Adventures on the Wargames Table

More Games Workshop Warhammer 40K Orks and Grots are ready to conquer the galaxy. I'm planning to use these for the excellent Xenos Rampant rules recently published by Osprey. Here's a unit of "Berserk Infantry", which is a category that nicely suits the regular Orks in this force. The rules allow a variety of up/down-grades for each unit so you can tailor them to meet your own particular view of the force under your command. This, IMHO, is one of the really clever things about XR. These figures have some resin mechanical legs which I picked up from Kromlech / Bits of War. In XR these could serve as a visual reminder of a unit upgrade to that makes the unit more mobile. Da Boss! More Dakka! This fellow has plenty of ammo for his big shooter. Again, this figure could represent a unit upgrade that confers more or better firepower. Orks need Grots to do all the things they can't be bothered to do, so here they are. In XR they'll count as "Militia Rabble...

There’s something so cheerful about Orks! I really enjoyed painting these figures. Here’s Warboss Grimbog and his retinue of Nobz from Da Rusty Fist tribe of the Evil Sunz Clan. Grimbog and these two Nobz like to get up close and personal hence the power claws and sluggas, etc. The Warboss also has a personalised Kustom Shoota as is right an’ proppa! Some of the Nobz prefer extra Dakka (wot Ork don’t eh?) so have Kustom Kombi weapons, mixing shootas with flamers and rokkit launchers. All in all, a pretty fearsome bunch! Thanks for looking 🙂

I felt like painting something a bit different recently so dug out these Ork Nob figures. I may give the red another highlight of GW Wazdakka Red as it’s a bit intense but it’ll do for now. I’ve also been experimenting with some rust recipes (mainly from Mr Scrivs blog) and these are two test pieces. I’ve slightly over done the rusting as I wanted to try it out on larger areas and I’m quite pleased with it. Grey primer and a coat of GW Leadbelcher (or Black primer and heavy drybrush) followed by a wash of GW Agrax. Then apply large patches of any a dark reddish brown such as Foundry Conker Shade or VMC Flat Brown. Then add highlights of the base with increasing amounts of orange and yellow. Try to leave a good range of colours from base to highest highlights. Then go back with a bit of wash here and there and perhaps some Leadbelcher on any freshly scraped edges.

One of the many fab things about Ork kits is that they come with heaps of spares and extras, including a number of different torso options.  So I decided to pick up some extra "legs" so as to make a few more Orks - can never have too many! These items are from Wargames Exclusive .  The legs are in fact "cyborg" legs built in a suitably Orky fashion.  The mechanical "squig" will either accompany my Mek-boy or I may use it on a vehicle as a battering ram perhaps?  Anyway, the resin is superbly cast with virtually no mould lines and minimal flash. The pic above shows them fresh from the blisters. Here are my extra Boyz.  I built a couple more heavy weapons - a Big Shoota and a Rokkit Launcher - as you can always use more Dakka !  Two of the others have Kustom Sluggas - a Burna and a mini Rokkit Launcher - whilst the fifth figure has two Choppas .  I tend to build the figures however I prefer then when playing they can "count as".  Anyway, the...

A mixture of Real Life ™ and a very hectic work schedule has meant there's not been much time for hobby things for a while now.  Indeed for a number of weeks my hobby 'vibe' was at a very low ebb.  However a sudden burst of inspiration saw me dig out my collection of Ork kits!  This was ideal as I could just grab the odd half hour here or there to get busy with clippers and ploystyrene cement.  So... what have I built? This Ork Trukk kit was so much fun to build!  It reminded me of those crazy games of GorkaMorka back in the 90s.  That was a fun game. Here's a few Shoota and Slugga boyz to give you a better idea of scale. I've also built another squad of Ork Nobz.  This is another fantastic kit - no two figures should look the same as there's so many options available. I'm currently working on a Battlewagon and it's a monster of a kit!  I'm hoping to have some bits left over so that I can Ork-ify an Imperial Leman Russ I have lurking in the plast...

Here's my first 40K figure in well over 20 years and I've thoroughly enjoyed painting it! I'm leaning towards an Evil Sunz themed army and my paint scheme reflects this, i.e. quite a bit of red, but much of it is equally applicable to all Ork clans. The recipe, starting from a black undercoat (GW Chaos Black), is as follows: I began by drybrushing various metallic items (weapons, armour, etc) in GW Leadbelcher, GW Warplock Brass and GW Gehenna's Gold (use this last paint sparingly).  Do this first as it can be a little messy, then tidy up with black.  Be sure to leave some of the plates and glyphs in black as these can be painted later in clan colours. Base Colours Ork flesh - Foundry Dragoon Green shade Trousers/Vest/Boots/Straps/Pouches - a variety of browns or leave some bits black. Good browns are GW Mournfang Brown, GW Scorched Brown, VMC Leather Brown, Foundry Spearshaft shade, VMC Flat Earth - just get a good mix of dark/mid/light browns. Tip -...

The Orks are coming! It's been almost 25 years since my last game of 40k. That was back in the 90s with second edition.  It all began back in the 80s with "Rogue Trader" - Tim had Space Marines and I had Eldar.  After that I collected a fairly sizeable Imperial Guard army to face his Orks.  Then we all played Gorkamorka which was an absolute blast!  Eventually these forces gathered dust and were sold on as I moved towards more historical games in the early 00s. So why 40K now?  Well, quite simply because I love the models and indeed the whole background of the game.  I've had a desire to play something non-historical for a while.  I had hoped that Warlords of Erehwon and my Middle Earth Orcs & Goblins would fill that role but I really didn't enjoy the game so I turned from fantasy to sci-fi... I'd heard good things about Star Wars Legion but whilst I love the films I didn't actually fancy gaming them. A friend and colleague, Rob, had re...