Have you ever not known what to paint? I have a rather large “Mountain of Opportunity” (read “Grey Tide”) in my hobby room but even with a wealth of options, sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to work on next. Then I discovered, much to my surprise, that I had two Ogroid Myrmidon minis, and this presented an opportunity. I could take one and paint it just for fun, and play around with how I did things a little bit. Be free, and not worry so much – I still have another one so this could be a canvas I didn’t mind experimenting on. And it turns out, when given freedom, I’ll just paint the Devil.
Yep. Hail Satan, or something along those lines, I guess. I won’t run through everything I did that’s a little different to how I normally do things as much of it is minute stuff that only I really care about, but I’ll go through the highlights. And speaking of highlights, I very rarely do a zenithal pre-shade to define highlights, but I did here, using Mephiston Red spray on a Chaos black base to show me what needed to be brightest. Worked quite nicely I think but I don’t know how much I’ll do that in the future. Let’s see.
But there was more fun to be had with things I’m more known for. I shaved the pattern off the shield to give me a nice flat surface because I wanted to flex my freehand muscles as usual. But I didn’t know what to put on there, so I asked my followers on twitter (@Heresyheroes if you’re interested) what I should do. The option chosen was for me to do a classic Heavy Metal album rendition, but I needed to pick the album. I thought about Iron Maiden’s Eddie of course, and Black Sabbath’s first album I thought could work nicely. I even considered doing Metallica’s Load album but knowing how that cover art was made (allegedly) I wasn’t really in the mood to really put “myself” into my art (if you catch my meaning). But then I had a better thought – I may never get my hands on the Slayer Sword, but I can make myself a Slayer Shield…
I took the cover from Slayer’s Seasons In The Abyss (google it if you don’t know it) and, well, painted that. It works really nicely as a design that something Chaotic would paint onto a shield to terrify their enemies. I really like how it came out, and just to give you a vague idea of how I did it, I even took WiP shots of it for you. Here you go:
Started off with Averland Sunset, and then outlined the head. I painted the head in its entirety and then did the rest. I know that’s not exactly detailed, but if you want to know more, drop me a comment or reach me on Twitter and ask me any specifics – will be happy to try to answer. And the whole thing reminded me how good that album is – what a record. Have been listening to it all week and it really is a masterpiece. But anyway…
What else to tell you. I experimented with the red/blue balance a fair bit. I know blue weapons are more “good guy” in Warhammer, but with that blade, the faintly glowing eyes, the highlights on the hair, and the Terradon Turquoise base, it all really helps to further push that red. I feel I need to do a post that is just a love letter to Mephiston Red and Evil Sunz Scarlet because I rarely work on a miniature without employing that combo. I just love ’em.
I also played with the idea of silver really only being on the weapons (the tail counts as a weapon) and dirty brass being used against the red (horns not withstanding). Again, it helps to frame and pop things.
And that’s all there is to really go through I think. I guess I should say that I really like the fact that this devilish looking model looks really nice painted with that cartoon/tattoo devil colour palette. There’s some changes that I’d make to how I paint it but it really is a classic look and I think I did it some credit here.
This was a lot of fun and that’s what it was meant to be. I’m not grading myself on this one – it’s like trying to assign a mark to playtime. But it was refreshing and free and just oodles of enjoyment, and I hope you enjoy it too. Onwards!
Well, I am a lucky boy. I was thrilled when Games Workshop decided to send me the new Black Templars box because, well, what a box! What a range. After all that time in the wilderness for Black Templar players, their faith has been rewarded with a killer set of miniatures and this box contains the first of them. That’s why I decided to focus more on the miniatures than the book (though don’t worry – that’ll get a look too). But I didn’t have much time on my hands, so the question was; could I paint up the new Emperor’s Champion to a nice standard in two evenings. Effectively six hours. Well, here’s the answer:
That’s not bad, right?! I knew I couldn’t aim for “display quality” (which is a phrase I hate – if you painted it and you’re proud of it, it’s display quality; don’t listen to the haters) so I leaned into ‘simple but effective’ and saved the special stuff for a couple of small spaces. These are the basic steps, but if you want more detail, just pop a note in the comments. 🙂
Building and basing went quickly and a black undercoat went on (obvs). Then, when that dried, a thin layer of Abaddon black went down all over. I didn’t have the time to spend hours doing fades and intensely accurate edge highlighting, so I went for a fast and freer approach. I also went down the Rhinox Hide/Mournfang route to make it a bit warmer and the browns lend themselves to the look of the Templars (that cover art was very fresh in my mind). When that was all done, a layer of thinned down Black Templar all over the model to a) soften those highlight transitions, and b) give the armour a ruddier look (I knew I’d be doing a bit of weathering here and there so this would tie in nicely).
I then did the reds, which started as a Rhinox Hide/Mephiston Red mix, then moved through Mephiston Red and eventually up to Evil Sunz Scarlet. I would have done a bit more work on the texture but I had no time so once I was done, a glaze of thinned Blood Angels Red went down.
