New brush time. How about Windsor and Newton Series 7s?

This is just a brief interjection before I get on with part 3 of my Orcs and Goblins posting.

I'm painting up my Deathwing now and I've come to realise it's time to buy some new brushes. My current set have been going for over a year now and while they're in decent shape, they're forking quite a lot not, making it hard to keep the detail painting going. My GW brush forked a while ago after just a month or so of use, so that's no help.I've heard rave things about the Windsor and Newton Series 7 brushes and wonder if it's time for me to invest in a set of them.

Does anybody have any experience with these brushes and what sizes to pick up? I was thinking of a size 2, a size 1 and a size 0 so I would have a range to work with.

Thankyou

Pete

WFB Orcs and Goblins using just a sprinkle of GW for flavour. Pt 2: Saving money ;-)

To continue our look at making an orcs and goblins army on something of a budget, here are some price comparisons and ideas for saving those precious dollars/pounds/euros/florints/yen etc. ;-)

I know that many people buy from online retailers who offer discounts but for this post I'll keep everything on RRP or it will get very confusing with all the different places you can buy. Also, I'm rounding everything up to the nearest £ so don't have to type endless .99 etc.

1x Orc Mega army from Mantic (96 figures) = £100
1x Orc Ax horde from Mantic (30 figures) = £25
3x Night Goblin regiments = £63
1x Giant = £31
1x Arachnarok spider = £36
2x Goblin bolt throwers from Ramshackle Games = £9

Total = £264

Now if I want to be even cheaper, I'd drop the night goblins for now and either the giant or the spider, making the total around £170. Either that or I'd track down a set or two of the Goblins from the old Battle for Skull Pass Warhammer set. If anybody has the gobbos models from Skull Pass they'd be willing to sell/trade (I have metal Grey Knight Terminators), please drop me a line ;-)

Skull Pass Gobbos, have you seen us?


So the basic army I can build from this is as follows:

- Warboss on boar
- 40 Black Orcs
- 10 Boar Boyz
- 75 Orc Boyz
- 60 Night Goblins
- 2 Speak Chukkas
- Giant
- Arachnarok spider

Now for a brief comparison of cost vs GW sets.

- Orc Warboss = £17
- 4x Black Orcs = £104
- 1x Boar Boyz = £16
- 6x Orc Boyz = £108
- 2x Night Gobbos = £42
- 2x Spear Chukkas = £38
- 1x Giant = £31
- 1x Arachnarok spider = £36
- 1x O&G Battalion (15 boyz, 20 gobbos, 5 boar boyz, 10 spider riders) = £60

Total = £452
Difference = £188 looking at RRP, or

To be fair to GW, the spider riders in the battalion are extra, so I should knock £19 off the difference to account for buying a set of them to match.

Adjusted difference = £169.

Not a bad saving in my mind. Once you add in the discount from online retailers, you can knock a bit off each total as both Wayland Games and Maelstrom Games stock Mantic and offer shipping within the EU.

Ordering from both (and Ramshackle) to take advantage of the prices on offer, I come out with a total of £224 delivered for everything.

Part 3 coming soon where I put together something of an army list and ask advice from more experienced WFB players.

Pete

WFB Orcs and Goblins using just a sprinkle of GW for flavour. Pt 1: Inspiration

Hey everyone,

I recently had a crazy idea about Warhammer Fantasy. When I first started with GW I was mainly a fantasy player and had a dwarf army. Since then it hasn't piqued my interest compared to 40k and other tabletop miniature games that are availablhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife. That is with the exception of the greenskins. Much like my 40k ork army, which I was sad to pass on (especially after painting 80+ figures), I love the character of the WFB orcs and goblins army.

To me they hearken back to the days when Warhammer and 40k were less streamlined and dark worlds. There was more of a light-hearted dorkiness to a lot of the units and gameplay mechanics that I love. Perhaps it's something of the nostalgia for those innocent early days of wargaming :-)

However there are two big problems for me:

1 - I think the WFB orc boyz look really goofy and I don't like the proportions.
2 - It gets really expensive to make a horde army, especially with GW's prices on basic core unit boxes. I'm not inspired by spending £100 on two units of orcs who will make up basic regiments.

