The other day I stumbled across an Instagram painting challenge for Orctober. Old Man Paints is running his Old Orcs Challenge. The rules are on his site (which is a cool site to visit anyway), but put simply they are: paint an old orc miniature from the Oldhammer era (mid 80’s-early 90’s) and post it on Instagram by the end of the month. (There are hashtag requirements and stuff like that, but that’s about the gist of it.)
Well, if there’s one thing I have a lot of, it’s Oldhammer Orcs. Sadly, all of mine are painted already, and one of the rules is a “before” picture is necessary. It seems I was out of luck.
Well, it just so happens I have had a 40K Ork army as a planned project for about 10 years. This makes no sense, as I don’t play 40K anymore; but who among you can say you don’t have similar nonsensical ambitions in your pile of shame? I have a ton of Orks, most still on the sprue, just waiting for assembly and painting. (I’m in no hurry.) The vast majority of these are from this millennium. In other words, most of them.
Then I found this guy, along with a handful of other Rogue Trader-era Boyz. I’m back in business.
I have no expectation of actually winning this challenge, considering the level of talent I see on Instagram; but I figure I can pretty easily paint one ork in my sleep by the end of the month, so why not participate? Next time you see this guy, he’ll have paint (and arms) on him.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
Look forward to seeing how you progress with this Keith, remember the Rogue Trader orks well as my neighbour was building a force of them, and I even painted some for him.
Are you going for a certain clan or just seeing where the paint takes you ?
I’ve always been partial to the Death Skullz, because I like the blue face paint, and he does have a big mug to work with. Maybe I’ll do that. I figure I’ll mine some old White Dwarfs for inspiration!
Certainly gives you plenty of scope on weapons with that clan, look forward to seeing what you come up with
Thanks, Dave!
I think I might have painted that very orc a while back for my youngest, as I recall I stuck a rocket/jetpack on his back, I much prefer the older GW stuff over the new plastics, they just have so much more character in my opinion. Best of luck with this mate, good to see you posting again.
Cheers Roger.
Thanks, Roger. In theory this shouldn’t take long, but I’m struggling with my choice of colors at the moment. I think I’ll paint his skin green, but I’m not sure…
Looks like an interesting challenge and I too am looking forward to seeing your finished Ork. I had a couple of friends who played Ork forces back in my 40k days and their armies looked fun to paint. The Oldhammer orks are such good sculpts with plenty of character.
I agree. Although I like the newer, bigger orks too (I have a whole army of them awaiting assembly), you just gotta love these Oldhammer Boyz. I’m amazed I had an arm sprue to go with the metal body!