Old, New, 'Borrowed' and Blue

"If we wasn't meant ta loot it, it wudn't be where we cud find it!" - Death Skull proverb

I mentioned in my last post that I had an old tank I wanted to kitbash into an Ork vehicle, but I didn't know what to do with it.

Well, I decided.

I had been considering using the model as a Looted Wagon, either with an overly large 'boomgun' or a transport deck for my Goffs to ride in. Both of these ideas would have involved a degree of construction on top of the tank.

However, after perusing my bits box I realised that I still had a bunch of pointless mounted weapons from the Land Raider Spartan, including a heavy flamer.

A quick bit of research in the 5th edition Ork Codex revealed that flames, tracks and a little bit of extra armour on a buggy sized model could result in something that would pass muster as a Skorcha.

My Skorcha began life as a 'Tank in a Tin', a small gift I was kindly given by Mrs Cheaphammer quite a few years ago.

Due to the fact that it was an American tank in 1/72 scale, there was no opportunity to use it in Bolt Action or Flames of War, and so it has sat unloved and alone, as the 12 soldiers got transferred to 101st Binbound Regiment.

I had contemplated using as the basis of a mechanical Daemon Prince or some kind of Mechanicus construct, but these ideas never took root.

However, removing the turret and replacing it with a hatch and pintel mounted heavy flamer from the Land Raider Spartan crew I had something that could conceivably be a PDF or Arbites armoured car that's been 'liberated' by the Orks for use as a Skorcha.

Given that the Death Skull clan are known for looting pretty much anything not nailed down, I went with a chipped blue paint scheme and added a few bits to make it a little more Orky: spikes, grinders, bull bars, etc. and an undead shield design that passes for a Death Skull glyph.

The gunner was cobbled together from a Gorkamorka body, a couple of 2nd edition arms, a bit of Leviathan foot as a shoulder pad and a head from the 1987 Fantasy Regiments plastic box that I still had.

I decided to add the stowage on the back for a several reasons: I wanted to break up the blue paint; I wanted to lean into the Death Skull theme and add stuff they've looted, and I felt the vehicle still looked too imperial.

All in all, I'm really pleased with a vehicle that has cost me nothing, but adds to my army with a bit of humour and narrative. It's about the same size as the Trukk I painted last week, so it's pretty much the right size too.

The only downside side is that it is more anti-infantry weapons, meaning that I'm still not well place to deal with the Imperial Guard tank that all of my potential opponents now own.

Leaning into the lucky blue of the Death Skulls seems to have rubbed off, as Mrs Cheaphammer revealed that for some reason she had a £10 voucher from Games Workshop which was about to expire. Therefore I rushed off to the webstore to spend it.

It's VERY hard to only spend £10 in this manner.

Ultimately I decided to grit my teeth and pick up a Mek for the eye-watering price of £18 plus postage. I figured that after the voucher was deducted £10 was fine for a model I wanted for the army anyway and is only available online so discounts elsewhere weren't possible.

I do like the model though.

He's painted in Bad Moon colours to go with my Warboss and the largest clan in the army.

As part of the lucky streak, Mrs Cheaphammer and I were asked to take part in a survey on our local area and were each rewarded with a £10 Amazon voucher by way of thanks.

Fortunately (there's a theme here) I was able to find a very good copy of the 5th edition Ork codex for exactly that amount and free postage.

All in all, it's been a lucky week and most of that good fortune seems to emanate from Mrs Cheaphammer.

It seems I married well.

Acquired: -81
Painted: 58
Lead Mountain: 518

The Arms Race

For the past few months, our gaming group has had a bit of a focus on 5th edition 40k. I've enjoyed re-discovering that Blood Angels are a bit filthy, getting to use my Daemons and taking part in my first Apocalypse game.

However, inevitably a feverish escalation has begun to take place. Pete is churning out Space Wolves and Eldar, Matt is turning the contents of the Combat Patrol magazine into 5th edition forces, and even Wes has bought an Imperial Guard army.

As for me, well, I'm never one to avoid jumping aboard a bandwagon...or should I say bandtrukk.

