Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 9)

Joe reporting in yet again!  I'm here to show you some more paint that I've been slinging recently with another 3 models from my Regiment.  Some Orc Boy'z and a Goblin Wolf Rider.

Oops, you see; in my haste to keep working on the project I actually got a fair distance into basecoats and the first washes before I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of this group yet.  So here they are before I started layering.

Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 8)

So I've finished assembling my Regiment of Renown and I've finally come down to the painting stages. I'm quite excited about getting into this part of the process. I've purchased every green paint GW makes so that I can experiment with multiple green color schemes on my Orcs as I don't plan on having them all a single color. I feel it will add to the mob variety and the army will look better because of it. I could of course be wrong and they might look terrible; but I rather doubt that.  So let's begin shall we.  First a quick look at my guys and then the paints I'll be using.

 Hooray black primer!

And here are the multitude of greens I'll be using.  For these first 3 models that I'll be working on in this article I'm actually only using three of these paints; but I'll get to the others.  While I don't bother to show the rest of the paints I use I do tend to use rather limited numbers of other colors to help me stick with a unifying scheme.  Even though they wont all have those same colors in the same places I think it will overall help pull the units together.

Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 7)

Basing Schemes – Cork Work

So I’ve begun the basing work on the Regiment.  First job was to pick some cork.  Believe it or not there are actually a lot of options for cork.  Some have bigger grain, some are smaller.  Then you have to choose the thickness which can range from anything a couple 1/8’s of an inch to usually about 1/2” at the larger end.   I wanted the models to be a little taller because of the look I really wanted to go for with these and so I went with 3/16” cork.  (I wanted ¼” but couldn’t find any while I was looking.)  I ended up going for medium grain since a large grain would fall apart in larger chunks and the fine seemed like it was unnecessary.

Speaking of the look that I want to go for, let’s go over that.  I wanted to have these guys on open grass type terrain.  However with the cork, I want that to look like the earth under the grass which means I wanted it to be thick enough that the grass on top wouldn’t obscure it to where you can’t see it.  The final decision on cork was made because nearly 99% of the army is plastic and this means it won’t be hard to pin or glue to the cork itself whereas an all metal army would be terrible try this with.

Here is the first experimented base work for one of the Orc Boyz.

So now you see what I’m going for.  Except imagine of course that everything gets painted and flocked at some point along with models attached.  You’ll see what I’m going for soon enough if you keep an eye on the blog in a couple weeks when I drop the next post.  Hopefully I'll have begun the painting process by then.  I'm getting excited to keep working!

Da Burna Boy'z!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Rise of Legends; Ryan G; Part 3

Howdy all,
      It's the end of the month, so that means it's time for a Rise of Legends update. To start, I ended up changing my regiment. It seems that most people are going with a 6-10 troops, so I wanted to try a more elite type list. I took an all cavalry list that I feel is still balanced. Here it is:

Dragon Prince
      - Champ upgrade
      - Enchated Shield
      - Luckstone
      - Potion of Foolhardiness

Silver Helm
      - Dashing Cloak of Heroic Renown

Silver Helm
      - Steel Lined Cloak

Ellyrian Reaver
      - Bow
      - Last Chance

As you can see it is very few models, but I am relying on armor saves to keep them around.

       Next, I got a little bit of hobbying done and mostly completed 3 out of 4 model bases.

      I used random wood chips that I "borrowed" from work to give them a rocky or mountainous look. I am very please with how they came out, and once I get the models on them, I am also going to try flocking snow on them as well.
      Finally, I finished up one of the Silver Helm horses. I have come to the conclusion that I am going to be hard pressed to get all four of these models done even though I have until November. Just not enough hours in the day for me at this point. That being said, I copped out and have not done any conversions so far, and I am not sure I am going to. I am hopeing that he basing and painting will be good enough to make up for that.

There you go. Progress is being made, but it is certainly slow progress. See ya next month.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 6)

Basing Schemes

So here I stand on the brink of basing.  Having completed the modeling portion of my group I now have to figure out a basing scheme.  One of the things I wanted to do is make them really scenic and dynamic so that they add a lot to the models.  However, I have to remember that I will eventually incorporate these into a larger Orc & Goblin army later this year and I don’t want to make something so overly complicated that I can’t recreate it months from now or so complicated I don’t want to recreate it 150 more times before eventually finishing my army.