However, I've been browsing the web a bit as I wait for my training to start for my new job and have found a company that can help me out with my two major objections. Enter Mantic Games Orc range

I really like the character of their models compared to GW and the price is great too.

The GW orc looks to me like a caricature with its heroic proportions, where the Mantic orc is hunched and menacing.

I also really like the warboss on a boar that Mantic have going.


Their boar boyz, in my opinion, outdo those offered by GW as well.

GW's boar boyz

Mantic boar boyz


So the models live up to my standards, certainly with respect to making large blocks of troops. I know that there will be more repetition of model types using Mantic orcs as they are not the same kind of multi-part kit that you find from GW orcs, but in a big regiment of 20+, I think the difference between them will be less noticeable than when comparing individual figures.

When browsing the Mantic site, I notice the following deal for an Orc Mega Army

For £99 retail you get:
- Orc Krudger (warboss) on boar
- 10 x Plastic Resin Gore (boar) Riders with Command Group
- 20 x Plastic Orc Greatax with Command Group (Two handed weapon)
- 20 x Plastic/Metal Orc Morax with Command Group (Twin axes)
- 45 x Plastic Orc Ax with Command Group (boyz)
- (Enough little snotling-like additions on the sprues to make two or three bases)

Mmmm greenskin horde


Now that a solid bulk of the army is there, what from GW just can't be replicated elsewhere? Well, there are three big things for me that I would consider from GW. These are the parts that add some flavour you can't find elsewhere. When you're just getting the odd bit at GW prices it makes a horde army a lot less daunting.

- The Giant. Great model, lots of options for construction and fun to play with.
- The Arachnarok spider. Expensive but a really nice big plastic kit. Plus forest goblin riders are just cool.
- Night goblins and forest goblins. The little buggers are just awesome and have the fun of fanatics, netters, spider riders. I am also a big fan of Warlord Skarsnik.

So a possible purchasing block could look like this:

- Army deal from Mantic.
- Additional Boar boyz and orcs from Mantic
- Giant from GW
- Arachnarok from GW
- Couple of Night goblin regiments with fanatics from GW.
- Some forest goblin spider riders from GW
- Skarsnik and Gobbla from GW

So there's the gem of my next idea to go alongside my Deathwing army. Part 2 of this post will look at some cost savings from using the Mantic range. Part 3 will put up a basic army list using the models I've found.

All the best,

Pete

Painting display models

Hey everyone,

Been very busy recently getting myself settled into my new life in Bratislava, Slovakia where I'm teaching English (for more info see here http://pete-teaches-in-bratislava.blogspot.com) so not much time to do anything wargaming related. I've managed to keep up to date on blogs and internet news for the most part but haven't broken out the brushes or even taken my models out of their packed state since June 28th when I put them away before flying here. Since I haven't yet managed to find any gaming groups around here and I'm not sure I'll have lots of evenings free to play wargames, I was thinking of getting a fancy model or two to really go to town on and make into display pieces.

The two possible models that have caught my eye for now are:

Ruby from Studio Mcvey



...and the completely crazy option of Elspeth Von Draken on a Carmine Dragon from Forge WorldRaaargh

Mmmm, insanely fine detailing

Now the difference between this two are primarily scale and cost. Ruby fits on a 50mm base and costs about £27 shipped, whereas Elspeth would set me back something like £80 shipped. Quality-wise I would trust Studio Mcvey more but then again this is a new model from Forge World so the moulds are likely to still be good.

The main concern I have with both of these is making sure that my painting lives up to the quality of the models.

Have any of you painted models that were intended almost entirely for display? If so, how do you suggest going about it, especially for something as big as Elspeth? What's the best way to maintain interest during such a long and complex project? What techniques should be mastered before going about such a task? Paint in pieces then assemble? Create a fancy base for the model in case I want to game with it in the future?

As you can tell I'm both excited and intimidated by the idea of either of these models. Who knows, with a good enough effort over time they might even be somethiing I can sell for a profit. I can dream right? ;-)

All the best,

Pete