Although my hobbying pace has slowed over the last two weeks, I've continued to make progress towards having 750 points of Orks ready to hit the tabletop in May.
Like I mentioned in my last post, my time available for hobbying will be restricted in February due to ski season. This turned out to be the case, and I narrowly missed my January goal.
Nevertheless, I did make some progress over the last two weeks:
In gaming terms, I love what the Deffkopta brings to the table. Fast, cheap, tougher than a warbike, can scout, and able to take advantage of those sweet, sweet Deffskullz hit rerolls with a Kustom Mega-Blasta (KMB).
Although I haven't played with Orks yet in 9th edition, it seems to me that they must be one of the best harassment units in the codex, and are able to apply early pressure in your opponent's backfield while your heavier units advance up the table.
I obviously had to have one! (well, eventually more than one, but just one for my 750 point list in May)
The classic GW Deffkopta model is simply hideous, and the plastic Deffkoptas that came in the 5th edition Assault on Black Reach starter box were decent models but are a little tough to find these days.
Besides, in keeping with the "convert everything" philosophy of my Ork army, I figured this would be a great opportunity to work on my plasticard skills!
Here's how the conversion turned out:
I based this conversion on a warbiker chassis with plasticard wings. The nose cone was made from a Kromlech resin rokkit, the big shootas and their wing-mounted magazines were taken from the warbiker and Flash Gitz sprues, and I added various bitz from other vehicle kits for extra details. For the pilot, I threw in a classic Warhammer Fantasy Orc leather tunic and a Stormboy head with goggles and a classic leather pilot cap.
As an aside: I intend to field this model temporarily as a Deffkopta with KMB, but obviously the model has twin Big Shootas. I am planning an eventual squadron of three Deffkoptas, one of which will have a KMB, but for now I plan to field this model as being armed with a counts-as KMB.
I knew I wasn't going to be satisfied with a simple flying base. Instead, I wanted to have the model in a dynamic pose, swooping over a ruined building to strafe an enemy on the ground.
To accomplish this, I added a trio of rare earth magnets underneath the left wing and to the top corner of a tall, thin ruined building.
Two magnets weren't strong enough, but three worked perfectly! Very happy with how this turned out.
In terms of painting, I am planning on a completely red fuselage and wings (hence the Red Barron homage) with the classic yellow flame pattern along the leading edge of the wings.
I also began working on my first Deff Dread, which was a less intricate conversion as the Deffkopta but still required a little ingenuity.
It's amazing that I've been an Ork player for nearly two decades, I have always adored their heavy armored units (dreads, kanz, meganobz), and the plastic Dread kit has been out since 2010... and yet I still have never built one!
Given this, I decided not to go too off-script for my first dread, although I have elaborate plans for future dreads! (I am eventually planning a full mob of three Dreads)
I wanted this dread to be awkwardly climbing over a ruined bunker, using its klaw arm for leverage as it gets ready to swipe at the enemy with its saw arm.
Although it's not much to go on, here's where this conversion stands at the end of Week 5:
