Back to the hobby, back to orks! Waaagh!

[Big'un]

So I'm starting up a new ork army, going to try to actually keep a plog going to help motivate me. Orks were my first army back when I first got into 40k thirteen years ago, and I tell you it feels good to be painting greenskins again. I started off with a unit of grots to help re-learn how to paint after my five year hiatus. Here are the first nine:



The edges of the bases have been cleaned up since this picture, and afew still need some black and white checks and dags painted here and there but I'm pretty happy with 'em so far.





I love this guy's expression



I'll admit that the one piece grots like this one didn't really inspire me much when it came time to paint, and I felt like the model was looking drab when I was putting the finishing touches on him, so I loaded him up with checks and dags.



And this little grot is just happy to be here.



This little guy is my favorite. I still want to put a checkerboard pattern on the bottom half of his bandana though.



And finally we have this guy. At first I thought that the grot head with the skull tied on top was too rediculous, but then I realized that the problem was it wasn't too rediculous enough!



The last gobbo and the slaver are primed and waiting for me to have a free evening to paint 'em up. I'll take some pictures when they're ready.

[Student]

Nice painting. If this is what you can do with rusty painting skills I look forward to seeing what you do when you get back into it.

[shanks]

looking good

[Big'un]

Good gravy that was a busy week. Back to da waaaagh!


A few WIPs of my slaver. I wanted to give him the squighound arm, but man that thing is hard to paint. I decided to scrap it for now (there'll be at least one more slaver in the unit; he can have the hound) and give him a good old fashioned slaver staple: the humble whip and grabba pole combo.






If you'd like to know whats been playing over and over in my head the whole time I've been painting this guy, and get a dose of nostalgia while you're at it, here is a jaunty marching tune from the old Rankin/Bass LoTR cartoon movie: http://youtu.be/YdXQJS3Yv0Y . Those orcs scared the crap out of me when I first saw that as a small child. I guess I just didn't appreciate the 70s style porno guitars that accompany their song.

I've decided to paint this slaver in the colors of my very first ork army, a freebooter tribe I invented as a teenager: Da Bloody Fist tribe. Not the most inventive tribe name, I understand, but I was like 14 so cut me some slack. I originally picked out their color scheme (black shirt, dark blue pants) because it was pretty much what I was wearing that day (and the same was true of today!). I copied the big shoota conversion from the ork codex, and I think the red hands came about because I couldn't tell if the ork's hand was bare or had a glove under the thick coat of walmart brand pant i'd already globbed on it.


The last grot is also a WIP, but he's just a tiny green mess at the moment. More (better, sunnier day) pics tomorrow when they should both be finished!

[Big'un]

quick update heres the last grot!



He had a mould line on the very top of his head that I somehow managed to paint and highlight afew times before I noticed. The crown of barbed wire masks it pretty well. Gotta hurt though, poor lad musta pissed off da slaver!

speaking of whom, heres the finished slaver:


"Oi you runtz git dat barbed wire cleared out!"

Heres the whole mob together, clearing out mines on the edge of the pool table:


And I added some dags to the stikk bomb runt's bandana:


The black and white checks and dags are getting easier each time I paint 'em. I'm going to be a master by the end of this army.

[Komodo]

Wow! Beautiful grots you have here. Nice sneaky gits they are

[Big'un]

Komodo: Thanks man. Your grot tanks are awesome; I'll be lookin' hard at 'em when it comes time to do some weathering on the vehicles in my army.

Here is an early WIP of the first shoota boy I'm workin' on.



I've only just started on him. The skin is mostly done, and the work has begun on the skeletal body paint. This mob of orks will be from a warband of outcast goff boyz, the Bone Stealerz (the tribe name is still a WIP too). They'll be orks obsessed with taking the bones of their enemies as trophies. Skeletal face paint, bone colored armor and pleanty of bones hangin' off everything. More pics to come as progress continues.

[Komodo]

I like how you paint the skin, nice and dark, I think it will look good with bright blue that i'm going to use for my deff skullz boyz war paint. So, can you share the recipe?

[dodgyrich]

Welcome back to the hobby - look forward to seeing how you progress your log. Whats next?

