Harvester of Souls finished display boards

I just realized I have yet to post images of the finished display boards my brother and I brought to the Harvester of Souls this September. So better late than never!

Jarom's turned out very well and was very popular among the tourney-goers. The reference to Mad Max was obvious to everyone, so mission accomplished. As you can see Jarom's army was unique in that it was all bikes and vehicles. Keep in mind, this was before the new codex and all the new vehicles. So you could say he was doing the Ork motorcade before it was cool.

This was my miniature display board. I brought my Verminlord Skrax army, and didn't want to bring the sewer board again. The only new stuff in my list was a small battalion detachment of Kabals, so I did a display board just for them, also as a teaser for next year's big project for my space pirates. Depicted is a dark portal and a massive kraken-like creature emerging from it (the big head and tentacles are all 3D printed). Also on the bottom is the name of the Kabal, similar to the process I used to make the Coven's name plate.

How to make a display board in 7 days

Or alternate title:

How to not freak out when your brother asks you to make him a display board at the last week before the event!

As the alternate title suggests, my brother and I are getting ready for this weekend's Harvester of Souls 40k tournament in Spokane Valley, WA. I already have my display board and army prepared.  My brother, however, is running a little behind on getting his army ready. So about a week before the event, he calls me up and asks me to make him a display board, nothing too fancy, but something to center his army. I agreed because his birthday is coming up soon, and this can be part of it.

I thought about it a little. Jarom's ork army is pretty much 100% vehicles and bikes. Going for a Mad Max Fury Road theme. So I wanted to tribute a little to that movie (being one of my favorites), and rather than just doing a flat board with desert, I figured the mountain pass scene would be a cool scene to base it off of, especially since that scene employs bikes. I sketched it out and this is what I sent to him:

He liked the idea, so I began working on it. I had just recently watched this excellent video by one of my favorite YouTubers, and I was anxious to try the method out, so this gave me an excuse to do so. From here on out I pretty much just followed the video's instructions.

I start off by building up the layers using broken 1/4" insulation foam. It's thicker than the video, but it works for a board this size, which is about 18"x36". Much larger than I normally do a display board, but it makes sense considering the next step...

Before I continued, I wanted to make sure everything would fit on it, so he came over with his army and did a test fit. I found I had a little extra room to put some stuff on the ground level to break up the transition from the cliff to the ground. But this is a big army that needs a big board.

After adding some rock and debris, I sanded off the rough edges and blended the levels a little bit.

Next with a new tub of spackle, I got my hands dirty and filled in all the gaps, being sure to keep the striations visible in the rock face, but blend the top levels and rocks into the ground. This took a lot of spackle.

After the spackle dried, I went on to apply the sand, using a common construction sand. I did my usual procedure with this. First all purpose elmer's glue, then sand. Let it dry. Then did the coat of watered down glue over top to seal the sand in.

Now on to the coloring, because I am almost done. I am using cheap craft paints for this (Apple Barrel brand that you get at your common Walmart). I did the base coat in Burnt Umber which was tricky because the sand and rocks had a lot of nooks and crannies. I found the best way of doing it was taking a mug filled with the paint, add some water and some sort of flow aid (I just used a dishwasher rinse agent), this allowed the paint to flow easier into the tight spots the brushes have a hard time getting into while keeping most of the opacity of the paints. I was careful to not make a wash, though, I just wanted to thin the paint some and improve its flow.

Next I did a couple heavy drybrush coats of Golden Sunset. It took a few coats because I didn't want it to be too brown, but liked keeping the brown underneath and in all the cracks.

 

Finally I did a selective highlight drybrush of Lite Mocha to knock down some of the yellow and give it a final sandy look.

And that's it! A lot simpler and quicker than I feared, and I now love this construction method to make high cliffs. Today I'm prepping for the tourney this weekend so unfortunately I wont have a chance to show you the final board with Jarom's army on it until I take some photos at the event, so I look forward to that.

On another note, I realized I forgot to do a post on my army and display! So you will see that too at the event.

2016 Year in Review

This was an exciting year for me with a lot of completion on a lot of projects. Very productive. So here is a wrap-up for the year, as well as an update on my many projects.

Zone Mortalis Tiles
I spent countless hours casting the bits, gluing them together, and painting these tiles. It's a total of 18 tiles with doodads, and they have gotten some play time. Our local game store had an event where my tiles handled about 4,000 points between 4 players. I am surprised at how well they handled the punishment, and the players were all impressed with the table. They are a little brittle, but that is due to the material used, where I went a little cheap. A lofty goal in the future will be to create a fantasy themed set of tiles, but I may splurge for the good dental plaster if I can find out where to get a hold of some nearby.

