Da Scrappaz have arrived on Badlanding to fight and collect junk. And the more they fight, the more junk there is to collect!
I decorated the bases with a mix of scrap metal, rocks, and battlefield detritus - namely something on each base from the Crimson Fists (Rhino door, hatch, and shoulder pad). Unfortunately, the dark blue of the Fists is not all that different than the bright blue of the Deathskulls so the marine stuff does not pop out.
I used a very limited palette for painting them. I did the main bodies with the same Asurmen Blue Contrast that I use on my ork infantry. Normally, I struggle to get a good finish with Contrast on large flat surfaces like this, but this blue is amazing and did a great job. I think the key is to use a primer with a mildly glossy finish to help the paint flow. I kept the bones, tusks, and even the skull shaped plates all the same bone colors, just for simplicity and uniformity.
The metal parts benefited from a good amount of weathering with grime and rust. The hydraulic pistons were painted a bright metal and left clean since they are moving in and out of the cylinders.
I added a few decals and had the same unsatisfactory result as with the decal on the test Crimson Fist model. I could not get the decals completely invisible like I get easily with the Horus Heresy decals. I can only assume these old decals are an inferior design than the newer Horus Heresy type. I probably will not use more of these old ones and will look for ork decals in the new design.
I am happy with my first models of 2026. It always takes a while when you paint a whole unit at once, but its what you need to do with orks. Otherwise, you are stuck for years with one single killa kan or one single rokkit buggy like I have with my Evil Sunz... not super effective on the battlefield. It was a bit of a grind at times to paint three at once, but now I can happily plop down a whole unit of clanking kans on the tabletop. And with orks, "everything counts in large amounts".
I am happy with my first models of 2026. It always takes a while when you paint a whole unit at once, but its what you need to do with orks. Otherwise, you are stuck for years with one single killa kan or one single rokkit buggy like I have with my Evil Sunz... not super effective on the battlefield. It was a bit of a grind at times to paint three at once, but now I can happily plop down a whole unit of clanking kans on the tabletop. And with orks, "everything counts in large amounts".