Don't Go Round Tonight, It's Bound To Take Your Life: Jon's Bad Moons

Greetings and salutations! No, that's a bit pretentious. 'Ello boyz an' girlz an' squigz an' that! Ugh, no, can't stand goblinspeak. Sod it: wotcher. I'm Jon. If you've been knocking around the wargaming blogopshere since I was relevant you might remember me from the House of Paincakes, but I doubt it. Irregular transmissions still occur through Malediction Games, where I post about sixth edition WFB, Vampire: the Masquerade, board games, weird indie RPG design, and whatever I'm working through for my PhD in taking RPGs too seriously.

Vital Statistics

Started Hobbying: 1996, White Dwarf 201, fashionably late for the big issue and uncomfortably early for WFB fifth edition. Apart from a year's break for GCSEs (if I packed it in and passed 'em all my grandparents had to shut up about "all that bleddy Warhammer" and leave me to it) I never really stopped. I mostly play WFB sixth edition these days, the King of Editions and Edition of Kings, but I did start with 40K second edition...

Armies: Come and go in waves, and I've often ended up doing the same army a few times with different ranges and then selling them to fund the next thing or cover some temporary financial crisis. I've always gravitated to the baddies, and usually whatever Undead are around. My first ever army was made up of all my mates' Goff Orks from their starter sets, though, and I've always had a soft spot for the greenskins even if they don't really play the way I like.

What's The Project: Orks! Again! Why? Because when you have forty OG plastic Space Orks and an OG plastic Land Raider just sitting there on a shelf not doing anything for three years, you clearly and transparently need a boot up the ‘arris. Plus I've been playing for twenty-five years next summer and it'd be nice to have an old-school army together in time for the anniversary.

This isn’t really a shopping project since a) I have plenty of unpainted models and b) I don’t have any money. With that in mind I’m going focus my energy on boyz not toyz this time around: I've only bought one model specifically for this project and it's a new Warboss, of whom more later.

The collection could wander into either Rogue Trader or second edition 40K, depending on exactly how I break the infantry up, and I have a few spare bodies I may trick out to fill in for odd heavy weapon troopers who I can't take in second edition and so on and so forth.

To get started I spent a somewhat maddening Sunday afternoon sorting out all my Orks according to things like headgear, pose, whether or not they already had shoulder pads stuck on with some sort of primordial uber-glue that it took a claw hammer to shift and so on. After numerous failed attempts to bash some sort of order into the proceedings I realised that the one model already painted (badly) by a previous owner was a Bad Moon and I should just let that be my guide.

Waa-Bludnok!

Primer's not even dry yet, but lookit 'em all!

All the Orks with bare heads, topknots and mohawks are going to be Bad Moons and carry the rather snazzy plastic heavy plasma guns that come in the Space Ork kit, since I have about six of them. I’m also going to repurpose half a dozen of these as Nobz since they’ve got big shoulder pads practically welded on and that makes them stand out enough for my liking.

Bad Moons are also quite economical in that all those heavy weapons really gobble up points (with fewer Orks to paint I'll do a better job on them, that's the theory anyway) and in Rogue Trader their Oddboyz get to bring extra Oddbitz on account of being fabulously wealthy (so I have a lot of freedom to chew up more points with Dreadnoughts and artillery and what have you, if I find models I like for them).

The Land Raider was primed standard "get yer drybrush out" black by a previous owner: the Boyz have been done white because I want that eyeball-popping early-40K tone and my usual techniques tend more toward the post-1998 dark and boring.

Here's the plan for getting it all painted. Four Rank and File months, plus a couple of free floaters to jam in when I want a change.

1. Bad Moons Big Mob (12 Boyz, 4 heavy plasma guns)
2. Bad Moons Lil' Mobs (10 Boyz, 2 heavy plasma guns)
3. Blood Axe Mobs (10 Boyz, 2 heavy stubbers, plus 2 Nobz with kit I've not picked yet)
4. Land Raider

• Warboss and 5 Nobz (lots of plasma guns, stikkbombs, and my single intact plasma pistol on the Warboss: it'll probably be master-crafted) (Leader month)
  
• Goff Mob (5 Boyz with chainswords, 2 Nobz with power fists, and something cool because it's technically my Wild Card: maybe an illuminated army list with a load of glyphs and stuff on?)
  

That's as close as I'm getting to an army list at the moment.

I'm deliberately not starting with the Warboss and co because I need to get my eye and hand back in. While I used to be quite good at painting Orks, I haven't painted much in the last couple of years (tendonitis will get you like that) or over a white undercoat in the last twenty, and the yellow will probably be a bit of a mare at first too.

All of which just leaves the small matter of my Overlord Tribute. Now while everyone and their dog probably has one of these, this one is my original one off the front of a White Dwarf, onto which I have hung for all these years, the only model from my ill-fated Dark Elf army who's still knocking around. He's not quite done yet (he needs a spot of that modern edge highlighting on all the black bits) but I hope he'll be found worthy.

Also, he needs a base. Minor detail!

That's your lot for now. Join me in the New Year, when I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about the colour yellow, the provenance of twenty year old Ork Flesh Wash, and the pros and cons of game editions. I bet you can't wait.