Waaaagh! Dreadhowl Da Boyz (so Far), Blogging my growing greenskin horde

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Hi there,

Here a a few pics of my painting efforts so far and some of our table and a home made terrain piece.

The mini's are my most recent efforts. Not because I dot want to share my initial fumbles but because we are away from home and these are all I have access to photos of at the moment. I'll post some retro ones later so I can how my improvement.

I am going for a theme with my Night gobbo's. They are going to be Da Grotz of da Purple Moon tribe. So far I have decided on purple warpaint and tattoo's. Purple moons on the shields and banners. I am tossing up with purple and white checks but I'm not sure I'm game. I might go for a coloured hood on some models not sure yet.

Some orcs are on the way including Big Bad Warboss Xam Dreadhowl mounted on a boar. They will be from da warband Dreadhowl's Howlers and I have and idea for a banner with a red and white diamond pattern and a screaming Orc face in profile.

Anyway on to the pics.

Squig Hoppers

As you can see he's not quite done yet. I still have the base to flock and some highlights to do on the gobbos hood etc. I am thinking a gloss coat finish for the squig to make him look oily and matt for the Gob and base. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out.


Not so happy with this guy. I may redo the squig's orange and find a better colour than yellow for highlights

Rock Lobba

This was a work of patience. I started the unit at the end of Feb. and finished it about a week ago. Though a lot of that time I was not working on it. The Lobba itself took a week or so at round an hour every two days. The crew took two weeks and I worked for about an hour a day on them. I'm pretty happy but I dont think I am getting the highlights right.

Fanatic

This guy on the other hand took about 4 hours. I still have to paint the cauldron and greenstuff rocks and the base but he's close to finished. I cant get the hang of drybrushing. I used it for the highlights on his cloak. Basically I made a mess all over him and then painted over what I didn't want to get the fine lines around the edges and raised bits.

Terrain

This hill is made from newspaper and plaster mesh. It didn't quite come out as planned. The newspaper needed to be packed tighter and use of more craftwood for the top and step sections might have helped. Also the step is a little small. The front is painted up as a rocky cliff face and not quite finished. The whole thing needs some touch ups and highlights.

Game Table

Here's our table at the moment. We have a couple of small forest features, trees laying down in this shot. The bases needed some repair work. The tree bottoms had fallen out.

The future

And here is the rest of my horde waiting for cleaning, glueing and painting. This is going to take some time. I want to treat each mini as a chance to improve. I am aiming for higher than tabletop standard and want to have a go at more and more advanced techniques. This box is 90 odd chances to be that bit better each time.

When I get home I will take some better pics. I'll also try and do a bit of step by step stuff. My next project is some spider riders. The squig's above looked wierd for a few days. I undercoated them mostly white except for the mouths, eyes, ears and Gobbo clothes which were black. They looked like the mimes from hell before I started on the colours.

Hope you enjoy and all comments and crits welcome.

Cheers
Stew eh... er... ah... Xam dat is

[Paiant Slapah]

YAY!!! PURPLE!!!
My favorite color.
I am looking forward to seeing Da Grotz of da Purple Moon tribe grow.

Looks like you have a lot of stuff painted already. Looking good.
And I must commend you on your hill, a massive piece of work.
Only C & C I can offer is continue working on highlights, and (I'm looking at the rock lobber crew on this) try to keep the base and edges neater/cleaner.

Keep up the good work and keep us updated.

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Thanks Paiant,

I seem to end up with bits of grit on the sides of my bases no matter how tidy I am with the glue. I should probably scrape them off the finished models and repaint the sides that would be an improvement. I seem to have managed tidier so far with the fanatic pictured.

A lot of what is on the table is my sons work. The skull pass gobbos are his and wont fit in with my theme. I'll use em for now until I get through my box set and am able to get to some more purple moon boyz. I have twenty to do there. But I want to end up with a hndred or so evetnually.

He likes to experiment with coulours, on the gobbos at least. His stunties seem pretty uniform. He did a really good job on that cursed flaming anvil and his hell blaster. The giant on the table is his too. He rushed through that one a bit.

