Weekly Waffle #381 – Sneak Peak
7th June 2025
For this week’s Weekly Waffle I have been battling with myself about what to do. Things are still really busy at work so hobby time is very limited. But I’m acutely aware that I haven’t given you a hobby update for a few week’s. Although I have enjoyed putting the hobby topic waffles together. So this week I really wanted to give you some hobby content but I just haven’t got anything finished.
So I’m going to break one of the rules I tried to set myself about not sharing work in progress. My thinking is it’s ok to break a rule if really understand why you are breaking it. I put it in place to try and stop me from becoming lazy and not cracking on with projects. But this isn’t about being lazy it’s just life getting in the way of hobby time. So sharing some work in progress is my way of keeping some form hobby content going.
Now even through this is still work in progress it’s a bit of work in progress that is finished. Which I know is a contradiction, but hear me out. What I have is one part of a bigger multi part project. So this small part of it is finished but the full project is still a way off being finished. Now it my mind that means I can share with some hobby content that isn’t just a primed miniature or something like that. It’s a fully finished element that is ready to take its place in the finished project.
I’ve had to do it this way because once finished access to this part would have been a nightmare so it’s a case of painting this first so it can take it’s place before everything gets closed up. It all sounds a bit mysterious but will all make sense in a few week’s, fingers crossed, when it’s all finished and ready to share.
So what we have here is an Orc driver, but what is he driving I can hear you ask. Well if you have been following me for a while you can probably work that out. But if you are new to the site you can either have a look back at some of my previous Orc projects or keep popping back to see the finished project when all will be revealed. I know that’s a bit cruel but I need to do something to try and get you come back.
Right from the start of this mini I did things a little bit different. Once I had cleaned up the min, which really didn’t take long because the quality is top notch. Instead of going with the black Vallejo Surface Primer that I have used for years I went down a different road. I switched up my primer and used some AK 3rd Gen Russian Green Primer instead. This was partly because I wanted to try out the AK primers and secondly if the skin was going to be green why not start with green primer.
It’s the first time I’ve used the AK primers and they have a very different feel to the Vallejo ones I’m used to. First up, and this may be just because of shipping, but they really needed to be shaken well. I use a desktop vortex machine to shake my paints and I gave this the normal 30 seconds before I pored a bit but all that came out was a clear medium with no pigment. So I went back to the vortex for a couple of minutes before the paint appeared to be mixed properly. I’ve never come across that before but once it was fully mixed up it went on nice and even.
Now I’ve painted countless orc’s over the years but I still haven’t come up with a standard way of painting their skin. I have that many greens in my collection that I can never remember what I used on the last batch. And that has been similar her with me using a mix of AK 3Gen and Citadel greens. Although I have to say I am happy with how it is turned out.
I did try to make the left arm with the sword a little lighter than the rest of the mini because this is going be outside of the vehicle once everything has been finished. I really didn’t want to make it any lighter or it would end up looking like a grot.
Although I am considering going back and glazing the rest of the mini down so that it looks darker. Because there wouldn’t be any direct light reaching it. Working on that assumption that a mini is never finished and you can always go back to it at a later date to improve on it. Just in this cast I’m considering that before the rest of the min is finished.
I’m happy with the black straps, especially because there is no actual black on them. They it’s just a dark grey and then two lighter shades of grey to do the edge highlights. It gives that illusion of being black because that is really how we perceive colour in the real world. But I’ve never really ben able to make it work before. Or at least I have never consciously done it. Whereas in this instance I set out to paint it like this so I happy with how it turned out. And I gave myself a little pat on the back.
The blue was just a simple two step process that I’ve used on lots of my orc’s and other minis. I really like how it looks and giving some hints to the overall project it helps to distinguish the driver. I used the same blue on the wrap for this sword just to add a little bit colour.
The sword blade and the other metallic areas have just been done with metallic paints. Washed with some Nuln Oil and then edge highlighted to give them a little bit of pop. I Also added a bit of a blue tint to the blade but I may have been a bit too subtle so I may come back to that again at some point.
Overall though I’m really happy with how this first part has turned out and fingers crossed I can keep chipping away at the wider project. I’m also happy I’ve been able to bring you a bit of hobby content and just a waffle. Trying to share that I haven’t lost my mojo. Just my time at the moment. Anyway what do you think of this guy.
You can see more Ork miniatures at my gallery here.
That’s it for this week but I will back again next week. Once again though I have no idea what sort of content I will have for you. I have a few ideas for more of the solely waffle based contend but I’m hopping to have a bit more hobby content for you. I like getting things done, even if it’s only half of a mini. But the waffles are there to make sure I have some content for you.
So until next week I hope you all keep safe. Have lots of fun and success in whatever you have planned. And I will be back here on Saturday morning with another update for you.
