In the second of our five-part series of round table chats with the Warhammer Studio, we’re channelling Waaagh! energy and getting a peek behind the Big Mek’s curtain at the creation of the new Ork miniatures from Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon.
Adam and Eddie have collared Matt and Seb for a chat about Ork hierarchies, nostalgic vehicles, and why Orks need big flat armour plates too.
Here are some of our highlights from the video, but make sure to watch the full thing!
Ork Boyz
Seb: All their choppas are just sharp bits of metal. There are no custom choppas, and there are no chain ones or powered ones. Those are reserved for the Nobz, and then the Warboss gets an even cooler version of everything.
The Boyz have either got nought to one shoulder pads. The Nobz have one to two shoulder pads and all the Warbosses, they've always got two shoulder pads. And it's a small, subtle distinction that just says they haven't got as much gear.
Another thing we wanted to just sort out was the proportions. I felt like when you put some of the older Ork models up against the Primaris or a Cadian, they looked maybe not as grown up tonally, like the sort of realism level was less. So one of the big changes we did was reproportioning them. That doesn't mean resizing them. The Boyz are basically the same size as the Beast Snagga ones, but the guns are smaller. But when you put the gun next to a, you know, a Cadian, it's still massive. They’re still big, bombastic weapons.
Gretchin
Seb: We were talking a lot about the militaristic sort of vibe to all these, like having them with little army boots on some of them and it just made them more soldier-like.
Matt: They've got all the gear that they need to tackle any situation.
Seb: Yeah, we wanted meaningful gear on them.
Bannernob
Seb: With that one, I really wanted a big clan icon, obviously. But then they have all that cool IP of those little sort of glyphs, then they have meanings, so you can choose what glyphs you put on them.
Bigboss
Seb: So again, we were just thinking about other HQ options, who you might have in that squad. And we didn't want to mess up with the hierarchy thing that we just talked about, so he's the same size as the other Nobz. But he's just got bigger shoulder pads; they're wider. He's got his own style boss pole with these big tusks on it. All the other Nobz have got a little glyph on a pole, and this guy has his tusks. And we elevated him a little bit with some ground, so he just looms a bit more.
Painboy
Seb: We can't really imagine him sewing people up or repairing people, so we talked about giving him some horrible syringe that just sort of stimulates you enough to keep fighting even though you might be injured. So he's not really patching you up. He's just keeping everyone fighting with his horrible syringe.
Wartrakk
Seb: I think with all Ork vehicles, they should look like you could drive it into a brick wall, and it's fine. They should be ramshackle and crude, but sort of bombproof… Our most successful Orks do look like they're just really tough. So, having those big slabs of armour, the tracks look really gnarly, very grippy. The tyres are really knobbly, super grippy, aggressive tread.
Matt: We did a lot of concepts for this one. How fast should it look? How much suspension should it have? How high off the ground should the rider be?
Big Mek Dakkarig
Matt: We'd been talking about something new for the Orks, like an artillery piece. It's kind of in the vein of what Big Meks do when he's built things like the Mek Gunz and those smaller pieces of artillery, but he's built something so big he can't carry it. He needs some big mechanical legs to strut around on.
Seb: It's a four-barrelled rotary gun, but it's got two belt feeds, so I guess it fires from the top and bottom barrel simultaneously, and then it's going to churn through a lot of ammunition. So he's got six drum magazines. And when they run out, they drop down in a chute, and out the bottom, and the model’s actually crushing a spent one underneath his foot.
There’s also talk of how to ensure your Warboss isn’t as big as Ghazghkull, and Seb and Matt pick their favourite Squigs, so make sure to watch the full video.
That’s all of the miniatures down, and we’ve still got three videos to go. Check back in tomorrow for the next round table episode, where we pick Phil’s brain and learn all about new lore and the devastating renewal of the wars on Armageddon. See you then!
