An Ork renegade to keep us going.

It's been a quiet month or so from a hobby point of view, build up to Christmas and other activities have left little time to paint up the remaining Heroquest models or to add to my Ork horde or even get a game in that I can show here.

What I will do is just spotlight this fine model that caught my eye after looking at White dwarf 112.

An Ork Renegade from the Rogue Trader era, armed with a power fist and chainsword. For an ork he is quite conventional and serious looking. Hopefully one day I might find one to purchase, but in the meantime I'll try and get some more blog posts up on here.

:)

Clad in plate of steel, the Chaos Warriors (Heroquest)

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about something we can all relate to, something that is unquestionably, inescapably… Chaos!

I am referring, of course, to our great national pastime - merciless combat. Or so it had been. That's right, wasteland dwellers. Before we were devastated by heroic deeds, each lair had its OWN professional combat team. Imagine, a perfect, rain soaked day. The sun is enveloped by darkness and misery. And on the horizon, they appear, like knights of yore, armed with axes of hate and malice.

"Erm, guys the camera is this way!"

Their name? The Chaos Warriors. Their purpose? To make you, dear reader, revel in the joys of savagery and blood, if only for an afternoon.

Wargear cards of 2nd Edition 40k (Orks) - An Investigation

I'm a big fan of 2nd Edition 40k, it was the edition I grew up on. It is the one which I still like to have the occasional battle or just paint up a miniature or two.

Of course as something I regard with fondness this means I am always reading up on any new battle reports or other blogs about the subject. One such subject that isn't addressed a lot is the merits of the various wargear cards you could equip characters. Now I won't go over every wargear card as I will be here all day, but I am going to do a small review of the Ork specific wargear in this post.

Scenario Battle idea 40k

In a lot of ways I don't actually game with my miniatures very much any more. Sure a round of Necromunda gets organised occasionally but that's about it. It's more a painting hobby for me as I haven't actually played a solid game of Warhammer 40k in a long time. While digging through some minis for a particular project I stumbled across a 2nd edition Eldar Fire Dragon.

Nothing too remarkable about the meltagun aspect warriors but they did spark a memory of some scenarios and ideas I had back then that might be worth sharing. The main scenario it reminded me of was something I shall call Defence of The Sacred Waterway.

Movie Review - The Deadly Mantis (1957)

The Deadly Mantis (1957) 

A film featuring a giant fictional prehistoric monster causing mayhem to the people of earth. Oh how I love these old school films where something is disturbed and then decides to attack the nearest populated area. So In this case we have a 200ft tall Praying Mantis.

... you never know what lurks around the corner!

From the swamps and bogs they came, shrouded in mist ready to haul away unsuspecting townsfolk and their pets!

Quick find the Hobbits! ... What do you mean wrong franchise?

Movie Review: The Brain Eaters (1958)

The Brain Eaters (1958)

I'm Here and I Want Action! is a phrase barked out by a gruff military type in this alien threat B-Movie. On viewing the whole film I think it's a fairly good analysis of what I watched.

In the world of cinema the B-Movie is the runner-up to the main feature, the cast off that was there to amuse but not much else. So when I opted to watch The Brain Eaters I wasn’t expecting too much …

Old Ruins complete and occupied by Goffs.

A while ago you may have read about some old ruins I was making, well they did get finished so I thought I should give them an appearance here.

The devastated building will go nicely with skull tower.

July is a busy time (Wait it's August?)

Still here, still going to post updates ...

July is one of those months where everything happens for me. Thus I have not had a lot of time for the oldhammer hobby or anything else worth posting about. However just to keep this going I'll put up a couple of images:

'Ere? Where did all that snow go? Wat dis place?'

Here are all the orks I have painted up so far, from the Goffs to the Runtherd and even the Boss himself at the back (he's not quite finished yet).

Also one of my favorite models has been dunked and had the paint removed ready for a new paint scheme, but it is no Ork:

We will find the Orks and slay them!

Yep a Dire Avenger Exarch, fantastic model (as I mentioned in my top ten) and one I hope to paint up very soon.

That's it, until next time :)

Necromunda Underhive: Ganger and Gang Name Generator

Necromunda and it's newest sibling Shadow Wars: Armageddon are great games if you want to get close and personnel with those that live in the underhives of the 40k universe.

From Bounty Hunters searching for criminal drug dealers to Heretical Redemptionists burning everything in sight in the emperors name it is a fantastic world to get lost in. Mind you it helps if you can give names to your would be bunch of infamous hoodlums.

"Well Hi Mr ....? angry autogun dude!

I know from experience this can be a difficult thing to do, some gamers aren't that interested while others create gang names from popular culture in the vein of naming a bunch of Worms in that humorous PC game (Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Launchpad FTW :) )

Nearly a month, don't get lost in Turkish Tombs

Yes it's been a little while since the last post, mainly due to a trip to Turkey for some needed R&R. Wonderful place with great weather, good food and wonderful scenery. As a tenuous link to oldhammer here are the Necropolis of Kaunos which may inspire some undead scenery makers, hewn into a cliff face by ancient peoples.

If that doesn't take your fancy then here is the only thing I can offer until I paint up some more heroquest or ork goodness.

Those dungeon heroes should really be careful ...

... you never know what might show up in the catacombs beneath the old world.

Yep over the weekend I have completed painting and basing a whole host of Heroquest miniatures ready to ambush an unwary hero or two.

Ow my ankles, damned crafty goblins sneaking about!

Two Battle Master goblins, not a fan of these minis as they are a bit lacking in detail so difficult to paint up properly. Still nice to have some variation in the goblin ranks.

Orcs with big swords, flails and an angry temperament!

An orc with a cleaver, meats on the menu boys!

With these six orcs complete, all of the orcs have now been painted up. I did enjoy painting these greenskins, the blue tunic one was a bit of a throwback as that was the original colour scheme I gave him. All I did was tidy him up a lot and base him, I'll use him as an orc with a big sword in a quest as he stands out from the rest.

They found some shambling rags, must be the work of a shaman!

Two more goblins here which completes the set of diminutive greenskins. Plus the final mummy, you can see some red areas which are a younger me giving it blood marks, tidy up and complete once again.

Something new, or is that very old and rotten? :)

The shambling horde approaches, finally got around to painting up the zombies for Heroquest one of which was missing a head. This meant searching the bits box for something else. Finally found a zombie head from the warhammer range and after a bit of filing down got it in place. I think it looks good and adds some variation to the trio. I have always liked these zombie minis they have the right amount of ghoulishness for the heroes to overcome.

That's it for this post, the fimir will be up next. Those cyclopean monsters are going to be great to paint.

Until next time :) 

Need to shepherd me some Gretchin and Snotlings, Ork style!

Yep another Ork based post,hope you are enjoying them as much as I am painting these greenskins. Not really tried my hand at Snakebite style colour scheme before but gave it a good old go. Here is the classic Snakebite Runtherd a great looking model.

"Seen any Grots sneakin about?"

From the Outlands a Chaos Warband begins to emerge

Last time I mentioned building a chaos warband for the first time. This was partly inspired by reading oldhammer posts and also because some friends have shown interest in doing something with Warhammer Fantasy notable the 3rd edition rules. Thus I shall form a warband and if further down the line a gaming session happens I'll be ready. Plus painting up some mutated monstrosities will be fun :)

To war my goat headed minions!

My Top Five Least Liked Miniatures...

If there is a best there must be a worst, so here are my five least favourite miniatures of all time. This is purely my own personnel taste and in no particular order. Off we go ...

Quick Heroquest update (extra image added)

Just a quick update for today, finished two more greenskins from Heroquest.

Cleaver time!

An orc (yes the cleaver was broken off, so hastily glued it together in the past) and a goblin ready to chop up some heroes in the dungeons :)

Look at that skull, he must be dangerous!

Thought I should add this chap to the entry. A goblin from Battle Masters a game I never owned but somehow a few of the goblins ended up in my collection.I used them in Heroquest instead, this one in paticular got a role as a goblin champion for a bit (thus the skull). 

Until next time.

Inspiration for an Ork Waaagh!

As you may have noticed I have been painting up some 2nd Edition Orks over the last few months, mostly Goffs so far but the Snakebite clan is next on the list. with that I thought it might be nice to dive back a few years and take a look at a particular set of images from a White Dwarf that I found really inspiring then and now.

It's Warboss Grishnak! So colourful!

This showcase is from White Dwarf 201 (It had a night goblin riding a Giant Squig on the cover) and is Adrian Wood's own 2nd Edition 40k Ork army.

Memories: My Top Ten Oldhammer Miniatures:

Having read some time ago various blogs with lists of top ten miniatures in the oldhammer community, I thought I should put forward my own and share with you all. Thus what follows is my personal favourite miniatures of all time.

When deciding on a list of ten I tired to keep to models I have a very fond memory for or have some significance to me as I have been gaming. So although I like a lot of models that have been produced over the years these are the ones that really stand out and made an impression on me. I also limited it to models I actually own. Let's get going then ....

Heroquest Mummies: Do not read from the book!

One thing I really do like about Heroquest is the variety of monsters you can find lurking in the dungeons. One of which I am happy they bothered to include at the time was the Mummy! A bandaged shambling corpse from Egyptian legend. The miniature is really good and I like the fact it has no need for weapons and will simply beat or strangle the heroes to death, which it certainly can with the dice it can roll.

The tomb robbers will be punished! 

Here are two of the mummies painted up, I have one more but it still needs some painting. I do like the shambling stance of menace they show.

Who let these sneaky Goblins slink in!

Yep got three goblins done too, the middle one had lost his base so had to glue him to another base and steal some feet from the bits box, which is why he is a little taller than the other two.

Now orcs are here, quick search the taverns for the heroes!

Three Orcs complete and based. Always like that they came with a variety of weaponry from the ball and chain to the meat cleaver! The middle orc was chopped up in the bits box when I found him so had to add some arms and a knife to bring him back up to scratch.

So another Heroquest update for you to enjoy is done.

Until next time.

Summon an Astropath, we need to plot a course:

As I was unable to really get much time for the hobby at the weekend this post is just going to be a "What is on the agenda" for me to get done.

⚀ Heroquest
My aim is to paint up all the monsters and heroes for the boardgame Heroquest. This project is going well as the Skeletons are all done, as are the Heroes who you can see here:

By Ollar's Ghost! Get to questing!

The zombies & mummies are up next for the paintbrush while the orcs and goblins only need basing, shouldn't take too long. The Fimir are partiality painted up which leaves the Gargoyle, Chaos Sorcerer, Chaos Warriors. So expect some updates on this throughout the year.

⚁ Necromunda
In a previous post I showed a bounty hunter conversion I am working on. I hope to have him painted up soon. Also I am looking at getting an Orlock gang to at least tabletop standard (which would leave only a van Saar gang to go). Hopefully get some Necromunda games in too.

⚂ Orks
Certainly more greenskins will be painted up in the foreseeable. Been enjoying painting the batch of Goffs might even get some of those 2nd edition gretchin painted up too (probably not all 40 of them though). Got some 2nd edition wierdboys and boarboys that are begging for some paint.

⚃ Chaos Warband
Generating and painting up a chaos warband is definitely on my list. A bunch of Pantheon of Chaos miniatures arrived recently and I have already started painting up and rebuilding some daemonic fiends for this. As well as the beginnings of some conversions, like this dark elf below.

Oh my, a tentacle!

⚄ Film Reviews
Done some film reviews in the past will probably do some more in the future. Will definitely be leaning to the monsters/aliens and horror films for this. They can be great not just for watching a good film in the evening but also inspiring ideas for gaming.

⚅ Other
Keep reading you never know what might show up on here to be blogged about.

Zoggin 'Eck! More Orks!

That's right more Goff Orks to join the one I painted a week or so ago. Including a heavy weapons specialist and the former Slegg Bloodnug model  who is now just a nob with chainsword to lead them, oh yes.

Ere' why we out in da snow, boss?

Yea' boss my squig pie is gettin cold!

Here are the first two lads, the one on the left lost the handle for his axe but he's still ok. The one on the right had some odd stuff happening with his axe arm which is why it is at a tilt.

Ya' feelin cold Rotgub? Go stand next to Wazzik, he'll warm you up.

The original Slegg Bloodnug with chainsword conversion, many the time he charged down a bunch of space marines only to be shot repeatedly, ah memories.

I'm not going near that fing boss, Wazzik will get us all killed!

I 'erd that Rotgub! Dis ere' kannon is for when those oomies show up.

One of the older heavy weapons orks you can get, painted up in Goff style armed with a pistol and a Heavy Plasma Cannon. Really do like this model plenty of character and the heavy plasma gun is nice and bulky. He will certainly help when the Imperium brings out the tanks or worse to trouble the lads. Turn to high power and hope he doesn't fry the lot of them when it malfunctions.

Shut your traps lads, we need to find Gitglum, boss wants his scout report. C'mon!

These four are a right motley crew ready to get up close and personal with the enemy. Had a lot of fun painting up these four even if three of them are just the orks from the 2nd edition box set with some minor changes made. 

Until next time.

