GHAZGHKULL'S ORKS - PART ONE: ORK WARBAND

Unlike the rigid hierarchical structure of the Imperial War Machine, the Orks are a far more unpredictable force with a natural tendency to group together, particularly under the banner of a powerful or especially large Warboss. These mobs of Orks are loosely described as Warbands and vary in size from anything from sixty Orks to literally thousands, with accompanying armoured transports and Guntrukks.

The basic Ork Warband consists of six Boyz units, two Grots units and two Nobz units, however this can be further expanded into an almost infinite number of different combinations. The most basic expansion is to simply double or triple the basic Warband into either a ‘Big’ or ‘Uge’ Warband. Either way, additional vehicles and Ork units can be added to the mob with little in the way of restriction. Ultimately this means that most Ork Forces can be incredibly flexible and easily fine-tuned (Not to mention an eclectic mix of infantry and vehicles).

For my starting core Ork force I chose a simple Warband to which I added a Warboss, some battlefortresses , a few more Boyz units and a some Guntrukks. I then created a Kult of Speed and Guntrukk’s Blitz Brigade to add further punch as well as a basic Stompa Mob.

All in all this gave me four simple formations to which I can add further units and build up my Ork force organically as it were (I'll show more of these additional units and formations over the coming weeks so never fear if they are not in the photo).

Painting da Greenskins.

For my Orks I like a rusted earthier feel to the vehicles and a dark look for my infantry only broken up by the occasional bright patch of clothing or armour. In both cases I undercoat black then mix up a 50/50 blend of tin bitz and brazen brass which I lightly dry brush over the entire model (infantry or vehicle, doesn’t matter one bit). This base metal coat does two things, firstly it brings out all of the detail making it easier to see and secondly it provides me with my filthy dark rusty base over which I can paint my colours.

For the infantry I picked out any flesh with goblin green over which I applied a thin green ink wash to bring back any details. The clothing was a combination of bubonic brown, blood red and bleached bone, which just left any weapons to pick out in boltgun metal.

For the vehicles, once my rusty base mix was complete I added a 70/30 mix of scab red and bestial brown over any armour panels, leaving a few areas here and there as the base metal undercoat. This was then highlighted by adding increasing amounts of blood red to the mix. To break up the uniform look of any Ork vehicles I randomly picked out occasional panels in either green, yellow, black or blue to give the army an even more rag-tag look. rivets and other metal details were painted chainmail or brazen brass and any glyphs were added at the end in skull white or yellow. This basic approach was used throughout the entire army on everything from Ork Boyz, to Guntrukks and Gargants.

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