The detail in your painting is impressive, keep going!!

[Big'un]

Komodo: For this particular ork I basecoated with a mix of Doombull Brown and Waaagh! Flesh, followed by straight Waaagh! Flesh, then a mix of Loren Forest and Dwarf Flesh, then a final highlight mixed from Loren Forest, Kislev Flesh and Rotting Flesh. I really couldn't say what ratios I used in each mix, as I like my orks to be diverse in their skin tones, so it ends up different with each ork. Just play around with the colors, its what I do.

Dodgyrich: Thanks man. I don't actually play 40k, and as such I lack other people involved in the hobby to show off my models to, so I really appreciate the feedback. And the next project is this unit of shoota boyz. After that, I have plans on expanding the army with smaller "warbands"; basically individual tribes that'll make up my overall Waaagh!. Each warband will have a mob or two and a "big boss" in the nobz mob. For example, I intend on including a warband of feral orks called Da White Spidas. It'll have at least one trukk mob, comprised of orks converted from fantasy savage orcs riding an Arachnarok spider, three "buggies" converted from the goblin warboss on a gigantic spider (presuming its big enough; I've never gotten a chance to contrast and compare), and a nob in the nobz mob converted from that new plastic fantasy savage orc warboss.


Alrighty, heres some more WIPs of the shoota boy prototype. Once I get the paint scheme hammered out to my liking this mob'll go alot faster. On the shoulderpad I was going for a rusted out white paint look, like an old propane tank. I don't think I'm quite there yet but it isn't glued on so I'll just keep tinkerin' with it.




The skull face paint still needs cleanin' up, but I think he's coming together nicely. Should have the model finished tonight, and be able to get a halfway decent sunlight photo tomorrow.

[shanks]

i love the skull face paint, sorry but i'm going to have to steal that idea next batch of greenskins i do

[duffybear1988]

Nice face art

[Big'un]

Duffybear and Shanks, thanks. And feel free to loot away; I always do.

Whoo whee, almost a week? I severely overestimated how quick I'd finish this ork. Case in point, here he is at the "I've spent way too much time on this one ork so lets slap a base on there and see how he looks then" stage. The shoulder pad was still giving me trouble so I've scrapped it for now. I'll try practiceing the look on something larger before I try it on a shoulderpad again.



The gun still needs some work in the bullet area, and in general it needs another ink wash and some rustification around the steel parts. Gotta get that wristband too.



Some belt clean up and some stitches left back here. The skull on the plate is alot less fuzzy in real life, but i might hit it with alittle more white paint.


All in all not bad for a test model. Gotta paint up that decapitated head from the boyz sprue and stick it on his belt too. I like the scheme so far, gonna get to work on some mates for him soon.

[LuciusForge]

Try to make better pics !

Your paint skill seems so awesome ... It's incredible. This red and beige trousers are broken my eyes, this is terrific idea !

Go on and make better pics :]

[Big'un]

LuciusForge: I wish I could get better pictures, but I don't have a decent camera. All these pics are taken with my iPhone, which is just going to have to do for now. If the lighting is right it actually doesn't take too bad pics. Below you'll see and example of the best and worst it can do.

another busy month with no time for painting. Finally had the chance to finish up that shoota boy the other night. It only took me a whole month to fart around on painting this guy; at this rate I'll have an army put together sometime around 2035.



As you can see I scrapped the old shoulder pad altogether and went with a new dingy metal one. I've been feeling pretty uninspired by this unit lately, which is why its been taking so long to work on them. My concept for the mob was lots of bones and trophies, and I just plain didn't have any in my bitz box, so I picked up a mob of fantasy savage orks last night. It seems like a pretty good kit, plenty of hands holding bones and horns, abuncha jawbones and some of the shields can be shaved down abit and stuck on the boyz backs. Quite afew cool lookin' heads too, though they'll need some green stuff to make them sit right on a 40k boy's body. The savage orks themselves will get 40k bitz and hands from the unused choppa and slugga arms from the ork boxed set. I couldn't help converting up a test model last night. I found that the savage orc necks are super beefy, I had to do alot of shaving and filing down to get it to look right. Here is an awful picture of the concept model before I start painting.



