Waaagh! Orklog!

[salty]

Greetings fellow Warseerers!

In an effort to keep myself motivated, and because Hypaspist told me I should, I've decided to begin an Ork log. So first, a bit of background.

I started playing Warhammer 40,000 when I was ~12 - so twelve years ago! - during Third Edition, just as the Third War for Armageddon global campaign was going on. My best mate at the time played a Blood Angel army and, having been into the store and played a Fantasy introduction game with my brother, we were convinced to start 40k. My first Orks were a box of 'Ard Boyz that I bought from the Glasgow GW while on holiday with said friend, and while I've had other models and other armies since, I've always hung onto the Orks. They're my one true love! Indeed, those original 'Ard Boyz have been folded into Boyz mobs in my current force.

These days, I don't play (although this might change in the near future) but I do have quite a large Ork force and a full Company and a half of Space Marines. As such, in an effort to combat my boredom (and inspired by reading another friend's White Dwarf recently) I dusted off da Boyz and decided to strip and repaint the army.

The Orks are a Goff army, Waaagh! Guzbag! led by Guzbag Mankrusha. Their Waaagh! clattered into the Imperial Mar-Klaran sub-sector on the Eastern fringe, laying waste to the sector capital, the Hive World Klar and drawing in forces from nearby sectors to attempt to stem the green tide.

Currently, I have the following which either needs stripping, undercoating or painting:

(Units coloured green are painted, units coloured amber are part-painted)

HQ:

Warlord Guzbag Mankrusha (Mega Armoured "Ghazgkhull" Warboss)
AoBR plastic Warboss
Big Mek Lugnutz (Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun)

Elites:

17 Ork Nobz (various metal and plastic AoBR models)
Painboy

Troops:

~30 Slugga Boyz inc. Nob w/power klaw
~30 Slugga Boyz inc. Nob w/power klaw and rokkit launcher
~30 Shoota Boyz inc. Nob w/big choppa and 3 x big shootas
~30 Gretchin inc. 3 x Runtherds and 3 x Squighounds

Fast Attack:

~10 Stormboyz inc. Nob w/power klaw
2 Warbuggies
3 Wartrakks
~ 8 (old style) warbikers
3 converted Watrukk transports

Heavy Support:

Deff Dread w/big shoota and rokkit launcher
2 x Killa Kans w/big shootas
1 x Killa Kan w/rokkit launcha
Looted Wagon w/Boomgun and 2 big shootas
Looted Wagon w/Big Shoota
Battlewagon


I may also convert an unassembled Land Raider Crusader I have knocking about into a Battlewagon...

So... pics then! This is what I've completed so far. You might notice that a) I'm not the best painted/converter in the world and b) there may be a few mold lines on models/excess glue. The excess glue is largely down to buying models on eBay. The mold lines I try to catch, but some of these were already basecoated from years back and, generally, I hadn't bothered since I was only painting to a gaming standard.

Warboss in Mega Armour:






Converted Big Mek (old skool Shokk Attack Gun on a Mekboy with greenstuffed intake pipe):










Salty

[salty]

Killa Kans:







Converted Trukk:




Salty

[salty]

Completed Ork Boyz:












(Apologies for the crappy pics!)


Salty

[Daveofdoom22]

Love the converted trukk! very mad max!

[DiddyKong]

Some good looking orks you have there. Well, not good looking.... Well painted I should say. If you do buy things of ebay (which I do very often, as games workshop prices are getting incresingly beyond my meagre fund range, end of moan) fairy power spray works very well for paint stripping, brings it back to brand new shine most of the time, it even works on plastics Without melting them. However, it won't remove glue. Cheap nail varnish remover (if it has acetone it works best I find) also works well at stripping paint, though it Will melt plastics, and it will remove glue. I usually find I have to soak them over night or do that, remove the paint with an old tooth brush, then soak them again. The nasty gluey parts will get all soft and can be pulled off rather easily. Anyway, back to your miniatures, very inspiring, I'm an old ork player getting back into collecting them (I had a army but sold them to buy christmas presents.... ) I especially like the trukk, hope to see more soon.

[salty]

The trukk is made from two of the old Gorkamorka trukks. I'll link to the original log:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312340

Currently basecoating a squad of Gretchin. Hopefully I'll get them finished tomorrow afternoon...

Salty

[salty]

Okay, a little update. I promised Gretchin... but I suck. The grots were undercoated, basecoated with Goblin Green and their weapons with Tin Bitz, and then I a) got bored of painting green skin and rusty metal, and b) got my hands on some plasticard.

It's the first time I've known where in Sheffield to get a hold of some (up to now I've always been too lazy/cheap to get any and used card), so naturally I wanted to give something a go right away. Knowing I had a Land Raider Crusader kit knocking about upstairs unassembled, I decided to complement the lack of anti-tank firepower in my current Goff list by converting a Battlewagon. Here are some early pics:



The basic hull here, put together.




