Total Waaagh! – Part 6

…And here we have it, the final update of the annual Ork painting contest versus IRO (at least until next year of course). I’ll be away from home tonight so realistically I’m not going to get any more painting done before November. Still, my weekend was quite productive so let’s take a look at what all I managed to get done.

First up, another of the savage Beastsnagga Boys.

Inspired by a couple of Orks I saw at Dave Stone’s Wargames Terrain Workshop, which incorporated a bit of purple in the skin, I decided to try giving him some purple warpaint. I think it’s a bit subtle here, I was a little cautious with it and the blue animal-skin cape draws the eye away from it, but it’s something I’ll keep playing with as and when I get around to the rest of the squad. For now, here he is hanging out with the rest of his newly painted Beastsnaggin’ buddies.

Speaking of Beastsnaggas, next up we have an imposing Beastboss (a Snakebite Warboss by any other name). I built him pretty much “as standard” but swapped out his head – I wasn’t too keen on the original although I reckon it’ll work well on a different model.

He’s a big lad – towering over the rest of the boys.

One of my objectives for this month was to build and paint the warboss who rules over my rambunctious horde. Sadly he’s still in bits, but at least the Beastboss can stand in for him in the meantime.

Next up, another Kommando.

I’ve wanted a squad of these ever since I got into the greenskins and doubly so since the new kit was released. With these 5 sneaky dudes (plus Snikrot of course!) done I’m calling that objective achieved although I love these models so much it’s safe to assume there will be plenty more in the future.

Then, roaring over the horizon in a cloud of dust, we have another squig-hog boy.

I really like these models, especially this one with a wheel instead of hind legs, and getting at least a couple of them done this month was a key goal for me. In a perfect world I’d have liked to paint a squad of bikers as well, and kitbash some boarboys on cyboars (hint GW; add these to the next wave of Ork models you release eh!) but no matter, all of that will come in time. In the meantime at least these lads are ready to ride out.

Lastly, but by no means least, I’ve finished off the third of my Killa Kans.

Much like the Kommandos I’ve been wanting to add a squad of these to the collection for years and years and years so I’m chuffed to bits to have the three of them ready to go at last.

In fact, I’m really pleased with everything I managed to get painted over the last few weeks. IRO thoroughly trounced me in our contest of course, but that’s ok because it just means I’m going to have to work harder to regain my honour next year! In fact IRO has been an absolute painting machine this month, churning out awesome terrain and all kinds of Orks at a rate with which no mortal man can compare. He’s also been an excellent sport and a real gent, both on the blogs and “behind the scenes” as it were (although the less said about what his wife thinks I’m called the better…). It really is worth repeating that without the challenge I would have got an awful lot less done so thanks to IRO for giving me the encouragement to find the mental discipline to get these painted and keeping me on my toes all month. There is NO need to be concerned and one of his monkey ninjas is NOT threatening me, knife clasped in one hairy paw, as I write this. I repeat, there is NO need to send help and I’ve NOT been abducted and threatened into writing this praise by murderous simian thugs in the employ of a ruthless Antipodean.

At the start of the month I thought about laying out a list of objectives I was intending to achieve. Having given it more consideration however I decided that this would be unwise, I knew this was going to be a busy time with “real life” concerns and I wanted to have fun with the challenge rather than put too much pressure on myself to complete specific goals. Still I’m pretty damn pleased with everything I did manage to get done; Snikrot, the Kommandos and the Killa Kans have all been longstanding ambitions, and I’ve been wanting to get started on the Squig-hog boys for the last year or so as well.

There are a fair number of things I didn’t get done of course, but then my eyes have always been bigger than my stomach when it comes to painting miniatures. I’d have like to get the Warboss finished, and the aforementioned squad of bikers. Vehicles are another thing my Ork army is a bit short on; IRO actually has an awesome fleet of ork vehicles (seriously, don’t tell him but I’m a bit jealous – you should go to his blog and check them out if you haven’t already). I do have various unassembled ork buggies sitting around, plus a whole heap of ideas I’ve done nothing with, and part of me did dream that I’d so something about that this month – alas it was not to be. I also planned to add a squad of Flash Gits but that too fell by the wayside, although the balance was redressed somewhat when John of Just Needs Varnish! sent me this awesome git.

And although this month was mostly about my Warhammer 40k Orks I did manage to sneak in another addition to the Blood Bowl collection with the star player Varag Ghoul-Chewer.

So, where does that leave us? Why, in need of a parting group shot of course! Let’s take a last look at all the ugly greenskins I’ve managed to accrue over the last few weeks.

The score for this weekend comes to another 7 points (1 per Ork and 2 each for the Killa Kan and the Squighog rider). Add that to the score accumulated so far and we find ourselves looking at a fairly respectable 27 points. This falls a little short of IRO’s score (38 points at the time of writing although god knows, by the time I get around to posting this he’ll probably have knocked out half-a-dozen more mad, ramshackle vehicles and added a few more districts to his Ork town).

As for what comes next I’ve got a whole heap of projects that have been crying out for attention, and have been completely ignored over the last few weeks as I concentrated on Orks so all being well they’ll get their turn in the sun next. Or who knows, maybe IRO and I will just carry on painting Orks, disregarding all other concerns in a glorious WAAAAGH! that never ends! Watch this space I guess…