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I have almost bitten down and bought a few ork sets on eBay. But every time I begin to, I begin wincing when the $$$ begins adding up.

Is there any avenue to building a decently competitive Ork list without losing a paycheck? I've wanted to play a full ork list since I was a kid.

Maybe a bunch of expensive point cost units?? :(

I've been playing 40k since 2nd edition, and never once played Orks outside the crappy plastic ones that came with the 2nd edition boxset (with some metal figures tossed in).

Meganob lists can be cheap. Mek gunz are ww2 gunz + orkifications. Boyz and boss are from blackreach for relatively cheap. Bigshoota boyz can perform as lootas. Vehicles are pretty expensive but once again, either 3-rd party or recasts. Recast rhinos are very common and affrodable. A rhino + some orky stuff = gunwagon. And gunagons are one of the best transports nowadays. All the special characters other than a Warboss can be made from nobz - there are tons of regular nobz for cheap cause they're so bad.

There was a thread not long ago by SemperMortis about how and where to get cheap orkses.

A long time ago there was a white dwarf that taught you how to scratch build battle wagons from card, other household recycling/items and spare pieces. It included templates for several types of battle wagon and an in-depth guide for assembling the most basic variant (the humble Gobsmasha, which would probably make a decent looted wagon with 'ardcase these days).

If I were you I'd try get my hands on a copy and see if these templates are anything you could work with. You could probably get your hands on a few cheap plastic tractors/monster trucks/tanks and go wild on them with a jeweller's saw in order to source some chunky wheels, engines, exhausts, tracks etc to detail your scratch build with.

With regards to infantry, you might have luck at buying cheap boyz and converting them into more points heavy options (the classic biro lid jump pack conversion for storm boyz).
Similarly, you could attempt to armour up some second hand AOBR nobz or warbosses as budget meganobz. There are a few tutorials about the web for this.

If you are using ebay take note that many people will combine their shipping costs, so sometimes it is cheaper to buy several lots from one individual rather than going for individually cheaper lots.

Honestly, ebay is probably the cheapest and easiest way to get a hold of things, and orks are probably one of the cheaper armies around, due to relatively low demand. The fact that they've had several box sets over the years helps too.

I would disagree with koooaei's suggestion about meganobs and mek guns, though - they are $20/model and $50/model, respectively, and you need quite a few. And when you should be able to find ork boyz for ~$1/model, meganobz aren't a very cost-effective solution.

There's always buying them direct, from facebook, or the swap shop.

Come to think of it, I know a guy wanting to offload his ork army here in Denver. Could probably ship it to you, depending on your location.

Could you PM me the details?

I am mostly looking for painted stuff (even if it's crap).

He's not referring to the nonsensical $50 Mek guns. He's advocating for buying third party artillery and orkifying them.

Ebay is usually your best bet, or buying second hand. That said, I have some Ork stuff I'm looking to unload. What are you interested in?

If you are looking for preassembled/painted gaming pieces, I'll offer different advice. Some gaming stores deal in second hand minis, perhaps you can let them know what you are looking for and for how much so they can see if any of their regulars are looking to unload? Or even talk to local store/club patrons yourself about what you want. Network!

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 Kap'n Krump wrote:

I would disagree with koooaei's suggestion about meganobs and mek guns, though - they are $20/model and $50/model, respectively, and you need quite a few.

I got my WW2 mek gunz for 5$ a piece. And they're well detailed with moving parts. Meganobz can be made out of nobz or aquired as recast ones for 6-10$ a piece.

If you have an existing army to game with, you could always, you know, build an ork army over the course of two years... It might even get painted, too!

Get Battle For Vedros sets of Orks for starters. There's not really a "competitive" list for Orks as they're pretty underpowered right now, but they can still be really fun to play.

Use trade boards on Dakka, Bartertown, and other sites to find people looking to sell their Ork armies.

I picked up roughly 6k points worth of Orks after the latest Codex came out for about $600. The only models that were hard to get were Bikes, Lootas, Kans and Shokk Attack Guns. Had to pay for those from Ebay, usually for around 50% of the retail price.

 koooaei wrote:

 Kap'n Krump wrote:

I would disagree with koooaei's suggestion about meganobs and mek guns, though - they are $20/model and $50/model, respectively, and you need quite a few.

I got my WW2 mek gunz for 5$ a piece. And they're well detailed with moving parts. Meganobz can be made out of nobz or aquired as recast ones for 6-10$ a piece.

My mistake, I thought you meant getting the official models.