The Badlands

Finally got around to painting the nob with powerclaw for the warboss's retinue.  I've also been just painting some standard slugga boyz, but they're nothing unique so I won't bother to post pictures.

I've been in a bit of a painting rut the past couple of months, but I have been converting a few things.  Here's a converted slaver from the Avatar of War series and a nob designed as part of the Warboss's retinue.

Here's a work in progress shot of the mega armor warboss I eluded to in the guestbook recently.  I'm still working on the head (didn't want to use thraka head).

In the second picture you can see, I'm thinking of putting a grot hanging off his back.  Not sure if it distracts too much though, so if anyone has an opinion either way, make yourself heard in the guestbook section.

I've been working on a few small things (literally) like wargear for the Warboss and his retinue.  Stuff like a Waaagh Banner and an Ammo Runt.  These aren't the best picture, but its been raining/sleeting basically all the time for the past few days so deal with it.

Here's a more up to date picture of the warboss, he now has a proppa choppa.  Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, especially the OT crew.

Hey its not like I needed another warboss, but damn it, I couldn't help it.  I've been kicking around the idea of doing a small ork force themed on ard boyz and other ard/stompy stuff, like lots of dreads and kans, etc.  Well you can't have an ard work force, without an ard leader, so here comes the brute warboss.  He's not done, however, he needs a big axe head and some further painting, but hopefully this photo gives you a feel for him.  There's a normal slugga boy next to him to give you a size comparison.  He's one of the larger warbosses I've done.  And like most of my recent conversions, he got bitz from all over the place and I even had to do a fair amount of greenstuff sculpting, though some of its fairly crude.  If you have a good idea for an axe head let me know.  I think it will need to be plastic (due to the way I have him converted, I don't think it support a big heavy slab of metal), which really limits my options.  

And the new warboss next to standard warboss.

 I realize the updates have been slow the last month or so, but this is the busiest time of the year as far as my job goes and the holidays have also cut into my hobby time (having a few Thanksgivings and Christmas each).  Anyway, I've begun work on a few ork pirates.  Here's a couple of WIP progress shots of the conversions.  None of the heads are attached yet.  These guys have been converted from a wide variety of bitz.

He's a couple of misc. minis I was able to paint up.  The first is a converted ork boy sitting indian style (its hard to tell, but I did quite a bit of greenstuff work on him.  His torse is greenstuff with bitz added).  He'll be incorporated into mektown at some point (his base will likely be removed).  The squig hasn't been converted at all, just painted.  Might use this as an attack squig, but I'm not sure yet.  I'll paint up a few squigs and whichever looks the most menancing will become part of the warboss's retinue.

Fear not Grandma's Grot, I have not failed to come up with something new this week.  I completed a mek with KFF (similar style to the big mek with KFF I did last month), a skarboy, three slugga boyz, and another skarboy is almost done (still needs a slugga).

Having a bit a fun with the dread, I decided to go ahead and pull out two of the three kans that I've had collecting dust for the past a year or two.  Officially kans only come with one arm, but I don't like the unbalanced look of just one arm so I went with two for each and added the eavy shootas on the end one arm to keep it game legal.  I'm still trying to decide on what to do with the third.

I know it's appeared quiet around here over the past couple of weeks, but I have been painting stuff.  Mostly its been fairly stock stuff though, like regular slugga boyz (hey you can never have too many).  I have, however, been mixing in the occassional skarboy and today I'm wrapping up a slightly converted ork dreadnaught (still needs another heavy shoota).

Here's a converted big mek.  The only parts from the official big mek are portions of the custom forcefield which I heavily modified.  I'm pretty happy with the conversion which went very quickly for me.  I assembled and did the green work yesterday afternoon and then painted him this morning.  I also painted a couple of grots as well, that's why they're in the picture too.

Here's a prototype for an ard boy.  My thought is to use a mixture of these burna boy heads (with iron gobs) and the black orc heads to give the squad some variety.  I've used the legs from the orc command sprue because they have armored knee pads.  Both the arms on this one have been converted.  One is from the chaos mutation sprue and the other is a regular ork arm, but I added the wrist guard (also from the orc command sprue).  

Well my official hobby vacation has begun and will run through the end of this week.  I hope to get lots of stuff done and should be adding pictures to the site as time permits.  Today I started strong with a painboss and his grot orderly.

Both of these minis have some conversion work.  The painboss is based on the new big mek, but I converted both arms (the chainsaw hand is my favorite part), substituted a menancing head and did some other minor stuff, like changed his necklace.  The grot's right arm was repositioned and the left arm was converted so he can help his boss with surgeries.

Here's the latest conversions I've been working on.  A digga (might serve as digganob) and well equipped ork I tried to give a very dynamic pose.

Here's the same ork mostly painted up.  He needs a litte touch up, but he's done.  Unfortunately, this is the only painting I've gotten done over the past week or so, "The Spire" project (see Allies and Enemies) have got me sort of side-tracked while I wait for some supplies to arrive before I can start my next section on Mektown.

Here's my take on the new Big Mek.  I rarely go with only stock parts, so I converted a new head it give a more crazy, high-tech look.  The hardest part was sculpting the neck from green stuff (can't see it in the picture).  The rest is how the mini normally comes.  I'd been on the fence about buying this mini.  Don't get me wrong, I liked the sculpt from the start (even the original head), but with a $17 price tag I wasn't sure I was willing to pay this amount.  Well lucky for me, the local shop had him priced at his original price $13, with the standard 10% off.  I couldn't resist.

Here's a Paint in Progress for the new kommando nob just released from GW.  Of course I didn't go with the standard parts, I substituted the head and arm for some other bitz.  I really like his pose, like he's sitting on a vehicle waiting for it get close enough to the enemy so he can go krumping.

Few orks are brave or foolhardy enough to enter the rad lands and return.  The radioactive debris is poisonous to even the stoutest ork and the lightning storms that erupt without warning on the open desert make short work of most vehicles within a week.  With his gas mask and squig mount, Orkran 99 has made it his profession to scour the rad lands for scrap and rare technology.  Because of this, he has even caught the attention of the some the most famous Meks of Mektown with the rare devices he brings into the market for teeth.

I'd been contemplating this conversion for a few months, but I was stumped on a good mount for the squig.  When I picked up the new ork kommando box set I thought this ork with the gas mask would make the perfect fit.  After a lot of repositioning and some green stuff, he's all ready for some paint.

Here's PIP of him.  I'm still trying to decide if the squig will have strips or markings on any kind.