Nazdreg Commission

Alas, this one will not be painted by me, but I was recently commissioned to do a conversion of Nazdreg for a friend who plays Bad Moonz. The only problem of course is that almost everyone converts one out of Ghazgkhull, and thus they all end up looking very uniform, and very... Goff.

We decided to start with the Age of Sigmar Ironjaws Warboss, because the armour would seem more delicately shaped, and more 'teef paid for' than Big-G's very rough but durable gear.
(For those unaware, Ork money is, literally, their teeth. No dumber than bottlecaps!)

The left arm was chopped at the wrist (or just not assembled really) and replaced with a custom Klaw. In keeping with the 'more teef' idea, and to tie it in with Nazdreg's original model, this version has a Klaw with 5 fingers, rather than Big-G's rather typical 3. I did a square Iron Gob at the client's request, also to differentiate from Big G, and a single stikkbomb launcher, inspired by some old art of Nazdreg.

The head is off a Flash Git, turned to face the right direction, and hilariously, happens to be a head with no big teeth, almost as though Nazdreg is constantly getting rid of the oversized ones to pay for more flashy gear!

The right arm saw extensive conversion: Axe removed, replaced with a gun from a Mek, itself modified to be pistol-gripped, with an appropriate Bad Moonz symbol. The forearm is mostly untouched, but the upper arm is a complete putty resculpt from bicep to shoulder, including custom shoulderpad from plasticard and more Flash Gitz bits, as well as bass guitar strings.

Nazdreg's backside: More flash gitz bitz to make a crude power supply for this huge armour, snaking cables connecting upper and lower torso, and more mechanical gubbinz supporting the leg armour. You can also see the power feed down the right arm.

And my favourite part: the Klaw! Entirely plasticard and putty, it imitates the shape of any other Orky piece. I may put up some in-progress shots, but it's pretty straightforward: Fist-shaped box, festooned with sharp fingers, backed up by pistons, and rammed full of bizarre and arcane power leads back to the mysterious (fusion?) power source.

And there you have it! Quick and dirty Ork conversion, still with lots of room for fun and bizarre painting details. All in all I think he makes a nice contrast to Ghazghkull's angry striding, feels very Bad Moonz (Lookit' my Flashy Shoota!) and looks just a little bit fancier than just a regular megaboss! I'll put up painted pictures when I get them from the client, no idea when that'll be!

Ork Buggy 1 Painted*

*plus or minus a few details on the crew...

Here's pics of how it's looking painted!

First, after airbrush basecoats, some metalwork, and the first few layers on the Orks themselves. They're Kromlech and Spellcrow heads, a Kromlech driver body, and the Black Reach gunner. The gunner's magnetized to the post, the driver's not glued in at all.

You can also see the places I added plasticard to hide gaps or joins that didn't quite work.

 This is after much more work on the orks, rust and grime, dags, painted racing arrows, and a painted (orky style) front grill, with splattered paint bits. The tires have also had a bit of a paint job to clean them up.

A rear view! I've tried to rust up the deckplate realistically, and add metal bits mostly to places that would bear the most roughing up.

Here you can see how the orky skull paints up with some white, and the look of the one clean-ish section on the buggy: The Ultramarines panel! I figure it's made of some bizarre hybrid material that wouldn't rust with the same speed or severity as the rest of the buggy's random-scrap assembly. Only bits left are final details on the driver and gunner, some dust and grime from driving about (and maybe mud), and then a protective layer or two.

It's kind of visible once painted, but the fact that the buggy has been made out of wood shows up slightly. I've tried seeing if painting my second buggy with watered down craft glue will limit the amount of tooth, and how much paint it soaks up!

Next time, buggy number 2 assembled!

An Updated Orc Buggy

With access to a laser etcher comes great desire to create insane things. Right now I'm trying to work on Infinity-related terrain, which of course has to look all sleek and sci-fi. Unfortunately, laser etchers aren't good at doing curved or sleek material, and so to practice building things until I can achieve something like what I want, I've been doing another fun project: Ork buggies!

The ones sold by GW are very outdated, meh-looking, and overpriced. Many other companies do a version, but they're often solid resin blocks which puts them even more expensive. I wanted to see if I could craft one out of basswood, partly to test my ability to make 3d objects, but also partly in case gorkamorka starts up again!

After a mis-step with scale, and an outcome that looked more trukk than buggy, I managed this:

Proper mad, proper orky!

The driver's Kromlech, the gunner's from a 40k starter, but otherwise it's all lasercut!There were a few lines that didn't quite match, but again that's why I started with Ork vehicles: if something doesn't quite work, it's because the Orks built it that way, not because I messed up... right?

I went for a typical looking roadster: tombstone front, enclosed engine until I can work out the V8 look in card, and funky custom wheels that worked way better than I could have hoped.

Sorry for the blur, pretend they're speed lines!

I have a weird rule with my Ork vehicles in that they all need to have some element of them that's directly ripped from the Ultramarines. This is because as a child, and fan of the Dark Angels, I was frustrated that all artwork on any Space Marine box was the boys in blue. Also, any painting guides, most prevalent decals... So now, as a small way to claim vengeance, my Orks clearly smashed an Ultramarine force some time back and the meks have been scavenging ever since. (It helps that Orks revere the colour blue as lucky, so there's even lore justification!) Also visible in this angle is the deckplate, and rear ladder of sorts to get up on it.You can see there's a few places where the lines didn't quite gel, but the advantage is then being able to go back and measure and adjust files.

Also fun was adding a few orky glyphs to the side, to help when I got around to painting this. Here you can really see where some of the lines didn't quite work, including at the front where, if I'd been paying attention, I could have just done a solid piece from nose to behind the driver without any need for separate pieces! Barely visible is the fact that this Ork gunner is magnetized to the firing post, allowing him to be removed in transport and adjusted to fire different directions.

I like that one of the glyphs the Orks like to use is an arrow, which while I know it's meant to represent speed, really just look like they need a reminder which way it drives!

On this you can see the driver's step, which is essentially just the plug to make the side plate stay on, expanded slightly to hide its original purpose. Right behind is a plate without that, and I'll have to look for a way to make it make more sense.

And a final top-down shot of the whole buggy! It's almost identically the same size as the original GW one, except for height. For some reason the hood plates didn't entirely line up, but otherwise I was very happy with the way it turned out, especially with it being my first attempt at something truly a model, and not just tokens or similar!

Soon, painted pics, and my second attempt at a buggy. Also, Mad Max style cars!