From PaulSS - Ork Boys (70 points)

I've not played any Warhammer for years, but recent visit to the club piqued my interest again and I picked up a unit of Ork Boyz from the Combat Patrol set. I also decided that this is the chance to try out the Contrast Paints that have been getting a lot of buzz lately.

The figures are really nice, easily put together, but they only work one way, sticking these arms on that body is not going to work for you. The only flexibility in the set is the configuration of head and armament for the Boss Nob and the armament for the heavy weapon. 

They are pretty easy to stick together, but the mould lines do need some careful attention. These are a lot bigger than the Orks I painted all those years ago, putting them next to a 28mm figure they tower over them, I reckon these Orks are bigger than the GW ogres I was painting back in the 1980's.

Mindful that I would be using contrast paints that need a light basecoat, after assembly these were sprayed grey, given a very thin wash of Black Grey and then a heavy dry-brush with Ivory. This would hopefully give me a good base to work from. 

Initial thoughts on the Contrast Paints are mixed. Some of them are excellent, others are completely underwhelming, take the Gryph Charger grey, honestly, I've had pints of lager* with more pigment in them. (*original comparison was more a case of an hour after a pint of lager).

The Ork Flesh is woeful too. I thought that I should maybe not have done the undercoat the way I did so I tried painting Ork Flesh off of a light cream base, that was even worse! The Ork skin tones here are me working up off the Ork Flesh with VMC Flat Green with subsequent lighter layers.

There are no metallic paints in the range, so all weapons and armour were done in Black Templar, for the guns and stik-bombs I did a hard edge highlight in off white, but for the armour and bladed weapons I wanted a rusty effect for that added risk of tetanus.

I've had a lot of practice with rust on my recent Gaslands paint jobs, working up from the Black Templar, I added a thin layer of VMC Gunmetal Grey, added some VMC Saddle Brown to that for another layer then a couple of progressive highlights with more VMC Orange added to the mix.

Ten 40mm figures will add 70 points to my total

American Civil War Duel Totalizer: 136 foot, 2 mounted, 4 horses (825pts)

Napoleonic Duel Totalizer: 8 foot, 2 mounted (100pts)

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Another fun submission from Paul - I have to say, I was surprised to see this one pop up! Not in a bad way at all, just neat to see some good, fun, bog standard 40k Orks (insofar as Orks are ever "standard"). Yes, the Orks of the current collection are very, very big ladz, a mix of scale creep and some manner of desire on the part of the GW sculptors to have the Orks be bigger - as we see with these figures, mission accomplished on that score. 

And Contrast Paints...never seems to match the hype. Advertised as an easy solution to getting figures painted, they in fact depend a great deal on whittling away our precious time on Earth doing things like "zenithal highlighting" and other nonsense. For all of the "ease" of applying the coat of Contrast Paint, I had to do two to three times as much preparation on the base coats underneath...all for results which can really underwhelm - and you get rapid destruction of your brush to boot!

But horses for courses, etc. etc. These new paints are another tool in the kit, and deliver good results in the hands of a talented brush jockey, as you show here.The Boyz look the part, ready to cause some mayhem amid the grim darkness of the far future. Whether painted in Contrast or otherwise, I hope to see more Orks from you in the future!

GregB