Some New Orks!

Weirdboy

I've had this converted Weirdboy sitting around for years and decided to take a break from painting my Death Guard and knock him out.  He's been staring at me begging to be painted for quite a while.  I decided to represent the old editions mentioning weirdboys carrying around a copper staff to ground their barely controlled Waaagh! energy by simplifying the base model's staff with a piece from the Bubblechukka mek gun.

Kommandoz

Years ago I converted 10 of these Kommandoz and then proceeded to never paint them.  The squad represents one of my initial attempts to use green stuff, and it probably shows.  Several of these models are cannibalized 2nd edition starter box plastic Goff Orks who have had their base model cut up to accept some more modern parts.  They're slightly shorter than newer models and of course predate Boyz coming with 32mm bases.  Oh well.  Here's the first 5, just in time for an amazing new plastic Kommandoz kit to be  teased.

Mek Gunz

I painted one Mek Gun (no crew yet) and converted a 2nd Smasha Gun out of spare bits and old toys, and am pretty pleased with the result.  I couldn't resist painting Pong on the screen.

Here's a spread of my converted Smash Gun next to one from GW's site using my leftover bits from building my Kustom Mega Kannon.  It uses part of an old Gorkamorka trukk as the main chassis.  I have it primed and ready to go on my painting desk after I took these photos.

I'm both excited and terrified with what the new 9th edition Ork Codex might mean for my Ork collection.  What's looking good for Orks to you?

Addressing the Backwaaaagh!

Oops!

A while back I said I was going to finish my ork army!  I went on a quest cleaning, assembling, converting and priming every last possible model or potential conversion I could make for my Ork army, and I actually accomplished that task.

...But I never got around to painting.  My desire to actually play 40k meant that I did a bit of a sidebar to assemble a small Space Marine force for guests who aren't quite prepared to bring their own forces to play at my house.  Well, I got *that* built too, but I still haven't played yet.  After getting approximately 1350 out of the planned 2000 points of Space Marines built.  I decided that I wouldn't continue with them until I actually got a few games in against them with my planned opponents.

So, what to work on next?  After trying to decide between painting my orks, working on Thousand Sons, Death Guard or my Tyranids.  I decided I'd take another crack at finishing my Orks.

Here's what I've done so far:

1. 2 shoota boyz that had had (poorly) converted big shootaz removed and replaced with regular shootaz
2. 2 boyz armed with actual big shootaz
   
   
   
3. One of my 3 warbosses who had been given a newer, larger axe (an old Ogryn conversion who has been leading the charge since the early days of 3rd edition).
   
   
   
4. A brand new Nob to replace the somewhat unconvincing (and small) Cybork that was previously leading my Shoota Boyz.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. A Nob bearing a Waaagh! Banner.  This is the old Nazdreg model with some modifications, mainly a banner I built out of some spare parts and a steel nail.
   
   
   

Yay!  Seven models so far.  Trying not to get disheartened, but here's what's left.  Keep in mind they're all assembled (or as assembled as I'm willing before painting) and primed.

1. 4 deffkoptaz
2. 3 Killa Kanz
3. 1 Warboss
4. An Attack Squig for the last of 3 warbosses
5. 3 more Stormboyz
6. 8 Kommandoz and 1 Kommando Nob
7. 1 Scratch Built Trukk
8. 1 Painboy
9. 10 Gretchin
10. 1 Runtherd
11. 5 Mek Gun Gretchin
12. 1 Kustom Mega Blasta Mek Gun
13. 1 Nob with Waaaagh! Banner (mostly painted, just need to paint new banner arm)
14. 4 Meganobz
15. 1 Big Mek in Mega Armor with Kustom Forcefield
16. 1 Big Mek on bike with Kustom Forcefield
17. 4 Burna Boyz
18. 3 Nobz not affiliated with any squad but give me options to run smaller units of boyz

I'm pretty sure "that's it".  Seems like a lot, at least at the speed that I paint.  That's 54 models, but if we're going purely by numbers, I did 6 already...that's 10%!  Hooray for...double digits?  Some of the larger models will take me a while, but there are quite a few small models that will go pretty quickly too.

