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A couple weeks ago my partner got me a box of ork boyz. I've painted some minis for DnD games in the past, but really liked how wacky and strange the orks looked. I also liked the idea of throwing together scraps and odds and ends to make things. I'm hoping soon, to complete the box and play some Grimdark Future Firefight together. I chose deathskulls for my ork clan because I love salvaging and remaking and repairing things. I don't like batch painting, so I paint each miniature and then move on. So with all the experimenting I am doing, there's going to be some learning and variation.

The first four I painted was a really big learning experiment, mostly of learning how to paint checkers (it's kinda addicting) and experimenting with colors. The terrain I made was a crater out of aluminum foil, baking soda paste and sand and I'm not too happy with it. The barbed wire is from some wire I found and is okay I guess. I really like how my cardboard barricades came out though with my fourth ork!


Next I got really ambitious and wanted to make some more interesting terrain and spent about four hours taking a bunch of bits and bobs and putting them together to end up with something that looked like a soda can lol. So more modification later and I have a watertank with some fuel canisters stacked up against it. I really like the tarp I made from a plastic bag, I just think a blue poly tarp is very post apocalyptic. Also experimented with metal shading with my 5th ork.


Okay, last ones for this post, three more orks and a double barricade. With these I've been focusing a lot more on shading, highlights and skin color. And while the last ork has some messy areas, I really like the expression I seemed to have captured in this photo.


Thanks for looking! Up next on my painting table are two commandos I'm making from the ork boyz box, and maybe something more grotty.

Cypher226 wrote:
not bad at all

The only thing I'd suggest with the crater would be some of that brown paper tape (or masking tape) around the edge of the cardboard - or if you can salvage offcuts of foamex (foamed pvc) possibly from a signwriters you wouldn't have the exposed corrugations.

Anyway - welcome, you're off to a nicely grimy start!

Ooohh that's a great idea, thank you, I'll see if I can find some and fill up the holes. I'm hoping to find a better base material in my scavenging for supplies, fingers crossed!


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I'm really proud of my ork sniper I made. I used a carbine and a pistol arm to get the pose that way. Here he is sneaking along under his lichen. I was originally going to make a canvas tarp for him to hide under, but didn't want to loose so many painted details, the lichen looks cute and I really like how it's lichen and fungi working together:


Not so sneaky on the back Also, I try to make my blades look like they've been somewhat haphazardly hand sharpened.


Finally, here's the sneaky little fella:


Thanks for looking

BarryScott wrote:Great work! love the walls and the barbwire.

I will say though, have you thought about grading the edges on the terrain pieces so they will be flush with the battle field? Just so they blend in rather then stand out?

Either way solid stuff (really like your Deathskullz too, got a great blue on these guys)
subscribed

Thank you so much! That's a really great idea and I will work on fixing them up and making any future ones more trapezoidal. I really appreciate the suggestion!

Leopold Helveine wrote:Really enjoy your work, that's some legit hobbying with eye for detail and I'm sure its been as much an enjoyable endeavor as is the result.

Thank you, that's very sweet of you to say. I really like painting them one at a time and giving them bits of character on the way.

I had a lot of fun making this tankbusta ork. The bombhammer is made from a debladed axe with the rocket from the rocket launcher on top. He's also in front of a classic corner terrain building, but I tried to make it look like red clay, instead of the usual concrete. I'm pretty happy with the deathskulls ork skull graffiti turned out too. He has an assortment of extra rockets on his packframe that are most certainly not stolen.

I've been making good progress through the box of orks, and my partner surprised me with another box of figures earlier this week, goblins!

I spent far far too long thinking about the color scheme for them, and have a bunch of ideas for terrain I want to make, but here's the first goblin in front of a shaman's ritual site I made for them. (The lichen is painted with glow in the dark paint that unfortunately dried a little goopy, but it glows in dim and dark lighting which is super cool!!!)






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 JoshInJapan wrote:
Those are some good looking Orks. I like the way to sniper is peeking out from under the lichen-- very kunnin'.

