Warhammer 40K Vox Arx Crusade - Operation 01: Iron Siren

Our little gaming group recently decided to give Warhammer 40K 10th edition another go. As most of us hadn't touched our 40K miniatures in the past year(s) it took a bit of speed reading to take in the rules again. We also decided to play with the Crusade rules from our almost mint (and by now out of print) Tyrannic War source books. This is a battle report of Operation Iron Siren, the first engagement in the Vox Arx Crusade.

Late is the hour in which these Eldar choose to appear.

Classic Space Ork Battle Wagon

One of the best gaming supplements ever written - as far as I'm concerned - is Waaargh the Orks. After fleshing out Chaos in the venerable Realm of Chaos books GW decided to really keep going and give their Space Orks some background. I bought the book way back when it came out in 1991. Even though I curse the decision to give it pre-punched holes for a binder and forsake any glue for the cover I still love it. I even attempted to start a Space Ork army way back then (and sold of most of my models over the years). One of the things I never bought when it came out was a classic Space Ork Battle Wagon (I couldn't scrape the funds together for a full mail order and there was no GW point of sales within reach way back then (and no internet*). Thanks to the miracles of 3D-printing I now have one. Obviously it had to be covered in paint as quickly as possible. No need to paint it red, you don't have to go fasta' when you'z got lots'a teef!

* A horrifying thought, I know

"Fasta' you zogs! We needz'ta leave! 'Oo knows what'll happen when two weirdboyz call shotgun at da same time."

Ork buggy finished

I finished my Ork Buggy this weekend. This vehicle started its life as an Ork Trukk for Gorkamorka. The wonderful combination of scale creep and improvements to model production made it too small to seriously represent a Trukk on a modern gaming table. It does - as far as I'm concerned at least - make for an excellent Ork Buggy, with plenty of dakka as required.

Now to find some suitable targets.

Orctober cometh and it brings...Gretchin?

With my Madboyz finished I've gotten off to a great start for Orctober. Lets see if I can keep that up. The pile of unpainted, half assembled and mostly wrecked orcs in my collection might provide proper fuel. This sad mess has come into existence through that unique combination of impulse purchases, half finished projects and too good not to scoop up second hand deals. Or as us hobbyist call it: the hobby. Time to turn the Orky bit of my hobby into something for the display case. I made a start by (re-)assembling my Killa Kans and adding a random Space Ork vehicle. Here's an end of the hobby day shot.

Quick someone go and get the WD-40!

In come the other Madboyz

Oh dear, I got so carried away with other things, I actually missed the deadline for the painting competition I entered. A day late I did however finish the other two ancient Ork Madboyz I pledged to paint. A day late, or thirty years late? You decide ;)

Who you tryin' ta mess with ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

First fukushima kami-crazy Madboy finished

Painting a miniature that has suffered a few decades of neglect always feels special. This classic Space Ork Madboy is the first of three I've entered into a competition and I'm quite satisfied with him.

I just had to add a modern oversized Space Ork shoota to this model. In case of Orks bigger is better. 

Painting Ork Madboyz step one: Warhammer 40K style Industrial basing for impatient people

My hobby painting got slightly delayed by a major real-life project. I had to build a 1:1 scale shed after a fire wrecked the previous one. Aside from that activity I've got a lot of half finished projects (including some playing around with contrast paints) crowding my painting station and no real inclination to finish anything. Time to end this lazy attitude! Luckily a painting competition was announced on the Oldhammer Community group on Facebook. The mission: to paint Bob Olley sculpts. In other words a call to start a small project with a tight deadline (for painting purposes). Now that sounds like a lot of fun.

Joining a painting competition on the Old Hammer Community is a bit foolhardy. The best painters not actively working as pro-painters tend to hang out here (in my very humbly opinion).

My 40K armies on parade

After unpacking my Age of Sigmar armies I've spent rather a lot of time creating my dream hobby space. A bit more on that later. In the meantime with the final Billy bookcase assembled I could start unpacking my 40K armies. While unpacking these I got a bit worried that it would be a lot less then my fantasy collection. I've always had a soft sport for fantasy. In the end it turned out to be a good thing I upgraded the living room table in the interim as you can see the troops getting squeezed closer together towards the end of the table (please ignore my irresponsible misuse of the space at the start of the table).

As I got to the back of the table, I discovered I had quite a few more troops then expected.