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The Crooked Hand Waaaagh! showcase, part 1 of 3

What's the total power level? Let us know in the comments to win an imaginary grot.
Photo credit: Boris Altemeyer

Today's post is something special. It's the first of a three-part blog showcasing Mark's preposterous ork army: the Crooked Hand Waaaagh!

In case you haven't read Mark's posthumous post, or our thoughts on his loss, Mark was a member of our gaming group who was taken from us and his young family by cancer at the age of 37. He died in October, so the fact that this post is only just coming out now should say something about the logistical and technical challenges we faced, but hopefully we've done it justice.

His ork army was his pride and joy. It's filled with a dizzying array of conversions, and approximately three metric tonnes of weathering powder. There are so many things to go through that we could never have done it all in one post, so instead we're doing three:


  1. Today's post: the Bad Moons, plus a photo of the whole army filling a table (see above).
  2. Next week: Snakebites, Evil Sunz, Blood Axes, and the making of the showcase.
  3. Two weeks from now: the Deathskullz. Looters, wrecking crews and walkers abound.



Tufflukk's Bad Moons

This is where Mark's ork collection started, but even in his last months he was still adding new models to this section of the army. Here they are:

The fact that in this photo the Bad Moons are comfortably occupying the same twelve square feet as seen in the big photo above tells you how hard we had to cram everything in. Even if you only count the bog standard ork boyz in this photo, there are 90 of them. Then there's tankbustas, nobs, freebooters... one or two vehicles...
Photo credit: Boris Altemeyer

By now you'll have noticed the photo credits. That's because Mark's photographer friend Boris came down from Milton Keynes with serious photography gear to help with the group shots. These are much harder to take than photos of single squads, and I'll talk a little more about the great work Boris did in next week's post (when we don't have quite as many units to get through!).

The whole concept of this showcase is to leave no finished* unit behind. As such, here are 41** photos of the richest orks in the Crooked Hand Waaagh!

Here's Tufflukk himself, painted over ten years ago.

Here's Gzag, painted so recently that he's never been used in a game. I'm not sure how much you can tell from this and the photo above, but I think Mark's painting came along a fair way over the decade, even if it was solid to begin with.

Given how many of my tanks have been smashed up by this absolute unit, it saddens me that I can't remember his name.


Always nice to see an old klassic.

Heavily converted Freebooters, including a dok.

Nuffing sez freebooter like stripey trousers.

40 lads still with the original grassy bases, saved from pure 90s basing by a lack of Goblin Green rims.

Another 30 lads, halfway through the re-basing effort.

20 lads with new bases. More urban, innit.

Nobs nobs nobs nobs nobs

Kustom tank bustas. Extra points for spotting the ultra-old-skool rokkit launcha.

Major Fret keeping it calm and gangsta up in his cupola.



Spot the squig!

Klassic kans.

Buzzy the dread

Having his deff dreads running at full tilt like this made them way more intimidating when I saw them coming at my dudes from the other side of the table. It also made them A BIT FRAGILE.

Snippy the dread.



So. Extremely. Yellow.

Note the Crooked Hand... Mark had multiple tribes in his army, but tied them together with this glyph.

Kustom kopta

Moar kustom koptas with mega blasters... don't think they're an option in the current codex, but they were in the previous edition.

Ork physics.


Stubby wagon wiv detachable trailer, for when your lads is being right gits and you want to leave them behind.


Note the two extra boxes of ammo under the gunner's hand. Mark often added details like that. Speaking of which...

Kustom dragsta. There's a lot of conversion going on here, but among things that are hard to photograph include the nitrous injector (the orange thing just visible in the cab) and a couple of stikkbombs strewn about the floor of the cab in case the driver wants extra party favours.

Will people see the underside of this thing very often? No. Did Mark go the extra mile anyway? Of course.

Kustom ammo drum.



Monster trukk! Like the dragsta, this was one of Mark's most recent efforts. I love imagining those rokkits corkscrewing through the air.

Hench suspension.

The Dorkanaut. There's a fair bit of conversion here. I really like how this kit looks with tracks instead of legs. Also, look at how concrete-y the concrete is. A weird thing to love, I admit. Don't judge me.

Big Yeller with kustom lifta-droppa.

Evidence of Mark's crazy attention to detail can be seen on the pistons, where regular movement keeps a section of them clean.

Another charming detail... see the little exhaust near the bottom? That's actually a light switch that connects to a battery and LEDs in the eyes. Sadly the electronics are fried nowadays.

Phew. Quite the photo-dump. I hope that's been edifying, inspirational, and amusing. If it wasn't, then TUFFLUKK. Now, if you want to see a Kill Bursta painted in battleship disruption camo, or Sergeant Nibbles the squig showing off his beret, we'll be back next week with Part 2.

Edit: Part 2 is here.

_______________________

* Mark had at least ten unfinished projects on the go when he went to the Great Squig in the Sky; a cautionary tale to all of us.

** We swears the number 41 is coincidental and not deliberately on-brand for 40K. We swears on the Precious.

Comments

  1. That is an incredible looking army!!

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    1. Right?! I can't wait to show everyone the other two sections of it in the coming weeks. So much good stuff.

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  2. A sobering post, but already a gorgeous showcase. Hope his family in doing okay. Thank you sharing his grand work so far!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, it's a weird blend of hobby goodness and pathos for sure. Thanks Ragsta :)

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