There is nothing as satisfying as painting Orks. Ok, there are plenty of things that are more satisfying, BUT they are a blast to paint. Especially when done on the couch with a glass of whiskey.

As a way to restore some hobby time from the sprint that was Dreadtober, I’ve been working on a couple of the Orks that have been lingering in the Closet of Doom (TM Mordian7th). The simple and crude nature of Orks makes them quick to paint and rather fun.

I also wanted something I could work on while watching movies with the family. It’s how I painted a bunch of the Tyranids before and figured why can’t Orks watch a flick or two as well?

Megaboss

When I saw the Orruk Megaboss I knew I needed one for my growing Ork hoard. That is something as I haven’t had a ‘must buy’ impulse for new miniatures in a while. At the time I did an unboxing video and some rough ideas on how I would turn him into a 40k Warboss.

I’ve since following up with the conversions as seen below. I switching the giant ax for a combi big shoota/missile launcher. I used a Nob biker hand which fit really well. The weapons all came from the Deff Dread kit with some creative placement to make them fit together.

The buzz-saw hand also came from the Deff Dread kit with the socket cut off and a tiny bit of green stuff to fill the gap.

I loved the original face so I didn’t want to switch out the head. Instead, I added an extra power cable to his noggin and an eye patch. Both bits were extras I had cut off the shoota/missile launcher bits. To make his face more visible, I tore off one of the armor’s teeth.

The final conversion will come after I finish much of the painting. I left the front armor plate unglued so I could get to his face. While this makes it easy to get all those details, it does leave the should pad and skull with small gaps.

The shoulder pad should be easy to fill back in, touch up the paint and be good as new. For the skull, I wanted to give it more presence in 40k, and taunt by brother-in-law a bit by making it into a Tyranid skull. By adding a couple of ridge plates it should make a believable Carnifix!

Since this guy is more of a showcase model, I have been painting him at the painting desk. It’s going to be a much longer process than the others, but hopefully well worth it.

I painted all the main colors to get a sense of coverage and balance. While my Orks are Deff Skulls, the main colors are metallics with lots of blue accents. The red and white scrap are thrown in to emphasize their nature of grabbing whatever is nearby. It also adds some fun colors to the model.

After a good Dark Brown Wash, I focused on the face. This way I could attach the front plate before getting too far along on the other colors. The skin was built up with the following Vallejo Game Color paints:

1. Cayman’s Green (GW Castellan  Green)
2. Goblin Green (GW Warboss Green)
3. Camouflage Green (GW Elysian Green)
4. Dead Flesh (GW Nurgling Green)
5. Flesh Wash around the mouth (GW Reikland Fleshshade)
6. Blue Wash around the Eyes (GW Drakenhof Nightshade)
7. Re-highlight with Camouflage Green and Dead Flesh

Rather happy with how the skin turned out. You can’t see it in this picture, but I also added some light freckles along the neck and the back. The large areas needed something extra to fill them in. So small dots of the Flesh Wash were highlighted with the Dead Flesh.

Killa Kans

These were the first models to undertake the couch challenge. In November’s White Dwarf, the Killa Kans were added to the Hall of Fame, and with great reasons. They really are a blast to put together with lots of options and minimal fiddlybits.

While I only photographed two (fit better in the photobox) I painted all three at the same time. As I often go for the rule of cool over game winning options, I armed them with the Grotzoka, missile launcher, and flamer. I figured that by the time I got a full Dread Mob running, I would have plenty to choose from for real games.

As I go for a quick and dirty rust effect on them, the models were primed black then sprayed with brown spray paint. I don’t really bother with which brand as most of it gets covered anyway.

With a mix of Game Color Hot Orange (GW Troll Slayer Orange) and rust powders (I happened to use GameColours) and flow aid, I grabbed an old dry brush and smashed the paint all over the place. It wasn’t quite dry brushing, as I wanted the mix to be in the recesses. This is where the Flow Aid came into play.

I followed this on with a rough dry brush of Gunmetal (GW Leadbelcher). I call it rough because I wasn’t trying to cover everything. I wanted enough of the rust and browns to show through to give it the rusty look. I know I could have pulled a Greg and used a masking layer instead, but to be honest it looks like too much work!

With the metals done, I followed on with all the base colors. Lots of Imperial Blue (GW Kantor Blue) with areas of Scarlett Red (Khone Red) and Bonewhite (Ushabti Bone).

The colors were then highlighted with Magic Blue (Caledor Sky), Bloody Red (Evil Sunz Scarlet), and Dead White (White Scar). The blue and red areas were then given an extreme highlight of Bonewhite.

The white is a bit hard on the blue/red, but helps unify the look and adds more pop. I’m a fan of the rather cartoonish look of Orks, so the extreme highlight works well for me.

Still left to go on them are the final weathering and the base. I had ordered some bases from Secret Wargame Miniatures but choose the wrong size. The right size has since arrived and waiting for a day I can get them primed and ready.

Morkanaught

I’ve had the Gorkanaught/Morkanaught kit in my closet for a long while, probably since they came out a few years back. Many have complained about it’s stubby legs, but I think it’s a nice tie-in between the Stompa and Deff Dreads.

I had been holding off on building this guy as I had hoped to add a bunch of LEDs (I had added some to my Knight and the Stompa I was building). In the end I’ve pushed that off as the amount of work is a bit much for what I really wanted to do.

So instead, built him up as a Morkanaut (who doesn’t like cool zappas!) then followed the same layers as the Killa Kans. Spray prime black, spray brown, smash in some rust, dry brush gunmetal.

I think because of his size, the blue and red areas look stark compared to the metal so once I have everything highlighted, I’ll add paint chips and weathering to tone them back down.

I also ordered a base for him from SWM (the urban rubble) but need to take the Dremel to it as the bricks stick up and make him look like he’s floating!

Hobby on the Couch

As I mentioned above, I’ve been painting the walkers while sitting on the couch watching movies with the family. This works great as my three-year-old son loves to watch the same movies about a billion times.

The setup is pretty simple, I have some wooden squares from a previous project to use a platform, grab some large brushes, the paints I need for that sitting, water, and a basic pallet.

While the poor lighting and position would make this rather impossible for good painting, it works great for my Orks.

In the future, I plan to add a small shelf to the wooden square with holes for the brushes and paints as they tend to roll off when I need to move.

I think in some ways, this is the most amount of paint I’ve laid down in a long while, most certainly for 40k models. It feels great getting so many Ork-goodness completed and can’t wait to push on to the Stompa itself!