The Mawguard

New army, and I'm documenting its progress.
I have already assembled 4 IGs (one to be my Bruiser) and 3 Slave Ogres. I have nearly finished the simple slave conversions, but am having trouble with those on the IGs. I am aiming to give them eye-masks (like the ones on hoplite helmets) and horsehair (or a suitable mountain equivalent) crests. Advice on how to do this would be appreciated. Pics will be forthcoming as soon as I learn how to get them from camera to computer.

OK, I have done the basic conversion work required to turn an ordinary Ogre into a Butcher. Due to an unfortunate mishap with the standard, I am now not using the command-sprue Irongut Banner, but the Bull one instead. However, I reckon this ties in more with fluff, as IG banner is too close to Maw iconography. (By the way, people confused about me having a tribe that does not worship the Maw, and yet still having Butchers, your questions are answered! I have decided that Hyrka convieniently bestows gifts on his favoured worshippers that can be synominous with the spells of the Maw.
i.e. Hyrka's Wrath=Bonecruncher
     War Bellow=Braingobbler
     Bronzehide=Toothcracker
     Hand of Hyrka=Trollguts
     Hyrka's Favour=The one which allows to Butcher to regain a wound.
Most of these are spur-of-the-moment names, Im sure I can think of better ones later, along with descriptions.

Right, now that I know how to put pics on this site, here is my helot-Bull unit, which will act as a screen for my IGs.



Oh, yeah, and the name of my tribe is changing. For now at least they are the Mawguard, the elite soldiers of the Maw.

the Mawguard? That's one of the nicer names!

 - Kyte

Hey,thoose look really good ^^.Only thing i dislike is the moldlines.And it´s a little sad with the glue on to the right.If you just remove thoose moldlines they will look awesome ^^.
Question:What is that one in the middle doing?,and what have happened with their right hands?

Right, 1st Questions and 2nd explanations:
The Question: How do u get rid of moldlines?
The Explanations: @Mawgrim: I bought the OK Battalion Box. The Ogre Bull weapon sprues only came with Left-hand weapons and Ironfists. So I decided, what the hell, convert the Ironfists.
These Ogres are from the Stonefist Tribe, a tribe that was long ago conquered and brought into servitude by the Mawguard. As a cruel joke, the Mawguard encapsulated their left hands in stone as an Ogre pun on their tribe-name (btw an Ogre pun is generally cruel, obvious and only funny to Ogres and others of their limited mental capacity). However, this led to the problem that these may be used as weapons. So as a fail-safe they attached a ball-and-chain to it as well. Outside observers are anxiously waiting for the Mawguard to realise that this could also be used as a potentially more dangerous weapon. Many of these are waiting for the Stonefists to realise this too.

Oh yeah, and about the central guy. One of the most closely-guarded secrets of the Mawguard is that feeding an Ogre on a constant diet of fruit and vegetables renders said Ogre docile. This is due to the lack of blood, which fuels an Ogre's appetite and bloodlust. The Mawguard use this secret well with their slave-helot Ogres. As a testament to this, my central slave Ogre is simply a Bellower with a green-stuff tomato in his shouting hand. The chains are from the Dark Elf Warrior command sprue. I simply cut off the skull on one, and the skull and the ring on the other, placed one end of the latter in a ball of greenstuff, and filed the other end down. Then I glued the ring-end of the other chain to a green-stuff manacle and filed the other end down to fit. Then I glued the two filed-ends together. Simple and it doesn't look too bad. I used the removed skulls on my converted Butcher (made him out of a Bull).

How you get rid of moldlines.Ahh,that´s an ancient question.The knowledge is passed only from grandfathers uncle to brothers great-great children.It´s a very boring and precise art.
Incliding the uses of varius blades,files,barbed wire and maybe some pinapple.
You just put you blade on the moldline and scrape.By doing this with a sharp enough knife the moldlines wil be pealed off in teh shape of a screw.After that models look so much better ^^.
And.
They usally don´t come with anything more then right-,lefthanded weapons and ironfist .
The fluff looks good ^^.

Oh,and this is quite a coincidense,i´m using the DE bitz to.I use them too make my Fanatizianz ^^.
Now,get thoose trimmed,based and painted! ^^.

Just one thing, what are moldlines? Im sorry, but Im really thick with this kind of thing. Which is why I chose to do Ogres, as everything is larger and so, easier to highlight, convert etc.

On topic I have recently sprayed all my Ogres Chaos Black and have finished building my Gnoblars. I am now considering how to further convert my Butcher, Bhlokw (dont worry if you cant pronounce it. It took three weeks for me to get it right lol ) and my Bruiser, Gargant.

Also, how would u guys suggest I do horsehair crests?

