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So I have always wanted to play WHFB, and recently started my forray into it with an Ogre force. I have played all kinds of 40k armies, and always have had a soft spot for orks and scratchbuilding/kitbashing contraptions. With this in mind I wanted a low point, high value force. Ogre Kingdoms were the natural choice. I set out on a small 1000 point list and decided to move from there. With the arrival of AoS, and the new "Ogor" force being categorized under Destruction, I have more options available but have continued to generally go the Ogre route.

My desire from the start with this army has been to make it steampunk in nature. Who doesn't like big fighting robots, but the challenge was how to make this something that fights in WHFB. While AoS seems to move things more futuristic in nature (orbiting space platform with lightning riding marines to come down to Terra) WHFB seemed more "traditional" in its fantasy sensibilites. So the idea was born from individuals from several of the races who wanted to experiment with the technologies of other races. These bright individuals eventually decided to form a collective of mercenaries and trade technologies with each other. As such resources, information, and technology were expanded. Thus the O.G.R.E mercenaries were born. O.G.R.E stands for Orbital Geared Robotic Explorers.

A lot of inspiration for this army came from a childhood videogame that I used to play called "Mace: The Dark Age". This video game was lackluster with the exception of a particular character that I became obsessed with: Gar Gunderson. Gar's official description is: master craftsman of the dwarves, pilots a mighty machine built to fight for his people against the tyrannical rule of Lord Deimos.

Here is a deviantart drawing of Gar:


With the inspiration in place, I decided to start with a block of Ogres. While I do not have many of the WIP photos, I do have some recent photos of the finished models thus far.

Group Shot of the Ogres:


1. Firebelly: Ignis Machum. The fearless current leader of the O.G.R.E.'s Ignis was cast out of the Empire after stealing information from the Mages guild on how to make dragon fire. Ignis, with the help of the O.G.R.E collective has designed a vessel to spray under intense pressure dragon fire. His faithful rat acts as the ignition source for the contraption.




2. Bruiser with Battle Standard: Harvey the Autonomous Machine. Harvey was the first successful fully autonomous machine. His creation quickly led to his persecution, and Harvey was forced to flee to avoid destruction. Now he is the emblem of the O.G.R.E's, advocating, Truth, Love, Honor, and Respect


3. Squeek the Impostor the Standard Bearer: Hailing from the skaven, Squeek's original mission was to infiltrate the Empire, and learn more of its technologic secrets. Upon making his way to the Empire and stealing their information, Squeek became obsessed with the technology, learning everything he could about steampowered gearing, boilers, and metal alloys. Squeek was eventually captured by the Empire and was scheduled to be executed. He escaped his holding cell, and fled the city for fear of being captured again. He eventually made his way to the collective. Squeek operates an elaborate signal post, and acts as the units unofficial standard bearer and formation communication officer.



4. The Grot Party Machine: Grots have always been at the utter mercy of their Ork overlords. Every long once and a while a grot is smart enough to learn some of the moving bits from a machine, to keep it in good order. These grots are often shipped off with a Runtmaster to a piece of artillery and serve their lives out manning that artillery. Fewer still some grots survive this job, and learn more about moving bits. The Grots of the Party machine have seen many types of artillery, and been employed by different Runtmasters and Warlords over the years. These veterans were abandoned after their Runtmaster was "accidentally" fired from a spear chukka, and now have made their way to the collective, applying their knowledge to the various bashy and launchy bits of the O.G.R.E.'s. The Grots operate the pipeorgan, which they helped create. This wailing noisy contraption occasionally plays music that will steel the nerves of the ranks of the O.G.R.E.'s. And yes, that is a Grot using a hammer to "play" the organ.




5. Da Gobo in Da Bellfree: No one really knows what this Gobo looks like, or where he found a crypt, or how he attached legs onto his crypt. He keeps to himself, doesn't eat much, and will occassionally help other O.G.R.E.'s repair their hydraulic fluid. He does this under the cover of night, while others are asleep. He remains a mystery.




6. Umbra Surran. An unusually intelligent orc. Rumor among the orcs is that he traveled from the future, where ork mekkboys is allowed to do such work. But no one actually believes they can get teleportas to work.



7. Gar Gunderson: After defeating Lord Deimos, Gar searched the wastes for purpose. It ultimately led him to the fringes of the Empire, where he found the collective and began training others on how to mastercraft such machines.



8. Baron Otto Wohlhabend: Otto is the lord of a very prosperous region of the empire. He secretly has always desired to possess the power of a steam battle suit. As such he is currently financing a heavy amount of the building and maintenance of the O.G.R.E. mercenary force. All he has asked in return is a suit of his own, which he now pilots with his other collective members.



9. Crusher: Perciville Plebe: Used to work onboard a luminarch, after the vehicle was destroyed, and his master slain, he fled. His wit and intellect kept him alive, ultimately allowing him to survive on his own. He heard rumors of the collective, and willingly sought them out to join.



I have already built 3 Mournfang Calvary, all based on various technologies of the WHFB universe and all of which are in dire need of painting. Also in the process of being built is a countsas Thundertusk based on the Gorkanaut chasis/legs.
I will post more of the WIP photos, along with completed ones as they come.

Thanks for looking!

I realized how massive the pictures were, so I resized everything within Dakka, to get better images for C&C.

Cheers

Exalted for conversion madness + counts as rampage

Also, while I don't think I ever played M:TDA, I certainly remember seeing that box art on the shelves for years

- Salvage

Amazing concept. its awesome. Mace was such an underrated game, but it was a ton of fun.

Thanks for the comments! I played a ton of Mace when I was in Jr. High, it was a really fun game, precursor to Soul Caliber franchise.

I have included several new things. First up is a new O.G.R.E to join the ranks.

Galdun, the Miner. Galdun is an enterprising Dwarf who knew he complete more mining shifts if he built a machine capable of bashing rock apart with the swing of a hammer. He broke the dwarven laws and built his own machine, outside the sanction of the builders guild, and was exiled. He wandered the wastes looking for purpose, and found it in the collective. He is unpainted, but will join the ranks soon. The hammer is from an old childs toy I found at the thrift shop. The legs (like all of them) are killa kan legs. The box he is riding in is a battleship turret.




Mournfang Calvary, Nikola Belfort. Nikola was a tinkerer who was charged with maintaining Imperial Steamtanks. As such he faced many enterprising enemys and weapons; but none interested him more than the Skaven and their Warpstone. Nikola found a way to harness the power of the warpstone without any of its corrupting or mutating effects. He knew it could be an untold wealth of free power for the Empire. For his dabbling, he was to be executed. The collective heard of the potential limitless power for their own machines, and rescued Nikola during the execution. Citizens that day said they say a clamoring hoard of machines batter down the walls and march on city square. While several Imperials died in the assault, by and far it was a peaceful taking of Nikola.



Sabertusks; autonomous robots.
These Steam Arachnid are the creation of an autonmous robot (The Hunter; built but unpainted or photographed). They work as forward scouts, recon, and general soldiers when need be.



SNEAK PEAK: 3rd Mournfang Calvary. There is a partially painted Mournfang calvary that I have already build but not yet photographed; and will hopefully debut soon, but in the meantime here is #3 before it receives a primer spray. The wheel is a childs toy from a batman vehicle. The cage is part of a cat toy basket. The interior cage is part of an easter egg, the support is from the Luminarch wagon, And of course, gnoblar and grot are present to pilot.



Until next time, thanks for looking!

Very interesting stuff! Subbed!

@LeCacty: Thanks for subbing! I am hoping to keep progress moving forward. Hopefully knowing someone is subbed will help motivate me to continue work on the OGREs.

A bit of an update. I finished the Stonehorn. It is based (obviously) on an Ork Gorkanaut lower section. I thought it would be cool to have the weapons just be elves running all over the machine. So Daedra, Phaedra, and Aedra pilot and weaponize the Stonehorn. Also included is a the Blood Vulture Robot. The blood vulture is the work of a particularly gifted tinkerer, although its results can be...unpredictable.









I now have enough to field a few different options ~11 Ogres, 2 different heroes, 1 monster, 4 Calvary, and 4 sabertusks. Up next: Paint the remaining 3 Mournfang, and 1 unpainted Ogres, I also have some thoughts for a OGRE giant, and a Ironblaster.
Hopefully I will have more to show soon.
Thanks for looking!

That thing is fething epic!

Amazing epic army.

Minor Update:

I decided to make something a little different for the Tyrant. He is a Scibor Miniatures Dwarf Deathbowl player. I added a hammer, and wanted his suit of mech armor to be more refined and streamlined, indicating his prowess as a builder.




I also wanted to get a refined machine for the Iron Blaster. I wanted some kind of mechanized walker, and luckily I found the models from Titan Forge. The model is a little smaller than I hoped, but I think it will fit in nicely.





Next up, I have a new rank and file OGRE, and I am trying to come up with ideas for a Thundertusk. What would you all suggest? Another Morkanaut/Gorkanaut style monster?

Until next time

 LeCacty wrote:
That thing is fething epic!

Thank you for the kind words!

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Amazing epic army.

Thank you! I have been very inspired by many of the forum posts here, particularly the warbands the talented folks here make.

Minor update. Another rank and file O.G.R.E., another dwarf!


C&C Welcome, thanks for looking

Will you sand off the orky bits?

 LeCacty wrote:
Will you sand off the orky bits?

That is a really good point. It is an old pewter model I had lying around, so it would be more difficult than usual to sand the ork crest off of the front. Maybe I could do an old shield (have a few of the ogre shields) to cover the glyph. Any thoughts on what to do?

Move the satchel down there, add a bit of fur to the bottom, he has a Sporon
Lovely work by the way.

Hello, another long silence, but some more updates! A few side projects have kept me from making any serious headway on the OGRE's. I do have several things to share though.

