Dat Der Dokk Iz Bak!

Cast your mind back to the heady days of June 2020 and you may recall that I painted a Bonesplitterz Wardokk (or a Savage Orc shaman if you speak English). If you need a reminder he looked a little bit like this…

Secretly I was never entirely happy with him. His skin, painted exactly the same way as all my other Orcs and Orks, looked too dark and drab. Perhaps it was the way it contrasted against all the bones he’s wearing but it didn’t look right to me (although I’m perfectly happy with how it looks on all my other greenskins). Plus he needed some tattoos and warpaint to really look the part of a crazed barbarian shaman. In fact it was this dissatisfaction that lead me to try a different shade of skin for my Savage Orcs when I put together a warband of them last Orctober. Here’s an example of the new style. 

Since then I’ve been meaning to go back to the old Wardokk and repaint his skin to bring him into line with the rest of the crew, and now I’ve finally got around to it. 

And here he is hanging out with a couple of his new buddies as he finally finds his place in the tribe.

Needless to say I’m much happier with him now and he can take his place at last alongside the rest of the ladz. 

Rock Bottom

Why yes, I did paint a stone troll and name him Rock Bottom. Don’t judge me, you’d have done the same thing if you’d thought of it! 

Once again this is a model which has lurked in the pile of shame for some time, and now comes stomping forth at long last as I continue my efforts to work my way through the backlog. Somewhere I have a couple more of these trolls, expect to see them… someday. 

The Mean Green Geezerettes – Part 2

Right, let’s get this Fembruary party started with another Orc cheerleader for my Blood Bowl team. She joins her sister that I painted back in Orctober.

Go team! Go team! 

As with last year I’ve got loads of models from the backlog and I’m going to try to batter through as many of them as possible. Last year I managed 21. This year I suspect it will be rather less, the first couple of weeks of the month look set to be pretty busy, but we’ll see how it goes.

Back To The Primitive – Part 5

I meant to paint this guy back in Orctober alongside the rest of my savage orc warband, but somehow I never managed to get him finished. Then I decided to paint some more lads at the same time as him, but right now I haven’t even got around to assembling them. Then I thought “stuff it, let’s just get him painted”. 

Of course now I’ve actually finished him I’m feeling the bug of orcy enthusiasm again so I might just dig out some unbuilt models and start sticking the rest of the clan together at last.

The Git-Killaz – Part 5

Right you horrible lot! Did you over-indulge at Christmas? Good!

As it happens I’ve been a busy boy. With the end of the year looming I decided to finish off my Black Orc Blood Bowl team (minus the troll – for crying out loud will you stop going on and on about that bloody troll!). The team had reached the stage where although there were still several models to paint they were all fairy small, nothing I couldn’t handle before we reach 2022 right?

First things first we have the three remaining goblins that complete the squad of players able to take to the pitch. Let’s take a look at them.

This one seems to think he’s a bit tough. Let’s see how well that holds up when a chaos warrior is thundering down towards him…

I do like this lad’s headgear, very stylish indeed sir!

Gathered together with their mates from a couple of weeks ago, we have the goblin half of the team (joining the Orc half which I painted – appropriately – back in Orctober).

Of course we need a full-team group shot but that will have to wait because we have a few other things to look at first. Each team comes with a couple of coin-shaped counters with the team logo stamped on them.

And then we have a couple of balls. Again each team comes with balls in the style of the team. Do you want to see a goblin playing with his balls? You do? Well ok then…

A clever thing about a lot of the recent Blood Bowl teams is the way that each miniature can be built in one of two very distinct ways. Two sprues of models therefore give you two sets of pairs of models. In the first Orc team I painted you ended up with two sets of “clones”, each Orc was the same as their partner, until I set about converting with gusto of course! With this team there was no need to do that, and in my book that’s a very good thing. Much as I enjoy converting models it should be something that you do because you want to do it, not because you feel you have to just to end up with an aesthetically pleasing collection. Anyway, just for interest here’s all the pairs of models from the Black Orc team. Despite the name of this blog I can’t recall doing anything in the way of converting with these.

And there we have it, the Black Orc team is ready to roll. Want to see a group shot? Of course you do!

I’ve still got plenty more Blood Bowl to tackle in 2022 of course. There’s that half-painted elf team, my long-neglected humans and various undead monsters all clamouring for attention. And that troll of course but the less said about him the better!

The Git-Killaz – Part 4

Time to revisit the Blood Bowl pitch as I keep chipping away at the Black Orc team I started in October. Last time we saw them I’d painted all 6 of the orcs which just left the goblins waiting for attention. Since then I’ve been working away at painting up the more nimble and diminutive side of the team and managed to complete first one…

…then another…

…and finally a third. 

I also went for the easy win of getting these two markers painted up as well. 

All in all the team is coming together nicely now so I’ll aim to finish it by that ever elusive date known only as “soon”. 

Kruel and Unusual – Part 3

This Orctober one of my key goals was to paint up a Warcry warband of Savage Orcs (or Bonesplitter Orruks depending on how well you speak AoS). I’m pleased to say this is now complete, with the crazed, stamping Wurrgog Prophet added to the group earlier in the week. This also gives me four different warbands to choose from for Destruction themed Warcry games; Bonesplitters, Ironjaws, Gloomspite Gits and Ogres. However there is one more Destruction faction available for greenskin fans to use in Warcry, the new Kruelboyz. These were given rules as a free download through the Warhammer Community website (and if you’re interested you can find them here). With the Savage Orcs complete I turned my attention to the Kruelboyz. Could I paint another Warcry warband with only a few days of Orctober left to go?

