Nosherz 'Ard Boy Blog, Finished! Options

[Da Boss]

Great work nosher, you are probably the only boss here who's work screams sheer volume. Loving the blue too, it pops up the models and doesn't have that blue tinge that would have reminded me of hated ultramarines

[Warboss Mick]

Fantastic painting job u did there so far, looking forward to more .

[Nosher]

Thank you Nazbad, Boss & Mick - my army is huge & always growing. I know there are many better painters here, & I'm comfortable with that because I only spend so much time on each mini. I have 500+ painted orks with plans to paint another 200+ - so I paint to a level that I can maintain over the long haul (3-4 hours per ork, max) and move on.

I'm just happy that they look good as an army, & I'm glad that you like them!

[Nosher]

Another small update.

I've finished another 10 'ard boyz, bringing my 2nd ever 'ard boyz mob (painted back in 2003 or so) up to the current 30 boy limit. I tried to match their color scheme as closely as I could, but as I dry-brushed EVERYTHING back then, and I only drybrushed lighter blue shades onto these, they aren't an exact match. I think they look similar enough to be able to distinguish them as being from the same mob on the table.

So - here are a handful of close-ups of the new boyz, and a group shot of the completed mob.













These bring my finished total up to 110 'ard boyz (4 mobs, 3 X 30, 1 X 20) to date. Only 70 more to go!

[Warboss Mick]

Looks great once again!

[Nosher]

Another update - this is the last of the small updates, adding 10 replacements to my 3rd mob of 'ard boyz from the 3rd edition codex. Again, I didn't replicate the dry brushing I used back then, but I think they're a pretty good match, and I'm happy with the little conversions, weapons swaps & use of bitz.

Hope you like them:






and a couple of group shots of the whole mob:




Next up - starting on the 2 new mobs of 30...

Edit - these 10 boyz include all 3 of the shoulder plates I got from Kromlech. You get these shoulder plates with the Kromlech sluggas, & I really like them. Pawel, if you're reading this, you should sell sprues of these shoulder plates, I think they'd sell well. I know I'd buy them!

[Warboss Mick]

Looks great, maybe i steal the idea off some off the shoulderpads . Cant wait to see more.

[Nosher]

Here's a small update on the blorc headed 'ard boyz mob. I seem to have misplaced their nob (he's got the metal blorc standard skull for a head), but he'll turn up eventually I'm sure. The dark/bright blue is watered down Regal Blue (pot has to be at least 6 years old...) and the results are mixed. Not sure if I'm going to stick with the regal or not at this point. All "flat" shoulders are going to get the black & white checkered Goff treatment - to show that these guys either A) came from Hakbash's goff army or B) looted kit off his boyz. Either way, they're an Orkfest commemorative unit - Hakbash & I have done at least a dozen megabashes together now, so I figure a Goffy Deffskull mob is long-past due.

Please let me know what you think of the blue:












A couple group shots:




Obviously none of these are finished - I just wanted to let people get a feel for how the mob's going to look, give them a look at my BS conversions and ask for feedback about the blue. I like it on a couple of the shoulders plates, not so well on the helmets, and I'm increasingly thinking I'm going to have to go with something else. In the old days I'd have just painted it Regal & dry-brushed it with something else to highlight details, but I'm trying to get away from dry-brushing these days.

As I see it, Regal will either look crap on dark, Goffy boyz, or the bright blue will look cool juxtaposed against the grim Goff colors. I'm undecided at this point, and starting to have 2nd thoughts.

[Warboss Mick]

I think the blue u had before is more comfortable for the eye's but the dark blue turns out quite nice allso . Cant wait for more progresss . ( now u made me want to buy a box of Black Orcs for the helmets in the future) ...

[KingNic]

Heya Nosh, the Orks look great man. I completely understand trying to get away from drybrushing. Have you looked at P3 paints at all? I think the Cygnar blues might be right up your alley, particularly Exile Blue, Cygnar Blue Base and Cygnar blue highlight.