The Coven of Verminlord Skrax (Warhammer 40,000 - Dark Eldar Haemonculus Covens)
This was quite a project that yielded a proud achievement for me. A lot of effort when into the modeling and painting and display board, not to mention the wonderful comic illustrated by my brother. It was all paid off when I won Best in Appearance at the 40k GT Harvester of Souls. A trophy which is still proudly displayed in our living room.

Jarom's Orks Commission Here and Here
The undertaking for illustrating my comic was no small feat, so I gladly paid in painting small portion of Jarom's Orks in exchange. Jarom also took Best in Orks at the same tournament.

Gorkamorka
My brother and I haven't really acted on our plans to run a little Gorkamorka campaign yet. Both of us live a distance from each other, and he has been busy with a job enough as it is. So Gogmagog's Questing Knights (Mutiez) and Da 'ard 'eads (Gorkers) will remain unpainted for now. I am looking forward to fielding Da Hukka Trukka on the table sometime in the near future.

Heavy Gear Blitz!
My Heavy Gear plastics kickstarter delivered this year. I now have a lot of plastic sprues of tiny mecha. I have been a very long fan of Heavy Gear's setting, but never got a chance to play it in any form. This game seems pretty solid, and my brother has expressed a desire to give it a shot. I look forward to that sometime next year.

Deadzone
My addiction to small skirmish games continues even still. Deadzone is an example of my enthusiasm that builds in a game in intense bursts. Then it dies out. I am still up for playing games with it though. So I have several small armies built for this game, but the beauty of most small skirmish games I own, a lot of the figures can be used interchangeably. So even when I am not playing Deadzone, I can still use the terrain and minis for something; like Rogue Stars... but that's another post for another day.

Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower
The three of us (Jarom, Timo, and I) have been slowly working our way through the trials of the Silver Tower, and watching the story unfold and our characters progress. Jarom is playing an Orruk Warchanter, Timo is playing a Chaos Lord, and I am controlling the Order side with a Cogsmith and Lord-Relictor. What's even sweeter about this is how little money I have invested in this game and we are getting a lot out of it.

Censers and Tocsins (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Nurgle Rotbringers and Clan Pestilens)
This project will likely be set on the back burner. I love the idea of a Nurgle themed fantasy army, but until I get that burst of inspiration for it going again, I won't be doing much with it for now. I do believe I have some good ideas for the Nurgle Rotbringers at least. The Skaven, however, I can only think to make everything as-is. Which is fine for most, but I become passionate about something when I can think of a unique angle to take with it.

Forgesworn Eternals (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Stormcast Eternals)
I am proud to say my entire Forgesworn Eternal army is completely painted (barring some basing I still have left to do). Not something I can say much of for my big armies. I really don't plan on adding anything to this. I feel I have gotten all the minis I am interested in. I was considering some Dracoth Cavalry to make more dire bear riders, but the problem is finding variations of suitable bear heads, of which I have only really found the one. But for now I'm good.

Forthammer Clan Throng (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Dispossessed and Ironweld Arsenal)
Not all of my Warhammer Duardin are among the ranks of the painted, but a good portion of them are. I experimented with a unique paint scheme for dwarfs that I think has paid off to a color that complements my Forgesworn Eternals. All I have left for this LVO army is some basing, and maybe a display board. Carry-on luggage restrictions are becoming an issue.

That sums up this very awesome year. In the new year I will outline my goals for 2017.

Commission - Ork Lootas and Painting Guide

The last part of the commission for my brother is complete. The lootas. Also to help him out, I am providing somewhat of a simple painting guide to help him out in doing the rest of his army. I kept the painting using simple quick techniques for speed and ease.

First you start off by priming grey. I used the Rustoleum gray primer I reviewed here.

Next I did Agrax Earthsade over the entire model. Everywhere. This creates a pre-shade, because we are mostly going to paint with washes.

Next I drybrushed Leadbelcher on all the metal parts. The combination of the gray primer, and brown shade makes for a dulled dirty metal look.

Next I applied Biel-tan Green on all the ork skin. Be careful not to get the wash anywhere else but the skin, as it is hard to cover up a wash color with other washes. Don't worry about getting it on claws and teeth, as those will be painted with actual paints.

Next I wanted to paint the cloth and any gloves. I was sure to avoid any leather and pants. The cloth I did a red, which was some Carroburg Crimson was mixed with a drop of Mephiston Red. This makes the wash a lot more opaque while keeping its good wash property of pooling in recesses. Then I did the same on the boots, but it was a mix of Nuln Oil with a drop of Abaddon Black. Also I did just plain Nuln Oil on the recessed metal parts, and sort of messy in various spots. I didn't want to cover the rusty look from the Agrax Earthshade, and you want the black oily look uneven to sell the look of orks. This is what's great about orks, you can afford to be a little sloppy.