I’ve done a number of different basing schemes on my armies that I already own.  To help me think about I’ve charted what I’ve done and some pro’s/con’s of them.  I’ve also taking a picture of some models from each army below for examples.

Dwarfs - Painted Sand with Static Grass

• Pro: Paint to whatever color wanted, points for dual textures
• Con: Time Consuming, pretty standard or common

Skaven - Painted Cobblestone Bases

• Pro: Matched a theme I wanted, looked different
• Con: Lost points for no texture, very time consuming

Empire - Stained wood planks, Painted Sand with Static Grass

• Pro: Unique and different, matched the them I wanted, looked cool
• Con: Lost points for mismatching bases, very time consuming, must pin all models to planking

Bretonnia - Single Powder Flock with Static Grass

• Pro: Quick and easy
• Con: Personally disappointed with look in the end

So looking through here there’s a couple I can easily toss out.  I really was disappointed in the powder flock on the Bretonnia army.  I’ve seen people use this flock before and make it look good; but I just didn’t like it so I will very likely not be using it ever again.  Also, the bases of my Skaven which I painted cobblestone to match the theme I wanted took a long time to paint all the lines for the stones and even though I think it took just as long as any other form of basing I actually often lose out on paint points for having bases without texture so I won’t be duplicating that.

That leaves me down to painted sand with statics and something overly unique like stained wood, etc…  I’ve seen some very nice bases done by many people that combine either of these techniques.  Honestly I’d like to try some Jim Wappel type basing with carved bases from Sculpy and cork (pictured below) but that’s a bit overmuch for me.

Not only does it take a lot of effort; but a fair amount of investment in extra stuff.  I generally don’t like the look of bare/painted cork either.

Still, I think that cork is probably the direction I’ll be going with this army.  My plans for this Regiment (and eventual army) is to take everything I’ve been learning and have learned over the last 4 armies I’ve done is to make an army that will maximize my painting score regardless of the tournament I take them to.  This means, plenty of conversion work, repositioning, highlighting/shading, blending, intricate and unique basing.  This will make the army my opus I suppose but I’m looking forward to doing it and this Regiment is really pumping me up for it.  Look forward to see the future of my plans.

Da Burna Boy'z!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 5)

Joe checking back in here.  I haven't achieved much since my last post.  Frankly I'm at somewhat of an impasse as far as the models are concerned.  I really wanted to do a lot of converting, but I really lack the skill set for heavy sculpting talent.  As such you've seen pretty much everything I've done has been simple work.  Bits swapping, repositioning, adding small bits like bags, ropes and such.  I'd really like to do more; but now that I've mostly finished the models themselves I have to decide on a basing scheme.  I'm not really a fan of cork board bases, but I think I'll try it with these guys and see how it turns out.  Until I get to work on those bases though you can see what I've done recently below.

I realised that I hadn't yet made a guy with a flail for the 'Epic Flail' piece of Veteran Kit and so had to do that.  Using a number of Marauder Flails from an old Chaos army I once had the results are the guy below.

Also I added a stolen barrel of brew to the back of the Orc who I'd modeled carrying a torch.

Da Burna Boy'z!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 4)

So I’ve still been plugging away on the models happily now that I’m 100% settled on a list.  I keep talking more to Chuck and Ryan about the lists and I think this one will probably not perform as well as I could have made an O&G list using Savage Orcs but I went for fluff over effectiveness which in my opinion is what hobby is about to me.  Everybody gets what they want out of a hobby and while I enjoy fluff over competitiveness I know there are people who feel the other way.

Still, ignoring all of that, here are some pictures of the current works in progress.

Orc Boy #1 with Torch
Starting with my single pose model I cut and moved an arm while trimming down the chunk of his axe where his two choppas were at one point connected.  Having repositioned the arm I then took out the weapon and with a piece of an old Wood Elf Dryad I placed that in his hand to make a torch.  I used a piece from a banner pole out of an Orc or Goblin Chariot (I don’t remember which exact kit it came from) and some greenstuff to make the fire.  I added a shoulder pad to help ease the transition of the reposed arm and a rope to hold the shoulder pad on.

Orc Boy #2 with Big Bag
This single pose Orc I haven’t decided to do too much to yet.  I may change a weapon at some point but for now what I’ve done is add a big bag bit from an older edition Giant to his back.  Then I made a big rope to hold it over his shoulder.

