Rogue Trader RTB02 Space Ork Raiders - RT Ork Squad Painted

RTB02 Space Ork Raiders

I purchased this box set from 1987 on ebay a number of years ago when I was first getting interested in Rogue Trader era Warhammer. At the time I was super into modern Orks but I thought it would be cool to have some RT era orks and I was able to get this box surprisingly cheap. It came with 16 unpainted fresh metal ork miniatures however my box had Thrugg replaced by another ork model. (I recently purchased a Thrugg model by himself.). I kept the box on display in my room, however I never actually began the process of painting them until now.

I spent a long time looking at the models on the back of the box while painting these. I'm still not sure how they got such brightly colored skin for their orks. I may have to experiment.

After painting up my LE1 Space Orc it got me really excited to work on making an entire squad so I opened up my RT book, rolled up a 10 man Ork squad, opened the boxed set, chose the 8 models I liked the best who along with my LE1 and the Thrugg model I had ordered would make up a full squad. It was really interesting going through the box's models with the intention of deciding what to paint as I really began to notice all the minor differences between models. Figures that I thought were duplicates were actually very similar but with different faces, shoulder pads, equipment, whatever. There's actually quite an impressive amount of variation amongst the models in the box.

The robot and Red Gobbo wait to be painted soon.

I finally decided on the 7 shown above plus a very badly painted heavy weapons trooper I had lying around. I had never actually painted in groups before aside from some modern space marines which basically just required spray painting and minor detailing and my original tau force with was basically the same thing. I barely even painted those things, it was pretty much white primer and a copic marker. These orcs, however, are much much more individualistic than a bunch of modern space marines and so require individual detail and attention. I feel like doing 7 at once was a bit too big of a bite for me, but in the end I managed to finish them. Only took about 3 weeks.

A savage band of raiders!

A big part of my goal I have with painting my old vintage miniatures is to give them a paint job that they might've been given when they were new. For many years with painting I struggled to do my absolute best job, watching tutorials, obsessively going over minute details. I even spent 4 hours once just painting the dorsal fins on a couple of skinks. But honestly, no matter how hard I push myself, I feel like it only burns myself out and I'm really not willing to put in the consistent and constant hours of practice it takes to reach the level of Crystal Brush and Golden Demon winners. Instead, I find it's actually easier, more fun and overall more rewarding to aim for an oldschool look. I really love how the models are painted in the White Dwarfs of the 80s and in the old rulebooks. The paint jobs for the most part really aren't that complicated or difficult but I think they look great.

A view from behind.

So my goal is to take more a purist approach. The past few years whenever I find lots of 80s citadel paints come up available on ebay, I try to purchase them. By now I've amassed far more vintage paints than modern paints. In order to make sure these models have the look and feel of the 80s I've painted them entirely (with the exception of black and white) with original 80s citadel paints.

Hhruk, the Ork Leftenant.

You may also notice the very simple bases. A couple rocks, goblin green with black rim, grass and sand. All very intentional. I'm really happy with how these guys came out. I may add little details here and there eventually, such as tattoos, symbols or whatnot, and I'm definitely going to name each member of the squad, but for now I'm really happy with them and ready to move on to the next models. I'm not sure if I want to try to do so many individualized models all at once in the future, I may try to do them 1-3 at a time as it was a little stressful trying to get so many done at the same time. I also nearly passed out while blowing all the loose grass off the figures in the bathroom sink. 7 figures, lots of grass. Oof. I should've taken a break. I was spinning by the end.

Next step is to paint up the heavy weapons trooper (who has been stripped and primed) and Thrugg Bullneck (also primed). I also just managed to acquire 8 of my favorite space orc models from this era who will form up another squad, but they will have to wait until next time.

Thanks for reading! Waaargh!

I love how the hex bases fit together so snuggly.