Well That was Easy (trademark)

Let me start by saying, I can't take credit for this one.  All props to go Twon over at OgreStronghold.

Every model in the Ogre army (except for gnoblars) is a multi-wound model, and I dunno if you've ever watched an Ogre try to count but it ain't pretty.  The standard sort method of keeping track of these things is to put a dice down with how many wounds the model has left, or some use little pips or skull markers... whatever.

This is where Twon's brilliance shines through.  Inspired by the stat cards and dry erase markers that Warmachine/Hordes players have, Twon created this.

Within about 30 seconds of seeing these, I was already figuring out where to one printed (I chose the bloody one).  After looking up a few local places, I eventually ended up using Staples' Online Copy and Print center.  They were the cheapest and quickest.  (4.91 for heavy cardstock w/ lamination and 5.00 as a "rush" fee because I wanted it for the tournament tomorrow)  They had it printed and waiting for me within an hour or two.

Apparently I clicked the button that said "Print this shit as big as possible"

Making sure that it comes off.

It did print a LITTLE on the big side, but I can trim it down a bit because there is a lot of empty space on the top and bottom, but at least this way my opponent will be able to clearly see if from across the table.

Looks like I'm almost 100% ready for the tournament tomorrow.  Got to throw together some movement trays and paint em up, but as I've said before, I feel weird if I have nothing to do the night before. 

2k Purple Sun Ogre List

This is the planned army for Saturday's tournament.

1 Lord: 375 Pts.   18.7%
3 Heroes: 429 Pts.   21.4%
4 Core Units: 690 Pts.   34.5%
3 Special Units: 336 Pts.   16.8%
1 Rare Unit: 170 Pts.   8.5%

Slaughtermaster, lvl4, Arabyan Carpet, Greedy Fist, Lore of Death - 375 Pts.

Bruiser, General, Ironfist, HA, Tormentor Sword, Talisman of Endurance - 148 Pts.
Bruiser, Ironfist, HA, Warrior Bane, BSB - 143 Pts.
Butcher, Ironfist, lvl2, Lore of The Great Maw - 138 Pts.

7 Ironguts, M, S, Std. of Discipline - 336 Pts.
10 Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers - 50 Pts.
10 Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers - 50 Pts.
7 Ogres, Handweapon & Ironfist, M, S, C - 254 Pts.

4 Maneaters, HA, 4 x Brace of Ogre Pistols, Scouts, Sniper, M, S, Banner of Eternal Flame - 294 Pts.
1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.
1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.

Ironblaster - 170 Pts.

Total: 2000


General Bruiser goes with the Ironguts in a 4x2, BSB and Butcher with the bulls in 3x3.

I know there is no dispel scroll but the plan is use the maneater sniping scouts and the death SM to negate their magic in other ways.

Our local tournament players tend to prefer to have a few huge hordes in their armies so I'm going with 2 trapper units to go stand in front of those hordes to make them have to charge the trappers and take tons of dangerous terrain tests.  I think those paired with a Purple Sun template running down the flank should put a huge dent in those big units so the Ogre units can mop up.

The magic items on the bruisers are just to get some additonal protection from Ethereal units which I am going to guess I'll be seeing since the Vampire Counts are the current flavor of the week.

I also makes me glad to know that I need to do something to get this army prepped for Saturday.  Any time I don't have some last minute painting to do, I feel nervous for some reason.  It's only making a 3x3 and 2 5x2 movement trays, but it's something damnit.

Test models WIP, Land Speeder Storm, and upcoming tourneys

Rather than hearing my blab on first, lets jump right into pictures shall we.

The Land Speeder Storm

I've got a magnet on the weapons rail so that I can swap out the Heavy Bolter for something more useful like flamer or plasma.  Nothing ground breaking here.

Trying out a new brand of primer as I didn't have a "go to" white primer.  Everything I've read on the internet says that Dupli-Color Sandable Primer is the best stuff, so I made a trip (ok it was 2 trips to find it in white) down to the Advance Auto Parts.  Stuff was cheap, like 6 bucks a can.  Got both Black and White.  I don't have a ton of experience using it, but I can say so far I dig it.  Paint seems to stick pretty well to it, sprayed as easily as it should and it didn't bunch up anywhere so that I lost any detail.

I decided to use the pilot of the land speeder as my test model.  It's been rough going to say the least, but it's also good to get this figured out now.  First off, I have to find a better white paint.  I think I'll give the GW paint a try, or maybe Vallejo.  I don't like the shade of white it is, plus I hate how much I have to thin it.  I'd like to be able to paint without having to perform a chemistry experiment to get the paint the right thickness.