As I'm all out of Marines due to my Badab War adventure, and I painted all my Daemons when I bought them, I turned to the Orks I've painted for 2nd edition and Gorkamorka.

Also, due to edition points creep, what had been a 1300 point force in 2nd edition had deflated to 850 points by 5th, and so I needed to add to the army to get it to a reasonable size for a game.

The most obvious initial target for my attention was the spare Gorkamorka Trukk I still had unpainted. 

I opted to go for paint this up as a Bad Moons Trukk as my plan was for it to convey my Warboss and Nobs more quickly into battle, where their Choppas could do the talking. Also l, this means that I have the option of fielding two mobs in Gorkamorka, should I want to introduce anyone to the game 

Vehicles are quick to paint for Orks: base coat silver, wash with Agrax Earthshade, pick our panels for specific colours, sponge weathering, paint the tyres. Easy.

The awkward bit was the crew, as I didn't have any, apart from a couple of torsos, which I think had been freed up from using metal bodies on my Evil Sunz biker and Trukk driver.

Therefore I began cobbling together my crew from the bitz box. The lehs are from the Maelstrom's Edge miniatures I used as Servitors for my Corpsetaker Apothecary (for some reason the sprue had four sets of legs and only two torsos), whilst the arms are a mix of Skaven and Zombie bits I had lying around.

The worst elements of this rushed kitbash are covered either by their cramped compartment or some improvised pads on the driver's shoulders.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

The other addition to the army was adding a Shoota to the back of one of my Nobz who was missing a ranged weapon (which I've realised still needs some yellow markings adding).

It doesn't change his profile, it just makes him more WYSIWYG.

I've got a range of bits and pieces to put together for the Orks. I've inherited a Rebel Grot gang for Gorkamorka (with an incomplete Big Lugga) that can be added to my Gretchin mob, although I'd need a second Runtherd. 

I also have a toy tank that I'm mulling over what to convert into: a Trukk for the Goffs, a Scorcher or a Looted Tank. It's a decision that will largely depend on the bits I have available.

Although none of these are particularly powerful, it should mean I can properly play a 1000 point game of 5th edition.

Acquired: 82
Painted: 56
Lead Mountain: 519

Easy Riders?

Since the Badab War event at Warhammer World in February, I haven't done much with my Astral Claws.

Partly this was to do with focussing on other projects, but mainly it was to do with the series of mishaps an missteps which occured as I tried to put together this little lot.

These are Iron Hunters, Astral Claws bikers and one of the only fast moving of Assault troops that feature in the Tyrant's Legion army list.

I had two bikers already that came with a lot I bought that included a Dreadnought and a Land Speeder (both of which I've painted up previously). Unfortunately, this does not constitute a unit under 10th edition rules and one but was missing a bolter.

Therefore, I popped onto eBay and bid for a lot of five bikes. I've never had too much trouble with eBay purchases and so a quick glance at the (looking back, suspiciously poor) image told me that I should be able to put together a unit of six bikes with a bit of work.

I was wrong.

When they arrived I discovered that they were an absolute mess. They had been assembled so poorly that I can only imagine it was done on purpose.

The screens for the handlebars were glued almost flat to the front wheels, some bolters were back to front, others were just normal bolters (complete with handles) stuck on top, one wheel had be assembled with half of it inside out.

Then there was the paint, which was called on so thick that entire helmets had been smoothed over.

I set about trying to salvage what I could, but they had also been put together with gallons of poly-cement, which meant nothing was shifting without a struggle, and try as I might (with Biostrip and Dettol), I couldn't clear clumps of paint.

The one bright point was discovering that hidden within the mess were three metal biker bodies: a sergeant with a Power Sword, a Marine with a Meltagun and a Marine with a Plasma Gun.

Ultimately, I was able to salvage just a single bike from the mess and replace the rider of one I already had with the Sergeant. Even then, the Meltagun guy's bike is really chewed up in places.

I've managed to get it good enough for tabletop use and so I now have a, smaller than planned, unit of Iron Hunters to harass my enemy's flanks, something the Powersword, Meltagun and jazzy banner (Chaos Icon) will help with.