The leathers happened next, followed by the white. The latter started off as Celestra Grey, and then once a couple of coats had gone down, I started blending in White Scar until a pure highlight was applied to the tops. Seraphim Sepia helped to grime them up a bit. And that was night 1 done – it was a whirlwind!
Night two started off with the metallics. The benefit of my system is that all metallics are painted using the same paints (Leadbelcher, Iron Warriors, Iron Breaker and Abaddon Black) in a sort-of TMM style (usually a lot more care goes into it) and then you use contrast paints to stain these. So for both gold and silver areas, it’s the same thing until the last step. Before that though, the sword got my customary weathered bronze look.
That was the busy work done and now I got to have some fun. First up, using Altdorf Blue and blending it gradually with White Scar, I created the glowing areas – his eyes and the lantern at his waist (which I wish I’d taken a better picture of but hey ho – it’s not that pretty). It’s not the most perfectly blended out OSL, but considering I had about half an hour, that’s not bad. Then, I decided it would be a good idea to keep up my skull-painting practice as I decorated the tilting shield. Maybe it’s a bit of a cop out for me, but I think it fits the theme quite nicely, and again, time was an issue.
Now I needed to do a bit more of that weathering. I sponged on some Skavenblight Dinge across the the armour which gives a nice, subtle effect. I then accentuated this with a few delicate scratches using the same paint. Then, just for some variance and to help the weathering stand out more, I applied some more light scratches using Dawnstone.
That was the model done, but then the base needed doing. I used greys initially to build up some character and then a thinned Flesh Tearers Red was applied all over to give it this its Red Velvet colouration. Then some skull painting, a couple of little tufts, a quick clean up of the base rim and it was done in record time!
I was exhausted at the end of this. Sure, if I’d had a week with it, maybe things would be a little more fancy, but given that I can take a month to produce a mini sometimes, I was very happy with how this came out. 6 hours! Usually by that time, I’ll have done half of one leg!
A word on the miniature itself too – it’s a stunner. I love the He-man pose, and because he’s Primaris now, he’s a proper beast in terms of size and scale. And it’s a refreshingly simple miniature in terms of sculpted detail. Often, important minis get bogged down with 9 billion fetishes and blemishes but I love how simple this piece is and it’s up to the painter how much detail to add. Love it. And the rest of the box is pretty special itself. Maybe a squad of Sword Brethren would have been better than the Dreadnought, but who doesn’t love Dreadnoughts? All in all, I’d call the whole thing a massive win.
I hope you liked the whistle-stop tour through my last two nights of hobby painting. It was a blast and you can look forward to seeing more about this box on Heresy & Heroes soon. Onwards!
I heard a funny story from a friend of mine the other day. He’s a Tyranid player but is accepting of his lot in the game at the moment. Ask any Nids player and they’ll tell you that, on the tabletop, the faction sucks. I personally can’t speak to that, having not played against a Tyranid army since I think 6th edition, but I can believe it. I never hear anyone talking about how hot Tyranids are in the meta, so I’m happy to go along with their lack of winning options. But my friend told me a tale of the one list that has performed well in the last few years, making it to the heady heights of 3rd (please be aware that there’s some grape-vining going on here so I may not get details like that exactly right, and there might be some scuttlebutt in here but if it’s not exactly true, it’s a pleasant and believable fiction so we can ride with it) in a tournament. This list was, apparently, completely randomly generated. And I can believe that.
Around the time of 5th or 6th, I remember hearing tales of an Eldar list that won a tournament. Now, this isn’t the eldar of today, which consistently performs well in games, but the Eldar pre-serpent-shield when they, well, they sucked. They were at that point the worst army in the game pretty much, so how did they win in an era governed by Draigo-wings, Screamer-stars, the Old School Lash of Slaanesh and whatever vileness the Necrons had going on? Well, they won because no one imagined a good player would bring this list. Everyone was set up to deal with those top tier tricks and combos, but they didn’t have an answer for a load of Fire Dragons melting everything, or Dire Avengers shredding their stuff.
The point of recanting this tale is that it’s another example of an army doing well because in any system where there is “a meta” it is not unusual for said meta to become blind to anything outside of itself. Armies are selected to deal with the big problems that everyone’s going to bring, so when someone brings something unusual, the unusual list can take advantage of the fact that no-one was expecting to ever see that on the table. Ok, so 95% of the time, the most meta-centric lists will win, but, personally, I’d live for the one time in 20 that I brought something no-one was expecting and got a good result with it. Now that’s a thrill.
So, where are we going with this? Well, this idea has been swirling around in my head for a little while now and so I got a bunch of the new Battletomes and Codexes, and my big set of strangely shaped dice, and I set out to create six completely random army lists. And when I say completely random, I mean completely random. I won’t go into every dice roll, but if there was a choice to be made, I made that choice with dice alone.
In today’s post, we’re going to be looking just at Age Of Sigmar armies, and in the next one, we’ll look at 40k Armies. I’ll walk you through a bit of the dice rolling here and there, and I’ll give you my opinions as to their tactical play (like I’m someone you should take seriously on that front). I want to see if my dice can create an army capable of upsetting the meta in any way. Let’s start with:
Stormcast Eternals:
List Name: Draco-Blobs
Leader: Lord Celestant on Dracoth
Leader: Lord Celestant on Dracoth
Leader: Lord Commander Bastian Carthalos
Battleline: 5x Judicators with Skybolt Bows
Battleline: 5x Sequitors
Battleline: 5x Liberators
5x Vanguard Hunters
2x Dracothian Guard Desolators
3x Vanguard Paladors
3x Annihilators
Points: 1950
The Army: So, this one was a bit strange. For a start, I didn’t roll for anything big – something I was slightly concerned about for future armies but it turned out I needn’t have been. We got a few Dracoths though, which are pretty handy, and the weirdest thing was I rolled the first two Lord Celestants as my first two picks. I then realised, as I was doing matched play, I’d need at least three Battleline units so I rolled for them and got an interesting mix. Then I asked myself “should I add another leader?” and the dice said yes, so Carthalos got added to the mix after another roll. I also rolled for a unit of Aetherwings, but when I added things up, they took the total over 2000 points, and as they were the last thing rolled for, they had to go, so we’re coming in exactly 50 points light here.
There is a little synergy here. With any Stormcast army, the troops choices can be hard to shift from objectives but obviously, you lose the numbers game typically if things get contested. There’s a nice speedy contingent with the Dracoths and Paladors, and a little fire-support too. I think ol’ Bastian and the Annihilators will look very scary and can slowly trudge to do whatever they want.
Personally, I think this would just look like a bit of a fish out of water list and I doubt anyone but the most mastermindedly (not a word) of generals could get much out of this one. Nope, I don’t think this is really it. It will have the all the strengths of the faction, but no-one’s mind is goign to be blown (in a good way) by this list.
Soulblight Gravelords:
List Name: A Little Doing A Lot
Leader/Behemoth: Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead
Leader: Kritza, The Rat Prince
Leader/Behemoth: Prince Vhordrai
Battleline: 10x Deathrattle Skeletons
Battleline: 10x Deathrattle Skeletons
Battleline: 10x Deathrattle Skeletons
5x Blood Knights
Points: 1955
The Army: Oh boy. When the first thing you roll for is Nagash, you know there aren’t going to be many more rolls. When Vhordrai comes out two rolls later, you start worrying if you’re going to get a legal army into 2000 points. In fact, originally, I rolled for a couple of 30 man units of Skeletons and that killed the list, so after consulting the dice, they were reduced to 10 man units and thank Nagash that a unit of Blood Knights came out to fill the last points out quite nicely. And with 45 points left over, you should have enough to add in an Endless Spell for Nagash to play around with too.
I don’t think many people would expect to see this. You’ve got a couple of big beasts in there (two of the biggest in the game really) and they can do a lot of damage, but the Skeletons are likely to get blown to pieces, and I don’t really know what the Rat Prince is doing int there to be honest, but I don’t think all is lost. Vhordrai and the Blood Knights can do some serious damage when paired together – not much is going to be able to handle that charge. And Nagash is, well, Nagash – a terrifying thing to play against on any occasion. But you’re asking Nagash and the chargers to do all of the heavy lifting here and that could prove too much. If those skeleton blobs could have been a little bigger, or if we could have squeezed one other threat into this army, but alas, the dice said no.
Not a lost cause by any means, and you will have some sort of element of surprise, but I remain skeptical.
Orruk Warclans
List Name: A Great Green Tide
Leader: Orruk Warchanter
Leader/Behemoth: Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha
Leader/Behemoth: Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork
Leader/Behemoth: Swampboss Skumdrekk
Battleline: 5x Orruk Ardboyz
Battleline: 5x Orruk Ardboyz
Battleline: 10x Gutrippaz
Battleline: 10x Gutrippaz
Artillery: Beast-skewer Killbow
10x Hobgrot Slittaz
3x Goregruntas
Ironskull’s Boyz
Marshcrawla Sloggoth
Points: 1995
The Army: Ok, this is more like it. You’ve got a very solid core with plenty of bodies, some fast movers and big monsters, some buffers, and even a bit of artillery support. I rolled for a Big Waaagh, and then I rolled to include Ironjawz and Kruleboyz but none of the Bonesplittaz, so I was worried this would look like the “Fist Mouth” list I did for the Lazy Painter’s guide a little while back. Happily though, it’s nice and different – and actually quite well balanced.
You’re going to have a good advantage on objective holding thanks to your numbers, and the Sloggoth and Warchanter can help out the footslogging units. Meanwhile, as your Killbow chips away at anything you want it to, the three behemoths and the Goregruntas can charge head-first into the enemy. I’m not sure if this list is breaking any new ground, but I think the dice have been rather kind to us with this one.
