I left you hanging back in Orktober 2024, and for that I’m sorry. I was held hostage by my own bullshit life. The good news is I did actually finish that model; he was converted and painted that same month, and has even been entered into a couple of competitions!
Do check back on that original post if you want to learn about how this conversion was put together (it involved a lot of different resin parts, but wasn’t really all that complicated). Today I’ll mostly share a few work-in-progress photos, talk about what I remember of the painting process and the choices I made, and share a gallery of the finished model from different angles.
I no longer remember what paints I used, though I’d hazard a guess at Citadel’s Mephiston Red being one. This is the earliest WIP painting photo I took. I can see that the model was primed black and then a dark brown applied over that – probably Citadel’s Rhinox Hide. I believe that due to spending so much time on planning, waiting for parts delivery, and then on the conversion, I didn’t have much time for the painting. So my plan was to go simple and bold, and focus efforts on a few areas where I thought I could do a decent job with the skills I have.
I evidently used my airbrush to apply a cold blue-green over the skin areas. In this photo we can also see that I’ve tested out the recipe of layering dark green, then a midtone green, and finally a yellow-green to do the skin. I’ve also done a heavy drybrush of a bronze or brass true metallic paint over the megagun, the claw, and all the equipment and metallic parts – which is a good 70% of the model! Finally, I’ve picked out a bunch of areas in red: eyes, lenses, loincloth, and rocket tips.
In this next set of pictures I’ve almost skipped to the end, with a lot of the paint job completed. I’ve corrected the airbrush overspray, I’ve completed the skin, a bunch more areas have been picked out in red. The trousers I’ve done with a slightly warmer and paler brown for a leather effect that stands out against the basecoat without attracting too much attention. To add a little mechanical contrast I’ve used a gunmetal metallic for various tubes, metal plates, spikes, and so on. I’ve also done a very rough job with some orange and yellow on his bum canister; whatever that thing is supposed to be. Oh, and I’ve done the mouth, teeth and gums, and glazed a tiny bit of pink or magenta around the cheeks and nose.
I’ve also added the first set of checkers. Joyfully, those were sculpted onto the model, which made it much easier to paint them neatly. Orks need checkers!
And here we are; the finished model. I’ve added the basing here, which was painted separately (you can probably tell by the awkward gaps between the model’s feet and the base itself; I left gaps to slot him in but apparently not enough). The base was some torn up bits of a cork table mat from Ikea and some sand and PVA. It got a bit of pigment powder splashed around and a drybrush just to give it a bit of interest.
On the main model itself, you can see that the final piece has been added: the grappling hook, embedded into a bit of the broken-up ferrocrete on the ground. The idea was that the gun was so preposterously large and heavy, with such an absurd and unmanageable kick, that the wielder would need to ‘dig in’ to have any hope of counter-balancing it. Naturally I’m aiming here to convey that idea, rather than suggesting this alone would be sufficient for that purpose. I know, I know; an unrealistic Warhammer model!
The ork has also had a few more details added; the lenses have been re-done, with a gloss varnish applied. I’ve added more checkers and teef and even a terrible skull freehand to the gun, to make it a bit more interesting. I remember having a shit time with the off-white paints I was using there. The coverage is awful, but you know what, in-universe this was painted by an ork.
Overall, I’m very happy with this mode. I like the colour composition, I like where the eye is drawn, and I’m happy with the execution given the time constraints, focus and what I understand of my own skill level. If I were to change anything, aside from learning to layer and blend better, I would have figured out some way to add more interest to the gun itself; I might have used an oval base instead to avoid the enormous overhang this model has; I’d also put more effort into the base to set a bit more of a scene; and I’d have done more than just drybrush such a large amount of the model’s surface, so it looked less dusty and more deliberate.
This model didn’t win or get acknowledged in either competition it entered, and nor should it have – it was far, far from the calibre of anything that did – but I hope at least a few people enjoyed seeing it in the 2024 MWM Orktober competition, and at Ropecon’s 2025 Cold North Open. It’s a unique and very silly model and I think it’s very orky.