Thank you very much. I really loved making that sniper for that very reason.

tzurk wrote:Hey mate,

This blog is off to a great start. You've got a really nice handle on detail work, that background in D&D minis really pays off there.

The terrain looks brilliant and super orky - and now I'm excited to see where the goblins go.

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you very much I think painting the occasional dnd mini has given me a good foundation to work from. I'm also super excited to paint more gobbos

Gulgog TufToof wrote:I like that you "spent far too long thinking about the color scheme for them" and then painted them blue. Skullz orks, Skullz gobbos; blue is da luckiest color after all

Blue is a lovely color, can't seem to get away from it. thank you!

Thumpingbear wrote:Some good honest Orkin' going on in this thread. Keep it up!

Thank you very much, that's very sweet of you to say


I'm rather proud of this ork, I really wanted my ork leader to be a weridboy, I thought the idea of being led by a completely mad psychic is very orky, so here's the Nob kitbashed with other bits to make my ork leader shaman for GFF. I spent about six hours on him today and it was completely worth it, even if the edge highlighting at the end was making me go a bit mad myself:


I had initially wanted to give him some face paint and tattoos, but I figured the model was busy enough as is and I am very happy where he ended up.

Also the night before I painted up an ork to test some of the techniques I'd be usuing on my shaman:


Thanks for looking!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Welcome to the madhouse! And as a fan of the da blue Boyz, I approve of your scheme!

Thank you so very much!

The rainy cold weather has really kept me from too many outdoor adventures, so that means a lot more time making things and painting. First up is a grot tank!



I loved the concept of these things, and the are in GFF, so I got lucky at goodwill and found a small toy tank missing it's turret. I added some orky bits like teeth, and the axe head from my bombhammer conversion. I made a turret out of cardboard and pen parts, and some side things out of aluminum cans. It's definitely small, even for a grot tank, maybe a one or two-grot vehicle at most, but I think it came out pretty cute.

Okay next is a work in progress, same goodwill trip I found a simple wooden locomotive with a freight car. I need more terrain, and an orky loco was right at the top of the list. I'll get to the freight car later, but right now here is the little 0-4-0 loco awaiting a little bit more pondering if I should add anymore bits, and then a coat of primer



Thanks for looking!

ph34r wrote:Ork train! Looks good, looking forward to seeing it painted up.

JoshInJapan wrote:Toys-to-vehicles is classic Orky-ness.

inmygravenimage wrote:Ork train already looks pretty orky in those colours

BarryScott wrote: ork land train is a great idea!! "Choo Choo daka daka daka daka" and so on awesome

Thanks everyone! This project has been really fun. Here's an update the ork train with the car. Also, inside the car is a goblin cannon I made, it won't live in there, but I'm really glad it fits. The car sides are mostly open so orks can get in and out easily. Now just waiting on a non-windy or rainy day to prime it.



Also, I got the gretchins box and am having fun painting them alongside my last couple orks:



And finally! I made a scrub/woodland terrain piece for my gobbos, and here's one I've painted up to be a mushroom hunter, with a basket pack made from burlap



Thanks for looking!

 tzurk wrote:
Choo choo! That bad boy's gonna look great all painted up. How good is an ork army for recycling...

I am a huge fan of gretchin - all gretchin, old gretchin, new gretchin. Such fun and characterful sculpts. His skin looks great. And so does the brass/blue combo on the gobbos.

Keep it up!

Thank you so much for your kind words! I hope the loco and car come out okay.

While everything is now primed, I am currently dreading painting such a big object, and that might end up being a little bit more delayed as I figure out a proper paint scheme. In the mean time I've been making some terrain pieces and finished the last figure from my ork boyz box. I really love painting wacky orks and really enjoy painting ork skin.


I can never get that little skull on the helmet to look good, if I get another box down the road I'm going to file them off and just paint on stuff instead.

The terrain that is somewhat in the photo is a piece of burst copper pipe that's some industrial thing. I've also made the normal tarp over boxes and a satellite dish thing. I'm just trying to have more terrain for the next time I play GFF and I think it's going well.

