Kitbashed EM4 space orcs - and orkish work in progress

A couple of months ago, I kitbashed some EM4 Fantasy Warriors orcs into space orcs through the tried-and-tested route of "stick a gun on a fantasy figure and call it a spaceman". I painted these up for a game in June but forgot to record them. There are many more to come. 

Since playing One Page Rules: Grimdark Future then, I've been putting together some multi-based orks for that game and similar sci-fi ones (e.g. Xenos Rampant). I like the 3/2/1 basing system that some people use for the Rampant games, and I've realised that it would work just fine in Grimdark Future. Here are some WIP bases, both for primitive orks ("berserkers" in GF) and more tech-savvy ones:

I really like this style of basing and might extend it to include some 4s and 5s. For games that involve large groups of figures, it makes movement so much easier and avoids the unsightly spectacle of lots of individually based figures crammed together and falling over each other on the table. 

Edit: a size comparison with first-edition 40K and Gorkamorka orks:

 

My son's ork war machine

 

I was short of prep time for a couple of games of Grimdark Future over the weekend, so I commissioned my son to build me a "great walker". This is the result.     

It worked pretty well in the first game, though less so in the second, where I had to bend the points allowance to fit it in and ended up with too many eggs in its well-protected basket. I'll probably add some tattered banners and graffiti to it before its next appearance.

A space ettin!

I realise that I've had this fellow in the works for more than three years (!) now, but he's finally done. He's a converted ettin from the Descent boardgame. 

Ettin, of course, is an archaic English word that means 'giant'. It's cognate with the Norse jotun: both words seem to stem from a root that means 'eater'.

 In the Monster Manual, Gary Gygax describes ettins as two-headed giants that are evidently "closely related to orcs". He probably got his concept of the ettin from the fairy tale Red Ettin, which features a three-headed giant who keeps two-headed cattle. I thought a sci-fi version might do nicely as a space-orc chieftain.

A whole lot more orks ,,,

Here's another batch of space orcs - most of them old Citadel from the 80s, along with a Mantic marauder and a more recent GW ork with a bit of kitbashing. 

 I added a little bit of an homage to the late John Blanche: a titan of illustration and miniature painting, who will be very much missed. RIP.

And another ...

 This is one of Thrugg Bullneck's raiders from the very first 40K releases. He appears to be a leader of some kind, though he's neither Thrugg, Hrukk nor the unnamed squad leader with the heavy bolter. I suspect he was meant to be a second squad leader but lost his position in a mix-up with the heavy gunner. 

Another space orc!

 

Here's another space orc - this one a conversion of a Battle Masters orc. 

Veteran space orcs

Here's a unit of "orc veterans" for Grimdark Future (and doubtless other games). They're a mix of orks and fantasy orcs and black orcs. 

The two black orcs have simply been equipped with pistols to give them sci-fi credentials.

The orc on the left is a Warhammer fantasy orc with an ork head and left arm.

 

Yet more space orcs!

 There's an old John Blanche illustration from White Dwarf that I like, which I think may have been recycled into the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It was used to illustrate an article entitled The Naked Orc, and it shows a group of orcs that vary massively in stature and proportions. 

I'm going for something of the same effect with these space orcs: a diverse bunch of creatures that are united only by a few specific characteristics. These are the latest two: a Mantic marauder and a kitbashed Warhammer Fantasy orc. Many more to come ...

More space orcs!

 

I'm currently in the process of finishing off a batch of orks, many of which were started years ago. In tow of these three instances, I've retouched old paintjobs, mainly by redoing the skin. The one on the right is a new speed-paint: clothes and gear done very quickly with drybrushing and washing; skin done more slowly.

My plan for today was to get at least 10 finished; I'm up to five as of ten o'clock. I had the day off for the task, but the weather demanded plenty of outdoor exercise!

A space black orc

Here's an "orc veteran" for Grimdark Future - the first of a small unit that I hope to finish this evening. 

With my space orcs, I'm trying to keep the pink snout, ears and lower lip as the unifying characteristics, with a bit of variety in the skin colours - mainly green but also black, grey and brown - and possibly blue and dull red too.

This guy was the test for black skin; I was aiming for the original colour scheme for Citadel black orcs, as seen in Gary Chalk's illustration for Warhammer Armies (or was it Ravening Hordes - I forget). 

 

A converted space orc

 

Here's the latest in an occasional series of "stick a gun on it and call it a spaceman" - the best and most nostalgic form of miniature conversion. This is a Grenadier orc by Nick Lund; he'd lost his sword and helmet spike, so got a plastic gun and plume as compensation. He should fit in nicely with the converted EM4 (ex Grenadier) plastics in the previous post.

Kitbashed space orcs!

A friend of mine who used to play a lot of 40K suggest that we give One Page Rules' Grimdark Future game a tryout in the summer, so that he can use some of his exquisitely painted armies. I haven't played 40K since the first edition, but the OPR rules look nice and streamlined: a bit of Song of Blades and Heroes (with the Quality stat); a bit FUBAR (with the alternating activations); and a bit Kings of War (the general streamlining): all good things, and the rules and list-builder are free to boot.

I was planning to paint up a lot of first-edition 40K space orks for the summer session, but I'm aware that time and work commitments may limit what I can do (and I don't want to rush those old treasures). But I have no qualms about speed-painting kitbashed EM4 plastic orcs (wonderfully cheap and readily convertible). I converted one to sci-fi a while back, along with an associated metal Nick Lund Grenadier orc, so I thought I'd convert a few more. 

One welcome discovery has been that the new Frostgrave cultists have bulky arms and gloved hands that work nicely with the EM4 orc torsos. The arms (and chainsaw) of the figures in the first photo come from that kit. Stargrave scavenger arms and various other sci-fi bits make up the rest. 

As far as I can see from the Grimdark Future rules, the orc profile is all about aggression rather than toughness (as in the original 40K, where T4 was an ork's main advantage). So these smaller, rather simian orcs should look the part so long as they're armed to the teeth. 

 

Atavist or ancestor?

 Here's a wee conversion I did a few years ago - just got round to finishing off the paintwork.

I'll probably make a few more of these: enough for a little skirmish band. 

But what are they? Primitive ancestor types? Or mysteriously devolved creatures of a familiar type?

The world's oldest Space Ork?!

 

This is a converted Fantasy Tribes Orc from Citadel. He dates from 1982 and is a variant of FT06 (Orc Swinging Axe). His axe has not escaped the 80s, so I thought I'd make him a sci-fi figure in the tradition of Gary Chalk (whose converted C15 Orc Chieftain with assault rifle featured in an early White Dwarf).

I have a small warband of converted old-school orcs underway; next up will be Copplestone and Lund conversions.

Oh, and happy Year of the Dragon! Here's my son's latest offering to celebrate the Spring Festival:

A little more progress ...

Some progress with my 40K Hordes of the Things project. I've also been on a bit of a basing spree and have six gretchin 'horde' elements to finish off.

Thanks to the hefty proportions of these orks, getting HotT elements done for this project is much quicker than for most 28mm armies - especially with the hordes. I'm using three or four figures to a base for a horde, rather than the standard five to eight. And with warbands at two miniatures and shooters at one, I should have the first standard (24AP) army completed very shortly.

Although I'm aiming for two 36AP ork armies (to fight on the same side in a four-player game), the first 24AP off the block will look something like this:

4 x warbands
2 x shooters
1 x hero (general)
1 x magician
1 x behemoth

The core of the next 24AP will be gretchin hordes, I think. And then I'll fatten each army up with additional elements until we get to a total of 72AP for both.

More orks!

Here's another warband element for my 40K Hordes of the Things project. I've refined (i.e. speeded up) the process for these, so that it now runs as follows:

1. Prime in black gesso.
2. Undercoat in Vallejo silver-grey.
3. Paint metal in Vallejo natural steel.
4. Wash everything in Agrax Earthshade.
5. Drybrush all the non-metal bits in white (it doesn't matter if the odd metal bit gets hit).
6. Slop on some contrast paints.
7. At a couple of points during these stages, paint the base grey, then wash it in Nightshade.
8. Add some rust to the weapons, etc.
9. Pick out eyes and teeth with quick highlights and do the same to the metals with silver.
10. Drybrush the base white, do a bit of blacklining to tidy up the figues, then edge the base in black.

It's not a clever or pretty method. But it is quick.

I also (more or less) finished off a shooter element (and painted the cables on the other warband's power axe, though not before these photos). So that's 6AP complete - a quarter of a normal HotT army. Experience shows, though, that HotT works very well with much bigger forces than that - so there are many more orks to come!

Hordes of the Things for 40K

It's not an original idea, but I've been thinking for a while of creating some Hordes of the Things armies from various accumulated 40K miniatures. A few judicious additions to the heaped-up plastic will need to be made, but I'm hoping to get four largish armies painted up in the next few weeks. The goal is a big game of HotT with some old friends later in the year.

Not quite finished, but getting there ...

The assumed figure scale of HotT is unstated but large. So most of these elements will do their fighting in close combat only; the two orks on a base represent several hundred or more, and the short ranges of 40K weapons mean that most shooting will be factored into the base-to-base clashes. 'Shooter' elements, like the terminator with the assault cannon above, are exceptions.

