Ork Meganobz

The Ork Meganobz set is a visually appealing one. It affords a great opportunity to be creative in the spirit of orks, by building as you see fit. Typically, with these Citadel sets, you get a good array of options and this set is no exception. What you’ll end up with is a set of three meganobz and a grot oiler that are suitable for both tabletop battles as well as dramatic set figures for roleplaying game tactical scenes. This is the main reason why I still buy miniatures, so I have a good range to call upon for roleplaying encounters and creating something visually appealing and helpful to build a picture of a scene.

Quality of components

As is usual with Citadel, the quality is excellent. The attention to detail is there with a range of options depending on how you want to build. There is usually a decent number of spare parts too from the tiny little add on pieces to the spare heads and weapons. All are good quality sculpts and this is helpful for painting, as I find the better the quality, the easier it is to paint defining features and bring out detail. The ork heads and weapons in particular are well sculpted and look great, and these are key features after all!

Painting

I typically use both Vallejo and Citadel. For these ork meganobz, I’ve mostly used Vallejo and whilst this may not be in strict alignment with Citadel paint schemes, I don’t think this matters as a, I’m not using these miniatures to take part in official tabletop battles and b, I can still achieve a good look through the variety of paints from Vallejo. For this set I have used Goblin Green, Sun Yellow, Orange Fire, Bloody Red, Sunset Red, Gunmetal, Silver, Glorious Gold and Stonewall Grey amongst other paints. I also used Citadel’s Nuln Oil, Athonion Camoshade (skin tone) and Agrax Earthshade (oil effect).

I also used hints of black and white for shade and highlighting. Overall, whilst I wanted a used, mechanical look, I also wanted to bring out the brightness of some colours because I thought it would make a nicer looking model. I tried and tested a few colour at times to see the effects, but I settled for the final look as both typical and simple.

Overall, my painting strategy was to use my airbrush to spray a prime coat of base white then a layer of yellow, red or black. I used lighter shades for the larger patches, with inks to bring out the holes and dents etc and then used white or lighter shades of eg red to add highlights or I used a different colour such as orange or gold simply to be different and add that sense that ork waaargh-gear is highly customisable and functional and adding something of a different colour scheme is fine.

Finally, for painting, whilst I painted up a couple of metal lower jaw attachments, I only fixed one in place because I like the look of the ork heads and didn’t want to block this view, although I’ve added one in the photo to show the work done.

Price

As is typical again with Citadel miniatures, they are not cheap. But the models of excellent quality and it is a luxury. If you are using Ork Meganobz for battles, then having a decent set is useful, but overall, for me, who may want one for a tactical scene, the prices can be off putting. Still, now that I have a set, it is nice to add them to my NPC miniatures collection; and they are a great stand out addition.

Customisable in build and customable in play

I didn’t have any particular theme in mind when I built these miniatures, other than to have three distinct models, each of a different but still orky colour and three different sets of weapons. However, you get a good range of weapons and other bits that whether you are adding these to an ork army or just want some extra cool miniatures, I’m certain the options will include something you can use and in typical ork fashion the guns look like they can dispense a lot of dakka and the melee weapons a lot of harm on ork enemies. It’s all over the top and great for orks.

Whilst it may be fiddly to cut pieces out and to glue together, I’ve always found this approach helpful to painting as I can paint pieces individually as required before full assembly. I’ve never found the enclosed assembly instructions totally helpful, but it gives you the overall idea.

Overall

I like this set. It may not be one as useful as others for me for general tactical play, but it makes a difference visually to have the occasional imposing piece in a scene. I also enjoyed painting this set of meganobz, it’s quite therapeutic which is something echoed by others and ultimately this hobby is borne through a desire to be creative and to use one’s imagination, so I think this set of ork meganobz is definitely a worthy addition to any collection.