Monthly Archives: November 2012

Ork Warbuggies – Part 2

So, I ordered/dug up a bunch of junk to build/convert some Ork Warbuggy models that would have a better cost/appearance ratio than the GW models.  I finished throwing everything together over the weekend.

First up is the Mantic Marauder Quad Raptor.

I didn’t do anything fancy with it: I just put it together.

On the one hand, it went together fairly quickly, is cheap, and will work just fine as a buggy.

On the other hand, there were zero instructions with it (I literally snapped a piece of resin trying to just figure out how to dry fit everything together) and it’s got some fairly dire casting quality. This is bad-Finecast-level casting here, guys.  Also, I’m still unclear where the engine contacts the rest of the model. I had to give up, glue my best guesses, and hope for the best.

The regular Raptor won’t have any resin, which is a good thing, IMO, and would probably work just as well.

Next: the Robogear Helix:

The conversion’s nothing to really write home about: it’s the Orky equivalent of “Put a Bird on It,” but I guess that’s okay. At $5.80 a model, plus the cost of bits, it’s okay for this thing to not look amazing.

Plus those Rokkits actually shoot. That’s cool!

Finally: the Warlord Jeep.  I’d said yesterday that it was a mistake, and it was:

It’s the wrong scale!

Given that I was looking for 28mm plastic vehicles, I have no idea how I ended up with a 15mm resin jeep.  I’m going to blame the Warlord Games webstore for that. Every dang item should make it clear what material and, more importantly, what scale the model is in!

Considered trying to return it (which would probably be a mistake, given it’s an international purchase) or eBay it (which would be some degree of hassle).

Finally, I decided: Wrong scale? Zero fucks given.

Lots of clipping, sawing, slicking (and regluing of shattered resin), followed by some drilling and plasticarding and bits box digging and I ended up with this thing.

Although it’s the only option I would vigorously not recommend, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the most pleased with it.  It’s like an Orky Power Wheels with poorly placed missile launchers.

Ork Warbuggies – Part 1

Guys, the Ork Warbuggy is not a great model.

I think it’s from somewhere in the late 90’s; it’s kind of hard to make out from the 3E Ork codex.   I’d have guessed it was done in Gorkamorka, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  The point is, it’s a so-so model that’s kind of dang expensive ($30).

So, I decided to convert something up.  Through some poking, I found a Willys Jeep (?) from Warlord that I thought looked promising: it’s pretty cheap, and I should be able to Ork it up without too much trouble.  So, I ordered one (smart move; more on that) to see how well it would work out before ordering another two (since I’ll want to run three).

Shipping took forever.  As it turns out, that’s ’cause it was coming from overseas!  I’d thought Warlord was a UK (or Australian?) company, but couldn’t find evidence of it when placing this order.  C’est la vie.

IMPORTANT: Don’t order one of these to convert to anything.  I’ll get into why tomorrow, but I don’t want anyone thinking this model was a good idea.

While waiting for it to show up, I discovered the Warpath Marauder Raptors.  Despite being dissatisfied with the Mantic minis I have (something I still need to articulate in its own post), they’re cheap, stocked by The War Store, and still better than the GW Warbuggies.  So, I ordered one to check it out.

My preference would have been to grab a regular old Raptor, but The War Store is inexplicably not discounting it, charging the same amount as the other Raptor flavors. So, instead, I grabbed the Raptor Quad   because it cost me the same.

Finally, while waiting for that to show up, it occurred to me that I should just say, “Screw it,” and run all three buggies as different models, maybe picking up the homely GW model for the hell of it; then I remembered that Casey had talked me into picking up some random discontinued kit that GPC had on its shelves to use in a Dreadnought conversion (that never really came to fruition) that might work.  After some digging in the closet, I found it: it’s a Helix Robogear, and I paid probably twice what it’s going for on Amazon (because, hey, GPC).

(Seriously, those Helix kits are insanely good deals.  Less than $6 on Amazon!)

Tomorrow, I’ll get into what I did with them (and why the Warlord jeep was a mistake!).

Am I a Proper Wargamer?

I’m a week or two late on this; that’s okay, right?

I generally don’t do this sort of thing, but this “Are you a proper wargamer?” (by way of The Wargaming Site) looks like fun… so here goes:


Spent at least £500 on figures / tanks – and you get extra kudos for every £500 you’ve spent

Without getting out the calculator or looking up the £/$ conversion rate… a comfortable, disconcerting yes.  Let’s leave it at that and not let Mrs. Rush learn how many extra kudos I get.