I’ve got to give it a high score really. I could see this winning, though movement trays are probably a must just to ensure you don’t get timed out. You’ve got a lot of model moving to do, but I can’t see any real downsides to this list!
=][=
So, what have we learned with this experiment thus far? Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag really. I don’t think the Stormcast list will rock anyone’s world but I don’t think anyone would be expecting it. The Soulblight List looks like it’ll be fun but a few bad rolls and you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. The Orruks list though looks decent enough, and there’s some good synergy in there. So I’d say we have a 1.5 out of 3 successes really, and all of that is entirely down to the dice. I haven’t added in any faction rules, warlord traits or relics here, but if you spot something in that vein that could work with any of these, pop it into the comments.
In our next post, we’ll give the 40k side of things a go and determine whether or not, once and for all, if random armies can be trusted. Onwards!
Hello all. I’d like you to meet Mr Gribbly. He’s my Myphitic Blight-hauler and I’m very fond of him. After a few projects where I’ve been focussed on clean paint-jobs, it’s wonderful to get back to the gross, disgustingness that only Nurgle can deliver. So in this post, I’ll take you through what I did.
Let’s start with the main panels. I went for something along the lines of “what if Paul Smith made a shirt entirely from vomit” and I think it worked pretty well. It’s entirely done with contrast paints, shade paints and an oil wash and I had a little bit of coaching from Migs over at Iron Sleet who has done something similar (and much better) in the past. It’s a nerve-wracking approach but a lot of fun when it gets going.
I also want to call out the clean crab-claws/pincers which help to make this even more unsettling, the red eye done using very traditional mini-painting methods, and the mouth which, yeah, totally doesn’t look graphic and diseased. Wait, no, it definitely looks graphic and diseased, but that’s the fun thing about Nurgle. Truly, Papa Nurgle’s finest gift.
While the puke-stripes catch the eye, it’s the flesh that I’m really proud of. It’s based on Ungor Flesh and then it’s shaded with either Carroburg Crimson or Athonian Camoshade – done in odd patches. Then, a “skimmed milk thin” layer of Ungor flesh went on top of that before highlighting began and, eventually, glazing. It’s some of the best looking foul-flesh I’ve worked on and I love how gross it looks.
I also kept the rust patches to a minimum with this piece. There’s some there (it might not show up too much on here thanks to my legendary photo skills) but it’s minimal and just helps to accent all the other decay on this piece.
I kept the base very simple here. The model has enough going on that I wanted the base to be a very simple frame for it. And I so rarely get the chance to use Nurgle’s Rot that I really enjoyed it with this one. I suppose I should say that the entire thing is covered in Contrast paints. When applied with Contrast Medium, they just make the best glazes in the world, and I couldn’t have done this without them. I also applied texture paints to the model first before even putting the undercoat down to help me get those patches of rust and decay.
I’ll give you the recipe for the tarnished brass I went for here. I painted up in silvers going for a TMM look, before applying a glaze of Nazdreg Yellow that had been thinned with 2-3 times as much Contrast Medium. Then, I watered down some Biel-Tan Green (1:1 mix) and splotched that on to give it that tarnished look. It was a whole lot of fun and a look I want to try again on lots of other things.
I loved working on this mini. It’s a horrid little thing really. It has some truly gross bits to it, but it also looks ready to go to war as well. I like the idea that it’s sat here, somewhere in Nurgle’s Garden, waiting to be deployed through the warp. I’m super-proud of this paint job and given that all the recent things I’ve done have received a grade, maybe this one sneaks an A-. B+ at worst. And it was so, so, so much fun working on something gross again. If you ever want a break from painting clean, Nurgle really does offer the best excuse to get down and dirty.
Not sure what’s up next for me. I actually have a very busy couple of months ahead of me and my hobby time might be slightly reduced, but fear not, for I will always paint whenever I can. But I’ll keep you posted here and on Twitter and Instagram too. Until the next time, I wish you wonderful hobby, happy times with your paints, and an amazing October. Onwards!
I really do love painting Orks. Not only do they remind me of that time long ago when silly things were truly appreciated in 40k, but they give me the chance to exercise my own silliness too. And boy are they fun to paint. Bright colours, oversized features, bonkers weapons… I love it.
I’ve had the Orruk Megaboss sat on my “to do” list for a while now, and I fancied doing a little creative storytelling in paint and conversion recently, and it got me thinking about using this mini to help tell the awesome story of Rynn’s World. So I got choppin’ and then reached for the yellow – it was time for a new Warboss.
I kept the conversions simple – less is often more, and there were so many parts of the original megaboss model that I wanted to keep that I didn’t want to go too nuts. The one you may notice first is the big choppa (or is it a spinna) that was borrowed from a Deffdred (I doubt he’s getting it back through). It’s incredibly impractical really, but when did that ever stop an ork? I also gave him a top knot and a banner pole, along with a big orky symbol on the shoulder that doesn’t have the giant dragon skull on it. There’s als oa few wires and things here and there to help show off his 40k-ness, and then there’s the robot arm.
