Review: Kromlech Armoured Orc SMG Squad

Regardless of the extremely rapid release cycle that Games Workshop has instituted as of late, the Ork codex is still a fairly new addition to the latest line-up of codices for Warhammer 40.000.
Lack of codex power aside, the orks are one of the most fun and customizeable armies in the setting and pretty much any inconsistency can be explained with the strangeness of Ork behavior.
This review should have been out a month ago, but issues with my computer, crashes and general tech hell, did almost kill it.
Perhaps you'll notice, that all the images are from the Kromlech website. Well, the images I took crashed and burned in "The great crash", so all image credit of course, goes to Kromlech.

Kromlech is one of the top 3rd party producers of everything orky, and for this little review we are taking a closer look at some armored brutes, which will work perfectly for truly 'ard boyz.
The Armored Orc smg squad includes nine armored Orks armed with, surprise, a smg, and some heavy armor plates thrown randomly across their bodies in prefect Ork DIY fashion.

The set contains enough heads and extra face plates, to  assemble a varied squad, despite the fact, that the poses are pretty much given, with no great options to change the poses around.
Like most, if not all, Kromlech products, they are cast in resin, so be sure to give them a good wash(the soap and water kind), before trying to glue them together.
The sculpts are pretty clean, with few mold-lines in need of removal, which makes prepping them for painting a breeze.

The Kromlech Orks do have that typical GW ape-like hunched appearance, which makes them fit an existing Ork force nicely, while still retaining enough character to stand out.
In general the models are nice with adequate detail, without going overboard, which wouldn't fit a simple Ork trooper.

The "nob" or leader of the squad is a fine sculpt too, but I find him a bit too limited with regards to wargear and poses. You are in for some conversion work if you want to field multiple versions of him.
Luckily the standard Games Workshop parts, will fit just perfect.
The thing is though, and this is very subjective, I don't get the same creative vibe from these as I get from almost every other Kromlech model. They are great models, but not pushing the envelope when it comes to creativity and I feel they lack some of the silliness of the other Orks from the range like the greatcoats or the clanking destroyers.

So, do you need to get some armored Orks?
It depends on your force I guess. They are too cost prohibitive to field an entire force(for most of us anyway), but as I said earlier, they work perfectly as 'ard boyz who take the 'ard part seriously.

Should you need some 'ardy Orks, you can get a squad of 10(including a nob) for 37.99 Euros or you local equivalent at the friendly folks over at Kromlech .

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Review: Kromlech Clanking destroyers Or These are the robots you are looking for

This is the first in what will be a series of reviews of Kromlech products, and in this review we'll take a look at some of the rather special miniatures from Kromlech, the clanking destroyers.

Kromlech is a Polish company which excels in making some of the best 3rd party ork bits and miniatures out there and you could do worse than check out their webpage and be amazed.

It's all right, I'll wait till you return....

Back again?

Great, then lets continue.

As you might know the 40k ork fluff contains some rumblings about orks who were so unfortunate as to have crossed paths with a particularly mad painboy and hence transformed into cybernetic monstrosities.

The destroyers seemed to fit the theme perfectly, so I was anxious to take a look at the lovely Clanking destroyers from Kromlech.

The reviewed kit is a multi part resin kit and as always when working with resin, be sure to wash the parts, before trying to paint and glue.

If you've never worked with resin before and are thinking about skipping the above step, dont! Glue and paint simply wont stick until the parts have had a good washing.

The great thing about the way kromlech designed the clanking destroyers, is that there is not a set way to assemble them. You get 5 heads, torsos, legs and different arms which can be assembled at your hearts content.

The parts require very little cleaning and the mold lines are manageable.
In general I had very few problems getting the models ready to paint and the casts seems to be of very high quality.
No matter how clean a cast, there will always be a little cleaning, but with the dull part out of the way, it is time to take a look at some possible uses for the clanking destroyers.

This obviously gives you a ton of options for customizing, not only with regards to the Clankers but as shown below, the parts also fits regular GW Orks perfectly. The little cute guy below, was put together with random parts, chosen by my wife, and they all fit together perfectly.

 

 

In other words, you should be able to assemble a pretty unique bunch of minis with the supplied parts.

They look incredibly "orky" and the name is perfect, it is easy to imagine some mad Mek/Painboy clanking random parts together for the greater glory of Mork(or Gork), with little rhyme or reason and these bad boyz clanking off to the battlefield.

Converging on conversions
The models and all the possible combinations of parts, would make for a great group of cyber-orks or ork robots, but that would be only half the fun.

As shown below, most of the parts fits perfectly on your standard 40k orks and they sure spice up some otherwise pretty dull models, so you are not in any way limited in you choice of parts or models. Besides, who doesn't like giant cyborg chainsaws?

Actually, I suspect I will be buying some Clanking destroyers, just for the parts and variety they provide and spread random Cybork orks throughout my army. It is a great way to get a little variaty in an othervise pretty similar looking army.