[Nosher]

Thank you Warboss Mick & KingNic - the blue is the problem. How to paint a Deffskull who looks kinda like a Goff? I'd like to leave he cheques 'till last (minimize the chance that I'll accidentally mess them up), but I've gotta find a blue that looks good with the checks (& the generally black/grey color scheme of this mob).

I could try painting bitz grey & then hitting them with blue ink, to get a more somber blue-grey color, though I'd have to be really careful to get even coverage (no pooling) with the ink. Hmmm...

@KnigNic - thanks for the suggestion, I'll check those out while I'm at it.

[KingNic]

You could also look at the blue hues in the Vallejo Model colour range. Model colour tends to less vibrant than typical miniature paints. Colour chart on the second page here. The Prussian blues or French mirage blue might be interesting for a grey-blue as well.

You could try a couple of techniques for making them look like Goffs>Deffskull crossovers. You could try making the blue look painted over the top of the goff things by painting the goff colours first, then deliberately messily painting an outline of blue over the top. Then highlight the edges of the blue to emphasize the transition.

You could also try salt weathering. I've become a massive fan of it Normally it's just a two layer process: Rust>Salt/Hairspray>Top coat, but you could easily do: Rust>Salt/Hairspray>Goff>Salt/Hairspray>Deffskull. This will give a really good set of layers and doesn't actually take as long as it sounds. You've no need to do anything other than flat coats of paint for the rust and goff sections, and only need to concentrate on highlighting the blues.

[Nosher]

Awesome suggestions KingNic!

I've used & love Vallejo - I actually have their Prussian, Dark Prussian & transparent blues on my shelf right now. Sounds like I need to paint up a test mini! As for salt-weathering, I've never tried it (or anything quite so ambitious on an individual ork) - I'll definitely research the process!

[Greylikestorms]

That's an impressive bunch of boys you've got there! I love the shots of the entire bunch all collected together, it's inspiring. What model are you using for your warboss? He looks really killy too.

[Nosher]

Thank you Grey - the latest bunch are nearly done, I took KingNic's advice & went with Vallejo Prussian Blue & just have Goffy details & bases left to do. My warboss (Nosher) is Nightserpent's handiwork. He started life as a metal warboss with an attack squig - but then was heavily converted with bitz, plasticard, & extensive green stuff sculpting. If you do a search of Nightserpent threads with "Nosher" in the title I'm sure you'll find tons of finished & wip photos of him.

[Greylikestorms]

That's brilliant! It was the face that threw me, since I'd never seen it before. I used the warboss with attack squig model as my warboss for my fantasy army - ordered the body, head, and squig arm back when you could still order bitz from GW. He ended up with a sword arm from a metal boar boss, and I took the squig off his pointing hand. I was pretty happy with the simple conversion.

[Nosher]

OK - here's a small update.

I've begun painting Goff cheques, and it's a lot harder than it looks. Not all of these boyz will have them (18 will), just enough to give the mob as a whole a distinctively Goffy look. Again, the idea is that these guys are veterans from a campaign involving Hakbash - and they looted some kit off his boyz while we were there.

So - here are a few, nearly finished 'ard boyz:







My first attempts at cheques (still too sloppy, not finished):



With any luck I'll have this mob finished this week before school starts up again.

[Warboss Mick]

Looks great so far, cant wait to see them finished .

[Nosher]

Right - another mob of these done.

The blue is Vallejo Prussian Blue, which I think is somber enough to go with the greys, blacks & bare metal of a Goff influenced mob. They aren't Goff 'ard boyz, so I didn't go full Goff - they're just Deffskullz who spent too much time around Hakbash's stinky self & brought home some souvenirs.

Anyway - a couple big group shots:





Some smaller, more detailed pics:












As a quick count will tell you, this is only 29 boyz. Their nob is still MIA - I know he's here somewhere, I'm sure he's just buried in a bitz box, waiting to be found.

[Warboss Mick]

Impressive amount off work you did again, big respect the number off models your painting with this quality!