The moldlines are thoose flicks of plastic that follow every last piece of plastic figure part.
If´they are still on the model when you paint them they never look good.
And i don´t think Ogres are easier to convert and such .When they are so big it´s really easy to notice the things that look bad compared to a Goblin.
Horsehair crests?,hmm.Don´t you get some pony tails in the Bull sprue? .
Or am i totally off?.
I know that there are some very good hair crests on the Chaos Warrior sprues though.
Otherwise there are alot of things you can use as hair crests out there.

Hope it helped.

Right, I know the picture is bad, but this is Bhlokw my Butcher. He has a Green-stuff belly and a bellower head. The weird hat can be used as a Skullmantle but is simply just an identifier to distinguish him from the Bulls.

It looks good though the pic is not the best.

Try daylight plubs!

 - Kyte

what are they?

Ive not done much recently, being too busy with my Dark Elf army, which I am bringing up to 1,000pts. Soon I will have 1,000pts of both Elves and Ogres. Im planning conversions and paint schemes for my warriors, and so need a little time to buy green stuff and the like. However, soon all will go ahead as planned. In the meantime, what would you guys suggest to be the best way of making fur cloaks?

Green Stuff.I tried to make chainmail once,it turned out as fur.It was´nt that hard really.So I sugest you to try that .

basically blue plubs, that glows like daylight.

for old bronze, I prefer a basecoat of scaly green, drybrush with brazen brass and dwarf bronze. brown ink makes it richer, but you may not want that effect. if it's really old and battered it should look dull.

Thanks for the help Corai and Fah. I'll try those out. Also, thanks for the compliments.

I've recently noticed that I have a pet Gnoblar ('ecstastic woohoos') and I was just wondering what I did to deserve it? Also, I wish to know how to get those little bars underneath ur posts, because I have noticed people using them for pet Gnoblars, anbd I have plans on what to say.

If you click profile at the top of the page and then "forum profile information" there is a box labeled signature.  Fill that out

Right, after extensive paint-testing, complete anguish over my discovery that a) when I mixed reds with Scorched Brown, whatever type of red they were, they all dried the same colour and b) when I discovered that my painting abilities were insufficient to make a good job out of red pants. However, I now have a decent colour for my skin, and a decent basecoat for my cloth. The thing I'm most happy about is the cloak, which stands out nicely now.

Success! I now have a decent scheme for both skin and clothes (which are now all made of fur). I have a few ideas about how to improve it further, but I feel it looks alright as it is (this is the longest I have ever spent on one model in my whole hobby, and I'm still not finished). However, 2/3 of it are done, so I've nearly finished .

The Dwarf in the pic is a slave of one of my other Ironguts, who sports a dwarf shield and a dwarf axe around his belt. I intend to give all my 'Guts personal slaves like him, as I will eventually have 4 Ironguts units and then I will have a unified theme for each of them, centred around the race those 'Guts particularly like squishing.

The paintjob on the fur is a Bleached Bone basecoat drybrushed with Skull White. I plan to drybrush this with Red Gore to make it look very bloody,

I did drybrush the fur with Red Gore and it has turned out real nice. Any thoughts on the colour scheme at all?

i like the coulor scheme but i would recemond a dark wash over the fur and then drybrush the original coulor over the top

i am a little worried you say this is the longest youve ever spent on amodel as many parts are not painted and some look like they are single coulors is it just the photos

The model is nowhere near finished, so that is why the metal and stone parts are not painted.

Also, which bits look single colour? 'Cos I want to make sure that this model is perfect before I embark on any more.

Right, so, after finally getting all the paints I need, and finally agreeing on a colour scheme, I now have to finish off my model, adding the finishing touches and so on. The colour scheme for just one more thing to paint is eluding me? How do I paint stone? To be honest, I just feel like painting the stone black, and calling it basalt. In the meantime while I try that, could you guys (who have already been so helpful) advise me on hoe to do good-looking stone?

Black drybrushed with Codex grey cn make a quick and easy stone. Other alternative are to star twith black and build up orgressivley lighter highlights/drybrushes with codex grey through to fortress gre and skull white on the extremest of highlights. Or you ould go down the marble route (a rather fancier type of stone!) which is quite easy to paint once you get the handg of it.

Thanks
Corai

Brilliant Corai! Ill probably try the easier paintscheme. By the way, ur scheme for bronze is working brilliantly. I should soon have pics of my completed Irongut.

Glad to hear the bronze is working out for you, looking forward to the pics

Thanks
Corai

Well, here they are, the pics of my finished Irongut. Comments are welcome, but bear in mind that this is the longest I've ever spent on a model, so plz be kind.
Front

Side

Back

Side


On a side note, I've thought of a way to distinguish my Butcher (converted from a Bull) from the rest of my forces (no doubt inspired by Saturday's Robin Hood episode (WARNING: reference will only be understood by people living in the UK who like historically inaccurate cosy family programming)). I intend to give him an iron mask. The fluff is that the Butchers of the Mawguard also double as the torturers of captured heretics and the mask is used to inspire fear.

firstly i really like tyhat idea about the butcher and yes robin hodd is increadably historically inaccurate [i could have a rant as i love to but i wont]]
onto the miniture

i really like the metals they look very good
and the samw with the fur but i would drybrush the teeth brown to stop them sticking out so much

well done though

Click here to see a great guide for taking photos of your minis.

I can't really see the details of the model but from what I see it looks pretty good.  The fur conversion is cool but could use a bit more attention paint wise.  The metals and the club look great.  Like I said though its kind of hard to distinguish the details so I reccomend that link I included above.  After reading through that article 5 minutes later I took some of the best pics of my minis Ive ever taken! (However, be advised that taking pictures of that high quality WILL expose any parts of the model that you neglected.  I never realized how harsh my only basecoated lizzies looked until I took good pictures of them).

Cool army fluff, can't wait to see your army grow!

Thankyou Why. Suggestion duly noted. And all credit goes to Corai for the metal paintscheme.

It is a little to make out some of the details but I really like what I see. The skin looks really good and efective and the colour choices for the fur conversion really brings out the skins colour. Good contrast. Great to see thif guy come out so well. How are you planning to base him?

Thanks
Corai

For his base I plan to use sand-flock painted black and then drybrushed with Codex Grey

Nice work Ghworg, I really like some of the theming ideas your putting out there, like the masked butcher torturers, and the ironguts with slaves.  The whole slaving thing is an aspect of the ogre backround that I think has a lot of potential.  Don't worry about how much time your putting into them, that's the beauty of an ogre army, your talking 25 ogres or so for a 2000 point army, you'll still be finished long before a someone with a horde army!

Indeed.


I like the irongut so far. Can't wait to see this army get finished up! Those heretics must pay! Tainting gnoblars...there is no greater sin.

Here's a special Christmas update folks, displaying one of the Stonefist heretic-slaves.


As well as this, I've begun converting my Inquisitor-Butcher, and he is lookin' fine! However, I want to get him at least basecoated before display, and if I can be bothered I will post pics soon.

Looks really good. I love the effect on the fist and the skin tone works really well. Are the legs still bare plastic? If so I'm surprised to see it not all undercoated in one go. Not a lot of painters do that (although Gareth Hamilton, one of the White Dwarf faves, does it to great effect)

Thanks
Corai

that is definitely pretty awesome, the skin tone is different but nice. i like it. what did you use for the chain?

Right OK, a definite A&E session:
The trousers were undercoated CB then sprayed Ogre Flesh. I intend to maybe drybrush them with Graveyard Earth and Scrorched Brown to make them look filthy.
The fist is painted black as the basecoat:I intend to drybrush it Codex Grey to make it look more stony.
The chain is Tin Bitz, and is the basecoat for my metal painting. U can see how its going to look by looking at the completed pics of my Irongut.
I like the skin tone too. Its a mix of 2:1 Shadow Grey and Chaos Black as a basecoat highlighted with Shadow Grey. I may highlight it further with a mix of 2:1 Shadow Grey and Skull White. I do like the effect, but looking at the photos it seems I did a bit of a clumsy job, so I may try and neaten that up.
Thanks for ur comments
Ghworg
(PS-A&E=Answer and Explain)

ah, I see the ogre flesh colour now. the colours on my work monitor must be off becasue at home tht's clearly not grey plastic!

Thanks
Corai

The skins got a nice contrast to it. My ogres skin isn't contrasted enough
Tri

That stonefist is really great! Where did you get the ball and chain!?

The ball is just a lump of GS and the chain is made from the ones from the DE Warrior standard sprue. I think I made a small tutorial on how I made them earlier on in the Gnoblog.

how have you improved your pictues its really a massive difference

Right, after an on-and-off week where my love for internet anime has partially conquered the need to paint, I have somehow fully converted and undercoated a Bull and a Bruiser, and have gotten nearly halfway through my Trappers. After the first unit of Ogre helots I have decided to do something new on the Ogre heretic front, and, as such, the next unit will be pitfighters, mutated Chaos Ogres captured and pitted against one another for the amusement of the Mawguard. These, like the helots are used as meat-shields and bait primarily, but are often better armed and so take more of an active role in battle, expressing their fury and frustration at their lives through mindless violence. These Bulls are planned to essentially be jacks-of-all-trades, being armed and converted in such a way that they can be essentially armed with any of a Bull's weapon choices.

Another minor update: progress on the Trappers is continuing, but may slow down even further due to having just restarted my interests in a Tau force. Basically, I'm just resurrecting every force that I've started and abandoned.

Well after a frenzied few hours of painting, I have finally finished my Trappers, and, on the eve of a great OK victory, I thought it appropriate to show pics of both the Trappers and the whole, victorious force. Enjoy:






As a side note, some recent posts have been suggesting alternate methods of bloodening up the pieces of fur worn by my Ogres and Gnoblars. As an experiment, I painted some of the Trappers' furs with Magenta Ink. Those who can tell the difference between that and the drybrushed red fur are welcome to express their opinions.

Great looking buch of trappers. the highlighting on the skin and robes is spot on, they look fantastic. I thinmk I can discern the magenta inked ones and I think it certinaly conveyes the ideo of boood drenched fur a little better than the drybrush

thanks
Corai

Cool. I'm in the middle of painting my Bruiser at the mo and I'll try out inking his cloak large scale, during the process. I've already highlighted the skin and basecoated the fur and armour/weapon (I've converted him to look Cathayan. Its downright inferior compared to the Cathayan Tribes on this site, but it should do to my standards).

Right, the Cathayan Bruiser is very nearly finished. Pics tomorrow hopefully, as he just needs to be based and touched up. Then I can divert more effort towards my Pale Brethren.

You know, until this day, i had always thought the Gnoblar with the  mantrap on his foot was actually sitting with a mug. The armybook pictures were so confusing

loving the models id like to see how the new blood technique turns out

LOL  . I love the Trapper models: some of the most characterful scouts GW has ever produced I think. Certainly some of the most humorus in any case.

all the gnoblar figures are pretty characterful

As promised, here's my Bruiser, Gargant (the last names tend to fluctuate wildly: he's very indecisive).





Sorry that some of the pics are a bit blurry, if it's too bad, I'll take some more.

Looks great as always. the colours al wpork really well together

Thanks
Corai

Thanks Corai!

i agree with corai the colours are great

Looking good!!

Hehe, I think you got more paint on your tables than anywere else!!!

Thanks

tOB.

Good job on the Bruiser - the flesh and metal areas are particularly well done - I dig the Samurai styling with the 'V' on his helmet too.

Thanks for everyone's great comments. Recently I've finished Gargant's pet Gnoblar, and am currently working on the conversion for the lone Ogre member of my 3-man Bull unit: the Trollbloods. Betcha can't guess what the other 2 models are gonna be.
Oh, and in reference to Over Belly's comment, yeah, I use my table for mixing paints.

Right, mini-update time: I've finished the Ogre member of the Trollbloods, and started on one of his compatriots, a Troll! (shock!). The model I am using is Slugdrool from the BOSP set, whcih I bought off a mate a few days ago. I plan to be completing the unit with a Chaos Troll simply because I love the corrupted malice of the model.

Trollblood Common Troll is finished. In the meantime until I can get into Oxford, I'm planning to convert my Irongut Standard Bearer. I will replace his club with the Irongut hammer, put a mug of beer in his upraised hand that formally held a standard, and give him a backbanner that I hope will be less fragile. I'm planning to convert the banner so as to make it look like its been inserted into his flesh: any ideas on how to do this?

Right, I've been knocked onto the 2nd page, so its time for an update to restore my first-page status. Basically, I've been torn between my Chaos Troll and my converted Executioners (I'll have to dredge up my Pale Brethren gnoblog for the pics I expect to have in a while). The Chaos Troll I bought, the one with 2 hand weapons, is cast in a rather submissive pose, so I spent most of my time greenstuffing him a new neck so he now looks hunched and warped. Additionally, I've greenstuffed the weapon hand sockets to get them into the positions I want. I superglued it recently, and last night I finally began undercoating it. I couldn't undercoat it completely, but I will soon. Eventually it will be painted green like the other members of the unit, but in his case, it'll be a darker shade, to reflect his darker nature.

That sounds like an interesting conversion project. Why don't you go with a brutal and ogre like solution and let it look like the back banner is hammered into his back with big nails? Or perhaps use some chains?

How are you going to model a mug of beer? I've been toying with a similar idea as well. I reckon I'll use a barrel, but I'm not sure about this.

BigD

I had a go at a mug. I made a cylinder of greenstuff, as the basis of the mug, and then put a circle round the base for a bottom and a worm of greenstuff round the top for the lip. However, my project failed because, try as I might, I just could not get the handle right. Therefore I went for the easy option and gave him an Ogre head to hold.
On the back banner, I decided to make it look as if it has been fused into the skin. Hopefully it looks like that, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks anyway. The fluff behind it is that this is one of the sacred Totems of the Mawguard, imbued with the power of the Maw that can be channelled in different ways. The Totem is fused to a bearer so that it is difficult to steal and that bearer is charged to fight to the death for his Totem.

