The Thugs: growing like weeds

 At this point in time, Silk and Velvet were about five months old and just full of trouble.

Some of their favourite spots were now getting to be a little cramped for both of them to hang out on.

This sequence of pictures of Silk are some of my favourites.  Just him chilling in a plastic bin.

Here he notices me taking pictures and gives me a look like "What are you doing, creeper?"

"No paparazzi!"

Silk and Velvet decided that these ugly green blinds just had to go.

Here is Silk giving me his best "I'm innocent" look.  I got that look a lot.

Cozy.

My worktable.  I discovered that having a couple of empty bins kept them from lying right in the middle of what I was doing.  However, the bins were no help in protecting me from a low-flying housefly.  

Picture, if you will, me sitting at my worktable with a freshly opened can of Coke at my right hand.  The table is covered in tiny bits and pieces of plastic models, with an open bin with more than a dozen compartments filled with carefully sorted tiny bits and pieces at my left hand.  

Suddenly, a housefly zooms by my head, right at eye level.  Followed almost immediately by two lanky and energetic kittens, scrambling in a mad dash in an attempt to catch the fly.

There was what can only be called an explosion, an eruption, a cataclysmic paroxysm of plastic bits and pieces, Coke, and cat fur.  They didn't catch the fly.

"It was like this when I got here."

I think they were about six months old in this picture.  Look at how long Velvet is, yet it still hadn't really sunk in just how big they were going to be.

       

The Kitbashes: 3 Stages of an Ork

A few years ago I participated in a competition on Yaktribe where the objective was to build and paint three versions of a model that showed it as a novice, experienced, and veteran.  I decided to do three stages of an Ork: showing him as a yoof (otherwise known as a yoot), one of the boyz, and a nob.

What I ended up with...

What I started with...  an old GorkaMorka boy, a standard Ork boy, and a standard Ork nob.

As the GorkaMorka models are bit smaller than the standard Orks, I figured they'd do nicely as yoofs.  As an eager young Ork, he started off with whatever gear he could scavenge - a rusty knife and trusty six-shoota.

The only real change I made to the model was to put some little horns on the helmet.  I planned to paint them up as Goffs, and Goffs seem to like horns.

As he got older and more experienced, he replaced his six-shoota with a slugga.  After loosing his right hand to the nob's ferocious pet squig, he was forced to visit the doc to have a choppa attached to the stump of his arm.

Silk, as usual, oversees all the progress.

Eventually he took over as the nob of his mob.  I added some extra armour using plasicard, and if I remember rightly, the mask is from a fantasy model.

I combined two sluggas to make a kustom shoota.  I seem to recall this bit being very fiddley to make.

He also got a bionik power klaw.  The standard one was a little weedy, so I made it a little bigger with plasticard.

I put them all in the "say what again" pose.

The number of stikkbombs you get to carry apparently increases with experience.

The painting process.

The yoof.

I gave him a scar on his left arm.

Ork skin gets darker as they get older, so as a yoof his skin is pretty light.

I was experimenting with clear bases.  While I like the look of them, it's a royal pain in backside to mount the models on them.  Eventually I'll get around to rebasing these dudes.

The boy.

How awkward would it be to have your lower arm replaced with a big honkin' blade?

Armour maintenance apparently isn't a big priority for Orks.  Well, this guy anyway.

While his skin tone is darker, his scar has lightened some.

The nob.

I'm pretty happy with how the power klaw came out.

His skin tone is even darker, but the scar is lighter still.

"Say what again."