A great deal of the fun of HotT comes from fitting particular miniatures into the game's 20 element types. The orks will be 'warbands' for the most part, and ordinary space marines will be 'blades'. The big terminator base above will serve as a 'phalanx' using these variant rules. Imperial guard, colonial militias and any other normal human types will be 'hordes'.

Then there are bikes ('riders' or 'knights'?), tanks ('knights' or 'behemoths') and dreadnoughts ('behemoths'). Jetpacked troops can serve as 'flyers' or 'aerial heroes'. And demons of various sorts can be pressed into service as 'dragons' and 'gods' in HotT terms.

There's something pleasing about multi-based miniatures - and these HotT elements will also work well for 'large skirmish' games such as The Men Who Would Be Kings and Rampant. As my 'shooters' are all individually based figures, they'll serve to make up the odd numbers in those games as casualties mount. And it's a lot easier to move six multiple bases than 12 individual miniatures.

A quick orc (or ork?)

I tried to get this orc done in an hour, after undercoating. I didn't quite manage it, but that was entirely down to drying time for the wash of Agrax Earthshade that I slopped over him at an early stage. Drybrushing and contrast paints did the rest.

This fellow's destined for some Pulp Alley and Galactic Heroes games as a primitive member of a batch of orkish desperadoes. But he's also a test piece for one of several Hordes of the Things army I want to throw together from various odds and ends that my son and I have lying around.

Using Hordes of the Things with 40K miniatures may not be the most obvious thing (although it has been done a fair bit before), but we love the game, and it seems like the best way of using up a lot of otherwise redundant plastic.

There's also a bit of fun to be had in building each element. And the sheer size of the 40K miniatures means that each base will hold only a couple of miniatures. I reckon a full 24AP ork army will probably involve around 20 minis in total.

I've started off by converting some Warhammer orcs into orks, chiefly through left-hand (and gun) transplants.

The bulk of the army will be ordinary orks, two to an element. Machine-gunners will be shooters - on their own or with ammo-toting goblins if I can find some. Some left-over savage orcs might form hordes (on the basis that their ferocity isn't enough to make up for their lack of high-tech weaponry) or might be converted too. Then there will be opportunities for scratch-building dreadnoughts as behemoth elements.

Meanwhile, space marines will form blade elements, with marine bikers as either riders or knights. Imperial guards might be hordes - or perhaps shooters or spears, if equipped with las-cannons. Genestealers and tyranids might get in on the act too, as beasts and hordes, respectively. Once all the 'scraps' are used up, I might allow myself the odd eBay purchase to add some more exotic elements - as long as it can all be done on the cheap.

Speed-painted space orks

I'm not normally one for painting orcs green, although I occasionally make exceptions. But when it comes to orks ... well, why not?

These fellows are for Xenos Rampant, Richard Cowen's sci-fi variant of Dan Mersey's Dragon Rampant, which looks a lot of fun. I have a game scheduled with a few old friends in a couple of months, so need an army. That demands some extremely fast painting, so, as outlined a couple of posts ago, I'm using GW's contrast paints over black undercoat drybrushed with grey and white.

It's a very quick and sloppy technique, but I quite like how the miniatures look on the table - a bit dark and more Ian-Miller-ish than the typical "greenskin"- or at least I hope so. 

One of the joys of the Rampant family of games is matching available miniatures to the troop types. So, in the picture above we have the following: recon infantry; light infantry (possibly with the Assault Doctrine and Close Combat Doctrine options); Heavy Infantry; and Berserk Infantry (with Heavy Armour). 

I'll probably add some black and white emblems at some point, but for now the focus is on churning them out. I've got 17 done already (3 recon, 6 light, 6 heavy and 2 berserk), but I want at least 6 recon and a dozen or two of each of the others). Onwards ...

You want it (grim)darker ...

A forthcoming game of Xenos Rampant with some friends has got me scurrying to paint up some more regimented sci-fi troops than my typical rag-tag scum and villains. For these Mantic orcs, I used my new speed-painting method: Citadel contrast paints over black undercoat drybrushed with grey and white.

They're not terribly pretty close up, but they'll make a nice red-armoured horde en masse. And they're very, very quick; if you exclude drying time, I'd say that they take longer to assemble than to paint.

I might add a few details to them here and there once each squad of 12 is finished, but the aim for now is to get a few dozen done to this standard. These two are the first of six; the other four are done barring the bases.

The ratman is a GW plague monk with Skitarii arms and weapon. Six of these will form a unit of 'recon infantry'. I've based them to match my fantasy ratmen, so that they'll blend in with those (I'm going to do some with the same blue-grey hide as this one, so that they can all work together).

Both lots will doubtless end up as encounters in fantasy RPGs and feature in Mutants and Death Ray Guns and the like too.