Alright, I'm kinds just burning time here while I wait for the new models to arrive. Bikes, Trukks and Shokk Attack Guns - Oh My! The holidays are over so I can start devoting a little more time to army painting. I'm starting to fill some points out with a Big Gunz unit. I figure I'll just paint up one set of crew grots with an extra grot for each, then I'll paint up a squad of 3 each (lobbas, kannons and zzap guns).

Here's the crews all ready for their newly painted big gunz.
...

I went through my army list recently and found I have 6 extra poitns to spend (how did that happen?) so I chose to add a Grot Oiler for the Big Mek. As most ork players do, I havea ton of grot models - both plastic, second edition and 1st/3rd/4th edition metals. I dug through the collection a pulled this one out.

He's carrying a huge wrench that will most likely be used more as a hammer than a bolt tightener. At first I figured I'd speed paint him just to get him outta da way since I didn't think it was that great of a sculpt but as I was painting his skin tones, his character really started to come out. I decided to take a little more time and do him right and here's where he stands now. He really looks beleaguered and downtrodden - perfect for the job. You can almost hear him panting and wheezing.
...

I promised new photos when I was done (and brought home the good camera) and here they are. Stormboy Nob, Big Shootas, and the Killer Kans Squadron. Eagle eye viewers will note the missing rokktis on the black kan. I was missing it until today - my bad. Click Kans pic for larger one.

The other pics are of my tournament force for this coming weekend. 1850 points of pure Waaagh! Click on the pic for larger waaagh shot.

...

 I finished off the second Killer Kan last night (except I forgot the handle in the top hatch - arg) and now I'm on to the third one. I find myself rushing a bit since I feel pressed for time before the tournament (in two weeks). I know, two weeks is a lot of time for some, but those who are older, full-time jobs, families, snow removal duties, etc. know that it can be incredibly short when looking for hobby time.

I used the pastel chalks to finish up the "dirty" panels of white and things runed out alright. Again, I find myself having issues with scale when trying the same techiques on these miniatures that I used to use on larger military models. I'll get the hang of these too over time. ...

I made progress this weekend on the "white" Kan. I feel like I'm closer to what I'm looking for on the worn, white panels but not there yet. I think I need to tint it with the   pastels/pigments. I'm not sure why I'm hesitant to just do a wash.  I think it might be that I know I can remove all of the pigments powder without affecting the paint underneath if I don't like the results, then start over. A wash would be harder to recover from.

I'm hoping for a popup laundry basket for Christmas this year. Why? For taking photos in. When shooting WIP's, the lighting (for photography) is garishly harsh and can change things when it hits the "film". The rivets, which photograph as white "points" across the model are in fact a metallic and the whites of the model still come off as too bright in comparison to real life. The shine from the washes and inks are also amplified. This little laundry "box" makes for a nice, stowable, soft box to help diffuse the bright painting lights.
...

I've started the second Kan in my Killer Kans squadron. This one is based on a Dreadnought I saw on ebay once (dang, wish I would have saved the image!). The main color scheme was a dark red and dirty white with metallics and was pretty cool, in my book. The idea I'm going for here is not one of extreme weathering and detailing, just looks like it's been cobbled together from old panels.

At this point I'm not entirely happy with the results on the feet. The killer kan feet are notoriously bad casts and I wish my sculpting skills were better (and I had more time). Part of me wonders if I'm rushing and doing a sloppy job, I don't rightly know yet. I'm going to leave as is though and move on. I'm almost embarrassed to show these pics but this is part of my process, and aI want to show the bad parts too.
...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I finally sat down and forced myself to start back up on the killer kan mob for Red Jack. This one is the "Eavy Metal Killa Kan. This one is mostly steel and brass with some red panels attached for the glyphography (a real word?)

This took most of a day to accomplish, on and off throughout. I'm learning the GW metallics thin very well, and very thin too! I'll post more later and update you on the finishign and basing of the Kommando Big Shootas and the Stormboy Nob....

I seemed to have gotten a bit more time to paint this weekend and took good advantage of it. The next models in my mini hopper are the Big Shoota Kommandos. I plan to use them to support shootas more than Kommandos though.

I'm really liking the "painting on metallics" instead of the dry-brushing technique and feel that it really gives my orks much more character. I've yet to finish the hand-held ammo belt and the backpacks - that should come later this week as I have a 4-day weekend coming up (yeah!) and should be able to finish up these two and base them along with my recently finished Stormboy Nob.
...

I said the next post would be of the finished Stormboy Nob, and it is. Along with freaking out and speeding up the end process when doing a mini, I also get apprehensive about the quality of work, second guessing if it's going to look at least as good as the last one. When it's all said and done though, I always forget it was like this the last time too.

When I'm nearing the end of a model there's a lot of shine from things like inks, glazes, and washes that make certain (read: bad) things stand out. That, and forgetting every time I rely somewhat on the Testors Dullcote to do a bit of smoothing on my transitions. Not that I do silky smooth transitions, yet.
...

I've started work on my Stormboy Nob. I usually start with the head, gives me something to look at, a character referece if you will, while I paint the rest of the model. The face is the most important part of a model and if it doesn't impart the character of the model, it just won't work. This one does, in my book. GRRRR!

Last time I primed (white) and base colored the face area with GW Foundation Paint Orkhide Shade and washed the teeth in Chaos Black.

I finished the teeth and gums after last nights photos and is shown here....