As I might have alluded to, I think Kromlech have hit home with the clankers. 

The models go together well, have tons of soul and will fit any ork army perfectly either as standalone models or as bits for your regular orks.

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Initial thoughts: Reaper paints

Just received a shipment of paints from Reaper and painted up a couple of Orks, just to get a feel for how the paint handled.

Far from being a full fledged review(that comes later), this little piece is just my initial thoughts on the paint so far, so please don't expect informations on every little detail.

So let's get to it shall we.

• The paints float so nice and smooth
• The HD paints have a stupid name but great coverage!
• They seem to dry a little faster than I am used to from Vallejo, GW and The Army Painter
• In general the coverage is good, even the non-hd paints
• The paints dry to a very matte finish, again more than I am used to.
• When using a wet palette and not doing blendings, the paints really don't need to be thinned much
• The triads are nice and user friendly "feature"

So far I have only painted or started painting a few minis, using the Reaper paints, but they have made a positive first impression.

Expect a longer and more detail real review soon:-)

How do you find the paints?

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Kromlech initial thoughts and why you shouldn't be like me

With all this excitement about the coming Ork release, it is only fitting, that we have 4 kromlech reviews coming!

Initial thoughts:
I am an idiot. Dont be me, dont be an idiot; do remember to clean the resin, before trying to glue and paint...

Kromlech miniatures has tons of soul

Kromlech produces great sculpts

More info in the coming reviews.

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Teaser: Upcoming review teaser: Kromlech Clanking Detroyers

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Review: The Army Painter Warpaint/inks and colour primers

In this review, we'll take a look at the paint range from the Danish company The Army Painter. They were kind enough to send me some samples to test out, so a big -Thank You- to them.

The Army Painter has a pretty small selection of paints and shades, numbering about 42(geek points right there), which makes perfect sense considering the approach the company has to painting and their system of painting.

In a previous review I covered the Quickshade part of that system, but just to recap; the point of the paint system is that you paint on some base colours, dip in Quickshade, base and be done with it.

Regardless of that, the range of colours is pretty solid and for most projects you won't miss many nuances of colours.

They do however, have a nifty little guide to mixing paints and the resulting colours which is a nice touch. The guide is pretty limited though and a few extra shades would have nice.

The paints comes in 18 ml dropper bottles, which I find extremely handy and the lids are colour coded, which makes it easy to distinguish metalics(black Lid)  from regular paints(white lid) and inks/washes(red lid).

They do need a good shake however, as some of the paints have a tendency to seperate a bit.

Coverage

In general the warpaints cover quite nicely, but seem a bit more opaque than other brands of paints. That aside, they do cover very well in a few coats and thin nicely.

As you might know, red, green and yellow can be somewhat problematic colours with regards to coverage, but in recent years most of the competition have made great strides in making them much easier to use with excellent coverage even on a black undercoat. Dont expect such performance from the warpaints though.

To get a good red, it takes several layers and a light undercoat. I tried painting red on a black undercoat, and after 4 layers(thinned) I still wasn't happy with the result.

Be prepared to prep before painting red

What I did instead, was using “Uniform grey” as a basecoat and the result was very pleasing. The reds are intense and I especially love the “Chaotic red”, which is a very dark, brownish red. Throw in a drop of “Oak Brown” and a drop of “Dragon Red” and you got the perfect colour for painting Blood Ravens.

Green and yellow can be problematic too,but using either a white or grey undercoat they do cover decently though not as well as the other colours in the range. They do produce very pleasing results, as the ork below shows, just remember to use a lighter undercoat.

Greenskin for greenskins

All in all, I really like the paints and the resulting sharp and vibrant colours.

Colours, colours everywhere

As said before, the range is pretty small compared to other brands, but they do cover all the bases and excel in some areas.

The metallics are very smooth, cover well and are a plain joy to use. They are pretty limited however, with 3 shades of steel, 1 gold and 1 bronze, leaving all the shades of gold and bronze up to your mixing skills.

The Warpaint range includes 7 inks(Picture below) and they are all fantastic to work with!

They seem to be less messy than the GW shades while producing better result when dry. I cant quite pinpoint the reason, but the surface tension seems to be higher compared to GW shade, which might have something to do with it.

The Dark tone ink resembles the old Devlan mud and is one of the best and most versatile inks in the box. Strong tone is more like Nuln oil, very black and soft tone is perfect for those subtle shadows.

I am painting a small Ork army atm in which case I use about three different inks on a single model; strong, dark and green tone inks and they have performed perfectly.
The other tones of inks work great too, if you need a specific colour af shades.

All in all it is a great range of inks on par and in some cases better, than what you might know from GW, which is no mean feat, since The Army Painter inks are considerably cheaper.

My only complaint is that there is no ink for fleshtones, which is a strange omission, considering the otherwise impressive range.

Painted using only warpaint

Spraying the spray

Armypainter has built up quite a reputation for the colored primers and covers a wide range of colors.

