Primary Objective

January 15th. A bit late for a "New Year's Resolution"-type of post. In my experience, calling something a "resolution" is pretty much damning it to failure anyway, so let's call this a declaration of objectives. I've long been a slow painter with a short attention span, so my main objective for 2014 is to paint 100 miniatures. 100 miniatures pales in comparison to some people's yearly output, but I think it will make for a reasonable starting goal (we'll see where I'm at by July). I got burned out when painting Orks and Imperial Guard for 4th and 5th edition, but pursuing this goal from an Oldhammer perspective should allow me to avoid that by focusing on creating warband-style forces of 10 to 30 models. Additionally, I will switch things up by painting a creature or terrain piece for every 5 infantry models I paint, which should give me an incentive to finish off the grunts.

My first Rogue Trader force is going to be a band of orks, primarily built from the classic Space Ork Raiders boxed set. Two of them were seen in a previous post, and I've painted an additional four. The goal is to have roughly 30 of them, organized in squads of 5, with a smattering of command and heavy weapons figures to season. I've also got a "Killer"-class dreadnought (still on the lookout for a "Super-Attack Onslaughter" model, though).

It begins.

After the orks are ready, I've got some space marines and mercs/adventurers on the agenda.

Sweet, sweet beakies.

A truly motley crew.

As my reward for finishing my fifth ork, I painted a Reaper Bones Great Worm. I went for a "sandworm" look; I drybrushed several layers of Citadel and P3 paints (Charadon Granite, Gun Corps Brown, Rucksack Tan, Hammerfall Khaki, and Bleached Bone) culminating in a Devlan Mud wash. I don't know how much the end result benefits from all those layers, but it was a fun figure to paint. This beast will serve as a burrowing GM-controlled creature.

Two of my recent orks about to run afoul of the worm.

Luckily, reinforcements arrive for the boyz!

I still need to paint the bases on my new orks and worm, but I'm going to wait until I have a few more models painted so that I can do it en masse. Time to paint some more orks! 'Ere we go!

Ambull in the Pantry

What's the point of a miniatures blog if there aren't any pictures of miniatures?

A couple of orks trying to defend their static grass from the predations of a roving ambull. Before you know it, he'll be in the gesso and it will be all over for the boyz.

I painted the ambull in 2007 and the orks in December of 2013.

"A beginning is a very delicate thing."

Hello, and welcome to the blog. I'm something of a lapsed wargamer. I've been collecting miniatures and playing Warhammer 40,000 off and on since 1996 (right around the end of the "red" period of Second Edition). Around 2009, due to changing finances and changing priorities, I took a break from 40K. I continued to read some blogs and forums to at least keep up with "the scene," and had a couple of friends who soldiered on through Sixth Edition ("Everyone uses flyers and fortifications now," they tell me), but it was tough to muster much enthusiasm when it looked like the focus of the game was now cramming as many vehicles as possible onto a 6' by 4' board. I had always favored smaller, more narrative-driven games, and I felt like I had been left behind. At least, until I found Tales From The Maelstrom. Here was something that really spoke to me, narrative-focused games with unconventional forces, well-written battle reports, great scenery and miniatures, a mix of vintage and modern.

I had always had a bit of a Rogue Trader fetish, starting back in my early days on the Internet, stumbling onto rec.games.miniatures.warhammer and the Rogue Trader Cult site. Eventually I acquired some of the old rulebooks through eBay, as well as a goodly collection of vintage miniatures. I was never able to get anyone to play with the old rules, but I loved having the books as reading material. The artwork and background were so evocative back before the universe became a grimdark parody of itself. It was such a relief to see what was happening at sites like Tales from the Maelstrom and learning of the greater Oldhammer community. It got me back in the game, so to speak.

So that brings me to now. Wargames were always a tough sell for many of my friends, although they enjoy boardgames and tabletop RPGs. I've found that it's much easier to get someone to play a miniatures game if they don't have to buy and paint a bunch of stuff beforehand (just look at the runaway success of Fantasy Flight Games' X-Wing Miniatures Game), so my current goal is to paint a variety of small forces suitable for playing Rogue Trader. This blog will chronicle my progress in that endeavor. Whether I can entice anyone to play remains to be seen.

Remember, the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed...