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Ork Deathskull Waaagh! by piemaster

14K views 60 replies 19 participants last post by  piemaster 
#1 ·
This is a log of my Ork Deathskull warband.

Background notes:
They are all part of the Deathskulls clan and all sport looted imperial equipment. The three mobs that are painted I tried to give a rag-tag appearance with a limited colour pallet. The entire warband has the same basic colours and each squad has another unique colour (until I have more mobs than separate colours:grin:) - I put this down to different mobs looting from the same enemy squads, but different to the defeated squads looted by other mobs.

Anyway, I am in the middle of making Nobz from scratch. I don't have the money to buy a box of the buggers so boyz and plasticard aplenty for these guys!

I made plasticard additions to the soles of feet, the waist and at the arm-pits to give a raise of about 4-5mm. This marks them out from the rest of the boyz as will plenty of dakka and the like.

Photos (sorry for the shoddyness at times):

Left to right - 'proper' nob, 'DIY nob', boy



I'll have to fill in the waists with green stuff tomorrow and finish them off but for now they'll just have to wait. Oh and I threw a couple of bikes together as well a few months back...

Bigger exhaust...


That's it for now at least. I'll have to sexy up the shoota/rokkit launcher (Its actually a big shoota if I were to use it in game) as I got glue on it. I was making it twin linked in the extreme but it would have been too 'side heavy' so I took the second big shoota off. I'll have to glyph it up later on.

I realise the Nobz entry doesn't allow for big shootas - that's what the old codex is for. To hit people with and say things like "its so much better than the new one - I can't believe I paid good money for the new hunk of junk" and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, it has its uses... I just prefer the units in 3rd ed.

That's it folks. Thanks for reading this far. I'll reward those who did with occasional updates.
 
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#4 ·
Well this, certainly seems interesting. I like your Bikers alot, is that a Shotgun you used the lengthen the exhaust? Nevertheless, plus rep:victory:
 
#6 ·
Thanks guys for the comments and your enthusiasm in my project.

is that a Shotgun you used the lengthen the exhaust?
Its the muzzle of an ordinary shoota that I trimmed off and turned upside down. The bikes aren't all that converted really but sport imperial cannisters aplenty.

I forgot to post the picture of the Nobz' big shoota - sorry.

I trimmed off one of the rokkits (to be used later... never throw thingz away!) and added another shoota muzzle. I'll glyph it up on the square to the top-right of the drum magazine as poly cement melted it a-bit.

I'll green stuff it up today and perhaps be finished on this squad this evening. It was great working with plasticard but it took me >2 hours as I had to trace the appropriate sizes in pencil. Hopefully it'll be worth it.

Thanks for looking and if you guys have any suggestions on technique go ahead.:good:
 
#10 ·
@ Blackheart_101 - One step ahead of you my friend...




Da Krumpa got a bit damaged so I'm going to fix him up a bit (Basilisks are boys don't you know). I need to Orkify him more and do a better paint job but since its painted its at the bottom of the pile for now at least.

Thing is this isn't a new army for me. I've got ~700 points painted. I thought I'd post pics for fun really as I build the newer stuff.

I green stuffed the Nobz but ran out of time to finish them off for today. Normally I wouldn't post anything but since I was already takin' photos I thought I might as well. They've now got arms and heads. They need beefing up with shoulder pads (a few are going to have imperial tank tracks for shoulder pads and front armour plates:grin:) and accessorising.

They're packin' 2 big shootas, 2 w sluggas & ccw and 1 w 2 sluggas (power claw counts as choppa but looks cooler and more Nobish). I'll also plasticard some daggs onto various surfaces as well.




Don't know why he's got a chunk out of his leg missing. Its just the camera.

69 Reputation! Oh Yeah!!!
 
#12 · (Edited)
Howdy. I'm waiting on some bitz orders coming through and various tools so I decided to finish off most of my orks. I've got 45 slugga/shoota boyz. They're painted really basically as it takes me ages and I'm not too fond of painting, preferring modelling hands down.

Here are the boyz


All orks are deathskulls and have blue war paint to signify clan loyalty. Each squad has a unique colour ID. Mainly in the form of clothing and IG wargear.
This squad ran down a penal legion (read about it in some ork fluff somewhere and loved it)



Ultramarines shoulder pad - needs extra work but I might leave it. Not sure yet.


Various gunz and orkyness...



Nobz from the 16 boyz boxed sets back in the day. I didn't even know about plasticard so they're not any taller.





Let me know what you think and all that jazz. Hope you like 'em. I know they're not great but they're something at least anyway. I'd love to be able to showcase my miniatures for real and win awards but that's not going to happen for now at least. They just have to be finished and look ok.
 
#13 ·
I am going to go out on a limb here and offer some advice based on these last photos.

1: you need to apply more even coverage on the models. Take a look at the skin for example. It is very blotchy with black basecoat showing through. Take the time to do a couple of coats if needed to evenly cover the areas you are painting.

2: Thin your paints. Goes with the above advice as more layers will require thinner paint.

3: clean up areas that you have spilled on while painting a different area. This makes all the difference in the world, trust me.



You are off to a good start and you have the basic skill required for sure, now it is just a matter of applying some newer techniques to make your painting really pop out.
 
#14 ·
First, thanks for the advice.

The blotchy-ness on the skin might be due in part to the camera but also how I wanted them to turn out. I was going for a 'grubby' look. I used an undercoat of DA green and wanted it to show through in places but I realise it looks a little messy.

How do you thin paints? I always use them straight out of the bottle. Do you pour paint onto a pallet and then add whatever or do you add it to the bottle? Also what do you add to thin paints? I assume water but I honestly don't know. I suppose there is a thread that would tell me this.

I agree that there are some patchy areas where the brush has gone out of the lines. I'll have to look into that.
 
#15 ·
You can thin your paint by transferring some paint to a palette (tile, saucer) and then adding a drop of water. I usually use an old drybrush to transfer 2-3 drops of paint and then add a drop of water.
If you add too much water just wait a little. It'll dry a bit and the paint will be thicker again.

This probably needs some practice to get the hang of it since you mentioned you are used to painting straight out of the pot. You will probably find the paint very thin in the beginning.

Also, you might need to apply more than one layer to get a solid covering. Because thinned paint dries relatively easy the second layer can be applied right after the first, with the same batch of paint.

Give it a try. If you don't like it you can always go back to your current painting method.
 
#16 ·
Thanks for the advice Lumat:grin:
I'll give your suggestions a go. I've been trying my hands at thinning paints on my Tau (painting white over black is fun) to give me the layers I need. I'm going to go back to my Orks when I've tried more techniques and have more time during the day.
 
#18 ·
I had not seen this before. Nice work, there are some great conversions, ork weapons are so much fun. How many armies do you have? So far i see traitor guard,catachans and orks. Plenty of models in all of those.
 
#19 ·
Hey Shaantitus, thanks. They've been a little neglected for a bit but when university is over and done with perhaps I'll have more time to construct my very own Waaagh! As for how many armies I own? I'll count:
1 Space marine chapter of my own devising (my first paint job) 3kpts (not 5thed).
2 Cadians 2kish pts 4thed.
3 Catachans ~1500 3rded
4 Blood pact ~1k 4thed
5 Chaos SM 1500 4thed but may bump into 5th
6 Orks 700? 3rded but may bump into 5th
7 Imperial fleet 2K unpainted
That's about it. (Can you tell I don't like 5th all that much?) I've got some more as bitz stashed away that I'll give a haul over when I have time. I'm more of a collector you see, books and models mostly.

Anyway, I'll be giving my Orks an over haul in a couple of months when University is finished. I've been trying out different painting schemes that people have suggested and that I've seen here so we'll see how it turns out.
 
#21 ·
Update time!

I've now finished University so should have more time for the hobby. Over the past week I've painted 12 boys, 3 bikes, and some Imperial Guard.

Ork squad: Sorry for some dull photos.