Pricked your finger or thumb on a pike block – several times

Yes.  And that’s far from the most grievous hobby injury I’ve sustained.  (This guy sent me to the emergency room.)

Tried at least 10 different rule sets and vowed never to play half of them ever again

This is a tough call: I just barely eke in, but I have to count prepainted game systems to hit the magic 10, and I definitely hatehate a good handful of those.

Bought an army off EBay

Nope, I haven’t.  And, after some recent poor transactions involving already assembled minis, I will likely never do this.

Sold an army on EBay

This, I have done.  A few times.  Cygnar, Circle Orboros, Outcasts, Fallen Kingdoms.  This reminds me I have a few Guild minis I need to unload.

Spent months painting an army – then used it in anger once

I certainly dumped a lot of effort into putting together a bitchin’ Fallen Kingdoms army, only to learn that I hatehatehate War of the Ring.  It took me a bit more than one game, but certainly less than thirty? Twenty?

Tried several different periods and genres

I expect this is intended to mean “historical” periods, but I’m going to count science fiction, fantasy, and horror and call this a “yes.”

Dropped a box of figures on the floor from a great height

… Yes.  It’s happened a couple of times: most recently with my Daemons.  I dropped them over a year ago, and it was so traumatic I still have yet to repair them.

Lost a battle on the last throw of the dice

Who hasn’t this happened to?  The best of games are this close.

Made at least one enemy for life

“Enemy” is an extremely strong (and inappropriate) term, but I’ve certainly learned a great deal about several people’s character through this hobby.  I’ve met a lot of really Good People through this hobby, but I’ve also met my share of people of low character through it as well.

Fortunately, despite club drama being inescapable when clubs (of any sort) are involved, that’s universally sorted itself out into temporary bickering… and not grudges.

Had a proper, stand up argument over a wargamers table

Again: who hasn’t this happened to?

Thrown a dice across a room

I don’t think I’ve done this.  If I have, it’s been in mock rage.  I’m really good about keeping myself from doing something like that when I’m legitimately pissed at my dice.

Rebased an army for a different rule set

This, I have not done.

Inflicted a whopping defeat on an opponent

This, I have.  Many times.  (Probably as many times as I’ve had a whopping defeat visited on me.)

Suffered an embarrassing defeat due to a stupid tactical decision

Yep.  Less often now, but it still happens.

Joined a wargamers club

Gaming clubs are the foundation of how I grok the hobby.  I can’t imagine not participating in one.  They’re imperfect institutions, but they’re a great way of ensuring that you get to play a lot of games against a lot of different people.  That’s healthy!

Bought a ton of lead that remains unpainted

Plastic, but tragically, yes.  Too much.

Been to a wargamers show

Assuming Games Day counts: yes.  I keep meaning to make it out to one of the historical events, but it’s never worked out.

Have more dice than is logical or necessary to own – and have used most of them

Yes, but that’s a gamer thing, not just a wargamer thing.

Have taken boxes of troops down to a club just to show them off to your mates

“Boxes” is a stretch, but I’ve certainly brought minis to the store simply to show off, not field.

40K Movement Trays (?)

So, I’ve been playing handful of games with Orks and I’m not surprised to learn that moving all of those bodies is a time-consuming hassle.

I’ve yet to play a tournament in 6th Edition, but I can’t imagine that things have changed that much: that Orks benefit (greatly) from incomplete games and that Orks (greatly) lend themselves to slowplay (deliberate or otherwise) by way of needing to move a million models.  Knowing that I’m not naturally the fastest of players and not wanting to Be That Guy, it occurred to me that I movement trays of some sort are called for.

Here’s my current stab:

Five models each.  One dude in the middle, and four guys equidistant around him, about 2″ from center to center.  I did up a template where they were just barely under 2″ apart altogether: although it’d be ultimate safety from blast templates, it was obnoxiously large.  This is spread out a bit, but not too much.

It’s plasticard (from a For Sale sign) and some business card magnets to hold the models to it.  Eventually, it’ll get the same sort of ballast/sand/static grass treatment the models will get.

More than this would be too cumbersome: positioning needs to be flexible in 40K, but I think moving five at a time will speed things up quite a bit.