Next I painted the controls panel and added some rough wiring. I also cracked one of the monitors and painted it and another a fuzzy grey colour. A quick black wash, and I got roughly the "static" feel I was looking for - these monitors don't work any more and, frankly, the Meks couldn't care less. Who wants to watch the fighting on a screen anyway?




Inside the wagon, I added the dashboard from a broken Gorkamorka trukk as a jury-rigged control panel beneath the Beakie one. The blue wiring from before was attached where the steering column would have been. I imagine the Meks trying and failing to get to grips with the Beakies gubbinz and eventually getting bored and bypassing it all together. I also attached the rucksack from the Mekboy you can see converted above. I've kept his Mek's bosspole too, to add as a glyph or some such later.




Finally for now, I started work with the plasticard. I chopped away most of the top of the landraider, as I intend to build a large flat bed on top for da Boyz to ride in, with a ladder dropping down into the interior of the wagon. I wanted to retain the grills at the back of the Raider however, and while cutting these down with a Stanley knife I succeeded in slicing a deep centimetre long groove into... my middle finger. Knives are sharp kids! Don't mess about with them!

I intend to tell wimmins I got the scar rescuing a baby from a feral dog-chimp that escaped from a government lab. It's much cooler than "I did it cutting up a toy..."

Anyway, as you can see I've used the new plasticard to build up a small cabin at the front. As I messed up the assault ramps at the front anyway, I glued the top part in place and attached the cab to this. Later I'll add detail/weathering/rivets etc.

Salty

[violenceha]

Love your Shokk attack mek, salty, he looks really menacing, and oop stuff is always awesome plus!

To be honest, I think it's cooler yelling at people that you injured it cutting up toys as you give people the finger.

[Davidian]

agreed with Val, makes me want to dig out my old SAG to bring it up to date

[salty]

Thanks guys! In all honesty, I love the old SAG but it was a real pain to attach to a new Mekboy. Maybe that's just down to my crappy modelling skills (most likely ), I don't know. First off the Mekboy model is a bit small to be a Big Mek, so I had to angle the legs a tad and then greenstuff some grassy-lump under his foot to get the pose right. I also had to angle the head a bit as well.
The intake pipe is greenstuff built up around a solid base, and attached to the SAG with a 3rd edition plastic Beakie terminator arm.

More pics of the Battlewagon later this afternoon.

Salty

[violenceha]

Hey, we don't want to read about your filthy "mek" adventures, keep it clean
Look forward to seeing more.

[salty]

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen (and Violencaha)!

Some updates!

I've got more done on the Land Raider battlewagon. It's influenced by one made by Scarpia over at the Waaagh! as I really like the feel of his wagon. However, where he went for a removable top, allowing for a looted Land Raider or a Battlewagon, as the most recent codex means looted Raiders have crappy stats I've gone for a straight Battlewagon.

But that's all boring and stuff. I suppose you people want pictures?

First I made a flat "bed" that extended over the top of the Land Raider, and the plasticard driver's cab.




Next I added some sides to make a sort of tray, and cut a V shape out of the front to allow for big gunz.




As seen here, with an old Lobba. The Lobba will be stripped, repainted, and have a grot stuck in the end once it is finished. Generally however, I intend to have a Zzap Gun here for add anti-tankiness - I just can't seem to find it at the moment...




So, with the dry-assembly sorted, I started gluing bits together. Halfway through, I realised I'd assembled the tracks without putting the sliding doors back in. Because I'm a tool. After some choice profanities and half a tube of Pringles to calm down, I decided to make a door from plasticard and adorn it with the Goffs bull-head glyph.




And (dry) assembled:

[salty]

...continued.

With things starting to look a bit more Orky, I decided it still looked too much like a looted wagon. I added a nice big Grim glyph to the ramp on the front;




Added the doors, with a bit of battle damage;





As you can see from those pics, I also added a pair of supports from plasticard strips to the front, so the transport bit up top doesn't look like it's about to collapse. I also added a couple of boards down the sides, which comfortably stand two models on regular sized round bases.

Next up, I added some leftover bitz from the Raider as mounts for some rokkit launchas. I made them from a square of plasticard for the firing board, a bit of plastic rod and sprue, some greenstuff, and some toy rokkits from some kids toy or other. The rokkits I cut down from about 4" to about 1".




Finally for now, here's a shot looking down inside. I'm leaving this back bit open as I don't intend for the model to have the Ard Top upgrade. You can see a ladder made from chicken wire dropping down to allow the boys access to the top. You might also note that I've cut away the Raider's exhausts. Those beakie onces are much too weedy. I've saved the actual exhaust pipes and intend to experiment with putting them on top of some big plastic rods (from inside rolls of till receipt) I've got in my bitz box.







