Weekly Waffle #341 – The Dark Knight
13th July 2024
For this week’s Weekly Waffle I’ve had a total and utter mojo failure. It’s the first major mojo failure I’ve had this year and it has hit me like a train wreck. I have been working on another Necromunda project which is turning into my albatross. It’s about the third time I’ve tried to paint this gang and I’ve failed every time. Now there is a slight difference this time and that is that I’m not going to fail. It’s just going to take me longer than I wanted. But just to manage expectations don’t expect anything spectacular. It’s not that sort of paint job. I’ve just set some rules for which colours can go next to each other. That in turn means it takes a long time to check everything before applying paint. But I am going to get it done.
So because I’ve been struggling and I wanted to keep up my posting run. I haven’t missed a weekend update this year. With the exception of the ones I planned to miss because I was away. So to keep this going I’ve had a chance of vide and gone back to some trusty Orks. It’s a case of when in doubt stick with what you know.
I don’t know what exactly it is about building and painting Orks but I just love them. Even though I’m not playing 40k at the moment I’m still looking of ways to expand my Ork collection. And I think because I’m not playing I’m not really that bothered about where I get my models from. It’s not like I’m going to be rocking up at a GW event and then saying my models aren’t game legal and stopping me from playing. As long as they are WYSIWYG and my opponent can clearly identify them that’s all that matters to me. Couple that with us looking more and more at One Page Rules and you never know they could find their way onto a table top after all.
So I’ve headed my box of Puppet War miniatures and this week I am presenting to you the Orc Boss Bruise Pain. Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out who he is based on and I think he originally came along when they did their film based vehicle. And let’s face it you don’t get much more iconic than the Bat Mobile. But having said that I still haven’t picked it up. I think that is because part of me can’t see it in any colour other than black. But black doesn’t fit my army feel so I haven’t got it.
Now I picked this guy up simply because I didn’t think I would be actually using him in a game but just because it’s a cool looking mini. And I never really intended to paint him all in black. Partly because I don’t like painting black, or not that I don’t like it more that I’m not good at it. But also because I thought he could work in a different colour. In this case going dark red to fit in with my wider army feel. Being speed freaks then everything needs to be red. But why not play around with the tone and not having everything as bright. I wasn’t sure if it would work but it made sense in my head.
I like how he has turned out but I did play around with technique a little bit on this one and tried something I have never done before. Things started off straight forward with a simple black primer but then I tried something a little bit different. I used a damp dry brush technique, has shown by Artis Opus, to start to add some smooth highlights but I used a couple of red brown colours. My plan was to go over these with a red later so but I wanted something that would wouldn’t be to vibrant. But last the same time would keep the red feel of the mini. I then used some dark red contrast paint but shot it through the airbrush. I was trying to get a smoother finish that I could with a brush and I have to say that really liked how it turned out. It still needed some highlights adding but it for me it keeps things dark but still clearly red.
For the rest of the armour I used a dark metallic base which then highlighted before adding the colour. Like on all my other Orks I start with a dark red and build it up to higher red trying to give the impression of wear. This makes the armour lighter than the cloth but it’s the same tone as the rest of my Orks. So in theory it should still work alongside them. Even if it isn’t as vibrant as the rest.
But what do you guys think.
You can see more Ork miniatures at my gallery here.
I’ve enjoyed painting this guy and I’m seriously thinking of picking up the Jet Mobile to go along with him. Mainly because I think it cold look quite good in a dark red instead of black. But I’ll have to see brave I’m feeling because there are other things that I would like to look at before getting the Jet Mobile.
That feels like it has topped up, or at least it’s turned off the low fill warning, of mojo and has kept me on track with my updates. But it has left me with a little bit of a dilemma. That dilemma is do I now go back to trying to finish of the Necromunda gang or do I continue with some more 40k action just to try and bank up some of that mojo. What I really don’t want to do is to abandon the Necromunda gang. I can clearly see who they are going to turn out its just that the process is very tedious and I find it hard to get into a flow when working on them. That means that the painting becomes a chore and because I don’t have as much time is used to do for hobby work I really wan to make the most of it.
I do feel that it’s something we all have to deal with and because I don’t have any deadlines to have anything painted for I’m thinking the Orks may get a bit more of look in. Mainly because I know how I want to paint them so I can concentrate on the actual painting and not the colour scheme. I know what I want them to look like and I know how to achieve that look. So it’s more about practicing and improving the techniques I need to do that. Not thinking should this colour go on this bit of the model as opposed to this bit. That results in getting things finished faster which in turn makes me feel like I’ve made better use of my time.
All a load of waffle at the end of the day because I’m not doing any of this for a living but that’s why I call it a waffle.
Well that’s it for this week. Come back next week to see if Necromunda or Orks; or something completely different. But until then I hope you all keep safe, enjoy whatever you have planned and come and visit me again.
