The recent Warhammer 40,000 supplement Kill Team brought me back into the wargaming fray, away from the RPG fringe I'd been dwelling on for a while. I've been running Orks, my first army. It's given me an excuse to redo some of the older figures in my collection. The mistakes and excess glue just motivates me to be creative with converting the Boyz (or so I tell myself). I intend to get them painted as soon as the finishing touches are done.
Only a few of these miniatures were built recently, though for the older ones I fixed mistakes, cleaned them up in places, and gave them new shoulder pads. I'm trying to do more with plasticard, so I used this as an opportunity to get used to working with it and making rivets. When I messed up, it just looked thematic so it was a great way to practice. As opposed to actual shoulder pads, they give them an appropriately scavenged look, as I'll be painting them as Deathskulls.
I made this figure to represent the Boss Nob. I mostly just use my leader specialists to farm command points, so I chose the bulkier but still regular sized Battlwagon gunner body. He's important but not that important When I get around to redoing my whole Ork army they'll be Speed Freakz, so I gave him a harpoon gun. It has no mechanical purpose but I thought it was a nice callback to Gorkamorka.
I'm not sure how satisfied I am with the harpoon gun itself. I had a spearhead on the rod in the quiver but it kept falling off. The brass rod is just a little to thick, so I need to take it out and make a less brittle spear. As for the gun itself, I picked the slugga with the clip that looks like a compressed gas canister. I'll probably add a crank to the side, to represent how it's reloaded. Aside from that I'm very satisfied with him and he always attracts attention on the game board.
A more recent build, this guy was also very much influenced by Gorkamorka. I wanted a miniature I could picture trying to attack a passing vehicle or deliver the killing blow to a wiped out driver. Like the rest of the kill team, the individual parts are from various Ork kits, including the Warhammer Fantasy regiment. There's a bit of a gap between the legs and the waist. I'm still considering whether to fill it in with green stuff or if it looks like cloth pushed up by the belt.
This was a conversion I did ages ago, as shown by the half finished paint job. Thankfully, I stopped so early I don't need to strip him like some of the others. The head was from a Stormboy jetpack. The right arm and shoulder pad are new additions. Younger me put the base in a weird spot but it does make the strange pose possible. He has a flailing, crazed look the other kill team members don't have.
Another conversion I did years ago but this one required much less reworking. He did need to be stripped though and you can see chunks of paint on him. Not enough to make the next paint job an issue though. Like some of the others, he definitely has a Gorkamorka influence. You can't make it out with the contrast but his shoulder pads a bit different. Besides looking more ragged, it has three huge studs. I tried to go for dynamic poses with this Kill Team, as I'm sure you've noticed by now.
Not the most exciting individual but not everyone can be the hero. I wanted to have at least one "normal" boy, if only because I have a lot of respect for the Ork Boy kit. It's nearly twenty years old now but it still does the job. This Ork has a lot of glue stains but they're not too bad. If they end up being a problem during painting, I'll try to make them off as gore stains. The apprehensive look and wary posture could be from having his mate explode next to him. Or maybe his chainsword did a better job than expected. Time will tell.
Another earlier conversion but a more competent one. I promise I'll get to drilling the gun barrels. The imperial banner head is when I thought to have my Deathskulls covered in items stolen from the battlefield and drenched in blue paint. I decided that'd be a little too distracting and impractical to do for a whole Kill Team, much less a whole army. This one I ended up not changing, as I thought it was a good look for just one boy. I haven't used Shoota Boyz much but I need more ranged capabilities and so he's been pressed back into service.
Clearly a more veteran variety of Ork Boy. An Ork Man, perhaps? Another early conversion along with one of my earlier attempts at riveting. I'm still torn as to whether the gigantic rivets distinguish them or they need to be shaved down. I'll probably reach some kind of compromise. A poor attempt at basing, though easily fixed by just filling in the gaps. With some of the other Orks I tried adding other bits to the bases but they'd fall off during play so I'm not sure if I'll go through with it.
My favorite conversion of the bunch. Also the simplest one, as it turned out. He has the devious and befuddled looks that made me pick Orks in the first place. I usually employ him as a close combat specialist, as the two melee weapons make that easy to remember. I'm looking forward to painting him, as he'll look great with the more elaborate Deathskull warpaint schemes with his ready-to-pounce look.
A Shoota Boy with a Warbiker bosspole. Another simple, recent conversion, I wanted a standard bearer look, even if it had no in-game purpose. He has the same face as the close combat Ork but the Deathskull scheme means I can just use warpaint (or the lack thereof) to differentiate them.
I'm looking forward to painting this Kill Team, though there are a few changes left to be made. I've always enjoyed painting Orks and the Deathskull scheme is a fun one. The mix of woad-like and sports fan-esque designs represents the idiosyncrasies of the faction pretty well. I have Grots and Burnaz as well but they're not converted so I'm not posting them until they're painted. Hopefully the weather will let up long enough for me to prime them.
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