Review: Kromlech Armoured Orc SMG Squad

Regardless of the extremely rapid release cycle that Games Workshop has instituted as of late, the Ork codex is still a fairly new addition to the latest line-up of codices for Warhammer 40.000.
Lack of codex power aside, the orks are one of the most fun and customizeable armies in the setting and pretty much any inconsistency can be explained with the strangeness of Ork behavior.
This review should have been out a month ago, but issues with my computer, crashes and general tech hell, did almost kill it.
Perhaps you'll notice, that all the images are from the Kromlech website. Well, the images I took crashed and burned in "The great crash", so all image credit of course, goes to Kromlech.

Kromlech is one of the top 3rd party producers of everything orky, and for this little review we are taking a closer look at some armored brutes, which will work perfectly for truly 'ard boyz.
The Armored Orc smg squad includes nine armored Orks armed with, surprise, a smg, and some heavy armor plates thrown randomly across their bodies in prefect Ork DIY fashion.

The set contains enough heads and extra face plates, to  assemble a varied squad, despite the fact, that the poses are pretty much given, with no great options to change the poses around.
Like most, if not all, Kromlech products, they are cast in resin, so be sure to give them a good wash(the soap and water kind), before trying to glue them together.
The sculpts are pretty clean, with few mold-lines in need of removal, which makes prepping them for painting a breeze.

The Kromlech Orks do have that typical GW ape-like hunched appearance, which makes them fit an existing Ork force nicely, while still retaining enough character to stand out.
In general the models are nice with adequate detail, without going overboard, which wouldn't fit a simple Ork trooper.

The "nob" or leader of the squad is a fine sculpt too, but I find him a bit too limited with regards to wargear and poses. You are in for some conversion work if you want to field multiple versions of him.
Luckily the standard Games Workshop parts, will fit just perfect.
The thing is though, and this is very subjective, I don't get the same creative vibe from these as I get from almost every other Kromlech model. They are great models, but not pushing the envelope when it comes to creativity and I feel they lack some of the silliness of the other Orks from the range like the greatcoats or the clanking destroyers.

So, do you need to get some armored Orks?
It depends on your force I guess. They are too cost prohibitive to field an entire force(for most of us anyway), but as I said earlier, they work perfectly as 'ard boyz who take the 'ard part seriously.

Should you need some 'ardy Orks, you can get a squad of 10(including a nob) for 37.99 Euros or you local equivalent at the friendly folks over at Kromlech .

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Review: Kromlech Clanking destroyers Or These are the robots you are looking for

This is the first in what will be a series of reviews of Kromlech products, and in this review we'll take a look at some of the rather special miniatures from Kromlech, the clanking destroyers.

Kromlech is a Polish company which excels in making some of the best 3rd party ork bits and miniatures out there and you could do worse than check out their webpage and be amazed.

It's all right, I'll wait till you return....

Back again?

Great, then lets continue.

As you might know the 40k ork fluff contains some rumblings about orks who were so unfortunate as to have crossed paths with a particularly mad painboy and hence transformed into cybernetic monstrosities.

The destroyers seemed to fit the theme perfectly, so I was anxious to take a look at the lovely Clanking destroyers from Kromlech.

The reviewed kit is a multi part resin kit and as always when working with resin, be sure to wash the parts, before trying to paint and glue.

If you've never worked with resin before and are thinking about skipping the above step, dont! Glue and paint simply wont stick until the parts have had a good washing.

The great thing about the way kromlech designed the clanking destroyers, is that there is not a set way to assemble them. You get 5 heads, torsos, legs and different arms which can be assembled at your hearts content.

The parts require very little cleaning and the mold lines are manageable.
In general I had very few problems getting the models ready to paint and the casts seems to be of very high quality.
No matter how clean a cast, there will always be a little cleaning, but with the dull part out of the way, it is time to take a look at some possible uses for the clanking destroyers.

This obviously gives you a ton of options for customizing, not only with regards to the Clankers but as shown below, the parts also fits regular GW Orks perfectly. The little cute guy below, was put together with random parts, chosen by my wife, and they all fit together perfectly.

 

 

In other words, you should be able to assemble a pretty unique bunch of minis with the supplied parts.

They look incredibly "orky" and the name is perfect, it is easy to imagine some mad Mek/Painboy clanking random parts together for the greater glory of Mork(or Gork), with little rhyme or reason and these bad boyz clanking off to the battlefield.

Converging on conversions
The models and all the possible combinations of parts, would make for a great group of cyber-orks or ork robots, but that would be only half the fun.

As shown below, most of the parts fits perfectly on your standard 40k orks and they sure spice up some otherwise pretty dull models, so you are not in any way limited in you choice of parts or models. Besides, who doesn't like giant cyborg chainsaws?

Actually, I suspect I will be buying some Clanking destroyers, just for the parts and variety they provide and spread random Cybork orks throughout my army. It is a great way to get a little variaty in an othervise pretty similar looking army.

As I might have alluded to, I think Kromlech have hit home with the clankers. 

The models go together well, have tons of soul and will fit any ork army perfectly either as standalone models or as bits for your regular orks.

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