Show us your Custom Ork Dreadz

Tubehead

Member
Many years ago I got hugely inspired by this picture of a custom Dread Mob in the old Freebooterz book:
FyTTOCX.png

At the time I built three custom dreadnaughts along these lines covered in riveted armour, giant metal claws, and shooty guns of all sorts.
Then I got really wild and built a pair of 40K scale Stomper Gargants from Epic/Space Marine, kitting them out with giant saw arms, and battle cannons, and even wired up LEDs in the eye sockets powered from a 9V battery concealed in the structure.
Well all that happened well before the age of digital cameras and those models are probably in pieces today, buried under other models in my storage unit overseas.

Was anyone else here ever moved to create their own custom Ork Dreadnoughts?

I suspect this is a subject a lot of 40K modelers have attempted to tackle, since Orky technology can be so readily bodged together out of household scrap. :grin:
In fact I'm doing another foray into the art myself at the moment.

Please post some pics!
...And I'll post pics of the dreadnoughts I'm currently working on once they're ready. :)
 

Orjetax

Member
I don’t have anything to share; but the dread mob is a very cool entry and I hope some people post their tales on this.


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Tubehead

Member
Orjetax":3tlnqih4 said:
I don’t have anything to share; but the dread mob is a very cool entry and I hope some people post their tales on this.

Thanks for the interest! Yes, that'd be grand! :grin:
I only wish I had some pics of my old models to get this thread started properly! (˃_˂;)゚。

I'd like to reiterate for everyone though, that I wasn't just asking to be shown models based on the ones in the above illustration. This thread welcomes ANY permutations of custom Orky Dreadnoughts!

This reminds me of something... Let me rummage around and see if I can find it...
 

Tubehead

Member
Yes, here it is; maybe this will add a little oomph to get this thread off the ground.
A rather stimulating article this...

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Interesting idea using all off-the-shelf catalogue parts to make some Dreads.
(I notice the total cost of parts was strategically omitted though...!)

Still the article does give one enthusiasm to sit down at the workbench to begin fitting the piles of old toy and model leftovers together.

Here's a tip that applies to orky construction of all sorts that may be of assistance while scratchbuilding:
How to do Orky metal plates/bodged-together patches...
If you have some greenstuff you can roll out some long noodles, let them cure, and then slice them up into rivets. Then you can apply a blob of greenstuff onto your model, and shape it into a rectangle or something resembling a metal patch. Before you add the rivets onto this greenstuff patch though, press down onto the greenstuff with some heavy gauge sandpaper. This will give the orky metal plate the texture that you see on the pig-iron hull of say, a Sherman tank, rather than just a smooth surface. Then apply your rivets and let cure. It really makes a big difference in the look of the vehicle and makes it feel 'heavier'.
 

symphonicpoet

Moderator
A dread mob you say?

I call these fellows Mr. Burn, Doc Hobble, and the Delightful Dreadlies.

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There's really only three conversions in the bunch, and one of them is more rescue than conversion. (I made some replacement parts out of the green stuff for the Olley Roborg. Bought it missing weapon and claw.) So it's really more a "carefully curated selection" of orkyesque objects of dreadliness than conversions. But it is most assuredly a dread mob. Lets see, there's an old ordinary orc dreadnought. (Easily my worst.) Next came the two conversions, which were made with awful bubbly bits that clearly came off the high seas somewhere. (Quite fitting for a pirate mob. Discovered in the bottom of a box literally bought out of a stranger's car boot/trunk. Q: "Hey, you want to buy some orks?" [rummage rummage rummage] A: "Heck yeah!" Okay, those two weren't orks. But now they are! Pirate orks!) Third came the Gorillagon from Ramshackle Curtis. (He just fit right in!) Fourth was the rescue Roborg. Most recently is the Armorcast Frank n' Track steampunk robot. (I keep forgetting what that thing is and having to look it up. Over and over and over. Even had people tell me at least once. Ah well. Maybe I'll make a note this time.) ;)
 

Orjetax

Member
symphonicpoet":1r8hge7i said:
A dread mob you say?

I call these fellows Mr. Burn, Doc Hobble, and the Delightful Dreadlies.

tAWiLHY.jpg


There's really only three conversions in the bunch, and one of them is more rescue than conversion. (I made some replacement parts out of the green stuff for the Olley Roborg. Bought it missing weapon and claw.) So it's really more a "carefully curated selection" of orkyesque objects of dreadliness than conversions. But it is most assuredly a dread mob. Lets see, there's an old ordinary orc dreadnought. (Easily my worst.) Next came the two conversions, which were made with awful bubbly bits that clearly came off the high seas somewhere. (Quite fitting for a pirate mob. Discovered in the bottom of a box literally bought out of a stranger's car boot/trunk. Q: "Hey, you want to buy some orks?" [rummage rummage rummage] A: "Heck yeah!" Okay, those two weren't orks. But now they are! Pirate orks!) Third came the Gorillagon from Ramshackle Curtis. (He just fit right in!) Fourth was the rescue Roborg. Most recently is the Armorcast Frank n' Track steampunk robot. (I keep forgetting what that thing is and having to look it up. Over and over and over. Even had people tell me at least once. Ah well. Maybe I'll make a note this time.) ;)

Love this. Roborg! Armorcast!

