Da Wreckin' Krew

I finally finished the last two 'Ard Boyz out of my mob of ten. Like the rest of the mob, I modeled these guys many years ago. While they have flashes of inspiration and a great variety of poses, the quality of the conversion work is pretty uneven. Once again, I obviously sucked at using Green Stuff so I tried to cover the awkward gaps with chains (which didn't turn out too poorly in most cases) and some of the posing isn't great. For the second Ork shown (with shield), I assume I was going for a  dynamic pose, such as some type of dodging move. It looks a bit awkward, but I refuse to go back and redo any old work. I am only going to move forward and do better on the next batch. There is room in my army for my entire learning curve of Orky projects.

Angry ork with a big axe. I always see lots of ugly details when I zoom a photo in this much. They definitely look better on the tabletop!

Wow, that axe looks really crooked here.

I suppose he looks like he is dodging by ducking his left shoulder.

Another kustom choppa. I figure to accumulate the teef and scrap for this much armor, these boyz must be veterans and so they have upgraded their weapons as well as their armor.

A patched-up shield adds to the armored plates. I'm not sure it would stop a bolter round, but it probably works well against frag missiles and in close combat.

Here is the full Wreckin' Krew. Click to see it bigger. The nob isn't shown because he was painted for my slugga boyz years ago. I just need to add some stripes and battle damage so he'll fit in with the rest. Then all they will be missing is their ride. Coming soon!

'Ard as Nails

No new posts for a while because I was out of town for work last week, but I just finished the next batch of 'Ard Boyz, bringing the mob total up to eight. These guys were mostly modeled many, many years ago so some of the conversions are pretty rough. I sure could have used a little green stuff here and there. But since I was young and no good with it, I tried to cover most of my ugly gaps with chains! I think they mostly look fine since you generally look at them more from above than from below, where you can see the arm pit gaps.

I like the rusty weapons. Much more proppa' than my previous mobs of boyz.

 Knuckle guard in case you have to bash faces up close and personal.

I like the double shoulder plates. Extra 'ard!

 His bayonet is actually tied to his slugga.

Look at that choppa. Extra choppy! 

Using two hands to be extra choppy! This was one that was originally supposed to be a Skar Boy back in Third Edition (two hands to represent the +1 STR), but a few armor plates and he makes a fine 'Ard Boy. 

Don't worry; he still has a slugga. What you see is what you get!

 The four newest boyz are ready to rumble.

The full mob of eight. Two left to paint!

Ded 'Ard an' Proppa'

To me, 'ard boyz just truly personify the 40k Space Ork concept: big, hulking brutes covered with slabs of plate steel, helmets with big horns, iron gobs and spiky bitz. Chipped paint, battle damaged armor, and  oversize, rusty weapons. They have a ton of character.

Here are the latest two that I finally finished painting.

I've added more battle damage, dirt and rust to this mob. Still working on getting the right effect and right amount, but it's not bad. I also started drilling my gun barrels for the first time. I like the look, but it can be hard to get it centered.

The big, spiked mace is truly orky. And it has a kustom knuckle guard added for close range sluggin'.

And here they are with the other two I posted last time. They are looking ready for a rumble. I'm using the red and black stripes as their skwad markings. I have six more to paint plus I plan to add a nob and a mek in a trukk and call them the "Wreckin' Krew." Maybe with 'eavy armor and a trukk, they will survive long enough to get up close and wreck some Marines. Waaagh!

I like what I have so far. I'll just keep working on them at my snail's pace and maybe I'll have the whole mob done by the end of the year!

Finally painted after 15 years!

I've finally started painting my 'ard boyz. I think most of these guys were originally glued together about 12 - 15 years ago, when we got back into 40k with 3rd Edition! I just added a few more plates, spikes, nuts, and other bitz and finally started painting them.

Bill actually did the conversion for the boy with two-handed axe. I just added some armor to make him more of an 'ard boy. The two-handed weapon really inspired me. Back when we glued these boyz together, there were still skar boyz in the 3rd Edition Ork Codex. I decided I could differentiate the skar boyz and their +1 Str by giving them big, two-handed axes like the one that Bill did. I actually converted a few more like this (I'll post them once they are painted).

But since I only had a handful of the old metal 'ard boyz and a handful of my makeshift skar boyz, I decided to combine them together into a full-size mob of 'ard boyz (especially since they don't have rules for skar boyz anymore).

These are the first two.

It is kind of hard to see in these pictures, but I added a little more rust, grime and battle damage to these boyz than my standard boyz.I also tried to make the bases match the terrain a little better. They were more work and I don't know that they match much better so I don't know if I'll continue with this style. I do like having the small piece of slate on the base to better tie them in with the rocks in the terrain so I'll continue that with the rest of the mob.

I'm also debating whether to possibly paint a stripe on their helmets or some other marking to designate them as part of the same mob.

At this pace, it is going to take me forever to work through the rest of the mob, but I'll keep at them. I'll try to get some better pictures once I have more of them painted.