I'm thinking that part of my strategy will have to included periodically doing one of the deffkoptaz or kanz or the trukk to break things up.  It will be too intimidating if I leave all of the large things for last.

How do you break up your work?

A Green Light At the End of the Tunnel?

Backstory

I've been working on Orks for 40k on and off for 23 years at time of writing.  My brother convinced me to split the 2nd edition 40k boxed set 50/50 and immediately exclaimed "I call Space Marines!".  Orks were never my first pick, because I, like many others, were drawn to the weird high fantasy space opera of power-armored knights plying the stars amidst a ruined empire.

A horde-style army is a serious and monetary commitment, and as a kid with limited finances, Orks were a difficult contingent to stick to.  I tried my hand at scratch building and converting to stretch the spare parts in my kits to the maximum and save money.  This resulted in some rather regrettable models from time to time, but at some point I hit a baseline level of quality and consistency that has stayed fairly "modern" that I'm happy with.

Scratch Built Trukk

Yes, my army still contains models that were acquired from the old Gorkamorka boxed set, so they're hardly 100% current.  I have a mix of sizes in my army and I think they hide each other well.  There's enough uniformity in color scheme and basing style to tie the whole force together.

My old Warboss based on a metal Ogryn.  Just in
time for Chapter Approved to gift us with a Big Choppa relic!

All of those identical 2nd edition Goff Ork Boyz?  Every single one of them has been hacked apart and combined with more modern parts, using only the legs and chest as a conversion frame.  All 20 (it was 20, right?) have been re-purposed to bulk out my slugga boyz, shoota boyz or scratch build kommandoz at this point.  Some of them took a brief tour as stand-ins for Runtherds or other models.

Old Nazdred is now a Nob with Waaagh! Banner.
I felt bad pulling this guy apart...13 year old me
won enough in-store credit to purchase my old metal
stormboyz in a painting competition with him.

A couple months ago, I took a long, hard look at every single ork model that I owned and tried to plan what I could do with them.  With my 8th edition index in hand, I set about finalising my force -- completing conversions that I never got around to, assembling squads still on sprues, breaking apart models with outdated armaments, etc.  I even demolished one of my two Gorkamorka trukks and a scratch built Battlewagon (considering I was a teenager at the time, I got some pretty amazing feedback on this Battlewagon before the modern kit came out) to scratch build a larger trukk that matches the modern aesthetic.

I acquired 5 metal meganobz for 5 dollars from a used bin and modified
them with Nob parts from the Stormclaw box...

The start of this project was also the first time I used my new methodology of only feeling beholden to 30-60 minutes of hobby time per night.  Keeping it in small chunks that could be accomplished.  As a result, I have ~3,000+ points of Orks that are cleaned, assembled, based and primed.  I would say that approximately 80% of my army points-wise is completely painted.  After two months of short spurts of hobbying, all that remains is to paint them, but new distractions have arisen...

...The 5th meganob became a Big Mek with Kustom Force Field.
He also claimed Nazdreg's old Power Klaw.

Always wanted a weirdboy so I acquired this AoS
shaman for relatively cheap on eBay and gave him a slight
staff modification courtesy of the Mek Gunz kit.

My five deffkoptas from eBay came with no flying stands.
Five 40mm bases and some steel roofing nails later,
I have something far more durable.

This guy had a brief stint as a stand in Nob for a unit of
Slugga Boyz.  He's built from an old metal Evil Sunz Nob
some green stuff and some parts from a few ork kits.  I believe
the spanner head is from the Lootas/Burnaz kit.

Let me know what you think of these conversions.  Hopefully I'll get some photography of the rest of the force in the near future.