Mercenary band of Arcael the Flatulent

Good Day All! and thanks for droppin in and helpin out or taking a gander.  As my Druchii force is almost finished (after 5ish years and getting some serious help from friends) as is my Raven Gaurd force it's time to actually paint my Ogres and work on a background as well as spend some good money expanding my 2000ish points  

models
Sorry for the current quality of pictures, I live in Connecticut so its dark when I leave for work and by the time I get home (12 hours later), hopefully this weekend I can get some better ones as this doesnt do any justice to my already poor painting abilities.  (I knew I had to atleast sate Kyte's need for pics tho ). 






Fluff
As far as background goes I have some fluff ideas that I am looking for some feedback on so feel free to help me brainstorm.

Tyrant was the second son of a clan.  He was looked over when his father died as he had an older brother.  Instead of staying and being subservient he leaves on the suggestion of a butcher who "read the bones" that h was destined for a greater life.

Tyrant starts up a mercenary band with the butcher who left with him.  They do well but there is no land for them to set up in.  They fight other ogres along the way but can not find a place to live.  Eventually they bring thier band underground.


They do well underground.  They use the tunnels that are throughout the lands to traverse without being a burden on other tribes.  Raiding parties go out to get food or to look for those that want to hire the band but, in general, they stick to thier tunnels.  They map out most of the tunnel routes from different lands and fend off many skaven attacks.  They end up using many skaven slaves in battle as they are just as loyal as gnoblars when they are thrown in with them (I am going to model several 40x40 bases with 2 gnobs and 2 skaven clan rats on them).

Thats pretty much as far as I have gotten.  Please throw in your 2 cents of where I can go with this or what you like/dislike. 

I like it. The colour scheme looks good (espescially for cave dwellers) and I like the fluff (about time the skaven got what's coming to them). Have you considered lpoaching some of the dwarf miner aesthetic to re-inforce the idea that they live underground? You could have them with lit candles on their helmets (or even their heads) or have 'torch gnoblars' on bases and houlders with candles or flaming torches.

Looking forward to seeing more pics

Thanks
Corai

Always nice to see more afro-ogres! Especially now, when Avian's army is finished.

Keep it up!

 - Kyte

November 3rd

So I got a chance to finish up 3 more bulls in the past couple of days.  I love the look of bulls with the iron fist, to me they are some of the greatest lookin models out there.  I hope that they change up the rules for the ironfist a little bit so more people use em   I really like the miners idea, I may go as far as grabbin some dorf heads from a sprue and painting it up undeadish and having a gnoblar or two hanging around holding em.  So here is the list of whats painted and whats left to do -

Finished-
4 Ironguts
4 Leadbelchers
9 Bulls
1 Tyrant (extra hand weapon)

Left-
11 Ironguts (painting and glueing)
1 Tyrant with GW/Tenderiszer (painting glueing and flling with GS)
3 Butchers (full GS crazy sculpting, painting and such)
2 Gorgers (painting and glueing)
6 Yhetee (Painting)
9 Bulls (Painting and glueing... if they all end up as bulls that is)
35ish Gnoblar FIghters (conversions with some skavena dn dorf parts and painting)
8 Trappers (painting)
Greasus Goldtooth (Pinning and Painting)
Skrag the Wussy (Paint and Assemble)

So heres some more pics of my latest guys, these are better but they are still taken with my flourescent light on my desk and the bases arent fixed yet.  The camera picked out some mold lines that I couldnt see really with my eye, I may not worry about em as these are just my table top models. 







Comments always appreciated and Cheers!

Look pretty good to me! Kinda like my ogres, maybe you could add some more depth to the skin with dark flesh and another highlight or something.

For the flesh I do a black under coat, scorched brown heavy dry brush, dark flesh lighter dry brush and then a terracotta lighter dry brush.  On top of all of that I use Kel's Magic Sauce Brown to blend it all together and make the black look less black.  Granted, I am no where near the best painter and these are no where near the best pics.  I actually laughed my butt off the first time I saw our pics Grog cause they were so similar (though yours are painted to a much higher standard).

Agreed, everytime I paint one it never fails to surprise me how much I am enjoying it and how great these models really are.

Liking the look of your newly painted bulls. I really like the colour of the boots, how did you do that? Glad to hear you like the miner idea, looking forwarding to seeing more of your tribe

For the boots I use a light coat of a semi dried up snakebite leather.  Remember the old cases that look like the bolters but before the flip top lids?  One of those that consistently stays thick no matter how much water you leave in it when your done.  Then I do a real heavy coat afterwards of Kel's Magic Sauce Brown, it's a nice medium brown "ink" for washing that covers very well, I get it at www.thewarstore.com.  Cheers and thanks for the replies!

Nice bulls. Watch out for moldlines in the future though...

 - Kyte

Nov 14th

So yesterday when I got home from work I curled up on the couch with a large cup of soda, a DVR full of back episodes of CSI and 11 Irongut bits.  3.5 hours later I ended up with moldline-free Irongut bits, a severe caffiene high and eyes that weren't seeing straight.  Unfortunately it's gonna rain around here for the next couple of days so I can't respray them till Wednesday or Thursday.  My goal is to have all 11 plus a gorger finished by next Monday.  So here's how the progress list is shaping up -

Finished-
4 Ironguts
4 Leadbelchers
9 Bulls (one with standard)
1 Tyrant (extra hand weapon)

Left-
11 Ironguts(4 standard bearers) (painting and glueing)In process
1 Tyrant with GW/Tenderiszer (painting glueing and flling with GS)
3 Butchers (full GS crazy sculpting, painting and such)
2 Gorgers (painting and glueing)1 In process
6 Yhetee (Painting)
9 Bulls (Painting and glueing... if they all end up as bulls that is)
35ish Gnoblar FIghters (conversions with some skaven and dorf parts and painting)
8 Trappers (painting)
Greasus Goldtooth (Pinning and Painting)
Skrag the Wussy (Paint and Assemble)
Display base (get materials, do drawings, assemble)

As butchers are really what I see as the center of the OK army I have been thinkin back and forth about having who has much better skills then me convert and/or paint them (If you can recommend someone please let me know!).  My rubbersteel strips and magnets should be coming in today so I may spend the evening glueing magnets to bases and cutting rubber steel to length if I can't get outside to spray.  The rubber steel will be my movement trays and the magnets will have two uses. 

I am planning on making a permanent display base out of two pieces of foam and a strip of steel (I work in manufacturing so the steel should be fairly easy to come by).  The top layer of foam will be interchangeable (probably with posts and kotter pins) and the bottom layer is just there to hold the steel and thicken it up.  The top layer will be the same thickness as a regular size base (1/8th of an inch I think), the bottom layer will be about an inch maybe a bit more depending on what size of foam I can get.  The bottom layer will have the steel strip permanently attached to it.  The two pieces of foam will make a steel sandwich   It will be large enough to hold my entire army and some terrain pieces I have made for the army.  The beauty is, for tourneys and such, I can easily make a topper that is tailored to the army list I am bringing.  Just take the 1/8th foam, cut the appropriate holes in it, and affix it to the rest.  As it will all be magnetized (the army and terrain pieces) it should also work as a "carrying case" and keep my models safe during transport.

wow, the interchangable display base sounds like a realy good idea, be sure to post as many pics as possible of the building of it. Looking forward to seeing some iron guts and a gorger on monday

Thanks
Corai

November 15th

Well, the rain held off yesterday.  When I got home from the gym it was already dark out but I said "screw it" and set up my guys in a box ready for priming.



I got em primed up, while doing the priming I painted up on my gorger a little bit, I don't think there is any way I am going to get him done by Monday, oh well.  So I got the priming all finished on both sides, some of the models got missed a bit but overall they came out good for being primed in the dark   So I got a couple of netflix ready (Accepted and Code of the Templars) and sat down to the task.  The movies were wholly unispiring except a couple of fight scenes in Templars.  I ended up plowing through about 25%ish of the painting.  I got all the areas of metal done with a dark flesh coat (I use the GW method that they have put out in a couple different places of dark flesh then stipple then dry brush).  I also got all pants done in a base of codex grey.



Hopefully I can get out of work a bit early today, hit the gym quick, and get moving on these guys.  Tonight my goal is to finish off all of the metal areas with 2 stipled colors (vermin brown and blazing orange) and the chainmail dry brush.  If there is time I would like to get all the leather areas done with some snakebite leather base (I will wash it later but don't do any washes until the model is complete).  This step usually goes much faster, I think that is partly cause I can see the models coming together. 

While working today I am going to try and write up a little more fluff (if my boss only knew what "report" I was working on ).  A friend of mine recently asked me why they were all wearing the same color pants so that is a question that must be answered as well as some other nagging pieces.  Thanks for reading and, as always, comments and questions are always welcome!

November 16th

Well, last night was a semi-sucessful one.  I didn't get all of the leather done but I got all of the detail leather done so it's only like another half hour to do the boots and belts on most a bit over half of the bodies.  I did get all of the metal done.



So, left to do on these guys -
Finish the leather (30 mins)
Go over my slop with black (45ish minutes)
Dry brush on the skin tones (2 hours)
Paint the wood areas (10 minutes)
Do something with the standards paint wise (1 hour?)
Glue (30 minutes)
Washes (1 hour)

It looks like I should have the time to get these guys finished for Monday but only time will tell.  In other news, I went to the hobby store last night and found some .195"(5mm) thick foam.  It looks close to a base size but not sure how it will look when I cut it out and stick a base inside it.  I am going to try and make some preliminary holes and test it out.  It seems like this stuff is sturdy enough to hold the flock and such that will be on it but not break.

The rusty metal loks really good. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys come together (aweful pun entirely intended!)

Thanks
Corai

November 21st

Well, I haven't done an update in a couple days cause there wasn't much to report.  Doing 11 guts at one time sometimes means that some steps just won't have any pics *shrug*.  I finished them last night, barely.  I ended up having to stay up past my bed time but it was worth it.  I'm happy with them overall but I don't like the way the white came out on the standards.  When the whole army is finished I am gonna go through and do some repairs and such, I will clean up the white then.  I usually do a white undercoat and then two-three thinned out layers of white over it, I did a black undercoat this time with a couple of thinned out layers over it to try and give it the "dirty" look I am going for but it didn't come out quite as expected.  Oh well, you can't win em all.  Here's some teaser pics taken with my camera phone which sucks.  My camera was MIA last night...





Finished-
15 Ironguts (4 with standards)
4 Leadbelchers
9 Bulls (one with standard)
1 Tyrant (extra hand weapon)

Left-
1 Tyrant with GW/Tenderiszer (painting, glueing and flling with GS)
3 Butchers (full GS crazy sculpting, painting and such)
2 Gorgers (painting and glueing)1 In process
6 Yhetee (Painting, 3 primed and glued)
9 Bulls (Painting and glueing... if they all end up as bulls that is)
35ish Gnoblar FIghters (conversions with some skaven and dorf parts and painting)
8 Trappers (painting, all primed and glued)
Greasus Goldtooth (Pinning and Painting)
Skrag the Wussy (Paint and Assemble)
Display base (get materials, do drawings, assemble)

So next up on my plate is 3 of the Yhetee which should be pretty easy.  Lots of dry brushing in layers.  I am missin a hand and looked up the cost of the bit and laughed... needless to say I will be painting a Yhetee who has lost his hand in a vicious bar fight, or something.  Also next up on the plate is the trappers.  I am playing in a tourney in the beginning of December and want to bring my Ogres if I can get em all painted up.

Been doing some more brain storming on the display base.  I glued up some magnets to a bunch of my finished ogres and screwed around with them for a bit.  It looks like I need at least 4 rare earth magnets on the bottom of the base to get a decent grip.  In testing I may have broken a model or two *looks innocent* but they are all reglued as the drop was on a couple of feet   (I put them on a rubber-steel magnet and waved them around while tilting it sideways)  The foam I bought looks like it will work and look decent when cut out and will be mad easy to cut.  I have been thinking about the base itself and keep thinking that, if I am really going to make this to be able to use with all my armies (Druchii, Ogres, Space Marines) then maybe I should make the base out of wood (perhaps with a drawer in it) and affix a sheet of steel to the top of it.  That way it will be sturdy and can hold all my books and such when I travel with it   I have some preliminary drawings done in CAD but probably won't be able to really get to do this until mid december. 

Anyways, I will get some real pics up.  Ok, so pics that are better then this, tonight or tomorrow.  Hopefully this weekend I can find some time to head outside with a white box and take some decent pics of my army as currently finished.  Thanks for reading and, as always, comments, question and criticism are always appreciated!