I. Love. Orkz.
I can't say enough about these guys. They're easily the most characterful and unique models in the entire range. They alone justify a reason to pay attention to Warhammer 40k. From an artistic standpoint, they offer a limitless number of avenues to pursue.Every other army in Warhammer 40k is based around an actual cultural aesthetic from times long since past (Rome, Egypt, Greece, Japan, etc.), but the Orkz exist outside the rules.
They are chaos itself, yet there is method to the madness. They are every hue of the spectrum, yet incredibly focused. They are bigger, meaner, and greener than the rest, and that's all you need to know. Orkz! Orkz! Orkz! Orkz! Orkz...
'Ard Boy Nob
Despite my obsession with the green skins, I don't actually own any of them myself. I don't have the time, money, or heart to commit to an entire Orky army. Thankfully I know someone who does, and he is always willing to let me have at it with his models. It's symbiosis at it's best; I get to do something that brings me great joy and he gets a nicely painted model out of it.
Despite the massive range of plastics and metals Games Workshop has committed to the Ork range, they have yet to release an official 'Ard Boyz unit in any true form. However, despite this seeming oversight, there exists a very similar box set in the Warhammer Fantasy range of heavily armored Orcs called Black Orcs. One look and it's plain to see the conversion opportunities abounding in this kit. As my friend had been working on the unit, I snatched up a spare boy to paint up. It's very cool to see the continuity GW uses between their fantasy and 40k ranges. It effectively doubles the number of models a player can potentially pull from when constructing an army.
This model was among the first Orky expeditions of mine. I had taught myself how to paint checkered diamond patterns with a unit of Eldar harlequins several years ago, and as it turned out the method for a square checker was very similar, if not simpler. I also began to experiment with paint chipping and basic weathering with this guy. All in all a good start.
Warboss/Nob
Assault on Black Reach is still one of my favorite box sets of all time. So much personality, so many cool models. I still feel the itch to pick up a box, despite not having an active need for the models, they're just so cool!
The big trick with this guy was the power klaw. Painting a pattern freehand on a flat surface is a challenge in and of itself; wrapping that pattern around a 3-dimensional object is a completely different beast. The key was to continually let the model rotate as I painted, giving my eye a chance to adapt on the fly to what I was doing. There was a lot of foul language that went into that checker pattern. All the better that such words should be used while working on the roughnecks of the galaxy. I just need to work more 'gits, runtherds, dirtey no good snotlins' into my cussing vocabulary.
I had been reading a lot about skin tonality when I did this model as well. The article was basically saying if humans have such a diverse range of skin tones, why shouldn't all the other races? Good question. I decided to experiment with a glaze of turquoise to try out something a bit different. Though the glaze applied a little thicker than I would have liked, I was pleased with the outcome. It's nice to see some diversity in such a huge army.
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
He's the biggest, so he's the boss.
As a rule, I avoid working with metal models at all costs. They're hard to clean, very difficult to convert, expensive, prone to warping and chipping, heavy, a pain to glue, and often require elaborate pinning. That being said, I couldn't pass up a chance to paint the biggest and the baddest of them all.
Before I even primed this guy, I spent a good few hours cutting and filing down any mould lines that were still on the model. I also drilled several large and deep holes for the heaviest duty pins I've ever used in a model. I actually ended up using coat hanger wire to form the pins. With such a ridiculously heavy gauge wire, I knew there was no way the model would break, even if someone was trying to break it on purpose! I also soaked the entire model for several hours in simple green. Even though it was fresh from the box and untouched by paint, metal models still have a thin coating of a release agent on them, to assist in the casting process. Uncleaned, this can lead to paint simply falling off the model for no apparent reason of mishandling. This is a well documented phenomenon when it comes to resin models from Forgeworld, but I have found it a problem in standard GW metal models as well.
Once he was cleaned and primed, the paint job itself was pretty standard. The real challenge was to limit my color palette, so the Boss didn't end up looking like a clown. With so many wires, gizmos, and know-whats on the model, it would have been easy to use every color in the spectrum, but a carefully controlled selection gave him a colorful yet cohesive look. Blue wires, green tubing, red and black armor, steel and copper metals, and some well deserved checkering.
Nob Biker
A Christmas present, turned monstrous project. I occasionally find myself in the middle of painting a model and take a step back to wonder why the freaking thing isn't done yet. I suppose it has to do with perception vs. reality. As I continue to gain experience as a painter, I can usually tell within a few hours how long a model will take me to complete. I'm pretty accurate, but with this guy I was way off the mark.
One of the deceptive pieces of a model is the mount. Looking at a nob on a bike, my mind thinks of the time to paint a standard nob and adds a couple hours for the bike. After all, it's just a bunch of steel banged together and painted red to go faster. It can't be that complicated. It'll only take a couple hours and then I'll be all set.
No.
No no no.
A tip for new painters, a mounted model will take you at least twice as long to paint as a standard infantry model, if not longer. GW is a company that prides itself on attention to detail, and you have no idea what you're getting into until you find yourself detailing a tiny little metal plate that's been bolted to the inner hub of a bike wheel. You have to leave yourself plenty of extra time for these kinds of projects. You'll be glad you did, especially when the beautiful bike you just painted is about to crush an unfortunate grot who found itself in the way.
Deff Dread
I actually don't have much to say about this guy. It's pure madness.
I did myself a favor by not assembling this guy at all before painting him. That way I could focus on one piece at a time, painting to completion before moving onto the next piece. Otherwise I would have been stuck with dozens of unpaintable angles. When it was all done, I again had new respect for those who paint and play entire Ork armies. I cut my teeth on Space Marines, and not having those big beautiful blank surfaces to work with was a rude wakeup call.
The problem (if you want to call it that) is that with the new Ork kits you have to be a stickler for detail, otherwise it just doesn't look good at all. I can't count the number of rivets, pipes, wires, and vents I had to paint in order to make this guy look just right.
When it was all done, the model was a sight to behold (and surprisingly heavy). If I had known just how big the model was, I would have picked some killa kans, but on second look I realized just how complicated those were as well.
There just isn't any getting away from it. The Orkz are the new standard by which 40k painters are to be judged. Anyone can paint a space marine, chaos or loyalist. Other xenos are a joke. IG is just an exercise in patience, and the current inquisitorial forces are just self flagellation. Demons are pretty cool.
If you want to prove yourself as a top level army painter in the current environment, go green or go home.
