Orktober

I ain't Dead.

Although it has been a while I have been doing something.

For Orctober this year I've painted up this painboy.

The mushroom on the base was made using a left over piece of greenstuff, and seemed like a good idea at the time...

 I have a load more Escher gangers that I have painted but have failed to build up the enthusiasm to photograph (as I struggle with group photos). Hopefully I will get around to those eventually.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

Orktober Returns!

 I have once again returned from the wilderness to paint something Oldhammer related, this time I actually remembered that it was Orctober and have painted some Orks!

This is also a first attempt to actually paint a whole unit (well mostly, I do intent to add some more members later) in one go...

 

These are mostly models from the original Ork Raiders boxset including Thrugg's right-hand Ork, Hrukk, from the Battle of the Farm in the RT rulebook. I'm pretty happy with how this lot have come out and think they'll match up well with my existing Orks.

As is normal for me these were painted with a mix of Citadel, Vallejo and even Humbrol acrylics.

And few images of individuals starting with the Nob. He has some shinier brass and bronze detailing that the other lack to mark him out a bit.

 

 

The 'eavy weapon Boy.

 

  And the rest of the boyz.

The last two have Bad Moons symbols on their shoulder pads, these were a bit of a last minute addition, I struggled a bit to paint it between the scratches.

 The eagle-eyed may have noticed that unusually for me I have actually based these! A very basic job, will have to go back do some more work on them since they are still a bit glossy.

That's about it for now, hopefully I might retain this recent enthusiasm.

Till next time...

 

Cap'n Smyrk

Orctoberfest 2020

So after a bit of a break from mini painting after my uncharacteristic burst of activity earlier on the year I have got back into it for Orctober...

As is now traditional for me I realised what the month was without having come up with a clear plan on what I was going to do.

Thus I decided to just paint the last power armoured Ork I had lying around (helped by the fact that he came attached to his base and primed) to finish off a unit of five.

He is painted in the same basic scheme as the earlier power armoured Orks, although I tried to give a heat scorched look to the muzzle of his plasma gun.

Better view of his Bad Moon emblem, one of my better attempts at free hand

And finally a group shot with the full five Ork mob.

Til next time...

 

Cap'n Smyrk

Orctober Again

So its been a bit a fallow time Oldhammer wise for me for quite a while but I thought I would use Orctober as a push to get back into things.

Admittedly these three I actually started for last Orctober and never actually finished. But they're done now, although still suffering from my aversion to finishing bases...

Anyway here are Nogwize the Weirdboy and his (as yet) nameless minderz.

Here's Nogwize himself front and back

I attempted to give the impression that his eyes were glowing with inner light, not sure how well that came out

And the minderz:

And a poor pic of the Bad Moon symbol on his right shoulder

I incorporated the dull brown yellow on all three to tie them together, and the minders both use mostly the same colours although not necessarily in the same places.

Trying out a new lightbox for the photography, although since my camera is refusing to focus properly at they haven't come out quite as well as I hoped.

Anyway, hopefully it won't take me as long to paint something else...

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

Belated Orctober...

So... a bit late for Orctober but these were painted in October but haven't had chance to take any photos until now.

A bit rushed so I'll have to try and take some better photos later.

Anyway first up with have a further member for my power armoured Nobs mob.

Then Gawp Da Banna Waver...

 Finally a Group shot with the other power armoured orcs and the boss I painted for last Orctober.

Painting up some Space Marines to join Inquisitor Tycho's retinue next.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

Happy Orktober...

So for the last couple of years I have looked on at the Orctober painting challenges held by Erny on the Oldhammer forum wanting to take part but forgetting about it until part way through October and always being in the middle painting of something else.

Well the same thing basically happened again this year, but I sucked it up and managed to squeeze in a little something alongside my current painting projects.

I knew that I would only have the time to paint one mini so scoured my small collection of Orks (all Rogue Trader) looking for a suitable victim volunteer.

In the end I plumped for the original Rogue Trader Ork (well original named Ork anyway...) Thrugg Bullneck himself from the Battle at the Farm from the Rogue Trader rulebook.

I painted him in my now preferred 'grimy' Rogue Trader Ork style compared the quite colourful Ork Clan style of my first space ork.

I imagine that his furs probably came off a fur squig or some other exotic alien beastie and so painted them a lurid green...

Here he is with my other painted orks, showing off my change in style since the guy on the right, I will have to tone down the yellow on his helmet and darken up his skin to match the others at some point.

Still working on my Champions of Law, one of the them is done but the other one had an unfortunate run in with a green wash and needed some repainting and still needs finishing off (and his shield...).

Till next time.


Cap'n Smyrk

Make way for da boss...

Hello all.