Boar Boy with Club Wiv Nail In’
I’ve also done a little more continued work on this guy.  I gave him a spike over his shoulder and a small strap to attach it to his belt on his back.  I puttied in his belt pouch as well as added and filled in a 2nd bag on the other side of his belt.  I also decided to again add some shoulder pads here to ease the transition of his greenstuffed shoulders since these weren’t his original arms.

So there you can see the work I've been doing.  I've also begun trimming the mold lines from the other Boar Rider (My Leader) and I'll begin working on him soon.  So far I think they are turning out well and I'm looking forward to getting even more done.  I've also been trying to decide on color schemes for the unit.  I don't want to do all a single color of green for the skins so I'm thinking 3/4 different shades for them.  If anyone has recommendations for colors please drop me a line.  Thanks!


Da Burna Boy'z!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Ryan G; Rise of Legends Part 2

Hello again,

      Sad to say I do not have much to report this month on the modeling front. I have severely underestimated home much of your free time a 1 month old takes up. Anyway, I am getting more and more hobby time with each passing week. I have, however, gotten the models out of the box and now have them on my hobby desk so that I can see them everytime I walk by and can feel guilty for just keep on walking.

      I have not changed my list at all, but that is not to say that I won't. August should be a much better month for me, and I promise to get some progress done on some modeling, if not some painting as well. Sorry for the short post, but I'll make up for it by the time we are done.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Rise of Legends - Rat Ogre Kingdoms part 2

Rat Ogre Kingdoms - part 2

I've been struggling with basing concepts.   As this RoR is also going to be carried on to a full fledged army I need to have a workable basing / display base concept.

I really locked into wanting to do something with a sewer.  Alot of the images I found though were all narrow corridors and didn't really translate well to an army.

After spending a couple of hours pouring over google images I found some images from a Castlevania video game which really captured the look I wanted.  So the pic below is the inspiration and really gives me some good ideas on how to do a "large room" sewer theme.

With that in mind I set to work playing with a bit of styrofoam, some existing rat ogres from a friend, some minatures and bit of Castle Greyskull.  My goal for my RoR is to not only have the models but to create a story.  So this is a bit of a rough idea of a small bit of display.   I really like where this is headed and will let me do a lot of terrain elements as well as include some water features.  Really looking forward to working on this mini diorama and the models in the upcoming weeks!

I am also locking in my force as the following
Irongut - Leader
Ogre w/ AHW
Sabretusk
2 x Gnoblars

I've not yet gotten into working out which bits of veteran kit to use but it will be included!

Cheers,
Domus

Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 3)

So as I discussed in my last article I wrote up a Dogs of War entry for my group which I’ll link to in this article.  I’ve also begun work in earnest on the models themselves.  The first guy I started work on was the Boar Boy who has the Club Wiv a Nail In’ because that idea just stuck in me really fast exactly how I wanted him to look.  I also began work on the Wolf Rider too and moved on him pretty fast.

First up is the Boar Boy with the Veteran Kit Club Wiv a Nail In'

Second is the Goblin Wolf Rider

I had to mince together some weapon arms from other Orcs for the Boar Rider.  About 90% of the models I own for the O&G army I plan on building are 5th/6th edition single pose models which means I’m going to be doing a lot of chopping up during both this and that eventual project.  Still, I liked the look of the scale armor and the pouch on his belt since everyone is going to be carrying bags of ill gotten gains.

I also worked on the Wolf Rider; I wanted to give him more action to, so I cut the Wolf in half and put him back together to make it look like he’s jumping over a small bush.  I’m not sure what to do with the Boar Boy base yet though.

This is going to be a short post so here is the link to the DoW Entry for Da Burna Boyz!

Regiment of Renown - Da Burna Boy'z! (.pdf Version)
Regiment of Renown - Da Burna Boy'z! (.docx Version)

I’ve also included a link to the Microsoft Word Document in case anybody wants to use it as a template to create their own Regiment of Renown entry for fun.  I recommend it personally.  I think coming up with fluff and background is a great part of the hobby and can really help you get into the spirit of this type of project.

