Orks by tabletop standard. My only issue, which I have with most models I do, is that the final clear overcoat tends to detract from the overall impression. In this instance I went with a dull coat, which flattened out some of the blending. I could have gone with a semi-gloss, that might have made them look a bit sweaty and damp, but they're on desert themed bases, so I thought dusty would be best. I'm not going to risk them without an overcoat, because they're meant to be gamed with, and paint chips and wears off of unfinished models quickly.

So now it's time for some custom built vehicles. I took a shot at this last night, but was dissatisfied with what I came up with. I got some hexagonal rod which makes great bolt heads, but the halftrack type suspension I tried to build didn't please me. I got halfway through before I noticed that my tracked suspension didn't have individually articulated road wheels, and thus wouldn't really work in practice. It was also overly plain, and would require a great deal of work to build out the structures I'd need to make it work. I think it demands a certain amount of artistic ability, which I don't have, to know what looks “cool and military” and then recreate it from scratch.

One way around that, is to steal... My new personal hero, “Nightserpent” has a nice looking Battlewagon on his site. I took a look at it, and because I'm a fucking genius, I recognized the model he based it on. It's a Sturmtiger, a WWII German assault mortar tank.

See? So, I bought this kit, which is an Sd.Kfz. 184 “Elefant,” a big self-propelled gun also based on the Tiger chassis, and also with a big chunky hull to base an Ork Battlewagon off of. It should be pretty good, I'm confident about my ability to chop up slabs of Orky looking armor, and make bolts to hold it on with... I think it'll come out good. One thing that is sorta horrifying, is that the kit I got has individual track links. That means I have to cut each and every link off the sprue, and assemble it over the road wheels. That's gonna be time consuming. Still, I think that starting with a real tank, with a real suspension, and a framework to build upon, will give me a better chance of producing a nice looking Battlewagon.

Some Inspiration...

Jack — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:04:00 GMT

I've started painting Orks in honor of the release of the 4th Edition of Warhammer 40K. I think that the new rules treat Orks kindly, so it's time to start painting an Ork army. Thing is, there's a lot more than just painting to be done with Orks, as they're an army that demands a lot of custom building.

Example: For example, this guy has a bunch of conversions and custom builds that are very cool. Take a look at his biker warboss, and then go here to see how he built the guy. That's a pretty tremendous custom build.

At this point, I'm just working on my first set of 16 slugga boyz. Slugga boyz are the core of a good Ork horde, so I will need lots of them. Probably about 40 should do it. I also need to do some small conversions to create Orks with big shootas, burnas and rokkit launchas, rather than buying the metal models that GW sells. The metal models are more expensive, more heavy (thus fragile), and you only get a few poses that way.

I'll also need to custom build wartrukks and a battlewagon. Yet again the guy above has an amazing wartrukk he built from scratch, which gives the impression that you can get good results with styrene sheet and a good sense of style. On the other hand, you can also go with a plastic model kit, and Orkify it, as he's done here. I'm planning to have a looted Leman Russ, which should be a fun conversion.

All in all, this guy's got an inspiring set of Ork models, which is really invaluable when you're starting on your own project and need a good push to get going.