Despite best intentions, another close-to-deadline danger zone first entry. (Hey AHPC XV! looking at you, third times the charm!). Just a lot of busy going around (mostly work), but its great to be back for another year.
With my main intended project for this challenge nowhere near undercoated, what was i to do? The answer - digging into my very own overdue and returns box - holding those figures that never quite make it up the paint queue but havent gotten around to getting rid of.
Thus I bring you three (space) Orks from Warhammer 40K: The Goff, The Bad (Moon) and the Ugly (Blood Axe). Obviously all three are the same miniature, taken from 40K's 5th edition (?) starter box. Since i never owned that, I assume they belonged to my brother or came in a lot sale. And they have been gathering dust for a few good months having been used as experimental dollies for 'slapchop' undercoating, with the intention of testing Speedpaints/Contrast etc on them (yet more overdue).
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| A Goff, Blood Axe and Bad Moon walk into a bar... |
Since they're all same figure (aside from my having cut off the topknot on one for a bit of variety), the question was how to paint them - all three as the same scheme (which would have been kinda boring but faster) or something more creative. Inspiration hit when flipping through one of the trilogy of GW 1st ed 40K Ork sourcebooks, 1990s WAAARGH Orks (this was in the days of 40K lore when greenskins ate but were not, I'm pretty sure, fungus).
Authored by Nigel Stillman and Bryan Ansell, WAAARGH is a pure fluff sourcebook - no rules, no army lists, no stats (these were covered in 'Ere We Go: Orks in Warhammer 40,000 - a game sourcebook - and Freebooterz, which contained army lists). Aside from explaining every bot of Ork society and culture, it also contains some fantastic artwork for different Ork clans, because Orks have clanz, and castes. So, lets introduce these fun guyz...fungis...boyz, with some self-commentary on the painting.
The Goff
I've named him Carl McCoy. The most militaristic of the orks, they favour black clothes (the name gives it away?), with red and black/white chequered decoration ubiquitous to GW orks. They also bring in German military and biker vibes (they have a unit called the Stormboyz, and wear coalscuttle helmets), not evident on this fig.
I couldn't not try it and turned out quite well, if i say so myself, for a impetuous attempt at freehand (and after a couple of glasses of adult beverage to boot). After using an Artline 0.3 pen to draw the lines, filled in the black then white, and didn't fuss too much about precision given these guys wouldn't be OCD about getting things between the lines. Equally happy with how the pitted and worn red on the body armour plates turned out - inspired more in my mind's eye by Firefly Reaver ships than anything 40K.
The Bad Moon...rising
The Bad Moon clan are rich, mercantile traders (I guess in a particular Ork way), and wear lots of yellow.
Yellow is a colour i have been hit and miss with - seemed to work out this time: Citadel 'FlashGitz' yellow base, light wash of Citadel earthshade followed by Citadel's yellow wash, then army painter Moon Dust (a pale yellow) for highlights. Armour given a bit of a earthshade wash to give it a yellowish tone. The red face paint/tattoo is straight from one of pics in WAAARGH (though I'd been loking at this guy and wondering what was missing, when i realised I'd painted it on the Goff instead - quick redo was in order). Lastly, the striped pants - a tribute to David Lee Roth and Iron Maiden's lycra years.
The Blood Axe
In this lore the Blood Axes were almost wiped out in the internecine and genocidal 'Da Big Party', and - being weakened - were willing to receive covert indirect support from the Imperium. Result - human military style influence - they wear combat helmets, fatigues and forage caps. Thus the cam outfit - it came out alright but a bit disappointed as had a decent tigerstripe going before hitting it with a Citadel shade which washed it out in green tones. Just not as black/white tigerstripey as before - gotta love a good tiger stripe cam.
Paints used: A mix, as usual. Citadel Contrast and layer paints, Citadel Shades, Army
Painter Warpaints and Speedpaint 2, Vallejo Metal color airbrush colours
which are amazing, but need a lot of control when applied by brush because they flow like crazy.
A postscript: AOver three decades ago, in the days of 40K 1st ed (Rogue Trader!), I was an Imperial Guard player: structured hierarchy, shiny helmets, lasgun pennants, flak armour or breastplates...they used s's, had Commissars (and Commisar Training Squads...and the more sketchy 'human bombs') in their orbat. Pure antithesis to Orks, so I definitely never got into the
whole "Orky" thing. Thirty years on I am starting to see the appeal, of the minis at least...green chaos in plastic.
Points
3x 28mm @5pts each = 15 pts
'Overdue and returns' library bonus = 20 pts
Total = 35 pts (and only 965 to go to target!)
From Millsy: Welcome back Bartek! Great to see you make the cut in 2024 and with a wonderful trio of greenskins to start. I don't typically like remakes of my favourite films but I would pay to see this one.
Speaking of green skin, I love what you've done with the flesh tones on these chaps, lots of depth without being too bright. That leaves room for some bright clothing and other adornments to really make these orky boys pop.
