Ahoy!
Just giving a lil' Orktober update. I started on the first day, and I've knocked out a few models in the first week! Two were done with speedpaints in a classic way(some drybrush zenithal, 1 coat of speedpaints), and two with 'double-chop'(or, double-glaze over grisaille; basically a drybrush zenithal, dark speedpaint coat, a smaller, bright drybrush, and then a lighter speedpaint coat for more richness.) One was done a little more classic(the Leader with the two swords). Mostly sticking to my Army Painter Fanatics/Speedpaints for these so far, with the occasional dip into a Scale 75 metallic or Citadel paint.
I do plan on rocking a couple of grimdark ones at the end(grimdark-style oldschool over the top minis? Why not see how it turns out?), but for now here's the finished ones! With, of course, green bases. I couldn't do these in anything else with good conscience.
The Leader Waaagh! (From Ruglud's Armored Orcs, circa about '87. All of these following ones are done from that box.)
Leader:
Speedpainted Four:
Here's another Trooper, and two Rogue Trader era boyz, all also done more in the traditional style(acrylics, washes, some effects paints.)
Currently I'm working on a Trooper that I'm gonna attempt in the more grimdark style. They do have the goofier over the top appearances, but I think I might be able to go into the direction of the old Warcraft 1+2 orc art for that, which seemed to marry that darker style with more exaggerated features. Another is also probably going to float that way since he'll be done in Zorn colors(close to it, at least), using just 4 colors from the Army Painter's John Blanche set(The Darkness, Sunburst Ochre, Ivory White and Fiery Vermillion). The Darkness I personally count as the 'black' of the Zorn palette-it's a cool black(it's really a black-blue-green), but those extra pigments kinda help with mixing(the traditional Zorn black IS a cool black, FWIW, that ends up as a bluish-grey when mixed with the ivory), so I think it works.
I am allowing myself 1 metallic, 2 washes and an effect paint from the JB set(Heavy Metal, Grimdark Shadow, Voodoo Shade and Grim Rust) to polish him up with, but the limited palette sticks. (Voodoo Shade and Grimdark Shadow are dark yellowish and black washes respectively, so they actually do fall pretty nicely into it.) This guy will be the one that falls out of the stealth mode-I can get a *kinda* purplish color with the red, but vermillion was the better pick between the Blanche reds, and it's quite warm, so doesn't quite work out too much, but I'll see if I can pop on some embellishments with it.
There will be 3 more boyz(I do have a Goblin from the set but maybe he can be an honorary member at the end), which I will still decide how to do them. If I finish before the end of October, then I'll probably do up the Goblin for funsies and start assembling new models. November I will be doing a lot of fantasy stuff(I think I'll do some dwarf models here and there for No-Shave November), otherwise no real theme, I got some nice new Reaper Metal Miniatures, 3 old White Lions of Chrace and a Korhil Lionmane(also metal) model, though I think I'm saving most of the elves for December(Elf on the Shelf.) But no real set lineup, I'll probably do a couple elves in November too, and whatever else I get my hands on.
I am also considering a Starter Set Challenge. This is where I grab a starter set(I will be getting the Army Painter one), and put it through the wringer painting not only whatever comes with the thing(if anything), but also painting up some other models using what's only in the set, plus a couple of mundane, around the house items a new painter might have(a water cup, a paper towel, sand for bases since I'd think a lot of people might have some kind of glue in a drawer somewhere.) This is to partially review a set, and to give myself some practice, too! The Army Painter Starter is only 30-35e depending on the shop, a real steal, and while I have most of the colors in it, I can always use extra black, white, brush-on primer(for those cold days), and Strong Tone wash, all of which get a lot of use from me. Between those and the missing color(I think I am only missing Ultramarine Blue at this point), and the miniature(worth a few bucks alone) and a brush(another fiver, even if it's just a basic one), I think it's not too bad of an investment. (One goes through a lot of black and white for mixing.)
I do have one more piece that wasn't Orktober, and that was a frost-based Death Commando! I did a lot of tweaking, and while I think the effects could've been better on him I'm pretty happy overall.
Fighting Game News?
Yeah, fighting game news! So you might've heard of the game 2XKO, the ill-fated Riot League of Legends fighting game. With a lot of development issues over about a decade, they decided to release it F2P, which I think was the biggest mistake overall, though perhaps well-meaning. It ended up getting news of being made evergreen not long ago, with just one last character-servers would stay up, you can play offline, they'd unlock a bunch of stuff and so on. So it'd be playable, but no longer get active development.
It had a small but dedicated playerbase(I think it could've done better with better marketing and a lot of other stuff, but I think that would need a postmortem from all involved), but I will say for me, the roster was quite lacking. LoL has way too many characters to fit in, but it was a small launch roster with a lot of Arcane characters(Netflix series-wasn't really my cup of tea, I'm a bit more old school with LoL, tho my fav character IS one from the past six years....more on that in a minute.) The choices were oft seen as a bit questionable-there are a lot of really fitting characters for a fighting game on LoL's roster(Lee Sin, Sett-AKA the best boy, who's literally the boss of a FIGHTING ARENA, like he's straight up a Fighting Game character), and so on. Samira is suitable-a Dante-esque character who goes stylish, and she was going to be the final release.
Well, lo and behold, one weird site leak later and it seems like the developers rallied, and in six months managed to make The Boss himself(after some vague tweets about every fighting game needing a final Boss-yes, that's his nickname), Sett, and get him on the roster, and he is glorious, and I'm totally going to be playing him.
He's basically a giant wolverine-man with super strength who is one of the best brawlers in the land. He fights with good old bashing, kicks, slams, and stomps and he has charisma out the ass. His parry is him pointing at himself. He can armor through supers. They basically copied his kit over and expanded on it. Kudos for the devs for managing that perfection soon and I hope he is gloriously busted like in OG fighting game ways.
I wish this would've happened at launch, but I am a 'better late than never' type.
Alrighty, that's the update for now, probably back fairly soon again!
'til next time!
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