EDIT: Now - I has kweschuns!

Firstly, I ordered some rare earth magnets on eBay today. Very reasonably priced, and like the plasticard I've never used them before but have always been intrigued. I've attached two firepoints for rokkit launchas on the battlewagon already, but I'm toying with the idea of having big shootas, one on each of the boards down the sides. I may also magnetise these so that they can be swapped with more rokkits if needed.

Second, I've got a scratchbuilt deff-rolla, but obviously with the front boarding ramp I can't decide whether or not to add it?

Salty

[salty]

Greeting Warseerers!

Just a small update this evening. Firstly, I've begun work on Orkifying the Raider a bit more. It's obviously still missing about two-hundred million rivets, but since I think I'm going to wait for the aforementioned magnets to turn up before working on more weapons mounts/a deff rolla I decided to start adding Orky armour plating to break up the original feel of the model. There's a long way to go with this of course, but still.

Here you can see I've got around to adding a vision slit to the cabin, so that the driver can actually see where he's going...
It came from a non-GW motorised model tank kit (German Leopard tank I think). I bought two of them aaaaages ago to convert. This bit was still on the original sprue and was originally the cover for the ON/OFF switch. I chopped off two prongs on the back and shaved down the raised ON/OFF on the front to get a nice look.




Here's the left hand side of the Raider, with a few more armour plates added. The one on the second hatch is covering up the remainder of the Imperial eagle I shaved off.




Then the right hand side. The only bit I got to add to this side before I ran out of superglue was a small armour plate with another Goff glyph on it, this time a stylised pair of horns.





The last picture for tonight it the back of the Raider. As I said before, I thought the beaky exhausts were much too weedy for an Ork battlewagon. I chopped off and retained the original exhausts, and covered the holes that remained with a piece of (battle weathered) plasticard. I then put a slightly smaller rectangle of card over this to make it a little less flat, before beginning on the smokestacks. They themselves are made not from the till roll tubes as I had intended, but from two halves of a round pen taken from an aborted scratchbuilt Stompa. I popped track wheels from the Leopard tank I mentioned before. Next, I took the eight halved pieces of the original exhausts. Cutting the top bits off four of these and shaving them down to better fit, I glued them all together into two taller exhausts, which were then attached to the bits of pen, which were then in turn attached to the back of the battlewagon. Sorted - much more Orky looking!





C&C welcome.

Salty

[violenceha]

How did you do the bullet holes/ battle damage on the door? It looks really good.

[salty]

I used the trusty old Stanley knife to dig out a small hole, then scraped it outwards. It's hard to explain to be honest, and also probably no the safest or most efficient method, but I like the results.

Salty

[salty]

A little update.

I may have my first game in years lined up. Unfortunately it's in about twelve days time, and my models are mostly in the process of being stripped and/or need reassembly, and that's before I even think about painting them. As I'm still out of superglue however, I decided to crack on with the first few Gretchin in an effort to at least get some models painted up.

Note: crappy paint jobs and even crappier photography skills ahead!

Now, obviously I've been out of the hobby for quite a while so you guys probably already realised this, but the new range of GW washes is great! Devlan mud in particular is a god-send.








And one with the flash switched on...




Their rags/clothes/boots/belts etc. vary - some have Snakebite leather, others Bleached Bone and one a bit of Codex Grey thrown into the mix. All have had a heavy wash or two of Devlan Mud. Skin is Goblin Green washed heavily with Thraka Green, then drybrushed with Goblin Green/Bleached Bone mix (50/50). I'll highlight up going GG/BB 40/60 and then 25/75 most likely. Metal bits are Tin Bitz, heavy Boltgun Metal drybrush and, on one or two, lighter Mithril Silver drybrush, and will be washed with Devlan Mud or Badab Black... I haven't decided yet, still testing out which I prefer.


Salty

[violenceha]

Devlan Mud is awesome, I'm going to try getting an old friend back into the hobby by demonstrating it's effectiveness!

I'm really impressed with your progress, you've done more with your ork army in a few days than I've managed with mine all year!

The grots looks very nice, the colour scheme instantly made me think, man, Gorkamorka was an awesome game and so I dub them, win.

[salty]

Cheers violenceha. And yeah, it's not just Devlan Mud either. Thraka Green and Badab Black are incredibly useful. I had been using the old Flesh Wash as often as not, which is good but doesn't settle as well as Devlan Mud and always leaves quite a harsh "shine" on the models.