Groth and his tribe struggled forward through the howling winds, which bit and howled more savagely than the prairie-wolves that had prowled the steppes. The image stroked fingers of longing across Groth’s memory, and for a moment, he saw the grasslands in their seemingly permanent glory. The sun bathed the plains in fading light. The wind’s hand was tender then, and it stroked the plains with the love of a mother. The grunting herds of gorehorn yak drifted like great ships over a golden sea of grass. Groth shook himself free of memory’s embrace, shrugging off the comfort it brought. He could not afford the weakness of memory. The plains were gone now, wiped out, by the very thing that Groth and his tribe were seeking.
   The wind lulled deceptively like a foe it regrouped, and the party readied themselves for its charge. When it came, it took nearly all the strength of Groth’s 10ft, Ogre frame to withstand it. The wind tore down his throat as he tried to breathe, ravaging the soft skin. He hoped absent-mindedly that it would not bring the skindeath, as so many believed it did. Scores had been killed by, as it seemed, the touch of the wind that caused the growths to appear and spread, so in a matter of days a healthy Ogre was reduced to a gibbering, misshapen mass. However, he and his tribe had proved resistant so far.
   Tribe. The word was mocking. They were only four. Only these four had been strong and lucky enough to survive. In the Great Hunger, all those that were not strong had died. Had been torn apart. Groth remembered those days: the fear, the constant fighting, and the ever-present, growing hunger that was less appetite than need. He had seen whelps devoured by their own mothers and cows and bulls devouring the bodies of their mates. Only Groth’s physical size and strength and the remaining awe of his status as tribe shaman had kept him alive. The others were Talg, the strongest Bruiser in the tribe, Gotha an ex-mercenary of the thinling-firebringer army and Malgor, Groth’s apprentice, a vicious, gluttonous creature who loved the infliction of suffering almost as much as gorging himself. They were all that was left, and they followed him. Followed him into the desert. Towards the Destroyer.
   The heat was intense. The wind screamed and flung a constant barrage of grit and sand at them. Bolts of energy rained down at them, like lightning, scorching the earth in their wrath. One had nearly killed Talg, and he still bore a livid red burn across his right arm, bright against skin already red-brown with dried blood and the slap of the wind. Yet despite the perils, the Ogres continued, driven by a restless need. Exhausted, starving, they followed Groth who followed his instinct and the Call. The Call that grew stronger constantly, and stoked his hunger until it felt like a monster gnawing at his gut.
   And then, suddenly, there was no more wind. They had entered the eye of the storm. Groth stumbled, blinded by thought, and then stood straight, transfixed. The others followed and stood with him, gaping in awe at what lay before them.
   They beheld a great mouth, the size of a sea with teeth, sharper than a sabretusk’s fangs and larger than Titans, row upon row upon row, stretching further down than Groth could see. Walls of pink, moist, convulsing muscle met their awestruck eyes. Each one of these Ogres had confronted fear in their lives, each had seen their share of worldly horror, but this was too much. This was something abnormal, unnatural, too huge to be stopped or stated. It could devour the world. Gotha retched, though his starved belly had nothing to bring up. Malgor and Talg had collapsed; Talg was on his back, eyes staring at nothing, froth boiling from his mouth. Malgor sat and rocked like a whelp. Only Groth stood, and when he could bear it no longer, he took a deep breath (noticing as he did so that this air did not burn) and roared a challenge to the monstrosity before them.
   Time stood still. The challenge echoed in the air. Groth was panting, defiant, but he was not unanswered. From the very depths of the mouth came a sound of such greatness that Groth’s ears rung, that the very earth shook, and within the roar was a Voice. It spoke in silence, in a language of picture and emotion so raw that it tore at the mind, that it bent sanity under its great weight. And with it came the hunger, which screamed in his belly. This fresh torment, upon all that had passed before, was too much for Groth. His mind began to buckle as the darkness closed in.
   He sat at the lip of the being, staring deep into its cavernous gullet. He was numb. His vision was blurred. He heard the torment of his tribe, and the distant roar of the scathing wind. All this, overlaid by the inescapable gnashing and gulping, a noise etched into Groth’s soul. But he was not part of this present. He was detached, an observer. The world he had known was gone, dissolved by the chaos brought by this creature. This Maw.
   From his detached state he observed this thing, which had caused such destruction to his people. He could see it for what it was: an abomination, like the piteous creatures that occasionally crawled or slithered from the north. Such creatures were immediately hunted down and killed if discovered: they polluted the plains with their foulness. Often these creatures came from areas containing large amounts of the mysterious green stone. Now Groth remembered times looking up at the approaching comet and seeing a sickly green corona. But the Maw was something else as well. He felt this in his gut. A simple abomination should not feel like it was part of him.
   And then the Maw spoke. Not this time in the language of brutal image, but in Ogrish. The Voice was sly and subtle and had a soft, whispery cadence that was as penetrating as a silent dagger. It spoke like a breeze, elusive and always behind: “Groth, Shaman of the Eyegouger Tribe. Have you come to pay respects to your god?” A soft sibilant chuckle echoed. Groth remained still, but panic arose within him. The Maw spoke with a voice at odds to its size and power. It spoke with the voice of fear.
   “Clever!” said the Voice. “You know now don’t you? What I am? What you made of me? You always were intelligent Groth. Straight to the answer as always.” The Voice was mocking. Groth was nettled, and spoke, though his voice was as sullen as a recalcitrant child’s: “You’re just a big abomination, a Spawn, made by the green stone. You have no power. I’m not afraid of you.”
   But he was. And the Voice knew it. More snakelike laughter coiled in the air. Then the Maw spoke again: “You are afraid of me Groth. All the Ogres are afraid of me. Even if you tell them what you have seen they will not stop being afraid. Only I can stop that. But why would I do that, and thus consign myself to oblivion? And Groth, you will soon find I do have power. How you experience it depends on which way you would like me to share it with you.”
   “Now, I will explain why I summoned you Groth.” The Voice was suddenly serious. It lost some of its hiss and its mocking tone. “I summoned you, to make a bargain. A covenant between the Ogres and the Maw. I will grant portions of my power to individuals whom I decide to favour. I will safeguard your souls after death, and give you protection from the four northern powers. In return I will have complete obedience. I will have sacrifice to my name. I will be hailed as the god of the Ogres, the only god. It is a relationship in which we shall both prosper. If you disagree, I shall simply kill you and call another. What is your answer?”
   Groth had no choice. And yet he knew that simple admission of that was not enough to seal the agreement. He knew the sacrifice he had to make. It was as if a Voice whispered in his ear, telling him what to do. He was dislodged from his detached state, and rose to his feet unsteadily. Momentarily blinded he staggered and blinked until the grey lifted from his vision and then he moved gradually forwards, until he stood right on the lip of the Maw. He drew his belt knife, used for the gutting and skinning of animals and raised his other hand. Swiftly he began to saw through each one of his fingers, tears of pain and loss running from his eyes. Yet he was silent, voicing no cries as each digit fell into the Maw and disappeared. Then, slowly, and even more painfully, he placed the knife handle between his teeth, and began to cut off the fingers from that hand too, with short, jerky movements.
   He was just raising his blood-soaked hand, so as to cut off the final finger, when the Voice of the Maw stopped him. It had an air of triumph that cut Groth deeper than all the pain and bereavement combined could not do. But he listened to it anyway. It almost appeared to be speaking from a long way off, now that he was no longer in a trancelike state. But one statement he did hear in its full. “I name you Groth Onefinger,” proclaimed the Voice, “Prophet of the Maw!”

