Space Hulk Genestealer tutorial (Quick and easy)

Ok, so a confession... I started painting the Space Hulk Terminators from the last release and never finished them. I didn't even start the Genestealers, so now I want to correct that by painting these guys up quickly. I hope to spend a bit more time on the broodlord, but the main ones need a quick paint job. Below is a tutorial that's basically a drybrush and wash technique to paint up the 22 genestealers fast. Should look decent on the table top, definitely better than table top.

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Ork Mek Tutorial

Here's the new Plastic Ork Mek all painted up in Evil Sunz colours. I wanted to go with a more traditional Mek look (red with blue pants), but it would be easy to swap the feature colour out for another clan pretty easily. The magnetized arm looks decent, and I painted up both weapons so that they are available in case I ever get a game in.

As usual, video after the break and painting guide lower down as well as lots of pics of the finished model.

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Space hulk 2009 Unboxing

I'm excited about the re-release of Space Hulk... its a good chance for me to finish painting the figures from the 2009 version. I dug up some pictures from the archives (below) to show what was in the box that time around. I'm also working on some painting tutorials to get up for the new edition. From what I've read the contents are virtually the same. I'm curious to see the special rules for other chapters... maybe they'll release rules for other races like they did back with 2nd edition Space Hulk.

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Imperial Guard Commissar Tutorial (plus video)

Or Astra Militarum Officio Prefectus whatever the trademarked name is now.

I really like the new single sprue charactors, so that's why I painted this guy up. Just a quick paint with nothing fancy. Simple and effective.

For the black I used my typical, base + highlight then wash to tone down the highlights. I suppose I could mix black and grey for the first highlights, but I think this works well enough. With black its often a good idea to smooth out the highlights with a little black to help with the transition. The same goes with most base colours, but especially with dark ones where the layer is quite a bit lighter than the base.

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Spacewoff Stormwolf/Stormfang Unboxing video

Here's a look at the new Spacewolf flyer... its a pretty cool transport, but I'm not sure I'm sold on the whole frost cannon thing.  I'm going to paint it up to go with my bloodclaws to replace the land raider that I had been using (ineffectively) for them.

Its a decent looking kit, but most of the space wolf icons are built into it, so if you wanted to use it for something else it would take a bit of work.

High Elf Sword masters Tutorial

I did a unit of these guys way back when Island of Blood came out, and its been one of the more popular videos on my youtube channel ever since. Well, my tutorials have changed a lot since then, so I thought it would be a good idea to paint another batch of them. I started doing these just before the long drawn out Ork release, so about half way through I switch over to the new video camera.

Anyway, the main difference with the painting techniques is that I sprayed them silver to start, gave them a blue glaze, then did all of the other colours. It cut out a bunch of steps, and I'm pretty happy with how the metal turned out.

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Ork Meganobz/Big Mek Magnetization details

Here's some details about how I magnetized the Meganobz box. I think I covered every option, including magnetizing the head on the Big Mek so that he can be a Meganob. The kit makes it easy to swap the hands without magents. There is a peg on the arm that push fits into the fist, and you can make all the Killsaws, power klaws and combi-weapons without duplicating parts. This is great since GW has a bad habit of using the same part in two options (to save space on the sprue).

For the Kombi-shootas I used 1/16" magnets on each side as pictured below. Its really important to get this aligned as closely as possible since 1/16" is so small. Otherwise they are pretty simple.

For the Big Mek I use a 1/8" magnet in the head and shoulders since i had the room to go bigger. A corresponding 1/8" magnet went into the Teloporta and Kustom Force Field, but the boss pole (for Meganob option) only has a 1/16" magnet.

Pics below, and I'm happy to answer questions in the comments below.

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Mek Gun and Trukk Kitbash (1+1=4)

Here's a tutorial, or walk through on how I made 4 Mek Gunz from the Ork Mek Gun and Ork Trukk boxes. The basic idea is simple, use the Trukk wheels and bits to make gun carriages. I built the Tracktor kannon straight out of the box, and the other three are kitbashes... if you wanted you could mix and match all 4. I'd also recommend using other bits in your collection, but I refrained in the video to keep it simple... with the exception of the Kannon and Zapp gun from the Battle Wagon kit (I figure most Ork collectors will have one or two of those lying around.

Video after the break and pictures below. Any questions? ask away...

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Meganobz Assembly Video

Here's the full assembly video for the Meganobz. I wasn't sure if I was going to magnetize things when I started out, but by the end I basically magnetized every option. All of the hand weapons can be exchanged without magnets, but things like the Kombi options and Mek gear needed magnets. I'll post some more detailed pics of magnet placement shortly.

More pics and video after the break.

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Meganob Size Comparison

I just finished assembling these guys and took some pictures beside other comparison models that I thought would be helpful for those of you on the intertubes. The comparison beside previous meganobz was done in a recent white dwarf, but I've added some extra ones, such as the big mek with Kustom Force Field, Space Marine Terminators and Centurions... see below.

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Warhammer Visions Issue 6

I haven`t been paying much attention to Warhammer Visions, but with the new Ork Codex this looks like its going to be the issue to pick up.  In the video below I flip through the whole issue and give some first impressions.  Basically, there are lots of cool pictures of the new Ork models, all of the paint splatter articles in the last month`s White Dwarf Weeklies, some golden deamon pics, kit bash with Tyranids, token hobbit and Fantasy stuff.

Ork Meganobz Unboxing

I`m excited to get these guys assembled and painted up.  I love the extra options... although I`m not sure how I feel about the kill saws.  We`ll have to see if those make sense, maybe in larger mobs a couple of them will be good to pop vehicles.

