Herding the Runtz

My mate undeadhighelf kindly sent me three Grotz, providing me with the perfect opportunity to expand my Blood Axe warband with a Runtherd and his minions. Usually part of the Squig Katapult crew, they make great looking assistants working in the Squig Acquisition department of the horde.

Stab, net and stash – the three steps of squig hunting

Once a warband reaches a certain size, it’s really time to hire a GR Manager to keep all those pesky employees in check that are not like Orks motivated enough by the prospect of the next good scrap. The Runtherd is a firm believer in the carrot and stick approach to leadership. Unfortunately for the Gretchin, the squigs ate all the carrots.

Grot Resource Management is a thankless task

Headin’ out to hunt sum squigs

Whipped Into Action

My Space Orks army for Warhammer 40k has been in the works for a couple of editions now (and by that I mean stored away in a figure case). Largely built and with some undercoat and base colours on, only half a unit of Grotz and a few Goff Orks were completed. For reasons unknown but most likely linked to a disturbance in the Waaagh somewhere, I felt the urge to finish the moderately sized Gretchin mob this week.

With a little encouragement the Gretchin advance

There are more Grotz to paint in my collection, but my current army list just includes this small band as a filler. Combined with the Rogue Trader era mob I’ve got 30, nearly enough to start a revolution and split off into its own faction. I do own the Red Gobbo and always had my eye on some scrap tankettes, so the Runtherd better keep a close watch over this rabble.

Up close and personal

A prod in the right direction

Gretchin Boarding Party

I’ve reached my target of 20 Gretchin for an old school Space Ork force. These can well be used as part of a clan list or as Gretchin Bandits. Since I also recently bought Rogue Stars, I could pick a pirate gang from them.

Gretchin swarming through a derelict space craft

The final additions are one proper old lead figure and one 2nd edition plastic Gretchin. I had the box set and used these guys regularly since I didn’t own any metal sculpts in the day, but this is probably the first one I actually completely painted.

Flamboyant freebooters

These diminutive pirates are the curse of merchant shipping across the sector

Next I’ll be painting a squad of da boyz and a retinue for the Warboss.

Troops of Tomorrow

I’ve been expanding the Gretchin mob for my Blood Axes with two ‘proper’ Rogue Trader miniatures and one 2nd edition sculpt. That brings me up to 18, looking to pick up two more for an even 100 points under the ‘Ere We Go army list. Not that it matters gaming wise, I am using army lists more as collecting/painting goals these days.

The two older figures are amongst my favourites so far. They are perfect as freebooterz, so I’ll always have the option of fielding the mob in different contexts.

His playlist exclusively consists of Disorder by The Exploited

Geared up for a fight

New kid with fancy shooter

From the back the differences in sculpting are most noticeable. To fit in with the plastic mono-pause Gretchin from the 2nd edition box set, the design of the whole range was streamlined and simplified. Only with the arrival of Gorkamorka Gretchin design experienced a bit of a renaissance and some individual character was reintroduced.

Lurking to take pot shots at the enemy

Every Warboss Starts Out Small

The Orcs were a major force in Warhammer 40k when I started out, with several large volumes of background and army lists complementing the Rogue Trader rule set. I had a force consisting of Goffs, Bad Moons and Freebooterz cobbled together, which got lost on one too many warp jumps.

For the last couple of years I gradually built up a new collection mostly through impulse buys, and after having re-read ‘Ere We Go, Waaargh the Orks and Freebooterz, I recently decided on raising a small force of Blood Axes.

The Warboss and his entourage, poised for greater things

I’ll loosely base the force on the army list in ‘Ere We Go, with some licence regarding weapon choices and unit sizes. To start me off, I painted the Blood Axes Warboss, and finished some more Gretchin which had languished in painting limbo for over a decade. There are a few more of them to come, and I might form them up into a mob of Gretchin Bandits together with a unit of 13 I already have.

The Warboss stems from the Golden Axe household

The Gretchin have equipped themselves with looted armour