The Great Crusade - The Orks of Gorro
Howdy folks.
As part of developing the rules for using orks in a 30K setting I thought it only fitting to put together some models in order to both playtest the rules but also to add to my growing cache of xenos forces.
Initially, as with the rules, my starting point was the Wolf of Fire and Ash short story. This story looks in detail at an invasionary force of Sons of Horus Justerian and Custodes led by Horus Lupercal and The Emperor himself as they battle through an ork held world on the outskirts of the Ullanor system. The story has an epic feel to it and this is bolstered by the ferociousness and brutality of the orks in the story.
For a while we've been familiar with Orks in a 40K setting, where in certain iterations they have been caricatures or comedy elements in the panopoly of races. This is not the case with orks in 30K, they are larger and much more 'the beast' of lore than their 40K counterparts. The story gave some great descriptions of units, armour and wargear and it was just a case of finding the right base models.
Redbeard Hobbies had a great idea of using the Orukk Brutes from Age of Sigmar as the base model for 30K Orks, these were subsequently painted up by LP Miniatures - and they look every part the brutal race much feared by the Imperium at a pivotal time in it's history. This was then my starting point, but I also needed other units to represent the various sizes of Ork and the constructs they create. I aimed for a base size comparison as the standard to judge models to be the right scale, with warriors (and voiders) being on 40mm it meant the larger brutes need to be.......larger, so the Orukk Megaboss was the obvious choice - these I based on 50mm bases to try to emphasise the larger bulk. I also included parts from other orukk ranges to armour up the models, primarily as a helm (which will be weaponised at a future point).
Next on the list were Ironclads - these are essentially Ork automata so would need to be bigger again than their fleshy counterparts. It seemed obvious that a converted Killa Kan would be perfect and so a 60mm base was required for these guys.
The Orukk Megaboss is the largest Ork model that Games Workshop do, so for the Warchief (who needs to be on a 60mm base) I had to look at other races for inspiration. I had some Skaven Stormfiends lying around from another project (Keylekid warriors - but that's for another post) and looking at the base models they were a perfect scale for a large and imposing model - especially as the Ork Warchiefs gave even Horus pause when encountering them in the labyrinth below Gorro's surface. As you can see the axe head on the model is the same size as an Astartes, and the Warchief is the same scale as a Primarch.
From here I need to do some further detailing, adding some press moulded extra armour plating to both the voiders and the warchief, I'll be doing this using instamold and greenstuff. Once completed I can then start rolling them off production line style. I'm very excited to get to the painting stage, these guys will be either a muted green or a darker green than the current 40K ork skin colour - primarily to make the difference more apparent but also tie in with the grittier nature of 30K. Their armour is described as rusted metal so that is going to be great fun to paint - I haven't settle exactly on how I'm going to do this as yet but salt weathering or the hairspray method may be useful, although saying that it may have to be an inverted version where the cleaner metal is the base colour and the rust is the top layer.
Have you got a favourite method for heavily weathered metal on your models? If so I'd love to hear how you'd tackle the techno-ork armour.
Stay frosty.
KF
As part of developing the rules for using orks in a 30K setting I thought it only fitting to put together some models in order to both playtest the rules but also to add to my growing cache of xenos forces.
Initially, as with the rules, my starting point was the Wolf of Fire and Ash short story. This story looks in detail at an invasionary force of Sons of Horus Justerian and Custodes led by Horus Lupercal and The Emperor himself as they battle through an ork held world on the outskirts of the Ullanor system. The story has an epic feel to it and this is bolstered by the ferociousness and brutality of the orks in the story.
For a while we've been familiar with Orks in a 40K setting, where in certain iterations they have been caricatures or comedy elements in the panopoly of races. This is not the case with orks in 30K, they are larger and much more 'the beast' of lore than their 40K counterparts. The story gave some great descriptions of units, armour and wargear and it was just a case of finding the right base models.
Redbeard Hobbies had a great idea of using the Orukk Brutes from Age of Sigmar as the base model for 30K Orks, these were subsequently painted up by LP Miniatures - and they look every part the brutal race much feared by the Imperium at a pivotal time in it's history. This was then my starting point, but I also needed other units to represent the various sizes of Ork and the constructs they create. I aimed for a base size comparison as the standard to judge models to be the right scale, with warriors (and voiders) being on 40mm it meant the larger brutes need to be.......larger, so the Orukk Megaboss was the obvious choice - these I based on 50mm bases to try to emphasise the larger bulk. I also included parts from other orukk ranges to armour up the models, primarily as a helm (which will be weaponised at a future point).
Next on the list were Ironclads - these are essentially Ork automata so would need to be bigger again than their fleshy counterparts. It seemed obvious that a converted Killa Kan would be perfect and so a 60mm base was required for these guys.
The Orukk Megaboss is the largest Ork model that Games Workshop do, so for the Warchief (who needs to be on a 60mm base) I had to look at other races for inspiration. I had some Skaven Stormfiends lying around from another project (Keylekid warriors - but that's for another post) and looking at the base models they were a perfect scale for a large and imposing model - especially as the Ork Warchiefs gave even Horus pause when encountering them in the labyrinth below Gorro's surface. As you can see the axe head on the model is the same size as an Astartes, and the Warchief is the same scale as a Primarch.
From here I need to do some further detailing, adding some press moulded extra armour plating to both the voiders and the warchief, I'll be doing this using instamold and greenstuff. Once completed I can then start rolling them off production line style. I'm very excited to get to the painting stage, these guys will be either a muted green or a darker green than the current 40K ork skin colour - primarily to make the difference more apparent but also tie in with the grittier nature of 30K. Their armour is described as rusted metal so that is going to be great fun to paint - I haven't settle exactly on how I'm going to do this as yet but salt weathering or the hairspray method may be useful, although saying that it may have to be an inverted version where the cleaner metal is the base colour and the rust is the top layer.
Have you got a favourite method for heavily weathered metal on your models? If so I'd love to hear how you'd tackle the techno-ork armour.
Stay frosty.
KF
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