Rogue Trader Blood Axe Imperial Guard Standard Bearer

Now this is definitely one of those bucket list models from the Rogue Trader background which I don’t recall ever seeing anyone create – prime real estate for me to plant my banner in then!

Not even Blood Axes would “knowingly” ally themselves with the Imperials. Blood Axes are happy to hire human mercenary groups however, so in order to infiltrate Ork space and stir up trouble amongst the Orks, Imperial units often pose as mercenaries.

The standard bearer is an important person in the squad as they essentially carry the advertisement for the mercenary bands services. In this case it has been topped with the heads of particularly ornery orks – the orks wouldn’t take them for serious mercenaries if they just had human heads on there, although Space Marine helmets are of course acceptable, being human nobz in the ork way of thinking. Space Marine helmets are not appropriate for our undercover Imperials, and chaos marine helmets would probably mean that the whole Imperial company would be executed for heresy (since it’s not generally seen as worth mind scrubbing and re-educating guardsmen).

Blood Axe Imperial Guard Squad – From Rogue Trader: ‘Ere We Go P.196

The colour scheme is essentially mundane light brown and grey, but I have opted for some bright yellow and purple to emphasise the sci-fi nature of this model. The stripe on the trousers gives them more of a dress uniform feel – I want it to feel like they have cobbled this mercenary uniform out of spares from the company quartermaster.

To follow up on this guy, I plan to paint the rest of the squad so I have a good Freebooter option to support my Blood Axe Boyz.

Epic 40k Evil Sunz Clan

Following on from my previous post about the Snake Bite Clan, I present to you my recently completed Evil Sunz orks for Epic 40,000.

VROOOOOmVROOOmVROOOM!

The Evil Sunz are one of the 2 ork clans that fulfill the role of mechanized infantry in the Ork army list as they come with attached battlewagons – the other mechanized infantry company is the Blood Axe Clan which comes with attached Rhinos. Being attached to the core clan means that they don’t tie up one of the 5 valuable support choice slots which is handy if you want to load up on fast stuff like vehicles.

The Evil Sunz Clan

The core of the force consists of the clan of 15 boyz stands with 5 attached battlewagons as transportation accompanied by 3 stands of nobz with their own battlewagon.

The bikes and buggies can either be taken as support choices for the core clan or alternatively they can be fielded as a standalone Kult of Speed clan.

The Kult of Speed

A scratch built Skullhamma Battlefortress can transport up to 5 stands of infantry if any of the ladz get stranded. It triples it’s move on a charge so it can keep pace with the faster battlewagons. All round armour makes it ideal for flanking charges and the 2 battlecannon can punch big holes in things reasonably accurately at a decent range.

Converted Plastic Battlewagons and Skullhamma

I like how the big model in there gives the whole clan a nice visual focus point and stops the force looking too flat.

A flanking force consisting of a Kult of Speed with a Skullhamma Battlefortress in support

Evil Sunz clan quickly seize the hill supported by a Skullhamma Battlefortress

I would like to add some more vehicles to the clan at a later date, perhaps some Spleenrippas or some more battlewagons. They will probably get a Slasha gargant for the Evil Sunz and a Mekboy gargant for the Kult of Speed as their Clan Totem vehicle. For the moment it’s time to work on finishing off another Ork clan so I can get the army into decent shape. So it’s Bad Moons next.

WIP – Skullhamma Battlefortress

WIP – Battlewagons

Distinguished Space Ork Boyz

Working on some Blood Axe boyz recently I couldn’t resist using some of the classic Space Ork plastic heads.

These are literally some of the first models I bought at the beginning of the 1990’s when getting into all this jazz.

It’s great value, giving the budding modeler and painter 36 test subjects to paint to a PRO-PAINTED standard. It was great as you got lots of weapons and shoulder pads and equipment to personalize them.

And here they are in all their glory with the studio paint jobs, and they looked pretty damn cool to the eyes of 13 year old me!

So I took some of those old heads and the shoulder pads and so we have…..

They are part of a larger unit of 10 Blood Axe boyz, which will feature in the army I plan to play some new 40k with later in the year.

Epic 40k Ork Snakebite Clan

Recently I have been filled with desire to work on an old bucket list project of mine, a nicely painted Epic 40,000 force of orks.

Epic 40,000 Ork Snakebite Clan

I intend to play some games with them using the open source NetEpic rules (with some house rules tweaks to it to get rid of the templates as they tend to slow up the game and effectively reduce the available table space).

At 24 stands, the Snakebites are the most numerous Clan, with Goffs in 2nd place at 23!

Working on some scenic items to build up the battlezone thematically alongside the army would be ideal also.

