My August Inquisitorial Conclave Painting Challenge entry:

I present to you, Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Oblivi'Anna:

The default choice for that marine helm is of course the space wolves, but ya never know in who's colors I'll actually paint it in. 

Some miniatures earn their names in the heat of battle, others...they just pop into my head at random. This case is of the latter sort. Oblivi'Anna is the Blackstone Fortress Zealot that I bought via ebay some time ago. Armed with her combi-incinerator-chainsword (a truly bizarre weapon), her tactics of the less than subtle sort: KILL IT WITH FIRE! (and if it gets close enough) AND CUT IT TO PIECES TOO!

This rail gun isn't as effective as the Tau models he's studied via
classified Inquisitorial documents, but it's getting there...

I'm going to try and paint up her Jokaero weaponsmith proxy as well. I've never liked the actual Jokaero mini. An orangutan, partially clad in random space suit bits, shooting lasers out of its finger tips...seriously? As opposed to this equally improbable Platypus, in a helmet-less space suit, holding a sorta railgun? Oddly yes, I can dig that. Also, it goes without saying that by having her very own filthy Xenos, that she falls squarely in the Radical camp.

As you can see here, originally she was to have these three acolytes in her retinue  as well. However these lads have been transferred to what will soon be
Oblivi'Anna's own personal army...  

Blitz Bomma WIP 3

Yes, I'm certain Baxter is back there wishing he could
jump up on the railing and knock this off! 

I've been struggling a bit to find the want to paint, though I have managed to do so here and there. Currently (as you can see), da' bomma is a multi-colored mess that looks like it was built from a few separate wrecked aircraft. Whilst that's very 'Orky' it remains to be seen as to whether or not I can tie it all together into a cohesive looking, finished paint job or not. We'll see I guess. 

Our annual Ork v. Ork game was has been postponed by 2 weeks (we hope) due to scheduling conflicts. Speaking of Neverness, this project may delayed a bit as his August Inquisitorial Conclave Painting Challenge is set to start in little more than a week's time. I've selected my minis for that project, but will save pics/descriptions thereof for August.

Coping with Orks.

o/

This little bastard was much harder to correctly insert
into place then he well ought to have been.

A thought occurred to me the other day as I fought to properly fit the grot gunner into his portion of the Blitz Bomma's cockpit. Boy, what a lot of fun THAT was...and here I was thinking that people kept building dakka jets for the 4 supa-shootas, only to realize it was to avoid having to deal with the infernal gunner!

Despite my bitching, the gunner is properly seated whilst da pilot's left arm isn't...

But anyways, that aforementioned thought...about a decade ago, my stepfather passed away of cancer. Awful stuff that is, as was the situation. I took a leave of absence from work to go to Florida to be with him for a few weeks before he went and then a few more afterwards for Mom. 

Da Grot Spee, firing a full broadside!

As what I figured would be a much needed coping mechanism, I brought the as yet unpainted Grot Mega Tank (a.k.a.: Da Grot Spee)  with me to give me something to focus on and shut the world around me out for a little bit each day. This worked quite well for me and I worked at it a little be little each day, before and after he had passed. 

That only made the red beakies angrier than they normally are. This is probably my favorite in-game pic ever! Here you see Da Eleet Grot Mountin' Duvishun charging, in a futile attempt to assist Da Grot Spee...

Skip forward to the present, reeling from the loss of My Beloved Wolfy, I found myself at first in a hobby malaise, and then jumping whole hog into working on my Blitz Bomma that had been buried for years (though had I bothered to put in a half hour of work I could have uncovered it at any time). However it wasn't till I was fighting with the above mentioned grot, that I realized I was once again working thru my grief via another Ork vehicle project.

Gettin' ready to shoot da tail some more!

