Skyboss Wingnutz’ Air Armada

Way back when I was a little Git, I use to spend hours building and painting model air planes. My father was in aerospace so he encouraged the hobby. When I found girls, the hobby pretty much fell off the map. When I got into 40K, the Ork Bommers called to me early on. Not because of their ‘amazing’ stats (as they are pretty much flying Trukks with no transport capacity) but because their model looked like an F-86 Sabre and an F-9 Panther had a kid but beat it with an ugly stick! In my head I could almost see the thick black exhaust spewing from the sputtering jet engine, just enough thrust to keep the Bommer aloft but not enough to be a blur as it cruised by, all the while the pilot flipping me the bird screaming an unintelligible slew of obscenities. I initially acquired just a Burna-Bommer and used the extra bits to make a Dakka-Jet out of the spare bits and a F-9F 1/48 scale model. They performed… well, poorly, but I really loved the models regardless.

1/48 F-9F to Dakka Jet Conversion

When the new Orks hit last summer, I read the “Skyboss Wingnutz’ Air Armada” formation out of the “Sanctus Reach: Hour of the Wolf” book and nearly hit the roof with excitement. The formations calls for 5 Bommers in total, which meant more models and more painting but that was at the back of my mind. A few of the perks of running the formation is a special rule called “Airborne Horde” which basically states that when any of the formation flies off the board, all one-time use weapons and hull points are restored. I’m mean, c’mon, that’s pretty awesome. Through some crafty trades and ebay sales, I ended up getting the remaining 3 Bommers I needed to make the formation a reality. I built them relatively quick but painting took forever to get started, though, I got 90% finished within a week’s time. I still have the crew and some weapons for the Blitza-Bommer and Burna-Bommer to complete, but they were worthy of being fielded, I felt.

A couple of guys from my local gaming group wanted to get a big game going, 8000pts in total spread across 4 players, 2000 points each. I decided to take a break from the Dread Mob and give this new formation a shot. As with all of our large point games, we didn’t make it past round 2 but the Air Armada did make it on the board. Not enough time to really be effective or utilize the “Airborne Horde” special rule, but at least the looked mean. My partner for the day, Zack (Imperal Fists), took a few pics (below) to at least prove that they made it onto the table. I still want to try this formation out on a reasonable sized game to see it in full action.

The main problem I’m having is that there are so many fun / powerful Ork formations to play, I’m having trouble picking which ones to use BUT I am sticking to my own rule… I can’t field the unit as a formation until I have all models in said formation painted. This is slowing my roll but is keeping me honest about painting my Orks. Once I finish the Bommers, I’m considering Bullyboyz or the Green Tide. I have the models, I just need to squeeze in the brush time.

 

3 comments

  1. Yessss! I’ve been waiting for someone to play with this formation forever! Of course it would be my favorite walker buddy! Bombers look great on the board! Bombs away!

    1. Hey Greggles! Thanks for stopping by. While I’m a little disillusioned at the formation’s performance so far, I really didn’t give it a fair shake. Next time, I should have a much more thorough go of it. On a side note, painting all those flyers was actually pretty fun. Once I finish the cockpits and weapons, I’ll post a family picture.

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