Tracking down Maalica Iron Hoof the Elusive

It's interesting when you get back into something like miniature painting and playing the occasional game that sometimes information that was available at its prime might not be as easy to find today even with the internet. This is what I found after getting inspired to start forming a chaos warband. Bit of backstory here, I never played Warhammer Fantasy in any form as my friends at the time were into Warhammer 40k. However the fantasy setting and models always looked great to me especially some of the 'Eavy Metal photos in White Dwarf.

Bonus points if you remember this battle report.

Heroquest and Warhammer Quest were my only deviation into this side of the gaming and as such I occasionally picked up a model here and there that I thought might make these games more fun. Most of these "that looks cool" purchases were of the villainous nature. The heroes need more monsters and chaos to slay after all. Which leads to this model.

Where are those Orks, did they get lost in the warp? ...

For a blog that features the name of my ork Warboss there is a distinct lack of orks or anything orky being posted on here. Let's see if I can bring the Waaagh back ...

When I first got into miniature gaming all those years ago my introduction was Heroquest & Space Crusade, this was followed by a trip to a Games Workshop in Hammersmith, the Dalling Road store. To say 9 year old me was overwhelmed would be an understatement and after looking around I came away with a blister pack of two Giant Black Orcs, these two to be specific.

However while I was marvelling at all the miniatures, boxed games and the two big orcs I now had for use in Heroquest (I tried painting one of them at the time but it was a disaster), my dad must have been enquiring about what to was the next big thing and for that Christmas later in the year a copy of 2nd Edition Warhammer 40k arrived!

One box, lots of war!

Now a friend of mine at the time already had a copy and had started on his path to being the Emperor's chosen and had begun to paint the space marines (he'd go on to field Imperial Guard and Dark Angels) which left me with the Orks. Which is good because they seemed a lot more fun than those goody two shoe marines. So I had a bunch of over 20 Goff Orks and 40 Gretchin to paint, only about 10 or so grots got any paint in the end. But soon they were joined by a Dreadnought, a bad moon weirdboy + 2 minderz, a mekanik, a painboy and some Snakebite boarboyz. You may be wondering about a warboss and for quite a while my Ork army was led by one of the Goff Orks who I'd given a chainsword from one of the space marine captains. This was my first conversion and also the first appearance of Slegg Bloodnug.

"We're gonna blast dem ummies with dakka!"

But for now here are three orks I have painted up. First is a standard ork boy who's gone and nicked M. Bisons hat. The second is a Goff ork from the box who I hope will soon be joined by three more including a redone Slegg. The ork on the right is a Painboy ready to fix up the other two or just get stuck in himself.

Your squig or your life!

Closer shot of the Goff ork. Followed a tutorial for painting Goff Orks which was really good. I had to substitute a few paints and things along they way but I like how it turned out.

Until next time, when I hope to have more orks painted up :)

"Heroquest Skeletons: Rise up, you dead ...

... slain by the Heroes of the old world. Rise from your graves and avenge us. Those who steal from the dungeons of Morcar must die."

                                                           King Aeetes - Jason & the Argonauts (adapted)

What a fantastic film Jason and the Argonauts is from giant metal terror Talos, past the Clashing Rocks and on to the finale with the skeletons: The Children of the Hydra's teeth. It is why I like science-fiction/fantasy so much as watching this film and Clash of the Titans as a child really captured my imagination (or maybe it was Spinal in Killer Instinct).

Time to Harvest some Heroes.

A quick rundown of how I painted these skeletons:

First up I undercoated them in skull white. Then I used a watered down chaos black covering the entire model. Left to dry and did the same for the other four. After drying, I drybrushed the bones with skull white trying to avoid the recesses.

The scythe shaft was painted with a vermin brown first and then a slightly watered down scorched brown. Whilst the blade of the scythes were first painted with Brass Scorpion, then drybrushed/stipled with boltgun metal and then very lightly covered with some watered down chaos black.

All that remained was to pick out parts of the skeleton with bleached bone and tidy up on skeletons head that wasn't as well defined as the rest.

Basing was chaos black, followed by white glue and then flocked with Javis Moorland Mixture (bought at Pullingers or can be found online).

For early photos of these skeletons you can check them out here:
https://oldhammer40kquest.blogspot.com/2017/02/heroquest-skeletons-dem-bones.html

I wonder if they talk like Murray from Monkey Island?

That's all this time. Stay tuned when I should have some 2nd Edition space orks painted up to show you. 

Movie Review: Mimic (1997)

Mimic (1997)

If you have been following these occasional movie reviews you may be noticing a little bit of a trend in that they are all either monster or horror related. This is no mere coincidence as I do love a good scare filled movie with some sort of creature or supernatural force that will pluck its victims one by one until only a scared few remain.

So with that in mind I watched Mimic recently. One of the early Guillermo del Toro films this is one of those films that has great ideas but doesn't quite know which one to go with. It starts off with a plague in New York caused by cockroaches, but this is passed over as it is merely set up for the main story of the Judas Breed which should have died out after wiping out the plague carrying insects but instead inevitably found a way to survive.

There are various subplots which go no where or do very little such as sweatshop workers being quarantined, the main scientist getting bitten, a kid mimicking the sounds of the creatures with spoons and a professor type who is introduced but has no bearing on the plot at all. As an aside this film also has a early film appearance from Josh Brolin, which is really cool.

For all this I was still entertained, the sub way police man Norton is great (Played by the guy who was Dillon in Alien 3, the convicts preacher). While there are two kids who hustle the lead lady bug scientist because they keep finding bugs to sell her who I liked and the actual atmosphere and ideas are good if not pulled off. I felt they could have done a lot more with the actual idea of these things mimicking humans.

Late at night in a subway, what could possibly go wrong?

As for the creatures, cockroaches that have evolved to mimic there prey, namely us. They are pretty cool especially the idea of using there shells to form a human shape and face like a man in a trench coat. (the subway reveal scene is really something). Indeed it gave me ideas for a Necromunda campaign where these things have infested a Delaque territory and you don't know if the sentries you need to avoid are human gangers or a human sized cockroaches.

Overall if you fancy a slightly ridiculous but entertaining film about the perils of genetically modifying nature watch Jurassic Park, but if you have seen that and want something a bit more daft and violent (quite a few characters are dispatched in this film) then Mimic is wortha watch.

3.5 out of 5 pumpkins.

Heroquest Skeletons: Dem Bones

Got some time to get some painting done this weekend so been working on the Skeletons from Heroquest.

As a big fan of the game as a child and now with some showing interest in playing the game I thought it might be worthwhile painting up the miniatures. A lot of the orcs and goblins are done so I thought I should move on to the other most prolific monster you may find on your adventures.

The undead arrive.

As you can see these scythe wielding undead were in a various states when I got back to the them, one (the middle one) also somehow was severed from the hip bone for some reason.

A quick superglue connection and some watered down black paint and these guys soon began to take shape. Drybrush after with skull white and then paint up the wood part of the scythe followed by the blade (trying brass scorpion as a bit of an experiment here).

Looking tabletop ready now

Due to free time running out I had to finish here so the blades metal paint and the bleached bone highlights will have to wait for the time being.

You may be wondering about the one skeleton with the scythe facing the other way. Well as I was painting I was flicking about on the internet looking at Heroquest stuff and found the monster card for skeletons which looks like this.

Undead Poldark 

From an actual action point of view this makes sense as to swing a scythe you would hold it like that, From a gameplay use it's a bit clunky and wide. But hey I thought why not switch up one for some variety. A quick cut and flip and presto skeleton with scythe facing the other way.

 Beware heroes the undead are ready to harvest!

Well that's it for today, some skeletons ready for the board after a little tidy when I next get another chance with the paintbrush.

Those with loaded guns and those who dig, You dig.

Yep time to get some miniatures painted up but with the limited light outside and not a whole lot of time I will have to settle for making a start.

Now what my Necromunda does not have is a bounty hunter hireling. A mean son of a gun who can bring these gangers and outlaws to justice. I could buy one of the official minis but frankly they are very expensive on ebay. So in true style I decided to convert up my own and get to painting.

In the underhive or Jabba's palace this guy is going to get his bounty.

This is one of the brat minis that was released for Confrontation. I got this model cheaply from ebay but wasn't really sure what to do with it until I realised my lack of bounty hunters in the underhive. As those seeking payment for capturing criminals on the run it seemed fair that they be dressed differently to the usual gangs.

As bounty hunters in the rules are armed to the teeth it made choosing the weapons quite  a lot of fun. The chainsword arm is from a imperial guard while the lasgun arm is a mix of dark eldar and plastic orlock. I intend to add some wires/tubes to indicate this is a hotshot power pack lasgun. He also has a shotgun from the old additional weapons for Necromunda slung to his back.

For painting I'm not sure yet where I am going with this model, the face is actually a mask so there is opportunity to go wild on this guy.

Hope to have some updates on this guy and some other underhive units in the coming weeks, til next time.