First is the Tyrant. When looking at the stat line for the Tyrant, I knew that I needed to field one, as well as make him really stand out on the battlefield. In that vein, I departed from Games-Workshop models, and based him around a Khador warjack. The conversion was fairly simple, I actually reversed the torso, and included G-W killa-kan bits to make it look more steampunk in nature. I also included a "pilot" on the interior of the cavity. In addition there is a removable helmet that doubles as front body armor.
Without further ado, here is the Tyrant: Jarl Edison





Ogre: Galdun, the Miner painted (Still needs basework):



One more OGRE is added to the ranks. Brarnen Grahm-bell. Another Dwarf dissident, Brarnen joined the ranks looking for his brother, whom had disappeared. He travels with the cadre still in search of his brother, having not yet found him.




Firebelly Ignis Machum and Jarl Edison meet to rally the forces


My block of 10 Ogre's, which includes the Crusher, 2 standard bearers (tribal, and totem), and the musician. These are just the standard boys. I plan on expanding into both Leadbelchers, and Ironguts. This is going to be somewhat challenging, as I will need to differentiate their look from the existing boys. I have some ideas on how that will work though.


Painted group shot (not included are the 2 other unpainted mournfang):



Thanks for looking!

Group shot looks great! Appreciate how much you've mad the tyrant stand out, both between style and paint (that yellow )

FWIW, I think it'd be worth the effort to go back and round-base everybody on standardized bases. Benefits your modeling madness better than odd-sized square bases and lets you play a variety of games - and if you want to play WHFB / KOW you can just custom build some unit trays that accept your round bases.

- Salvage

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Group shot looks great! Appreciate how much you've mad the tyrant stand out, both between style and paint (that yellow )

FWIW, I think it'd be worth the effort to go back and round-base everybody on standardized bases. Benefits your modeling madness better than odd-sized square bases and lets you play a variety of games - and if you want to play WHFB / KOW you can just custom build some unit trays that accept your round bases.

- Salvage

Thank you for the feedback and compliments. You are absolutely right. It has been on my to do list to switch everything over to the round bases. It was such terrible timing for me to have started WHFB about 6 months prior to AoS. That being said, I need to get my hands on several uniform round bases to make everything cohesive. Thanks again!

Update time. I have been working on another Monster for the O.G.R.E.'s. This one was quite a bit easier, because I chose not to do any conversions, and use the stock Warmachine Galleon. I thought it looked sufficiently steampunk, and I managed to get one for a pretty good deal. In the scope of my army, it is going to be my Thundertusk. I thought the cannons all did the trick as far as the shooting was concerned. I used the hairspray technique, undercoating the model rust, and using sea salt (adhered to the model) to create the rust marks. Then the next layer of painting, and finally removing the sea salt to get the heavily weathered look. Washes and powders to make it more rusty followed. I am pleased with the results.








Next steps: 1) Getting all the bases converted to round. 2) Another group shot, 3) Wait for Grand Alliance Destruction, and start thinking of more machines to build.

Thanks for looking! C&C always welcome

Galleon does fit the army well, and you've done a bang up job on the rust

Look forward to new machines ... and round bases ... and GA: Destro too

- Salvage

Great work with the rust... I saw a tutorial on how to do it, but I think your outcomes may be superior. What an awesome army! I'm glad to see some of them unpainted just for the diversity of components.

beautiful beast!

This is fantastic!
- No two minis the same
- Bright paint schemes
- Good weathering and corrosion

Love it.

What an absolutely bonkers thread! It's brilliant!

Great conversions and great character in the army.

EDC

Love it. The madness in this army carries over to both AoS and 40k.

Very unique and bonkers!

After some very long delays, I have returned with a huge project. I did not take any WIP pictures, but I do have a nice finished project for you! My custom O.G.R.E Airship. I am going to be submitting this, along with my army for the Armies on Parade competition. I still need to get cracking on the display board, but with this done, it should not take too long. I will make sure to get much better glamour shots of everything when it is put together. Thanks for looking!

I love the airship, is it built from the Elf ship?

Airship looks awesome!

EDC

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I love the airship, is it built from the Elf ship?

The ship body is from the 1/72 scale Revell Pirate Ship. The "wings" are from the Dark Eldar Raider Aether Sails; the side bob sections are left overs from the Gyrocopter/Bomber kit. I also used a building from the Garden of Morr. The front arc is part of the hurricanium, rocket battery from hellblaster. All of the dwarves are crew members from the old school artillery. The engine sections are from the killa kan kit, and part from the gorkanaut kit. There are a ton of dwarf shields strewn about the ship too.

Thanks for looking and feedback!

Hey Lorax!

Super cool army!!
Will you finish it for AoP?

Hello All,

Here are some of the photos I managed to snap from Armies on Parade. Overall it was an OK experience. This was my first ever competition of any sort and I won silver. I should be more happy about that, but to be totally honest, I am a little disappointed that I could not take gold, my work in particular, although not expert level painting, was a substantial amount of conversion and painting hours. There were many other great entires as well.

Anyways, thanks for looking. And yes Scar...I managed to finish some how!