Orcs & Goblins for WHFB and LOTR

Ever since I started using magnets myself I'm always looking for good ideas. One that originally inspired ideas was posted on santa cruz warhammer about switching fantasy and 40K bases for daemons. I loved the idea but am not the biggest daemon fan so it kinda sat on the back burner.

After enjoying myself so much in a local tale of four gamers competition for 40K - I wanted to enter the fantasy event when it ran. Problem was I was kinda stuck in fantasy, all I had left was some chaos bits of the last army I was building when I lost interest (I sold my previous Skaven army I built for a GW staff tournament to finance the new stuff), and no army was really grabbing my attention.

It took a while, but it came to me - I've always liked the randomness of playing with orcs/goblins - but never really fell in love with the models. That's when the idea came to use LOTR orcs, goblins, uruk-hai and trolls, but mount them with magnets for both games.

I just got my shipment of magnets from K&J (HIGHLY recommended) last week, and today I got a chance to sit down and get some gobbos ready. I've got some pics and some tips for magnets I've learned today.

1. Always mark polarity of magnets (I do this as I take one off, mark the next)
2. While John @ scwarhammer drilled nice neat holes leaving some of the base as seperator, I didn't have time for that, so I did it the dirty way. I drilled holes easily large enough for my magnets to pass through, and then taped the top of the base. It only took me about an hour to drill & prep 60 bases.
   
3. Magnets can be pesky to get into place, so where possible - use them to your advantage. For me this meant I would put a magnet down on the table, and then hold the stack of magnets on top of the base, above the hole - so the magnet on the table would just zip up and into place in the superglue. I'm sure anyone whose used magnets a lot knows this - but I sure felt smart when I figured it out so figured I'd share.

and finally here are some pics
magnets under tape
gave some hand magnets to attach standards or nets
gave ALL magnets under quiver to attach shields
here's my goblin captain on the round base

tip request - mud bases??

Really want to base my sharks to look like they're slogging through mud - any tips??

Another good day for toys

Had two packages waiting at home for me today.

• A large LOTR package, including 5 trolls and almost 70 orcs/uruk-hai.
• My recent order from bits & kits, mixed feelings, great prices - but these guys always seem to screw up little things (first order was missing 1 shoulder pad, but had 5 backpacks), another order was missing 2 sentinel cabin bits, though the order sheet in the package said it would be refunded. This order had a vindi siege shield, some random bits for my Space Sharks and 100 Space Marine heads. They were on sale for 1 pence, so for around $2 I got a ton of heads. Even better though it said they would all be mk7, at least 4 beakies were included. I also got the 2 metal sentinel cabin bits that were missing from the previous order. Except.. I ordered a bunch of 20mm square bases and they sent 25mm round - yeeesh!

Anyways - time to get painting!

Space Sharks - BoLS Badab entry comments

I would really appreciate constructive criticism for my BoLS entry. Not in terms of "winning" next time, but in terms of really polishing her off with the little details.

So far here are some ideas I've had, let me know what you think of these or any other ideas you might have.

• "Danger/Hot" symbols around exhausts, rear of H/K missile, etc. (seems that space marines wouldn't need to know or indeed even care but ??)
• Naming the vehicle. Definitely not along the line's of "Blood of the Deep" but I was thinking more like just a generic female name, like Eileen or Susan.

Please tell me your thoughts!

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 14

Had another game vs. Matt at Two Headed Dragon, where I managed to scrape out a win 2-1 in the last turn of the game - very lucky as the kick scattered right into the hands of my second thrower after Matt scored the tying touchdown. I did a little better at not being too excited, but still made some mistakes. Some key points, Matt managed to injure all three of my black orcs enough to make them miss the next game and my new one got a niggling injury, my troll outright killed one of his linerats, my second thrower gained all his experience from a casualty and a touchdown, and then Hurt Warn'r stepped into the game for the last three turns, intercepted Matt's pass and coolly proceded to throw a touchdown pass and deservedly picked up the MVP!

Also convinced Matt he has to show some progress in painting otherwise he loses inducement $, important since my team rating is a pretty monstrous 175.

Currently
W/D/L
4/2/6

Badab APC challenge - 4th place

Well the Badab APC challenge voting is over. I placed a respectable 4th out of the amazing entries, scoring just under 300 votes out of the near 2500 votes received. Nate's highly detailed Salamanders twin heavy flamer razorback just edged out Andy G's Raptors twin heavy flamer razorback by 14 votes in the final hours of voting.

Congrats to all the competitors, just goes to show the quality of 40K community - all of the entries were fantastic! I hope this spurs BoLS to hold more contests (especially Badab war related as many of my planned marine chapters fall into that category) and I especially can't wait for the scenario pack to make use of my guys in fun games.

ps. 50th blog post. :)

A good day for toys

Well today had a few surprises in store for me - three in fact! A bunch of stuff I had coming to me from trades and purchases all arrived at once.

• Got a box of moria goblins I had coming from a trade to add to the 60 odd I have already.
• Got my order from a local (same province) retailer which was some more evil LOTR stuff to round out the gobbos I've already gotten a bit, including a shaman, captains and a mordor siege bow (will use as counts as spear chukka). Still on the fence with these guys as it took 7 days to contact me that an item was on back-order, and then after confirming I was still getting the free paint brush set through email my order didn't have it. Waiting on a reply.
  
• Also finally got my stuff from a long ordeal with an online retailer. Basic premise was a friend purchased a box of AoBR and called to make arrangements for the Space Marine portion to get mailed to me. Well 48 days later after many many emails I finally got a box from the retailer. While it did have a number of extra goodies, including an extra AoBR captain, a Pedro Kantor and a Rhino chassis - it didn't have any of the bases!! Will never deal with this particular retailer again.
  

Space Sharks - getting caught up on troops

Due to the BoLS contest I ended up painting the razorback before the squad got finished. Has definitely inspired me to get working on the troops I had undercoated because fielding the razorback without any sharks on the table is bound to bring bad luck, and I want to field that razorback!!! To that end I put a bunch of time into the first tactical squad and command squad over the weekend.

I also did a touch more on my undead blood bowl team, but just three quick piccy's of the sharks for now.

Command Squad


Tac squad 3

Badab APC Challenge voting starts

The voting has begun at BoLS for the Badab APC challenge.
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/03/40k-voting-badab-apc-challenge.html

Currently in fourth place, some gorgeous models have been submitted, even another Space Sharks razorback with a dorsal fin!

Head over and vote!

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 13

I missed day 12 last week. Made it in this week for a short time and had one game against Matt. By the end of the first half, I was winning 2-1, but game ended 2-3 for Matt. I had good luck in the first half and terrible luck in the second (including my troll managing to gimp himself on a 3 dice block!), but I have no one to blame but myself. The biggest thing I learned today was that I need to keep excitement separate from playing, I had managed to recover the ball with a black orc after a scrum behind my line of scrimmage. Instead of taking the safe route and pulling a couple guys back to surround the ball carrier, I tried to make a go for it roll and failed it twice! This definitely lost me the game and I need to try and stop making excited stupid decisions.

Currently
W/D/L
3/2/6

Space Sharks - final Badab APC challenge entry

Here's my final entry I just sent in to BoLS.

Fluff
This vehicle was designated APC 3 of the Space Sharks - Green Company at the beginning of the Badab war and operated as a transport for Squad 3. During the war, the Captain of Green Company ordered functioning sponson weapons recovered from wrecked Land Raiders to be assembled as firepower turrets for available Rhino APCs. APC 3 was retrofitted with a turret and tallied 7 tank kills over the course of the war.

Final 3 pics

Space Sharks - on track for Badab APC hobby challenge cut-off date

Well I managed to get quite a bit more done today. All the basecoats are fully done, and I've gone ahead and added the decals. I have to touch up one of the side teeth and then touch up all the grey areas before doing some edge highlighting and weathering. Definitely pleased with the way it's turning out. :)

Here's a quick half dozen shots in various configurations.

Rhino config




Razorback config



Plus a close up of gunner and kill markings on turret