Lack of painted models, for now

I've gotten a few comments and emails asking why I'm not painting as much as I used to, so I wanted to make a short post explaining my absence on that side of the hobby. As I've mentioned before, I recently graduated from the master's program in Florida, and now I'm designing videogames at EA DICE (makers of Battlefield and Mirror's Edge) in Stockholm, Sweden. Exactly where in the world I'll be in a few months is anyone's guess, as my position is not permanent and neither is the lease on the house my wife and I are renting. So as you can imagine, we're still living out of boxes to some extent and waiting until we know where we'll end up on a more permanent basis.

All this has pretty much limited my brush activity, as I simply don't enjoy painting a model only to tuck it into a bag or a box, to be brought out once a week down at the gaming club. I like to display my stuff in cabinets, and paint with proper lighting and desk space, which I simply don't have at the moment. However, things will improve, and I will get back to painting in a few months.

Until then, Troll Tales will mainly focus on tactics, army lists, reviews and battle reports, as I will continue to play my weekly games and attend as many tournaments as possible. Once we're settled in properly, the blog will once again include the full spectrum of Greenskin goodness!

Orc Arrer Boyz painted

Still continuing on with the Orc theme; here are my smaller mob of Arrer Boyz. I wanted to capture some of the greenskin squabble, as per usual, along with some orc brutality, so I included the metal animosity scene from the GW Collector's range. I think it works quite well alongside the rest of the boyz.

As you'll probably notice, most of these are the old metal boyz, but I've added in two plastic boyz with bitz from the Orc Boar Boyz kit; the musician, as you can see, has got a horn to blow in courtesty of said Boar Boyz.

I usually want my Arrer Boyz small, to go on a flank and shoot down diverters before supporting charging whatever is fighting my larger mobs. Arrer Boyz are, after all, one of the best shooting units in Warhammer at fighting in close combat.

Orc Warboss painted

Since we're doing another string of Orcs these days, I decided to paint my Orc Warboss and his Snotling squire. This model is from Games Day 2007 (I think) and ties in nicely with other releases. The shield (on his back) is quite similiar to the Black Orc Warboss model, and his choppa fits well together with the choppa on the Orc Shaman model. You also have the typical orcish scale on his clothing, much like the Giant, and his face reminds me a lot of both the Shaman and the BSB from yesterday.

He's also quite big compared to his Orc Boyz - finally a Warboss that stands out from the crowd!

Orc BSB painted

I finally got around to taking some photos of my Orc BSB that I finished painting a couple of days ago. This model, as I was told by one of my readers, is from an older, limited edition Army Box deal.

Despite the sculpt being quite a few years old, the model was still a joy to paint. Easy to assemble, and a good amount of details that were easy to reach and pick out.

The paint scheme is similiar to the rest of the Orc part of the army, of course, mainly beige and red, with checker patterns and rusted metal.

As always, check out the Flickr gallery to view the model from other angles.

Squig Herd Dioramas

I figured I had to heed my own advice from the Squig Herd Review and try out the Squig Horde. So I modelled a couple of light dioramas - an additional 16 Squigs - to make sure I could reach the golden number of 30 cutthroat mushrooms.

Similar color scheme like the previous Squig Herd; variations on Blood Red, Goblin Green and Vile Green.

Treekin Finecast Models

I've been meaning to paint the last of my Greenskins, but I couldn't help myself from at least assembling my Wood Elf Host as I received the shipment. Here are my finecast models of Treekin. Now, I've heard plenty of opinions on whether the new resin models are for the better or worse, and as these were my first ones, I can only say that personally I'm a big fan of the finecast. The Treekins were a joy to assemble (and I've heard the metal horror stories); the models were light yet sturdy and could easily be shaped to fit on the scenic bases.

My only disappointment was the fact that one of the boxes contained an extra pair of legs and a torso but were missing two arms - obviously there must have been a sprue mix up during packaging. Rather than returning them and waiting weeks for a new set, I decided to go at it with a hobby knife, and so I cut up the legs and fastened the thighs as arms on one of the Treekins. It took only a couple of minutes and you can barely tell the difference, especially not after some greenstuff. They're bloody trees, with some of their arms already looking a bit out of proportion. Obviously, being able to cut through and easily adjust the resin models is a massive improvement from the metal ones and I, personally, am only happy for this change.

