#Orktober Part Deux – Da Black Ork Cav – DIY Battlewagon & Command Group

Posted on by skinflintgames

So to match my comrade in blogging, I too have taken up the challenge to Paint The Sh*t I Already Own and organise (Orkganise?) it into a fully 2nd Ed legal “baddie” force to oppose Dan’s gloriously technicolour Blood Angels.

Some of you may remember these lads from the dim and distant World That Was – pre-pandemic, pre-war – and although I scraped together enough models to fight the scenarios in the 2nd Ed battle booklet, I just… left them there. In order to make a fully legit 2nd Ed force. They were going to need the most dreaded phrase in wargaming parlance – “rounding out”.

Happily, I still had a few Orks left over from filling out the ranks of the Boyz (as well as a random Grot), a copy of the 2nd Ed Ork Codex from 1994 as a PDF from what I assume is a legal source.. and of course hope (Sorry, wrong franchise).

I planned out a list with the intent of making an “armoured cavalry” themed force of mercenaries using the scratch built Ork tanks that WD 136 came with cardboard templates for – cool quirky things that would make their way into Epic like the Gobsmasha, the Lungbursta, the Braincrusha and the Bonecrusha or Bonebreaka.. only to find that these no longer had rules in 2nd Ed. So after some wailing and gnashing of teeth, I came up with another plan – although the original paint scheme left these guys as largely clan-agnostic, most of the ladz had camo trousers of some description, meaning I could legitimately run them as Blood Axes… and that meant access to Imperial hardware.

So, a Gobsmasha could be an Orky take on a Vindicator? Scans Marine & Guard codex…nope, Vindicators didn’t have rules back then. However, the Leman Russ was new to the Guard back then, and there’s no reason why a Blood Axe Mek shouldn’t have looked at that great mountain of dakka and thought “Hmm…”… so I figured I could pretty reasonably knock together a Lungbursta hull, slap a couple of sponsons on it, and hey presto – Orky Leman Russ.

I came up with a battle roster suiting the kit I had to hand – 20 odd Orks, 41 Gretchin.. keeping to the theme of austerity (Orksterity?) I figured the rest would be vehicles and Dreads because I could scratch build them virtually for free – hell, I’d already done a Dread.

So here is the roster:

2 x Mobs 10 Boyz (bolt pistol, flak armour, axe) – 120 pts each

2 x Mobs of 20 Gretchin (autogun) – 100 pts each

Da Dread – lascannon, heavy bolter – 145

585 so far..

Warboss – Flak Armour, Kustom Blasta, Kustom Forcefield -115 (700)

Gretchin Champion Assistant – Flak Armour, Autogun, Knife – 6 (706)

Mek & Painboy – Kustom Blasta, Kustom Forcefield – 68 each (842)

2 Battlewagons – 50 each (942)

Bigboss- Ork Eavy Armour, Power Fist, Frag & Krak Stikkbomz – 57 (999)

2nd 500 pt block

Ork Nob – Autocannon, Frag, Krak, Melta Stikkbomz, Kustom Force Field – 61pts

Runtherd – bolt pistol, flak armour, Kustom Force Field, Frag & kark Stikkbomz– 43pts (104)

Nuvver Dread – Heavy Bolter, Missile Launcher – 145 (249)

Yet Anuuvver Dread – Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer – 120 (369)

2x Warbuggy – Multi Melta – 130 (499)


3rd 500 pt block

2 Leman Russ Demolisher w/Heavy Plasma Guns in sponsons – 250 each – 1999

As you can see, a fair bit to do! Currently I’m painting the remaining infantry and building a retro-style battlewagon:

Remaining Orks and lone Grot stripped, based – homemade texture paste, PVA, dunk in the mass of sawdust and general Garage Floor Grit, prime white and thinned Smoky Ink wash (partly for the gradation of colour, mainly for outlining details that my aging peepers might otherwise miss)
Floorplans cut from foamboard – you can see the measurements marked on. Shaded parts are the bits to be cut off.
Stroke of genius here! X-D Stacked up the foamboard offcuts to make the fron drivers compartment and the rear mounted engine compartment… I’m thinking BIG V8!
Overview of the foamboard chassis, Ork Boy for scale
NOW we’re cooking! Card panels cover the foamboard engine & driver compartment, single corrugated card for the passenger compartment side panels, wheels are cardboard tube with cardboard added for armour plate and balsa wood coffee stirrers provide the cross bracing on the wheels
More armour panels and rear wheels built from toilet roll tube – bigger rims… “Ghazgkull sez, ride big”
Rivets! Detailed with hundreds of the bastard things, little dots of PVA added with a cocktail stick… tedious to do, but looks SO GOOD when you slap the paint on… Note as well the spikes filling in the gaps in the armour, these are just cocktail sticks trimmed to fit and held in pace with the magic combo of superglue and quick dry PVA.
Rear view..

Now let’s finish off with a few beauty shots – there’s a fair bit to do to get these up to the magic 2000pts (let alone the hefty force of Marines Dan’s Blood Angels will add up to) but I rather like this idea of a renegade Ork mercenary force with a lot of dakka for hire.. an elite cadre of Orks with the Gretchin “hired help” pressed into services as supporting fire/ meat shields.. Look out for a battle report in the near future as we get the gaming shed ready for some 2nd Ed retro goodness!

All painted up and ready to roll!
Base of red craft paint, washed with smoky ink and drybrushed up, pin washes of smoky ink and went heavy with the sponge chipping and drybrushed up some brown to represent mud
The new recruits! Boss WarBastard IV identifiable by snazzy kustom shoota (bit of lego jammed over an Imperial bolter by the eBay seller), sword and spiky armour – yes, I will be doing back banners!
Da Black Ork Cav on parade!
All together – WAAAAGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

And by my calculations I’ve got enough scraped together to field a legit 1000pt army (just need the banners) to go up against Dan’s boys in red for a proper legit retro 2nd Ed scrap – so Dan, is Captain Tycho ready to get his pretty face messed up again? Let’s do this!

As always, stay thrifty and we’ll see you again soon!

#Orktober! Teeny Weenie Greenie Meanies

Posted on by skinflintgames

Christ, that came around quick! Well, seeing as we spectacularly failed to accomplish anything Ork(c) related during last year’s #Orktober, Jim and I figured it was time to write that wrong.

And considering that we are now about to dive headlong into the Second Great Depression (according to most news sources here in the UK), it seemed like a good idea to paint the stuff we already had rather than go and do something as reckless as spending money.

Years ago, in The World That Was – in fact ye gods, I believe it was as far back as 2012 – we scored a major eBay coup and picked up a box of 2nd Ed Space Marine (or Epic, as it became known). Although there were no Eldar included, there was a healthy force of Space Marines and a ton of Orks. Jim took the Marines, and I got the greenskins, and we’ve had a good few entertaining scraps over the years. But there were still a good chunk of Orks left over that I never got around to doing anything with, so I figured this was a good time to start.

We have here a Death Skull clan – nice and cheap and very useful, as because of their place in Ork society as thieves and looters, they can nick other clan-specific cards – Evil Sunz Gobsmashas, Goff Lungburstas and the like – which means you can tailor them nicely for whatever plan you have in mind.

Each clan can be reinforced by up to five units, but I only painted up a couple – partly because they were the only ones ready to go, and partly to allow me to reinforce them with other units – so what we have here is a clan (roughly a company) of infantry reinforced by a mob of Stompers and a mob of Bonebreaka tanks:

I did the flesh and bases with Goblin Green, washed with Green Ink, blue was Wilko’s Duck Egg Blue layered with a cheap blue craft acrylic and then bolters in black. The banners were done the same way and I used snipped up paper clips as the mounting poles.
The red bits on the vehicles were Vallejo Hot Orange washed with red ink, and for the metallics it was Vallejo Mithril silver drybrushed over a black undercoat and then washed with a mix of Smokey Ink and Flesh wash for a rusty, battered look.

And now the entirety of Waagh-Bozzhog:

Towered over by Big Red the Mega Gargant, with Slasher in attendance.. Warlord Bozzhog & his Stompas at the front, backed up by Goff, Evil Sunz, Bad Moon and now Death Skull infantry!
Unfortunately it is very possible to see how my painting approach has changed since whenever it was I last put brush to Epic Ork, and the colours don’t quite match… so I’m going to have to do some more re-organising and homogenising before I’m really happy with them.. but isn’t that always the way?