Nob


I'm going to free-hand some imperial insignia. I'll probably go Black Templars or something.

Boys




Not sure how to do the grenades. I was thinking green or orange to make it eyecatching... What do you reckon?








Bikes - I got these in the battleforce box. Didn't plan on taking them but I painted them anyways. Deathskulls don't make bikes, they steal them. 2 bikes are evil suns and 1 is bad moon. The yellow is bright and the red is dull but I can always fix it later.



The yellow was a bitch to paint. I should have done white underneath - oh well. Its yellow now!









I really like how they've turned out. Much better than the earlier squad. I should get better with time but just wanted to show these babies off. I'll green wash them to blend the skin tones a bit better, then after that I'll do their eyes.

I've also been painting guard. I painted up an armoured fist squad and a priest. I've also been re-basing my guard army and next up is some necromunda.
 
#22 ·
So I built my Ork Trukk and did the first stages of painting those Nobz. The Trukk was a bitch to make. I raised the front chassis to accommodate larger wheels, but that meant shortening it a bit and that made a whole plethora of problems. I had to shorten teh crank shaft, gouge a bit out of the front area and the driver's seat. That sort of thing.

The big shoota howdah isn't glued in for easy of transportation and is fully swivel-able too. I added some plasticard to some areas to cover gaps and modelling errors which I then added rivvets (which aren't shown in the photos).
I'm going to paint it in Goff colours and then daub Deathskulls blue over it. Also plannin' on graffiti-ing 'SkullFang' somewhere on it as its my Warbosses' ride.

Anyway pics:







Here is where I had to alter the chassis. I'll smooth her up with gs later.


I went and painted some layers on my Nobz too:
I added a SM lascannon sight to this Nob as he is the hardest and gets the best gear.






I picked up some Enchanted Blue and am going to have a go of blending paints and whathaveyou to try and liven up the blue areas. Any advice is welcome. Wish me luck with wet blending.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Woop! Great to see another Deathskulls clan on the go! I'm currently working on a group of flash gitz (see project log somewhere on here) and a mega dredd to compliment what I have so far!

I have some pics on the gallery here so if you want any hints or tips painting up your dudes just holler, I'm always happy to help. :)

http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/5078

Keep it up mate, I'm up to about 5400 pts in total, about 1500 pts painted due to being too anal about even the most mundane model. Orks ftw!!!

Grins
:biggrin:
 
#24 ·
if you want any hints or tips painting up your dudes just holler, I'm always happy to help. :)
Noted. I'll likely give you a shout. I've been putting off the more 'advanced' techniques as I don't want to scupper them up.

Orks ftw!!!
Absolutely!

I've painted the Trukk up to that of the Goff clan (pics to follow on Thursday-ish) and am going to Deathskull-it-up later on in the week.
 
#27 ·
So I've finished the Nobz and am in the process of tidying up the trukk and adding iconography. I was going to simply daub glyphs onto the front end but I changed my mind.
Pics:


This translates as 'Property of Skullfang' - the second Glyph is the personal insignia glyph of my Warboss Skullfang. Cheers to everyone over in this thread for helping me decide glyphs to use.

Nobz:









I gave the blue areas a bit of a highlight with a mix of Ultramarines Blue (the base colour) and Enchanted Blue. Thanks to all of you deathskulls out there who helped me with choosing the lighter blue colour and the GW guy who told me about wet blending (which I then bastardised).

Ok, so maybe the Nobz aren't finished. I'm going to give 'em a once over with watered down DA green and maybe give 'em some more love. I wouldn't lavish as much attention on a squad normally but since they are dead 'ard and form the retinue for Skullfang I thought 'What the heck?'. Next up is Skullfang himself when I get paid.
 
#28 ·
Nice job with the skin tone but if I may make a suggestion: Devlan Mud is your best mate for some quick shading on the blue and yellow areas, water it down a little and it won't interfere with the base colours, just flow into the recesses. Also a couple of heavy layers of Gyphonne sepia will make the horns, teeth etc. look miles better
 
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