Orc Battle Standard Bearer WIP

Here is a WIP picture from my next character in line for some paint: an Orc Battle Standard Bearer. This model is, I think, a limited edition release for the 6th edition army book, although I could be wrong in this. I just think he looks cool, you can sense the similarities to the Orc Shaman I painted many months ago.

Combined with the general cheapness of regular Orc characters in the new army book, I just felt I had to have one for the times where I don't feel like kitting out a Black Orc. 

For anyone wondering, the slate on the base is from GaleForce9. The sand is, uh, from the sandbox outside.

Savage Orc Boar Boyz painted

I finally found the time to pick up the paintbrush this past week, and ended up painting these Savage Orc Boar Boyz. Good sculpts, much like their infantry brethren, but I can't help but feel that it's a shame they only have so many different ways to assemble the bodies with the arms. Converting them into different positions are much more difficult now, so I didn't bother.

The boyz are equipped with shields and spears, and have brought their standard and a musician banging the drum. A small, hard-hitting flanking force for slightly over 100 points. You can check out more photos that show off their warpaint by visiting my Flickr album.

Savage Orc Big Boss painted

Seeing as how we're in the midst of a Savage theme, I decided to touch up on my Savage Orc Big Boss. Since he's no longer allowed to ride in Boar Chariots (my favourite combo in 7th edition) I thought it best to put him on a regular base instead. Also, since he won't be carrying his Pigstikka spear around any longer, I gave him a second handweapon from the plastic Savage Orc sprue.

The model is from Avatars of War, with the head from the old metal Savage Orc Boar Boy Champion. I thought it looked good, especially as the AoW head stands out a bit more from the rest of the army.

As always, check out my Flickr account for more angles and pictures.

Savage Orc Shaman painted

Yesterday I showed you my Savage Orc mob. Today I'd like to show you who'll be leading them. This here is my Savage Orc Great Shaman equipped with the Shrunken Heads to improve the warpaint save of da boyz and (when points allow) a lodestone that further improves their magic resistance.

The model is, of course, the Wurrzag metal blister released with the new army book. It was an absolute joy to paint, definitely my favorite model of the new releases, and I'm very pleased at how he turned out. I'm a big fan of the dancing pose as well as the mask.

I kept the colors of the rest of the mob, and indeed the entire army, with leather brown combined with beige. However, for this model I got to play a little with both blue and yellow - colors I haven't even touched for the entire army project until now - for the feathers. I think it adds a nice touch of color and makes him stand out from amongst the ranks. As always, more pictures of the model can be found in my Flickr gallery if you're interested.

Savage Orcs painted

My Savage Orcs are ready for choppin'. I had to rush in order to get them ready for the tournament and missed out on the warpaint. I had the time recently to finally sit down and finish off the details on the mob, so here they are. They are doing quite well in most of my games, so probably will continue on as one of the core elements of the Waaagh!

As always, more pictures are available in the Flickr pool, by clicking on the Slideshow in the right navigation bar.

Mangler Squig painted!

The Mangler Squigs have now been painted and are ready to cause mayhem wherever they end up. The model is based on the Gobbla model of old, combined with the Squig from The Chase diorama. The Night Goblins are the old fanatic models that have been re-released as Whirling Death. They are, of course, built on a 60mm round base, which I think will work out gaming wise just as well as any other base.

Had a lot of fun painting these guys, despite them being Night Goblins (which I've already done my fair share of...). Hope you like my version of the Mangler. As always you can check out more angles and pictures at my Flickr photostream.

Stone Trolls painted

So I finished up the Stone Trolls I had lying around. I still need to get two more of them for my unit of eight, but I'm quite happy with these so far. Really love the sculpts on these guys. While the plastic River Trolls are bigger and easier to transport, you just can't go wrong with some ol' Stone Trolls. I hope you like them.

As always, you can check out more pictures and angles of them in my Flickr album.

Stone Troll test model

Seems that Blogger went down for a spell. This post was originally meant for yesterday.

 I've started work on my unit of Stone Trolls, which will sometimes also double as normal trolls (as I like these models better). Here is a test model for trying out the color scheme. I'm going for a stonelike-yet-not-stone look to separate them from my normal and river trolls, who mainly consist of various shades of green. To accomplish this, I'm going with a basecoat of Charadon Granite, a good ol' drybrush of a mixture of Shadow Grey and Codex Grey, followed by a Devlan Mud wash and some highlighting with Codex Grey and Fortress Grey.

I think it looks alright, and I'm really enjoying these old metal sculpts. They're a joy to paint, easy and clear. I should have a unit of these painted to a decent standard in no time.

Goblin Big Boss painted

Continuing on with my Goblin characters, here's a Goblin Big Boss with shield and handweapon. This guy usually climbs on top of a Wolf Chariot in order to dish out the pain (mostly for smaller points games). Because of this, I've added earth magnets underneath his boots which makes him stick onto the chariot, or I can put him on his infantry base in case his chariot is gunned down.

Not the biggest fan of this sculpt to be honest, I think it's slightly sub-par compared to the other, wonderful metal Goblin models. Still though, was quite a lot of fun to paint.

Goblin Warboss painted

Another Goblin character model I thought deserved some painting love. Here is my Goblin Warboss carrying a great weapon and plenty of trophes. He is usually the one leading my All-Goblin Waaaghs from within, fitting or not, a Night Goblin unit with nets. Most of the time I kit him out for protection, as I want him alive much more than I want him killing things. Besides, with a great weapon he is dishing out 4 S6 attacks for a cheap cost, which is more than fine by me.

I've followed my usual Goblin painting scheme on this one as well, only differences being the slightly more whiter Wolf Pelt around his shoulders and the red cloak. His base has been decorated with a garden stone and some scenic grass. I really enjoy the Goblin metal sculpts, they contain so much character without being very difficult to paint at all.

Goblin Shaman painted

I finally got back to painting after not touching the brush for more than a week. Continuing on with my common Goblins, this time I've touched up an old model of mine, a Goblin Shaman. Originally I used rare earth magnets to stick him on top of a Goblin Wolf Chariot, back in the last edition when you'd use a Hero to get an additional chariot into your army despite being filled up on Special choices.

Nowadays he's stuck to an infantry base and will probably work as a Goblin Great Shaman the times when I don't use the Arachnarok as a Spidershrine.

I actually quite like this sculpt, in particular the staff which I think look really tribal and goblin-like. I also like how old and gnarly the goblin himself look: his eyes are stuck far into their sockets, he has barely got any teeth left and he is hunched over as if he struggles to even walk upright. A perfect character for an old Great Shaman in other words.

The painting scheme is more or less like the regular infantry gobbos, beige and brown as it were, but I went with a strong red color on his cloak. I'm not sure if I'll stick with it in the long run, parts of me are crying out for a light brown variant, but only time will tell how that turns out.

Goblin mob close-ups

Here are some close-ups of the Goblin mob from yesterday's post. Looks like some of them rolled a double 1 for animosity!

As always you can check out more photos of this unit and others on my Flickr stream.

Goblin mob painted

I finally completed my Goblin mob. Together they make up a unit of 40 gobbos, carrying both shields and short bows. I really enjoyed building and painting these, especially since they're made up of several regiment bases filled with squabbling gobbos. Close up photos will follow in a later post. Let me know what you think!

Goblin Warboss on Wolf painted

Here is my Goblin Warboss riding a giant wolf. In the old book, this guy was usually riding around carrying all sorts of useful little trinkets, but that's changed with the new army book. Nowadays he usually just gets an Enchanted shield to keep him safe and a Potion of Foolhardiness that he drinks before charging off hunting war machines (useful when fighting elven bolt throwers since he's usually a bit scared of elves).

The legs of the wolves have been resculpted to make it look as if he's jumping over a fence, and a bucket has been added to the base for some narrative.

He was a lot of fun to paint actually, as all goblin characters are. I just wish they'd make them as useful in the army lists like they used to be. Oh well, he probably won't be an army mainstay, but he's a nice model so I'll sure I can find ways to include him every now and then.