Thanks for looking!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Very nice. Found object terrain is the best!

Don't give up on little details like the skull. It's a good chance to practice your highlighting. Try to make it visible at arm's length.

Thank you very much! I will try that on my next ork with a helmet thank you for the suggestion.

I've been busy with other things recently but have have finished a to do project on my list, better storage for my minis:


There's another similar tray beneath this one filled with gobbos, and room for a third one. It works great for storage and I think it will work well next time I move. I left space in between the orks and the top of the next tray to fill with newspaper for padding.

I assembled some orks (as you can see in the photo above) and primed them, but have been pretty busy so here's three grots I've finished and had a lot of fun painting.


Thanks for looking!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Cracking wee grots, and nice solution to the eyeball struggle!

Thank you very much. They are very fun to paint, I love all the character the models have.

I've been busy lately, but here's what I've painted. First is a burna boy and grot, they were both really fun to paint and I think putting a tooth pattern on the bandanna is just really fun and silly. These two really make me feel like I've made some progress with becoming a better painter.


Next up is an ork boss (runtherd model) with an adorable squig and grot. (also have been experimenting with better camera lighting and angles, not sure if it's working)


Thanks for taking a look

 gobert wrote:
Some good looking Orks, really nice skin tone you’ve got and the metallics are looking good!

Thank you very much! Skin is my favorite to paint, I really like doing so, I'm still experimenting with technique but it is getting there. I also like painting the metals and for the blades I try to think about how the poorly sharpened fieldwork tools at my job look and think that fits with the orks pretty well.

My first named ork is complete! (Well I named 'em). This is take two on an ork shaman/weirdboy and I really like how the kitbash turned out. I just used a bunch of bits, and the cloak is made out of blue painters tape. I tried a speckled approach on the hair but I don't think it worked, but otherwise I think he turned out great. There's also a grot with a pirate-y bandana I painted alongside.


Thanks for looking!

Pointer5 wrote:I love the weird boy especially the cape. It's great seeing someone paint a Deathskullz army. It's the one clan I haven't added to my tribe yet. Excellent work I can't wait to see more of your work.

itsonlyme wrote:You’ve done a great job on the weird boy!

Thank you both so much! I really enjoyed kitbashing and painting up Wurrgit. I really like the Deathskulls because of their scavenger mindset, works well with how I make things.

It's been a really busy month in life so I haven't been able to get in nearly enough painting besides some very basic terrain, but yesterday I worked on these four.



The troll is from Reaper minis and was lots of fun to paint, also my first attempt at wetblending with the transition between the red and grey on the stomach.

I have spent the last couple evenings working on scratch building a goblin walker (Killa Kan) for GFF:


I'm not really sure what happened to a lot of the paint when I did my black wash, (it turned out very grimy and the white paint like cracked and seeped with the black?). This was also my first attempt trying to do a glow effect, with the red eye, and I think you can tell but otherwise I think it turned out pretty well. I think the flamethrower heat effect on the nozzle turned out great though. With a heavy flamethrower and claw loadout, it should be pretty fun my next GFF game.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
That walker is groovy. It looks scratch-built--what did you use to build it?

Thank you! My partner is a chemist so I get all sorts of strange plastic bits and bobs that were destined for the trash. The main body is a weird-shaped hexagonal-ish bottle, the top is part of a chemistry thing. The claw arm is a cap from a chemistry thing for the joint, then a toothpick sheathed in a straw, sheathed in a pen spring with the runtherd claw on the end. The flamethrower arm is a different cap thing, with a button and then a pen end with some pen parts. The tube connecting it is a chemistry thing, with the flame tank being a cordlock. The engine is a pen cap. The track the eye moves on is a textured plastic band chemistry thing. The feet are pen parts and popsicle stick parts. There's a couple miscellaneous metal parts that were pant clasps from when I converted a pair of pants to buttons. All of the armor panels are thin cardboard from food boxes and the rivets are cheap glass beads. The eye is from an ork kit and the deathskulls emblem is likewise, along with two small squares with symbols on them.

