Ork Scrap Fort!

 

A while ago I backed a Kickstarter campaign run by Fogu Models for their Fort of Hardknox terrain. It immediately inspired me at the time to use it as an Ork fort and made me think about the Boss HQ building in Dawn of War and also the old card Gorkamorka fort. I had to have one so I backed the campaign. Now, several years later, I have finally gotten round to putting together and painting the piece. 

The airbrush has been a major help in painting the large surface area consistently and relatively quickly. I opted for a 'Goff light' scheme to fit with my current Ork army theme. I didn't go overboard on the ork details though (hence the 'light') so that it could still be used as a gang fort in the future should I wish. I also kept the weathering to a minimum to maintain the simple colour scheme. Rust orange was used as a spot colour liberally to break up the generally flat black scheme.

Overall, the kit is fantastic quality with very few of the imperfections you'd usually expect from resin scenery. It's also a good size and doesn't overly dominate the board. I plan on expanding my terrain collection to accompany this fort to include more scrap buildings. Perhaps I'll be further inspired by the base buildings in Dawn of War. Who knows?   

Ork Boyz: Running Legs Poses from Kromlech

I recently decided to take advantage of the November Black Friday sales at Kromlech.eu to buy some Ork running legs and running bodies. I've had my eye on these pieces for many years and have wanted to add more diversity to the poses available in my large boyz mobs. The typical image of an Ork horde is that of a mass of charging rampaging bodies, all dashing towards the enemy as quickly as their stubby legs can carry them. Why then is it that the otherwise excellent Ork Boyz kit has precisely zero running poses? To correct this I bought roughly 20 sets of legs and rustled up enough arms, heads and torsos to finish the rest.

I decided to try a new technique of batch painting 10 boyz at once. I began by painting the bases and assembling the legs and torsos. I undercoated the torsos black and attached them with a wire pin to the base. I then set about painting all the separate parts individually starting with the torsos and legs, then the arms then finally the heads. It took the best part of 5 days to completely finish them but I must say, I liked being able to access all the areas of detail more easily. I think I'll continue to use this technique in the future but lower the model count to batches of 5 at a time. I did take forever!

I'm very pleased with the finished results. The boyz blend in perfectly with my other, more stock posed, boyz and help to create the sense of anarchy large mobz of boyz would eschew. These 10 complete a mob of 30 with another mob of 30 left to paint. Gork help me!

  Torsos and bases are completed first.

 Arms and added in batches followed by heads.

Ork Weirdboy: Wuzzbad

The release of 8th edition 40k and the parallel release of the Ork army list has prompted me to dust off my beloved Ork models and begin playing again. So far, I have had one small 500pt game and came away feeling positive about the game and the Ork army list. One issue is that Orks seem to play more like they used to back in 5th edition, which means re-painting and updating lots of units that I haven't used in years!

Here's one of my first completed 're-paint' jobs, an Ork Weirdboy. I originally painted this character years and years ago to lead a 500pt force in a tournament hosted in Bristol. It was the ONLY time I used him! Now, with the new release, the weirdboy potentially has a place again within an Ork force. I shall be using him to boot the boys to +1 attack or teleporting a 30 strong unit of shoota boyz around the board! We'll see how my enemies like that neat trick!

Anyway, since the original model was painted rather nicely in the first place, I initially thought it would just be a re-painting of the skin. Sadly, the more I painted, the more I found wrong with the original job. In the end, virtually the entire model was re-painted. I'm really pleased with the end result though. It was a beautifully detailed model to paint with bags of character.

I brightened the skin to fit more in line with my most recently painted Orks. I also extensively lined the skin to make him appear old and wrinkled. Wuzzbad isn't necessarily old, but I imagine having to deal with all that Waaaaaghhhhh energy really takes into toll on the skin! I also added more red spot colour details and check patterns to the bells to tie him in with the rest of the army. I tried to make his eyes seem as though they're burning with pent up electrical energy! I also toyed with the idea of making his skin glow blue too but dismissed it for fear of ruining all my hard work! Maybe i'll test the idea on another model first.

Overall, I'm very happy with the finished result. I can't wait to test him out on the battlefield.  

Grot Kannonz - A Long Dormant Project.

As a moving gift to myself, I purchased a really nice glass cabinet from Ikea with the intention of displaying some of my favourite models in my new flat. The process of moving into a smallish flat also prompted me to sort through all my models and re-organise them into convenient storage containers etc... Both of these processes have inspired me to rediscover my long forgotten Ork army and have reminded me of some of my project intentions before I fell out of love with 40K.

One such project was these five Kromlech Kannonz that I've finally gotten around to painting. I'd bought them years ago as part of a deal and intended to convert them ever so slightly so that they didn't all look the same. I used various parts from the Killa Kanz and Mega Nobz boxes to alter the gun barrels and I also produced new gun shields from plasti-card for some to add variety. Then I got really bored of 40K and so they remained dormant in the bottom of a tool kit for years until a couple of weeks ago when I finally found them again.