Anyhoo, Jim’s up next with a really cool little build, the boy’s getting into his stride! Stay thrifty and see you soon

More Hyperian Wars Escalation – The Dauntless Redux!

Posted on by skinflintgames

We live in an increasingly turbulent world. Our cousin races – the Ee’la, the Stoc’d – withdraw into themselves, thinking only of their own interests. The Beasts – Orca, Grub, Virum Nascii, Lacerats – their numbers grow by the day, encroaching onto those territories claimed by Man. The Dead pour from the dark places.. and even while all this takes place, still we turn on each other.

Our Sky Marines perform above and beyond the call of duty but in the face of peer and near-peer competitors it is vital that we shore up our technological to maintain overmatch in the face of these perils. And so we are proud to unveil a new generation of Skycutters to ensure that our forces go into battle equipped the very best in firepower and protection from perils both physical and enchanted. To this end, we present our latest and best battlefield weapon – the Allied Sky Vessel “Dauntless”

Her power fields and wards will provide unmatched protection against conventional and magickal attacks, whilst a Vrilfire cannon can cut a swathe through enemy warriors. Vril-tipped missiles equipped with Artificial Cognisance can bring down threats up to and including the largest dragons employed by the Beast races, whilst reinforced liftwood levitation engines ensure maximal mobility. Noospheric networking allows the Dauntless class to network with lesser constructs such as the Whippet, as well as with platoon command sections and Masters Of Artificials on the ground
The Dauntless combines speed, protection and lethality into one construct, ensuring our society has nothing to fear from the Dead, the Beasts, or any other threat that the world of Hyperia may choose to throw against us
She can be seen here flying the colours of the 301st Skyborne, a tried and tested formation who have defended the Grand Alliance against many foes
Live fire combat testing proved the efficacy of the design, the Skyborne being highly appreciated of her concentrated firepower

Yep, I got into the recycling again…

Actually, I’ve been meaning to do this for AGES. Ever since I saw this:

This is the lid of a bottle of laundry detergent. And looked at the right way… it has an air of steampunk, Adeptus Mechanicus-style menace, doesn’t it? And given that the previous incarnation of the Dauntless was basically a toilet roll tube with pretensions, I’d long wondered if I couldn’t do something a bit better.
Filled the body with caulk and popped a ping pong ball in there to be the liftwood core
Some EPVC (I think) from an eBay purchase provided the wings – you’ll have seen the same stuff used here as base.
Bevelled the wings and glued them on using a mix of quick dry PVA, caulk and superglue.
Jet thrusters from a pair of now-dead biros
Chin cannon (thinking steampunk/ fantasy A-10 here, so something analogous to the iconic “Avenger” cannon) – this was made from a mysterious leftover part from an IKEA bookcase!
Missiles added for those hard to reach targets! These are rawl plugs, attached to the wings with the same mix of PVA and superglue
Something this big needs a base equal to the challenge! Pretty sure 2005 virus protection isn’t much use in 2022, so this CD will do, with a Tactical Rock added to cover the hole
Cardboard added for armour plating and rivets daubed on as blobs of PVA with a cocktail stick, and then we bring the primer! White, to match the Whippet
Cat litter added to the base for scenic effect
Primed and ready for painting…
And done! Painting was the same as the Whippet, and the basing mostly used the same idea – I did a little bot of leopard spotting on the rocks before drybrushing them with cream and using the tried and trusty mix of PVA and superglue to attach the ping pong ball liftwood core.. Thumb added for scale!

So there we go – I’m really, really chuffed with this build, it came together really well and I think it looks the part too… full of menace, hovering across the battlefield dispensing Vrilfire death to the enemies of the Grand Alliance… let’s see what those filthy Greenskin savages, rat abominations or misguided religious zealots can come up with to match her!

Stay thrifty out there and see you soon – we’ve just noticed that it is (drumroll please) Orctober!!! So no prizes for guessing the next few posts themes…