The Nob Squad

Got the first unit of Freeboota Nobz painted:

(click to enlarge)

I'm pretty pleased with how they came out - I was a bit nervous about doing the stripes, but they came out okay.  (I suspect I'll get better at them with practice).  The biggest "duh" moment I had was when I painted the pants Bleached Bone to simulate a linen color, then tried to wash just the crevices & stitches - it left big dark splotches and looked terrible.  Then I realized if I painted the stripes first and applied the wash to the entire legs after, it made the linen look more natural and made the stripes tie in better.  I'm also really happy with the highlighting method I've worked out - originally I was trying to do traditional hardline highlights on the black, and it didn't look very good.  I wound up doing a very light drybrushing of heavily thinned Adeptus Battlegray, and it looks really natural.  I've got four more squads of Nobz to do, and my plan is to give them all different color stripes to distinguish them from each other (and to make it fair for opponents, as some will be elites, and the others will be given their own warboss so they can count as scoring troops)...

Wheelin' & Dealin'

...so I was perusing Craigslist a few weeks ago looking for deals when I came across this ad:

(click to embiggen)

I emailed the seller and asked for a list of what was included, and got the following reply:

1 orc warboss

1 orc army standard

1 orc boar chariot

3 night goblin fanatics

20 night goblins

20 black orcs

35 black orc warriors

10 forest goblin spider riders

Okay, so after searching around a bit, it appears it's this army box from a few years ago.    $75 isn't a bad price if everything is in good shape, and I haven't resolved my "haggling phase" yet.  I email the guy and tell him that I'm interested, and ask if everything is complete.  He replied:

"yes all of the pieces are there and I'm also throwing in my warhammer starter set thats goblins vs dwarves for free"

I told him I'd like to take a look at it, and tried to set up a time to check it out.  This started a two-week-long wild goose chase - it soon became obvious that I was dealing with a teenage kid, and apparently I got the only one on the planet who goes days at a time without checking his email.  He was trying to co-ordinate any potential meeting times with his Mom, who would have to give him a ride.  I eventually cut out the middle man and offered to meet Mom at her workplace, which wasn't too far away.  After killing three hours after my shift one day (when I would usually be home sleeping) so I could meet at a time that was convenient for her, I showed up and she had forgotten to bring anything with her.  I almost gave up then, but she mentioned that it was "... a whole bunch of stuff, a few big boxes".  Something told me to give it one more shot.  I finally managed to meet with her a couple of days later.

I didn't haggle.  I gave her the money, threw the stuff in my truck and drove away.

It was a trash bag full of Fantasy & 40K.

The bag was full of scattered sprues and flattened boxes, so it took me a while to sort through everything and figure out what was all there - here's the final tally:

The Orcs & Goblins Army that was originally mentioned in the ad - one model has been assembled & partially painted, everything else is still on the sprues.  (I prefer items to be unpainted when I'm buying used).

A complete Battle for Skull Pass starter set.  Models have been built & primed black, but not painted.  Has all the templates, books, dice, etc.

A Battle for Macragge starter set - it's missing the bottom half of the cardboard box, and the marines & a large terrain piece have been poorly painted, but it's all there.

A Space Marine Commander box.  He's been painted, but nothing a bath in some Simple Green won't fix.  All the parts sprues appear intact.

A Space Marine Assault Squad box.  Mostly unbuilt (I think a few of the legs have been glued to the torsos, but that's about it).  

A copy of the "How to Make Wargames Terrain" book.

A set of Warhammer counters (I have the one that's missing in the above pic, I just misplaced it on my desk somewhere)...

A giant container of flocking, and, dumping out the dregs in the bottom of the box...

...a random assortment of 12mm cowboys, indians & horsies, and ...an eyeliner pencil?  (Maybe he was a cowboy / goth kid, or something?)

So overall, I think I did pretty good for seventy-five bucks - I haven't done the math yet, but along with the other deal I got and the couple of models I've bought off the shelf, I should be able to field a few thousand points of Fantasy Orcs & Goblins...

Orcs & Goblins Army Book

I stopped by the game shop and picked up the Orcs & Goblins army book the other day:

...as every other blog & web site has pointed out, this is the first army book / codex that Games Workshop has printed as a hardback, and in full color throughout:

...I do have to say, it's a gorgeous book - since painting & modeling is the majority of the hobby for me and I'm always looking for inspiration, my favorite part of the codexes are always the color photos of the painted models.  I've heard a lot of grousing from the tournament players about the hardback being less "travel friendly", but I've had lots of problems with my softcover codexes falling apart, and I tend to treat them pretty gently.  I'll gladly take a few more ounces in weight and a few more dollars in price, if it means that I don't have to laminate the book with packing tape to hold it together, like I've had to do with the last few 40k codexes I've bought.

As far as the rules / changes - I have no idea.  :-)  Sorry, but I'm brand-new to fantasy, having just acquired the beginnings of an Orcs & Goblins army, and haven't even really delved into the ruleset at all yet.  I've heard some people complain that the changes were very, very minor, and this book is almost a reprint of the old book - well, I didn't have the old book, so I can't speak to that...

New Squarebase Models

I picked up some new Fantasy models for my long-term Orcs & Goblins project the other day:

...some Orc Boar Boyz & some Night Goblin Fanatics.  I mainly picked up the Boar Boyz because I remember when the models came out and I really liked the look of them, to the point where I seriously considered trying to find a way to work them in to my 40K Ork army.  Of course, right after I bought these, GW announced that there will be new Savage Orc Boar Boyz available next month.  (And I've been trying to intentionally hold out on Fantasy purchases until the new Orc book hits).

I bought the Night Goblin Fanatics mainly because I was reading about how they play, and the unit sounds like a ton of fun.  What funny is that after I put the models into my "to do" pile, my wife came into my studio one night while I was painting - she saw the Fanatics and said "*gasp* Are you building Goblin Witches?!?  Cool!!"  (she thought "witches" because of the Fantaics' pointy hats, you see).  While she's always been supportive of my hobbies (she's a gamer herself), the sci-fi "flavor" of 40K has never appealed to her - she's always been interested in fantasy novels, movies, etc.  I might have to paint up the Dwarfs from the Skull Pass box and see if she want to try a game someday...