Unlike the Grot mega tank this go round it really wasn't a conscious decision, but hopefully it'll work out just the same. Also I can only hope that the bomma turns out as well as Da Grot Spee, which in my opinion is one of my best painted models. I guess we'll see. Regardless, much like this ol' blog that I can't seem to put down despite my repeated, half-assed attempts to wander away from 40k, Da Orks iz always 'ere for me. 

Note: The usually justified type is absent from this post because blogger is busy 'improving the interface' by breaking shit that already worked correctly. Most of the type would justify whilst writing this post, but a few random paragraphs would not because reasons. 

Da air krew, Blitz Bomma WIP 2

o/

He'z gotz da oomies in iz' cross'airs!

I had just enough primer to fully coat both the base and bomma, though not the actual bombs. WiIll have to prime them in some other color I suppose. Speaking of Da Boyz, plans are in motion and hopefully Neverness and I will be able to play our annual Orks vs. Orks game on the 25th. I'll have to excavate my army out from long term storage and see just what all I actually have to make a list with. That ought to be fun.

Whether we'll be playing our last game of 8th or instead our first for 9th ed remains to be seen. Given how often we play (going on about 13ish months now since our last game) it likely won't matter. We'll be so rusty when it comes to the rules that it'll likely be an amalgamation of the two, lol. 

Da' pilot is now in his seat, though I had a bit of an issue getting his left arm into the proper position before the glue set up (i.e.: I didn't). However in the tight confines of the cockpit it'll just look like he's going into a turn or something (hell, I think the angle on one of the wings is a bit off as well, but ya know...Orks and all that...). 

Da grot gunner is next on the to-do list and then...I guess I need to figure out just what colors I'm actually going to paint this thing. Honestly, I haven't figured that bit out just yet. 

Da SturmovOrk!

o/

Odds are it flies better without a crew...

I purchased this kit sometime around the tail end of 6th ed., and taking my own a page out of Neverness' playbook, I finally put it together this past Friday night because reasons.

Actually, after being shuttled around from shelf to shelf (still untouched) for a few years, it finally got buried (literally) under a pile of our collective junk when my Beloved Wolfy moved in with me six and half(ish) years ago. This likely saved it from ebay as it was too much effort to actually bother to get to.

Much like Sean Connery's efforts as a tail gunner in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: I'm sorry son, but they got us!

I was always annoyed that (1) most everyone built the kit as a Dakkajet because (2) the tail/turret grot gunners had to shoot the same target as the pilot which rendered either them useless, or more or less the aircraft as a whole useless if da grot did shoot (not that the big shootas could hurt the average Imperial flying brick anyways...), and (3) the old blitz bomma rules chart was more akin to a Kamikaze and an actual dive bomber. Yes I know it was Orky but all too often crashing into your target meant that it was a really expensive one-shot wonder.

Guess who got excited and glued the acrylic flight stand to the base before anything was even primed much less painted?

I was also turned off by the modular nature of the kit which could be built into three separates models making it somewhat generic in my opinion. This was a HUGE mistake on my part as I instead rather enjoyed that aspect whilst building da SturmovOrk. Instead of a hard-set list of instructions, it was more of a general set of guidelines allowing me to add what bitz I wanted. The end result is a Blitz-Bomma, but it also feels like a conversion without actually needing to kit-bash anything. 

Airkrew to da front of da line!

I plan to paint the krew first (out of the plane) followed by the cockpit and gunner's seat and adding the krew thereafter. once all of that is out of the way, I'll paint the rest of it. Not quite sure what color scheme I'll be going with, but I'm hoping it will be a fun diversion from the norm as I haven't had a flyer aircraft kit since 4th? or maybe 5th ed?

Moving on...

...or trying to anyways.

I love this T-Shirt, and plan to wear it when I vote
in the presidential election later this year...

My hobby mojo has more or less up and wandered off. With my whole world in a current state of flux that's easily understandable I guess. I've painted a bit on the Coyotes' Razorback and the contrast on a large flat sided box netted the predictably bad results that I've had in the past with washes on rhinos. 

