Post Apocalyptic Vehicles

Posted on 12/05/2011 by sho3box

Some post apocalyptic wheels today.  As two of these sat around with just a black spray coat on them for the last year or so, I got a kick out of getting them finished last weekend 🙂

Whilst painted to be suitable for use by any of my PA figures, these resin models from Ramshackle Games are primarily going to be used as the vehicles for my “Bigdogz” ork mob in the post-apocalyptic Gorkamorka setting.

The vehicles were each painted in straightforward single colour schemes.  Largely this was to minimise confusion in game terms by aiding easy  identification.

I was tempted to add some more rusty areas but I as I wanted the vehicles to look battered but serviceable, rather than disintegrating, I held back a bit.

As I wanted to use the vehicles for non-ork-centric games as well as GoMo, I avoided too much obviously ork styling, even going so far as to add some more traditional sci-fi trappings like bar-code licence plates.  I like the implication that while these vehicles are obviously pretty rugged and heavily abused, that they exist in an environment that still has some more advanced tech, somewhere.

The weapons mounted on the vehicles are interchangeable mini turrets, attached by magnets.  I made them from various gun parts that I had access to.  Each weapon is mounted on a plastic disc which is glued to a washer.  The washer then sticks to countersunk magnets on the vehicles.  Simple but effective and convenient.

No. 7 above is a cute design I think.  It looks rugged and reliable.  Nothing fancy but able to take a pounding.  If I were stuck in a mehcanised post apocalyptic wasteland I think that of the three vehicles here, this is the one that I would choose as most likely to extend my lifespan.  The enclosed cab would help with radstorms, mutie marauders, ripperjack swarms and the like.

No 4 is a peculiar beast.  Its a fun looking vehicle I think, but I think that I need to add “something” to the paint job:  it is lacking a focal point.  Its perfectly adequate for use as it is but there is something missing and I cant put my finger on what that missing thing is.

No 3 is my favourite of the three.  Not as reliable as No 7, but streets ahead in terms of cool.  Of these three vehicles, this is definitely the road warriors choice I reckon.

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Da Bigdogz – Gorkamorka Mob #1: A Nob, a Yoof & two Boyz

Posted on 11/05/2011 by sho3box

My main project in production (rather than in the research and resource acquirement phase) is a mob of orks primarily intended for use in Gorkamorka.  

Gorkamorka is a Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic bumper-car fest where everyone is an ork and therefore largely immune to incoming bullets.  The plan is that this premise will provide much hilarity.  Heres hoping 🙂

To that end I have bought some orks and added them to the other ork figures that I already had in storage.  They are currently all in various states of WIP but the end results will look a lot like like the Bigdogz shown here.

A Nob and a Yoof

I spent some time working out a colour scheme and painting plan for these guys that would be both effective and easy to reproduce quickly.  Details of that process can be found here and here.

Suffice to say that a look that was reminiscent of Mad Max II was at the forefront of the process.

Wez

Continue reading →

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Da Krusher – Forty Shades of Green

Posted on 17/03/2011 by sho3box
Six Thousand Teef Ork

Krusher

I finished this figure while tipsy in front of the TV last night.  I am currently experimenting with different ways to paint ork flesh, hence the forty shades of green thing.  How that for a tenuous link to St Patricks day?

The figure is Gorillagon from Ramshackle Games.  I bought it to serve as a “Da Krusher”, a special character from Gorkamorka who has had so much bionik work done to him that nobody knows who he really is anymore, least of all Da Krusher.  This of course leads to a number of screwy rules relating to the models effectiveness in-game.  Hopefully much hilarity will ensue.

I modified the model slightly during assembly.  I added a slightly smaller gun barrel into the soup-can calibre weapon in his right arm.  I also added a top mounted magazine from another ork weapon, as it looked a little too much like some oddball energy weapon without it.  I didnt do very much work to the gun though.  In-game it isnt that special (Krusher is a close combat type mainly) and I didnt want the gun to be misleading.

+BEEP+ +BEEP+ THIS ORK IS REVERSING +BEEP+ +BEEP+

As befits the characters solo status I didnt tie its colour scheme to any faction of orks that I am currently painting.  I did however try to paint the largely metallic looking model from a white undercoat.  Generally I would approach a model like this by spraying it black and drybrushing it with metallic paints.  This time I sprayed it white and alternated drybrushing of metallics with ink washes.  I did this in the hope that I would end up with defined looking metallic areas but that the figure would not look too dark overall.

Also worth noting is that I didnt bother even to highlight some of the cabling and other detail, all in the interests of getting the figure finished so that I can get working on some more stuff.  I will let you be the judge of whether I got the balance right or not.

As regular readers may know I am currently experimenting with quick ways to paint ork flesh.  I tried another approach with this figure.  I like some of how the green areas worked out, but as usual other elements of it irritate me.  This is compounded somewhat by the fact that the organic areas of the figure are not brilliantly sculpted, so that the huge arms look a little like green tree bark or something now.  On the plus side, I do think that it will look much better on models with better sculpted physiques (like the plastic ork figures).  So I will go in that direction with my next batch or orks.

Finally here is a picture of da Krusher standing alongside a gretchin, a human and an ork, just so that you can see that he really is a pretty big monstrosity.  He also looks sort of sad I think, like he really just wants be friends, like in a sappy Disney movie.

Right, I am off to shatter a national stereotype by spending the day drinking cheap Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon instead of stout.  “An bhfuil tĂş ar meisce fĂłs?” and all that “top o’ the mornin” jazz.

EDIT 21/03/11:  I forgot to note in the the post that Da Krusher is supposed to have a pair of Steel Horns.  In game terms these make him more effective when charging into combat.  I considered adding a pair to the model during assembly, but I thought that they would spoil the brutal, rounded shape of the figure, so I scrapped that idea.  Presumably the incarnation of Da Krusher above charges teeth first into his opponents, with much the same effect as a pair of horns.  Just in case that sort of thing bothers you.

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Gorkamorka Project

Posted on 10/03/2011 by sho3box

CLICK HERE to see all of my Gorkamorka related progress since I wrote this post… boyz, vehicles, forts, buildings, terrain etc

Gorkamorka is a skirmish game system that GW brought out in 1997.  It has very similar mechanics to Necromunda but with the notable addition of vehicle rules that involve a little bit of risk management and a lot of shouting “Yahtzee!”

The game is strongly influenced by Mad Max II: The Road Warrior, except that instead of featuring Mel Gibson, actors from A Country Practice and pervert biker rapists it features orks.

Gorkamorka occurred during an awkward adolescence for orkoid development in 40K.  As a concept they had lost their way at some point before Gorkamorka was released, becoming gaudy buffoons rather than a proper barbaric menace.

Although Gorkamorka definitely didnt wipe that image out (I mean the game is called Gorkamorka for crying out loud), it certainly laid the groundwork for the single-minded, homicidal galactic plague that they became in 40k the 2000s (and which they seem to be moving away from again these days).  A lot of that was simply due to the top class miniatures sculpted by Brian Nelson for the GoMo range which took them from comical to monstrous.

As a GW fanboy I bought GoMo (as it seems to be called online these days) when it came out.  It sounded like fun and I had enjoyed Necromunda, which was largely an identical system.

Unfortunately at the time I didnt have many opponents willing to get into GoMo so it didnt get much table time, just an afternoon or two.  I bought some of the GoMo miniatures back then but they stayed in storage, until I sold on all of the orks to pay for a weekend boozing and clubbing in 2000.  It was the right decision at the time.  At least I kept the Mutie figures.

Zip forward a decade and MT, SOS and I have a weekend of GoMo planned for June.  I dont play 40K any more, MT plays a teeny, weeny bit and SOS is getting back on the 40K scene having played in a weekend long tournament in January, which included painting even more Orks for his already vast, epoch spanning greenskin collection.

We all have a lot of 40k (and other games) under our belts and we are all pretty familiar with the basics of the GoMo system.  SOS already has enough miniatures assembled and painted to field numerous mobs.  I have existing suitable terrain and the enthusiasm to make some more (like the ongoing Fort Grayskull and the recent Foam Rocks).  I am also looking forward to painting some of the nice ork figures that have come out in the last twelve years or so.

Somewhat uncharacteristically, MT is a bit of a wild card this time.  Often he is more reliable when it comes to getting a project finished for a deadline than SOS.  This time SOS has more than enough models ready to go before he starts and MT is in a something of a painting slump (a familiar thing to most figure painters I think).

Even if MT doesnt get his mob painted (it looks like even odds to me right now) he will still be able to use SOS spare figs so it looks like the project will materialise fully.  Hopefully MT will get to play with figures that he has done himself though.  He has had a Space Marine Land Speeder with wheels added to it knocking around for nearly a decade.  That really should get its time in the sun and if not now then when?

The GoMo rules system is familiar and will be quicker to play than Necromunda (its less fiddly for a few reasons).  We have also agreed on a handful of very straightforward streamlining house rules.  They should hopefully help us to get enough games in to watch our mobs gain skills and the like and for us to experience the over the top and hopefully entertaining intra-game Gorkamorka elements (visiting dodgy car mechanics and over enthusiastic doctors with a penchant for amputation).

All of this means that many of the hurdles often encountered when we try to get some gaming off the ground have already been passed.  Hopefully that means that we can concentrate on having fun rather than on rules intricacies or other tedious slog and just have a few giggles.

That in turn means that barring something serious that some GoMo will definitely be played this summer.  So I will be putting my progress on it up here for the foreseeable future, starting with the as yet unnamed ork and his gretchin buddies above.  Here is a picture of one of the grots standing in the mine entrance part of the Fort Grayskull project next to a Copplestone figure (Dr Leghorn), for scale.

In the interests of getting the project finished in a reasonable timeframe the ork and gretchin were painted quickly, with some areas getting simply a base coat and a wash.  Not too bad as a prototype models I think, but I have decided to try a different approach overall.  More on that at a later date.

Comments and criticisms welcomed as ever 🙂

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