OK, here are pics of my second Bull unit, the Trollbloods.
http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l146/Ghworg/?action=view&current=IMG_0563.jpg
http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l146/Ghworg/?action=view&current=IMG_0564.jpg
http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l146/Ghworg/?action=view&current=IMG_0565.jpg
http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l146/Ghworg/?action=view&current=IMG_0566.jpg
http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l146/Ghworg/?action=view&current=IMG_0567.jpg

Cool unit, especially like the trolls,
But what is the white stuff on the unit, cuz if its snow, it looks wierd and out of place

-Arante

I'm not sure what white stuff u mean: if it is on the models, it is meant to be bone.

OK makes sense now, but it looks abit wierd on the back of the Ogre, all the white circles, but Great models anyway, especaially like the Gren skin

-Arante

Yeah, I did wonder about how it looked, but I then I thought "what the hey, it looks cool" so I let it stay. The circles count as bone plates and scales which are the signature mutation of the Trollbloods along with the green skin and affinity with Trolls.

Nice piece of fluff, mate. The Trollbloods look nice, although I´m not too keen on the white scales on the ogre. What rules do you use for them? Are they ogre bulls with 2 hand weapons?

BigD

Yeah, I'm either going to use them as naked Bulls or 2nd hand weapon Bulls, depending on points. And yeah, I accept that the scales are perhaps not the best looking things, but they'll do for now: maybe in the future I'll redo them, and instead of a few, big ones, I'll do lots of little ones.

This is just a post to say, that after the best part of a year, I'm only 2 Ogres away from a 1000pt army! Please believe me that this is an acheivement for me, despite the fact that most other folks on this site would have completed 2000pts in this amount of time. However, as I don't have much in the way of funds, it's good to make a battalion last this long.

Congratulations. I think it´s always a satisfactory moment to see a nice round number (lik 1000 or 2000) finished and on the table. Also, nice milestone moment for a group pic of the army!

BigD

Thanks BigD, and as suggested, here are the milestone pics of my Ogre Kingdoms 1000pts force, with close ups on the newest addition, my Leadbelchers:

Any comments at all? I'd even welcome criticism!

Of course my man, of course...

I like the red/gold scheme of the army, and the metal tones are really well done. You could always highlight the metal with a lighter shade - did you start with silver, then wash with some ink mix? If so, you could highlight with Mithril, then give it the same wash you did before - the lighter areas will still show. Or you could make some highlight mix of a lighter silver combined with the ink mix for the right color.

The hair/fur sculpted on the Leadbelchers looks pretty rough. For a less 'stabby' final product, even to something like Corai's fur, you could use a knife/needle in S-shaped motions, starting from the bottom and working up. However, if you want to kick it up a notch, you could use a more complicated fur sculpting technique, which I find easiest to illustrate with these pictures:



Some blobby tail-shaped things. Looks weird? You bet. But then...



Use a tool or knife to make some wavy lines, while at the same time flattening and curving them to add some motion. Looks better, right?



Using the knife, finish with even more fine lines, getting all the 'blobbiness' out of them, and just toying with them until it looks more like fur.

You can use the same techniques (with different starting shapes, or larger ones) to make more natural-looking hair, not so much like the sections of animal hair shown here.


The skin looks fine, but are you drybrushing it? If so, to get more smoothness, I suggest moving on to layering (give a shout if you need some tips). If you're already layering, your layers look a little patchy/rough. If you don't thin your paints, start doing it (to nearly milk consistency), or tell us how you usually apply layers.

Your silver metals look pretty flat - you could give them a wash of 50/50 black ink/brown ink for good shading and definition. You could always follow this up with a highlight of a lighter shade of the first metal color.


Some better pictures could also help - why don't you take a look at this page ( http://www.minivault.com/Photography.htm ). Even for a 'simple' photography article, it can get a little complex, but doing pretty much any of the things he outlines can result in better pictures.


Just keep it up man.

Vincenti

The leadbelchers skin looks very good, I think you;'ve really nailed the shading and highlightiong of the tone whilst keeping it looking like a natural skin colour

Thanks
Corai

Thanks Guys! I'm always heartened when exemplary painters like you commend my work.

Vincenti brings up several points that I would like to answer
Just for clarification, the paintscheme for the bronze is Tin Bitz drybrushed with 2 golds then highlighted with lighter gold. Then the metal is inked chestnut. I'm not sure that mithril silver would fit in with this, but I'd like your opinion on that please.

Ah, now that was partially intentional. The fluff behind my Leadbelchers is that they patrol the borders of the Mountains on the lookout for Chaos infiltration. This results in isolation from their kind and as such they become bestial and wild. The roughness of the hair represents the fact that it is a tangled mess. After all, I can always say that the occasional blobby bits are globs of grease and muck clogging up the strands  .

Now I was looking for something like this. Though I'm not planning to do it to the Leadbelchers, I have been considering re-doing the fur cloaks of my Ironguts, as, being the monikers for my Tribe, they have to look their best. I like the look of your fur tutorial, and I will definitely give it a go on my next batch of Ironguts. If I can get it to work, then I will certainly expand its use throughout my models.

I don't drybrush my skin. My process for skin-painting is mixing together a 2:1 ratio of Scorched Brown to Scab Red then giving the skin one coat (this is my basecoat. Skin is already undercoated). Then I paint a layer of 2:1 ratio Dark Flesh to Scab Red on all the raised areas: again I only give the skin one coat. Any advice on how to improve this to make the skin smoother would be much appreciated.

That's a good idea and one I can easily implement. I shall attempt this soon and post pics of the results.

I'll definitely take a gander at this. Most of my pics seem fine already (I dunno what happened to the front-shot of the Leadbelchers, but I will retake that at some point), but any improvement is good (improving group shots would be nice).

Thanks for the kind comments. Better late than never! 
Ghworg

As much as I'd like to quote your post, I am loathe to take up another half-page in one reply. This'll do.

Golds - In my experience, mixing in Mithril Silver with golds and bronzes such as Tin Bitz is a fine way to highlight it - you don't have to go very 'silvery' to get a good effect. After the inking, maybe just re-highlight with the lighter gold, and possibly a small highlight of a mix of that and silver?

Hair/Fur - I get what you mean, and I agree that the tutorial I posted is a bit better for coats and capes, which should suit your Ironguts.

Skin - Sounds fine, then. I was just double-checking. Tone and color looks fine, and I wouldn't change it if you're happy with it.


I'd be glad to see some updates of progress on these areas, and the silver metals!

Vincenti

I'll experiment with that. Thanks Vincenti

No problem - let us know how it goes.

As for the picture, they're in focus fine, but the lighting could definitely be improved, even if you just turned off the flash and used 1-2 desklamps. Cutting down the glare and harsh shadows should improve visibility dramatically.

Vincenti

is that just a battalion? with one of those my brothers converted ogryns a tyrant and a box of bulls, my 2000 point army is almost complete, thats a very very good thing for us low funded people!

It's a battalion plus a Trapper Blister, a Common Troll (bought off a friend) and a Chaos Troll.

This update is to show the effects of Vincenti's advice regarding silver metals. I think it works brilliantly on the Troll, and I will extend its use to my Ogres when I have the opportunity.

Indeed, the metallics looks astonishing now...

The army looks amazing too: very characterful.

keep it up

cheers

Well, I wouldn't go that far,   
Thanks for the lovely comments!

Hola! This post (as have all of my most recent posts) is coming from Spain, where it is currently raining. Seriously, anyone who tells you about great weather in northern Spain is a big fat liar, and the proverb "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" is not to be trusted.
Grumble over and done with, Spain is a great reminder of the Ogres, for 3 main reasons:
1. The bread requires Irongut-style jaw muscles to chew
2. The meals are enormous: starters are the same size as mains, and the mains are huge!
3. Violent sports are popular: while we were here, we saw a news bulletin which showed a matador getting beaten by the bull (just got a bit injured btw). Serves him right I reckon: anyone wearing clothes that silly deserves
a bit of trampling.

Anyway, onto the Ogres proper. In a few days I will be back at home, having a week´s holiday left. I intend to use this holiday to both finish my Corsairs, and begin reworking my Ironguts. I intend to remove the greenstuff fur on the trousers and instead paint these brown, as the colour works well with the bronze. Additionally, I shall begin reworking the cloaks (going by Vincenti´s method) and thinking about warpaint for my Ironguts and characters.

I don't really have anything worthwhile to say, except I really like your red skin. It's wicked.

Thanks, every compliment is welcome.

One problem I have been coming across recently, as I begin to prepare for expanding my Ogres into 2,000pts, is the planned build for my Tyrant. As is shown in my fluff, my Ogres are Maw-fanatics, and as such, I feel Daemon-Killer Scars are a necessity for my Tyrant. I also like the pose of the 2-hand weapon Tyrant far more than the GW one. However, I don´t know if such a weapon choice is really advisable. What I need is advice on how to build rank-and-file slaughtering Tyrant, with DKS. All comments are welcomed.

Daemon-Killer Scars, Giant Breaker, Wyrdstone Necklace (this thing is mandatory), heavy armor, 2 sword gnoblars and an additional handweapon. He'll have 6 S6 attacks, and causes terror. You're probably not into taking giant breaker, but that extra pip of strength will help if you are giving him 2 hand weapons (I really wish GW gave use some good magic weapons that aren't great weapons) against anything tough/well armored/big/or you run into a character.

Thanks Reg. That´s exactly what I needed!

And if you are looking for a rank-and-file killer tyrant, a giant is just what you need to pick up where the tyrant won't be killing big things and characters.

just went through your army : looking great, keep up the good work !

Thanks for all the help Reg, and it looks like I'm gonna need more. My latest problem is that in removing the fur on the trousers of my Ironguts, Butcher and Bruiser, I obliterate all the detail. In addition the end result is very untidy. I don't see how I can be neater and I also don't want to keep the fur, which I don't really like. I prefer the brown leggings used elsewhere in my force. I'm thinking about restructuring some of the detail using the other trousers as a basis. What I want to know is is this a good idea, and are there any alternatives?

Do you have some pictures of what they look like? I kind of know what you mean, but I'm not sure exactly what you are working with.
But redoing the trousers won't be hard, and since this is on your ironguts and characters, chainmail and armor plating is a great way to hide any "akward" spots. And for the butcher making his pants look like they have skin stitched into them will similarly hide any parts you aren't pleased with.

Thanks for the reply Reg. However, it's not really a question of hiding awkward "spots". To be honest, the whole of the trousers are "awkward spots". However, I have come up with a solution. I have decided to scrap both trousers and cloaks and instead give my Ironguts fur robes, a la Dark Elf crewmen.

That should be cool. Looking forward to some pictures.

Might be a while. Everything's been a bit disjointed after my hols, and the first thing I want to do is finish my Corsairs.

Hm, too bad. Your cloak idea sounds cool

BigD