The idea is to run a few of these trays, and then hold them in coherency with a model between the trays, thusly:

I’ve only assembled three of these: it was kind of a pain in the butt, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll be useful.  I’ll have to get a few games in with them before I make a few more.

If they work out okay, I’ll see if I can’t scan in/remake my template and post it.

Nob Bikers

Man, these guys are kind of a hassle to build.  They were kind of BS in 5E, but I’m now much more sympathetic to folks who ran them ’cause, dang: kind of a pain.

Wound allocation’s not quite as BS anymore, so there’s not a lot of motivation to build every Nob differently.  I’m liking Big Choppas on them a lot: for +2S for 5 points seems like a solid default choice.  After a few test games, it’s clear I definitely need to run at least one Power Klaw.  A Bosspole seems always worthwhile, and the Waagh! Banner looks really good for price.

Unfortunately, there’s only one Nob Torso in the bike kit, and only one Big Choppa.  A Waagh! Banner is woefully absent from the Warbiker kit, nevermind Painboy bitz.

So, I bitz-ordered some Nob Big Choppas.  Unfortunatey, the two-handed ones… didn’t line up too terribly well with the Nob Biker torso.  Vexing.  So, pinning and green-stuffing happened.

I only got so many of them, though, and had to make use of the Warbike Big Choppa.  I didn’t want the models to look identical, though.  So, sawing, clipping, pinning, and green-stuffing happened.

Similarly, the Painboy: sawed the dude in half, and then (you guessed it): sawing, clipping, pinning, green-stuffing.  the usual.  I clipped off a needle, thinking it was flash (Finecast, etc), so I replaced it with some paperclip.

The Waagh! Banner is from the WHFB Orc Warboss kit.  It seemed like a dang impressive banner that would look cool on a space motorcycle.  Well, it turns out the Orc Warboss is a little weedier than a Nob Biker, because getting the arms to line up on the Nob Biker torso was not easy.  LOTS of pinning, clipping and sculpting.

I ended up pinning and reposing the banner to the pole so it’d flow in the right direction.

The left arm… looks a little weird.  I’ve mitigated that a little bit, I think/hope/pray by widening the pauldron over it.  This’d be easier with a Space Marine, I think.  I don’t think it’ll be too bad when it’s painted.

So, those are the Nob Bikers.  But that’s not all: I knocked out two Dakkajets (one while waiting on election results) with, like, zero trouble.

Quiet but Busy / Quietly Busy

I’ve had some dry spells ’round these parts, but this one takes the cake: one and a half months is a bit long to run silent.

I haven’t been idle, though: through September and October, I was pretty much as productive as I’ve ever been in terms of model assembly.

Since my last post, I’ve built:

  • 23 Mantic Ax Orcs
  • 1 Ork Warboss
  • 42 Ork Boyz
  • 3 Ork Nobz
  • 3 Ork Killa Kanz
  • 9 Ork Warbikes (but not riders… yet)
  • 20 Dark Vengeance Chaos Cultists
  • 3 Dark Vengeance Ravenwing Bikers
  • and a Warlord on a Brood Horror
For comparison: 
That’s nothing to sniff at.
Of course, pictures of unpainted, unconverted models are boring, and of no interest to anyone… which is (more than anything else) probably why things have been so quiet around here.
I’ve still got a few more things to assemble: the Warbike riders, a Dakkajet (and I expect, by the time the dust clears, a second Dakkajet and a handful of Warbuggies), but I’m holding off until I’ve gotten some stuff painted (hence the half-painted Orks in the middle there).  
Project-wise, I’m clearly trying to bang out a 40K Ork army.  I feel like they’ve done okay by the 6E changes, and have fit my playstyle pretty well.  I’m looking forward to getting a backbone of models in place and done, which will then allow me to focus on stupid conversions.
I’m also working on trying to assemble these dang Mantic Orcs.  I’m not het up to play Fantasy right now (now that NoVA’s in the rearview, I can focus on 40K), but I’ve got them and should do something with them.  I’m so disappointed with the models themselves, I’ve decided to try and see if I can speed-paint them, primarily with the airbrush.  When I get to them, I’ll be shooting for tabletop quality and no more.
Hopefully, I’ll have some painted models to post about sooner rather than later. (And, in doing so, avoid a dry spell like this last one!).