Last Orktober I wrote a post about the completion of my long running Blood Axe kommando clan. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across two sneaky gitz who had somehow infiltrated my painting pile from that nefarious eBay!..
In all seriousness, I find that whenever I think I’ve finished one of my collections, my eye starts wandering and I inevitably end up adding to it. Having played a couple of enjoyable games of the new Killteam with my kommandos, I couldn’t resist picking up some of these fantastic models and having perfected my painting recipe over the years they were a real joy to paint!
So, now that I have more than enough greenskins for my needs, that’s an end to it it right?.. right?.. yeah, sure it is!
This Orktober marks the close of my own greenskin project as I have painted the last model for my Blood axe mob.
The sneaky gitz of Urrgok Skulldagga’s Kommandos are ardent followers of the mighty God Mork. His ‘brutal kunnin’ is legendary throughout the galaxy and his boyz have undertaken many an audacious raid from their battle cruiser da BizMork.
I have, like many a hobbyist, acquired lots of models over the years. Inspiration takes me off to eBay with a head full of dreams of new projects, but unfortunately my crafting speed simply cannot keep up. Even with a 15 month old son to run around after, I had an hour or two every night to commit to model-making and painting but, alas, it still wasn’t making a dent In the pile.
With a family to feed and a pile of hobby rubble to sort out, something needed to change. I could have made the same resolution that all have tried at some point, to simply stop buying things until I had painted everything that I currently owned, but this hasn’t worked in the past so why would it work now?
I realised that part of the problem is that with the time taken to buy, build and paint any given project, I am already inspired by the next novel, TV show, etc, and I lose interest in continuing it. This leaves me with part-built or painted models all over the place gathering dust.
Last October I decided to come up with a plan. One that, I’m happy add, has been working quite nicely ever since. I wrote a list of all the armies I had partly finished or just started and numbered them. I then made sure to build and prep the models I already owned, so that they were ready at hand to jump straight into painting. Finally I rolled a dice to see which army to start with and grabbed a couple of minis to paint. Each time I’m finished with those, I clean up the desk and roll again.
Minis primed and ready for painting
A very simple idea I’m sure you’ll agree, but the proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating…
Nurgle Death GuardCatachan jungle fighters OgrynSpace marines Tallarn desert raidersWWII US airborne
Not a bad tally for seven months of painting even if I do say so myself!
I have mentioned several times in the past of my fondness for the old board game Space Crusade. I have played many hours using both the core game and even making up my own scenarios, including rules for all sorts of other miniatures in my collection.
I also have a copy of the White Dwarf supplement which introduces rules with different races to replace the space marine squads. As I have always liked orks, I decided to collect a mob of Blood Axe Kommandos to send in to the hulk.
The first batch of blood axe kommandos, including an original metal kommando on the left.
Also, inspired by a recent post on Azazel’s Bitz Box, I painted up two old-school metal marines that I have had lying around for some time.
Space marine apothecary
Although apothecaries are usually bedecked in all white livery I decided that, in a galaxy that doesn’t recognise the Geneva Convention, it would be rather reckless to present oneself as such an easy target and so I gave him the basic Iron Eagles livery, with white and red shoulder pads.
Space marine veteran sergeant
I really like this old veteran sergeant model and hope that, as he is holding an auspex device, he might help me to remember to use the ‘Scanner’ equipment card which allows you to look at face-down blips. It’s a really useful card if you’re on an assassination mission and need to find a particular alien to kill, or if you just want to find out what’s in the next room without blundering in there, unfortunately I constantly forget to use it!!
My hobby activities will be slowing down next month as I am moving in with my fiance next week until our new house is ready and my hobby stuff will be put in storage, I have put together a small ‘portable nerding kit’, so I can keep on with some model assembly but the paint shop has been shut-down for the time being.
TinPot Revolutionary 