Whew that was a lot longer than I meant it to be, but I hope still helpful.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
"Chemistry thing" is at once marvelously vague and wonderfully specific. Found materials are the best. I used to work in a hospital before I came here, and I remember collecting all sorts of interestingly-shaped things to use in kitbashing and converting.

Yeah! I have no idea what they are but they have such unique shapes that a lot of general retail product stuff doesn't. I bet the hospital things were a goldmine of weird bits for the same reason.

Being sick has been wonders for my painting. I really love how adorable this wacky gobbo fanatic is. I wanted to do something special with him so he'd stand out, and had really been eying the harlequin checker patterns so I thought I'd give it a try.





I think it turned out really well and I love how dorky he looks. I did make the mistake of washing after doing the harlequin pattern, which completely subdued it to nothing, so I did have to do it again. Lesson well learned though. I thought he warranted a name so a few trips down a random name generator and Glumskkutle it is. I can't wait to use him in an AoFS game once I paint up enough gobbos.

Thanks for looking!

I finished up my last two grots (very sad to finish them as they were all really fun to paint) and my first squig!!! This one I kitbashed to be an attack squig for my flamethrower ork in GFF. In my head he runs up to and then tosses grenades at the enemy, extra ammo is always good too.


I'm still experimenting with backdrops for photos and used some scrap construction paper so the details will all show up.

youwashock wrote:Great grots. The fanatic is quite fun. They have always been good minis.

Thank you so much! I was drawn to gw minis by how dorky orks are, but I'm really starting to love gobbos/grots quite a bit more. The old fanatic model was a really lucky find and I really enjoyed painting them.

inmygravenimage wrote:Excellent squig there too!

Thank you very much!

muette wrote:Lovely grots, and squig!

Thanks so much! I really think grots/gobbos and squigs make quite a team.

I got to use the squig and burna together (specialist with flame thrower and attack beast in GFF rules) and they really made quick work of whatever they came across.

amazingturtles wrote:He's got some snazzy goggles!

Thank you! They were so much fun to paint.

JoshInJapan wrote:Nice work on the gretchin. I remember collecting the old metal sculpts, wishing there was a plastic kit so I could acquire them more cheaply. Then, after my getting out of 40K, they released the kit. D'oh!

Thank you very much. I really like just how wacky they are, they were so much fun to paint. You could always get the box set of them just to paint.

As I work through my box of gobbos, I've been experimenting a lot with finding the right consistency of water to Apple Barrel brand paints (my paint of choice) to find a proper glaze, and I think I've found it with these archers with very subtle transitions between the highlights.


Thanks for taking a look.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I got a box as soon as they were available here. Lots of fun to paint.

I like those gobbos. The dark green skin really suits them. What are you using for basing material?

Oh that's really good to hear. I'm glad you enjoyed painting them. I base my fantasy gobbos in a mix of chamomile, and Korean pumpkin red bean tea leaves (70/30), I think it works pretty well.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Fragrant gobbos! Great looking, too.

Thank you very much! At least for a little bit, the tea mix smells like autumn.

I painted some squigs!!! They're so freaking cute. The left one is hopping over some chanterelles too. (Fingers crossed this fall is a good season for them).


I've found purple and blue construction paper to make a better photo background too. Thanks for looking.

youwashock wrote:Squigs. Gotta love those toothy murderballs. The jumpy one is especially fun.

gobert wrote:Loving the little guys, the skin on the grots and gobbos is really nice! Glumskuttle is a cool little character, I can see why he’s you avatar!

BarryScott wrote:Great squigo's, really enjoy these autumnal bases too :thumbs up:

Thanks everyone! The squigs were so much fun to paint, I really like them. They're just so much fun.

I spent the last few days painting my first ever Sarus! I've really been enjoying the Lizardmen in TW2 and wanted to paint them so I got four Sarus, here's the first one. I had to learn a lot new painting techniques and stuff painting this one.



I'm hoping to learn how to paint them pretty well with the next three, and then I'm eying the warcry box that's full of chameleons. (Oxyotl is soooo much fun).

