A Hulking Brute

 

Warlord and his mob.

An Update! Today I finished off three Ork models, a large Ork Warlord with twin power klaws that I 3D printed with a large batch of prints I did a while ago. The other two models I finished painting is an Ork with a rokkit launcha and one with a blunderbuss.

Big Git and his Smaller Gits.

All these models were painted with Contrast paints, with minor details using standard acrylic paints and washes. These are going to look quite differently to my regular 40k Orks not only because they are 3D prints and look different, but the colour scheme will be looking different, such as the skin itself.

Blunderbuss Git.

Mega Git.

Rokkit Git.

The prints themselves look pretty good, with print scan lines visible upon closer inspection, and with the painting process being quick and nasty, the scanlines are much more visible than they normally would be.

"We'z gon' be ignorin youz."

I've printed a total of forty-five Ork models, and they will be making up a force of entirely 3d printed models for 40k. The aim of this is simply to paint miniatures with the "slap-chop" method. Simple and effective method that goes well with these ork models.

Big Shoota.

There have been some misprints, with some being so bad that they are unusable, but as they are orks, some kit bashing and model making was called for, and they look suitably janky for orks. I'll slowly over time use these models to take a break from painting my other miniature projects, and in time will have two ork units of twenty, a warboss and a mega warboss.

My painting setup.

Deathwatch Box Set

 To add to the Combat Patrol Box, I purchased the Deathwatch box which bolsters up my starting Salamander force. Briefly mentioned in my previous post, I have finally put it all together.

The contents on the box looked really nicely sculpted and detailed and I gravitated towards it out of a few I looked at. As Salamanders are typically into flame-like weapons, I couldn't resist the Aggressors at all. They are a perfect addition to the existing force and are backed up by a Squad or two - depending on the size you run them - Intercessors. It seemed like the perfect choice, so I went with it.

To start, I went ahead and built the Lieutenant with Power Sword. There's really nothing special about this model, he has a typical Space Marine look to him, just wielding a Sword that is charged by some kind of power gem thing. Needless to say, I really like it. He doesn't need to be doing much else. It's a simplistic look, but draws the eye in with his pose, almost spurring his Battle-Brothers on. So here he is..

To support him is the Apothecary. This is another model I really like the look of. Again, it's something I have no idea how it plays in the game, but that doesn't matter as it's another simplistic, yet interesting model. He's covered in many instruments for his craft and other ornate trinkets that manifest the harsh realities of the 41st Millennium. He appears to be standing atop a fallen Battle-Brother, retrieving his Gene-seed in some kind of pod vessel thing.
Something I find interesting and perhaps unique with the Salamander Lore is that should a Brother fall in battle, he is not left to rot in some distant corner of some forgotten Galaxy only to serve as a memory to those who knew him. Rather, they endeavour to return their own back to their Homeworld - Nocturne; where they are placed into the fire pits of Mount Deathfire. They believe in some kind of reincarnation where they return back to the very soils of which they grew up on. It's quite an interesting take on the otherwise hellish nightmare that is Warhammer 40K.

Next up are the Intercessor Squads. I designed them using varying bits off both the Deathwatch sprues and the Salamander accessory sprues. As part of the Promethium Code, Salamander's are expected to perfect their Forgery skills, either repairing and maintaining their Armour, or crafting very unique and special weapons. This can mean that a warrior can hold onto items that could be thousands of years old, so it allows for some creativity or variety within the army, which I really like. I tend to get bored of rank and uniform, which often killed my drive painting WW2 miniatures. So I am hoping this will keep some creativity flowing. There's nothing too unique going on, however, just mixing and matching ornaments and trinkets, thinking how each Brother may have obtained said item. Something else I like with Salamanders, very much like Dwarfs in any Fantasy setting, they love trinkets and magical Rune artefacts. Salamanders are no different, so I went ahead and added extra bits here and there, just for flash.

This is the first Squad of Five. They can be run - like the Infiltrators - as two Squads of Five, or one Squad of Ten. I split them just for the sake of pictures and a post.. On the far left, the Brother still retains his Mk. VI shoulder pad. I like to think he has been around since the Horus Heresy era and as such, has managed to look after that piece and has kept it as a mark of his time spent serving the Emperor. He has also removed his Battle Helm as he prefers to fight without it. Although he doesn't gain benefits from the Ocular Battle Systems and Re-breather apparatus, he's a hardened warrior and takes on the fight regardless.

For the second Squad, they aren't too flashy or unique, other than the guy in the very middle with the slightly different helm. Probably not correct, but that's ok with me. I really liked the look of it. It's menacing, and I like to think that he forged it himself as an addition to his helm to look more intimidating, or perhaps to mark him more clearly as the Sergeant, Either way, the Squad is fairly stock-standard here. By this point I was struggling somewhat with the instructions not being clear and I was tiring of trying to put everything together properly as I found the legs were extremely fiddly. But that's ok because I now have a Squad of Intercessors to play with.