Armypainter was kind enough to send a couple of those my way; Leather brown, Angel Green and Plate Mail metal.

Leather brown

The trick of the colour primers is that they are a 100% color match to the warpaints range. Naturally I had to test that claim and primed up some Doom Eagles scouts and bikes(Plate Mail metal) and some Orks(Leather brown). The spray was easy to use, covered well without obscuring detail and when painting up the models the 100% match claim turned out to be 100% true.

Of course, if you own an airbrush you wont need colored primers, but for the rest of us, they are great timesavers.

Platemail Metal

Summing it up

When all is said and done The Army Painter has a great range of paints, especially if you use their system of applying base colours and dipping, but even if you hate dipping with a passion, their warpaints are still a great buy.

I have worked extensively with the warpaints, inks and primers and it has been a joy. They do act sligthly different than GW paints, but not worse, just different.

In my humble opinion The Army Painter has struck a near perfect balance between quality, options and cost, the paints are great, the price is even greater and the range is decent.

Each warpaint cost 2.5 Euro/2.99 Dollars and they have some great prices on a mega paint set, which gives you all the warpaints and inks.

When painting loads of these guys, price matter;-)

Please let me know, if you liked the review and if you want some specific informations about the warpaints.

You can buy the paints directly from The Army Painter

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Teaser: Upcoming Kromlech Mecha Armor Orc Review

Brace yourselves

A review is coming!

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Review: Army Painter Quickshade or Armies in a can

Here it is folks, or at least the first part of what will be a series of reviews focusing on different products and aspects of The Army Painter paints, Quickshade and inks line.

This part will focus on the quickshade made for dipping your minis and get an army on the table fast and with  minimum amount of work.
The process is called dipping and is nothing new for some of the veterans out there, who have been dipping minis since the dawn of times(or so I have been told).
The technique is extremely simple, you just paint the base colours on the model, Army Painter has a wide assortment of coloured primers to help you with that, and then you dip the model in quickshade, throw off any excess and leave the mini to dry and spray some matt varnish over it, to dull it down.

All in all, an extremely simple and fast technique.

What is quickshade?
The Army Painter quickshade focusses on being easy to use and giving great results with minimal effort and time.
For the most part it even succeeds in doing just that.
Quickshade comes in three shades(Soft, Strong and Dark) and is not water soluble, but can be thinned with turpentine. The can should hold enough content to dip about 200 miniatures, give or take.
As I said there are 3 different tones of Quickshade and I used the strong tone for my review, which Army Painter claims is the most popular of their “dips”.
Each can cost about 25 euro or your regional variant.


How to use quickshade?
The point of dipping is speed, and the way to achieve that is to skip a lot of the steps, we normally associate with painting.
You simply paint the mini in the base colours, dip, apply a matt coat of varnish, base the figure and call it a day.
The process of dipping is pretty simple, but require a bit of practice to get perfect. 
Army Painter recommends that you dip the mini, then throw of the excess quickshade.
Sounds simple enough, but I managed to break a base and throw a poor ork across my yard, when dipping the first time. I still can't find his head, which he is pretty upset about.

Practice did make perfect though, and soon I was dipping like a pro.
It sounds messy, because it is, and if you want to dip indoors, I would recommend you to brush the quickshade on the mini, which also gives you more control and less waste



Who is Quickshade for?
I love this hobby, from painting to gaming and all the other aspects and I must admit I did find it a bit violating not trying the hardest I could, when painting the minis.
On the other hand, I hate nothing more than playing with or against an unpainted army and the constant excuses from opponents, who just can't seem to finish their damned armies…
So there definitely is a place for a product like quickshade, either as a way to get a decently painted (and I do find the dipped miniatures decently painted) army on the table fast and/or if you are doing a horde amy like orks, Atra militarium or tyranids.
If you are pressed for time or simply lack an interest for the painting side of the hobby, Quickshade or any dipping is perfect for you.
Personally I am going to start an Ork army and I have neither the time, nor the inclination to paint that many boyz, so for the horde armies out there Quickshade should work very well too.



Does it work?
In one word; Yes. 
Quickshade works well for what it is intended to do and I was actually pretty impressed with it. The ease of use, once you get the hang on how to apply it, is incredible and the result is great.
It won't win you any painting competitions, but most of us just want to field an army that looks great and quickshade will certainly help you with that.
As the pictures hopefully will show, the end result is quite good, even considering it is my first try at dipping.
I do feel however, that it works better with more organic models like orks and tyranids, or models with some cloth, like your regular guards.
Space marines on the other hand, I am not too sure about that, but that might just be my personal preference, as I think they look too dirty.

The process is quick, easy and with a very decent result. Throw in a few highlights, and you will have an army that looks great on the table.

When all is said and done Quickshade does what it says on the tin and it gets the job done.
A solid 4 out of 5.



I really hope you like the review and that people in general will support the effort.

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