Savage Orruks

[Brakkart]

So after watching several of the AoS City Raiders skirmish games in my local GW Store (warbands limited to 20 wounds total, no unit size limits, no summoners, no monsters and games are 4 player free for alls to grab loot tokens) I was feeling a bit left out as I had no fantasy force, so decided to do something about that. I've long loved the look of the Savage Orc model range so decided I'd put together a force of them. I was just going to make enough of a force to compete in the next City Raiders campaign but after looking at the Warscrolls I saw that there is a formation for them and decided to up my plans to build that force and thus give me some more options, as well as being able to play larger games.

The formation has 3 units of Savage Orruks, 1 unit of Boar Riders, 1 Shaman and 1 Big Boss. I went with Wurrzag for my Shaman as I love that model and the plastic Savage Orc Champion with the stone axe is an obvious choice for the big boss. for the Boar Riders I decided on hand weapons & shields, while the three units on foot will have spears & shields, bows & extra arrows and twin hand weapons. I'm a reasonable painter, but hardly a fast one so this force will take me some time, so with that in mind I decided that this would be my Armies on Parade entry for later this year. Which led me to wanting a nice centrepiece model for the army. It would have to be both orcish and primitive to fit with the rest of the force. Enter the Forgeworld Rogue Idol!



Alas they no longer make the model so ebay had to come to my rescue. Nor do they have a Warscroll for it, so in games it will simply count as a Giant. It is though in every way a suitably impressive centerpiece for my force. I got a 160mm round base from GW to put it on, gave the pieces their bath and scrub and set to work removing the mold lines and such first... of which there were MANY. It took hours to tidy the various pieces up to the point that I was happy with them



I used 3mm brass rod to pin the legs to the torso, with a 2 part epoxy resin glue to hold the parts together. Wasn't sure how strong a glue I'd need, so got one rated at 4000psi from Maplin's. It seems to do the job admirably though the stuff sure does stink! I owe a debt of thanks to my friend Michael Bradley for his help with this stage of assembly.

Next came attaching the head and arms, which proved considerably easier than the legs as they would not have to be carrying the weight of everything else. The joints were still pinned and glued in the same manner though. Once the glue was set, I went over it all with a coating of liquid green stuff as the dried glue had a slightly rubbery texture too it and looked too smooth to be rough stone. I also plugged the holes for the pins with a layer of green stuff.



The model was then undercoated with a spray of Chaos Black and then base coated with a lighter spraying of Mechanicus Standard Grey. These were done for me by my friend Adam Lovell as my own spray can painting skills aren't the best.



I then washed the model all over with a heavy wash of Nuln Oil and a wash of Agrax Earthshade in the recesses.



While all of that was drying I made a start on the large base. I painted an outline around where his feet would be glued direct to the base and left that clear, then set to work adding detail around it. I used several small resin bits from the Warhammer basing kit, small and medium stones from the same kit and also an Army Painter tub, fine and coarse sand and a good amount of Martian Ironearth and Stirland Mud paints. I wanted it to look like bits had fallen off the Idol as it moved/fought. I also needed to build up the base a bit under where it's right heel would sit to support it there as otherwise the figure would naturally lean backwards and rest on its trailing left fist. After test placing the Idol on the base I realised that I did not need to leave the right foot area blank as I had, so that bit was then covered over. The whole thing was then sprayed in Chaos Black.