Let me use today’s post for a spell of pointless rambling. Bear with me though, there might be something worthwile hidden along the way 
Anyway, last week I bought a huge pile of Ogre Kingdoms bitz from fellow hobbyist Kar Tharog. When I got home from work yesterday, the parcel had arrived, and so I spent most of the evening with my very individual kind of R&R: sorting a huge pile of bitz into many smaller piles
While doing that, I realised that buying “surprise piles” of bitz may be one of the most delicious hobby activities for me, but more on that in a minute. You may ask yourself why I went for Ogre bitz in the first place.
While I am very unlikely to start an Ogre Kingdoms army (or any WFB army, for that matter) anytime soon, I have had my eyes on bitz from the various Ogre Kingdoms kits for quite a while now. Visually speaking, the Ogres are heavily based on a culture of hunters, for one. That means that the kits usually come with lots of trophies like skulls, hides, etc. — a perfect fit for Khorne’s Eternal Hunt.
Then there’s the fact that the recurring symbol of the Great Maw is fairly similar to the World Eaters’ legion badge: For instance, I am already using a certain Ogre Kingdoms gut plate as a legion symbol for my army. The newer bitz continue this trend, featuring stylised jaws and maws — once again, perfect for my World Eaters.
And even beyond the scope of my main army, Ogre Kingdoms models have a darkly funny and eclectic bend, which may not help with my World Eaters, but is sure to yield some really cool and interesting bitz.
So that was basically my reasoning behind this purchase, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed when I opened the parcel yesterday. Here’s a look at what I got out of the deal:
This is what I would call the really interesting part of the bitz haul: All the “regular” Ogre bull parts (heads, arms, weapons, accessories) have already been neatly sorted away. They will come in handy, too, but they are certainly not the meat of the purchase. So what you see above is the part that really sealed the deal for me, because I would have had to pick up some really expensive (and ultimately useless) kits in order to get my hands on some of this stuff.
So let me point out a couple of highlights. First up, I was thrilled to find an entire Stonehorn head among the bitz:
I had originally planned to simply use the skull-like “faceplate” as decoration on one of the army’s vehicles, a daemon engine or something similar. Yet that head is so brilliantly angry and detailed that I will probably hold on to it for a while yet: Maybe it could be used on a kitbashed Greater Daemon or something similar? One can always dream…
As a matter of fact, there was a complete Thundertusk head as well — two bitz I would never have gotten hold of normally.
I also got some really nice Mournfang cavalry weapons:
I imagine these will be really useful if I ever decide to add some more Forsaken to the existing three models. Note how the blades also seem to be emulating the great maw motif (and, once again, the World Eaters’ symbol).
I was also fortunate enough to receive this brilliant head:
Normally a part of a dead Imperial soldier kept as a “snack” by the Ogres, the head is just perfect for a twisted servant of the dark gods, don’t you think? Expect this part to make an appearance in my small Traitor Guard detachment (or my INQ28 collection) at some point…
I have already started playing around with some of the bitz. Here’s an early prototype: A World Eaters Terminator using a particularly cool Ogre gut plate as a pauldron:
So, did I post this just to gloat? No way! What I really want to talk about is that this kind of purchase is usually one of the high points of the hobby for me. Strange, huh?
I guess it’s the fact that there’s a certain thrill of the hunt, if you will: Taking a look at the – often fuzzy – photos online. Deciding if you’ll get enough useful bitz out of the deal, then ultimately taking the plunge. Waiting impatiently for the parcel to arrive, the immediately tearing it open and sifting through the contents and thinking of new conversions — sometimes coming up with ideas you would never have considered when buying your bitz the “conventional” way. Don’t get me wrong: Methodically hunting for a certain bit via ebay or one of the bitz sites can be pretty gratifiying as well. But “buying in bulk” like this just feels great every now and then!
Granted, it’s something we usually cannot indulge in too often: You have to be lucky to find a pile of bitz that warrants the purchase. You have to balance “wild card” purchases like this against more sensible additions to your army. But for a fanatical kitbasher like myself, digging through a huge pile of plastic crack and dreaming up some new conversions is really as good as it gets!
Oh, and by the way, I wasn’t disappointed on the “darkly funny and eclectic” front either: There where lots of grisly (but rather funny) trophies, some Ogre snacks (like steaks and plucked chickens) and lots and lots of very strange stuff — I am very confident that most of this will be useful in the end, though: If not for my World Eaters, then in one of my other hobby projects. The Orkheim Ultraz and my planned Mordheim Orc warband can always use some more silliness
So yeah, taking a plunge and getting a huge pile of random bitz like this was really fun! What about you? Do you agree, or do you prefer your purchase of new bitz to me more restrained and, shall we say, surgical in nature? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
In any case, have a great weekend! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Filed under: 40k, Conversions, Pointless ramblings, WIP, World Eaters Tagged: 40k, bitz, bitz haul, bitzbox, chaos, chaos space marines, conversion, hobby ponderings, khorne, ogre kingdoms, WIP, world eaters
