Bad Moon Mega Armor Orks (Part 1)

This is a unit of orks in mega armor (armour) that I have been keen on finishing for a very long time now. The first model here was finished about 20 years ago in the late '90s. That model is below. I was pleased with how it turned out and had always hoped to replicate his paint job however some of the paints I used at the time are no longer available. I was pleased with it, and I feel it still holds up well.Although a few years ago I extended his base onto a terminator sized base. I still like these miniatures. Yeah, I agree, they aren't as bulked out and awesome as the later versions, but I figure the Bad Moons can afford the miniaturization of technology.

The first completed Bad Moon Mega Armor Ork. 

In fact the rest of this mob has been placed onto larger bases also. This happened circa 2009-2010-ish prior to start of this blog, and for one reason or another I have left them alone. But they were placed back into the queue when I started working on my Bad Moon ork dreadnought this past Dreadtober. I was very pleased with how that project turned out and I have been keen to finish these guys ever since.

The whole mob, in it's unassembled glory.

The leader of this mob is represented by the old Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub miniature. I will discuss this model more below, but for now here are some stage-by-stage pics.  In this first pic I had decided that there was too much black paint on it and added some more yellow areas. I base coated these areas in Fiery Orange.

The Nob, with additional basecoats. 

Here he is with Sunburst Yellow applied over the Fiery Orange. His flesh is done now too and I am about to start on highlights to the yellow and black areas.

Progressing along nicely...

All of the other boys have had their bases completed, including the original chap from the '90s, who is now done again. Note that this ork's flesh is more pale than the others. I have pretty much perfected my ork flesh paint scheme and don't want to deviate from it on the rest of this unit, so this one ork will just have to stand out a bit. To be truthful, I am not too sure exactly how I got this look on him so many years ago, but I suspect that I added white to Bilious Green instead of the Sunburst Yellow that I do now.

Done again!

As with the Nob, the other three boyz have their flesh done and it is time to start on highlights and detailing. We'll see how far this gets in part 2.

Progress continues...

Ok, now back to the old Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub miniature: Nazdreg is the Bad Moon Warlord and is simply a bad-ass. His entry in the 2nd Edition Ork Codex describes him as "rich, ostentatious, over indulgent, and overweight." and that Nazdreg "is easily the most cunning and intelligent battlefield commander the Bad Moons have ever had." It goes on further to describe his massive space hulk warship  as well. Truly he is something special and unique in the 40K universe. And the John Blanche art that accompanied this entry surely set the expectation that if a miniature were to be made of him, that he would be massive.

Nazdreg by John Blanche. 

 Seriously, really take a minute to go over that picture and take in all that detail. Study those weapons.  Count the moons! Try to find his head! Note also that he is kneeling in that illustration as well, further implying that this would be a massive model on the table top. But instead, released in the waning days of 3rd edition, we got this:

From the GW catalog. 

OK, It's an alright model of an Ork Nob in this style of armor, but a horrible and woefully underwhelming model of Nazdreg when compared to the Blanche illustration. I couldn't take it seriously at the time of release, and when the orks got a size boost in 3rd ed this model was just...wanting. So, a generic Nob he became to me then and will remain so now.

And still I dream of a proper Nazdreg...