Greetings Terrans, I hope this finds you well! I have more Wolf Time goodness to share today, and it’s a fairly long post, so grab a coffee & strap in!
First up I have more PA ork guards to show you – very similar to my last post, these guys all have the armour, (and in some cases arms), sculpted over an original metal Ork. You’ll probably notice that there are only eight in this group – don’t worry, I haven’t gone mad… these guys are posted singly on the top floor of Kulo’s Castle rather than formed up in squads on the lower level:
So far so good, right? However, only having eight of these guys was bothering me… There will be life, (and games), after Wolf Time, and not having full five-Ork squads is just irritating, so I decided to tackle two more PA Orks at the same time & paint them with future squad membership in mind. Looking back over the campaign, games 1, 2 & 3 all have a named Ork leader, and all of them are in Power Armour. Long story short, I picked the two that best fit in with the PA ork guards and painted them accordingly. I reckon these guys were causing trouble at HQ, so Governor Kulo posted them to the remote stations to get them out of the way… (Governor Kulo is a paranoid Ork – insecure in his leadership and seeing plots everywhere… often with good reason!)
So first up we have Alug – he’s the Ork in charge of Station 1:
From the Book of the Astronomican: “Alug is a neurotic Ork with a mean streak as wide as a highway. He dislikes the technicians, or ‘boffins’ as he contemptuously calls them. When the attack begins, Alug is sulking in his hut. He is armed and equipped as follows:
Power armour. Heavy Bolter. Hand Flamer. 2 suspensors (to off-set weight of bolter)”
Alug is a pretty straight forward loadout – I used one of the classic PA Orks, and did some light conversion work on the weapons to make the Bolter look ‘heavy’, and to turn the weird pointy-finger gun into something that looks like it could be a flamer… It’s not just the Jokaero that can make digital weapons! A fuel tank was added around back to sell the finger-flamer idea further:
And here’s Alug with his bros from the Castle:
Next up we have Kalug – the boss for Station Three:
“Kalug was originally an engineer with the Ork fleet and still prides himself on his technical expertise. As the game begins, Commander Kalug is engaged in one of his favourite pastimes: taking “Sally” (his specially modified heavy plasma gun) apart and trying to put it back together again. Unfortunately, Kalug hasn’t quite worked out how to perform this complicated operation…
The weapon cannot be used until it has been reassembled. To reassemble the weapon successfully, Kalug must spend the whole turn in his hut. At the end of the turn, roll 1D6. If you score a 6, Kalug has managed to get Sally back together. Kalug can spend as many turns as you wish trying to reassemble his weapon, roll at the end of each turn to determine success. Kalug is armed and equipped as follows:
Power armour. Bolt gun. Bolt pistol. Chainsword.
Plus
Heavy plasma gun (‘Sally’). 4 suspensors to off-set weight. Targeter.”
So Kalug is a bit more complicated than Alug – not least because the Ork player can choose whether to keep trying for that 6 and play him with ‘Sally’, or can skip it & just get him into the fight without the big gun…
I started with another classic PA Ork and modelled him without the heavy plasma, just converting him to carry a chainsword & sculpting on a snazzy bolt pistol:
I then converted a Gretchin to carry ‘Sally’ – a fun little addition, that allows me the flexibility to play him with or without the big girl:
Interesting point – I recently had a conversation with Wudugast about plasma guns having drilled barrels or focusing lenses. This old gun certainly looked like it was intended to have a lens of some sort, so I painted it as such.
Anyhow, here’s Kalug with his castle-based cronies:
Having painted up Alug and Kalug, I couldn’t very well leave out the third field commander could I! So here he is – Zymot Thrallgash, the Commander of Station 2:
“Zymot is dead keen on “technoll’ji” and spends hours looking over the shoulders of the technicians. He likes to surround himself with all manner of gadgets, flashing lights and the latest in Ork know-what. When the attack begins, Zymot is in the generator room getting in the way of the technicians and asking helpful questions like “What happens if it blows up then?” Zymot arms and equipment are as follows:
Power armour. Conversion field. Plasma gun with targeter. Hand flamer. Power glove. Jump-pack.”
Zymot has quite a tricky loadout, and was probably the most involved conversion of the three field commanders. I again started with a classic PA Ork, and added a resin jump pack from Spellcrow (ironically, a Space Wolves item that they chucked in for free with another order). I changed his main gun for a plasma piece & cabled that to his eye (targeter), and also added to the detail sculpted on the back of the power glove to make it look more flamer-like:
Completing Alug, Zymot and Kalug is a cool milestone in the project, as I can now field all the Ork forces from games 1, 2 & 3! I’ve been looking forward to being able to say that for quite a while, so I thought I’d mark the occasion with some team photos:
Game 1 – Alug & co.
Game 2 – Zymot & co.
Game 3 – Kalug & co.
Phew, that’s it for this week, that just leaves me with the named characters from Kulo’s Castle to paint, and the Orks are done! I’ll hopefully make some good progress this week, and of course, it’s Salute on the weekend… Exciting times! Catch you all soon dudes, be excellent to each other :-)
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