 GHAZGHKULL'S ORKS - KULT OF SPEED Ork Speed Freaks, collectively known as a ‘Kult of Speed’ formation are a fast hitting formation, albeit with a weakness of light armour. They are a great way of outflanking slower moving formations or disrupting enemy defences with their fast moving Buggies and Wartraks. Upgraded with a few Skorcha units Speed Freaks can be a very useful mob to have in an Ork army.
Like Warbands and Blitz Brigades, Speed Freak formations can be fielded in three basic sizes even before any upgrades are added. For my own formation I have started with a basic ‘Kult of Speed’ to which I have added a few upgrades, later on I will expand the force to a ‘Big’ Mob by adding in a few more Buggies. I started the formation by fishing out a random assortment of Buggies and Wartraks from my bitz boxes which I then stuck onto a 20mm x 20mm base (or slightly larger in the case of the Skorchas). Even if you don’t normally like basing vehicles I would recommend basing Buggies and Wartraks as their tiny size can be a nuisance to move around the gaming table otherwise. Once I had based and textured each of the buggies I undercoated them with a black primer and then painted them in a variety of effects from base metal to red or yellow armour and markings. A little static grass was also stuck onto the bases with PVA glue to add a little more variety in the base itself. I initially added in a few Guntrukks to give the mob some extra punch, but after a few games I found that the slower moving vehicles slowed down the formation too much and negated the benefit of the smaller buggies speed. Instead I added a few units of Deth Kopta’s as they were able to keep up with the buggies and also fitted better the background of Ghazghkull’s invasion force. More on those at a later date though. As a preference I find larger Speed Freak formations are a lot more effective as they can sustain a few casualties and blast markers from at least a round or two of fire and still be able to fight back. Smaller formations however, although cheaper I have found can be a little fragile in the face of a persistent of ‘shooty’ foe, like the Imperial Guard. Of course, two Kults of Speed’ can be twice as distracting, hoomies beware!
Specialist Formations: Kult of Speed Warband.
The Speed Freeks army list is the first of the army specific tournament lists to be added to those already in the Epic Armageddon Rulebook and was published in White Dwarf Magazine. Focusing on the exiled Speed Freeks and Bad Meks of the Burning Death, Speed Freek armies are very mobile and ideal at launching ‘hit and run’ raids from their numerous Warbikes and Trukks. Unlike the ‘Kult of Speed’ formation featured above which is taken from the standard Ork Tournament List, Speed Freek armies are led by a Mekboy Bad Ork Bikeboy as opposed to a Warboss. Speed Freek armies introduce three new Ork units; the aforementioned Mekboy Bad Ork Bikeboy, Ork Trukk and Mek Speedsta. These units are specific to the Speed Freeks list and cannot be used in a tournament in anything other than a Speed Freek army. Of course, if you are putting together a campaign of your own then a small Speed Freek force would make an ideal starting point for an ‘Ambush’ or ‘Convoy Raid’ Scenario. Modelling and Painting Speed Freeks. For full details on the new units you will need a copy of the Speed Freek Tournament Army List, which is published in White Dwarf Magazine and a handful of models, most noticeably Ork Warbikes and Buggies. As Trukks are the predominant transport for Speed Freek Boyz, it seemed a good starting point to round up a selection of Buggies for conversion. Creating Trukks is very simple, all you need to do is omit the gunner from a buggy and fill in the hole at the back where the gun would normally sit. If you want to go a stage further a few Ork Boyz, or better still Madboyz if you have them can be stuck onto the back of the Trukk. If you want to go a stage further you can use plastic card to convert the buggy chassis into a Trukk just like the ones I have shown here. These are not as difficult as would first appear and only involve a few strips of plastic card and a sharp craft knife. In this instance I added the flooring of the Trukk first and then the front and side panels in that order. Further banding and surface detail was then added afterwards to roughly match the 40K scale version.
Every Speed Freek army is led by a Mekboy Bad Ork Biker, the exiled leader of the roving warband. This unit is free, but must be taken by at least one formation in the army. To create the Boss Mek I simply added the top half of an Ork Nob to the lower torso on an Ork Warbike. The right arm Power Claw was removed and arm resculpted to match the bike. As a final touch I removed the Warbikes plastic base with a craft knife and positioned the Mek dynamically pulling a wheelie to help the model stand out. At some stage in the future I will replace the current Bad Ork Mek with something more appropriate, such as Wazzdakka Gutsmek, but that will have to wait for another update. Although many Speed Freeks naturally come from the Evil Sunz Ork Clan (although not all), I kept the colours to a brighter red than I would usually do and made sure the trademark yellow flames were painted at least somewhere onto the vehicles. To make up the bright red I initially drybrushed the Trukks and Mek Speedsta with a mix of Brazen Brass, Tin Bitz and Bestial Brown. I then painted the areas I wanted to be red in neat Terracotta Red. By adding increasing amounts of Blood Red to the Terracotta I built up the highlights until a final highlight of Blazing Orange was added along any edges to finish. For the flames I initially painted then wavy lines of Bleached Bone over which Sunburst Yellow was added. If you want a fast moving force then there is little in the game as fast as the Speed Freeks, however it comes at the cost of a reduction in the number of units available to choose from. For my own Speed Freeks I will most likely keep the army small and contained to only a handful of formations for special scenarios. In the meantime however its back to painting and a step up in pace for the Speed Freeks. Next up Fighta Bommas and the Ork air assault. Enjoy. More Ork Horde Formations. | Warbands and Guntrukks | Ork Aircraft | Stompa Mob | Ork Landas | Gargants | Ancient Gargant | |
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At
first glance the Trukk looks very small compared to the
Battlewagons and Gun Trukks, but bear in mind they can only
carry a half dozen Orks and the 40K scale Trukk isn’t much
larger than a Buggy when you actually look at them side by side.
To kick of the start of my Speed Freek army I have created four
Trukks, the minimum number in a Speed Freek Warband. If you are
going to create an army of any decent size then you are likely
going to require a lot of Trukks, so bear that in mind when
deciding what to use or convert.