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Great work Killatores.

Cheers,

CB

On the interface, Even if the skins tough I’d still expect scratches. Metal on most things would scratch the surface, probably also dull the edges of the metal too.
I’m not sure on the Warhammer community, I think you just tag them on twitter or instagram. I’m not really present on either platform though!

Getting Close!
Almost all done, only some special effects and some weathering left to do.
I need to take a day or two to completely fix the squiggs to the base, glue all the models in place and do some finishing touches.
There are a couple fixes I want to make on the model that I just realized when putting everything together again, like the left side gun on the chargins squiggoth, which covers a lot the ork on the left shoulder of the squigg, and I would be shortenning the arm of that gun, changing the angle and giving more space.
I might try something on the eyes of the squiggoths, since although the blank yellow with a slightly whiter area on the center would work, maybe doing a monster pupil could look cool too.







Gunner to repose

they’re looking even more impressive with each post. The vibrancy of the reds and yellows works so well against the squiggoths skin tone. Can’t wait to see the finished article!

Squiggoths finished!
Might be doing some tweaks here and there, but I call this project completed at last.
These guys started as a fun list to play on tabletop simulator, and when I looked into getting them physically...the GW models look nicely detailed, the poses are boring as can be, thus I decided to make my own.
Its been quite a learning experience and specially a lot of fun, designing them and making them out of nothing, making them as unique and characterfull as I wanted. Now after a year working on and off on them I managed to finish them.
If you are interested on the process, both building and painting, go back in time in this same blog to see the updates.
I'll be happy to hear any feedback and questions about this, hopefully you'll enjoy it
I will be doing more big strachbuild/custom minis for my orks, so stay tunned for more.

Sorry for the low quality pics, I'll do better ones when I get a good camera.



These squiggoths make redemptors look small by comparison XD


Squiggoth 1:
My favorite. Lots of energy and orks happy to charge head first into combate. The castle has an interesting shape to it, and there are fun details spread all over the miniature.





Details:




Probably the last thing some marines see:



Squiggoth 2:
Although the overall shape I find less interesting, there are a lot of areas on this model that Im quite happy with. The energy cannon at the top will serve as a great proxy for a kill rig, and it contrasts nicely with his more energetic brother.






Details:






Both minis have a magnet system for easier maintenance, tweaking, storage and transport.
I do magnetize some miniature to keep some of the weapon options interchangeable, but this particular magnetization is something I will be implementing on some of my bigger models, since It helps a lot with the process and use of the figure. Plus, Its much easier to get a good contact that I though, and once built the transition between the different components its invisible.

Well, that’s a great Sunday afternoon treat to look through those pics. You can tell they’ve been a labour of love, so many details and an excellent paint job to boot. Definitely worth an Exalt!

Do you plan to build some trucks to allow you to swap between toppers?

 gobert wrote:
Well, that’s a great Sunday afternoon treat to look through those pics. You can tell they’ve been a labour of love, so many details and an excellent paint job to boot. Definitely worth an Exalt!

Do you plan to build some trucks to allow you to swap between toppers?

Cheers man, its been a great project to work on.

I will be building some trucks, battlewagons and other vehicles sometime soon, but I will probably not have swappable components between different figures. Maybe he roof of those could be magnetized for the open-top rule, although visually I prefer closed transports.
I thought about building a set of wheels for these 2 castles, but on a second though It would probably not look exactly right. They are too big for a truck, too small for a wagon, and I rather make complete new models adequate to each role.

Since I have not build anything for some time I had an evening of scratch building

I will be making some ork vehicles for my army while I paint the infantry, and a great place to start is to get some trukks.
I'm working on them on a similar way to my scratch-build koptars. The overall basic shape and design of the trukks is the same, but the details and some areas are different, so the models are both identifiable and unique.

I've always felt GW ork trukks are way to open and barely have any armor, often showing the driver in plain sight with little to no protection, so a single bolter shot would take the whole vehicle out. I instead prefer to show a vehicle with more endurance, since on the tabletop ork trukks are not that far off from a space marine rhino. I have seen a bunch of guard taurox transport conversions into ork trukks, and I wanted to emulate the overall design of those.