This was a fun little bit of storytelling, I thought. On Rynn’s World, during the Waaagh! everyone is fighting (or more likely fleeing from) the orks. So I thought about an Ambot used to hold off this rampaging boss while some folk tried to make it to safety. In the fight, the Ambot cut off the boss’s arm, but the ork was eventually victorious. Game recognising game, the ork ripped off the robot’s arm and instructed a Dok and a Mek to attach it to him. It’s even a crimson colour – a fist, that’s sort of crimson. Nice.
So we can place this guy as a combat monster, and that means he’s bound to have a few scrapes and scuffs and a fair bit of blood (other people’s) on him too, and that meant weathering. Aside from testing things out on the checkered knee, all the weathering happened last and after doing what i thought was a fairly decent job painting the armour, it was off to go in and mess it all up again. To show you what that transformation looked like, I took a before and after shot to show you the transition:
Sorry as always for the slightly out of focus photography, but you can certainly see what changed. And again, storytelling through painting goes into it. I like the scuffs around his jaw armour to represent the shots taken by Space Marines trying to stop him, though no head shot managed to make it through.
I had a little more fun with freehand here, but only in the form of some patterns on the rear armour. Why mainly on the rear? I imagined this ork saying “Don’t put da fancy stuff in front coz it’ll get shot at – put it at da back so da runts behind know wot a rich git I is dat I can have dis fancy arma!” and that convinced me.
The base is simple enough, just a bit of Space Marine leftovers and a couple of other things to bring it into the setting. Poor, poor Crimson Fists.
Anyway, there you have it. I had a whole bunch of fun with this one. In terms of painting progress, I managed to get some really nice blends in the reds and yellows across this mini. Still need to work on my orky flesh but overall I think it all worked out ok. B- maybe for me. Potentially still a C+ but I just had so much fun working on this miniature that I think it maybe gets a little extra.
I hope you’re having just as much fun painting as I am, and I hope you’re enjoying an excellent weekend. Until we speak again; Onwards.
Ok, this may well have been the easiest Lazy Painter’s list I’ve ever put together, due mainly to the amount of choice you have in the new Stormcast Eternals Battletome (that GW were good enough to send me) and the points cost of the models. I actually made some decent lists at very low model counts but then I worked this one out and I couldn’t not put it up here because it does kind of fit in with all of the Lazy Painter rules for creating an army. There are very (VERY) few miniatures, the vast majority of them are new, there’s not too much repetition here (there literally couldn’t be due to the low number of models) and while I can’t promise you it will win games, I can promise you that it’ll be fun finding out.
I also feel like I should add another rule – If you can take dragons in your list, you should do, because dragons are cool. You can probably now guess where I’m going with this one, so without further ado, let’s take a look.
Leaders
Karazai the Scarred looks like a boss. This gnarly old dragon likes to scrap and boy does he have some tools to help him with that. How about the fact that all melee weapons that target him have their attacks characteristic reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1)? Or the fact that his “Annihilating Jaws” have a to hit roll of 1+ when he’s not lost more that 8 of his 18 wounds (and they cause some real damage too). He is a powerhouse of a miniature and absolutely the general for this army. And if that’s not enough, we’re also going to be taking along a Lord Celestant on Stardrake which is still as brutal as it always has been. That Rain of Stars attack – love it, man.
Battleline
Whether we choose to take Karazai or the Stardrake as our General, it doesn’t matter because either one of them will make Stormdrake Guard battleline. So we’re taking three units of two Stormdrake Guard as our Battleline. These guys are also monsters in melee, and they too carry a ranged attack in the form of their mortal wound dealing Draconic Flamestorm. And to top that all off (literally), they’ve got a Stormcast with either a Warblade that does 6 attacks, or a lance that does 3 but also gets improved stats on the charge, riding them into battle. What’s not to love!?
Other Units
There aren’t any. That’s it. It’s literally eight (8) models.
Model Count: 8. Just 8. A Lazy Painter’s record so far. And they’re dragons, yo!
Army Name: Dragons, Yo
Additional Stuff: Like i said, I don’t know if this will win you games but you will have fun with this list. From a painting point of view, imagine how colourful and cool eight dragons could be, and with only seven Stormcast Eternals riding them, this should be quick and very enjoyable to paint.
On the playing side of things, at least your games won’t drag on (get it?) as you’ll either have immolated or smashed up everything in like 3 rounds tops, or you’ll be dead yourself. More time to get a pint in post game and talk about how cool it is fielding an army of eight dragons, right? Set up will be quick, you won’t have many rules to remember, and the look on your opponent’s face will be priceless. An army built for laughs which might just have something.
Does it have something? Or is this just too nuts to work? Let me know in the comments, and until next time, Onwards, yo!
Having only just worked on a Greenskins list for 40k, it’s time to take the brand new Orruk Warclans battletome for a spin after Games Workshop very kindly sent me a copy. I’m not going to do any crazy challenges with this one, so we’re going for the old school rules here. We’re going to create a 2000 point list of fun things to paint, full of new models and it should be fun and even maybe effective to play with. If you’re like me and you’re not a fan of huge armies that take too long to paint, hopefully you can have some fun with this.
Now, when it comes to the Orruk Warclans armies, you have a choice to make before you start. There are four types of armies to choose from; Kruleboyz, Ironjawz, Bonesplitterz and The Big Waaagh! and the latter allows you to take units from all three of the other options. So I have a choice to make, but it’s pretty easy for me – it’s Big Waaagh! time, baby. Let’s run down the list, that I like to call ‘Fist Mouth’.
Leaders
The reason I am calling this army ‘Fist Mouth’ is due entirely to the two behemoth-borne leaders that will make this army particularly scary. First up, we have what I still regard to be one to the coolest models in the range, Gordrakk, The Fist of Gork. He remains an absolute combat monster with the destructive bulk of his Maw-krusha and all the attacks he comes with mean you can pretty much throw Gordrakk at whatever you don’t like and he will, at the very least, cause mayhem. But he won’t be alone because we’re also taking Gobsprakk, the Mouth of Mork. While not as fighty as Gordrakk, this swamp-dwelling, vulcha-riding wizard is a great backup. What’s more, with his nasty ability when it comes to unbinding spells (with the caster suffering D3 mortal wounds, or D6 on a 10+, he can be a real pain when it comes to magic-users) and all of the other gifts he comes with, your opponent won’t be able to focus on just one of these two top bosses.
We’re also going to throw in a couple of sub-leaders into this list as well, with an Orruk Warchanter who will have some Ironjawz units to inspire when he drops those beatz, and a Swampcalla Shamen with Pot-grot to conjure up some magic for your Kruleboyz. Also any list that includes a Pot-grot is a winner in my books.
Batteline
We’re going to keep this simple and take just the three mandatory units we’d need for a matched play game. We’ve got two units of five Brutes as our Ironjawz contingent who are just as tough and fighty as they ever were, and a unit of 10 Kruleboyz Gutrippaz who we probably want to have Wicked Hackas for that 3+ to wound (rather than the 4+ on the Wicked Sticka which does have an extra inch of range. All three of these units are slow moving, but they’ll also be pretty hard to get off objectives, especially with those support leaders that we have.
Other Units
The rest of this army is made up of some really fun units that all have different jobs to do. A unit of three Man-skewer boltboyz give you some handy ranged attacks to use to protect those slow moving troops. With 24” of range on their “aimed shot”, that’s really descent range to have. Then we’re taking three Gore-gruntas to help support Goredrakk a little bit. They’ve got a wicked charge and hit like a brick so they should worry your opponents for a little while at least. Lastly we’re taking the Marshkrawla Sloggoth which is a miniature I just adore – it’s truly horrible and that’s great for the Kruleboyz. What’s more, it has abilities that will work well with the entire army, from using it’s drummer to add 1 to the hit rolls of ALL allies (so Ironjawz too), it’s ability to heal wounds every turn, and it’s got some decent attacking options as well.
The List:
Gordrakk, Fist of Gork (Leader/Behemoth)
Gobsprakk, Mouth of Mork (Leader/Behemoth)
Orruk Warchanter (Leader)
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (Leader)
5x Orruk Brutes (Battleline)
5x Orruk Brutes (Battleline)
10x Gutrippaz (Battleline)
3x Man-skewer Boltboyz
3x Orruk Gore-gruntas
Marshcrawla Sloggoth
Points: Bang on 2000
Model Count: A very lazy-painter-friendly 32 miniatures and one of those is a Pot-grot. Granted, two of them are absolutely massive but it still counts because they’re a lot of fun.
Army Name: Fist Mouth
Additional Stuff: I genuinely like the look of this army, and I’m very tempted by going down this route myself as I think it would play to my strengths. You’ve got a big blob of hard to shift, constantly buffed battleline units that, while slow, will be very hard to kill, and a fast moving, hard hitting contingent to get the krumpin’ going early doors. What’s more, you can make both an Ironjawz Fist and a Kruleboyz Finga core battalion out of this army which does give you plenty of boons.
Having Gordrakk and Gobsprakk on the field is going to make your opponent very worried and I guarantee that even if those two aren’t around at the end of the battle, they’ll have taken a huge chunk of your enemies with them. We got in plenty of new awesomeness in the form of all the Kruleboyz stuff, and the Ironjawz are a faction I’ve been a big fan of since they first appeared so this is a real win for me.
Ok, so there are no Bonesplitterz in this list but I really have no problem with that. They’re a natural horde army that doesn’t really fit into the “Lazy Painter” way of thinking and if we’re being honest, the models just don’t look great compared to the big guys and the swamp guys.
You’ve got fast moving things, flying things, plenty of magic, monsters, troops and all compacted into 32 miniatures costing 2000 points. That’s not bad, right?!