Finally, I have the very thing I wanted the box for.. The Aggressors.... Aaaaaah, these big, hulking, menacing BBQ maniacs of reinforced adamantium nightmarish pains in the fucking arse to fit together. My god, I thought the Suppressors were bad from the Combat Patrol box, but I had no fucking idea about these fucking things. I guess it depends on which version of Aggressor you want to fit together, but needing fire in my force, I was always going to select the Flamer version. Fitting these things together was a massive ballache as once again, the instructions were not clear and mislabeled. I have no idea how or why, but they were. So it was through trial and error - a lot of error - did I learn how to fit them together. It is the propellant tubes that I really struggled with. But I eventually got there. Now I have three and look forward to seeing how well they play.

Again, and it might be hard to see with the pictures, but I added a few extra artefacts and trinkets to them, as they are blessed by Vulkan himself, giving them strength to continue taking the fight to the Xenos scum..

Finally, I decided to take some piccies of the box laid out, posing together as an effective force.

And all of my completed Army standing together..

As a little bonus to the post and not included in the box itself, my boy Greg very kindly 3D printed me a bunch of Salamander guys he found stl's for online. Some I had to throw as they were too brittle and wouldn't glue properly or even stand correctly, something he is aware of and plans to work on. But I managed to salvage two.
One is Forge Father Vulkan He'stan. Bearing the Spear of Vulkan and the Gauntlet of the Forge and wearing the Drake-skin cloak known as Kesare's Mantle, all artefacts of the Primarch, Vulkan himself. He'stan carries them into battle, supposedly giving him nice buffs when attached to varying units. I can't say anything on this, but I do admit, the model looks great.

The second is a generic looking Space Marine, which I think is big enough in size and looks cool enough as a model that he could serve as a Captain or some other higher-ranked unit. Either way, he looks great.

Again, it's a great kit over-all, even if the instructions are wonky. I'm not sure why this is, but it's not the end of the world. A great addition to what I previously worked on and I can now run a proper game with Greg. I will probably build upon this, either looking for further box set deals as I would like to have some other cool units like Dreadnaughts, etc. Or I may just very slowly chip away with individual boxes. I will need some more flamer type guys for the army. But for now, these two boxes are complete and I need to start painting them..... 😅🤪🙄🙃

Update Part Deux! Some Failed Prints.

Six New Orks.

 So today I decided to print another batch of orks, and to my shock, four of the seven I had put on the build failed in one way or another, with one completely failing and printing a puddle of nothing. As I was cleaning the plate and about to throw out the three other failures, I decided not to toss them away as failures, but instead attempt to save them by sending them to the Doc!

Fit and healthy boys.

"Fit" and "Healthy" boys.

While one of the four was completely borked, the other three were either missing limbs or their guns completely failed. The first one I worked on was the Big Shoota Ork, who has failed in the past with missing bottom and the gun failing completely too. This time round he was missing half of his left leg. No worries, the Doc will just give him a new leg, a better leg! A bit of sprue and a Space Marine Proximity mine will do the job.

Mine new leg!

The second ork had his hand and gun barrel turn into a blob, so I carefully broke off the offending piece and glued on a gun from the GW ork boyz sprue, cutting it in two and attaching it so as to look like his bionic arm connects to the side of the gun. with a shoulder plate to cover up the gap, and filled in with blue tack mixed with superglue. Looks weird, but that's perfectly orky in nature, a Doc's gotta do what a Doc's gotta do!

Shoota Arm FTW!

The last ork had his gun melt off his hand, and his hand wasn't much better either. A quick snip and he had a bare arm with a stump. I was in two mind about him, should I give him a shoota arm or give him a powerclaw and cut his choppa off and replace it with a slugga? Rummaging around the bits box I found this cabling connected to a scorcher bit, and decided that a shoota arm with this cabling coming off it and connecting to his waist would look better. Again, blue tack mixed with superglue helped fill in the gaps and another shoulder pad to make it look like the patch job that it is.

The boys are ready for a priming.

With that, I'm preparing to re-print them again, to see if it fails in the same way. If they do, then I might have another opportunity to send some more boys to the Doc!

Da Boss and his Rocka!

 

Traditional Warboss, and Goff Rocker.

Todays update is a Warhammer 40k Orks update, more specifically an Ork Warboss and the promotional Christmas miniature of 2022, the Goff Rocker. These two miniatures were a great joy to paint, and I am looking forward to fielding them in the near future, especially in the new edition of Warhammer 40k.

Warboss and his pet attack Squig.

The warboss is equipped with a combi-weapon, powerklaw and has an attack squig. On his back he has two sluggas in case he needs even more dakka. I painted him in the traditional Goff colours, but with some red in it. Black, silvers and reds go really well with each other, and match the green of the ork skin.

Mad Squig.

The squig itself is painted in the usual squig colours, and is simply washed and light dry brushed for great effect.

Mean looking powerklaw.

A few cables and straps were painted brighter colours, just to liven up the model, and it really stands out. The backpack was painted brown, and his stick bombs were capped red to stand out.

Combi-Weapon, bullets and rockets.

A fearsome sight.

The Goff Rocker is an obvious orky inspiration of Slash from Guns N' Roses, with his top hat and the fact he's a guitarist. I decided to paint the hat purple, thinking it matched Slash's hat, but afterwards I googled some photos of him and noticed his top hat is actually black. Oh well purple still works great, and this way he stands out more.

Slash.

He's using his guitar as not only a musical instrument, but also as a 'Uge Choppa. His microphone is actually a stick bomb if you look closely, so he can belt out some tunes and literally have an explosive mic drop.

Poor little bugger.

He's got his foot on his trusty squig amp, so he can carry a tune even into battle, with all the noise going on. He's truly an inspiration to all his ork boys, sending them into a headbanging fervour to greater heights.

His Stratocaster.

Remote Control Stickbombs?

I'll be using his either as a standard warboss, with a 'uge choppa and attack squig, or as a weirdboy, since he is not far off from a shaman, singing and dancing around the battlefield.

Who would win?

Da Warboss and his Nobs.

Da Goff Rocker and his Boys.

Combat Patrol

 For my birthday last year, Greg bought me the Space Marine Combat Patrol box set for Warhammer 40k. I have finally decided to sit down and put it all together. It has been something I have worked on slowly over the course of a week or two, but am happy it is finally complete.

He bought it knowing I was quite interested in the Salamander Chapter of the XVIII Legion. I had come across them through various readings on the interwebs and they really struck me as an interesting and not too edgy or cringy Chapter. Being very new to the hobby, both myself and Greg are slowly working on our armies, as has been seen on the Blog with Greg's posts on his progress. He is working on both Space Wolves and Orkz. He has been reading on the Lore for sometime now, so has a much better grasp than I, however, reading through a book on the Salamanders has really pushed me to at the very least build the box up.

So let's have a look and see what we have.

First off, we have the Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos Armour. It looks cool, although I am not a fan of the things on the back of the backpack personally, but nevermind.. A great stance for the model and looks like he means business.

Secondly are the Infiltrators. I was really put off these at first as I do not like the antennas at all. When I think of Space Marine, I do not think of these guys. It's usually the Intercessor that comes to mind. But given they are a Recon element, it makes sense and I stuck with them. Now they are together as a Squad, they look pretty fucking cool. All the various stances are quite nice and come together really well.

First Squad of Infiltrators with the Salamander head added from the add-on sprue. I like it.

Second Squad. I really like the model tossing the Grenade. A nice little detail.

Now for the Eliminators. These guys look pretty nifty. Snipers within the 40k Universe. No idea how they play in the game or how well they do, but time will tell. They look futuristic and menacing, whilst retaining some of the traditional style of a Sniper, which works really well. They actually have a bit of a STALKER look to me, which is nice.

Now for the unit which nearly killed my motivation in completing this box.. The Suppressor.. These guys are some sort of Machinegun dudes with Jet Packs. The actual model itself wasn't too troublesome to put together, perhaps the only minor issue I had with the first model of the three was fitting the arms and gun together to align with the ammo belt, but I soon learned from my mistakes. It was the stupid stand they sit on. By the time the glue set on them, it basically melted away the plastic it was supposed to bond. The issue I found was the model is front-heavy, so it wouldn't balance well due to no counter-balance. Infuckingfuriating. It really did nearly kill my motivation, but I stuck with it..

Never again will I purchase these... And now, for the final piece of the box set. The Impulsor. As I don't have the SM Codex - and especially since 10th Ed. has just released, I have no idea what it actually is other than some sort of hover-vehicle. No idea how it functions and what it is capable of, but that's ok. We will figure all this out eventually. It looks pretty cool and it took me the better part of an afternoon to put it together.

It's fitted with some kind of Rocket mounted system and a Machinegun. I don't actually know because the box set is Japanese and I don't read Japanese, lol, but nevermind. I've actually decided to not glue it down, rather I will prime it in place so I can swap it out with some antennae part - I presume it will give some sort of Vox buff? Dunno, but it looks nice.

My thinking for this is, if it is some sort of Squad Transport, surely it might link up with the Lieutenant and give added range on an Infiltrator Squad in the Midfield? Who knows, but it is what I have decided on..

And finally, all the boys together posing..

All-in-all, a fantastic little starter box with a great range of models. Absolutely great value for what you get in the box and what you pay for it. Not really a great start for Salamanders, however, but that's fine because they can still be played. But to add on to this force, I did manage to purchase the Deathwatch box set which leans more heavily into the Salamander build and play style. Eventually I will get around to putting that together. Meanwhile, before any of this is even painted up, they can also be added onto Greg's Space Wolves army for bigger games against his ever growing Ork army.

Until next time.