Thanks for looking!

 gobert wrote:
Cool lizardman, the green tones on his face are great. Love that base too, looks a bit like conifer leaves to me?

Thank you so much and yeah! I used a local moss that looks very good at scale.


I am back from my break from painting, but I'll get back there soon. I'm hoping to paint more GFF/40K stuff as I'm finding the fantasy minis a bit plain at this point, especially with terrain crafting.

Well, I have the painting bug again so I painted up one of the last of my orks (a problem I intend to fix soon ), a mekanik ork! I really like how this ork came out. I still have lots of room for improvement as always though. I tried experimenting with object source lighting with the flashlight on his rokkit launcher too.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
You have a lovely, bright green skin tone there. The checks and the OSL on the missile are quite nice, as well.

Thanks Josh! That means a lot to me coming from you.

 gobert wrote:
Cool Mekanik, great highlights and good job on the osl too

Thank you very much! I had a lot of fun painting him.

Up next, I painted another Burna, which my Mekanik will lead the squad of when the other two are done. I had trouble capturing the colors correctly, I'm not sure why it looks so yellow and faded, I think the camera was having issues with the dark blues and greens contrasting:


But, a bit more news, my nearly lacking minis to paint problem has been fixed. I've ordered a box of orks that'll need some converting into choppa/slugga boyz, but should be awesome when they do. So, I need more choppas/sluggas, and decided my existing roster of boyz will be entirely upgraded with shootas so I can have two distinct squads:


Fingers are very crossed that the vinegar wash they are soaking in right now to loosen the super glue of their arm joints, doesn't strip too much paint. Because, hopefully I'm just painting up their new arms, then touching up the older models with some highlights and such. Regardless, I am very excited to play some bigger games and need enough orks to do so!

 ThePaintingOwl wrote:

 makeitorky wrote:
Up next, I painted another Burna, which my Mekanik will lead the squad of when the other two are done.

Looking good! Very nice job doing clean white on such tiny symbols.

(And RIP to all the guardsmen that will be BBQed in the future.)

Thank you very much! And your guardsmen may want to invest in some nomex.

Here is my looted ork tank, a cheap goodwill bulldozer find turned into a hopefully effective vehicle.


It is armed, in Grimdark Future, with three HMGs, one rokkit launcher, and one heavy flamethrower. It also gets to ignore terrain modifiers to movement and does extract impact damage (because of the dozer-blade). I did really ponder on the name, "Dirt Muncha" was my favorite, with "Razd an Konfuzd" in a close second. It was only until after I finished painting it that I thought of "Doozy Dozer". Oh well, I'm sure I'll make another down the road.

For those that are interested, here it is with all the odds and ends glued on pre-crustard and paint:


In other news my old ork boyz are being rearmed successfully, and my new ones just came in! Which is very exciting. Lot's to do and paint down the road, hopefully enough to turn my band of Orks and Gretchin into a proper sized army.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
That's a fun conversion. Thrift store toys are a great resource for Orky vehicles.

Thanks Josh! It really was and now I'm on the eye out for other vehicles my orks could put to good use.

Project-wise, my new orks are assembled and awaiting primer, and my old boyz that needed converting to shootas are complete!


So these are the orks I learned to paint on in a rare work-table photo lol. While it was tempting to completely repaint them, I decided not to. I chose this so I can still see some of the progress I made learning how to paint. I did add highlights and clean up the muddled bits, and use my new eye technique, and of course, the arms are all new. I think they came out pretty well! It was very fun to paint so many checkers

 gobert wrote:
Those shoots boyz look great! Did the vinegar help any with getting their old arms off? That it conversion is amazing too, great to see the before and after pics too

Thank you so much! The vinegar did great at eating away at the super glue, all but one of the arms came off pretty easily and it didn't eat through the varnish at all on the minis. I used white vinegar, and let them soak overnight if anyone wants to try. The bulldozer was very fun I'm on the lookout now for more things to convert for an Ork Truck or Ork Buggy (GF terms). Hopefully I'll find something at goodwill soon.