I painted all five guns at once, which was time consuming and tedious at times. However, I am really pleased with the end results, especially after the rust dust and patina details were added. I'm currently working on the crews for the gunz, which I'll mount to the gun bases themselves (two to a gun, rather than leave them on separate bases). At a later date, I'll paint 10 more Grots up for the unit to max out their crew but for now I'm happy with the minimum. After all, I have other Ork projects to continue and finish.

As always, let me know what you think. Your criticism is always welcome.    

Big Mek Sprokit and some shooty Shoota Boyz

Hello dear readers and good evening. I felt too much time had passed since my last offering on this blog. I now find myself in the curious position of teaching 3 year-olds, which comes with its many challenges and rewards. Unfortunately, one common challenge is finding any time to indulge in my favourite hobby of painting and gaming. Fortunately, however, I have found a local club and have sourced myself a generous ride so hopefully I shall be back in the gaming saddle after an all too long absence.

Having said that, I have found at least a little time since my last post to paint some Shoota Boyz and an old Big Mek.

First up is Big Mek Sprokit, a metal model equipped with a kustom force-field. I have always loved this model and in battle it is a very useful unit. I used to use him up front in a battle wagon, providing killa kans and trucks with the save. However, under the new rules (yuck!), I'll be fielding him at the back with my five grot kannonz. Regardless, he's a brilliant model and I'm very pleased with the re-paint job.

I replaced the original base with a fresh new one since the original was covered in very course ballast and badly placed wreckage. I then updated all the colours to match my most current Ork models, lightening the skin tone and adding more Goff checks. Finally, I brightened up the generally drab Goff scheme with brass patina and rust weathering powder. I really think these little flashes of colour make my Goff Orks pop.

Let me know what you think of him in the comments below. I'm always trying to improve my techniques.

Next up is the beginnings of another 30 strong Shoota Boyz mob. I picked up an old boz of plastic/metal hybrid Stikk Bommaz from the bring-and-buy sale at the Birmingham Games Expo this year for £6!! This prompted me to get building another mob and to use some of the Armorcast muzzle flash effects I bought years ago! I really, really like the effect and I'll be distributing flashes amongst my other finished mobs at a roughly 50/50 proportion. I'll take time, but it's worth it I think. Otherwise, I painted these boyz in exactly the same way as before. Five down, 25 more to go!

Painboy...Pain in the arse more like!

Well, well, well. After a few years of dedicating all my painting and modelling time to historical miniatures, I finally plucked up the interest to dig out a few unfinished Ork models. First out of the box was this painboy model, which was the only figure I really liked from the Ork codex release. I love the giant metal hand and cheeky grin on this model and it also stands in rather nicely as a replacement for the Mad Dok!

However, 3 weeks later the bloody thing is finally finished! I appreciate that my painting skills and techniques have developed over the past 2 years and that my time has been extremely limited recently but still, 3 weeks on a single model! The detail on him is astonishing, which meant that every time I dipped my paintbrush I'd find something new that I'd missed. Pile on top of that the number of tubes, vials and other glass/fluid features and you've got a complicated, time consuming paint job!


Regardless, I'm thrilled with the results and I'm only sorry my photography skills are inadequate to showcase the paint job. Maybe there'll be a little more 40k on the way! We'll have to see.

P.S. I'm not playing the stupid game, just to be clear!

Waaagh Grull Grokk

Ahh now uz wont to 'ear about Grull Grokk ehh? Well wun fing you shud know 'bout Grull Grokk iz he az a dead gud sense of ooma for a Goff. Best fing iz hiz jokes are dead funnee evun wen dey izn't. Der wuz dis wun time wen Grimbash got a nu trukk un Grull Grokk fort it wud be a rite larf to rig it up wiz a load ov tank minez.....hurhh hurhh hurhhhhh. You shud av seen iz face wen he turned da key!

Alwayz rememba dat lad, Grull Grokkz jokez iz alwayz funny. So don't forget to laff!

Boss Nob Skargrob lecturing the new recruits to Waaagh! Grull Grokk

Ok so after a disappointing start to the Orks (God that codex was a waste of money!) I have at least been reminded of how much I love to paint! Which is excellent considering the amount of Orks I have left to paint! Anyway, kicking off the Waaagh is Boss Grull Grokk himself.

Warboss Grull Grokk is a notorious copier and there's no one more copy worthy in the whole universe than Ghazghkull Thraka. Grull Grokk will do anything to copy his hero, he even went as far as to commission a suit of 'replica' mega armour so he can look like the prophet of the waaagh himself! By far his most prized possession, however, is his boss pole, which was genuinely worn by Ghazghkull himself! At least that's what the grinning Badmoon boss said right before he did the burney dance. Unfortunately, he can never truly look like Ghazghkull due to the arm he lost, but Grull Grokk likes to remind everyone that his custom spear is even shinier than anything Ghazghkull has. Well....it is his favourite joke after all! 

