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Hi all Just a place to share my Kruleboyz project, and the motives and inspiration behind how I'm going about it. Those are the things that get me painting and that I find interesting about any creative procedure really, I enjoy this process as much as the finished result, so hopefully it will encourage and inspire people in the same manner! I was pretty meh about their reveal initially but on closer inspection realised it was mainly the GW paint jobs doing them a disservice. The sculpts themselves channel the gangly, bent and pathos ridden orcs of the likes of Alan Lee, John Howe and a whole host of countless 80's artists investing their talent in the comics, fantasy covers and Heavy Metal Gatefold LP's og my very early childhood. With a friend I've started to get rid of some of the more needlessly wacky extraneous bits here and there but it's otherwise essentially conversion free. The models do the talking themselves (Well, most of them. The Beast Snagga and weird rat crocodile thing probably won't be included in my collection. They're a bit busy). This Alan Lee illustration is the main thing I've been drawing mood from: The KB's also lend themselves to my increasing interest in trying to establish a painting method and style which is spontaneous and painterly. The real reason for this is more of a need. I was diagnosed with a chronic eye condition this year which involves frequent loss of sight and intense pain. At present it is under control,but I've been told this may not always be the case. Bottom line is I want to paint while I can, and I dont want any of that time to feel like a chore or waste of good vision. At this point the GW layering technique which I have learned over the years leaves me frustrated and cold, and seems to be a ridiculously drawn out and detached process without space for experimentation or error. It has its place, but it does nothing for me at this point if my life. So I've been practicing with thick wet acrylics and oil paint and just blending on the model, treating it as a canvas essentially. I find this draws me into the subject, as I plot out highlights and shadows on the fly, and the sense of adventure and creativity as I smudge things together to see how it works out is very satisfying. I pick colours from artistic inspiration (see below) and then I put them together in a manner I think will work. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but the sense of creativity and of learning (so, fun, basically) is always present, the sense of obligation and tedium of assembly line layer painting very distant. The other advantage is speed. I hate the phrase speed painting as it sounds either rushed, or alternatively showy and competitive. I enjoy painting for it's own sake, so the aim is principally just a process which facilitates that. But I've come to embrace finishing models in one it two sessions, rather than drawing them out over multiple stages, because I find limitations create their own artistic benefits and character, little nicks and imperfections which create more soul, and the time and pressure I place upon myself to otherwise "do everything properly" often translates to a sterility somehow. So none of these have taken more than an hour each, all the time spent on them was engaging, none of have overstayed their welcome, and I'm happy with them all. It's a good place to be So as to avoid dozens of images in one post, I've cut them up into a few. First up, more examples of the art from which I'm taking my main inspiration from re colours and mood, Angus McBride and John Howe respectively.

I think everyone who gets a book in the next year or so will be getting a monster. They've gone big on monsters in the rules and lore, I'm guessing theres a reason for that. Can foresee a bunch of non faction aligned beasts, maybe even a supplement of 5 or 6 with associated rules and battle plans etc GW clearly want AOS as a system to stand as a unique thing. The meta of the development in 2.0 was steering it towards a looser rank and file wargame, I think they're trying to pitch it as a Mythic/Heroic simulation with multiple heroes and Big Things being the most important elements.

My Wee Boy Just a concept, knocked him up in about 40 mins or so. His bros will need some more green/orange accents to make them look more like their older siblings, black armour dosent work, but it's more or less there I think

Chaff/Screening unit. Orruks don't really have one. Highly doubt that Auxiliary troops will be BL.

Exactly. The rules have changed in such a way as to dramatically change the role and abilities of large units. Thats not an accident. You can bet that horde armies like Grots et al will get some sort of abilities to offset this but for most other armies it's a return to the heroic skirmish plus style scale always envisioned for AOS when first released.

It's not AOS 2.0. A0S 2.0 was objective centric and the only way to hold them in 95% of situations was bodies. That's not the case in AOS 3. Objectives are far less central to winning. Monsters and Heroes are massively increased in function and purpose. They have showcased this edition as being very monster and hero heavy. That's how GW are marketing AOS for this edition at present- a game where monsters and heroes are paramount. That's their vision just now. So having a new army for AOS 3 which ties to those aspects makes total sense. It might not be what you want, but that's not the same thing. From the perspective of selling a flagship army for a new edition about heroes and monsters, having an army populated with heroes and monsters is hardly peculiar

16 Units to choose from not do you for a sub faction and new range?

This isnt correct though. Kruelboyz arent an army. Dont have a book. They are a faction within Orruk Warclans. OW have 4 battleline, not including any faction keywords If you *want to choose* to limit yourself to the factional subdivision of OW called Kruleboyz and use their models only, you have access to 2 BL (Rippaz and Stabbaz) and a third if you choose a subfaction keyword. If you *choose* to limit other armies to their respective factions using the same rules, you likewise tend to have very few models to choose from. Personally I would rather there were more troops in their aesthetic as I really dig their 80's trad vibe, the monsters dont hit for me so much. Loved paintng these guys.

I didn't state otherwise I've said in the abstract that A) He was poorly remunerated given the context of who he worked for and the profit it provided for them B) Poverty is an affliction, not a personal failing C) An *Individual* earning sub 20k a year who has to pay for bed and board can afford little else in the UK. That's it. And these things are all true.

