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It's been way too long since I posted and the half finished articles are mounting up - this is actually sort of a good thing as it means that although I haven't been blogging I have been doing loads of painting, and even better, loads of playing!
It's been an action packed summer and early autumn so far and I've got lots I want to share, so without further ado let's take a look at my project for the Middlehammer Summer Painting Challenge - a GorkaMorka era Kult of Speed for my/my son's 2nd Edition WH40k Ork Horde.
The Summer painting comp ran from June-August, with the simplest of themes - pledge whatever you were going to be working on, post progress at the end of each month, and pledge what you would do for the next month. My son had been enjoying playing Orks vs Space Marines against my mate Shaun for a laugh but was complaining he didn't have any tanks (although he did have his Blood Axe Kommandos steal a broken down Rhino APC in the first game to make up for this deficiency) so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to work on a Kult of Speed.
I'd inherited my younger brothers copy of Gorkamorka about 3 months after he bought it. I got as far as sticking the models together and using them in my largely unpainted 2nd Ork force, although I apparently got as far as spray painting them white. This was fine for the Orks themselves but very annoying for the vehicles. Note to self: all vehicles in future to be undercoated black. I started off with the two Wartraks and the Warbike that came with the box set.
I wanted to stay true to the Kult of Speed being Evil Sunz, so a nice strong red was chosen as the base colour as it would also work with various corroded and rusty, oily metal colours.
These were never going to be painted to anything more than basic tabletop standard, partly because I knew they were going to be played with heavily by my 5 year old son, but also because we were on a time limit - more games needed to be played! I was constantly being monitored by my aspiring Ork Warboss offspring and was getting proper side eye if he caught me working on anything other than Ork vehicles!
Luckily I got them finished just in time for the next Ork vs Space Marine clash where they had a whale of a time driving at full speed off the battlefield only to reappear having missed a turn, but miraculously picking up reinforcements along the way to replace any vehicles that had been destroyed. You can see them above enjoying a spot of pre-battle Formula Waaarggghhh!
With the success of the June project, and the sheer chaotic joy of the second Ork vs Space Marine battle, the bar was raised for July and I pledged the remaining two Ork Trukks (count as War Buggies in 2nd Ed) from the GM box set, plus two more Middlehammer Era plastic Warbikes.
Still not sure why one box was made landscape and one was portrait, but I do know it caused me cognitive dissonance while working on them.
The Trukks/Buggies got a black undercoat (as did the bikes) and this made the whole process a lot quicker. Not that it was a long and complicated paint job to begin with of course, as demonstrated by the resolute lack of highlighting! However, the choice of a new can of untried gloss varnish did nothing to help the situation and these ended up a *tad* shinier than I had hoped for. In the future that can of varnish is being saved for anything that needs to be safe for marine travel...
The two warbikes were pristine kits so still had their banner stickers, which will do for now although I have to admit I'm not overly fond of them and would prefer some more individual banners eventually.
I upgraded one of the Trukk/Buggies Heavy Bolters to a Heavy Plasma Gun using the weapon from an old Space Crusade Dreadnought that had been knocking around my bits box for years, as the clip on fixing was similar in style to the GM kit. I did actually find the missing Heavy Bolter when looking for the Heavy Plasma, but definitely wanted some variation and some badly needed firepower for the Orks.
I stripped back many of the early customisations and extra bits and bobs when refurbing these, but to keep true to their Gorkamorka origins I kept the shotgun on the back panel - completely impractical though it is - and I'm glad I did as it is my son's favourite bit of the whole set I think :)
August arrived and the grand finale of the project was a Scorcher in need of some serious TLC. There were more early 'upgrades' to remove, and another white undercoat to deal with, but more worryingly was the snotling pump man was missing!
I salvaged the oversized tools from the old Battle Wagon set as deserving of a much more noble purpose at some unforeseen point in the future, and instead sourced some suitable Evil Sunz looking symbols from a fantasy Orc kit, and added some armour panels to the front.
I kept the turret mounted nutter with his double bolt guns, as intended by my teenaged brother many moons ago, deciding that this was too Orky to remove, especially as the turret top is long lost to time. The Gorkamorka bits box came to the rescue again with a Snotling toting an Ork icon who had sadly lost his legs to an earlier attempt at Ork conversion/surgery to a gyrostabilised monowheel. He got some green stuff booties and a new lease of life riding the back of the Scorcher on top of a giant fuel tank.... Look, I didn't say it would be a LONG new lease of life, OK!
I hate painting Chevrons. That is all.
I did have fund painting the Ork Glyphs though, although most of them are hidden behind the driver's head. More of those in the future I think :)
Here they all are, engines revving and raring to go! These are among the most basic paint jobs I've put out this year but this was still, for me, the most successful painting challenge of the year so far as it stemmed from/led to so much great gaming with my son and one of my best mates!
In fact it led directly to my Orctober 2018 project to paint up the old 2nd Ed Bloodbowl monopose Orcs as Formula Waaarrrrggghhhh! Pit crew for the game we had for my son's birthday, which was without doubt one of the most delightfully bonkers games I've ever played - but more on that in another post :)
