Ork Fortress WIP

I am currently working on an Ork fortress to use at the geekathon. It's based largly on the one in the 3rd ed ork codex. Its mainly made with display board (from the skip at work) and plasticard and is mounted on a sheet of mdf. The main structure is all glued together using my hot glue gun. It's almost finished actually, it just needs some windows and doors then it's ready to flocked and painted so i can get it out the flat and up to the pub.

Kathryn's Deathskull Battlewagon (The Squig Jesuz)

I built this as part of Kathryns christmas present to bulk out her ork army and to give Gazkul something to ride in. Afterall, all the biggest warbosses in the galaxy command at least one battlewagon.


I started off with the tracks. I took them from a toy tank that only cost £2.99. The only part of this toy i wanted to be visible in the final model was the tracks themselves. The top platform section was built out of wooden lolly sticks with panels added using plasticard and various scraps with interesting textures to give it that scrapheap look.


Next i built the hull. The core cylinders are till roll tubes from work, they give the whole thing strength. I then built the hull shape using old display board, also rubbish from work.


I then started to take shape quickly by adding the crew cabin. I filled in the big hole on the left hand side by cutting up some of the battle for macragge scenery. I wanted the top section to be kept unattached so that i can build an alternative top in the future so it can be fielded with an 'ard case and killcannon, basically as a gun platform instead of a transport, it's nice to have the option.
The back section i wanted to be open so that i could build and engine room and also because it fits in nicely with the rules. It has a front armour of 14 and a rear armour of 10 so it made sense to me to make the rear look vulnerable. The engine itself is made from an old paint pot and some guitar wire, all the other bits ar from raking in my bitz box.


Orks often build their battlewagons to resemble the various monstrous beasts from their homeworlds (i.e. squigoths) so i felt it was rude not give the wagon a face. This adds so much character to the model and has earned it the name 'The Squig Jesuz'.


All that it needed now was detailing. I made loads of small panels out of plasticard and wethered them all with chips using my craft knife. I used them throughout the model, particularly round the bottom to create a 'skirt' to protect the tracks. I made a few glyphs, again with plasticard. Then came the rivets. I had no idea how much it added to the overall miniature by simply adding rivets but i had heard it was well worth it. I set to work cutting up a thin plastic rod and gluing on countless rivets. I have no idea how many are on there but my guess is around 150. It felt like 40,000! but it was worth it.


Here is the Squig Jesuz next to a chaos landraider and various othet models as a size comparison.

It was then primed with chaos black spray and drybrushed silver. This is the basic hull before guns and gubbinz were added. There are holes on the main platform to slot in gunz to give it some dakka but i don't have photos of them just now. It also now has a rusty deffrolla which i don't hav pics for yet either.

Fully Airborne Ork Army

My lastest idea is to collect my very own fully airborne ork army. The basic idea is to field a bunch of zeppelin or helicopter battlewagons full of boyz backed up by a couple of squadrons on deffkoptas. I like the idea of these guys taking to the air in heavy 'scrapheap challenge' style airships that earth physics wouldn't allow to float on water, let alone fly, but they can succeed through ork mek insanity, orky will power and of course the helping hand of gork and mork. Imagine orks decending upon you from the sky, bomb squigs bouncing off the ground below and exploding above the heads of thier enemy. Picture orks abseiling out of zepplins, unleasing endless rounds of slugga fire followed by a feirce heading charge into the melee.

I think its a great idea, so i've written a draft army list, scetched (really badly) some design ideas and took a walk to games workshop to buy a big mek (with kustom force field, imagine battlewagons with a 4+ save, mwah ha ha) and then to wonderland models to pick up some foamboard to begin work on the zeppelins. I didn't quite get started on the scratch building today, because i've been creating this blog, but i do have my big mek assembled. Here's the army list i'm running with for now.

HQ Big Mek with Kustom Force Field and 'Eavy armour 90pts

HQ Warboss with big choppa, TL shoota, boss pole and 'eavy armour 90pts

Troops 19 boyz, 2 rokkit launchas, inc nob with power klaw and boss pole 159pts

Troops 19 boyz, 2 rokkit launchas, inc nob with power klaw and boss pole 159pts

Troops 20 boyz, 2 rokkit launchas, inc nob with power klaw and boss pole 165pts

Fast Attack 5 deffkoptas with twin-linked big shootas 175pts

Fast Attack 4 deffkoptas with twin-linked rokkit launchas 180pts

Heavy Battlewagon, Zzap gun, 4 rokkit launchas, grot riggas and armour plates 160pts

Heavy Battlewagon, Zzap gun, 4 rokkit launchas, grot riggas and armour plates 160pts

Heavy Battlewagon, Zzap gun, 4 rokkit launchas, grot riggas and armour plates 160pts

TOTAL 1498pts

Da plan
Put all the boyz in the wagons, the mek in the middle one so all three can get the use of the kustom forc field. Scout the deffkoptas up the sides, use the RL deffkoptas to try to take out tanks that will threaten the wagons, use the BS deffkoptas to try and kill infantry that will threaten the wagons (i.e. devastator squads). Move the battlewagons 12" straight forward 1st turn then disembark on turn 2 or 3, waaagh! and charge. If i come up against a fully mechanised enemy then i might need to use more of the battlewagon guns to open a couple of transports before the boyz have something juicy to charge.

Well thats the plan!

Emperors Children Obliterators

These obliterators have worked really well for me in battle. At first they would get shot dead quickly (targetted even before my vindicator) because my opponents 'knew' they are scary, now they are usually a second thought which means they can get on with their job of picking off the opponents scary stuff. Out of their ridiculously versitile choice of weaponry I tend to use the plasma cannons mostly (against elite infantry), lascannons if there is something worth shooting or if i get the chance i use my favourite weapon in the game: the heavy flamer.

These two chaos obliterators are two of my favourite conversions. I modelled them about a year ago for my emperors children army. For the one on the left (Bowser) i used the obliterator body and arms and added a head from the chaos vehicle accessories sprue, i then added various weapons; some from the obliterator blister, flamer from the chaos vehicle sprue, a couple of plastic chainswords and a plastic plasmagun. After a bit of work with some wire and greenstuff, he was then completed with a scenic base made from slate (from the garden) and a pile of skulls from the 40K basing kit.

The other was made in much the same way. His right arm is the top half of the obliterator arm combined with a terminator reaper autocannon and a metal chaos flamer from my bitz box. The left arm is just the oblits arm with a plastic power sword added. His head (well, his main head) is the new plastic deamonettes trumpet. The deamonic tenticle protrusions out of his back i made with wire then stuck heads and a lascannon nozzle on the ends then made them look good with greenstuff.

Here are some photos before they were painted.
Obliterator 1 (Bowser);



Obliterator 2

Geekathon Battle: Black Crusade

Here are a few pictures from the multiplayer battle we played at the geekathon the other week. Black Legion, Emperors Children and the mysterious necrons vs the bizarre trading alliance of orks and tau. I'll be sure to take more (and better) photos next time.

We played the black crusade mission in the new battle missions book, it was brilliant. All non vehicle units who were completely destroyed arrived again in reserve. The ork bikers were killed 3 times, once by a lone necron lord. The orks and tau however did pull a narrow victory on this occasion.

Dark Eldar Raven Start

A good while back i decided to scratch build a dark eldar raven based on the forgeworld model. Here is a picture of my effort so far.

These wings were the second attempt (i might have ended up gluing the first set to some paper i had on my desk).

There's still alot of work to be done.





Here is the web address for the forgeworld dark eldar raven:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Dark_Eldar/DARK-ELDAR-RAVEN-FIGHTER.html