Epic Orks: "Special Forces" and Gargants

[This was my tenth entry for the Fifth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, reposted here for folks not following that blog.]

My Epic40K project rolls on...


The Epic 40K Ork project cannot be stopped! Waaagh!

First up, the support units for my Blood Axes clan. As befits the clan's much more organized, militarized ethos, these are primarily what you might call the "special forces" of the Orky military: Stormboyz and Kommandos.

Stormboyz are essentially Ork copies of Assault Marines:

Of course, being Orks, the jetpacks have to be ludicrously oversized. But hey, that's part of the charm, right?

(After posting this entry on the Painting Challenge blog, Challenge organizer Curt gave me the idea of having some or all of these guys launching off their stands, complete with little cottony puffs of dust! Totally going to do that one of these days...)

Can't even see the actual figures from behind...

Kommandos are, as the name suggests, troops specializing in infiltration and, well, commando operations. Accordingly, I painted them up in stealthy colors that will hopefully still pop on the tabletop.

Although the thought of somehow "losing" my Kommandos on the tabletop does make me chuckle.

Lastly, a "free" unit for the Blood Axes; there are certain units in the Ork lists that cost no points because they constitute just as much a liability as they do an asset. And these fellas have "liability" written all over them: Madboyz.

I just had to take these guys because their capacity for causing unmitigated mayhem is unmatched by probably any other unit I've ever seen in any system. I'll never forget the game where my Madboyz, literally in the middle of the field, started up a Weirdboy chant despite the fact that I had no Weirdboyz in my army. The resulting buildup of psychic energy, having nowhere to safely disperse, finally exploded in a massive conflagration that left a huge gaping hole in the center of both armies. My opponent and I had to call a draw because we didn't have enough units left to effectively fight each other!

I decided to give these Madboyz "prison fatigues" - I figure they're a bunch of hardened, bloodthirsty desperadoes who were busted out of their cells on an Imperial prison planet by Da Blue Baron, who gave them a bunch of guns and now hopes for the best. (No doubt he's regretting his decision a bit these days...)

There's still one more support unit for the Blood Axes, but it's currently in transit from the seller and I'm not sure if we'll see it before the Challenge ends. But as for now, it's on to what is undoubtedly the centerpiece of my army: the Gargant Mob!

Gargants are, of course, the Ork version of Titans, and are giant, ramshackle monstrosities. They actually remind me quite a bit of Hiyao Miyazaki's vision of Howl's Moving Castle, imagery that didn't exist back when I first painted these guys 25 years ago.

Yes, these are the only "vintage" sculpts in my whole collection. I purchased them during my first venture into Epic, and held onto them even when I sold off everything else. They were painted in Bad Moon colors, though, so into the Dip they went! They are now Death Skulls Gargants, thank you very much.

That's two Slasha Gargants and one Great Gargant. I followed color schemes similar to the Stompas I submitted last week.

The Mekboy in the little crow's nest on the Great Gargant gives some sense of their scale. The Slashas are about 50mm tall (not counting the base) and the Great Gargant is over 60mm!

The Great Gargant is easily one of my favorite Epic models ever. The amount of small details on this thing were a real joy to discover and paint. All those little cannons poking out of hatches...

The casting was a bit spotty in places, and I had to take my Dremel (thanks Seth!) to some stubborn mold lines that I hadn't caught as a young lad too impatient to deal with such matters.

The Great Gargant's "back end" has some of my favorite bits, including a random little wooden shack built out from the beast's back. The Mekboy's tool shed, maybe? It even has it's own little stovepipe chimney...

Next to the Great Gargant, the Slashas lose a bit of their luster, but they're still great models in their own right.

Like the Great Gargant, they've got fantastic detailing on their backs.

I'm really happy with the "used up" aesthetic I've been hitting with these vehicles and mechs: the chipped paint, the rust, the soot, the grime.

Finally, some size comparisons to last week's entries:

Next week I'll be finishing up the Ork horde (and my Epic40K project overall) with my Wildboyz mob and a couple random sundries (assuming they get here in time...), and I'll be sure to include a big group shot of the whole Waagh!