It’s ORKTOBER! WAAAGH!
I decided I needed to celebrate Orktober by painting up some Space Orks, of course!
Earlier this year, I bought a few Rogue Trader minis off eBay. Two of those happened to be Orks. Old metal minis really speak to me; there is just so much character in their sculpts. Rogue Trader Orks really run with this. While many of the poses are similar, they make up for it with fun details.
Check out my Orktober Space Ork video below!
My first Orktober Space Ork – Space Ork Squady Squotter (what a name!) from 1987.
I went with an orange theme to go a bit with a Halloween vibe, since that falls in Orktober. Painting these old chunky metal GW minis definitely comes with their challenges. I painted up a handful of old Chaos minis last year, and I tried to recreate that old painting style. I think Squady came out decent. You have to work a bit to get those details to pop, especially compared to a set like the Kill Team Octarius’ Death Korps of Krieg. I’ve been thinking about some type of freehand design on that big, plain left shoulder pad, similar to the way he’s painted up below. If I go for it on him, I’ll post an update!
Squady Squotter the Space Ork went through a few name changes over the years:
He was also named Korgar the Armoured (Lasgun) and later, simply, Bolta 4 070510-41 in 1991, thanks to Collecting Citadel Miniatures.
Next up for Orktober painting is a Space Ork Renegade in ‘Eavy Armour
Unfortunately, this bionik Rogue Trader Space Ork doesn’t have a fun name. But, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t fun to paint. Quite the contrary; he was a blast to work on! I went with Khorne Red, yellow and blue theme; you’ll see why later.
I’m still not great at painting yellow. For the yellow bits, I went with a base of Khorne Red, followed by Yriel Yellow, which looked extremely chalky even thinned down (I don’t think I like this paint). I fixed it as best as I could by adding layer upon layer of Pro Acryl Transparent Yellow.
I probably could go back with a slightly lighter highlight, as some of them don’t stand out as much as I had hoped (I used base Khorne Red after a dark wash). All in all, I’m really happy with this Space Ork.
He first appeared in White Dwarf 113 in May of 1989 as Ork Renegade 440606.
In White Dwarf 124 – Nob With Combined Bionik Arm-Bolter And Powerfist 070561-1A
In 1991 Citadel Miniatures Catalog he was now known as an Ork Boss with Bionik Arm And Kustom Weapon 1 070561/11.
He shows up one last time in the 1996 Warhammer 40,000 Catalog as a Space Ork in ‘Eavy Armour – 8047A
The next Orks I painted for Orktober are clearly inspired by Rogue Trader and vintage Citadel/Games Workshop Orks — Knightmare Games
Knightmare Games makes some fantastic old school Citadel/Games Workshop inspired miniatures. I won an eBay lot last year that contained minis from their Space Raiders Kickstarter. This Orc was a free, Stretch Goal Orc Boy. He doesn’t appear to be anywhere for sale on their website, but he is a variation of their Orc Boss mini seen below.
The Orc Boss was the inspiration for both of my paint jobs. For the Knightmare Games Space Raider Orc, I went with Mephiston Red to keep him unique from the Rogue Trader Space Ork, but I went with yellow and blue on the details to keep the comparison in tact.
As you can see, the Knightmare Games shared design with the older Rogue Trader Ork. Both were a blast to paint up and I’m happy both are in my collection.
Last but not least, I painted up Knightmare Games Chaos Orc 4 for Orktober.
This choasy Orc is a fantastic mini! I love his trench coat. At first I didn’t notice his chaos arm, but once I did, I repainted it to stand out. I mostly followed the painted example on the Knightmare Games listing. I may go back and highlight his shirt and coat better. Regardless, I’m ecstatic on this Chaos Orc turned out.
I figured I’d show off some more of my Knightmare Games collection.
I have a handful of more Space Raiders Orcs to build and paint. I threw them together real quick with some blue poster tack.
I also missed one Knightmare Orc mini in my video! Under Bounty Hunters I found this gem – Zoarxx!
I also have some multi-piece Games Workshop Warhammer 40k Ork Nobs from 1998.
These should be fun to build, as they came with an insane amount of weapon options. I guess I forgot to take a picture of those, woops!
In my Orktober Space Ork video, I go over a few more Ork miniatures that have that old school Rogue Trader/Citadel/Games Workshop vibe. I didn’t find many for Sci-Fi, although I found a ton of fantasy Orks (expect a video and blog post on those in the future). If you have any retro-inspired Sci-Fi orks for me to check out, please leave a comment here or on my video!
CP Models
CP Models has a small line of 15mm Space Orcs. Pretty cool if you’re looking for tiny Orc friends.
Diehard Miniatures
Diehard Miniatures has amazing retro-styled metal miniatures. Only a few Space Orcs, though.
First up is Brutus-Orc Merc. A mercenary Orc with a three barreled mini-gun.
Skeletal Orc is up next. A skeleton Orc with a large power weapon.
Last but not least, Zombie Orc…a Zombie Orc with a gun.
Warmonger Miniatures | Space Orc
Warmonger Miniatures has an amazing line of fantasy, retro-inspired orks, but only a single Sci-Fi Space Orc.
Let me know how you’ve been celebrating Orktober! A few years back, I was really excited for Orktober with Speed Freeks and unfortunately, I never picked up the game. It’s now way too expensive on eBay, so I don’t think it will be in my collection any time soon. Too bad Games Workshop didn’t support it with expansions — that was the reason I decided against it. I hate those GW limited run boxed games. I still hate myself for not picking up Blackstone Fortress – Escalation.
If you’re looking for Sci-Fi Minis check out my huge, living list of Sci-Fi Miniatures for Stargrave!
Leave a Reply