So with me being away for the last two weeks now I’ve not had any time for any hobby at all this week but I still wanted to bring you what I hope is a bit of light hearted reading on a Saturday morning. My solution has been to take a few pictures of some of my 40k orks and have a bit of nostalgia trip but to also explain how these creations came into being. As I’ve said before it’s the fluff of 40k that has always attracted me and it’s that fluff that is responsible for the odd ball creations. But before I get to the models I need to set the scene, so get a brew and biscuit and settle down for what I hope is real classic waffle.
It all started with a previous 40K edition change when Orks lost the ability to actually look vehicles form other forces. I’m showing my age there. But this had a big impact for me as I had a looted Basilisk that fired grot bombs and at the time I was really good at guessing range so it was a really effective weapon for me. As a result of this my Warboss was known as ‘Grotlooba’ Any way it was gone and I carried on happily playing, developing my painting and modelling as I went. The I got to a stage where I was looking to update my army but wasn’t sure which direction to go in. In steps fate because this was the time that Forgeworld had the Runt Bot as the open day model so I picked one of these up and the reign of the new Grotlobba was born even if the old Grotlobba didn’t know it, and for any one who’s interested he was converted Gazgul model. You see having a robot controlled by a Grot as your Warboss for me needed a good back story. The fact that it’s just a really cool model as enough reason to use it but I wanted to be able to really make it feel right in the story not just look cool. So this is what I came up with.
One of the unfortunate grot bomb ‘volunteer’ pilots was actually a genius grot rigger who had simple had one to many squig ales the night before. Waking to find himself strapped into a grot bomb seconds before launch. Now being the genius he was whilst he couldn’t prevent the launch he did manage to find a way to actually land his grot bomb and escape with his life. Outraged at the way he had been treated this lowly rigger started plotting his revenge. Knowing he couldn’t take on the warboss on his own he put his talents to use building a force that do the hard work for him and overcome the two problems he had. First he had to get rid of Grotlobba and then he had to take his place.
To deal with the first problem he sought inspiration from the sneaky killer that was Boss Snikrot and designed a mechanical wonder that he labelled his ‘sneakbot’. Designed to be a silent robotic killer with the sole purpose of eliminating ‘Grotlobba’ so he could be replaced.
So with seakbot ready how do you replace a Warboss and get all ‘da boyz’ to actually follow him. Easy to get a bigger badder boss to take his place. In this this case the runt bot controlled by our disgruntled grot. Which brings me nicely onto to my first picture for this week. This is my converted Forge World Runt Bot.
With my Warboss in place I needed a squad of Boyz to go with him but couldn’t find anything that had the same mechanical feel. Now if Kromlechs Juggernaut Mecha-Armours had been out at the time I think I would have gone with them but as turned out I made my own Grot Bots. With the exception of the weapons these are completely scratch built which is something I’m really proud of. My plan was to make a lot more but to date I’ve never got passed this first squad. But who knows if I get back into the game I could make more.
This was enough for our disgruntled grot to take control and become the first every grot warboss. Not that any of the boyz actually realised the new bad ass warboss was anything other than the old boss in some really cool, and ard armour. But he couldn’t stand still and need to bring in a bit more shock ‘n’ awe and what better way to do this than with a ‘shokka attack gun’. But not just any shokka attack gun. Oh no this one also needed to be mounted on a robot that our new power hungry grot could control. So he ended up creating a new bigger and better shokka attack gun than any Big Mek had every dared to create.
Next up on race for control and self-preservation was some meaty close combat support. But not just any run of the mill close combat stuff here. Oh now what we have here are drop capable ‘Storm Kanz’. Ready to drop into the midst of any fight and beat the living daylights out of the whatever’s in front of them. Essentially just a couple of big engines strapped to the sides of a Kan and piloted by a grot with grudge. Problem solved.
The last one for this week is a much more conventional Deff Dread. Well when I say conventional what I really mean is that it doesn’t fly and it carries the standard four weapon configuration. But that’s about all that is conventional about this one. It is probably my favourite conversion because it so odd ball but at the same time there is no mistaking what it is. I think it really does follow the WISIWIG rule whilst at the same time looking nothing like it’s official GW counterpart. In order to get a better view of the battle field and not because he felt vertically challenged or grot genius decided to go up instead of out. This resulted in the ‘Bendy Dread’. Essentially three killa kanz stacked on top of each other perched on a mono wheel so it can speed across the battle field. The real genius of this design is that the erratic movements required to keep it upright and going forward make it almost impossible for anyone to target it. Then once it gets into the thick of the fight even the most skilled opponent can’t predict it’s movements as it and its crew have no idea what it will do next.
And with that I’m going to bring this week’s waffle to an end. I now all the images this week have been recycled but I think it’s the first time I’ve put all the thinking behind the models down in one place, other than the scattered notes in my note book. I hope It’s entertained you all and if I’m really lucky I hope it’s inspired you to think about a back story for your own models, whatever you are playing.
Until next week have a good weekend and I hope to catch up with all again next week. Although at the moment I’ve no idea at the moment what I will have the way in the way of content.
