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Right, I've been meaning to start one of these for...about 2 years now apparently...enough! it is time!...time to face my mountain of accumulated random ebay-gotten orks, and actually make a solid effort at making some real progress with them!...and actually document things along with it!...probably still in a very chaotic fashion, but nevertheless!

so, over the past ~4 years, I've made...quite a lot...of questionable purchases off ebay...resulting in my now having roughly 17,500 points worth of orks...with so far, probably about 3000 points painted (including a stompa taking up nearly a third of that)

...a few days ago, I decided I wanted to go ahead and rebase everything to 32mm's eventually (yesss I know, it's not technically required (yet), and it'll make it a bit harder to get max models in combat, but I don't care, they'll fit on them so much better, and look way better, so I'm doing it!), so I went and ordered 500 cheap plain black bases off ebay, thinking that would be more than enough, leaving me with plenty spare for my random assortment of marines still on 25mm's as well...I was wrong! - I then actually dug out all my ork infantry from their various shame-boxes, and discovered I actually have about 560 models on 25mm's that need 32mm's!...pictured (aside from 10 nobz and 30 stormboyz) here:



...so yeah, just a few there ...and that's just the 25mm->32mm infantry!...I could easily fill that table again with characters, bikes, walkers, vehicles, etc...but I couldn't quite bring myself to drag all that out for a pic just yet...I'm going to focus on the infantry for now.

but...seeing as I'm stuck waiting for a load of bases, before I can properly get started on all that...grots don't need to be rebased! and I happen to have 110 of the little gits that need painting!...so, we're starting from the bottom, I guess ...actually seems like a fitting place to start from, now that I think about it.

anyway, here they are, sitting on my painting desk, having just received their green skin


...it's quite the motley crew there, there's a bunch of current plastics at the top, then a bunch of old metal grots in the middle, which are very close to the current plastics...and then 40 of the old starter-box pickelhaube grots down the bottom - normally I'd be annoyed by so many identical monopose models...but the little grots like that, it actually looks quite charming

ok, that's a start for this thing I guess...I shall report back once I get some more progress on those gits

 ZoBo wrote:
Right, I've been meaning to start one of these for...about 2 years now apparently...enough! it is time!...time to face my mountain of accumulated random ebay-gotten orks, and actually make a solid effort at making some real progress with them!...and actually document things along with it!...probably still in a very chaotic fashion, but nevertheless!

so, over the past ~4 years, I've made...quite a lot...of questionable purchases off ebay...resulting in my now having roughly 17,500 points worth of orks...with so far, probably about 3000 points painted (including a stompa taking up nearly a third of that)

Well Zobo you are someone after my own heart, and its almost the exact same story my for orks and ebay, however damn you have a to more than me (last count was around 500 including Grots and all characters)

Good luck with the blog, I've recently started mine too and its nice to get to talk about your creations otherwise they may never get seen.

I'll be following with interest

The grots look great, good luck! How are you doing the skin?

Midget Gems wrote:Well Zobo you are someone after my own heart, and its almost the exact same story my for orks and ebay, however damn you have a to more than me (last count was around 500 including Grots and all characters)

Good luck with the blog, I've recently started mine too and its nice to get to talk about your creations otherwise they may never get seen.

I'll be following with interest

haha..good ol' ebay...it's like a big space hulk drifting through the warp, orks from all over the place hitching a ride from Waaagh! to Waaagh!
I'm following your blog now too, I honestly don't know how I wasn't already!...had a look through just before I went to bed lastnight...I liked that buggy, and the looted rhino...hadn't seen either of those before...and of course those starwars orks are still brilliant

King Thor wrote:The grots look great, good luck! How are you doing the skin?

thanks ...seeing as I've got 110 of the little gits to paint, I wanted to keep it as quick and simple as possible...prime black, spray white at an angle from above (could probably get away with just white primer though), then a coat of casandora yellow wash, then a coat of biel-tan green wash...gives a real nice vibrant green skin, and does your shading and highlighting for you, all at once


...no new update yet though...yesterday's progress was only painting black bits on 10 of the grots...and I think it's really only worth bothering with a pic after finishing a stage on all of them

Oh lord that's a lot of greenskins.