I mean...you've literally said yourself that you can afford all the things you do because of *an entirely separate and by your own admission, comfortable salary*. Take away your salary, would you be able to pay for all those things? No, you wouldn't. Not remotely. Not even close. That *is* a fact.

Nobody working full time over the age of 22 can be paid less than 16.3K, that's minimum wage at 37.5 hours a week. Average UK Full Time Salary is 31k. So 11K more than GW paid a key designer.

Why dosent it? For AOS 2 it wouldnt. As I said though, for AOS 3, it makes plenty sense

It's not an insult. Poverty is not a shortcoming or personal failure, it's an affliction. Nobody in the UK who has to pay for their accommodation lives on either of those wages happily. It's literally enough to pay for subsistence living in any city, and no more. By which I mean- Bills and food. You'd struggle to afford a hobby budget for *anything* - like, GW, or computer games, or going out for a few drinks, or a takeaway- of more than £50 per month and only then if you had a very thrifty approach to food.

That would appear to be the new meta though. Core units were important in AOS 2 because objectives were everything and only numbers could hold them. Neither is now true. Theres also masses of advantages to heroes and monsters there wern't in the previous edition, and there's also now the means to get back core troops you've lost for all factions that didnt exist for most. So the ratio of core troops to beasties and bosses feels in keeping with the intent of 3rd edition, which makes sense for the first new releases.

It's basically what is called a Living Wage, which in theory is what somebody can survive on. Unless he owned a property over half his wages will have gone on rent and council tax. If he had £100 saved a month after everything else he will have been living exceptionally frugally. Of course this is all relative. Living in the UK he gets by law free healthcare and about 3 x the average amount of holidays as someone living In the US. But relative to other jobs, for the return his work will have brought the company, its derisory. Working at a check out pays only marginally less. As I say frequently on here- GW is a company whose sole aim is to make money. They are not your friend. Their relationship with you exists as a customer. Their relationship with staff exists as a mechanism to generate profit, for a minimal outlay of remuneration of labour. Any argument that its "industry average" is absurd because there isnt a rival peer doing the sane as GW do in the same Galaxy. 99% of their "competitors" are the equivalent of cottage industries. They're lemonade Stands to GW's coca cola. Most companies cant afford to pay anything more than living wage for the majority of their staff. GW are a FTSE 250 company, and should be paying FTSE 250 wages to people directly responsible for making them the sort of profits Blood Bowl et al do. The GW "community" is a mechanism to create hype to sell their product. Your interaction with community initiatives and channels is simply a means of adding volume to this traffic. I dont ever buy anything from GW from this reason, always through third parties, and then to support local businesses. If GW was the only place from which to buy GW stuff, I wouldn't do it. They're a predatory hyper capitalist entity. They're allowed to be, of course. But I'm never in any doubt as to what it is that enables AOS et al to exist. Aint pretty.

No they're right. What you're missing is that the nature of content providion/streaming of the past 5 years Is already changing. The platforms are becoming increasingly prescriptive and demanding of what creators can show and what percentage they can take. And the owners of those platforms will be lobbying for a change in laws to suit them incessantly and with limitless funds. The democracy of the internet is over. In 5 years 90% of GW stuff on the internet is going to be controlled by them. Not all of it will be through their own channels, but nobody is going to be able to benefit or be sanctioned to produce GW related stuff without their express involvement.

Thats a great model, although it's a bit too much of a departure from the older more trad fantasy aesthetic of the Dominion set for me to add it to my project I think. I've been painting mine around an 80's old hammer vibe. There's quite a less is more quality to the Dominion models but these vulture types are very much on the more is more spectrum. I adore the skareshields and general silhouette of the new Greenskins, but they're definitely a range looking for an identity I think. Basically fall right between the Gorilla orcs of Warhammer and the pointier outlines and practices of the Gitz, but they're missing something. I was hoping the shaman/vulture might have been the missing link but it has the same issues.

Hey you're right. I mean they're *barely* different but they are different nonetheless. Nowhere near as fun as the alternative mage from AOS 2 mag though.

Bit sad that the Magazine dosent have a unique sculpt like last time

A phalanx of Phun

7 Swans a Swimming 6 Geese a Laying FIVE KRULEBOYZ

Kruelboyz are kunnin' on multiple levels. Not least the fact that all their writers need to do to find their syntax for them is paraphrase the orcs and Goblins from Tolkien. I kid, sort of. Here's my first boy. He's a good lad really, dont buy into the Kruel stigma.

Played Tennis and made one (1) Kruelboy

Kruelboyz will get some sort of bat pterodactyl sort of thing I think. Going with the sort of messed up prehistoric evolutionary mistake thing they have going on. Re the wider SCE discussion and their unnecessary ubiquity- thing is its Age of Sigmar, Sigmar and his general futility is the one driving the narrative and his guys nee to be there to either progress the story, or be beat up on while someone else does. *That's* the real comparison to the Space Marines. It's not about what they look like, its about the purpose they serve as an anchor for all the wackiness and cool stuff to evolve around. They're the straight man to allow the charisma of others to shine. AOS would be too diffuse without that sort of staid, vanilla protagonist.

Ha very kind of you but the thought of it gives me conniptions. I'm just happy messing around at my table and being part of the incredibly talented and creative artistic community that is comprised of anyone who puts paint to a miniature. That's what its always been about for me 🙂