I built Grull Grokk out of the left over parts of the absolutely epic Ghazghkull model, which I had lying around. His power klaw had been used on my Biker Boss so that was replaced with a spare killa kan pneumatic spear. I also wanted to take advantage of the fact that a warboss can now take a combi-flamer with mega armour so I converted one up fairly simply. Finally, I finished him off with a nice tall rocky outcrop to menace over. I'm pretty happy with him, lets see how his Waaagh pans out on the table! 

The Wartrakk-tor!!

I woke up this Sunday with a hankering for kit bashing and this is the result! Huzzar, the wartrakk-tor complete with an extra skorchy skorcha! Perfect for clearing away those fields and of course pest control.

I bashed it together from a load of spare Trukk parts I had left over from my nob bikers and some tracks from old robogear models. There a few bits from other kits like the dakka jet but they're mainly for detail. I've almost got enough parts to make two more, but I'm running low on exhausts and engines. Perhaps I can scratch something up!

Where have all the Orks gone?

It's been a while since I used this blog to rant and rave but with the recent lack of incentive from GW to actually release the Ork codex I felt it was about time I vented.

So where the hell is the Ork codex? I've been dying to actually play a game of 7th edition 40k and get back into the game after a couple of years of stagnation but I thought it best to wait until the Ork codex was released since Orks are my only current army. To be honest, I think the Ork codex has stood the test of time very well and I have loved all the years of gaming I've gotten from that codex and my army, but it is time for a change and the new codex represents that change. I don't know what it will be, I don't know how the new rules will shape my future Ork army builds and importantly, I don't yet know how much I'm going to enjoy playing the game with my beloved Orks. But for God's sake GW release the damn book! Where's the point in releasing all these new models if I can't actually use them? Do you honestly think I'm going to go out and buy a load of models that I don't even know how to use? In fact a load of models I can't use because they're not in the current codex! It's maddening!

I would love to go out and buy a couple of new shiny things for my Ork army once I've decided on a theme but I need to know what I'm going to buy first. I appreciate that GW make the best miniatures in the world and I understand that they may feel the models speak for themselves with their quality. However, I am not the only consumer who's wise to impulse buying, especially when it comes to non-essential hobbies. In fact, while I'm thinking about consumerism, why on Earth are those Mek Gunz £28 each?! Are you insane? Any Ork player worth their salt will scratch build their own or source from another company like Kromlech (who already do a lovely kannon) rather than pay almost 30 quid for one! It's especially insulting when you compare it to the Killa Kan box, which is the same price but comes with 3 models. So it's fair to say I will not be buying any of those, I'm sorry, especially as they're really nice models. We both lose there.

Back to the first rant, if you're listening GW, release the damn codex before I get bored completely! I should have been spending this time pouring  over the codex making up my mind on what I'm going to buy and field. Instead I'm writing this tirade in frustration!
 

Sum git once told me yu cudnt solve evry problem wiv fire.....hu hu hu, I pruved im rong!

It's been a while since I posted anything here so I thought I'd show you all one of my new favourite units, burner boyz. I'm not sure why I've not used them before? They're pretty cheap at a mere 15pts a model and come armed with a burner, which is either a flamer or a power weapon (AP 3). I guess a major downside to them is the fact that they cannot take a dedicated transport vehicle, which meant that they couldn't keep up with the rest of my units in past army builds.

However, as the game changes so to does my approach to building lists. Now I have a much more foot slogging based army replete with large mobs of shoota boyz, lootas and an aegis defense line. Suddenly, my battle wagons look a bit empty, but wait there's space for burner boyz! And so starts my new enthusiasm for the little guys.

Recently, I've been running them up to expensive or large units and just flamming them, either on foot or from the open topped hatch of a battle wagon. When placed carefully, I'm regularly rewarded with 50+ hits!!! That's a lot of armour saves to pass, even if you are a terminator! Then, when they're inevitably assaulted, they can fall back on power weapons for that extra nasty surprise your opponent wasn't expecting! Seriously, for 150pts, they're a steal.

Here's a few quick shots of the buggers. 3 are still being painted, they'll be finished soon :p

Da Red Bastardz!!

The remainder of my Imperial Guard allies consisted of a company command squad with a mortar and a veteran squad with a las cannon. These two units worked so well together manning the aegis defense line with the Icarus las cannon. Orders like 'bring it down' and 'fire on my target' were especially useful considering the sear amount of terrain that was available this year.

The models are mainly micro art studio 'goblin troopers' with some head swaps from the grot kit and some imperial guard lasguns. The las-cannon was a little more complex but again is mainly just a collection of various bits, including: heavy stubber, grot prod, corpse cart wheels and leman russ wheels. I think they look quite good :)

Da Cammanda:

Da Vetrinz:

Grot Whaaagh!

I decided to take a small contingent of Imperial Guard allies to boost the objective holding and anti-air elements that I feel the main Ork codex lacks. As such, I took a company command with a mortar, a veteran squad with a las cannon and a Vendetta gunship. They worked amazingly well and I'm really impressed with the veterans especially, who sat behind the aegis line with the Icarus las cannon receiving orders and killing stuff!

I didn't want to field guardsmen though, so I instead settled on a 'grot mercs for hire' idea. Here's the plane :)

Whaaaagh Vendetta!