Do you think we’re onto a winner with this list? Or do you think we’re stuck in the swamp? Let me know in the comments below, and until next time, Onwards!
Well, it’s been a while since I tried to work on anything like this, so I’m happy to show it off to you here today. It’s nice to know that I can still get some real joy out of this kind of painting after some time away from it working on armies and fun little projects.
Rather than try and take on the awesome yet intimidating Triumph of Saint Katherine, I decided to try and paint a version of Saint Katherine after her triumph. Striding into battle in holy armour, hefting an ornate shield and her mighty blade and going to kick some heretic arse.
Honestly, it’s the hair and face I’m happiest with on this mini. I like that some holy light is bursting out of her eyes because that meant I didn’t have to paint any pupils on those peepers and that’s great with me. Just a faint blue glow. And I was a bit worried about painting white hair but I knew it would stand out agains the red and black really nicely. It turned out really nicely so that’s great with me.
The sword was a bit of a cop out – I went with a weathered bronze look and it’s fine, but very low tech. I was going to do glowing blue but I thought the verdigris would work out ok. It’s fine, but I think I was a little lazy going in that route. And the weathering goes between relatively well done and lazy too – getting green/grey dust on red armoured feet is tricky.
And yes, there’s the shield. I had a couple of hours free this afternoon, so after shaving off the design that’s on there, I just decided to go for it and paint Canoness Veridyan on there, based on the classic John Blanche artwork. It’s not perfect, but hopefully at least recognisable. It’s a relatively tricky painting to work with because it is rather stylised and that can make it hard to get the proportions right at the end of your brush, but I reckon it’s decent enough.
There’s a whole bunch I could improve on this miniature but I’m going to give myself a C+ here. Definitely a pass, and hopefully a good jumping of point for the next piece. I’m quite happy to be back painting like this, so let’s see where this mood takes me. Until the next one, be excellent to everyone, enjoy your painting, and have fun. Onwards.
Well, we all knew I’d have to try and tackle this one eventually, and while I’m relishing the challenge, the idea of doing a Lazy Painter’s Army List for the Orks is, well, daunting shall we say. This isn’t going to be an easy one, but I’m going to give myself a goal here. I am going to create an Ork Army list for 9th Edition Warhammer 40,000 with no more than 30 miniatures. I’m sweating just saying that.
I’m going to give myself another caveat with this one – I don’t have to try and use the new hotness. Normally, I try and work in at least some of the miniatures if a range has had a big revamp or addition, and while the beastly boys are now bolstering the codex (and they look awesome), having had a quick look at them, there aren’t many that cost too many points and so that will make my job next to impossible. So, using the brand new book that Games Workshop have kindly sent me, I’m going to make a Lazy Painter’s Army list for the Orks. Wish me luck.
HQs
We are of course taking big Ghaz. He’s a monster on the battlefield and he clocks in at 300 points which is very handy. And because Ghazghkull is in here, we can take the cheap Makari, who is an HQ choice in his own right, without taking up an additional HQ slot. That’s handy as we’re not going to be running a Battalion here and there are some other good HQ options here, though I can’t take anything else with the “Warboss” keyword because the big fella would smash him up proper. So instead, I’m going for a Big Mek with a Shokk Attack Gun, assisted ably by a Grot Oiler. I love that gun because it holds a true measure of Orky bonkers-ness and the current model is pleanty nice too.
Elites
We’re skipping troops choices because they’re just too cheap and I’ve already used up 4 on my minis with my HQ choices. As much as I love a good mob of boyz or grotz, I’m instead going to be taking two units of 5 Mega-armoured Nobz. Chonky as you like, all equipped with Kombi-Skorchas and killsawz, these units will look like a real threat and they might even be able to soak up some firepower from my enemies.
Flyer
In order to keep the attention away from my big Nobz (don’t) I’m going to take a fully-kitted out Wazbom Blastajet. This’ll be rocking a couple of Supa-shootas, a pair of Tellyporta Mega-blastas, and a force field too. What’s more, I’m likely to make this a “Specialist Mob” which means he’ll gain the Flyboyz rule and this gives him a bonus when being shot at by always giving him the benefits of light cover if the person shooting at him is more than 6” away. Nice.
Fast Attack
A nice big mob of six Warbikers will do for me, with the Nob rocking a Power Klaw. Along with the flyer, this gives me some fast moving things that will distract my enemies and cause havoc where needed. Bikers are great miniatures and so much fun to paint that I certainly don’t mind having a mob of six of them in here.
Heavy Support
Yep, we’re taking advantage of the Orks’ great choices in the heavy area by making this a Spearhead Detachment. First off, we’re taking a Bonebreaka with all the fixins – so many that I’m not going to bother listing them here but this tank is packing some serious firepower and even a wreckin’ ball for good measure. Next up, a group of 3 Deff Dreads, each taking a Kustom Mega Blasta and some Rokkits to add to their firepower. And lastly, a group of 5 Lootas, with their boss rocking Rokkit Launcha. The lootas were pretty much the only thing I could sandwich in with the points I had left and I just like ‘em. I like them as much as my spellcheck hates everything I just wrote.
The List:
HQ: Ghazghull Thraka & Makari
HQ: Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun & Grot Oiler
Elites: 5x Meganobz with Kombi-Skorchas and Killsaws
Elites: 5x Meganobz with Kombi-Skorchas and Killsaws
Flyers: Wazbom Blastajet with 2 Supa-Shootas, 2 Tellyport Mega-Blastas and a Force Field
Fast Attack: 6x Warbikers with a Power Klaw
Heavy Support: Bonebreaker with a Killkannon, 4 Big Shootas, a Lobba and a Wreckin’ Ball
Heavy Support: 3x Deff Dreads, each with a Kustom Mega Blasta and a Rokkit Launcha
Heavy Support: 5x Lootas with a Rokkit Launcha
Points: 1980 but you can use the 20 points on a Kustom Job (I like da Red Rolla for the Bonebreaker but you have options)
Model Count: 29! I did it! A 2k Ork army with less than 30 minis! 29!!
Army Name: Big Ghaz Comes To Town
Additional Stuff: So Ghaz has to be the warboss, and that means you want to take this army as Goffs. This means you add 1 to the Warord’s attacks, and each time Ghaz goes into melee, you can improve his ap by 1.
How it plays: To be honest, I don’t see this army win too much. Orks work great with big hordes of boyz and at least one of their Lords of War. That being said, an experienced player may well be able to get something out of this. The jet, bikes and Bonebreaker surge foreward and worry the enemy, while the Shokk Attack gun, Lootas and Deff Dreads unleash a lot of firepower. By the time your enemies deal with that lot, Ghaz, Makari and all those Meganobz will have had time to get up close and in melee, that lot will cause havoc, especially with Ere We Go helping to ensure they get into combat.
But like I said, it’s not a conventional ork army, so whether or not it works, is very situational. But if you want an ork army that doesn’t mean painting 60 boyz, this might be a good bet. And hey, if you want to work in some Beast Snaggas, it won’t be too hard, but it will mean more minis.
Do you think this ork list can work well? Is it possible to run a low mini-count ork list? Let me know in the comments below. And until next time, Onwards!
You know me. I don’t do big projects. Half the time I can barely make it to the end of a single miniature so the idea of a squad of five usually gives me the fear. So how is it then that I have painted myself a 2000 point Necron army? Well, I picked a method and I stuck with it. It’s simple, easy to follow, enjoyable to do and I really like the miniatures. If you’d told me when I picked up Indomitus that the first thing I’d paint would be the Necrons, I probably would have called you bonkers but that box was the catalyst.
So it’s essentially 95% of the Indomitus Necrons, a couple of croissants and a few minis that I just really like. It’s not meant to be “competitive” but I’ve played with them before and I can tell you that they are a lot of fun to use. I don’t have to worry about a psychic phase, everything has LD10 and they are nice and forgiving thanks to things like Living Metal and Reanimation Protocols. Anyway, before I waffle on too long, let’s take you through the army.
HQs
Three of the four from the Indomitus box (I’m saving the other dude for a fancy project later on). We’ve got your classic Overlord there with his big stick, then there’s floaty mortal wound dealing Not-A-Psyker, and Mr Murderbot 3000 with all the weapons. Each one offers their own fun aspect of play and I’m quite happy with the little distinctions here, including Mr Murderbot’s glowing red eyes.
Elites
I run this army as a battalion to get those sweet sweet command points maxed out, but I’ve also pretty much maxed out my elite options. I’ve got the Reanimator which, might do something useful? I’ve got the medium-sized Murderbots along with the Baby Murderbot that makes them better. I’ve got the Trashcan Vampires (I think I stole that line from Goonhammer btw) who hang around with the Not-A-Psyker, and then there’s the Grim Reaper’s Ghost who looks like a complete bastard when it comes to the rules. That’s a lot of elite things right there.
Troops
Two groups of 10 warriors and 5 immortals with Tesla guns. I know people say you should do bigger units but I’m not going to so there.
Fast Attack
Ancient shuffling robot zombies can be surprisingly speedy it turns out and so I’ve got plenty of fast moving things in my army. Got the Floaty Ghost Bois as standard, and a nice little tarpit of six Murderbugs. And there are 5 Speedy Spear duders in there as well who are well good at smashing things up.
Croissants
There’s the big Flying Croissant who is in there purely because I was never going to not have a gun that’s literally called a Death Ray in my army. And then there’s the Mini-Croissant who is there to get me to exactly 2000 points. I guess the big gun’ll be useful at some point.
So there you have it! 2000 points of Necrons painted with minimum effort (and described to you there with even less effort than that) in order to have some fun games. I’ve taken them for a spin before and they were really decent so looking forward to having another go very soon. Onwards!
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