Bleh. When next you see this it will be predominantly black...

I've spent a fair bit of time on the ol' blog here of late waging a war of deletion vs. the fucking link SPAMMERS! In the past week or two, close to if not more than 300 SPAM comments have been deleted. Three spam blogger's blogs reported to blogger (try saying that line fast...), and one particularly annoying spammer's blog has been forwarded on to a hacker friend of mine who knew My Wolfy for decades and is rather annoyed that they took this particular point in time to bombard me. So in the highly unlikely event that said spammer actually reads any of this: have fun with my old and your new friend!

I've been browsing thru the various minis, bitz and bobs in and amongst my hobby area...the whole house really, but nothing draws me to want to paint on them (the above Razorback isn't helping either). Digging thru the piles, tossing out real life old stuff that honestly ought to have been sorted thru ages ago, I've managed to uncover a pair of hidden gems.

First up is the long buried (SEVEN YEARS?!?!...don't anyone tell Neverness ok? Great thanks) Pig Tank which, I'm inclined to just send to my buddy John at White Whale Studios Miniature Madness with the simple instructions of 'have at it'. I've mentioned the idea to him in the past, but will have to wait till I get all of my finances sorted out first. 

So much truth.

More to the present, I've also recovered my (probably equally long buried) Ork Fighta Bomma kit, all still new on the sprue. So...with no want to paint maybe I'll try gluing my fingers to some plastic instead. We'll see I suppose. 

Also a follow up to my last post: My Beloved Wolfy is both home and enshrined in our living room. As I told folks on Facebook, whilst she never quite explained her attachment to the Samurai display swords, she absolutely adored them! Also her beloved 'familiar' (kitty) Kiya is at her side, as well as the antique hourglass her late grandmother gave her.  

Just as she did in life, her urn now wears 'my heart' as well as two beautiful pendants that her father gave her. Sadly though, the dog tag styled one on the right was a recent gift that he wasn't able to give to her before she was gone. A casualty of the quarantine. 

Other than that, the only thing of recent note is I got a hair cut and will be donating my 17" pony tail (when straightened out) to Wigs for Kids. 

Till next time. o7

Rudderless...

o/

This blog may go dark for a bit...or maybe there will be LOTS of posts as I frenetically drive to hide from my reality. Honestly I don't know. Don't know what the future holds for both this blog and/or myself. 

My favorite of all of photos of My Beloved Wolfy.
We said this was the day her aura was showing.

Saturday we had a good a good day, a typical Saturday really. 

We slept in late, ate popeye's chicken sandwiches for 'brunch' followed by a fruit salad she had made whilst we watched the pioneer woman cooking show. Switched to BBC america's Planet Earth II reruns, napped a bit, had some 'quality time' in the bedroom. I made a stir fry that we love and watched Hail Caesar (odd movie) that she had wanted to see in the theater but we missed it, followed by Horse girl (odder still and honestly not recommended), followed by 2 episodes of Log cabin living before we turned in for the night. 

Kisses goodnight and snuggled up in bed with our daily 'Good night baby I love you. Sleep well, I'll see you in the morning'. 

That was about 2am. When I awoke in the morning she was gone. 

My Beloved Wolfy suffered from end-stage kidney failure these past 2 years (spread across 3 calendar years, but in reality about 2 years time total). We're guessing her heart just gave out. No pain, peaceful and snuggled up with me. The best way to go really. Compared to those suffering from the COVID, something I've been terrified of her catching for months now, I couldn't ask for anything more to be honest. 

For me though, Sunday morning was hell. The days following aren't much better. I'm holding together mostly. Mom is here for the week, but I've yet to make it a day without totally breaking down. I don't expect that to change for quite awhile. I'll go back to work Monday, no use sitting in an empty house. 

Hobbies are good to keep busy, to keep the mind from reality. Guess I'll soon find out how tightly I cling to mine like it's some sort of life raft...or not. Just don't know. 

My whole world.