Orks - Deff Korps uv Krieg Halftrakks and Meganobz Painted

Due to Colorado's schizophrenic weather in the winter, we generally sees the temperature yo-yo between bitterly cold, and surprisingly warm. A couple days ago it was 60F and today it was 8F when I woke up. Gotta love it! During a 'warm snap' I managed to get some some more Orks finished and sealed:

First up is the unit of Meganobz. These were interesting to paint - there's almost too much detail on them, and I struggled to get some color into them. My plan to have the armored plates in the army painted grey sort of let me down on these guys, I think these models could really benefit from a more striking color scheme. If I do more Bad Moons in the future, I will definitely be getting another unit of these models!

I took several of your fine readers suggestions and tried to push the difference between the two halftrakks a bit further. I added on some various plates and detail bits, and I think it breaks up their outlines enough to keep them visually separate but thematically similar.

They got the same basic paint scheme as the earlier battlewagon, and will carry the two shoota boyz mobs into battle. Very near the end of this little boutique project, just the Blitza-bommer to go! Since it's dumped a couple inches of snow on us since these were completed, and a big box full of Eqyptian-themed bases arrived recently, expect to see a mess of Thousand Sons build pics to follow soon...

Orks - Deff Korps uv Krieg Shoota Boyz painted

It had been incredibly cold and snowy for the last few weeks and during that time while I'd built all sorts of stuff, it was far to cold to primer any thing and my hobby output sort of ground to a halt. However, a beautiful Colorado day appeared and I undertook a frenzy of primering. So that means it's time for da boyz!

Taking a cue from Colonel Scipio's excellent DKoK, I went with a predominantly brown leather look, with a bit of grey on the helmets to tie them in to the grey armor plating that will be on the various vehicles.

Two ten-man squads will go in the pair of half-trakks, and careen around the battlefield blasting away with their shootas until they inevitably get their ride blown out from under them and bewildered orks are tossed in all directions.

That's the troops choices sorted out - Jobs a good 'un!

 

While I was about it, i also put a brush to the warboss model, which is just chock full of character. I went with a red sandstone sort of look for the bases, which sets off reasonably well against the blue-grey of the models, but I found my usual reddish-brown base rims just looked poor. Black rims it is!

In other news:

Son of a..!

I'm in for a half dozen of these, and that's no lie.

Orks - Deff Korps uv Krieg Half-Trakks built

The ork army continues apace - while we're been suffering through some surprisingly heavy snowfall, I've spent the time building a pair of transports for the shoota boyz squads.

I wanted to keep the quasi Germanic feel with the Trukks, and picked up a couple resin kits from Forge World and ended up combining them, making what proved to be my least cost effective dollars-to-points-value models of all time! Quite pleased with how they look, though!

Of course, the two models would have ended up exactly the same if I followed the directions in their entirety, so I tried to deviate from the norm a bit on both of them with some varying decorative bits.

Some extra armor plates and a tow chain on the back breaks up the look a bit. I'll definitely need to paint various armor plates in different colors when the time comes as well.

Overall I quite like 'em! The halftracks tie in well with the Battlewagon, hopefully giving the whole force a cohesive (yet ramshackle) look! ...Now if it would only warm up enough to primer 'em!

Orks - Deff Korps uv Krieg Battlewagon

Brief break in the Memphis pics to appease the roars from Mork (or possibly Gork) to post some shots of the first vehicle for Da Deff Korps uv Krieg that I finished recently.

Decided to go with a quasi German grey for the vehicles, albeit a very worn and weathered one. There's been a number of weathering techniques I've been wanting to try, but weren't really suitable for use on the Iron Hands.

The whole model was primered black, then given an all-over drybrushing of Boltgun metal. After that I went in and stippled in Sombre Grey, leaving the edges and corners with the metal showing through. I then hit a couple of the panels in Stonewall Grey. Once that was done, the whole model was given a black wash to dirty it up. The tracks and tires were given a heavy drybrush of Dark Flesh, followed by a lighter drybrush of Leather Brown and a Strong Tone wash. Once that dried, they were given a light drybrush of Boltgun metal (to represent the areas where the mud has worn away).

I tried out a sponged-on rust effect in a couple areas, starting with Charred Brown followed by a lighter sponge pass with Dark Fleshtone. Next was an even lighter sponge of Hot Orange, and then the extreme edges were drybrushed with metal. In retrospect I think it could have stood to have one more pass with Fiery Orange to help it pop a bit more, though.

Finally, I tried out the 'painted on scratches' thing here and there on some open areas that hadn't gotten the rust treatment. They're scattered throughout, though I'm still struggling with how many and where they ought to be applied. Figured I'm better off with a 'less is more' approach to start with.

Overall, I'm chuffed to bits with how it's turned out, and I can't wait to get to grips with the rest of the army! The Forge World order showed up, so a pair of half-trakks are soon to follow!

Orks - Deff Korps uv Krieg, the planning stages

I've been taken by the idea of doing a number of small allied forces to supplement my Guard regiment, and thought a small force of Ork mercenaries could be amusing. The last several times I've done Orks they've ended up being Bad Moons, so I wanted to go in a different direction this time - mercenary Orks are traditionally Blood Axes who commonly ape the more regimented guard in their dress and mannerisms, and I've long had my eye on the rather excellent alternate pseudo-germanic/WWI orc range from Kromlech. Thus begins the saga of Da Deff Korps uv Krieg!

While the various packages are winging their way to me, I figured I'd document the process from beginning to end. First up was the army list - as an allied force I decided that I'd restrict myself solely to the limitations of the Allies FOC. That meant 1 HQ, 2 Troops, and 1 each of Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support. ...And that's it. Small, and simple. There's no way this will become an 8000 point debacle of an army. Hey, why are you laughing? Heh.

The HQ choice was simple. Gotta have a Warboss! I love the character in this sculpt, though I'll likely swap out his shotgun with something a bit more suitably imposing as befitting a big boss!

Two Troops choices to fill, but I wanted to keep things simple (and didn't relish painting a huge tidal wave of green), so a pair of Trukkboyz mobs would fit the bill nicely. Kromlech sells a nice 10-man squad, so I picked up a pair of them. I'll likely buy a few extra torsos and whatnot to round the squads off to 12 at some point in the future.

To cart the two squads around I'm intending on picking up a couple of these from Forge World, as they have a nice pseudo-Germanic vibe to 'em.

For the Elites choice, it's hard to go wrong with a unit of Meganobz, and the Kromlech equivalents are absolutely beautiful! I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on these. They'll be getting a relatively basic battlewagon to cart them around, using one I happen to have found lurking in the CoD.

For a fast attack choice, I was torn between going with a unit of Stormboyz (who are generally blood axes) or adding a flyer of some sort, and after the fun I had building and painting the previous Dakkajet I settled on doing a Blitza-bommer this time around. The intent is to build it in such a way as to be reminiscent of a Junkers CL.I, which is thematically appropriate I think!

 

Heavy Support will be a unit of 3 Big Gunz. Now there are certainly more powerful unit choices in the codex but I really think they suit the theme I'm going for, and for 70 points or so for the three of 'em, they're dirt cheap! Besides, I LOVE these gretchin artillery crew figs, they're simply hysterical. I'm still scheming on colors for the army - I plan on them being relatively subdued color-wise much like their guard namesake, but I'm torn between german greys or leathery browns for their stormcoats. We'll see how the mood takes me when I have the models in hand, I suppose!

Gearing up for the Heresy Weekender in Memphis this coming weekend, it's going to be a blast - expect tons of pics to follow!