I'll be happy if I can get one or two models a week to the stage the fanatic and squig hoppers are.

I am not sure wheter to assemble then paint or paint the parts and then assemble. I notice in your blog you are painting your orcs in bits. I might have to try your system. Though I am pretty happy in the improvement in my brush control which might make painting a fully assembled model a bit easier.

I will keep working on those highlights and go back and clean some bases up.

Cheers

Xam

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Hi,

Just got home and I have access to some photos of other models (well kind of).

First up is the Orc Bully from my Lobba. He was my best paint job prior to the purple squig hopper above.


Next are another couple of hoppers that were my best prior to doing the bully.



I did a few stunties and Gobbos (including the BFSP Goblin Bigboss and pet squig) before these but I have no pics yet. I will take some more and put them up soonish.

As I said above I want to take pics through the painting process for a few models as I do them. Hopefully if I'm not doing things the most efficient way then you guys will point it out and I can correct my ways.

So on the bench I have

To finish
Purple Squig Hopper - Basing and some improvements to the cloak highlights. Some gloss on the squig itself? Matte for the rest as a sealer.

Orange Squig - Probably repaint the Squig hide (I think it sux at the mo), Teeth and claws, tidy up the cloak. I am considering adding a purple and yellow check band to this ones hood making him my first Purple Moon lad. Him cause I dont want to stuff the purple one and this will be my first go at checks. The base. Sealing as above.

Fanatic - Tossing up warpaint in purple on one side of his face. Also doing the purple and yellow check on the muffler across his mouth (probably not though). Paint and grass the base. Matte sealer except for a blood spatter on the back of the ball which will get gloss.

Up next.
10 Spider Riders. I plan to do the spiders first separate from the Gobbos. I have a couple of colour schemes in mind (No purple here yet).

Then.
Another fanatic is on its base and under coated ready to go.
The third one from the box is being done by my wife.
20 Black Orcs one or two command groups not sure here. I'mnot even sure that these guys will ever see the table except at home against stumpies.
35 Orc Boyz. I am thinking choppa and shield. Also maybe two command groups.
20 Night Gobbos.
A boar chariot and crew
Warboss or BSB on foot
Warboss or BSB on boar. I will leave the bosses until last so they get my best job.

Thats on the bench.
I am going to keep my eye out for the metal fanatic models and snap some up. I prefer the poses on these to the plastics. More Hoppers too. You might have noticed I like squiggys

Once I have that job lot done I want to get more Orc Boyz, More Gob's night and common, a doom diver, a couple of spear chukkas and some Savage Orcs probably boar boyz ones. Oh and I like the Arrer Boyz models too.

I think I am going to have to play these guys unpainted for a while and maybe even not fully assembled. I dont like the idea at all. But I also dont want to wait the months I think the painting will take to play against more experienced players. And the painting is going to take a while. I can only spare an hour or two a day and I want to really work hard on each one and learn some of the painta's art as I am going.

Anyway hope you guys like the pics. More to come.

Cheers

Xam

[warhamsterdaveuk]

Xam,

Firstly, great start on the army. Loks like you and your boy are haveing agraet time.

Don't worry about your early painting efforts, they are much better than my eary models and better than some of the guys I game against.

I would like to offer some tips and advice if I may.

Only paint when you want to, not when you feel you have to.

Never paint when you have had a beer or three, I learnt this the hard way.

Keep a note of the colours you are using, this will help to keep the theme running through all your models.

Don'tbe scared to over highlight as you can make a dilute of your base colour to tone it back down. Or, paint it lighter than you want and tone it down by shading/washing/glazing.

Vary the models you are painting so as to not get board with one type, 20+ NG's can become a chore.

Look at others work for inspiration and ask questions about techneques they have used.

Remember that any model will look a bit rough up close (unless you are a pro or have sold your soul) but it is how they look on the table that realy matters.

Dave

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Thanks for the compliments Dave.

I really like painting and have not yet found it to be a chore. Mind you there have been times when vegging on the playstation happened instead of painting. But the same thing happens with writing and guitar practice. Wish it could happen for work too.

I have a theme in mind for my gobbo's it will involve a lot of purple and some yellow. I haven't got any on these guys as i didn't want to ruin the job I had done. So I'll practice on some rank and file guys until I have it right and maybe come back to them. I did try some purple tats on the gobbo on the purple squig. They came out ok but could be better.

I did the caulfron on the fanatic above last night over a bourbon and coke but it was only one. Oh yeah and the cauldron came out pretty well. I took some pics this morning but they were a bit dark and the focus was not right so no post sorry.

I also redid the orange squig cause it just plain sucked. I plan on finishing these guys before I head to Brisbanane on Tuesday for work and will post the final pics once done.

I dont like the idea of playing with an unpainted army much. But I went to the local club tonight and they dont seem to mind (most guys there were doing it) So I may well spend a week or two putting all my guys together next. This will give me a wide variety to choose from for painting projects. I have Orc Boyz, Black Orcs, Night Gobbo's, Fanatics, a boar chariot and Warbosses to get through.

I love looking at well painted models. It gives me something to aim for. I also love the fact that the guys here are so willing to share their methods. Its a great way to learn.

My aim is to improve so that my models do stand up to the ultra close macro shots. Each little thing that isn't quite right in these shots is an area for possible improvement. I will be keeping the old models pretty much as they are (maybe adding some theme stuff) so I can see my improvement.

Cheers

[GRIMZAG BLOODTHUG]

Good looking stuff who have got there. Better than my early stuff.

The only advice I will add is never repaint any of you earlier models. This acts a great reminder to yourself and your opponents etc. how much you have progressed in the painting stakes.

Although at times it will pain you to see the extent you have progressed when one of the first units you painted are on the battlefield next to your latest.

Keep up the good work.

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Hi,

I have some more pics. First up some minis from before I started cleanin mold lines and before I learned about thinning paints. They look awful now. Mind you I am pretty happy with the squig's eyes on the Big Boss mini. And the hood dags.

Goblin Big Boss BFSP


Gobbos - My first two efforts (nasty mold lines)


A departure to the dark side - A Stunty and his toy


Alright now putting the past behind us. I have done a bit more work on the fanatic and the orange hopper.

The fanatic - I painted the base and the green stuff rocks. I did the cauldron (didn't get the mold line real clean here either, actually there is one on his wrist that I thought I had cleaned off well that stands out badly now its painted). Also did some nails on his left hand. The thumb had one on it in the sculpt that I forgot and then it lokked dicky without them on the two visible finger ends even though they are sculpted. This sculpt is crap really (even in this NOOB's opinion). There is a nasty undetailed section under the left arm where arm and rope meet. I painted the arm right up to the rope but it looks way to thick. The only good thing about it really is the cool head. Photo two shows my first attempt at gore. I have bought some of the metal fanatics (6) and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. He has since had a gloss coat. Will be covering him mostly in matte tomorrow (liquid in cauldron and gore will be left glossy).


Orange Squig Hopper - This guy's hide got a recoat (3 actually) and some dark orange shading and light orange highlights. I also redid the eye's making them light blue rather than yellow. Then I added some green spots. The rear photo shows my effort at a bleached bone coloured underbelly. I used this to learn a bit before repeating on the pruple hopper above (this wasn't repainted). I'll get some photos of that one once I have him finished completely. This orange guy still needs his base flocked and the gobbo claws and teeth on both done. Oh yeah sorry about the lense flare.


I was amazed going back to take photos of my first few that I haven't painted more. Out of my son's BFSP set the stunty, cannon, gobbos and big boss are all I have done. He and my wife have done most of the rest. That the four hoppers and Rock Lobber and crew are it. Oh well I have another 90 or so from the army box for further practice and soon six more fanatics.

Next up the final of the Orange and Purple hoppers and of the Fanatic. Then onto assembling most or all of the army box so that I have a heap to choose from for future painting projects.

Oh yeah camera settings. I use macro in natural light. I use full manual mode on the camera and the smallest apeture setting. Picks are taken on tripod with the mini about 5 - 10cm from the lense. I guess the lighting could be improved its a problem with taking shots in the morning or late afternoon (my only opportunities lately).

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Cheers

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Hi,

Another update.

I finally finished this fanatic. Aside from some mould lines I miss I am really happy with the result, eps. the liquid in the cauldron and the black lining on his arms.




I also made a start on building my first unit of Orc Boyz. The photo on the left is of the ladz blutacked up to organise their ranks. There are 15 in here so far. I will add some more later on. The one on the right is a grunt the standard and boss from the fron row. The grunt is fully assembled but not stuck to his base. The standard and boss both need arms glueing but they screen bits of the body and face so I will do this once those bits are painted.



Cheers

[Paiant Slapah]

Nice looking work. The updated hopper and fanatic are looking good. I am really digging the liquid in the cauldron.

I can certainly feel your enthusiasm for the hobby through this blog.

I agree with warhamsterdaveuk's tips and advice. I learned many of the same things while going through the BfSP set.

You should stake out some models for yourself, sounds like your wife and son are getting most of the fun. (Show us some pics of their work, if they don't mind.)

I look forward to seeing your orc regiment as it gets painted.

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Hi,

Here are some more pics.

The first few are my son's efforts

Watchtower


Giant

He did the belly tat free hand.

Organ Gun and Crew


Thorek Ironbrow and his Cheesey anvil (Note the forge was painted by my wife all characters and the anvil by my son)


The next few were all done by my wife

Stunties






Goblin Archer



Also my son found another spearman that I painted



Cheers

[baldy orc]

nice work.

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Hi,

Some more WIP pics of my first unit of Orc Boyz. These ones are just Boyz being Boyz.
These two are tangling in the second row just behind the champ and the standard bearer.






This is my first effort at a conversion. I've used the spear arms and cut the spears off at the fists on both these guys right hands. Long hair's left hand is one of the sheild arms. His right hand was cut off at the bracelet so I could rotate it into more of an uppercut position. Both need a bit of final positioning when I glue them to the base to get the pose looking right but are otherwise all glued up ready to paint, apart from long hair's sword which I'll glue on once it and he are painted. All the other Boyz in the unit have two weapons so Baldy gets to hold a dagger but has lost his other blade to long hair who has driven his spear into the ground in order to give baldy some biff. The spear needs some green stuff to finish off the shaft (I am using one of the ones I cut off). This will be my first effort at sculpting with green stuff (apart from a rock or two).

I'm looking forward to painting these guys. Hell I am just looking forward to some painting. I had planned on assembling the rest of my army box and then having heaps to choose from for painting projects. Trouble is it's taking me hours to get rid of the mould lines and I am dead sick of it. So I will probably finish of the guys in this unit and then paint them and another couple of hoppers I bought last week.

Thanks for looking and cheers.

[Kees (aka Ghenkadh)]

Well, those mold lines can be annoying indeed.
Sometimes before sleeping, I cut a few figures; when visiting my parents-in-law it comes in convenient to have some around cutting (my mother in law doesnt mind, she has her own hobbies - painting and making dolls, making postcards etc.) and when there is a vacation I don't leave without some figures. Just fill in the little freetime I have...
Cheers,
Kees

[Xam Dreadhowl]

Hi Kees,

Spare time is a premium for me I have four kids and two under five. I have been hitting the boyz in this unit every evening (well the ones where I have a chance) and have started to fly through them. I got 3 done in a couple of hours last night and have only five more to go of this lot. There are still 10 spiders, 20 black orcs, 20 orcs, 19 goblins, a chariot, warboss on boar and BSB to do.

I plan on going back to painting once this unit is all clean. I will probably spend a half hour of my evening sessions cleaning 1 model and then the rest of the time painting. That should just about keep me in models to paint.

I'll keep battling away.

Cheers