Is that thing on the far right the gorillagon?


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Tubehead

Member
symphonicpoet":26t5iilt said:
Mr. Burn, Doc Hobble, and the Delightful Dreadlies.

I second that. These really are terrific! They look and feel exactly as they should; like a rag-tag mob of mercenary freebooterz! I love to see non-standard figs and models employed in WH40K especially things like this assembled as a labor of love. Orks are especially good for facilitating that sort of thing.
Have you ever put them into combat? If so I'm sure everyone would be eager to hear how that went. They would make for a pretty wild battle report! :)
 

symphonicpoet

Moderator
Orjetax":xx11bnha said:
Love this. Roborg! Armorcast!

Is that thing on the far right the gorillagon?


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Tubehead":xx11bnha said:
symphonicpoet":xx11bnha said:
Mr. Burn, Doc Hobble, and the Delightful Dreadlies.

Thank you Orjetax! It is indeed a Gorillagon. Curtis makes some delightful stuff that fits in especially well with older GW SpaceOrks. I have some more Ramshackle robots that may end up added to the group later. :)

Tubehead":xx11bnha said:
symphonicpoet":xx11bnha said:
Mr. Burn, Doc Hobble, and the Delightful Dreadlies.

I second that. These really are terrific! They look and feel exactly as they should; like a rag-tag mob of mercenary freebooterz! I love to see non-standard figs and models employed in WH40K especially things like this assembled as a labor of love. Orks are especially good for facilitating that sort of thing.
Have you ever put them into combat? If so I'm sure everyone would be eager to hear how that went. They would make for a pretty wild battle report! :)

And thank you as well Tubehead! I have put them into action a few times in different ways, most recently in a "throw whatever you have on the table and have fun" battle at Novaosgrot 2019. My ork force countered a mixed force of a couple different folks IG. It was a spectacularly lovely mess. The Dreadlies drew the bulk of the fire, but they kept slugging for a good while anyway. The battlefield was an enormous warren of buttes and slot canyons. My center was dominated by a large impassable butte, as I recall. Ghazkull, the battlewagon, and a bunch of armored nobz went around the left. The Dreadlies went around the right. Bikes and buggies went up each flank to provide fast emergency reinforcement where needed. Ghaz took a round fairly early on and was no more. The battlewagon rammed a Chimera neuetralizing a pesky threat. The Dreadlies advanced about halfway across the battlefield before themselves being immobilized, but they were able to keep shooting a good while, providing support. They tore apart a unit of Ogryn that could have been a real problem before finally being silenced. The boys charged behind them and gradually overran the IG positions, rolling them up from both flanks, as I recall, though I wouldn't call it a fair fight. I think I had the IG substantially outnumbered, and dramatically outnumbered in terms of support weapons and heavy troops. Which is maybe a bit of an oddity. But we didn't count points at all. Literally just threw everything we had on the table and said "All right then, let's go at it!" Lots of comedy and great fun. :) )(And a dead warboos by the end of the first turn. Wowzers! But the boys held anyway!)
 

Orjetax

Member
Sounds like a great game.

Curtis’s models are interesting. I think if it’s wasn’t international shipping I’d likely have already dipped my toe in. One of these days . . .


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symphonicpoet

Moderator
He only just started charging for international shipping, and I believe it is his intention to ship at cost. (And lower his prices to reflect the fact that he is just now charging for shipping.) Send him a message. He's a great guy. I expect he'll find a way to work something out for you.
 

Tubehead

Member
That WAS a great battle report! You described it succinctly. Yes, big impressive models always seem to draw the most fire. I've heard of sneaky players who would convert and paint up their dreadnaughts or a vehicle to look intimidating and dangerous as hell but just use the minimal points investment for weapons (but perhaps a bit added in the optional armour department), intending full well from the outset to use them as fire-magnets which they would conspicuously drive up the middle of the table straight toward enemy centre right out in the open, presenting an irresistible target. Meanwhile they had units of unassuming infantry (subtly equipped with an inordinate amount of flamers or melta-guns) sneak through cover to get a nice secure forward position along one flank and some multi-melta equipped fast attack units on the other to pick off specific threats. Suddenly the enemy finds they've spent two or three turns firing at the wrong thing entirely! Of course, I would personally never stoop to employing such cheap underhanded psychological tactics. :roll:

"throw whatever you have on the table and have fun"

