The Waaagh of a Thousand Tribes
These are my Warhammer 40K Orks. They are low-budget freebooters from every clan under a thousand suns, which is in keeping with my low-budget efforts to put them together and play this rather expensive game. My sons have gotten me involved in army building while I'm entertained by the modelling challenges it presents. This page documents my modeling efforts while another documents the Waaagh itself.
It's no fun to just buy a bunch of minis, glue 'em together, and bash it out at the gaming table... ya gotta come to the table with style... with an army that makes folks, wandering by, wanna stop and pick up each piece to look at it. Orks have the greatest potential to create that pull. With their wacky equipment and beserker style they lend themselves to all manner of customization. There is nothing uniform about an Ork army. Every last boy can be a unique piece.
So, to start I had a sizeable pro-painted contingent of 1980's vintage Orks, "loaned" to me by an old friend and virtually no cash to build them up to current standards (which was 3rd ed. codex at the time). Fortunately the rules were forgiving enough and the Orks non-standard enough for me to "counts as" most of the old pieces to have a 1000 point army to start. Then it was off to eBay to start beefing up the Waaagh and building toward 2000 points. Well, I made it to almost 2500 when the 4th edition codex came out and suddenly Orks were cheaper and I was back down to less than 2K.
My Waaagh is currently over 3000 points and I'm looking to add Apocalypse units now. The Waaagh of a Thousand Tribes is growing!
![]() | Tankbusta Nob. Experienced modellers will see what a crap job this is but it's my first attempt at a major mod. |
Squighound. This is my first squighound. Here he is with his green stuff showing. His mouth and chin are a former WHFB Ork head flipped over and shaped. The legs are Ork Boy legs carved down a bit. | ![]() |
![]() | Squiggy on the painting table. |
Nearly complete, painted and based. | ![]() |
![]() | Finshed squighound. Final thin coat of gloss, to give him that "just crawled out" look. |
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![]() | Orky goodness. 3 more Boyz resurrected from the bits box. This includes the Ork Sharpshooter (hehehe). |
All these boyz have some sort of mod. Everything from putting choppas in gun hands, to making a slugga from a cut down shoota, to the repositioning of hands. The wound on the face of the rightmost slugga boy was a clever way to cover up an ugly glob of glue that marred this head. Amazing what working from the bits box will inspire you to do. | ![]() |
![]() | Warboss. Da boyz need a boss an' 'ere's da Ork wots doin' da job. |
Banna Nob. Accompanying the Warboss is his trusty Waaagh Banna wavin nob. | ![]() |
![]() | Nobz. Members of the Warboss' retinue. |
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![]() | Rokkit Nob. Another of the Warboss' retinue. This one has a combi-Shoota/Rokkit. |
Conversions on this guy are the Rokkit, the stub of a bosspole and his axe. You can't really see it in the picture but the axe is cobbled together from two. | ![]() |
![]() | This is, of course, my new favorite piece. My latest piece always is. |
I am particularly fond of his checked shirt. | ![]() |
![]() | Slugga Nobz. There are no pony-tails in my Ork army. Period. Don't like'm, they look silly. Of course, it's a shame to waste good pewter, so the pony-tail from one Nob head ends up as a tassle on another Nob's axe. |
Nob on the right has the obligatory "dead head" from the ork bitz sprue. | ![]() |
![]() | Nob on the right is supposed to have a blood spatters on his axe arm and shoulder plate. I can't quite decide if I succeeded in making it believable. These guys were finished in November 2005. |
Meat shield. 20 old-style grotz with a slaver (converted from a very old boy) and his squighound (see detailed pictures above). | ![]() |
![]() | Kannon. Kitbash kannon... the chassis and wheels are standard Games-workshop parts. The rest is bitz of plastic and a pen body for a barrel. The crew are converted from some very old grotz. |
Annuva Kannon. Dead boring, bog standard, out-of-the-box Game-workshop Kannon with crew. Ho-hum. Got another one too, to round out the battery at 3 gunz. | ![]() |
![]() | Zzap Gunz. My battery of ZZapz with crew, Mek and 'is 3 oilerz. |
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![]() | Ammo runtz. |
Just a couple of ammo runtz I cobbled together from bitz and old grotz. | ![]() |
![]() | Stormboyz. Zaglord Buggutz an' da Flyboyz. |
Squigward. My second squighound. | ![]() |
![]() | Big Mek Boomdakka. |
Busta Fraggitz and the Red Stripiez Tankbustas mob. | ![]() |
![]() | Scarpia's mekboy kontest. |
Red squighound. Done December 2006. The color scheme was suggested by Aaron. I think it was a good choice. | ![]() |
![]() | Green squighound. Done December 2006. This guy is one of my all-time favorites. I think the paint job came out quite well. |
Hammer Class Kroozer for BFG. | ![]() |
![]() | Dim Reapa's Movie Ork Kontest. |
Lootaz. 3rd ed. finished and then canned because of the 4th ed. Codex. | ![]() |
![]() | Skarboyz. This project has been restructured because of the new Codex. These guys will make up a Nobz Mob (or two). |
Gaf-naz's Ork Town Kompetition. | ![]() |
![]() | Mr. TaterDread. A project for The Waaagh Sekret Santa. |
Skorcha Trakz for my Rebel Grotz | ![]() |
![]() | Kommandoz. |
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![]() | Carry case for my army. Since plain cardboard is boring, I decided to Ork it up a bit. |
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![]() | Carry case for my BFG fleet. |
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![]() | Tape Measure Extreme Edition. Someone on The Waaagh made his tape measure unique so it wouldn't get picked up by someone else at his LGS. Seemed like a good idea to me! |
Tape Measure Round Two. Nosher of The Waaagh asked me to make him one like mine with his Waaagh insignia on it, and so it was done. | ![]() |
![]() | Big Shoota Boy. |
New Lootaz for 4th Ed. | ![]() |
![]() | Objective Markers |
Big shoota boy, Runtherd, and Painboy. | ![]() |
![]() | Done for various mobs as my July '08 painting threat. |
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![]() | Kannon. |
With the 4th ed. Codex the boost to BS3 (yeah grotz!) makes Kannon respectable weapons. | ![]() |
![]() | I have taken to putting one crew on the gun base. Elimination of the last one of either will remove the unit. And now, meks can't even repair the gunz any more... |
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![]() | Burnaboy. |
This guy was originally intended to be a skarboy with a burna for the old codex. | ![]() |
![]() | With the new codex skarboyz have become Nobz Mobz and they can't take burnaz. |
So I reckon he'll end up as a Big Mek. | ![]() |
![]() | Sekret Santa '08 on The Waaagh. |
Big Mek with Shokk attack gun. | ![]() |
![]() | Who can resist fielding one of these? While they are as much danger to themselves as others, they are dirt cheap. |
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![]() | Shootaz Mob |
Finished August 2008. A number of the ladz and the Nob were done earlier. | ![]() |
![]() | Mad Grot Docsnik. This is my handle on The Waaagh, of course. This mini was created by Hakbash as part of the Ladz of The Waaagh thread. |
Gaf-naz's Ork Town Kompetition Round II. | ![]() |
![]() | Turbosquig. This guy was built as a trade to another Ork who plays Speed Freaks. |
Fightabomma. | ![]() |
![]() | Ork Hovels. I did up a couple quick buildings for the coming Orkfest because we weren't sure we'd have enough buildings to cover the Ork Town table. |
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![]() | Sekret Santa '09 on The Waaagh. |
Krooza Battlefortress Project | ![]() |
![]() | Goff attack squig. |
Invalid Warboss Bob | ![]() |