2000 Point Epic Ork Army!

 Waaaggghhhh!!!!!!!!!  I've put together a 2k point Epic Ork force to fight my Ultra Marines.  I started out with the intention of making it a full scale 4k point army, but having pushed doggedly through the last few stands over  the winter months, I found I could do no more Epic 40k, at least for a while.   Still, given my normal inability to stick to any one painting project for very long.  I'm pretty pleased what I did get done.

Here's my War Boss with his best Nob buddies and their ride. As might be gathered from his banners and standard, he is a member of the Evil Suns clan, and the theme extends throughout the army.

Waarrghh!  C'mon, Boys!  Let's get stuck in!

I think they look okay.

I wanted to start out with a well armored and mobile force that could compete with my Rhino-mounted and Land Raider-supported Ultra Marines so I took an Evil Sunz Clan and a Cult of Speed for my Company cards.  I built up the Evil Suns Clan with extra Ork Boyz and Battlewagons to give them more staying power.  For each Company card, I'm authorized one special or free card.  I naturally wanted to make use of at least one free card, so I took the Freebooterz mob.  They amount to just 4 infantry stands and a nob, so they don't amount to much, but I decided to make a bit of a spectacle of them, so I made special stands to represent them.  I gave them a Skull Hamma Battle Fortess, festooned with pirate flags, for them to ride around in.  I intend to use them as a special unit that can try to bypass enemy formations and seize objectives.

Again, keeping with the mobile armored theme, I rounded out the army with a collection of armored fighting vehicles that could keep up with the rest of the force, some of which can only be fielded as attachments to the Evil Suns mob.

Whipping of massive clouds of dust and smoke, the Kult of Speed races into action.

The banners mark out the Nobz on their bikes.

I love the Road Warrior vibe these guys have.

Bowel Burnas.   Exclusive to the Evil Sunz, they function much like a standard Burna unit, but are better armored.

Also exclusive to the Evil Sunz are these Spleen Rippas.  They are not all that amazing in combat, but I am wild about the custom hot rod look they have.  Really like these models.

These are Bone Crunchas.  Useful both for shooting up enemy vehicles and plowing through infantry formations.

Bone Breakas are identical to Bone Crunchas but trade 1 heavy gun for the double mounted lighter guns of the Crunchas.  Useful for taking out the Marines' Land Raiders.

Last are some of my favorites, My Freebooterz crew.  I put a variety of models in these bases and painted them up as Piratey as I could, with a Freebooterz banner and a matching one on their Skullhamma Battle fortress.

The horde is ready for battle.  Future additions will be a lot more infantry heavy, which is likely to prove challenging for the Orks, as they to compete with the the entirely mechanized Marines.  But that's a problem for another day.  Time to get down to some fightin'!

Staff and Clientele at the Mos Eisley Cantina

"Ey!  We don't serve your kind here!"

It's been a very long time since I added anything new to my Star Wars collection.  That's almost certainly because the new movies sucked a lot of the joy out of it for me.  Eventually I'll have to wade into them and try to find things about them that I can bear because my little one likes them and to have something I loved so much in my own childhood that I can share with my son in his seems like a great opportunity.  

Space hotties fishing for some free drinks...too bad they didn't make minis of them...

In that spirit, I picked this crew of Cantina folks to bring with me thinking that I'd enjoy working on them over here and Lo, this month I got them out and started working on them.

Good old Mr. Hammerhead!  I loved my Hammerhead action figure I had when I was about my son's age.  He was just so...so alien!  I painted my lead Hammerhead's shirt the same blue as my plastic Kenner Hammerhead's baby onesie just for nostalgia reasons.  In later years I found out that some busy body had come up with a proper name for Hammerhead and given his species a long back story.  Apparently they are a bunch of stupid boring pacifists or something.  Some people have a need to take the fun out of everything.  Well, they'll always be the Hammerheads to me.  I have a bunch more Hammerhead castings and because the model has such nice limb separation, I plan to chop them up a bit and give them pirate cutlasses and Storm Trooper blasters and what not, as I think the Hammerheads should be a bit treacherous and troublesome, eh?  I mean, just look at the shifty eyes on this fellow below!

Lost my Kenner Hammerhead so long ago.  I need to acquire another one.

Hammerhead with the Cantina's Luddite bartender..."Your Droids!  They'll have to wait outside, we don't want them here!"

I actually ordered these guys for my Rogue Trader campaign.  They are the 'Bar Patrons' pack from Kryomek miniatures.  When they showed up I was surprised to find that they were much closer to 25mm than 28mm.  No worries!  They fit in perfectly with my Star Wars guys!

Kabe, the Chadra Fan who can be seen squeakily demanding her drink from the bartender, although she seems to have been sculpted in a different outfit than she wears in the movie.