No, of course I couldn’t! However I didn’t need to – by chipping away my new collection of Kruelboyz harvested from the Dominion boxset over the past couple of months I already had almost everything I needed to get started. A couple more greenskins would be sufficient to round out the warband and that was a much more achievable goal.

First things first I decided to add another Gutrippa to the group. I think my preference would be to include one of these boys armed with a close combat weapon (a hakka) rather than another spear (a stikka) just for a bit of variety. As it happens I have managed to nab myself some hakkas amongst various other useful bits, so I’m planning to convert some of my boys with stikkas from the Dominion box into boys with hakkas. For now however I don’t have time for those kind of shenanigans – plus I already had a boy with a spear sitting on the desk – so I just concentrated on getting him painted.

Here he is next to his two new mates.

Next I turned my attention to giving the tribe some ranged power. Unlike some other greenskin tribes the Kruelboyz aren’t averse to standing well back and shooting their adversaries full of arrows, and the ” Man-Skewer Boltboys” do pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.

Then it was just a case of adding the Hobgrots, the Killaboss and the sneaky little Stabgrot that I painted earlier in the year and the warband is good to go.

I do have a few other Kruelboys still kicking around and I had rather ambitiously hoped to get them painted this month as well, but alas it was not to be. Still I’m proud to say that’s another warband finished – and my total number of Orcs painted this month now stands at 33.

The Git-Killaz – Part 3

Time for one more visit to the Blood Bowl pitch for this month. As I hoped I’ve managed to get all six of the Orc players for my Black Orc team painted, let’s take a look at the final pair.

And here’s the obligatory group shot of the team so far.

This just leaves the goblin half of the team to paint, plus the various counters, tokens and balls. Oh and a troll, but I’d like to convert him to make him look different to the troll that plays for my other Orc team (and yes, I’m perfectly aware that I still haven’t painted that first troll either, no need to nag thank you!). I’m aiming to keep chipping away at the rest of the team and get them all wrapped up by the end of the year (minus the troll of course – I know he’ll need a bit more work).

Back To The Primitive – Part 4

One of the main things I wanted to do this Orctober was paint up a warband of Savage Orcs to use in games of Warcry. Now the warband is pretty much done – and the final thing I needed to add was someone to take charge of these gits. For that I decided to call upon the talents of a Wurrgog Prophet. These are the leaders of the Bonesplitter clans, and it is through their demented gibbering that the will of the Orc gods is interpreted. Each one is a powerful shaman in his own right, just the kind of guy I want to lead my mob of maddened primitive greenskins.

However, just like the Savage Orcs themselves, I’m something of a traditionalist. To me this model will always represent Wurrzag Ud Ura Zahubu – the Great Green Prophet who roamed the lands of the Old World, raising up tribes of Savage Orcs, seeking out worthy warbosses and spreading the word that the Green Gods were coming and it was time for some propa’ fightin’!

When WHFB met it’s untimely end I expected that would be the end of old Wurrzag too, but although the character died the model lived on, rebranded as the Wurrgog Prophet just as the Savage Orcs were rebranded as Bonesplitter Orruks. When it became obvious that the axe was about to fall on WHFB I picked up old Wurrzag because I really liked the model, and the character, and I firmly expected the miniature to be discontinued. At the time I had a scheme to put together good old fashioned Orcs and Goblins army, something I’ve often considered over the years but never quite got around to. As it turned out I didn’t need to rush, and the model remains available even now. Anyway, old Wurrzag ended up tucked away safely for a rainy day and there he remained… until now…

With the Wurrgog Prophet painted up I now have everything I need to unleash a frenzied pack of underdressed loons in games of Warcry. Not burdened by frivolous things like armour, clothes or sanity these boys are spoiling for a fight and with wintry weather drawing in I reckon I’ll soon get the chance to roll some dice and let them unleash their crazed barbarism on the tabletop. Don’t strain your eyes, click on the picture below for a proper look!

These aren’t nearly all the Savage Orcs I have tucked away however, although I think it’s a safe bet that they’re all the ones I’ll be painting this month. Still, Orctober isn’t over yet and I still have a few more greenskins I’d like to get done if I can…

The Git-Killaz – Part 2

Time to return our attention to the Blood Bowl pitch now; I’ve got another two Black Orcs finished up for my new team. Not a lot to say here that I didn’t say last time, so here’s a pair of angry, muscular thugs ready to rough up the opposing team for the entertainment of the crowd.

This brings me up to four finished players on the team now so the Orc half is 2/3rds completed. All being well I’ll aim to finish the other two before the end of the month, which will just leave me with the goblins and the various tokens to paint, and they can wait (although I’ll aim to look at them, and perhaps even paint them, in November).

This also brings my total number of Orcs painted this month to 27. As ever I’d like to give a shout out to my fellow blogger and partner in this Ork-painting marathon IRO. If you’re not already familiar with his work go and check it out, he’s churning out some really awesome looking greenskins.