Painted Grot Tanks!

Hey there. Super excited to share some pictures with you guys. Today I finished painting two Grot Tanks for a friend's birthday gift and it felt really good not having to paint space marines, power armor, fur or anything Space Wolves related. I know, I know, this blog is "Wolves for the Wolf God" after all, but even the greatest Wolf Lord of them all needs to kick back and let some servitors give him a foot rub, right?

"Oi, wut is dat flashy fing??"

Jack's birthday is today, so me and a few guys from the store decided to surprise him with a painted squad of Forgeworld's Grot Tanks! Now, the reason we decided to give him Grot Tanks was pretty self-explanatory: Jack loves his shooty metal coffins. A lot. He even rides in one from time to time, pretending to be a German officer or something. Very surprised he doesn't play Flames of War.. But! Jack plays Imperial Guard. Jack hates Orkz just like any I. G. player should... and thus the Grot Tanks. It is funny and now Jack will have to use them in the Apocalypse games he loves so much just because the lil buggerz look so darn kool and deadly.

I know I don't show you guys a whole lot of painted models on this blog, so now you'll get to see my painting skills in action. I really like using many watered down layers of paint, so painting with "washes" and glazes to create verdigris and rust is one of my favorite things to do. It is easy and fun and you can always walk around and watch people play while your models are drying. The first model I painted was the "French" Grot Tank. I don't know my tanks but from what I've heard all of the Grot Tanks are actually based off of real old tanks?

"French" Grot Tank

Decided to go nuts with this one. It had been a while since I had the opportunity to paint an Ork vehicle and I had forgotten how much fun it is to drybrush, wash and then do battle damage. Decided to do plenty of rust and paint some sections blue. For my rust I water down Vermin Brown and apply it where it makes sense for rust to form. Using water I control its flow and transparency. Second layer is the "fresh" rust achieved by watering down Blazing Orange and going over the Vermin Brown.

Grots, like Frenchmen have low Ld values..

One of Jack's tanks has "Will break for beer" or something like that written on it, so I wanted to reference it on the side of this lil tank. "Stopz Fer Wine" is both Frenchy and Orky, don't you think? Also, the obligatory DAKKA. The verdigris (the patina formed when copper, brass or bronze is weathered and exposed to air or seawater) is simply watered down Hawk Turquoise over Dwarf Bronze that was previously washed with Badab Black. Telling you, washes = liquid talent.

The French flag was then painted on one of the side plates. Blue, white and red are important in Ork kultur, so it only made sense! And there you go, a French Grot Tank!

The second Grot Tank was to be more simple. I wanted to paint some more verdigris and definitely wanted to have tons of blood on the front. I mean, with them spikez this vehicle was just askin' for it. The first layer of blood is supposed to be the coagulated, scab part of the massacred victim, so Scab Red it was. To make sure the first coat was thick and had texture, a standard brush was dipped in Scab Red (no water was added) and then brought a few inches away from the model. You want to get close to the brush and then blow on it, almost like you are spitting. You won't have a lot of control on the splatter and even I got a little more blood than I was looking for... but in the end it looked great!

The second layer of blood is the older blood, but not as old as the first layer. Here we use Red Gore. This time a tank brush was dipped into a 2/1 Red Gore and water mix and then using your fingers you gently flick the bristles of the brush, splattering blood on the vehicle. Let it dry and then it is time for the fresh blood. This time we are going to be using a 2/1 Blood Red and water mix and do the same thing.. Apply a generous amount of Gloss Varnish to make it shiny and nasty.

The tank got a quick freehand of the Bulgarian flag.. just because. The grot driver was then given a white hat and red pants to match the tricolor of the Bulgarian flag. No silly slogans this time, just lots of verdigris and rust allowing for a simple, yet charismatic tank.





Here ate the other two Grot Tanks that were painted by the store's manager.

The Führer's Grot Tank.

The uncanny resemblance to Hitler is uncanny.

Unaffiliated Grot Tank..

... with jungle AND urban cammo. You never know where you're going to fight!

So.. Grot Tanks. Fantastic models with tons of cool little tongue-in-cheek details and a lot of ways to paint them. Definitely a great addition to any Ork army as long as your opponent lets you use them... And if he does not, then he is a mean jerk who cannot appreciate the killy powa of da Grot Tanks!

All of 'em!