I want the feral orks in my army (Either going to be called the White Spider tribe or the Red Spider tribe), to look savage, but enthusiastic about gaining new "advanced" tech from their more civilized brethren. I'll probably have this be another "trophy" heavy mob, but rather than bones and the like they'll collect any tech, especially weapons and bombs. Should be a fun mob to work on. For now they'll be on the back burner because I don't want to lose intrest in my shootas after one model!

More shootas to come soon

[Big'un]

Still crawlin' along at a snails pace on these shootas. Here are the next two very WIP boyz:

First off, we have a fellow I've affectionately named Tusk-face. He's got a head from the savage orcs box. His flesh is about the only thing close to finished paintwise.



He'll get skull face paint just like the first boy, I'll be cleaning up the teeth and tusks when I get that painted. His shirt will be red and he'll have bone colored trousers, but they're just base coated for now.


And heres a shoota boy striking a pose with his awesome tusk-knuckle-duster. This guy won't be getting the skull face paint, but I'm going to load him up with some more bone trophies (painted seperately, obviously):



Black shirt, red belts for this guy. Probably going to get brown pants, though I'm tempted to give him acid washed jeans for some reason. He'll be getting one of the bone covered shields from the savage orc set on his back for bone trophies, but those are just at the primer stage right now.

More pics to come as I hopefully stay motivated to work on these guys!

[Big'un]

Alrighty two more orks finished up. I've come to realize that the more finished orks I have in front of me, the more motivated I get to paint.

Here we have a finished Tusk-face:


And his pal, Spike-o the spike fisted ork!


I changed my mind on which one would get the bone trophy backpack thing. The spikedy shoulder pad got in the way on Spike-O. Gotta clean up the stains on the back of that boy's pants too. These guys and all the other models are going to be getting some yellow static grass to blend around the tall weeds and bricks as soon as I buy some.

And finally a group shot of the mob so far:



Going to assemble afew more orks tonight or tomorrow. I think I'll do the special weapon ork next as a mid-box treat for myself. Can't decide on if I want a big shoota or a rokkit launcha.

[DarkMark]

Great blog so far. Really interesting, and you don't hear that much with Ork blogs! I reckon the savage foot shamen from fantasy would make a great weird boy, and if you've got the skills the mounted one for Da Boss. I'm sure you could get the boar boys to go on bikes, or whack big guns onto the pigs

Regarding painting I think the guns are too clean, a quick sponge dab, from the old blister packs, would sort them out nicely.

[Big'un]

Darkmark: Thanks man, I'm glad you're enjoying the blog, though I'll have to respectfully disagree with you about interesting ork blogs. I'm planning on including a tribe of feral orcs in this army, but they'll all be riding spiders rather than boars. An Araknarok spider "Trukk" backed up by some "buggies" made from the fantasy forest goblin warboss on gigantic spider is what I have planned so far. The idea with this army is to go with unconventional klan/unit combinations. So these shoota boyz I'm working on now are Goff boyz outcast from their original tribe, my feral orks will be units you'd expect to find in a speed freek list, that sorta thing. I've got an idea for riot shield weilding blood axe 'ard boyz, like they're imitating arbites rather than the more traditional imperial forces. The whole army will be a ragtag band of freebootin' misfits.



So I was planning on getting a bigger chunk of this unit painted up all at once, but I ran out of primer after getting the nob mostly primed. Its ok, orks need a boss or they just look like they're muckin' around. Heres an early WIP:




He's made from an old metal nob I had layin' around in my bitz box, with a savage orc head. The head is a good fit sizewise, but I had to sculpt a neck/tongue to make it look correct. He'll be getting a powerklaw and an arm with a slugga. I'm not sure what the deal is with nob armament in boyz squads nowadays. He's in a shoota boy mob, so I'd imagine he's supposed to have a shoota too, but the plastic nob with the terrible pose from the box comes with what looks like a big slugga too. Oh well, its not like these boyz'll ever actually see a game anyways.

[Big'un]

And then I finished the nob. Going to try to paint the remainder of this mob in blocks of three I think, these boyz are takin' too long.


Rokkit boy and two more shootas up as soon as I finish putting them together.