Finished Ork boyz and basing...

I knocked out my four Boyz i had been working on this afternoon.  All I really had left to do was tidy of the boots and add static grass to the bases.

The lads ready for their photo shoot.

I base my miniatures a lot like most other gamers, and the way I was taught at GW after I came back to the hobby after my first hiatus.  When I first kicked off in the hobby, basing extended only to painting the bare plastic base in Dark Angels green and calling it a day.  The base tops were slightly textured so what else was needed - these were the days when spray primer was not allowed in our house and everything was hand primed (badly) in Skull White.  

When I got back into the hobby, I was a) older and wiser and had been collecting White Dwarf for a while so had a good back catalogue of hobby advice at hand, and more importantly, b) had a job and lived out of home so spray primer was in.

My collection now is all based by gluing the miniature down and using PVA/Wood Glue/White Adhesive/ Aquadere/??? to glue into place a mix of ballast - I use various grades of sand, crushed slate and broken plaster.  I know there are proponents out there of gluing bits of plasticard under a miniatures feet to raise them out of the ground, but I figure a Marine or an Ork must weigh a fair bit, and are likely to have sunk slightly into the ground anyway.

As I mentioned in my last post, I paint my bases prior to painting the model itself so by the time I am done painting the miniature, nothing else needs doing but adding the static grass.

Ready for grass

There is no real method to my grass application - I basically lay down a bit of PVA glue where I want to have the grass - generally around feet is good as it hides any blemishes in that region or spots I inadvertently missed.  The only time I have ever taken real care at this point was with my Warriors of Chaos as they all had to rank up and I wanted the grass/snow to match up across the movement tray.

My weapon of choice

I use GW brand static grass which I have mixed from their Glade Grass and Scorched Grass, although I also have some Dead Grass which I use occasionally.  The mini is basically dunked in the tub of grass and I use the tweezers to place additional grass onto the model and tamp it down a little bit.

Been swimming in a pool of static grass

I flip the mini upside down and use the tweezers to tap the base.   Then I gently blow on the mini from underneath.  I was taught this little trick by an ex-GW staffer.  What it does is help the static grass stand on end in the glue.

Ready for WAAAAGH!! - pending drying time

And that's it - the last two posts have been a bit outside the norm as they were mainly done in response to comments I had from fellow bloggers Musings of a Smurf and Col. Schofer about how I do different things.

These posts however have been good for me in that I now have a documented process on how I have done something which is something I never do.  Now if I don't touch my Orks for a bit, I can always come back to them and get colours to match etc.  Win all round in my book.

The finished lads and their Boss.

So whats next?  I have plenty more Orks to do and have just ordered some more Grotz - the aptly named 'Thieving Grotz' and 'Inquisitive Grotz' bitz packs.  I might bust out another Nob and the rest of the Grotz mob and Runt Herd to play with over the next couple of weeks.

In addition, I also picked up the FW book Tamurkhan - Throne of Chaos while I was in the local GW today.  The book looks lovely, the quality is first rate.  The cover is a faux leather type material, the paper is high quality/grade, and there is a nice ribbon place holder built into the spine.  I might spend the next couple of nights reading through that - maybe it might inspire me to go back and paint some more of my Warhammer Fantasy stuff.

Also, a group of guys from the local GW Veterans night are getting together to do a monthly painting group where a mini is nominated and everyone paints it up over the month and then we get together and pass on how we did it.  Sounds like good fun and there are a couple of Australian Golden Demon winners involved so hopefully I can pick up some good tips and tricks.

And that's it for today.

As always, happy hobby all.

Pom