The Dispatch is Dead! Long live the Dispatch!

Hey anyone and everyone who still might be frequenting the blog,

An odd title to this post but it seems fitting in this case. Almost a year ago exactly, I started writing in an issue format and introduced the Sin City Dispatch. Unfortunately, this is a project that has become a tad bit too time consuming so I have decided to change the format back to a much less structured form. This should make it a little easier for me to get things posted and hopefully get the wheels turning on the Dispatch again.

That's all for now but I have a few small projects that I am working on so expect some more posts soon. Until then... Later!

From the Workbench: Taking a Look at Skargob'z Boyz

As I mentioned earlier, the Challenge is underway and so is my painting! So far I have assembled and almost completely painted one entire mob, Skargob's Boyz. Here is a picture of them in all their dirty, Orky glory.

I still have to paint Skarbog himself but the rest of them are ready for basing. Now I just need to assemble the next mob, add a few finishing touches to all the Nobz and the Warboss, and then get them all painted up. Should be a piece of cake since I am using a super-secret-ninja-shortcut for my painting.

Right from the start, I knew that I was going to be painting a lot of Boyz. Orks and giant mobz just go hand in hand from everything that I have seen. With this in mind, I decided that I should keep the paint scheme relatively simple but I didn't want to have it completely uniform. They are Orks after all, right?

For a base coat, I used the tried and true method of spray painting them with Dark Angels Green. This gave me a nice base to work with and let me take care of Ork skin tone all in one step. Next I highlighted their skin, first with Goblin Green, then with Snot Green, just to give them a little bit of depth. The next step was to start adding some of the details to make them really stand out. First I batch painted several different colors of shirts, then pants, just to mix things up. Having a cohesive looking force and painting uniforms doesn't have to mean the same thing after all.

Once their clothes were done, it was time to paint on the various leather straps and belts that Orks are prone to wearing. I originally tried to use Snakebite Leather for this (seems fitting somehow)but I couldn't get a good layer on with one coat. This wouldn't be an issue for a single mini or even a small unit, but I am looking at about forty Orks that I need to get done pretty quick. To solve this problem, I switched all the leather bits to black and it went on like a dream, as you would expect. The last step for the painting was to hit the sluggas, choppas, and all the little plates and buckles with some boltgun metal.

This gave me a unit of painted Orks but they still weren't quite done. As a finishing touch, I went over all of them with Vallejo Game Color Sepia Ink. This gave them a nice a dirty look and really just made them pop IMO. As I said before, they are Orks, and everyone knows that Orks and hygiene are two things that will never go together.

And there you have it! As I mentioned before, Skargob is still not done but I'll get him taken care of with the next batch of Orks, which I should have assembled and at least base coated by this weekend. This will give me an eighteen strong Boyz mob to throw down onto the table.

Up next is Wazgut'z Boyz mob which I am hoping to make some serious progress on this weekend, and yes more pics (perhaps even with better lighting!). Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Sin City Dispatch Update: Welcome to the Steel Cage Challenge!

Hey everyone and welcome to another special Dispatch update!

At the end of the last issue, I mentioned that I might be taking part in a list contest related to 40k. Well, we decided on the rules and the Challenge is on! So what exactly is the Challenge?

One of the podcasts that I listen to is 40k Radio. If you play Warhammer 40,000 and you haven't checked them out, you just don't know what you are missing. When they first started, they did what they called the Steel Cage Challenge. The three hosts challenged each other to build, paint, and then play a brand new army against each other. To make things even more interesting, they placed bets on each of the challenges. For the first round, the loser had to wash the winner's car. The second, the loser had to mow the winner's lawn. I thought that this sounded like a lot of fun but I didn't know anyone that was just starting to build an army so nothing came of it.

Well, here we are months later and there are two friends of mine that are just looking to get serious with 40k. Dylan has decided to collect a Tyranid army and Eddie has decided to collect a Chaos Marine army. I actually have three armies sitting around in various stages of generally being unfinished and I made the comment to Dylan that it's too bad that we couldn't do a Challenge since I already at least have things assembled. After talking with Eddie, they both decided that they didn't care and they wanted in on the Challenge, so here we go!

We are doing things a little smaller than they did at 40k Radio, starting with a 500 point block, then expanding to 750 points and finally 1000 points. This is not your typical full 40k army but it will give all of us a strong core to build from.

For each block, we will have a set amount of time to assemble and paint those models. At the end of that time, all three of us with face off against each other to determine the winner for the round. Rinse and repeat three times, and at the end we see who the winner is.

So what's the prize? Well, just bragging rights this time. Depending on how it works out, I might be doing this again in the future since I know of another player who is waiting until the new Space Wolves codex comes out to start working on his army. Of course I think that he is just using that as an excuse because he seems to have a hard time with the whole painted army concept, but I'll give Matt the benefit of the doubt this time.

Well, that's it for this Update, but I want to put up more about the Challenge in the next few updates. I am thinking post our army lists along with our own thoughts as far as our unit choices, along with at least some written Battle Reports to let everyone know how the games go.

Now I have some Orks to paint so until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons.