A Shaman And His 'Spolding Staff

The Weirdnob Shaman - I finally get to paint an Ironjaw without any old iron!

Oh, I wouldn't give ya tuppence for ya old watch chain...

Waaagh! are we waiting for?

Before we got further, let's just all appreciate that, a quarter-century on, we're still able to snicker like schoolboys at the use of the word 'nob' in Orky hierarchy. I remember a visit to Games Workshop in the early 90s, where my thoroughly-bemused Dad (who thought he was taking me to buy Airfix) was frowning at a blisterpack of 40k Orks, before a sales assistant quickly leapt in with the corporate interpretation: "It means 'noble'! It means 'noble'!"

Ah yes, the Noble Ork

Anyway, back to the Weirdnob (tee-hee).

I wasn't blown away by the pictures of this model. For one thing, the exploding staff - while certainly dramatic - tends to drag away attention from the rest of it.

It was a different matter, however, once it was it was in my hands. It's a lovely three-dimensional piece that flat photography (be it mine or the official GW version) can't do justice.

Like all Ironjawz, he's bigger than the average Orruk, and being a Shaman, is afforded a lot more character. 

And as a novelty to my Ironjawz painting: no rust and a bit of colour!

• Skin: Elysian Green base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Nurgling Green drybrush
• Horns: Zandri Dust base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Tusks: Ushabdi Bone base, Seraphim Sepia wash
• Eyes: Yriel Yellow
• Cape: Incubi Darkness base, Ahriman Blue highlights
• Kilt: XV-89 base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Weapon and metal tags: Runelord Brass, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Weapon hafts: Tallern Sand base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Weapon straps: Balor Brown base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Staff bones: Ushabdi Bone base, Agrax Earthshade wash, Tyrant Skull drybrush
• Staff Wood: Dryad Bark base
• Staff explosion: Skull White, Yreil Yellow highlights, Bilious Green highlights, Emerald Green highlights, Biel-Tan green wash, Athonian Camoshade wash, Nuln Oil wash, Mechanicus Standard Grey drybrush, Warboss Green drybrush
• Base: Skrag Brown, Blackfire Earth, Flayed One Flesh drybrush

I attempted some layer highlighting on the cape, but it looked like I'd just given him blue stripes, so I fell back on more familiar practices and blurred the lines with some drybrushing.

The staff explosion was the biggest challenge - this model would have been a breeze without it, and it spent a couple of weeks on the painting table with just that part to complete. In the end, I threw a combination of layer highlights (or lowlights, since I was starting the brightest colour and working up to darker greens), drybrishing and washes.

I'm reasonably satisfied that I managed to get a 'green explosion that puffs into smoke' effect. It's probably an improvement on my last attempt at Waaagh! energy.

In terms of how he may perform, I'm not convinced that his personal spells are the best, which makes him an expensive and reasonable durable way of getting Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield in an Ironjawz-only army. No bad thing, since armour buffs and ranged-attacks are two things the army could certainly use.

I have an idea that a Weirdmob battalion, combined with sticking the Shaman on a Balewind Vortex, could make a pretty mean long-range weapons platform, but it involves using a combat army as a gunline, so maybe that's 8th Ed thinking.

One unit of Ironjawz to go!
(oh yes, and about half a Chaos army...)