Hobby Update: The Goal and Progress So Far!

Well to get the hobby updates started I get to talk about my goals first.

I have a ton of Games Workshop that I have collected over the years. A ton of it is Oldhammer from the days I was buying as a kid - from pre-slotta to early stuff all the way to the great Lead Sell-off. When I was trolling around and found Oldhammer as a movement, most of it was just sitting in one of my two storage buildings. As I have said before....I may have a bit of a problem.

Anyway, as all the photos I posted up on facebook show I have a ton of stuff, including a lot in shrinkwrap. So if I'm going to do the Oldhammer thing, where do I start? One of my first true armies (not minis but full fledged ideas for an entire army) was Undead. They will always have a special place in my heart. Back then I had friends who I got to play, but they were basically unable to afford hardly anything. So what to do....ok I bought tons of figures for their armies. That way I had ready made opponents and more figures! Win-Win, right? Well yes, but it has left me with a pile of unpainted minis that would shock most people. One of the brothers Horton did High Elves, one did Chaos and Orcs. I played Undead, Empire, and anything else to make a fun game. So I have all of these options. And I doubt I have to buy too much from ebay to make any one army - of course, I will because I'll want that one special figure - but that is different from needing to go out and spend.

I want to do my Undead again, and I have a ton of the models, but to be honest, I want to accomplish something else first. Then I thought about Kev "Goblinmaster" Adams (see below) and thought - ok...Its Orcs and Gobbos!

I started puling out figures (some with primer, some sprayed green (really bad green form some spray we found in the late 80s), some bare, some black....its like a mono-toned rainbow). I am going to go through jars of Simple Green just to clean them all. I still have things to find that I know are in there somewhere, but I have found enough to get a really good start on my complete army (complete in my head - not points!)  I decided to just concentrate on the slottas for now and I have grouped them in two basic groups - 85-90 and 91-92. The former has the regiments, skullcrushers, leadbelchers, etc. the former has some of the "newer" orcs and savage orcs. I'm really starting on the older group first, have like 6 units of infantry, gobbo wolf riders, orc boar boyz, war machines, fanatics, and chariots. I want them done but the whole thing won't be finished until those savage orcs have tattoos!

But I wanted to start with one of my favorite things...the old regiments of renown. So I decided to do Ruglud's (because I can find everything for two boxes except either of Harboth himself - more searching to do!). Anyway, these were pretty rough and painted when I was 15 or so I think (or at least half done - hey it was my friends army he was borrowing from me.) So I gave them a bath, and presto - bare metal! Here are some of them coming out of their bath:

Well I had a full box (which is 17) and I wanted at least 20 and hopefully 30 - I wanted a really big unit of these guys. Luckily I was able to get some more of them from Rusty, and It brought me up to 27 - and I just added three other Orcs with the right weapons to the back rank, and I had my thirty. One of the ones Rusty sent me was missing a hablerd - it was broken before he got it - so I had to fix em. Here is my little plastic whittling job. Its a bit rough, but in my opinion it makes him look like he's already been in a few fights!

In the photo it looks a lot bigger, but it is more because of his hand placement - I used the one on the right as a template of sorts. So I was all ready to go and get started when on the facebook page Andy Craig mentioned how he painted Orcs. Basically Green Apple Windsor and Newton ink with mid tones and yellows added - I think I have that right! Anyway I have always wanted to be able to get the old look of Orc skin down and could just never do it (using the Citadel paints at the time) and now i know why. So I ordered some Red and Green Apple inks and I'm waiting for them to arrive.

If you have never used Red with your red paints, then you should give it a try. I learned that one long ago, as it keeps your paints from getting too pink (unless you want them to). I am not a painting expert, so I'll just keep it to what I am trying to do. For excellent tips and paint jobs, please see some of the others on the facebook page. I'm afraid I will never win a Golden Daemon, or even come close. But I have long painted until I am happy with things and played lots of games. I am trying to get better, and hopefully this project will help - but I just want to warn you.

Anyway, as I am currently waiting for the inks to arrive, I am cleaning a bunch more of the Orcs and Gobbos now. Lots of cleaning to do!

Also, my blog is less than 24 hours old - and I only told three people. But somehow I have 100 pageviews already. Very cool!