Another small update - Missus Salty got me up at 7.30am to sort out some stuff she needed to post, so I took the opportunity to get a bit of painting in before I have to head to work. The Gretchin are all but finished now, although I can't decide whether or not to add a final highlight to the skin and weapons. It doesn't help that the camera has flattened/washed out the colours a bit. Anyway, here we go (EDIT: Noticed a few bits after photographing, such as the unfinished belt on one model, that have since been touched up):



Grots crowding an old objective marker I rescued from my Mum's this week (that and a bunch of other scenery is going to get a repaint and rebase and I'll add it up in here later).






A single Grot. Again, it's washed out the colours a bit, and the camera really seems to object to taking close shots of anything.






Finally, two group shots of the nine finished Gretchin. I've got a couple more old metal ones currently stripping, a bunch of plastic ones still just basecoated and some old 2nd Edition models I'm thinking of converting with head-swaps a'la Captain Brown.


Salty

[salty]

Greetings Warseer!

Something a little bit different today. I got to putting something together for a bit of fun last night after work, while watching TV and decided to expand on the fluff a bit as well.

The Adventures of Lugnutz, Bolttoof and Rippa

"Da Boss wants ter see you."
Lugnutz didn't like the way Skargob had smirked as he delivered the message.
"Look, you can tell 'im 'is wagon will be ready when it's ready. After all dat malarkey wiv Litefinga an' 'is Deff Skullz nickin' everythin' that isn't rivetted down, it's lucky 'e's gettin' it at all!"
"It's not about dat greaseboy. Jus' get yerself over to 'is hut pronto!"
Lugnutz Skabgut wasn't afraid of many things. After all, when you've looked into the shooty end of a shokk attack gun and caught a faceful of slavering snotling leaving a miniaturised warp-portal, the world all starts to seem a lot more sensible. Still, Guzbag was da Boss. He was in charge because Gork had given him a headful of killy-cunning and Mork had given him a heartful of cunning-killiness. And possibly because he had the biggest suit of Mega-armour around.
"Watch da garage while I'm gone, got it?" sighed the Big Mek, chucking an dirty rag at his trusty oiler Bolttoof. "An' remember da most important rule!" he added as the little, half-naked Greenskin struggled to fire up a burna nearly three times as long as himself.
"Make it 'ard an' killy?" Bolttoof asked.
"Well, alright den, the second most important rule."
"Make sure it's painted red?"
"No, da uvver one."
"Don't tell Boss Grimgit about what really 'appened ter 'is trukk?"
Lugnutz gave the grot a slap that sent him flying, and sent a sheet of flames licking out from the flamer to singe the squig-leather seats in Guzbag's wagon. "Safety first! Yous gotta be careful in 'ere, an' not go messin' wiv fings wivout takin' da proppa precautions!" he snapped. He tossed a pair of goggles at Bolttoof. "Put dem on. I don't want yer goin' blind or summink. I gots no use for a blind 'elper." Bolttoof pulled them on and tightened the straps, before giving Lugnutz a thumbs up. "Look's good ter me. Nah get back to work! Rippa, wiv me..."

Outside the Mek's garage, the camp was bustling with Grots and Snotlings running messages around or trying to avoid the Orks playing "Whack-a-Grot" with a bit lump of wood. Around Rotgut's brewhut, five boyz were having a very loud and heated argument about which was better - a slugga with an underslung chainchoppa, or a chainchoppa with a slugga attachment. One of them was banging a tankard of fungus beer on the table, oblivious to the pointy eared Grot with a hand in his money pouch, making off with a handful of teef.
Guzbag's hut was really more of a bastion, swarming with Skarboyz and Stormboyz, and almost as many gun-emplacements as bricks. Inside it was dark, and the air was close and humid. Guzbag himself was in his throne room, pacing back and forth snapping his power claw. His ammo runt Snikker was trying to hide himself away in a corner, while da Boss' nobz kept throwing each other uneasy glances.
Lugnutz cleared his throat. "You wanted ter see me Boss?"
Guzbag turned to look at him. "What da zoggin' 'ell is dat fing?" he said in surprise, pointing at Rippa.
"Dat's me squig boss..."
"Yeah, but what did yer do ter 'im?!"
Rippa was clanking across the room to "sniff" at Snikker, belching black fumes from his tail-exhaust. "I med some improvements. Me an' Painboss Tinspleen wanted to test out some new modifikashuns fer da cybork body. It was easier ter shake a box of bolts an' shout 'Dinner time Rippa!' than to convince one of da Boyz to 'sniff dis rag...' and den bash him in da 'ed while 'e wuz still sayin' 'I don't geddit, it jus' smells of engine oil?'"
"Fair enuff," nodded Guzbag. "Nah lissen up, cos I gots a speshul job for ya..."




So, pics and stuff!



Rippa da Cybersquig. In game terms, I'll probably use him as an Attack Squig for the Big Mek. I also noticed the giant mould line on the exhaust after drybrushing. Whoops!








And Lugnutz, Bolttoof and Rippa together:




Salty