Now we applied a simple layer of the signature Tau sept blue and tan. The colors used here are Karak Stone and Caledor Sky. I wasn't too thoorough with this because I didnt want to get paint on unwanted parts (again it's hard to cover paints with washes) and this is metal and material that has been scraped to heck through rough ork treatment and hammering.

Now we are going to do a chipping and scraping on the tan and blue paint. I used as crappy brush and a spackling technique to paint Mournfang Brown on the edges of the bits (pretty much anywhere parts scrape and rub against each other or other survaces mostly). On larger stuff you would do the same but using a sponging. This is the base rust of the chipping.

Now I used the same spackling technique to apply Leadbelcher on all the spots with the brown, but keep it within the brown trying not to cover it up too much. This shows the paint completely chipped off. I didn't show it next, but I also went back over the new metal and painted bits sporadically with Agrax Earthshade again to put a dirty rusty look over that.

All that is pretty much left are the small details, like glow effects, teeth, etc.

Commision - Ork Stormboyz and Boss Zagstruk

I commissioned my brother, who is quite an artist, to illustrate me a 6 page comic book that tells the story of my Haemonculus Covens army. The plan is to make a neat little black and white booklet that I hand out to my opponents and the TO's at the tournament so they can catch a glimpse of the army's backstory, and on the back of the comic will be my actual army list. So hopefully you will see that soon, as it gets done I will post the pages here.

As a trade for his work, I am painting a couple squads of his Orks. First are his counts-as Zagstruk and Stormboyz, then are a bunch of Lootaz. I haven't started the Lootaz yet, though.

Boss Zagstruk. My brother likes to loot a lot of toys, to put it mildly. Much of his force comes from various anime toy lines to fit the theme of a Mek force. There is also a lot of Tau tech looting as well. Zagstruk here is quite a big model, that he stands out among the rest of the stormboyz as a centerpiece, but not too big to completely dwarf them.

As well as the orks looting their tech, Jarom likes to loot other kits. All of these boyz are just Assault on Blackreach boys and from the regular boys kit. The nobs in the center of each squad are made from the nobz kit, with looted old Crisis suit parts. I am also a fan of his flying stands made of nails. The idea with his army is a lot of it is in this blue and khaki color. The story is that is a Tau sept color they got a lot of their tech from, and with them being of the Deathskulls clan, blue is kinda their color. They find themselves lucky to have stuff already painted blue.

The whole lot of them.

Gorkamorka - Gorker Trukk and Driver

Along with the bike, the flagship of my Gorker mob will be a trukk. The beauty of Gorkamorka is it definitely encourages kitbashing and home building of your mobs. So I went to my local Hobby Lobby to peruse their selection of cheapish model kits. I examined some military vehicles not sure if they would be big enough, but I found what I thought would be perfect. This snap-tite old firetruck kit, which I got for about $16. I liked the look of the front, and could see it being long enough to fit lots of boys.

So I got to work on it, tearing the bits apart and doing cutting and ruining to it that would probably make the original designer sick. Add to that lots of use with plasticard and many different bits from my collection, and I get this:

Da Hukkatrukka

"HONK HONK"

In case you are wondering, that emblem on the driver's door there is the ork glyph for "ZOG OFF!"

I painstakingly armored up the wheels. Rubber tires likely wouldn't last very long on the deserts of Angelis.

The driver area is just a floorboard so I can easily just stick the driver with his base on there. Also those 2 round mounts in the middle are magnetized for operators, who will be controlling the future gibbins.

A nice long trukk bed that comfortably fits 6 orks on bases. Add to that the 2 gubbins points in the middle, and a driver, I can fit a mob of 9 models on this trukk alone. That's key with Gorkamorka.

The spanner, and driver, for the Hukkatrukka. His one arm is holding the steering wheel. That was an aspect I liked about Mad Max: Fury Road, that the drivers pretty much used the steering wheels as the keys, of sorts. The other hand is holding a pistol grip. Just the grip because right now I didn't have enough teef to give him a weapon.

The whole mob together. Once I get some paint on these guys, then the sands of Da Skid will know the brutality of Nob Ugthug, an' Da 'Ard 'Eads!

I also have a lot of gubbins which I will not show yet. You will see those as our mobs progress. The trukk does have several hardpoints I planned ahead for mounting the gubbins I made up.