Da Burna Boy'z!
Part 1
Part 2

Rise of Legends - Da Burna Boy'z (Pt. 2)

Good day everyone,

So since the first post I’ve gathered my models and all but finalized my list for better or worse and am now getting more into the fluff of the army.  The list is:

Gorgut Necksplitter
-Orc Boar Boy – Leader, Shield, Dragonhelm, Gold Sigil Sword

Gorbad Brainbasha
-Orc Boar Boy – Dog of War, Shield, Club Wiv a Nail In’

Shoota Stick-eye
-Orc  Arrer Boy – Dog of War, Hand Crafted Ammo

Crusha Backbreaker
-Orc – Dog of War, The Epic Flail, Big ‘Un

Nabba
-Orc – Extra Hand Weapon

Stompa
-Orc – Extra Hand Weapon

Basha
-Orc – Extra Hand Weapon

Weedo
-Goblin Wolf Rider – Shortbow, Shield, Spear

I’ve changed my list quite a bit since I last wrote.  I didn’t like the idea of the low Armor Save on the Black Orc so made a Boar Boy the leader because I could easily armor him up to a 2+.  Also I upgraded this guy to a Champion because I really, really wanted the extra attack.  I think 15 points is awfully expensive for that, but I still chose to go this route.  Then I wasn’t satisfied with 18” bows so I dropped a Wolf Rider and added an Arrer Boy for the range.

With that hammered out, I decided to start choosing names for the models.  I decided if you weren’t big and bad then you didn’t get two names because only the biggest and baddest Orcs can demand others call them by proper names.  All of my Orcs names in some way or another basically represent violence.  The only exception to this is Nabba who is going to be the Orc carrying the Pig.  He likes to nab things.  The Goblin who is too weak to earn a second name, was given a disdainful name more like a pet.

I debated on naming my Boars as well, but chose not to.  My plan currently is to write up a piece of background fluff for the unit basing it off of the old Dogs of War entries from their army book in 5th which usually listed a piece of background story, a list of named guys, special items/rules, etc… and then a company motto or battle cry.  As below:

I’m getting rather excited about it all now and now that I’m starting the conversion and construction process I’m looking quite forward to getting these guys put together.  I’m still not certain of basing schemes to use.  I wanted to go super fancy on them; but since these guys will end up one day in part of a much larger army I’m not sure what to do.  I guess I can worry about it later.  That’s all for now, hopefully your all still interested in what we’re doing on these articles and definitely keep an eye on the Blog to see some progression.

In the future articles that I write I will include links at the bottom so you can go backwards to see previous posts on my Regiment in case you forget something or you jump into this whole shin dig late and have missed some posts.

Da Burna Boy'z!
Part 1

Rise of Legends: Ryan G: High Elves

Hey Gang,

       My name is Ryan G, and I am playing Regiments of Renown! John has been nice enough to invite me to join this campaign project, and I appreciate the opportunity. If you have listened to the most recent Unstable Dice Podcast, you heard Joe F mention that he would ask his buddy Ryan to join this campaign to give us an even number. Well, that is me. I have been playing Fantasy off and on for the past 15ish years. You can also hear me a bit coming up on future episodes of the Waaaghcast with Joe F.

      For the RoR, I have chosen to do High Elves. I narrowed it down to either High Elves or Wood Elves, but considering that I already have enough High Elves sitting in a box, and no Wood Elves in sight, it made my decision even easier.

My tentative force list is:

Pheonix Guard – Leader

Spearman

Spearman

Silver Helm

Silver Helm

Shadow Warrior

      The current idea is to do a winter theme for them. I have always liked the look of well done snow bases, but have never tried it myself so thought this would be a great opportunity. The army force choices were completely made due to background/theme, and models that I already have. I purposely took some duplicate model choices to force myself to do some conversion work to make them look different. I know the Shadow Warrior is not a very good choice because you can’t Scout in RoR, but I like the model and like the theme. A brief background is that my force is chasing a Dark Elf Assassin into Naggarorth for retribution for killing the High Elf King and Queen. Because of the assassination of the King and Queen, the princess, now Queen, does not have the time to deploy an entire army so she is sending a elite scouting force to snuff out this assassin.

       Anyway, I am really looking forward to doing this, and because it is only 6 models, I can really put some time and effort into these and do the best I can. Only the Shadow warrior is metal, so the rest of the models will hopefully have some small conversions to them due to them being plastic.

Take care,

Ryan G