So it’s been.. uh.. a couple of years, apparently, since I’ve finished any of my Orks – and yeah – it’s been way too bloody long! So today we have a band of five Ork Nobz from the AoBR boxed set – the starter for Warhammer 40k 5th edition. I’ve got at least a couple of these kicking around somewhere still in various states and like a lot of people I also picked up a number of cheap models off of the eBay back in the day – so here’s the first of mine. These five are actually the final bunch of the 25 Orks I pledged to paint alongside Wudugast back in …2019, only to burn out and stumble just before the finish line…

After painting quite a lot of far simpler models over the past several months – including a few from WHFB, a return to 40k models really blew me away (and not necessarily in a good way) with how detailed and in fact over-detailed they are. Kind of at odds with models designed for a horde army, really. So many individual rivets and bullets and straps and buckles and laces and.. all of which my mild OCD requires that I paint. And then to cap if off, my army’s theme being something I think of as Blood Axes crossed with Rogue Trader-era boyz – so camouflage clothing all ’round!

I mean, I did have a lot more fun painting these compared to most of the recent Drizzt models, it’s just that they also felt like they would never end given how busy they are. Even now as I’m writing this after having just put the final pre-varnish touches on these models, I spotted three extra things I need to touch on. While these Orkses weren’t the most fun I’ve had painting, and they’re pretty 2.5-D models from a starter set, I still think they’re going to be “fond of” models once I’ve had them finally out of my tray for a few days…

This set of models and getting them done was inspired in part by wanting to “clear my mental debt” to Wudugast after several long years, and recently looking over some Orks by that guy in our blog-circle who paints really fucking well. OK, too broad, I guess. I mean this guy.

Ans yes, there will be more Orks in 2023!