At long last, the first two mobs from Da Ironbullz are completely finished and ready for battle!
I finally got around to basing the recent additions to Da Ironbullz; namely, a mob of Slugga Boyz named Rotbag's Rippaz and five Meganobz who call themselves Da Longhornz.
Without further ado, here are the finished products.
It is only fitting that the first unit to be completely finished for Da Ironbullz is a mob of nondescript Slugga Boyz. After all, what is a Waaagh without a solid core of boyz?
Rotbag and his "Rippaz" are often found on the front lines of Da Ironbullz raiding parties, recklessly charging with their chain-choppas roaring above their heads. Their boss, Rotbag, is a veteran of dozens of scraps (and has a grisly scar over his left eye to prove it), but is too headstrong to be hand-picked as one of Big Boss Rikburgiz' personal Nob bodyguards. Instead, Rotbag leads his small band of loyal but ill-equipped followers into the heart of every battle, seeking nothing more than a good krumpin'.
Modeling: The "Rippaz" live up to their nickname in the weapons they carry. I gave each model a chain-axe or chain-choppa of some kind, imagining that this band of Orks mobbed up around their obsession with loud, messy chainsaws and their love of hacking away with them in melee. To match their crazed, reckless nature, I made sure no models in the unit had helmets and limited how much armor they wore.
Painting: To reflect their lowly status within Da Ironbullz, I intentionally kept the color palette more muted and dirty for this mob by limiting the use of my primary army-wide colors (red and yellow). When I did apply brighter colors, I tried to emphasize more reds than yellows to lean into their aggressive, hand-to-hand nature. Finally, I helped to give the unit some cohesion by painting the face of each chain-weapon yellow, often with black caution stripes or other dags for some visual interest.
Basing: I wanted this unit to appear as if they were actively charging along a ruined industrial canal on the streets of Tsaragrad. To achieve this effect, I tried to incorporate a mix of ruined pavement, metal sheets and grates, pipes, and dirty water effects. I added yellow and black caution stripes to some of the metal sheets to tie in with the unit's caution stripe theme.
I like how this unit turned out overall, but my biggest regret was not synchronizing their bases better. If I were to change this unit in any way, I probably would have ensured some rusted metal and dirty water effects ended up on every base (instead of just ~30-40% of bases). I'm happy with the models themselves, though, and certainly good enough to hit the tabletop!
Meganobz are one of the most iconic Ork units in all of 40k. Nothing says "mean and green" more than a mob of clanking brutes stomping towards your opponent with massive snapping claws and blazing assault weapons.
Da Longhornz are some of Rikburgiz' most loyal Nobz, and were among the precious few Orks that didn't get too insubordinate while they were stuck aboard the disabled Iron Bull while it was en route to Armageddon. After Da Iron Bull crash-landed on the surface of Volarius, Rikburgiz rewarded Da Longhorns with some of the best metal scraps to soup-up their mega-armor. This was a smart move by Rikburgiz, who was able to secure the loyalty of these five killing machines willing to "ruff up" any Ork bold enough to question Da Big Boss.
Modeling: I wanted Da Longhorns to be one of the units that most closely matched the themes of Da Ironbullz as an army. That meant lots of bull iconography: each bosspole has some kind of horned skull on it, and every model had a head swap for a horned helmet from the plastic Black Orc kit to tie them all together. I tried my hand at a couple fun conversions on this unit, giving the Boss Nob a brutal two-sided chain-choppa/pole arm (treated as dual Killsaws in game terms), and mounted an Orky cyclone missile launcher on the back of another Meganob as a call back to classic Terminator squad loadouts for Space Marines.
Painting: Since these ladz are among the most loyal Orks in the whole tribe, I wanted to prominently feature the army's main colors of red and yellow as much as possible. I also tried to limit the extent of chipping and weathering on their armor to give the impression that they are some of Rikburgiz' favored Nobz and have frequent access to the best Mek repairs and paintin' Grotz to keep their armor in good working condition. Finally, for a bit of relief from the bold reds and yellows, I worked in some black helmets and white & black checks. It's hard to see from the picture above, but I also freehanded some details onto many of their knee pads, akin to the heraldry seen on Imperial Fists and other gothic factions.
Basing: I chose to base Da Longhorns as if they are stomping down from the side of a ruined street into a flagstone courtyard of some kind; I imagined it as some kind of abandoned city park, now mostly strewn with rubble and debris but with some tough, yellow weeds sprouting up between the cracks of individual tiles. To make the Boss Nob stand out, I elevated his base up on a small concrete pedestal, allowing him to be positioned slightly taller than the rest of the mob. The flagstone/tile element of the courtyard also provided an opportunity to work some cooler tones (blue-greys) into the palette for this unit as a nice complement to the bright reds and yellows on the models themselves.