It’s no secret that building a Warhammer 40k army is very expensive, particularly a full 2,000 point tournament list. But if you’ve got time, a creative eye, and a big enough bits box, it’s possible to bring that total down substantially by converting, kit-bashing, and scratch-building everything. Ork player Aaron Lee Yeager has set the bar low: his growing Ork force has so far cost just $10.33.
He’s working to a self-imposed budget of $25, with the goal of having a complete force ready for the Warhammer 40k tournament at the Las Vegas Open in January 2025. “I’m looking at the number of things that still need to be assembled and still need to be painted and I’d say it’s very unlikely at this point that the army will be ready by this January”. The picture below is far from the full force.
He’s not ruling it out though: “The great thing about Orks is if you believe something hard enough, it becomes true”.
The Orks are definitely the most forgiving Warhammer 40k faction to scratch build for, as their looted claptrap technology is already made from bits and pieces of scrap from hundreds of sources. “So far, I’ve only had to purchase a new super glue and a new Elmers glue” – for sticking sand to the models’ bases, he explains – “Combined with two toys I bought from the dollar store, we’re currently at $10.33”.
“I’ve got to be really careful from here on out, because even buying a pot of paint at this point, or a new miniature paintbrush could cause me to fail the challenge”, Yeager says.
“The most difficult part of the challenge so far has been every time I had to discard a really good idea because it would involve buying something that I don’t have”, he adds, as “A good idea is a hard thing to let go of”.
Of the completed models, his favorite is “the Kustom Boosta-Blasta covered in snotlings”. “It’s just so unbelievably satisfying to see a dollar store toy” turn into “this awesome fighting vehicle that totally looks like it could be an official model kit”, he explains.
He adds “It’s so absurd with its huge spinning bladed disc on the front, gnarly tusks, and the little snot shooting rubber slingshots over the side”.
He’s currently working on a Shojkkjump Dragsta. “It has the ability to teleport around the battlefield, so I thought it would be really cool if I made it out of looted Necron technology”, he says. “The pilot is going to be an ascendant Grot crackling with energy”, like a diminutive mockery of an ascendant C’tan Shard.
You can find more pictures of Yeager’s army on his Facebook and Instagram. He’s also a fantasy novelist – you can find his books on Kindle.
If you want to create your own bits-box army, Yeager advises that “Bigger models are easier to convert than smaller models”. He adds “The more ragtag the force is, the easier it’s going to be to convert and scratch build”. This style of custom army suits cultists and mutants a lot better than it does Space Marines.
Having a bit stockpile of bits is also essential. Yeager has built his up for decades. “I started playing Warhammer 40k back in 1989… my cousin came home from a trip to England and brought a black and white catalogue with him”. He “immediately started saving up money” to order some figures.
Even in the days of white metal figurines he found himself with “extra bits left over, spare weapons, bits of sprue”, and “the models were so expensive even back then it seemed like a waste to throw them out”.
That bits box continued to build throughout the ‘00s. “I had a group of friends who also played Warhammer a lot, and I would often be asked to help assemble their models”, he says, and “in return they allowed me to hang onto the extra bits”.
His pile of gubbins “didn’t really hit critical mass until I started running tournaments for Games Workshop as part of their Outrider programme”.
As well as Warhammer 40k, his trove of bits and pieces contains “Warhammer Fantasy, Battlefield Gothic, Space Hulk, Mordheim, Battletech, Lego, Gundam Kits, Robotech… if it was a model kit in the 80s or 90s, it probably found representation in there”. If you’re the kind of player who never throws away a bit, good news – you’re not hoarding, you’re building up supplies for your own kitbashed army.
If you like Orky ingenuity, make sure you check out this even cheaper Ork kustom job – made entirely from cardboard!
Source: Wargamer