I've always loved this approach. When I was a teenager I was really a stickler for precisely balancing the points values of all involved forces. Now that I have mellowed with age, I find it far more interesting, not to mention realistic, to ignore points values and just use the models I want to use in a more narrative-based approach to scenarios. Smaller skirmishy battles with a strong plot and good characters are what I like these days. My days of big powerful forces of Ultramarines vs monstrous numbers of Orks and gretchen thrown against one another in a one big apocalyptic day-long battle have given way to strings of much smaller encounters in a linked campaign, with the outcome of the previous battle dictating the plot of the next. These tend to involve a group of roughly ten well-defined low level characters on each side, each with a specialty of some sort. Casualty removal is far more personal that way. It goes from, "Okay I rolled this and rolled that so I remove two marines from this squad" to "Oh horrors! They felled old Zeke the Astropath! Well maybe Sarah with her Medi pack might be able to reach him in the next turn or two... If not maybe he'll survive on the recovery table." I think your force of dreaddiez there would invoke a similar feeling in battle. You feel the game more when everyone is an interesting character!
You know, now that I think about it, I guess what got the ball rolling for my preference for smaller, more characterful battles was getting the 2nd Edition box set after playing Rogue Trader from '87 to '93. If you flip through the lovely colour pages of the solidly RT-era Book of Astronomican you can see how each and every figure, even the Squats and Imperial Guardsmen, have loads of defining character sculpted all over them, which helped you to feel their losses and triumphs. I remembered being mortified when the 2E box set came out because the plastic figures looked like cookie-cutter clones of one another - like paper doll chains...
I really thought GW had missed the point entirely fiddling about with new technology options (i.e. making figs in plastic - proving once again that just because you CAN do something, it doesn't mean you SHOULD).
Giving even rank & file soldiers some individual character is one of the major qualities that makes the film Aliens so exciting to watch. The director subtly introduces us to a 'little family' of marines, taking care to get us a bit familiar with each of their quirky personalities first before the action begins. (And only then are they thrown into a hive of hellbeasts exhibiting an existentially distressing parasitism like no one has ever experienced.) This is also the same reason why the film Galaxy of Terror flops. The protagonists are all very badly defined shallow archetypes (the leader, the girl, the big man, the scientist) and when they walk into their own existentially distressing hive of hellbeasts... you feel nothing!
Note too, how much of an influence the film Aliens obviously was on the design of some of the RT era figures (particularly IG). They were trying to capture exactly that quality of feel for the unit from the film. This ethic of character is carried over into all the first edition 40K miniatures and is perhaps arguably the reason why we all frequent this 'Oldhammer' forum even today.
But anyway, thanks for sharing that awesome battle report! I wish I could have been a spectator watching that unfold; particularly when your dreadz got to grips with that lot of Ogryns!
 

Orjetax

Member
symphonicpoet":3pogdm69 said:
He only just started charging for international shipping, and I believe it is his intention to ship at cost. (And lower his prices to reflect the fact that he is just now charging for shipping.) Send him a message. He's a great guy. I expect he'll find a way to work something out for you.

Well, that teaches me to make assumptions.
I’ll have to take a look.


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symphonicpoet

Moderator
Tubehead":3cyh20jt said:
That WAS a great battle report! . . . *snip* . . . But anyway, thanks for sharing that awesome battle report! I wish I could have been a spectator watching that unfold; particularly when your dreadz got to grips with that lot of Ogryns!

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. If we ever get the change, I would be happy to drop the dreadz on the table opposite you. Or my own IG and ogryn. Or a force of maybe ten special, quirky, and very named characters. Lots of options. I hope we can work it out someday if we happen to be close enough some time or other. (Middle of the United States here, but I do travel. Or at least I did. And I will again as soon as I am permitted into other folks countries.)

Orjetax":3cyh20jt said:
Well, that teaches me to make assumptions.
I’ll have to take a look.

You won't regret it. And I understand. Gotten burned that way many times.
 

Tubehead

Member
symphonicpoet":3d8cobka said:
I hope we can work it out someday if we happen to be close enough some time or other. (Middle of the United States here, but I do travel. Or at least I did. And I will again as soon as I am permitted into other folks countries.)

Thanks, that would be cool. Next time I'm in Missouri, for sure!
 

Tubehead

Member
Here's a work very much unfinished and in progress; theottovonbismark, Seán O'Sullivan, recently supplied me with a mob of his lovely Hyborks. For an additional little spin, I decided to use them to depict a Genestealer Coven dedicated to Khorne.
I thought a Genestealer cult dreadnaught is something we rarely ever see, and I wanted to make a dread for my Hybork boyz reminiscent of the tubby, stomper-like ones depicted in Freebooterz (the pic in the 1st post on this thread). I certainly plan to make it look a bit more Orky later on. This version is just patched together with sticky-tac.


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Tubehead

Member
Thanks for the kind words!

symphonicpoet":1x272cul said:
If I get back to Japan anytime soon I'll have to look you up. :)

Anytime! You can have the mother-in-law suite as long as you like. I'm in the Niigata telephone directory under チューブヘッド管頭さん... :)
 
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