I'll be following this with interest. The skin is looking great, love the quick and easy method. Hopefully that lets you power through them - good luck and god speed 8-)

an update...not a particularly exciting update, but an update nevertheless

just got done blacking-out bits on all of them...some belts and straps and whatnot, but mostly just as a basecoat for any metal bits, because I hate painting metallics over white...




...I think from here, I may start working on them in smaller squad-sized batches, so I end up with a bunch of squads that each look a little different on the table

Good lord that's a lot of ork infantry and grots! It's a really impressive sight and it's impressive how you can sit down and nail 110 grots!

How do you paint the green on them? I have a set of grots that have been waiting for paint for years but have yet to touch them.

You had me at "probably unreliably updated ork backlog grinding blog"

which basically has the same mission as my blog...only focused on one insanely large collection of models for one army, for one game (namely, Orks)

I wish you all of the best of luck. You can do it!

Tyranid Horde wrote:Good lord that's a lot of ork infantry and grots! It's a really impressive sight and it's impressive how you can sit down and nail 110 grots!

How do you paint the green on them? I have a set of grots that have been waiting for paint for years but have yet to touch them.

I really wanted to keep the skin as quick and simple as possible, considering the quantity of them! ...so it's just black primer, then sprayed white from above at an angle (although you could probably just use white primer to start with, if you want to keep it really simple...although you won't get quite the same pre-shaded effect), then it's just a coat of GW's Casandora Yellow wash, followed by a coat of GW's Biel-Tan Green wash...and that's it, the skin is done

Fango wrote:You had me at "probably unreliably updated ork backlog grinding blog"

which basically has the same mission as my blog...only focused on one insanely large collection of models for one army, for one game (namely, Orks)

I wish you all of the best of luck. You can do it!

oh wow! I just went and had a look through your blog too, that is an imposing backlog! - I must admit, I am a little jealous of the variety in yours though...I do love orks, but there really is a lot of them in my to-do pile

Best of luck to you too!

10 down, 100 to go

Happy New Year to you Zobo, Hope you had a Good Christmas. How goes the painting of the horde of grots?

I like the little bit of red tone you add to their ears, lips and noses, gives them a lot more character.

oh dear...I'd already completely forgotten about this ...it hasn't even been a full month yet! ...I mean, it's in the name really..."probably unreliably updated", I wasn't lying!

Thanks M.G. - hope yours was good too! ...mine was alright, ate a substantial amount of ham, got some new ork stuff (a deff dread, a box of flash gitz, a painboy, and a shokk attack gun big mek), and managed to push through some delays caused by a mangled thumb, and a little lack of motivation, and finished painting my christmassy Grombrindal for the painting challenge

I do like adding that little touch of pinkish colour to them, it gives them so much more character, and it's so easy! - it's just a quick swipe with some thinned down Bugman's Glow, done!
...the grots though, are, sadly, in the same state as they were in my last post here, actually, I might've made a start on 10 more of them, but otherwise, definitely 90 of them are still just with the skin done...I took a bit of a break from them to paint Grombrindal, and then the holidays happened and ya know...anyway, they'll be on break for a bit longer too I think, as I'm now working on a little freebooter contingent for my army...

Kaptin Badrukk (the metal version of the current sculpt because I hate finecast ), with an ammo runt from the nobz kit
5 flash gitz (I used nob bodies for them, intending to use the flash git bodies to make some cool nobz, but that plan changed...)
5 flash gitz (using the flash git bodies and spare flash git heads, with nob bits for everything else, chopped and added bits to nob kombi-weapons to make "snazzguns")
battlewagon (with the turret and sponsons off a cheap old second-hand baneblade, and a few bits added here and there...I'm quite pleased with how it looks )

here's a pic of them so far...they've all had a coat of black primer, then a good spray of white from above, and I've also done all the skin, and a few red, yellow and bone bits...




...oh, if anyone's interested in the skin on those gits (and also possibly for my own use later, if I forget )...it's just the black primer, white spray from above, and then a coat of agrax earthshade, a coat of athonian camoshade, and a coat of beil-tan green...I did the ammo runt the same, but skipped the agrax step

Nice technique on the skin - looks great and sounds like it will work well for painting the horde!

thanks, and yeah that's the plan!...I'm gonna need all the tricks and shortcuts I can get to make it through that mountain in my first post! ...might be a little time-consuming, having to wait for 3 coats of wash to dry...but it's still probably quicker, and gives a better result (I think), than even say, a simple basecoat, drybrush-highlight, and wash...