I never thought I'd do it again

Meet Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. I've painted him

 before (the guy on the right). That is the model from

 the 90's, but why did I feel the need to supplement 

with buying the brand new version? Yep, they are the

 same Ork. Something to do with Orks getting a lot 

bigger if they survive long enough to live a long life. 

Well, no I am not taking up 40K again after a many year hiatus. I still think the new modern game is no longer in the spirit of what I discovered back in the 90's. I kind of accidently made this army.

It all started with finding a bargain, a handful of modern Orks were looking like a bargain in one of those bit part magazines. So, I bought a few just for the painting exercise. Instead of painting in a classic Goblin Green, I thought I would try a modern colour scheme. 

It was fun, so I bought a few more, until I had four squads of ten.

After all, I had to try the other options out for combinations of weapons.

They were super fun to paint. A base coat of Orruk Flesh (Orruk? I mean really? Orks people, Orks. It's bad enough they changed it to a K rather than a C) With a wash over of Plaguebearer Flesh on top makes a great looking modern Ork flesh look. The rest was just colouring in the details of their clothes and weapons. Finding and painting all those teeth (some not in the mouth) was the tricky bit.

Well, I had made a start now, next I got some Deffkopta's as they looked fun too. It gave me a chance to try out some free hand checker pattern work.

So now I practically had the beginning of a small army, I felt like I had to continue. The Dreadnought was a bit tricky as it was split between two issues of the magazine. I don't subscribe so it was a risk buying part one as there was no guarantee I would get part two. Luckily, the super helpful staff at my local WHSmiths put the issue to one side for me and I could finish the dread.

Well, we are nearly there at this point. So I had a delve through my other boxes and found a reasonably modern Ork with a big gun that I had picked up in a job lot of older Orks recently. I just needed to repaint the base as it was a lovely Goblin Green.

Of course, no Ork army is complete without some Grots to be bullied, so we needed a couple of Orks to encourage them forward. The kit has two different build options, so I had to do them both. I love the pet Squig.

Grots are one of the best inventions in the GW lore. I feel for the poor little underdogs. I highly recommend reading the Mike Brooks Ork trilogy of novels, it gives you an insight into just how poorly treated they are, those poor Grots.

The variety in the models isn't huge, some are monopose and the rest only have one choice of arms, but you do get to choose which heads go on some bodies. 

So, I had an army. As I said I'm not intending on playing 40k any time soon, I'm going to use something like Xenos Rampant, or possibly One Page Rules (someone at the club wants to give it a go.) But an army needs a leader, so that is why I felt the definite and compulsory need to get the new Ghazghkull. His little friend Makari has not grown much in stature over the years, but the rumour is it isn't actually the same guy (they just keep the same name to avoid upsetting the Boss.)

I've worked out I have around 2000 points worth for One Page Rules so I think that will be plenty for now. This has been a fun exercise in modern style but I do miss the Goblin Green bases. (I will not miss building kits that have over 40 parts for one model!)