Messy Orks

[Sign Ahead]

Jim's "Orks By The Numbers" (http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/06/hobby-painting-orks-by-numbers.html) gave me the itch to paint a few Orks. After going cross-eyed and working up a huge knot in my stomach working on the the pristine shapes of power armor, it's a relief to paint something that's looser and more relaxed.



http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4762660692_6a3298777a.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4762025923_d61302fbef.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4762660720_7aef32242d.jpg


I think I'll paint a few more of these ladz before I go back to my Space Wolves.

[Warptiger]

If you think orks are fun to paint, nurgle is even better.

There are NO painting mistakes with nurgle. Get some paint on the wrong areas? it's mold, slime, fungus, dirt, vomit, bile, etc. Make a mistake while converting? it's not a mistake, it's battle damage! Drill bullet holes around it, and carve some cracks next to it. Then paint some goop leaking out of the hole.

There's simply no way to mess up a nurgle figure. Can't be done.

[Mr Whippy]

very nice, dirty and orky. are they standard fantasy orc boy bitz you have mixed in?

[Sign Ahead]

Warptiger - You made me laugh out loud. Sounds like I may be painting the wrong kind of marines (at least for me). Once I finish the Orks, I'm going to take a look at Nurgle. Some of the paint schemes and conversions I see online look brilliant in an "I want to try that!" sort of way. Very loose, kinda creepy and very Lovecraftian.

Mr Whippy - There are some fantasy bits mixed in, but they're old enough that they may not be standard any more. In fact "bits" isn't the right word. They're more like fully posed, headless miniatures. I think they came from an old WFB boxed set (was there ever an Empire vs Orks box? I have a bunch of fully posed empire minis too. ). It's a bit of work removing the overtly fantasy bits (like the archers' quivers). But by replacing (or repositioning) the arms and mixing in some WH40K bits (thank you GW for putting 10 shootas, 10 choppas and 10 sluggas in every box of boyz!) I end up with a nice range of poses and costumes.

[Hellwolve]

They're indeed from a boxed set - the 6th Edition set for WFB. Quite like the look of 'em - and I better, for I did the exact same thing ;)

[Lerra]

They look great =) I agree that Orks are fun to paint because you don't need to bother so much with fixing errors.

Tzeentch daemons are similar to Nurgle - there are no errors, only conversion opportunities.

[Sign Ahead]

They're growing! Last week I painted 14 more Orks. With a Nob and 3 Rokkits, that'll make one full-size unit.



http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4784381455_e79e062131_z.jpg (http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4784381455_e79e062131_b.jpg)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4137/4784381623_685f77d0ca.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4137/4784381679_689032c917.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4075/4784381713_acd5d98abe.jpg


Larger images, plus a few more photos and a brief writeup are available on my blog (http://rightcrafttool.blogspot.com/2010/07/very-messy-orks-pt-02.html).

[Colonel Pryde]

Great job, I believe that all troops and vehicles should be dirty. In the 40k universe even typical war, it isn't every day that one may take a bath let alone receive new equipment!

[titan eddy]

You might want to dry brush the body armor with voltgon metal or silver so it sticks out 'cause its blending in too much

[Big mek]

What did you do witht he quivers on the arrer bouz? cut them off, let them be, or?

[Sign Ahead]

What did you do witht he quivers on the arrer bouz? cut them off, let them be, or?

Their shape was too distinctive to be anything other than a carrying case for arrows (or possibly golf clubs). Since none of my Orks carry bows or drive golf carts, I got rid of the quivers.

On the first model, I tried cutting off the quiver with a hobby knife. But it's such a huge lump of plastic and the angle is so awkward, that I was worried about cutting myself or damaging the rest of the model. I tried a file and a dremel, before settling on a bench-top belt sander (http://toolmonger.com/2007/09/13/dealmonger-work-table-belt-sander-41/). It let me hold the model with both hands, which helped a lot with the awkward angle. Then, once most of the material was gone, I cleaned up the est with a hobby knife.

Here are some Arrer Boyz I'm putting into my next mob of Shoota Boyz:


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4793352683_2acc0ca968_z.jpg

The results aren't perfect (these are MESSY Orks, after all), so I covered the transition between torso and legs with Orky bitz.

A few converted Arrer Boyz from my first unit of Sluggas:


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4793352659_77ac56f643_z.jpg

[CitizenZero]

I like the bases...did you make them from scratch?

[Sign Ahead]

I like the bases...did you make them from scratch?

Thanks!

They're scratch made, using sand from the hardware store (with lots of different-sized grains), polystyrene tubes, steel wire and "dead grass" flocking. I wanted them to look like parts of a ruined city, with lots of broken concrete, exposed steel and grass struggling to grow in the rubble.

[Sign Ahead]

The first unit of Boyz is done! 30 down, 120 more to go. Here are the final four models:



http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4797757217_fdf9b38f15_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4797757247_bbda70a299.jpg


I'm happy with the results, but I got kinda carried away with the weathering. It's difficult to drybrush when the weather gets really hot and dry here. On the brush, paint goes from workable to crumbly in just a few seconds. Instead of waiting for the cooler evening weather, I pressed on and the highlights ended up a little crusty. But the mistake doesn't stand out too much, and I have more than a hundred models left to work on my approach.

Here's a shot of the entire unit:



http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4798388156_e63bc6c997_z.jpg (http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4798388156_e63bc6c997_b.jpg)


Next up: 30 Shoota Boyz

[Big mek]

Their shape was too distinctive to be anything other than a carrying case for arrows (or possibly golf clubs). Since none of my Orks carry bows or drive golf carts, I got rid of the quivers.

On the first model, I tried cutting off the quiver with a hobby knife. But it's such a huge lump of plastic and the angle is so awkward, that I was worried about cutting myself or damaging the rest of the model. I tried a file and a dremel, before settling on a bench-top belt sander (http://toolmonger.com/2007/09/13/dealmonger-work-table-belt-sander-41/). It let me hold the model with both hands, which helped a lot with the awkward angle. Then, once most of the material was gone, I cleaned up the est with a hobby knife.

Here are some Arrer Boyz I'm putting into my next mob of Shoota Boyz:


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4793352683_2acc0ca968_z.jpg

The results aren't perfect (these are MESSY Orks, after all), so I covered the transition between torso and legs with Orky bitz.

A few converted Arrer Boyz from my first unit of Sluggas:


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4793352659_77ac56f643_z.jpg


thanks, seemed to work fine, did my own 26 models yesterday, so with the nob and big shootas i had left over from other projects, i just got a "free" new full size unit, now, just needs paints...

[Lykum]

I love the Orks holding their guns sideways. Is there Eazy-E in the year 40,000?