Da Grey Knightz - First Purifier finished

Ere we go!

After a hiatus of nearly two years, I have finally completed the first Grey Knight ork Purifier! Having largely completed the torso of the ork previously, the final element to tackle was the ork’s arms. My uncertainty of what to do with the ork’s arms was largely what kept me from finishing the conversion. If anyone has assembled Black Orcs in the past, you will know that they are heavily restricted in their arm positioning. They are limited to two basic poses, one taking a two-handed grip on a great weapon and the other brandishing two single-handed weapons. In both cases at least one of the ork’s arms is held aloft in the air. Furthermore, half of each arm is molded onto the body of the ork, making repositioning all but impossible without significant greenstuff work. What could the ork hold up in the air without look awkward and forced? That was the problem...

Since the ork was intended to represent a Grey Knight Purifier wielding a psycannon, he loses his standard weaponry (stormbolter and Nemesis Force sword). This mandated that the ork’s hands could not be holding any weapons if I wanted to abide by the ‘what you see is what you get’ rule. All Grey Knights are equipped with grenades and this got me thinking of trying to incorporate a stickbomb or two onto the model. And what better place for a stickbomb than an arm raised in the air?  With some simple pinning, I was able to replace the ork’s hand weapon with a plastic stickbomb.

Although a long time in coming, I think this ork is more then ready to pull some limbs off a bloodletter or two!

In addition to the stickbomb on the model, I added little winged fists to the elbow guards of both arms. This was done in likeness of the little crests commonly seen on elbow guards of Grey Knight terminators (a unique visual aspect I associate strongly with Grey Knights, in general). The winged fist motif embodies elements of both the orks and Grey Knights, and conveys that they are a rapid, hard-hitting strike force that assails only the most dangerous enemies without fear.

Winged fist emblems were added to the ork's elbows to imitate the little crests seen on Grey Knight terminators.  

To further distance the model’s left hand from the Chaos Space marine powerfist it was based on, I made the fingertips squatter and a little more boxy.  I did this by cutting off their fingertips while using a little green stuff to touch them up.

Finally, to capture the spirit of the Grey Knights, I finished modelling the little box on the ork’s chestplate housing his copy of the Liber Daemonica (a sacred tome carried into battle by every Grey Knight detailing the cardinal tenets of anti-daemonic lore and chapter doctrines).

I could not resist the opportunity to create a little compartment to hold the Liber Daemonica,
 one of the most iconic elements of the Grey Knights.

Well that about does it for the first of the Grey Knightz. It was refreshing working on an ork model again, hopefully everyone is as happy with how he turned out as I am! Until next time, keep enjoying the hobby!

- Harlon Nayl