Boss Nobz

To begin with, I decided that I would work on a Snakebite Clan as I have never in all my time painted a single Snakebite, and now I would paint 105 of them at 6/7mm (Epic scale is in fact a bit wobbly with sizes often dramatically different for infantry models – your average person would probably never notice it anyway).

Snakebite Boarboyz

As the Snakebites are supposed to be staunch traditionalists, I wanted them to have a lot of browns, green and metal with a smattering of primary spot colours – like classic fantasy orcs really.

Da Snakebite Boyz

The banners were done by carefully cutting out GW Ork transfer sheets to fit. The Nobz got a bit more attention than the boyz. I converted the Epic Ork Warlord to carry a power klaw cut from an Ork dreadnought. In game terms you have 4 identical stands but to my mind the whole Ork Clan should have the Warboss as the focal point, so there he is!

Snakebite Warboss and Nobz Bodyguard

As there are not a huge variety of models available, I decided that I would make my Snakebites unique by sculpting a special Ork to represent them.

My first 6mm sculpt of an Ork – clearly I am influenced by Aly Morrison’s large head Marauder Space Orks (Trish Carden made the ones with the Normal sized heads for the record)

I did a quick and dirty casting in lead from this – the detail is not quite as crisp as the original but more than adequate to express the idea in miniature.

While I was working on him, I started working on an Ork for when I get around to doing the Goff Clan. I think he is adorable so far <3.

Back on the Brian Nelson/Kev Adams influenced mode for this guy

So that’s a solid 600 points of stuff to begin with. I am looking to add some Squiggoths to this lot and perhaps some Stompas (as they move at about the same speed as the infantry).

Hybork Warboss

Planning to play some 40k soon, and so am in the process of getting the orks into shape.  This fellow will act as Warboss for my Hybork heavy force.

Hybork Warboss

He has been on the project list since 2016, so great to get him finished ready to play some games with.

Conversion of the Black Reach Warboss.

Stormstealer

The latest addition to my growing force of Hyborks.  When I designed the Hybork bits this was one of the things I had in mind by way of applications.

The base kit is the Stormboyz from GW.  It is probably my favorite kit of all the plastic ork kits available and is full of interesting bits that fit with the daredevil nature of the Stormboy trope.  The jump packs are very customisable and allow for a lot of variation in the look.

All I needed to do was to attach my Hybork arms (with the hands chopped off and replaced with some fun GW weapons) and my favorite Hybork head to achieve this model.  The Stormboyz ship with 25mm round bases, but these are on the small side so I have mounted him on a 30mm, which is sufficient to keep him balanced for gaming.

 

The colour scheme was inspired by the famous Stuka WWII German aircraft.  I am working on another 4 of them to bring it up to a game ready unit of 5.

 

Thanks for looking, until next time…..suk da vapourz ov mi contrails stoopid oomanz!

Hybork with Powerklaw

Here we have another Hybork, this time armed with a powerklaw from the GW Ork Nobz plastic set as well as a missile pod from the GW Ork Lootaz set.

I currently am in the process of ordering another run of these Hybork 32 piece sets, so if you are interested in getting yourself a set let me know soon and I should be able to sort you out.  You can find out more here: Project Hybork on Facebook.

I have retained the classic colour scheme for this one with little use of green colour.  The Iron Jaw serves as a cyber replacement, so I took the opportunity to cover it in some blood.

I have been experimenting using Army Painter Purple Tone and Blue Tone to smooth out the contrasting highlights, using it mixed with Air Caste Thinner to dilute the glaze.  I find them to be fantastic products that give a nice streak free finish.

Lots of use of Army Painter Dark Tone and Green Tone especially on the powerklaw.  The copper areas also got some Citadel Verdigris on it as well as Ryza Rust and Flesh Wash.

Now the family photo looks like this.

Hello Sailork!

I made this nautically themed Hybork for the Oldhamer Legacy Crew 2015.

His name is Pop-eye the Sailork, credit for his naming go’s to Niibl on the Oldhammer forum.

Most of him is my sculpt – with the exceptions being the weapons and one hand which came form the Citadel Space Ork ranges.

His armament is deliberately Oldhammeresque, being armed with the original plastic Space Orks chiansword and a 3rd Edition Brian Nelson chainsword.

Project Hybork

This is my own sculpting with the hands chopped off and replaced with weapon hands taken from GW Ork plastic kits.

They are compatible with standard ork/ork fittings and are multi part models with separate legs, arms and heads.

I plan to do a private crowd commissioned casting run for these guys soon, organised via Facebook.  Let me know if you are interested in getting in on the action.

The Sweedork Chef

Made this chap for an upcoming game of Brewhouse Bash with Mr. Saturday and Cheetor.  Savage Orc plastics is the base for this orkification of the popular Muppet Show character.

The Sweedork Chef