This week I've finished a few more Orks to hopefully provide some opposition to the more heroic types in my planned Rogue Questesque game. They also provide some of the core of my Ork force, although whether I will ever paint up a whole army is another matter.

They are all powered armoured Ork bosses from the early Rogue Trader ranges. I've painted them up as Bad Moons as that was always my favorite clan. I tried to give them a grimier less in your face scheme that was normal for clan Orks closer to the original RT Ork schemes.

Anyway first up is the Warboss Nogbad (I've always thought that Noggin the Nog's nemesis sounded like an ork...).

 

These minis sure have a lot of detail on them, I kept finding bits that I missed but I pretty happy with the way he has turned out. Though I noticed whilst taking the photos that I forgot to do some more highlights on the blue on his plasma pistol so I'll have to go back a do that at some point...

Then there are his two bodyguards, currently nameless...

These guys were painted in the same way although I only used gun metal on them keeping the brass for Nogbad to help differentiate him, along with his flashier gun (in more ways than one...).

Finally a quick group shot.

Haven't decided what I'm going to paint next yet but I might paint another Eldar Ranger to fill the Elf archetype among the Heroes.

Until next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

2014 Roundup

When I started this blog back in March, inspired by the many other brilliant Oldhammer blogs out there, it was to give me the impetus to actually paint some of the classic models I had started buying on E-bay.

Has it actually achieved that?

Well I painted seventeen models in the last ten months, which is infinitely more than I had painted prior to starting the blog. So I can't say I'm displeased with the progress I've made. Plenty more still to paint, and somehow I seem to keep acquiring more :)

Certainly my painting has improved (not to the standards of many others in the community but good enough for me).

So what are the models I did get painted.

The whole lot.

Smyrk's Crew, Arbites and the Emissary

Necromunda Eschers

Cursed Xenos

And a lone fantasy dwarf... (who managed to avoid appearing in the group shot).

So whilst I'm happy with my progress so far it seems customary to set myself some targets for the coming year. So here goes...

1 - Paint at least 17 models. Knowing my work rate and the distractions of real life and other hobbies I'm not going to set too high a target for this.

2 - Base all my models. Its notable with all the models I've done so far I haven't actually properly  finished any of them... As such a definite target is to actually base them all and do the same for all the new ones I paint.

3 - Manage at least one post a month. Looking at my post history for the blog there are two big gaps in August and later October and November where I didn't post anything at all. So next year I'm going to try and keep a more even flow across the whole year.

Right having got that out of the way it just remains to say have a Happy New Year and see you all in the next annum.


Cap'n Smyrk

The Small and Short of it...

So not much activity from me for, well too long really. Most of my hobby time has been spent on historical modelling projects of late.

However I have done some more on the last two minis.

The ork is mostly just some extra highlights on the skin and gun.

The Fire Dragon has a free hand Eldar rune added to the front of the helmet because it looked a bit bare, now that I've looked it up its not completely accurate but I'm fairly happy with it anyway.

And finally, in relation to the post title I have my first Fantasy mini for this project. I present Hewi Drakkenbak in all his dubious glory.

He is the Dwarf from the Warhammer Quest game and like my Eschers is mostly a retouch of an ancient shoddy paint job. If and when I do other fantasy stuff expect to see a preponderance of dwarves as I am a life long dwarf fan in almost all fantasy settings (must be something to do with being short...).

Until next time (which will hopefully not be quite so far in the future...).


Cap'n Smyrk

Filty Xenos

So a pretty productive weekend as far as I go with two more minis mostly finished.

First up a first Eldar Aspect warrior, a Fire Dragon. Fire Dragons have always been my favourite Aspect, since I first saw these models in the battle report in WD 141 (the second issue I ever bought), despite the fact that they gave a pretty poor performance (probably something to do with Jervis Johnson being in command...).

I've tried to tie him in with the other Eldar I painted so he has most of the main colours used on them on him somewhere and his pistol is the same colour as their weapons. He was based and primed when I bought him (explaining why his base is done, so unlike me...) although the base needs a bit of extra work.

I've currently got three of these plus the Exarch (one of my all time favourite minis) and two of the 3rd edition Fire Dragons which I also like. Oddly I'm not much of a fan of the latest figures despite them harking back to these classics in style.

He is joined by my first Ork, I need to find some more of these I currently have four boys and three bosses... not a particularly well balanced force...

Although I called him finished at the time after another look I think he might need a few extra highlights on his skin and gun.

And here you can see my attempt at freehand, Bad Moons are my favourite of the Ork clans. I'll be going with the old Rogue Trader (and I suppose modern as well) take of having all the orks in the force belonging to the same clan rather than the mix and match approach seen in 2nd Edition.

Anyway that's it for now. Til next time...


Cap'n Smyrk