I wanted to use Turquoise to fit with the theme, but a little goes a long way with that stuff.  It's ok on the jewelry they wear, but anything bigger than that, and it takes over the entire model.  

Here's a rough draft if you will of the model. (Sorry for the photo quality)

In these pictures he looks more asian than native american.  I think it has to do with the hair style and skin tone. The above pictures were taken before I added the "Devlan mud" ink wash.  Which I think really helps to darken it up.

Just focus on the face... this model is WAY to rough for a picture this up close.

I've been painting Ogres for too long as I have lost the skill to paint eyes. Ogre eyes are HUGE in comparison.  I ended up resorting back to the old "paint with the end of a toothpick" trick.  

In Tournament news, 2k Fantasy tourney this Saturday.  I keep going back and forth on doing the Purple Sun/Slaughtermaster on Flying Carpet list, or just taking a more traditional tried and true Ogre list I normally run.   If this were 2400 points, it would be a no brainer to throw in the flying Slaughtermaster, but at 2k points I feel like I've got too many points wrapped up into characters.  (Feels like 5th edition all over again)

March 3rd, there is a 3200 Double Tourney (1600 per player) and I think I'm going to team up with friend of mine who also plays Ogres.  Only I won't be fielding Ogres...*gasps*  Rather than having 2 of the same army and gaining nothing in diversity, I'm going to be an asshole and field what amounts to an Empire artillery battery.  3 cannons, 2 mortars, a helblaster volley gun(not enough points to drop the steam tank), 2 Lore of Heavens wizards, and enough Handgunners to fill out required points.  I'll nuke our opponent from a far, and the Ogres will run across the board and mop up whats left; OR we've discussed making the Ogres all shooty (maneater snipers, leadbelchers, 2 ironblasters) then just littering the battle field with 100+ gnoblars trappers.  Oh the evil possibilities.  Either way, you can expect to see some pictures of the Empire restoration project.  I can't decide if I want to put any time into getting them up to tabletop quality on the paintjob, or just make sure they meet the WYSIWYG/3 colors up rules.

Until next time, Sigmar OUT!... no that sounds stupid... See you on the battlefield?  meh... Help control the pet population, have your pets spayed and neutered.... Fuck it.  

Bye.

Ogre Butcher on Flying Carpet

  I've decided that I am going to try running my own Ogre version of the Purple Sun/Lore of Death/Flying caster army. But to do this, I'm going to need some sort of flying caster which technically doesn't exist in the Ogre army because our magic users don't have regular mount options.

  We do, however, have the option to spend 50 points of our magic item allowance on the Arabyan Flying Carpet.  Combine this with the cheese of Lore of Death/Greedy Fist sniping enemy wizards, and you got yourself a really interesting idea.

  I decided that even though I don't HAVE to add the carpet to the model, I was going to make one all the same.  Sadly the lens on my camera was all sorts of dirty and only a few of my WIP photos are viewable (and even those are bit sad)

So what I've done is remove my Slaughtermaster from his base, and attached two magnets in the footholes where his feet used to be.  I also drilled into the feet of the Slaughtermaster and attached magnets in his shoes.

I turned the regular "flying base" upside down and shaved off the edges so that it was a bit more square.

Then I attached a square that I cut out of a thick paper plate to it and glued the 2 magnets to the square.  

I cut a square of the fabric I wanted to use as my carpet and soaked it with Elmer's glue.  Once the glue dried it was very stiff and I don't have to worry about it unraveling (I did the same thing previously with my maneater snipers.)  I layed that over the magnets and super glued it down.

And now the final reveal.....

Now I'm free to choose to field him on the carpet, or on foot.  This took me waaaaaaaaaaay longer than I expected to do, but isn't that always the case.  So many failed attempts at this one.  Thankfully, only Arabyan Carpet per army.

Loads of painting done

Full day of painting and here is what I've got to show for it.

28 Gnoblars

Gnoblar Leadbelcher (this also works as unit filler)

Gnoblar Traps

Spell Markers

Bullgorger

Trollguts

Flame Cage

Flame Cage

Flaming Sword 

THEY'RE HERE! plus an added bonus.

After all the waiting around and eagerly running to the mailbox, MY HEADS ARE HERE!