So far I got the basics shapes done, and next I will be defining all the components before doing a pass of finer detail. I made sure to follow the right size for these models, both from internet measurements and comparisons with a rhino, since I like my custom made models to be tabletop friendly.




On painting I am currently working to finish my Space marine attack bikes to get that anti-tank firepower for my lists. I should be finishing these guys in one or two weeks, depending on how busy I am with other things

Cool start on the trukks, I take it they’ll be getting lads and grots hanging off them like the squiggoths?

The bikes look good already too, kept magnets on the gunners, so I guess they’ll be getting all of the weapons!

 gobert wrote:
Cool start on the trukks, I take it they’ll be getting lads and grots hanging off them like the squiggoths?

The gunners are going to be visible, and might be able to squeeze some grots too. I would be tempted to have a trukk full of boyz, but to be honest is quite a lot of paint work for a model that shouldnt deserve it, since you still have to paint every single ork. I will keep the big visible crews to bigger models.

 gobert wrote:

The bikes look good already too, kept magnets on the gunners, so I guess they’ll be getting all of the weapons!

yeah, I got all the weapons with the same magnet scheme as my landspeeders, so I can switch between them.


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Another free evening and continuing the work on the trukks.
This time I focused on covering the wheels, closing the transport area and adding the gunners with the guns. Nothing is final yet: I work making passes from bigger shapes to smaller details. Next I will probably be doing the front and battering rams, as well as some exaust/pipes.
So far this is being a quite relaxed and fun scratch-build. Pretty much all the elements are comming together without trubble, and having 3 models allows for experimentation, variation and fun ideas. Anytime I get stuck with a part of one model, I jump to another one and I end up finding a solution, bit or idea that works for the first one.

Please share any ideas I could use for these guys







As a quick experiment, I placed 10 ork bodies on one of the trukk, and although its quite crowded, they fit! XD

Very cool looking trukks
Good that you can fit the ten models in, although I think I remember that there used to be a rule where ork vehicles could carry as many ork models as you could physically pile on top, and if they fell off...
...well there was rules for that too...

Love the killa kans on the backs with the grew. These are immense conversions and wild.

Really high quality

Pressmold wheels are legit. They will be great

Dedicated a couple evenings to finish my attack bikes and got them done and ready for action.

These are the first models I did the blues with an airbrush, and other than slight differences a bit more/less contrast here and there, the results are practically identical to the wet blend approach, but spending much less time on the models. I have not given them by best paintjob effort, but I did not feel they needed them.
They are all magnetized and weapon compatible with my landspeeders. I have not yet painted all the attack bike's weapons, but I will finish them off soon.

Here with my other bikers (including unpainted ones), and I believe is quite clear there is not particularly big differences between the blues.
As a curious couple notes, the scout biker is the first miniature I painted when I came back to the hobbie a couple years ago, and the biker with the risen fist in the middle was my captain during a tournament I played with my co-workers, scoring many kills in 8th edition.
At some point I'm going to do a conversion with the new primaris bikes, but first I want to finish a couple things.












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What's next?
Other than finishing the trukks builds, I'm starting some ork specialist infantry. I got a good bunch of them and I want them painted for incomming games.
That includes burnas, tankbustas, kommandos, flashgitz and meganobs. I;m starting with small squads of them both to get them playable quicker and to experiment to get the look right:I want to make them a bit distinc from normal boyz. Otherwhise It can be a real mess to play a lot of ork infantry, and they dont look as interesting if all orks look the same.

- Kommandos: camouflage patterns.
- Burnas: Much more reds and yellow with flame patterns. Burn skin and cloth, OSL fire effects
- Tankbustas: Maybe some blues? I know yellow is better for explosives according to ork logic, but blue would be really visible distinct and has several logical ork uses (they are luckier to hit vehicles, luckier to survive handling explosives all the time...)




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I'm thinking of making a post on the finished gallery for my finished models, since it can be quite a mess to try to look for the final pics on this WIP blog, even for myself xD

Really awesome updates, the trukks look brilliant, love seeing some plasticard ork vehicles.

Sweet bikes! The new ones look great with the older, there’s a slight difference, but it’s only there on close inspection. The Scout biker looks a bit lonely to me though…

Some progress on those ork specialists.
So far got the base colours down, wash and first layer of green hightlights. Still a ton to do on them, but looking alright so far.
I'll do the cammo pattern on the kommandos after applying the highlights on the base color of the cloth.

Currently Im a bit tempted to start painting another batch of 5 each to this same step, and then again so I have all the specialists painted to this level first before doing the true highlighting, edgehighlithing and finishing the miniatures. Why? I might want to play some games with these. With them painted at this currently level they are playable, whereas if I need to wait until I paint everything to my usual standards it might take a couple months more.
I'll see what I do, maybe I sit down and finish them quicker than I imagine, so I can jump into the next group fast.

Truckks contruction done!

It has been a fun scratchbuild and I'm happy with the result, I would say they do have a distinct and recognizable look, but still unique and playable. I'll probably be building more as my army grows, but for now it should be enought for my first games with orks.

I mostly focused on the front, finishing all the remaining areas and doing a quick screw pass all over the models, which definitely gives a much better look on bigger and flat areas.

















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Talking about building stuff...

These are almost 10 year old scratchbuilds, the first ones I did. They do lack a certain amount of detail, but I think these are quite cool and I would refurnish them and improve them a bit.




This one is a bigger tank, supposed to be a 5th edition looted tank. For all our ork tears this does not exists on the rules anymore , and the mini looks a bit rough in comparison to my current models. I might salvage the turret and some other elements for other builds, but this on is going to go to my bits box in case I find a use for it.

Great scratchbuilds.

Always a good thing when no ork vehicle looks quite the same.

The specialists and trukks are looking great! The scratch builds have certainly come a long way in the past 10 years. The olds ones are good by some standards, but pale against your recent efforts

Cheers guys

A bit of paint on the vehicles, just my formula to get an overall rusty metal to everything, and a few base colours. Seeing them at this stage I think confirms that the scratch built worked well, since they almost look like oficial models. I would say this look is quite appealing, and Im sometimes tempted at not doing too much and leaving them at that, but we all know red goes fasta and that they these guys will look even better with more work on them.

Although is fun to choose which areas will be red, yellow, black or other, it is a bit nerve racking since I want to hit the right balance and composition.



Despite the gro artillery mini-tanks are not at the same level of scratch build after some of the changes I made, I want to give them a quick paintjob too to be able to play with them before making propper mek gunz.


A quick note on the screws I add to these scratchbuilds:
I use 2 base materials. One is thin plasticard rods, and cut them reaylly thin with a hobby blade. The alternative is to pick up a warhammer sprue, put it over a flame so it melts a little bit, and the scretch it like a gum. This results on a thing plastic rod that works really well for this purpose, specially because plastic glue will slightly disolve these screws, and will give a slightly different look.

The newer builds do look better, but the grot tanks are still pretty decent looking. Nice rusty metal, and isn't color picking the hardest bit?

Some reds on the vehicles and a small before and after.

Base colors are in now, and starting to do the highlighting on the reds. The contrast of light and shadow looks way more visible in person, but the edgehighlighting will give it the final punch. Basically I did stippling from red brown to saturated brigh red all around the vehicles. The stippling gives it more texture and sells the idea that this are weathered badly painted vehicles. Plus, it is fun and easy to paint compared to wet blending, and I should be able to get these guys up and running done pretty quickly. Faster than the infantry, for sure!

nice reds, and I'm impressed with your checkering game there!

Those trukks are gonna be fast! The stippling looks to be giving a nice effect. The rivets look tiresome to do, but very effective

Vejut wrote:
nice reds, and I'm impressed with your checkering game there!

Thanks!
To be honest, I find my geometric patterns need to be much better, although I've improved since I started orks. I generally rely on using decals instead, but free handing them is much more flexible


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 gobert wrote:
Those trukks are gonna be fast! The stippling looks to be giving a nice effect. The rivets look tiresome to do, but very effective

Cheers!
I find the rivet work is quite relaxing and easy actually. It can be a bit repetitive, but it brings ork models together and makes uninteresting areas to have something to look for.


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Reds and yellow highlights done!
Nice progress so far, and I know the edge highlighting will make all of this work look even better, making all the shapes pop more defined and sharp.
Yellow is a bit trickier than red, so although there is way less surface, it almost took the same amount of time to paint.
Next I will be doing all the other highlighting before moving into decals, edge highlithing, weathering and final touches (lenses, OSL).

I must say I am quite surprised on how fast these vehicles are going. My space marine army is mostly infantry, which all of them are basically tiny tank men. I had the perspective that if I have difficulties painting a tiny tank, painting a big one would be much more difficult.
After painting the drop pod, the dreadnoughts and these scratch builded vehicles, I realise painting vehicles is so much easier than infantry. It feels like the detail does not need to be as precise, there is less colors and tiny details to pay attention to, and the bigger area does not take as long to paint as it would seem.
It is true that I generally paint infantry in groups of 20-50 and here I'm only dealing with 6 models (and not the most complicated out there), but still.
So far I'm really motivated and looking foward to finish them

Tackled the skins of the current WIP orks.
Nothing special but happy to hit the same look as my previous ork infantry. Looked really up close you can see some issues, but from a medium unit distance view I really like how they look.
Now I will focus on the clothes, tring to finish up the less creative areas to get to the good ones. I will experiment a bit with camoflage patterns both on the clothes and the skin of the kommandos, as well as add some tattoos to the burnas and tankbustas, trying to make them stand out a bit more.

Still really liking the skins on those orks. Vehicles have some really punchy colors on them too!

Progress!
Did a couple of experiments here.
First some fire tattoos on the burnas. A couple of them have one on the arm, not particularly visible in these pics but still tryin to find the right method to do them.
The second was the cammo patterns for the kommandos. These look relatively alright from a distance, might give it an extra highlight pass to sell them better, but I would say they work, specially on the clothes. Im not super sure about the cammo on the skin, but it was worth experimenting. I got other 10 kommandos so maybe I change the skin patter on the next ones I paint.
What do you think?

Other than that, got everything highlighted are ready to get some decals, next would be just edgehighlighting, some effects and done. If I get a couple free evenings this following week I will be able to finished them before March.

The Ork specialists and vehicles I was working on are done!

Really fun batch, both the building and painting. Got the oportunity to experiment a bit with a couple new ideas and despite not having too much time to work on it I managed to finish it quite quickly.



Specialist
Burnas, tank bustas and kommandos. Most of these where built using the new kill team kommando box, which has really nice body sculps for specialist. There are 2 burnas and 2 tankbustas that look really similar and that was on purpose, since where the only from a group of 15 and 20 that had that issue, and wanted to make them different mostly with the paintjob.
I want to make a propper nob for these specialists squads, since the ones I currently got are pretty basic. They do have some conversions, but they could be so much orky and over-the-top. There is a miniature on Etsy that has a ork burna electric guitar that I love, and I hope I can get one to lead my burna squads.

Painting-whise I wanted to make these guys different from my boyz, since otherwhise its just a blob of similar looking minis, which is not great for gameplay, and its kind of boring artisticly.
The cammo clothes and skin on the kommandos worked quite well. Really simple to execute and definitely makes them recogniseable.
Burnas had an easier time with the this since I modeled most of them with flames coming out of the weapon, making minis really stand out from a mass of green.
Tankbustas relied on the rockets to be really visible, and I think I will make them pop even more in the next ones adding flames patterns and other markings to them.

Overall really happy with the results, and will be painting more of these soon. I want to play certain lists that need certain units, with the exception of kommandos, the rest need other support minis that I have not yet started working on (wagons and bunkers). Thus I will probably paint some flashgitz first, then build a couple of wagons, paint meganobs and then come back to these specialists? I'll see what I do.





Vehicles
These trucks and grot artillery where a blast to work on.
The building on the trucks was extremely fun and I love the look I got with them. Trucks are one of the minis I know I need on an ork army but I never really bought the look of the GW trucks. And they are expensive, so I never got any of them. During 8th and 9th I managed to play orks without trucks since 30 boyz where arguably better in most cases, but with the new codex trucks have a better place on the table.
I knew I could build my own and make them look decent, but most of the conversions I see online didnt exactly had the asthetic I wanted, until I saw some conversions with the turox guard model.
Based on that design I made these and even though all 3 models are different, keep some recognizeable design rules that make them easy to recognize and interesting.

When it came to painting them I was surprised at how fast it went. I did had a tested method to paint vehicles both big and small (koptars, bikes and squiggoths), but I always felt medium and large vehicles where much bigger projects. In reality I get them painted much faster than infantry, and its a fun and creative process.










The grot artillery where old scratchbuilds, some of my first ones from over 10 years ago. I added a couple things to make the models a bit better, but overall these came back from the grave. I could have modified them a lot or almost scratch them and use them as a base for better models, but I found them cute and wanted to keep them mostly untouched for nostalgia's sake.
I will probably build more regular grot artillery sometime, but they do not play as big of a roll on the tabletop as they used to.

The painting here followed my vehicle recipe, and I'm pretty happy with the gradient of red peaking at the top front of the tanks. All of them had different little details or shapes but the painting felt quite seamless.










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What's next?

Some ultramarines, of course.
I really would want to keep up working on my orks, but I will have some games coming up and I want to finish up a couple of units that have been on WIP for some time for my marines.
First is my vanguard veterans, which are converted inceptors. I already got 3 with storm shields and thunder hammers, but I need at least 5 for a complete squad. thus, here come 3 more with claws.

The second unit I need is to get my devastators on drop pod ready. I have the drop pod painted, but the devastators have been in WIP for some time now. Since I converted all my marines to use primaris bodies, and the heavy weapons have a magnetized upper body, I will most likely also paint the hellblasters to get all these guys done for good. I barely ever use hellblasters on my games, but they look cool with the heavy option.
At some point I will probably need to make more magnetized legs, but the idea here is that you either pick hellblasters or devastators, rarely both.



Another interesting future paintjob are these 2 ork jets.
These were rescued from 2 different ebay purchases for really cheap, and I got them repaired and ready for my paint. I could have converted them a lot, but honestly I am not that interested on doing that for now, maybe if I leave them on the side I get some idea of what I would like to add to the models.
I I made my scratch built jet that would be a completely different story, but for now the plan is to keep them pretty vanilla, and give them a pass with the airbrush to get most of the reds and yellows in.
If you have any ideas on what could I add to them please comment on this




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Quick fun with the airbrush.
Wanted to get the ork jets paint after looking at some references. I hope to get the basic design base layers done over the weekend, and maybe finishing them faster than expected.
On a test piece tried to use masks to create the flame paterns, but the type of mask I was using it really did not work as cleanly as I wanted, thus I will do it by hand.

For some reason the color does not come up right on the image, it does have a much brighter orange tint towards the highlights in person, and the red is not as pronounced, being a bit less saturated and subtle.

Another try at creating masks with flame decals.

The issue I was having before was that the airbrush shots paint that is too liquid, thus it adds a lot of moist to the masks, and it also slides under it.
Thus, I made masks and use the brush with a stippling motion, and it worked much better. The edges are not clean, but for orks thats actually preferable.

First, I took some mesurements on the model with tape, and drawed over the tape the shape of the patterns. Then I cut the gaps following the drawing.


And then I placed the masks on the model. The wing that is already done is the second test run I did


And the results are relatively nice. The blending and pattern is quite good, and this took barely any time specially compared to doing everything without the masks and only with a brush.