The Big mek looks decent, although building that option means you need to buy at least another box (to have enough nobz to make a mob).  The kit looks like it should be pretty easy to magnetize, so we`ll see if I can make that work in the assembly video.

Finished Ork Painboy (+ tutorial and guide)

Fresh off the painting table, here's the new Ork Painboy. He's painted up very similar to the White Dwarf version, with different coloured pants and some checkered bits. He's a fun model to paint, although I'm not sure I'd want too many of the same model on the table top at once... very unique and no weapons options.

I used the technical paints here for the patina finish on brass bits, rust on the metal and some of the blood splatter. Its the first time I've actually used Blood for the Blood God on a finished model and I think it turned out quite nice... I think the trick is to use it sparingly.

Anyway, it was fun to get back to painting after all of the unboxing and assembly I've done... I need to catch up after all of these new releases.

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Painboys side by side

I've just finished taking pictures of the new Painboy for the painting tutorial, and I thought I'd grab a couple of the older Painboy models off my shelf to compare.  Obviously the claw hand is huge, but the rest of him is a little more heroic scale than the previous painboy and the mad doc.

I'll post more pics of the new finished painboy once I have the tutorial finished.

Shokk Attack Gun Done (and tutorial)

Here's the Shokk attack gun all finished and looking fancy. I focused on painting this guy rather than trying to do the guns conversion tutorial I have planned. Since he's so similar to the old model there weren't any surprises, but warp energy around the front of the gun adds a nice touch.

As usual, pics and the painting guide are below along with a video that shows most of the steps with some commentary.

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Gorkanaught deathstar combo

Ok internet, what do you think of this combo?  With the new ork codex a lot of the old dirty tricks were nerfed... my 4 battle wagons with deff rollas aren't going to be much use... same goes for my Nob bikers.  But its just a matter of time before we come up with some new dirty combos.

Here's the concept... take a Gorkanaught, beef it up as much as possible and do whatever you please.  Add a KFF and lots of meks to get all your hull points and weapons back each turn. Heck, this might draw enough attention to let a wack of trukk boyz get across the board untouched.

(note: meks wouldn't be equiped with Kustom Mega-blastas)

Big Mek, KFF, 3 grot oilers, Da Fixer Upperz (115 pts)
Burna boyz, 2 burnas, 3 meks, 3 grot oilers (95 pts)
Gorkanaught, extra armour, grot riggers (275 pts)

Total 485 pts

You could do a similar combo with a Morkanaught, but since it can have a KFF you could just go with a normal HQ mek.  Also, you can only have one Da Fixer Upperz per detachment.  An alternative would be to have the Mek trail behind so he could give a KFF save to something else as well, but stay out of line of sight.

What does this combo do?  Well first off you have a 5+ cover save from all attacks.  Anything that gets through that has to penetrate 13 armour, any crew shaken becomes stunned with the extra armour.  Next you have 5 hull points.  Provided those don't all go in one turn you get to use your mek tools in your shooting phase to repair hull points, weapon destroyed and immobilized results on a 5+.  In this combo you have three meks repairing on 5+ and the big mek repairing on 3+.  Then at the end of your turn the grot riggers repair a further hull point on a 5+.  On average you're repairing 2 hull points per turn and ignoring 1/3 of all incoming shots (invulnerable save against shooting attacks, not cover save).  Of course its going to draw a ton of fire, but that's kind of the point.  This will attract all of the deadly stuff leaving the rest of your army to get in the enemy's face and smash some skulls.  You could double up on this combo, or do a similar one with a Morkanaught but then you're running out of heavy support options for other fun stuff.

Ork Mek Unboxing, Assembly and Magnetization

Here's the new plastic Ork Mek boy, and I magnetized his one arm so that I could swap the kill saw and wrench depending on my list. Its pretty simple to do, just a 1/8" magnet in the body and a 1/16" magnet in each arm. I show how to set them in the video, nothing magic there.

Anyway, a cool model, and will be helpful to have to give a little variety besides the Mek in the lootas box.

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Ork Mek Gun Assembly video

Here's a video showing how the new Mek Gun assembles up. I have plans to kitbash the left over bits and a trukk to make some more guns for a whole battery. More pics after the break.

I was surprised how big this thing is... much larger than my old 2nd edition tracktor kannon and pulsa rokkit. Also, I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of magnetization options. I'm a bit disappointed by the guards on it too... the lack of options means if you have 5 of these side by side they are going to look pretty similar, which isn't what you're looking for with Orks.

It also isn't really compatible with the Kannon, zapp gun or lobba from the battle wagon kit. We'll have to see how my kit bash looks next to this.

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Flash Gitz/Nobz Kitbash

Here's the results of my Flash Gitz/Nobz frankenstein project. When the Flash Gitz box came out they were being marketed in the White Dwarf to be interchangable... so I thought I'd give it a try. The first issue is that most of the Flash Gitz bodies have a much wider stance, and don't really fit on a 25mm base. So, I only used the narrow stance Flash Gitz bodies, but used all of the Flash Gitz chests to make the Freebooter nobz.

On the Flash gitz side, the nob chests fit fine with some minor modifications. I was able to get some neat snazz gun poses that were slightly different than the normal Flash Gitz, although not really enough to break up the monotony of that kit.

I left arms off of most of the nobz to wait for the new codex to land... I don't want to build of a mob only to find out that they weren't kitted out correctly.

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Shokk Attack Gun Assembly Video

Here's the assembly video of the new Shokk Attack Gun.  I'm in the process of painting it up now, so that should be posted before the next round of releases come out this weekend.  Man, its gone from famine to feast with Ork releases...