Perhaps this miniature should serve as a reminder that, although I’m a big fan of the ‘paint what you want, work at your own pace’ approach, sometimes it wouldn’t hurt to get my bum in gear a little. I started work on this model a long, long time ago – back when the Beasts of Ruin consisted only of a handful of Terminators and Chaos Marines. I fancied a few Chaos ogrens to lumber alongside and started working on a test model made from a combination of ork nob and ogre parts. Over the years he’s mutated regularly until he ended up in his current incarnation.
The thing is though, it took me so long to get him painted up that Games Workshop went and released new plastic Ogrens in the meantime (something that in itself seems a long time ago now). I did wonder about packing it in with this model and relegating him to bitzbox purgatory, but a combination of fondness and stubbornness stayed my hand and I resolved to finish him.

He’s a little small compared to the new plastic Ogrens, and I’m already working on at least a couple of models based on that kit, so I worried that he would look a bit like the underfed brother next to the others. The best solution, I reckoned, would be to make another so they could be short together. Life’s always better with a friend, even if you’re a thuggish mutant enslaved by the ruinous powers!


And here’s the two of them together. I’m making a Bone ‘ead to keep an eye on them and make sure they keep going in roughly the right direction, but he’s not quite finished yet. Soon, I promise!
I started work on them long before Forge World released Imperial Armour 13 with its updated Renegades and Heretics army list so I was particularly interested to see how ogrens had been handled in the new book. Where previously we had a whole variety of units (Ogren Berserkers, Plague Ogrens, the Hounds of Xaphan) now we just have Ogren Brutes, which can then be upgraded by adding packmasters with chaos hounds (reckon I’ll do something with that soon) and/or dedicating the squad to one of the gods. This means that as well as ogrens dedicated to Khorne and Nurgle we can also see ogrens dedicated to Tzeentch or Slaanesh both of which strike me as interesting propositions from both a fiction and a modelling perspective. Khorne seems a natural choice for an ogren (Khorne approves of hitting things, ogrens like hitting things, it’s a match made in heaven really) and with their poor hygiene and resilience to disease they fit in nicely with the followers of Nurgle as well. Slaanesh is harder to conjure though – I’m struggling to imagine an ogren enjoying decadent feasts or the height of sexual perversity. Likewise an ogren that plans to master the power of the warp and become a master magi is setting himself up for a disappointment. However I reminded myself that ogrens tend to go where they’re led regardless of their affiliation and could easily find themselves bound to a Slaaneshi or Tzeentchian master (the latter enjoying the protection of some serious muscle whilst he channels the warp – the former… well, perhaps it’s best not to ask).
Anyway, I already have plans for some Khorne and Nurgle ogrens but perhaps a few more dedicated to the other gods wouldn’t go amiss… I’m thinking the Skaven Stormfiends might contain the makings of a Slaaneshi ogren, and perhaps there’s something Tzeetchian in the Morghasts? Any thoughts?