This was a frustrating process as the rest of the sludge encrusted crap had to go in the bin. I will add another three bikes (including a Plasma Gun) to this unit, but I need a break from them and to find some I can assemble myself.

Whilst I was doing all this, I took the opportunity to make a couple of adjustments to some models I'd already painted.

My Aspiring Champion's base needed finishing and one of the Terminators needed to not have a Power Fist, because I already have three and Chaos doesn't like uniformity. I've also decided that all power weapons in the army will be done with Nihilakh Oxide over white, so both models got that treatment.

The Lightning Claw came from the Mark VI Marine sprues from the Horus Heresy, and it was a simple enough kitbash to do that I'm now tempted to use one of my spare Space Hulk Terminators to cobble together my own version of Lugft Huron.

Putting together the Iron Hunters means that I've now reached a bit of a milestone in my Badab War project as I can now field a 1000 point army of Astral Claws.

Admittedly, due to the bikes debacle, I'm having to put some Goliaths in as the Renegade Marauders (Cultists) that were drafted in by Huron as a desperate measure (seems appropriate), but it is a fully playable army:

• Corpsetaker Apothecary (Dark Apostle)
• 5 Tyrant's Shield (Chaos Terminators)
• 10 Legion Cohort (Chaos Legionaries)
• 10 Legion Cohort (Chaos Legionaries)
• 10 Renegade Marauders (Cultist Mob)
• 5 Devastator Marines (Havocs)
• 3 Iron Hunters (Chaos Bikers)
• 1 Dreadnought (Hellbrute)

As I said, I'm tempted to put Lugft Huron together, but I'm also considering bringing in some heavy Support vehicles. However, I am trying to limit cost on this project, so I may just continue to add some really crappy infantry and use the Space Hulk Terminators to make a second unit.

We'll have to see.

Acquired: 82
Painted: 55
Lead Mountain: 520

Retail Therapy

I've been lack a bit of focus in my painting for the last couple of weeks and have been a touch frustrated with a couple of purchases which has prevented me from completing some goals I'd set myself (hence the lack of a post last week).

Therefore I decided to sit down and churn through some bits and pieces of 'street' furniture I've had floating about for a while as a way to de-stress.

Most of these are bits from various Mantic Terrain Crates that I was given (last year?) as part of the 7TV Secret Santa I participate in annually.

I hadn't got round to most of them because they are internal features (mainly from shops) and I don't tend to game in building interiors.

First up are these shelving units and a clothes rail. The produce on the shelves were all separate pieces, and I've added some other bits I had floating around. I kept the shelves dark so they might conceivably work in a variety of settings, for example Pulp or Post-Apocalypse.

I haven't worried about doing too much detail on the packaging or clothing as these are background elements and I didn't want to make them too specific.

I took a similar approach to the bending machine, giving the impression of a variety of brands but not worrying too much about doing more than painting each item a different colour.

The magazine rack I kept as faded paper without any colour, again so that I would hit into a variety of settings.

I'm struggling to think of when I might use the janitor's trolley. However, it is a funky little thing.

I bought this skip years ago at a wargames show. In fact it was Sheffield Triples, which might give an indication of how long I've had it.

I never got round to painting it as it is warped and had a broken section. I did however paint the other one I picked up at the time.

I decided to stop fretting and filled it with rubble, including a resin bin bag, and used a tarpaulin made from masking tape to cover the damaged section.

Finally is the teddy bear, which was really easy to to - easier and faster than anything else in this post, and a mcguffin from the launch of 7TV Apocalypse.

I'm not sure I'll ever use it as a mcguffin, but it will work fine as scatter terrain in Fallout or other post-apocalyptic games.

My shopping frustrations (more on this in a future post) have led to me binning several miniatures after stripping anything that might be salvageable. I've also sold some metal Death Company that I was never going to use (I have 10 painted already), and so I've actually made a bit of a dent in the lead pile this week.

Acquired: -83
Painted: 52
Lead Mountain: 524