Here is another buying guide! This time we are presenting an alternative model for making Ard'boyz. To this day Games Workshop hasn't created stand alone 'Eavy Armour models for player consumption. It leaves the not so crafty Ork players without an instant way to have Ard' Boy units. Luckily, the masters of alternative Ork models Kromlech has a solution.
Kromlech makes Ard' Boyz by the name of Armoured Orc Assualt. You can buy these models in sets or you can also just buy the torso, legs, heads, or arms separately. To help you decide if these alternative models are right for you I have asked my local Ork expert again to give me his review of these Kromlech Ork models.
Review of the Kromlch Armoured Orc Kit
By Pez5767
As a long time Ork player, I am always looking for new ways to provide more dakka, armor, and choppas to my Ork horde. The past few weeks I've been playing with the Armoured Orc Kit from Kromlech. My goal with this project was to mix the Kromlech parts in with the GW ones to see if I could create a unique looking squad and add some variety to a boyz mob. My hope was that the Kromlech Bitz would seamlessly integrate with the GW kit to create a squad which is unique amongst my other 200 boyz.
You can see in the picture above that the kit is clean and relatively free of mold lines. The only critique or frustration I have with this kit is with the way the shoulder pads attach to their sprue. As you can see, the sprue attaches to the underside and middle of the shoulder pad. Due to the tight curve of the shoulder pad, getting a set of clippers into narrow space is difficult and leads to a fair amount of clean-up work to get a smooth finish. Also, because the bitz are resin, I was worried about using a hobby knife in the small space because the pressure from cutting the surface could easily distort the detail on the should pad, or worse yet, crack the resin. In the end, a set of clippers and some time with a needle file worked just fine. Other than that, the bitz are easy to work with and integrate nicely into the GW Ork Boyz kit, as you can see below:
The weapons are not direct copies of the GW ones, but are still well within the same design style you'd expect for orcs. Also, the heavily wrapped arms of the Armoured Orcs are another touch which adds some welcome variety to the look of a squad. The Kromlech Armoured Orc heads are the only part of the kit that I wasn't 100% sold on after assembly. The faces seemed awfully flat in comparison to the GW kit and also seemed slightly larger than they should be when placed on the GW boyz body. In fact, I think at this point I can say that the Kromlech Orcs are generally slightly larger than their GW counterparts… which may or may not be a good thing depending on what you're looking for. However, as you can see below, once painted this difference between the GW bodies and the Kromlech heads becomes far less noticeable.
One aspect of the Kromlech kit that might not be immediately noticeable is that the Armoured Orc Bodies have pants that fit all the way down over their boots. I'm not sure why all of the Orks in the 41st millenium tuck their pants into their boots, but it was a nice change to work on some boyz with full length pants. The Armoured Orc bodies also feature a layered body armor design which I think looks really cool, but is not very visible from a typical top down view. The additional body armor also gives the orcs body a slightly bulkier look which I quite like for 'Ard Boyz. Finally, I think you can see that addition of the Kromlech Armoured Orc kit added variety to the squad, but not so much variety that they look like something altogether different from the regular boys. This was a problem with the Kromlech Orc Juggernaut kit, in that the Juggernaut Kit is absolutely not compatible with a GW Meganob.
After completing the squad, I realized that the difference between the Kromlech Orc heads and the GW Ork heads was really a moot point. If you compare the head on the Big Shoota model, to that of the Nob, to the other GW ork boyz, you will see that there is a tremendous variety to the structure of the faces even within the GW line of models. I think the Kromlech Armoured Orc kit made for a really nice addition to my collection of bitz and created an 'Ard Boyz Trukk Mob for my army that has a look which nicely reflects their 4+SV when contrasted against a standard GW ork boy. On a final note, I could very easily see myself purchasing more of the Kromlech Armoured Orc Bodies in the future to either expand this squad or create another 'Ard Boyz squad.
Hopefully you've found this helpful. In a few weeks I'll be back with one last Kromlech review to see how the Kromlech Flakvierling gun compares to the Forge World Flakka Dakka Cannon.
Kromlech Armoured Orcs
If you are looking for sets or just parts to make Ard'boyz here is the link for all those needs.
Prices range from $10.00 to $135.00Warning
40k Buying Guide is rated empty your pockets. These articles are meant to help you continue complaining about GW pricing schemes at the same time you are buying used models on Ebay