Gorkamorka - Gorker Mob WIP

So Miniwargaming, a favorite YouTube channel, is doing their own Gorkamorka campaign, and it has gotten my brother and I pretty stoked about our future campaign plans. They are doing a modified rules set to get some of it updated, which I am enjoying. Some of the original gorkamorka rules have the really oldschool feeling about them, which can be kind of wonky. So we have been getting our mobs built up, and this is what I have so far:

DA 'ARD 'EADS

Left to right: Boy with shoota, Nob Ugthug with 'uge choppa, and a bike with its spanner

Da 'Ard 'Eads are a mob of Gorkers (those who worship Gork over Mork) and are lead by a brutal but cunning ork named Nob Ugthug. He pays a special reverence to heavy armour and helmets. Any boyz that want to be part of his mob must wear their helmets when out raiding in da skid, and as they grow up and become bigger, they get heavier armour. Generally the boyz in my mob are made from the fantasy black orc/'Ardboys kit, mixed with bits from various sources and Nobz. This way I could get the appropriate 40k ork bits with the brutal heavy armour look of the fantasy models. The bike on the right was a challenge to build as I didn't have a biker boy body to ride on it, instead I had to modify one of the fantasy ork bodies to sit on the bike properly. I think it looks convincing enough. Also a big difference between Gorkamorka and 40k are the way vehicles work. Bikes can technically carry models as a transport. I see using this model to zip up and snatch scrap or just deliver hurt from whatever is sitting in the rollcage back there.

Left to right: Yoof with slugga and shield, Boy with shoota, and Yoof with choppa and shield

I have a few Yoofs (teenage orks) in here and they will be represented by regular boyz models, as they have not earned their heavier armour yet. When they upgrade, I will be moving the helmets and gear to the fantasy models to show how they've grown. All that remains to build for this army is a Trukk and its driver/spanner, and I have plans for that.

Thrice Bitten - Gamer A.D.D.

I have been bitten a few times by other game bugs. I've been whipped around with "Ooh, I want to play that, no wait, I want to play this!" a lot recently. This may possibly jeopardize some of my Soft Goals, and it will most definitely interfere with my Lofty Goals.


First bite...

The more I read about this game, the more I fall in love with it. Many have been reporting that it fills the void where Mordheim used to be. I find myself with a ton of unused plastic Reaper Bones minis wanting to be used for something. I think I found it.

What attracts me to Frostgrave is the frozen city aspect and the campaign system. What didn't initially attract me was that it was just my human wizard and henchmen against your human wizard and henchmen. Once I looked into it more, I saw that there were about 10 different flavors of wizard, all with a list of possible spells, a good variety of henchmen, and everyone seemed to be okay with using whatever minis you want, as long as you clarify with your opponent what is what.

Enchanter Behrun Farsetter, his animated construct, Grudgebringer, and Ragnar Thingrim, the apprentice.

So I have this idea for a Dwarf warband. A Dwarf Enchanter who animates golems by hammering runes into them, and empowers his minion's gear using the same method. And the members of his henchmen are all from his Clan's hold. I greenstuff'd a stone beard on the golem and replaced the wizard's icon with a pair of tongs holding a glowing magical rune from GW's Dwarf Runelord kit.

This piece of ruins is made with 1 mold, cast 16 times. Now replace that green with ice and snow, and you get the idea.

Due to the nature of this game wanting to be played on a terrain heavy table, I have wanted to buy some more Hirst Arts molds, but for fantasy terrain, mainly for Age of Sigmar, but this game solidifies that plan.

Second bite...

Now we're going back to the golden age of GW here. My brother, Jarom, is a big Ork fan, and he started talking this game up to me. It's essentially Mad Max Fury Road: the Game, but with Orks. I had to admit what he was telling me about it sounded really badass. It has a campaign and leveling system, vehicle combat rules on the skirmish level, locked on a desert planet, and much more.

The rules are written in the old school GW style, but I can dig it. Luckily Jarom and I are both veteran gamers, so it shouldn't be too much for either of us to pick up.

The core rules cover warring Ork bands and campaigning. I was thinking of doing a savage orc themed force, with all their naked green glory. The idea of the vehicle combat, boarding actions, drivers and riders really excites me with this.

Then I read about the Muties, a faction of mutated humans descended from an Adeptus Mechanicus force who ride around on mutated horses and wield the most powerful advanced weapons on this planet. They don't use vehicles, but the conversion potential with these guys is really getting the juices flowing.

So which should I choose? I was at an impasse, and I told my brother of this dilemma. He gave me this answer:

From what he explains, these games go by really quick, so we can knock out 2 a night. So each of us having 2 warbands would be possible and it would provide some variety in the games so we are not facing the same 2 armies each game. I'm on board.

Third bite...

A big update was released about the Heavy Gear Blitz kickstarter, and it showed the final contents of the box set I will be receiving. I have loved Heavy Gear for a very very long time, so this news is rather exciting. On top of that one of my favorite YouTube channels released a video battle report of the game's latest edition, and the old feelings started to creep back up. So who knows what will happen when they finally deliver.

So with all these bites, what is a wargamer like me to do? This year should be eventful.