Rogue Trader Space Orks Repainted

In the previous century, during the late 19080s/early '90s, I got into miniatures. There were some West End Games Star Wars RPG miniatures (tiny true 25mm things that have long been scattered to the 4 winds). There were some random Ral Partha and Grenadier fantasy minis. And then there were the even more random Citadel miniatures- including these 5 Rogue Trader Space Orks.

I was unfocused and a poor painter at the time (not a lot has changed, it seems). These bois were on their own amongst some Eldar, Space Marines, Squats, and other Rogue Trader era figures. I had a few more Space Orks later, when the price of a blister pack went up from the original $3.50 for this batch. But I never really got into the Orks, despite getting the "'Ere We Go" sourcebook and being intrigued by the incredibly cool GorkaMorka stuff. I have a couple of early plastic multi-art Orks, which means I got a box at some point, but I don't know what happened to the rest of them.

Sadly, this seems to be the only pic that survived of the group's original paint scheme. they matched with a wide variety of green skin colors. And the basing was very rustic.

A few years ago, I contemplated putting these guys on eBay, but decided against it for some reason. Then, about a year ago, I decided it was time to strip them and repaint them. And they sat partially painted until this past week when I was finally sparked to finish them up. waaaaagh?

The first order of business (as with most of the other olde RT era minis I've stripped and repainted in the past few years) was to snip the slotta tabs and get them onto some modern scenic bases. It was a mix of Necromunda and some 40K Sector Imperalis, or something, industrial-type bases- except for the boss, who got a slightly larger (27.5mm) Star Wars Legion fancy base.

Their original paint scheme was matching armor in "Fall Gold" from one of the Ral Partha Battletech paint sets. The first paints I bought were 2 different sets of the Ral Partha Battletech-themed paints. I wanted my miniatures to look more realistic, with browns and greens, mostly, so these 2 sets covered that pretty well. Some of these paints (including Fall Gold) still survive to this day in my collection. They are sparingly used and some need a little liquid necromancy from time to time.

I wanted the repaints to be different from that original scheme. Not only would I be avoiding green skin (I've used various yellows for some Space Goblins in the recent past, and I like that look), but I wanted to use my favorite teals for most of the armor.

I stated out trying to batch paint them, but the sculpts and my preference was to make them each a little different. So after a couple of weeks nitpicking different colors here and there on each one, I set the bois aside... Until a week or so ago, I decided I should just focus on one at a time and knock them all out.

This guy was the first to get the solo treatment. It was always one of my favorite sculpts. I don't know if his weapon is a flamer or a melta or a jiggity-jamma, But I like how it's sculpted. He got a little callback to the olde orangey armor on his wristbands.

I was tempted to go way overboard with rust on his helmet, but I managed to keep it to a minimum.

After that guy's success, I decided to grab the rest in twos. 

I wanted to make his space marine-like shoulder pads different colors and somewhat battered. I think they came out okay.

The checkerboard stripe on his shoulderpad was partly to cover up a mold slip line that was too much to clean up or cover with greenstuff. I like how it came out with a Micron pen and a couple different cream/white paints.

His right leg looked sort of like it might be a cyber leg, so I had to go ahead and paint it that way.

His right arm looks more like it's from an old suit of armor than the 41st millennium, but I really love it.

When it came to these final 2 bois, I wa a little hesitant. The one has some armor and what now seems to be a bionic right leg! I didn't plan on using a bunch of metals, but I kind of had to. And the other guy is the one I have always thought of as da boss of the group, because he's so much bigger than the others.

For most of the squad, I had to make their bolters red, because it looked pretty cool.

I've always liked that this guy has a cyber ear (hearing aid?), these olde sculpts are often hiding some weird random details.

And just like that, I had finished up this ancient "squad" of Space Orks. I think of them as a squad because they came in the same blister pack. I don't know how I would feel about splitting them up.

What's next in my series of stripped olde Rogue Trader lead series? TwinDay is coming up soon, so I might try to focus on something for that....