Orruk Ardboys can proudly (and loudly) join my Greenskin horde

When I started unpacking my Greenskin project box in September last year (end of post) I expected to put most of it back in the box by the end of the month. Now I can happily state that this didn't happen. This weekend I've managed to finish a last serious bunch of Greenskins waiting for paint. The group on the trail end of my enthusiasm was a mob of twenty metal and plastic Black Orcs Orruk Ardboys. As a member of my local gaming club organised a painting day this weekend, I decided to bring this lot. I figured that getting stuck with these boyz and nothing else to do but chat and paint would work wonders. It did (although I had to finish them up on Sunday).

Two bands of Orruk 'Ardboyz stand ready to kill, maim and destroy.

For those of you counting along, yes it is a group of thirty. A few years ago I painted a group of seven metal and plastic Orruk Ardboys I found in a lot. This unit consisted of a banner bearer, a musician, five dual weapon wielders and three two-handed weapon wielders. This mix of weapons didn't matter in the old rules. Since Black Orcs became Ironjaw Orruk Ardboys, the load-out does matter. With the addition of ten more metal models and a box of plastic models I could split the lot in a unit of ten two-handed weapon wielders and a unit of twenty dual weapon wielders.

I added a last minute dab of Balthasar Gold to the Boss's shoulder pad as I recall having trouble remembering who was in charge in the unit.

Unfortunately the plastic box has not been designed to reflect these choices. The two-handed weapons are in short supply and only fit one of the body stances in the box. I also discovered a number of metal heads had gone missing over time. I solved the missing head problem by using plastic heads from the Black Orc kit, a few from 40K Nobs and a couple of leftover parts from the Orruk Brutes I assembled earlier (not quite up to scale, but it fits well enough). The stances required a bit of extra converting.

I'll write the red stripe on the drummer's helmet off as a mistake.

I rather enjoy sticking as many unhelmed heads in a unit as I have available. It adds character and (hopefully) distracts from the fact that my paintwork for units is a formulaic, conveyor belt type afair (and a bit sloppy). Besides that, nothing screams "I defy death," louder then taking off your helmet on a swords and arrows battlefield.

The head on this Orruk Ardboy is from the Orruk Brute kits, I think it works quite nicely on these models.

Another thing I actually cut of most other models, but allow my Orruks to get away with, is horned helmets. Yes it is a foolish look, but this is not an army of rocket scientists. Having the entire lot compete to see who can add the most (and biggest) horns on their helm, seems like 'just the thing' for Orruks.

I like the bare-headed ork in the back waving his two swords about (on a body actually better suited to holding a two-handed weapon).

As I was gluing the models together I thought the combinations on the plastic models where getting too repetitive. As I was working with metal models as well (where the problem of repetition in models is a bit more acute) I started using bits from all over. A number of these Orruks are wielding 40K swords and axes. All it took was cutting obvious bolts off, and it works fine for a fantasy setting. By the same measure I cut and glued quite a lot of Brute two-handed axe and sword blades to the two-handed weapon wielders to get a bit more variety there.

Off to the right and not quite as visible as I would've liked it is an Orruk with a wonderfully grumpy 40K head. 

One last thing I started doing a few years ago is painting the lower lip of the Orruks a skin color pink. I think the old school purple is just a bit too much, but adding a dab of color to the otherwise green faces does wonders to accentuate Orruk faces (I think). To round off I snipped the tabs of the metal models (with a wink and a grin to the silly 'these things belong in a museum' collector types) and glued the entire unit to painted and prepared 32mm bases with PVA. I ended up painting the rims of the 'original ten's' bases as I hadn't done that yet. With this I finished my lot of thirty Orruk 'Arboyz. Now to wrap things up I decided to take a quick 'proud&bragging' shot of all the Greenskin models I took out of my project box in September of last year. They went from various (colorless) states of disrepair and have been painted now.

That's a nice bunch of models I no longer have to feel the vague 'I never painted them' shame about when I walk around my lead and plastic piles. 

Going by the 2017 General's Handbook that is 3,340 points worth of Greenskins. A bit more then I can field for a regular Wednesday night gaming club game. I think I should declare my painting slump officially over. I also think I don't need to finish the two giants Aleguzzler Gargants that form the rearguard of my 'let's paint as much from the project box as I can' ambition. But not painting those to as they are not really needed would involve rational thinking, not really useful in this hobby ;)