From GregB: Ork Dakka Jet & Ground Assets

Ork Dakka Jet and ground assets - plastic models from GW.

Hi everyone - glad to see there are participants in the Challenge getting their jabs! Here in Northern Ontario, Canada, I expect it will be quite a long wait for me, so I hope you don't mind these random submissions. You will see that further efforts on my WW1 painting have been delayed by this sudden lurch back into GW territory. This is an Ork "Dakka Jet" and set of Ork "ground assets" for GW's 40k-themed air-combat game Aeronautica Imperialis. These have been sitting on my painting desk for months, and when I finished those 10mm Roman Auxilia a couple of weeks ago, I thought I might as well finish these bits too. 

The dakka jet is the basic fighter for the Orks - can be upgraded with extra rockits for air-to-air combat, or given bombs for ground attack missions.

Aeronautica is a fun game - obviously the setting won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed the original version of these rules that Forge World released many years ago. The re-booted version, with nice plastic models, is a lot of fun too. The rules are not complicated, and it is fun to have these little combat aircraft from the grim and dark future zipping around, blowing up stuff, and each other. 

A bunch of random colours and patterns...fun little models to paint, although it can be slow going.

The initial model range focused on the Imperial Navy and the Orks, but it has since expanded to include Imperial Army (Valkyries) and the Tau (really cool!). I started painting my initial sets last summer, with the expectation that I would finish all of the models in short order...but hobby squirrels run around in my brain and I get distracted. This is a particular issue when trying to paint Ork subjects...they don't really have a uniform look to their gear and kit, and so each model is something of an individual effort for me, which makes painting Ork stuff a slog.

And so this poor Dakka Jet has been sitting even longer than the Roman Auxilia from my last submission. Probably since last November, when I had been last working on Aeronautica stuff...this one Dakka Jet was sitting there at the corner of my painting table, falling on to the ground occasionally, with a couple of base colours already on, waiting for me to finish it. But for months I just could not find the inspiration - I didn't feel like painting check patterns at the time, and besides, I had momentum with some other projects - but I finally just picked up the brush last week, and now it is ready.

Ork ground assets...a bunker of some kind, and assorted flak batteries to protect it.

In the Aeronautica game many missions involve bombing runs. You need something to bomb - that is where these "ground assets" come in. The bunker-looking thing serves as a target for the incoming bombers...the same pack came with an assortment of Ork flak emplacements which would protect this and add to the fun in the game.

Another view of the ground assets...these are in the same "scale" as the models for "Adeptus Titanicus"....

So there we are...my first GW and first sci-fi models painted in many months! Thanks for reading, hope you are all doing OK out there. Cheers.