A bit of a slow week this last couple of weeks for posts as I had exhausted my backlog of recently-painted-but-unshown models, and to be blunt had a bit of the old blogging-burnout. I’ll slowly catch up on people’s posts and keep on painting here to get more new models finished. Still, I do have something today – one of the models I’d planned to complete a couple of weekends ago but only managed to do during the week. This guy is from the GorkaMorka range, which was a side game of GW’s (now known as “Specialist Games”) and the sort-of successor and replacement for Necromunda in their release schedule. GM never took off like Necromunda did, and my group never actually played it at all, which I felt was a shame, since it looked like a fair bit of fun. I did, however pick up a ton of GM kits, which I guess might start to be assembled and painted now that I’m resurrecting the Orks.
Palette-wise, I kept him fairly simple and muted. A robe that started as off-white before being dirtied up quite a bit, some leather gubbins and the old Pilot’s cap all in browns finished him off.
Of course, Bruce Spence’s iconic character of the Gyro Captain is a visible inspiration for this figure’s look – not to mention several other Orks through the years. Of course, Mad Max 2 has been a huge influence over much of popular culture in general and 40k in particular – and especially so for Orks. I mean Just Look Anywhere.
Ork Slavers are generally also called Runtherds, and have been so since the RT days. One thing that is for sure is this figure was called “Ork Slaver” for it’s GM release. So this means there’s something missing here!
Now at this stage I don’t have any runts ready for this guy to herd …yet. But rest assured, when they get sorted out, this guy will make an appropriate reappearance here on the blog.
He’s comin’ ta getcha!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Great work. Gorkamorka is responsible for some very fine Ork miniatures. Interestingly it is also, in my opinion anyway, almost singlehandedly responsible for defining the space Ork aesthetic as crude techno barbarians driving mad max style through a desert wasteland which they have had ever since. Before that they were brightly coloured jungle dwellers, as was everyone in the 41st millennium. It’s interesting because such an unsuccessful product has had such an ability to define the orks so powerfully. Anyway, great work in this model, looking forward to seeing the grots.
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Thanks mate – GorkaMorka certainly subverted what late-Rogue Trader and 2nd Edition had turned the Orks into – going back in many way to some of what made the early-RT Orks so special (to me, anyway). Bringing back more of the “feel” than the look of those first models.
They absolutely brought back the Mad Max influences, and cranked them up to 11, while also doing the whole desert wasteland thing as well. Just a shame that Gorka never took off in my area, but I’ve just remembered that I have a whole lot of the humans half-painted somewhere. I should (find and) finish them. Maybe I can use them as slaves (Grot stats) as well!
Though they are painted with African skin tones because I was going for the Sub-Saharan desert skin tone thing, and because I was railing against GW of the time BECAUSE NOT EVERYONE IS BLOODY WHITE! (Hey, my Tallarn are painted with arabic-brown skin tones!) But still, people might take the whole “slave” thing entirely the wrong way… even though it’d be about humans. Or I could just use them how I want in games with my friends in a thematic way and not trumpet it around on the internet like a dickhead.
Yeah, I might do that.
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Either way, the Digga models are great… so looking forward to seeing them here.
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Found them the other day while cleaning up. So now I just need to finish the stuff that’s half painted and on the paint table first… They can also double as Chaos Cultists as needed as well.
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Love him man! One of the best I’ve seen. I missed Gorka Morka. Maybe it’ll come back as well. I’d love to get my hands on the kits
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Thanks mate. I could see them doing a reboot with it if Necro does well. The plastics were pretty sub-par by today’s standards to be honest, but the odd metal figure was great, and the best of those got rolled into the regular Ork range. (Though the metal vehicles were truly a nightmare!)
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Splendid work as usual. The recipe for the robe – please share!
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Thank you!
OK here goes:
Base: Vallejo Model Colour 321 Highlight British Tanker
Rough Blend Highlight: VMC 819 Iraqui Sand
Next Highlight: VMC 837 Pale Sand
Wash: 1:1:2 Army Painter Strong Tone, AP Soft Tone, Lahmian Medium
Then blending back up through the above three VMC colours to bring the overall colour back up to a nice dirty-but-bleached finish, with Vallejo Game Colour 098 Elfic Flesh just used for the final edging highlight on the frayed robe edges, etc.
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Thanks for that, I’ll definitely be using it 😀
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Lurverly job mate, he’s spot on, and what a great range to pick from!
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Thanks Alex. The GM range had a lot of not-quite Orks in it as the Nelson plastics followed so closely, but a fair few choice pieces as well.
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Nice paint job! I like that you went with the same colors as in
Bruce Spence’s costume from the Road Warrior! I too have always been aware of Mad Max’s influence on gaming especially in the GW universes like Necromunda, Gorkka Morkka, Dark Future! … and so on. Also various models that take direct influence from the moves costume design and general imagery it creates! That said, I am a big fan of both Mad Max and the games/miniature’s that it has inspired!
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Thanks mate. Bruce Spence is a classic Aussie actor, and of course he’s most iconic for his role as the Gyro Pilot.
Have you seen this site? It lists a whole lot of the locations used in the films. Of course the ones from the first film are a lot more interesting to me since they’re local to me… 😉
http://www.madmaxmovies.com/making/madmax/
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Gotta a love a bit of Bruce Spence. That Slaver is a fantastic sculpt, really done justice here. Lovely.
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Thanks Alex. It’s a really great piece of Nelson’s work, and as such as easy and very enjoyable to paint up.
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