Inspiration for an Ork Waaagh!

As you may have noticed I have been painting up some 2nd Edition Orks over the last few months, mostly Goffs so far but the Snakebite clan is next on the list. with that I thought it might be nice to dive back a few years and take a look at a particular set of images from a White Dwarf that I found really inspiring then and now.

It's Warboss Grishnak! So colourful!

This showcase is from White Dwarf 201 (It had a night goblin riding a Giant Squig on the cover) and is Adrian Wood's own 2nd Edition 40k Ork army.

First thing that stood out to me and I know it's kind of the aesthetic for this generation of Warhammer 40,000 is that this army is so colourful. Look at those yellows!, reds! and light blues! This is how I envisage an Ork army loud, noisy and brash. Leave the sneaking about to the Blood Axes.

The Ghazskull conversion to make Grishnak his own Warboss is brilliant. I especially like the bigger horns for the helmet and the distinctly zany custom claw shoota weapon.

The older better Ork Warbikes!

In the next photo we have some of his vehicles, notable the old versions of the ork warbikes and not the plastic kit that was released at the time. I like these older bikes with the yellowy-brown tyres and the fact each ork rider is different gives them a lot of character. 

Gretchin and snotling cannon fodder!

The Shokk Attack team, painboy and gretchin the third image from this article and again the bright colours almost bounce off the photo. I'm not really that enamoured with the removal of the stork-orbs from the shokk attack gun but I like the lighter coloured snotlings. I am also amused that one gretchin didn't get the memo about the blue autogun paint scheme.

The whole ork army in all it's 2nd edition glory! Ready to battle!

Here is the final image of the article and it is a great photo of the entire 2,500 points worth of greenskins. There are so many cool things to talk about here that are just not shown in the smaller images unfortunately. First and quite surprisingly there are two Ork Gobsmasha Battlewagons! I vaguely remember some rules for these battle cannon vehicles in an old white dwarf but still quite a shock to see two on show here.

Apart from them I like the inclusion of a lascannon on wheels the blood axes nicked, it goes nicely with the leman russ driven by what looks like a converted old Stormboy Drillboss. the ogres as Ogryns are nice inclusion but I really wish we could a close up look of the bloodaxe kommandos as they seem to be sporting a desert camouflage which would be cool to see.

So there you go a trip down memory lane for a different way to paint up a 2nd edition Ork Waaagh!! Now I better get back to painting mine :)

Until next time.