Click here to see a larger image of them

My initial impression of them is really high.  What they lack in product packaging (They came a little plastic sandwich bag wrapped in a piece of bubble wrap inside of an plain white envelope) they make up for in detail.  I half expected them to be riddled with mold lines, bubbles, and to be way less detailed than pictured on their website.  This isn't the case.  There is going to be some cleanup to be done, but that's to be expected with any miniature. (Not even Forge World stuff comes perfect.)  The huge dome under their necks is something that is going to have to be filed down before they can go on any space marines bodies.  I suspect this is left over from the injection process.  In some ways, its a blessing.  I was afraid that heads would be too sunken into the space marine bodies, but with all the extras on the bottom I'll be able to give my Space Marines necks!

If this was the only thing I got today in the mail, I would call it a huge success.  But no ladies and gentlemen (ok.. Gentlemen.. there are no ladies reading my rantings)  THERE'S MORE!

Unless you have been living under a great big wargaming rock, you know the good folks over at Beasts of War and their awesome videos and live show Turn 8.  A while ago during an episode of Turn 8, they gave away copies of Dwarf Kings Hold: Green Menace by Mantic Games and I lucked into one of them.

As I'm sure you guessed by now, I got it today!  I'm really excited to give it a go, and already plan on picking up the Dead Rising version of the game. (Green Menace has Orcs and Elves, while Dead Rising has Dwarfs and Undead.)

There are 2 of these identical Orc sprues

3rd of the Ork sprues

Close up of some of the Elves

Two sprues of Elves

Dungeon Tiles... boy does that bring me back. *single tear*

As if I needed more plastic crack to paint, but since it's just a board game, I don't mind holding off on painting them up and just playing with the figures.

Big Weekend of Painting ahead.  I have the spell markers to paint up, some more gnoblar traps coming down the pipe, have to build out some more movement trays, and my "Gnoblar Leadbelcher" to finish painting.  THEN if I get all that done, I'll start working on doing the Space Marine stuff.  Next Scheduled Tournament I'm going to is Feb 11th, so the Ogres have to come as top priority.

Lore of the Great Maw and Lore of Fire Spell Markers

So I've finally got around to doing some work on my spell markers.  I've identified the 7 spells that I regularly use that would benefit from a spell marker.

Lore of the Great Maw
1. Spine Marrow
2. Bullgorger
3.  Toothcracker
4. Trollguts

Lore of Fire
5. Cascading Fire Cloak
6. Flaming Sword of Rhuin
7. Fulminating Flame Cage

I had some extra cavalry bases laying around so I decided that I'd use them to house my spell markers.  I am in no way good at sculpting things with Green Stuff so rather than my usual Work In Progress photos I'm just putting up pictures the pieces as they are right now.

Spine Marrow

No greenstuff required here, so I was able to plow through this one.

Bullgorger

The text of the spell says that the Butcher eats the heart of an ogre or rhinox so that's why it's a heart. 

Toothcracker

Toothcracker says that the Butcher eats a handful of rocks to cast the spell.

Trollguts

I think these will come together a little better once they're painted, but as the name says it's supposed to be "Troll guts."  Think piece of intestine attached to the stomach.

Cascading Fire Cloak

I'm hoping this one comes together a little better once it's painted.  I had a spare cloak laying around and I sculpted some flames coming off it.  Not sure how I can put this on a base.  I'm thinking of putting the cloak on a gnoblar

Flaming Sword of Rhuin

I tried sculpting flames directly onto the sword, but A.  it didn't really come out like I liked it and B.  I didn't know how to to display the flaming sword.  So I come up with this idea of the swirling flame and having the hand (that I plan on painting as if on fire as well) coming out of it.  Sort of like the lady of the lake, only this is the ogre of the fire.

Fulminating Flame Cage

I have a guy to put in the middle of the wall of flames, but till they dry I'm not putting him down.

Eventually I'll think I'll have to make additional spell markers for the Lore of the great maw spells since they can be cast on more than 1 unit at a time.  I don't see myself running 2 Firebellys at once, and since the spells in the lore of fire can only target 1 unit at a time, I only need those 3.  Eventually I need to do some markers for the lores of Beasts, Heaven, and Death, but since I don't ever run those lores... it's not really worth my time.  

Not really worth it's own post, I also have 2 more traps in progress.  With boxes of Ogres, a couple hands that are using bear traps as Ironfists.  I cut out the hands, now have additional traps. Tomorrow I have to pick up some more primer to complete all the painting them.