Pig Face and Chadra Fan.  I love pigface's don't give a damn, hand in the pocket pose.

Bar Fly.  Probably my favorite of the group.  Because he's a bar fly. 

Horn headed fellow on the right bears more than a passing resemblance to one of the briefly glimpsed figures in the Cantina...

Looks like I painted his 'horn' a different color, though.

Shady Kryomek character.  Blends right in in the Cantina, though.

The infamous amateur surgeon Dr. Evazan.  The movie doesn't give you the impression that Walrus Man's partner would be a surgeon of any kind, but whatever.  I remember the character in the film being dressed in what seemed like mostly rags instead of this more Han Solo type outfit, but there you go.

"Ey!  He doesn't like you!  I don't like you eevah!  You just watch yourself!  I got da deff sentence on twelve systems!"  My wife hates it when I quote from Star Wars ad nauseam so I'm teaching our son to do it with me.

"Ooorrkk!  Yoork Oork urgk!"

These are probably my favorite figures of the lot.  Painting ol' Walrus Man stirred sharp memories of playing with my brand new Walrus man figure that my Mom had just bought for me in our TV room.  I couldn't have been more than 6 or so then, but I remember that chilly evening so well.  Funny, the things that stick with you.  Dr. Evazan is a nice figure.  The figure was originally armed with a very slender scalpel, but it was so thin that no matter what I did it would always break off so I replaced it with a more robust knife which I think looks better anyway.

Later I grew up, sorta, and found out his name is Ponda Baba.  Sorta like Mr. Hammerhead.  

The Modal Nodes get down...

"You will never find a more wretched hive..."

Some interesting raw footage of the Cantina scene

And then, in some even weirder, alternate universe that none of us will ever be able to understand, there was...somehow...this.  Yeah.  Walrus Man gettin' down with Bea Arthur.  Yes.  It happened. I'm sorry.  But not nearly as sorry as I am about The Force Awakens.  No, that was much, much worse than this.  I actually saw this when it came out on Network TV when I was maybe 5 or 6.  It was a pretty big deal to me at the time...

Alien Fauna

 I'm preparing a crowd of civilian NPC types who can wander around Skummburg and add some color to the place, but I thought I'd like to have some of the local wildlife too.  These critters were all giveaways with the latest Colony 87 kickstarter.

 Slush Puppy.  Native to mud holes and landfills through out the Wailing Reach.  When cleaned up and raised from pups they make loyal and intelligent pets.

 The Scrub Dragon is native to the vast deserts of Fargo but has spread throughout the Geminions and is now especially well established on Geminon Secundus.

 Not dangerous to humans if left unmolested but packs a venomous bite in defense.  It's meat is considered especially good eating by some inhabitants of Fargo and Geminion Secundus. 

 The Fungus Humungous is known to grow to tremendous size in the dank climate of its home world of Proteus.  In arid climates it tends to remain limited to the more modest size shown here, its growth rate being dependent upon the availability of moisture.  It is an active creature, and wanders far on errands whose nature is known only to itself.  Though harmless, larger specimens are known to startle people by warndering by their homes and peering through their windows at night.

 The Rannian Plumed Cat is an amphibian creature native to the Oceanic world of Ran.  It is highly intelligent, curious and mischievous with astonishing powers of mimicry.  Specimens have been known to follow combat units around battlefields, imitating the voices of leaders and giving false commands to their troops.

 In the wild, the ferocious Fargoian Bearger is a menace, often emerging from its deep burrows to attack passersby.  When raised from cubs, however, the make loyal and intimidating guard beasts.

 The hedge hog-like Wubb is known for its intelligence, inquisitiveness and staggering birth rate.  Left untended populations can swiftly get out of control.  They are popular pets with children throughout the Wailing Reach.

More denizens of Skummburg on the way!

Star Wars: Imperial Army Infantry Platoon Pt 2: 3rd Squad and Command Section

Reinforcements for my Imperial Infantry platoon for Star Wars Miniature Battles.  Another Squad of ten troopers with mixed weapons and an officer with a Death Star Droid and three Bodyguards.

This squad is mostly armed with heavy laser pistols just because that's what I had left. 

The platoon leader is the General Veers figure.  He didn't come out very well, but you can't win 'em all.  Or I can't, anyway.

I am pretty pleased with how his death star droid came out,  however.  The droid serves as translator and platoon medic.

...he also keeps tabs on the platoon leader for his Imperial masters.

So that's the platoon so far.  I think it looks okay.  I'm debating whether to add a fourth squad and a heavy weapons section, or to just call it good and move onto other projects.  It's not as if I'm short on other projects or anything...