‘Ere boss, Zagbog’z off iz ‘ead again, hur-hur!

Ork “humour”.

Following on from the post about my Armies on Parade 2021 entry, I thought it might be fun to take a closer look at the Ork casualties. The two that were front-and-centre are pictured above. The one of the left has just taken a headshot from a bolter, while the one on the right is fleeing from the Crimson Fists and has just been shot straight through the centre!

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The technique I used for these two models is just my Simple LED Muzzle Flare technique, only instead of the flare coming out of a gun, it is coming out of the their bodies! I did originally consider mounting the Orks directly on the display board, but I decided to put them on bases instead for three reasons. Firstly, not being on bases would make them significantly shorter than the Marines. Secondly, if their positions were fixed on the board then I couldn’t make last minute tweaks to their location during photography. And thirdly, having them separate means that I can reuse them in future dioramas, or simply as an accessory to future battlefield photography.

As you may have noticed, the Ork who still has a face has had his expression and his pose altered to make him look like he is running away in panic. The expressions of the current plastic Ork Boyz are actually quite neutral, and therefore easy to alter. To make him look alarmed I simply applied a tiny amount of modelling putty to his forehead, altering his eyebrows so they were raised in the centre and down at the sides, which – along with the open mouth – is an expression we read in humans as distress. The Ork who has taken a headshot has been rocked back on his feet slightly, while his right wrist has been rotated to make the axe appear a bit more slack in his grip. I was trying to give the impression of the headshot having just happened that instant with the Ork still on the process of pitching backwards.

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I also made a few Ork casualties to scatter around. Again these are made from the plastic Ork Boyz box. I ended up repositioning or removing limbs to make them appear to be sprawled on the ground as a result of being gunned down. They’re not glued to the board, again to allow repositioning as required. All the Ork casualties were intentionally painted with a muted colour scheme so that they didn’t draw the eye away from the Marines too much – the Crimson Fists were the stars of the show after all! They certainly didn’t receive my best paint job, but the submission deadline was looming and I knew they weren’t going to be the main focus of the photographs.

Lastly I had a bit of fun by adding the skeletal remains of an Ork to the ruined farmhouse. The first edition of 40K was more RPG-like than current editions, and in the original ‘Battle at the Farm’ scenario the GM was supposed to give the Ork commander – Thrugg Bullneck – a secret objective to retrieve a bag of hidden loot that was buried in the farm house. I thought it might be fun to add a little nod to this in the diorama. Thrugg’s remains are made from an Ork skull from the Citadel Skulls set, a modelling putty helmet and a spare Ork boy arm, all buried under lolly stick floorboards! The sack of loot is also sculpted entirely from modelling putty.

That’s all for today. I hope you’ve found that insight into the Ork casualties interesting.