I know, I know. The title “discipline-master” makes it seem like this orc should be the one armed with the whip and not the other Ork I posted up. This guy, known as Thrugg Bullneck (thanks Alex – I couldn’t recall his name despite looking for it) is the commander model from the very first Space Ork boxed set (and the second 40k box set ever) RTB02 Space Ork Raiders. In (the original volume of) Chapter Approved: Book of the Astronomican, this model and the other like him were the example models for Discipline Master (Sub-Chief) who had Ork Hero level stats. While he’s not huge compared to modern Brian Nelson Orks, he stands high over the rest of the models from the Space Ork Raiders box.
For his camo I’ve given him Desert Auscam, and attempted to give his gear some contrast to his skin by using reddish leather trim and brass/copper/bronze for his bling and scale armour – but without going all the way to actual red. Rather than going with the traditional old-school red for his plasma pistol, I went with a more muted dark turquiose. It still (sort of) stands out from the rest of his gear, but without being garish against his camo and overall more muted tones.
Looking at this model even then, but especially today the closed pose of it really stands out. Arms and weapons folded around the Ork’s torso, yet it still manages to look like a badass that you would not want to mess with. As with most Orks of the day, rather than boots, he’s got puttees wrapped around his feet from his toes almost to his knees. This was Kev Adams’ style on the fantasy orcs that he sculpted in those days, and something that directly carried over to almost all of the original Ork line.
This particular model is one I’ve had for decades, since I was a young teen first discovering the original Rogue Trader. One of the first 40k models I ever collected. The rest of his original cohorts were sold off many years ago, but he was one I kept out of fondness. He’s been painted (in enamels) then stripped, then boxed, then bagged, then boxed again into storage. With a lot of years in each of those. After so many years, he’s back, rebased on a 32, and most importantly painted and ready for the table again!
And for good measure, here’s the three old-school Rogue Trader Orks together. I hope to get some more of these guys done this year, but the painting queue is pretty full, so I’ll make myself finish more of the other Orks I started years ago before I begin any more old-school Orks from scratch!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
It’s amazing how you made models, that I would normally overlook, become must haves!
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Cheers mate. I’ve been outside stripping more of these guys tonight, so expect some more of them in the future!
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Ah, RTB02… my first ever GW purchase! Love what you’ve done with old Thrugg – my originals are long gone, but I did find a set on ebay last year for sensible cash… I really must get around to painting them all again one of these days 🙂
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Thrugg! That’s it! Where did you find his name? I’ve forgotten the names of the Space Ork Raider it’s been so long – and I’ve not been able to find them again!
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Thrugg Bullneck is the boss, and Hhruk is the Lt. I think? I’m sure it’s out there somewhere – try googling the RTB02 box art?
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Good idea. SOL should have it. Thanks for the name prompts as well. I’ve updated the post title!
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The camo, leathers, and weapons just look amazing on these!
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Thanks mate. I’m trying for an old-school palette meets new school style kind of thing.
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These are Space Orks after my own heart for sure (though I would not have been able to resist the bright red plasma pistol!); brilliant work!
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Heh. The turquoise comes from some of those early-RT plasma guns – or at least how I seem to remember them – looking at them in the old catalogues sees a lot of drybrushed silver, and admittedly, the first time it was painted it was bright red.
Don’t worry – at least one of the powered armour ork commanders will be bright red. 🙂
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More than cool! Love how you are pulling these together – RESURRECTION!
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Thanks Mark – Old models doesn’t mean crappy models. Not by a long shot!
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Well, old is relative!
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I don’t have many of the Minifigs I inherited from my brother left – almost none in fact, sadly. They (mostly? all?) dated from the 1970’s, are older than any Warhammer models I own and were my first models. Not that I bought them myself.
In terms of 40k figures, though – these are about as old as it gets – and there are quite a few people out there who tend to (loudly) think that the old models are all garbage, especially when compared to the latest hotness.
By the same token, there are a lot of people who seem to think that only the old models have any merit – because they were the ones they played with as a child/teen, and that anything past (insert arbitrary date) isn’t “proper” “Oldhammer” and is therefore soulless crap.
Both of those groups of people are wrong, of course! 🙂
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It’s the painter, not the brush, or even the model! Though I have a lot of unpainted minifigs too, I think even those from the 70’s and 80’s can and should be brought to proper glory!
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Thanks Mark – but you’ve got to give credit to the sculptor as well – and even some to a decent brush! Though I do use cheapies for most of the grunt work 😉
I’ll dig out the giant rat that I still have. It’s not on here, so I must have painted it a couple of years ago before I got back into doing the blog.
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