Model Showcase: Ork Stormboyz

Lots of bitz to choose from to make things go fasta!
After finally getting into painting GW minis, I figured out pretty quickly that I loved the idea of the Orks. Fluff or no, I always thought of them as the bumbling oafs of the Warhammer world, just as likely to die in a grocery shopping accident as war. This image in my head made me instantly fall in love with the species, and I figured if I ever had an actual army, it would be orkz.

So, I decided to try my hand at the Stormboyz first. No real reason, just because. Gathered a few of them up and started planning which heads, weapons, and rocket packs would go with who...and during the process, realized, hey...I need to do something cool with these guys.

So, thinking on it, I decided that the way they attach to the base was "off." It is basically a piece of junk attached to each ork foot that gives the impression that they're flying, but they're still touching ground, technically. I figured, let's work on actually making them fly. In fact, one of their legs was so attached to the bit that went on the base that I just severed the whole leg and gave him a peg leg for variety's sake (pictured last at the bottom).

I snipped off a small three inch piece of steel rod and drilled into each backpack, and into each base. If you look at the picture, you can see I "cantilevered" the rods and bases, so that the weight of the figure was still actually supported in the middle of the base, instead of off to the back or front, making them unstable.

 

I then sprayed a small disposable cup full of that expanding foam you get at your local hardware store, and using a toothpick, slowly applied a small amount to the steel rod, a drip at a time. I'd let it all set for a few hours, them do it again in places it needed filling, and used larger drips on the base as well.

To make the smoke/flame effect, I sprayed the whole "blast" from the bottom with black paint. I then flipped it over, and did increasingly "redder" colors, starting with yellow at the top, then adding orange, and eventually red to give it a "glow."

After that, it was lots of greens and reds. Trying to figure out what to paint what color on these is the most time consuming part! I then got a small old brush and stipple painted metal colors all over places that would show natural wear, and them went back over those spots with some brown washes and other ugly brown paints for rust effects.  I also drilled out the barrels of all the guns with a pin vise.

I created the checker board pattern by slicing up very small strips of masking tape, then airbrushing red or white over the black.

I was most proud of the "chrome" sunglasses on one of them, as I'd never tried that style of over-the-top effect before. I'd always just used real chrome paint.

I've transported these a few times, and I've discovered the expanding foam doesn't take paint very well. You might see a few places where its cracked a bit, so eventually I will touch those up. I might try spraying them with a clear primer next time instead of straight black and see if that helps.

This army also won the "Best Squad" award at a local contest, pictured at the top with the trophy.