Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm making a blood axe army, and the older pictures make them look very Wehrmacht like. I'm wondering if WW2 weapons would stick out too much or if I could get away with them on my boyz

Depends on what WW2 weapons you're talking about, I feel alot of them would look too small on them and be more suited for something like the Imperial Guard.

However, given that the orks have a great amount of strength, Vickers Tripod mounted Machine Guns might not look out of place, nor field guns or small howitzers if they are carrying them.





Getting extreme, perhaps a Quad Cannon from an American AA tank or emplacement might look good if it was strapped the back of an Ork!

There's one very important factor about 40k which you might not realize if you don't play other wargames: The weapons are !*@&ing huge.

Generally speaking, 'standard' rifles tend to be longer than their wielder is tall. No seriously. Go look at the standard 'dude with a rifle' model for Orcs, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Guard, Mechanicus, Necrons, and just about every army which doesn't come with bolt guns standard issue. It gets worse; said rifles tend to have barrels thicker than the the arms of those who wield them. Pistols are also universally torso sized (or bigger). Small knives / boot blades are normally arm length, 'standard' swords are usually as tall as the people swinging them, and 'special' weapons are freaking monsters.

Orcs tend to exacerbate this trend; In a game which features gigantic guns, orcs tend to wield bigger weapons than everyone else.

WW2 weapons from other systems are going to look like toothpicks in 40k, you find a seller which does them in a scale specifically for Orks. There are those who do such things; most noticeably Kromlech and Spellcrow. But beyond that, you're not likely to have much success unlike you cherish the idea of scratch building several hundred grease guns for your Orks at the proper scale.

 morganfreeman wrote:
There's one very important factor about 40k which you might not realize if you don't play other wargames: The weapons are !*@&ing huge.

Generally speaking, 'standard' rifles tend to be longer than their wielder is tall. No seriously. Go look at the standard 'dude with a rifle' model for Orcs, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Guard, Mechanicus, Necrons, and just about every army which doesn't come with bolt guns standard issue. It gets worse; said rifles tend to have barrels thicker than the the arms of those who wield them. Pistols are also universally torso sized (or bigger). Small knives / boot blades are normally arm length, 'standard' swords are usually as tall as the people swinging them, and 'special' weapons are freaking monsters.

Orcs tend to exacerbate this trend; In a game which features gigantic guns, orcs tend to wield bigger weapons than everyone else.

WW2 weapons from other systems are going to look like toothpicks in 40k, you find a seller which does them in a scale specifically for Orks. There are those who do such things; most noticeably Kromlech and Spellcrow. But beyond that, you're not likely to have much success unlike you cherish the idea of scratch building several hundred grease guns for your Orks at the proper scale.

Im planning on having these fixed on belts and backs for just the classic blood axe Wehrmacht look. So I guess size isn't a major factor

And besides they're blood axes, if say a sturmgwehr is stupidly small I'll just say "Hey it's just a stealth weapon for my kommandos"

The problem is they're going to look too narrow. You can buy yourself larger scale WW2 guns, but they're always going to look too narrow.

Warboss Grimdakka wrote:

 morganfreeman wrote:
There's one very important factor about 40k which you might not realize if you don't play other wargames: The weapons are !*@&ing huge.

Generally speaking, 'standard' rifles tend to be longer than their wielder is tall. No seriously. Go look at the standard 'dude with a rifle' model for Orcs, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Guard, Mechanicus, Necrons, and just about every army which doesn't come with bolt guns standard issue. It gets worse; said rifles tend to have barrels thicker than the the arms of those who wield them. Pistols are also universally torso sized (or bigger). Small knives / boot blades are normally arm length, 'standard' swords are usually as tall as the people swinging them, and 'special' weapons are freaking monsters.

Orcs tend to exacerbate this trend; In a game which features gigantic guns, orcs tend to wield bigger weapons than everyone else.

WW2 weapons from other systems are going to look like toothpicks in 40k, you find a seller which does them in a scale specifically for Orks. There are those who do such things; most noticeably Kromlech and Spellcrow. But beyond that, you're not likely to have much success unlike you cherish the idea of scratch building several hundred grease guns for your Orks at the proper scale.

Im planning on having these fixed on belts and backs for just the classic blood axe Wehrmacht look. So I guess size isn't a major factor

And besides they're blood axes, if say a sturmgwehr is stupidly small I'll just say "Hey it's just a stealth weapon for my kommandos"

Look man, I get you're new and you have a lot of weird questions but many of those can be resolved by googling and a little bit of thinking.
Also: "Its just a stealth weapon for my Kommandos"? Wtf. SIZE ISNT A MAJOR FACTOR? You cannot stick a tiny weapon to an ork boyz' back and call it a conversion.
The handles of those things would be as wide as an ork finger. The ammo would be as big as a fingernail. Hell, HALF a fingernail. How would they load that friggin thing? Let alone shoot it?
Most importantly: It would be unorky as hell. Every other Ork in the galaxy would laugh at your boyz with the teeny tiny "plinkaz". They'd be not loud enough, not shooty enough, cant krump a 'umie with it without breaking it... Useless!

WW2 style Orks isnt a new Idea and it's been done already. Theres a few cool armys with that theme out there.

WW2 Weapons from "realistic" models tho? No. They do not fit at all. Yes they would stick out and it would look like crap.
We're talking about orks here. Lorewise there are no two ork weapons that look the same which also true for every ork boy and especially every vehicle.
This is why I've given up on orks a while ago. It's just too hard to make an army look "orky".

Orks are actually the last army I'd suggest to a new player because of that. While its fun to kitbash the feth out of everything it's also hard as hell to not have a pile of unfinished vehicles on your table. An ork army without plasticard is not possible imo (if you want to have a decent number of vehicles)

Please refrain from using "realistic" models or even toys for conversion bases if you do not have decent plasticard skills. You will at some Point get better and you will hate your first models. You have got some decent painting skills. It'd be a shame if you did those to crappy models.

If you absolutely must follow that route: Google Kromlech. They'll provide you ww2 style ork heads. There is plenty of other 3rd Party sellers like puppetswar or zinge which may have weapons you like but as I said: Dont use "realistic" models!

Off Topic: Have you done your "Terminator Nobz" yet?

as has been said, realistic WWII model guns, unfortunately, would look way too puny, even in the hands of grots...ork shootas are bloody huge! - about the same size as a space marine heavy bolter!

a little pricey, but I'd say by far your best bet for something like this would be Kromlech ...they'll have pretty much anything you'd want for a WWII-style ork army...couple of example pics...

they do full squads:


or if you just want guns: