Yeah, more Ork Slugga boyz. That’s how it works, I guess, when you’re painting a horde army yet wanting to make every model pretty unique. Once again we have a mix of Fantasy and 40k Ork parts that built these four. Several of these were painted black, and it looked decent, but… I was thinking that I should probably save the black (and black camo types) for the Kommandos and similar elites.

So they sat again in limbo while I tried to figure out how to paint them. Who should come to my rescue but Warlord Games – in one of their recent newsletters on the 2nd November, they featured a tutorial video by The War Gamer on painting German Plane Tree Autumn Camo. After a few days I got around to watching it, and decided it looked distinct enough from what I already had – and importantly – distinct from the green Ork skin, so worth giving a shot, especially since I picked up the full range of Army Painter paints recently, so I had all of the colours.

As you can see, it worked out… reasonably well. Not as nice as I’d hoped – and my concerns about the washes muddying the detail indeed came to light. Still, it looks decent, and so I’m happy enough with it. I also found another method to paint the same camo, also on Warlord’s site – which I have been using on the next batch of Orks. Finished soon (probably).

In some fairly pleasant news, after painting these four, I’m almost down to single digits on the number of Orks outstanding from my initial combat patrol force from 2005. Of course, that includes the Nobz and Warlord, so they’ll take a little longer. And not counting the grotz…  and then there’s plenty more Orks to paint after that!  But them ones following will be “new” ones joining the force, and some more Oldhammer Orks. Maybe I should get onto the Diggas I started back in the day and get them finished before starting a whole lot more new stuff?

A note to Ann – this is what I mean by washes over the top muddying up the camo (there’s an actual pattern under there). Still, these guys were essentially following the directions for a recipe, and I was taught the first time that you follow the recipe for something quite new, to follow them precisely – and then very it to taste the next time. Funny, the other guide from WLG has resulted in a pattern that looks NOTHING like this, despite them both being for Autumn Platenenmuster…

Another three Slugga Boyz today. I’d have potentially had something different to show but I ended up spending most of yesterday Spring Cleaning the house, so these three are all I have finished at the moment. The Ork on our left is fully kitted in Coffee Stain (DCU) camo, while both of his comrades wear Auscam (DPCU) on their lower half. The Boy with the chainsaw above his head has a British 2-Colour Desert DPM vest while the third Ork wears Australian “Desert Auscam” (DPDU) (v.3).

Once again, there are some fantasy Orc bits mixed in, but that’s par for the course at this stage.

Here are the Orks I’ve finished so far. Not too many (at all!) by Ork standards, being a horde army – but I’m happy with each of the models, and like the Vikings before them, each model is an individual. I’m really pleased with the way they’re turning out, especially since they were pretty much a forgotten, long-shelved project for literally over a decade. The sort of thing that you’d like to get back to but don’t think you necessarily ever will.

Finally, with everything happening in the world in the last little while, I’d just like to give my best wishes to everyone to stay safe and look after one another. We as individuals can’t do anything about NK, but having seen Harvey, Katia, Chiapas and Irma devastate so many places in the last few days, with Irma far from finished and Jose still on the way there’s been an awful lot so far but still a lot to come, so stay as safe as you can.