WH40K - Trukk Crater painted

Here's the Trukk Crater, with a slap of paint and ground cover. Paint as follows:
- light grey acryllic spray paint for the undercoat
- Tamiya Light Tan and Dark Yellow sprays
- Citadel Ogryn Flesh wash in the fissures
- drybrush of Citadel Rotten Flesh over the crater.
- Citadel Scab Red, Bolt Gun Metal and Tin Bitz over the 'trukk' pieces.
- Quick spray of Citadel Purity Seal (matt varnish) over the whole thing.

The ground stuff is the same material I use for basing most of my miniatures. It's a mix of stuff bought over the years, but mostly railway modelling 'gravel' or 'ballast'. I find that the light grey is a nice, neutral colour. However, since it is railway modelling material, it is a bit uniform. My favourite material, when I can be bothered to make it, is bits of concrete ground together. That makes a grit of differing sizes (less than 1mm) which looks a bit more realistic on the base of a toy soldier.

WH40K - Crater or Trukk Go Boom!

I didn't want or need six of the 'Moonscape' craters in the terrain pack from GW, so I bought a single crater from a stack of 'bits' being sold off by my FLGS.


I have made this: an Ork Vehicle Crater. Although I like the flame and smoke tokens I discussed previously, this piece is supposed to be what is left when one of my wonderful Ork creations goes 'ka-EXLODE!'
I just added a few bits of cut up plastic and leftover Ork vehicle parts to the crater. All the bits are polystyrene, so it is all glued together with ordinary model glue. That's the beauty of plastic models - easy to cut and convert.

WH40K - Movement Trays from Litko

I bought some movement trays for my Warhammer 40,000 Ork army. These are from Litko Game Accessories, who make a wide range of tokens, trays, counters and other items for roleplaying and wargaming. They also let you make custom markers and tokens.

The Litko movement trays are made of plywood - two layers already firmly glued together. They look like random shapes, but each pack has the same variety of shapes. The circles are 25mm, suitable for GW Slottabases, or competing brand names. Litko also do 20mm in this range, so be sure which ones you order.

The trays are neatly cut out, and definitely feel solid enough for play. The figures end up quite close together - they are about 5-6mm or a quarter of an inch apart. Usually, in the game, I tend to spread my figures out a bit more, within the bounds of the coherency rules of course, but I will be happy to try this product out and see if it speeds the game up.

I bought two sets of the ten-figure trays (with four trays in each pack), and one of the five figure trays (with eight trays in the pack). I will give them a quick blast of grey spray paint and some of the same 'ground cover' as on the bases of the minis. The results won't be very pretty but they will do nicely for the game.

Since I have over a hundred ork figures in my army, and they can be put into 'mobs' (or squads) of up to thirty models, these trays will make it much easier to shuffle them around the table top.

I have also ordered some of the Litko tokens: fire and blast markers, to adorn burning or wrecked vehicles on the 'battlefield'. I will show pics of them when they arrive, and compare them with the Gale Force 9 items I already own.

WH40K - Fernvale Specialty Scenics

I picked up some cast resin scenery pieces from Underworld Games in Ipswich, Qld.

These are made by Fernvale Specialty Scenics. I have found a number of miniature and hobby sites that sell them, but the designer's blog/website is here:

http://fss-resin.blogspot.com/

I bought five of the 'Rock' series and two 'Pond' series.

RF-001, RF-002, RF-003, RF-004 and RF-005.

WF-002 Pond and WF-001 Oasis.

These pieces are approx 10 - 20 cm wide and up to about 8 cm high. They are moulded in dark brown or black resin, with realistic looking rocks and a coarse, sandy/foamy surface for the ground. They look like they will paint up very easily, but I will add a little flock and dirt to the bases.

They do look as if actual rocks have been used as casting material, but I think this is perfectly acceptable. Nothing looks more like rock, and I don't have the time or the skill to find and assemble natural looking scenery and make terrain pieces from it.

The smallest rock looks like a good aiming spot for a firing squad.

The key reason I like these pieces is that they have been carefully arranged to allow WH40K scale (28mm) figures - with bases - to stand among the terrain without toppling over.

The rock pieces would look good in any desert or alien wasteland - add plastic aquarium or home-made plants to make them more like jungle scenes. The large pond could have a chemical tank and green paint added for that 'toxic spill' look. The small pond could easily be used to represent the horror of horrors, the nastiest place in any Ork settlement: The drops...

The smaller pieces in the Fernvale Specialty Scenics range were about AUD 5-6 each and the large ones AUD 8-10 each. Very reasonable in my opinion.