The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Back in the saddle

So I wanted to just throw a few quick things up here.

First and foremost is a big thank-you to the ominously named 'Mr X' over at The-Waaagh.com's forums. This fine fellow caught wind of the fact that I am basically swimming in Assault on Black Reach Orks to paint, and offered to lend a hand from halfway across the country by painting a batch of orks for me in return for unpainted ones to replace them. I might have been a little skeptical at first, as the offer seemed far too good to be true, but lo and behold, Mr X came through with an incredible squad of Orks!

They're busy striking a pose with my Big Boss. The orks are fantastic, and there's even a Nob hidden among them there with an all-too-helpful Power Klaw. Thanks, X!

On an unrelated note, some of you may have noticed that I sort've threw my 'make infantry' plan to the wind. After enough people talked to me about it, I figured starting more projects was probably the wrong approach, because that invariably leads to me just piling more onto my half-finished backlog. Instead, I've started trying to tie up some loose ends. First and foremost is the Stormboyz project, as a lot of you have expressed interest in seeing at least the first ten done and finished. I've also gone ahead and primed my 'Ard boyz using an old Games Workshop Boltgun Metal spray that I dug out of my basement, so I expect them to be the next project that gets painted and finished after the Stormz. I have no idea what comes after that, though if I had to guess it'd probably be my loota mobs so I can get them reassembled and on the table.

I recently got some Ork Pirate Heads and Big Post-Apocalyptic Guns from Maxmini.eu. I've got to say, the quality of the heads is fantastic. There's no mold lines or flaws that need any sort of attention. The Big Guns that I got are a bit wonky - some flash in some weird places, and a bit of cleanup will be required on them. All told, though, I'm pretty thrilled with the quality of product they're putting out, as it makes my life about a thousand times easier. Once I've caught up some on my backlog, I'd really like to take the guns and heads and some nob bodies and make myself some proper pirate-themed Flash Gitz.

I've finally finished organizing my terrible disaster in my basement. I'll take some photos a bit later once I have everything cleaned up and presentable!

Never, ever buy hosting from Powweb

Hello! I am alive. It's been a while!

Judging from the e-mails I've been getting, a lot of you were wondering what the hell happened. The Warforge was temporarily 'closed' for a few months as a corollary to the increasing difficulty of the material I was getting put up against in law school. Accordingly, the site's been unupdated for at least two months, and for that I sincerely apologize.

Additionally, our previous web provider, Powweb.com, threw a monkey wrench in the whole site when they decided to delete the entire web site on the grounds that we were in 'violation' of their Terms of Service. As you can imagine, I was in contact with them pretty much immediately, and over the course of the next week I discovered a few things. Powweb outsources their support to India. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, what it means is that nobody you talk to on their '24/7 support' team has any idea how to fix anything, or why anything has happened, ever. They could not give me a straight answer as to what files on my account were in violation of their Terms of Service, other than the amorphous 'anything unrelated to your web site', which apparently was everything.Good call, Powweb. That's one way of eliminating a customer who has been with you for three years.

Eventually, I got a full refund from Powweb, but they refused to furnish all of the files they deleted. I've been piecing The Warforge back together little by little, and I think I've got everything back the way it should be. If you spot any broken or missing images or posts, please let me know immediately!

Something squiggy this way comes

On Jan 31st of this year, I placed an order with Forgeworld for one of their small squiggoths (as opposed to the Gargantuan ones, which I already have two of ). It took almost four weeks, but it finally arrived today, and I'm excited!

A few things struck me about the kit right off the bat. First, the squiggoth is much smaller than I was expecting. My initial reason for ordering it was to use it as a 'Counts-As' battlewagon - I figured with a bit of work to the howdah, you could easily pass the thing off as a battlewagon with various upgrades, and it would be a fun and entertaining thing to see on the field. However, I'm a bit surprised to find that the squiggoth is hardly larger than one of the new ork trukks! I think I might have misjudged scale a tiny bit based on how ridiculously huge the Gargantuan model Forgeworld makes is. Knowing its actual size, I probably would have waited and bought one of the new Warhammer Fantasy Lizardmen Stegadons instead. That said, however, it looks to be an exceptionally nice kit.

This is actually the first Forgeworld kit I've seen that provides any sort of options as to how you want the model to look, which I found quite surprising. The iron gob for the head seems completely optional, and extra tusks are even included if you decide you want to leave it off. Likewise, there seem to be two options for the 'tail' weapon, both of which are represented by choppy flail bits. Although the legs are separate, it does not look as though the kit is intended to be easily reposed due to the armored plating and chain details.

There is a notable absence of included weapon with this kit, which Forgeworld makes clear up-front on their web site. However, I think the addition of at least a kannon or other big gun would have been very welcome, given the model's price tag and relative size.

Here's the squiggoth's main torso alongside one of my trukks for comparison:

Given this relative scale, it's pretty clear my initial goal of creating a "squig-wagon" is not going to be doable, as the squiggoth is just too weedy to measure up to the required size. A bit of creative howdah construction could probably provide something to carry 20 boyz, but it's a stretch. I've been scratching my head as to what I could possibly use the model for at this point, and come up with a few ideas. Most obviously, I could make it a counts-as Trukk, as it's just about the size required. However, a few problems crop up when you try and count it as an AV 10 vehicle that can move 18". The squiggoth is arguably more armored than the trukk kit itself, and given it's size I don't think it fits the rules very well.

Instead, I've been giving some thought to tooling it out as a 'looted wagon', which I think fits the profile much better. With a higher AV, a slightly smaller transport capacity, and the ability to haul big guns, it seems an apt fit. It's even better if you consider the 'Don't Press Dat!' roll looted vehicles are required to make - rather than the vehicle breaking down or careening off, it could represent the Sqiuggoth being ornery and breaking loose from the commands of it's handlers. The mean gob on the squiggoth can probably be used to represent a wrecking ball, reinforced ram, or perhaps even a grabbin' klaw if you can picture the squiggoth snatching things in it's maw. I think this is most likely what I'm going to end up doing with it, though I will also admit the idea makes me want a couple more!

I took a photo of this Squiggoth with one of my Gargantuans for further scale comparison.

I think the fact that I now have 2 Gargantuan squiggoths and a smaller one has hilarious (and terrifying) implications involving squiggoth breeding. The fact that I now have three also means I can run the nifty Squiggoth Battle Herd formation in Apocalypse! I'm going to have to get all of these things done so I can throw them down on a table.