Da Orks...

I thought I would roll things off for my next few blogs by taking a look at some of my existing armies and getting folks feedback. First up our my Speed Freek Orks for 40K.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a tendency to build and paint an army, play it in a tournament or two and then sell it off and start over. Not my Orks. They have sentimental value beyond their true cost (I believe they would fetch a good penny if I did decide to part with them). Their story starts while my dad was going through chemo. I would go with him for his weekly treatments and we started to discuss my next 40K army. Eventually we fell on the Speed Freeks. We discussed options and looks for all of the bikers, nobs, riders, conversions, etc. In the end, you get the army you see above at 1850 points. (My dad is still going strong after 2 bouts of cancer and chemo in the past 4 years, so the army keeps rolling on too).

Some of the interesting facts about this army to consider (at least to me).... it took 5 weeks of planning (after selecting the army with my dad), laying out each bike, rider, and buggy. It then took 5 weeks to paint the whole force (in was in preparation for a local GT). The army consist of 44 bikers and 3 skorchas. Every single bike is different and every rider is different. There are no duplicates at all throughout the force.

I figure I will post some photos of my favorite riders and significant models of the force throughout other future posts (wait until you see "Need for Speed", "Indiana Jones","ATV", "Scout", "Star Wars Speeder bike", "Gobbos Revenge" and many others). So to start with, I give you Wazdakka Gutsmek, the army general and reason I can take 3 units of 12 bikers as troops. The Dakkakannon is converted from 4 IG autocannons (it is strength 8, 4 shots after all), and he has the wicked power claw/buzz saw. The trophy skull is from the Helcannon model.

Next up is the army's Warboss. This bad boy allows the unit of Nobz to also count as Troops. It's nice to have everyone count as troops for most games. One thing you will notice in the army is that all the big orks (Nobz and HQ models) have head trophies on the fronts of their bikes to help show they are the toughest. Our Warboss had the pleasure of ripping the head of a visiting Carnifex to add as a trophy. His power klaw helped a little bit in the fight.

I actually enjoy painting the checkerboards, so you will see this on many of my models.

Enjoy! I will soon be posting details for this year's local Games Day Event (December 10th).

First post

Wow, what to start with. I guess I will mention a bit about the hopes for this blog. I have been a GW gamer for a very long time. Started back in high school in '87. I then got out of it for a bit while in college and then got rolling with it again in '97. I mostly enjoy the games in the following order: Warhammer Fantasy, Aeronautica Imperialis, Battlefleet Gothic, Blood Bowl and Warhammer 40K.

I plan to mainly have this blog focus on  my painting of miniatures whether for my own armies or as various commissions. The Space Marines shown at the top started as my own force, Dragon Watch, and soon doubled in size as a commission army for a gentleman in Canada.

Those who know me are aware that I generally paint an army, play it for a short time and then sell it off. I use the money made to purchase the next army and various other items of fun and repeat the process. I rarely hold an army for too long. This means though that I have a tendency to create, buy, and paint an army in about 5-10 weeks. I will then go for months without touching another miniature.

That's were the next part of the blog will come in, talking about the hobby, my beliefs, tournaments that I run or play in, and just general talking points to things that interest me. I hope everyone enjoys and follows along.... first up... a picture of a Blood Bowl Minotaur that I painted on commission (1st wave). I am posting it to make my self complete the second wave of this commission work for a Chaos Dwarf team. I have been sitting on 10 minis to complete (his sideline and special characters), the patron has been extremely generous on a time frame for completion, work has dampened my painting schedule.