Orktober - The introduction.

So, it's finally October...or should I say ORKTOBER!

WAAAGH!

My all time favourite army in 40k are the violent green space barbarians. Simply through being a converters dream to work with, it dosen't matter how rickety or shakily constructed your conversion seems, it's in character for them because "If I believe it works, it will do" is their whole mantra.

Something about a gestalt psychic field surrounding them in universe lore makes it happen, who cares? It allows for brilliant creativity and awesome models.

RULE OF COOL TRUMPS RULE AS WRITTEN!

I mean how mental does that image above look?
He's obviously a mechanic of come kind, Orks call these guys "Meks" but what the hell is everything that going on?
Well, he's carry a portable Force field generator, A Kustom Force Field. A lot of people write Orks off as being big dumb brutes more interested in hitting people int he face, but if they can build force field projectors then there must be more to them right?
The fact that they can harness this tech to fire it at people and blow them up, or accidentally transport themselves into close combat with their target is both hilarious and frustrating when it happens...

So, I've had various incarnations of Ork armies over various years involved in this hobby. There are many different types which you can make as well, personal to your playstyle.

• A Green Tide of as many Orks on foot as you can field, led by the biggest Warboss around and you just run at your enemy.

• A Speedwaaagh! Kult of Speed where you have as many fast vehicles filled with Orks as you can and drive as fast as possible towards your enemy.

• A Dreadmob often led by a Big Mek or sometimes a Mad Dok where you field as many Dreadnaughts, Killa Kans and Gorka/Morkanaughts as possible and clank and stomp your way towards the enemy as fast as possible.

• There are Freebooterz, who are literally Ork pirates in the far future, complete with pirate hats and everything. Who can do a bit of everything, but focus on badly aimed firepower.

 There are even more types of warband in the lore, but a lot focuses on which klan you choose and whether you want to play narratively or not.

My own current army, which I fielded in my last apocalypse game back in January (thank Covid), I have been working up in several sections. 

The main foot horde will be from the Goff Klan. There are the biggest and meanest Ork around, wear black and lots of armour, along with some checks as decorations. They like to fight and get stuck in and break heads.

I have a fair few of these part painted or primed and waiting their moments of glory.

The other main section is a small Kult of Speed. These guys love their trukks which carry them at breakneck speed around the field and because they are flatbeds, they can launch themselves off of the rear of the trukk into melee with the enemy...always fun.
I've also got a few Warbikes to go with them and a hotrod (I forget the type at the moment) which will be painted up in their "kustomary Red" because we all know that "Red Wunz Go Fasta!".
I've also plans to add a bunch of converted vehicles to the force which I have been gather parts for for years now.

So, my objective this Orktober is to get some more paint thrown at the greenskinz.
Now I know I have too much stuff in my pile of potential (pile of shame is negative) to get everything done in a month, so my aims are quite simple:

• Paint up a second 20 strong Slugga Boyz mob to completion.
• Paint up 10 Slugga Boyz to finish the mob I started.
• Repaint my Killa Kanz to make them join the Goff Horde.
• Convert up a custom vehicle and paint it to completion.

Not going crazy, because whilst I may be on annual leave for a few days thismonth, I'm still at work for most of it so have to hobby around my family and work schedules...*grumble, real life, grumble*

"Get a grip runt, get back on with the post"

So, to finish this post off, I'll share a few photo's of a small smattering of stuff I have finished which is in my display cabinet. The amount of stuff on show is limited by the size of the shelves in my display cabinet at the moment, but there is a fair bit more finished, and even more unpainted or unbuilt.

Anyway, we'll start with one of my Goff Warbosses, along with Mad Dok Grotsnik and some Attack Squigs:

 (These have been painted for years, so I may end up retouching some of the paintwork over time)

Next up is a selection of the Horde itself, the main army fields around seventy boyz so far split across the two types.

Slugga Boyz: armed with a choppy thing and a pistol.

Shoota Boyz: armed with an assault rifle.

(nice and simple names, straight to the point).

Finally, here are the Killa Kanz which I am going to repaint into my Goff scheme of black and white with rusty metal:

These were originally part of a Deathskull warband, led by that Big Mek with Kustom Force Field there, but they really feel like they should be part of the Goffs in my opinion. These are the older metal models from third or fourth edition as I loved those models and think that they are better then the  current cartoony plastic ones offered by Games Workshop, just my opnion.

Everyone, eventually, will get a proper modelled base rather then the old brown dirt I used to do on these models. One thing I really like is updating an older army you've painted up to your current/modern standard.

As for the custom vehicle...well, we'll have to wait and see as I have a couple of ideas floating around.

Until next time, Green is Best!

 - Lewis