Category: ork

Fire up the Hellhound

Had a very good game last weekend and took some very nice pictures which I will endeavour to get online soon.

A typical game for me with my Orks versus Simon’s Imperial Guard, though different in another way as my force was very mechanised and his was very much infantry based with a Hellhound and a Medusa. Okay to call a Squiggoth mechanised is probably going a little too far, but I did have Wartrakks, Trukks, Killa Kanz, Dethkoptaz, a Gunwagon and a flying Ork Fighter-Bomma as well as the Squiggoth.

As per usual for our games we do take a bit of liberty with the rules changing things to make them more fun usually. One example pictured (below) is the use of the Apocalypse (large) flamer template for vehicle flame based weapons such as the Hellhound and Skorcha and use the smaller flamer template for handheld flamers.

It always struck myself and Simon bizarre that the Hellhound or the Ork Skorcha would use the same template as a hand flamer! Though they have different strengths, the amount of flame that a larger more powerful flamer can propel must (and should) be bigger than the amount of fire that a small hand flamer can. With a bigger flamer it will be hotter, taken into account with the higher strength, but more fire is also needed.
So in this game we did use the bigger template and we think the game worked better for it. Alas I didn’t get to have a go, as my Skorch was taken out quite early on.

More pictures and observations later…

Ork Fighter Bomma Reflections

Having given my Ork Fighter Bomma a wash consisting of Chestnut Ink, Scorched Brown paint (which helps remove the gloss of the ink) and some water to thin the wash down I left it for a while before going back to look at it again.

Taking time to reflect.

Though not glossy, it was a little dark for my liking, so I decided to lighten it a little with some drybrushing.

I didn’t want to do too much otherwise it will turn out dusty rather than dirty, but that can be a technique used to good effect when you do want a dusty finish.

I am quite pleased with the end result. I was trying to get a rusty looking battered plane and I think that this paint job does do just that.

See the full workbench feature on the Ork Bommer.

Constructing an Ork Fort

One of the things I liked about Cities of Death was the large Ork “town” which was there alongside the ruined Imperial Cities. I know I will never have the time, space or resources to make something similar, but I did like the concept and thought it would be nice to have some buildings for my Ork Airfield, well at least something that could be used alongside my Ork Bommer.

So I took an old DVD-R spindle tub I had, these are available in various sizes depending on how many disks there are, I used a 25 disk tub.

Once you have finished with the disks, you do have the basis for a good building. They come in various sizes as well, 25, 50, 100, therefore you can have different heights as well.

The first thing I did was cut up some plasticard, wooden sticks and Starbucks™ wooden stirrers into similar lengths. I also delved into my bitz box to get some parts, in the main from Imperial vehicles, ie Rhino and Land Raider doors.

Using strips of wood, Starbucks™ stirrers, plasticard, bitz from Imperial vehicles, I stuck them to the side.

Then using a hot glue gun I stuck these to the side of the DVD tub. A hot glue gun is perfect for this kind of thing, as both plastic and super glues are unsuitable for this kind of model.

When I thought about the floor of the fort, I did initially think about adding a series of wooden planks or metal sheets, however in the end I went with using modelling sand, which I think will look quite effective when painted and somewhat Orky.

The next stage will be to add rivets using cut plastic rod and plastic sprue.

See the full workbench pages for the fort.

Washing and detailing

Having washed my other Wartrakk, I did the same for another Wartrakk I am painting.

Having finished the base coat of Vomit Brown, I gave the Wartrakk a wash consisting of Chestnut Ink, Scorched Brown paint (which helps remove the gloss of the ink) and some water to thin the wash down. I also painted the Ork glyph on the front, which is from the Orc Warriors shield sprues.

This Wartrakk has been converted with new tracks as well as some other added features.

Zzap Gun

Today I had my first game using the new Ork Codex and my Ork Gunwagon was armed with a Zzap Gun. Now in the old Codex the Zzap Gun automatically hit its target and you rolled 2D6 for the strength of the attack.

Now in the new Codex, the range has been extended to 36″ however no mention is made of automatically hitting anymore.

So what does this mean, do I now have to roll to hit as well as rolling strength?

If so what is the point of the Zzap Gun, might as well get a Kannon which always has a strength 8 shell shot which is (on average) higher than the strength of the Zzap Gun.

I may have missed the bit in the rules which talks about automatic hits, but in the old Codex it was quite explicit.

Of course playing revised rules means you miss some new rules which benefit your side (Furious Charge) and some which benefit the opposition (there may have been a Stormboyz rule I missed).

Overall my Orks  did not do so well, but the Squiggoth and the Fighter Bomma performed above expectations.