Brainboyz

The clearing of half finished models from the painting desk before the close of 2014 continues.  Treading the line between Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and some mogwai fed after midnight are these Brainboyz, ready to lead ork armies into a more intellectual era.

In 1990/91 the background to the Orkoids (orks, goblins and snotlings) in the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader setting was fleshed out via three books: Waaargh the Orks!, ‘Ere We Go and Freebooters.  Core to this exploration was the definition of the orks as a genetically engineered race: the orks were created by the Brainboyz.

The Brainboyz were the original orkoids – snotlings – that had their mental abilities (and therefore culture) boosted by symbiotic, brain enhancing fungus.  The Brainboyz genetically manipulated their own biological make up to generate a warrior caste (orks) and a servant caste (or possibly intermediate warrior class, gretchin) of essentially the same species.

Then something bad happened, the Brainboyz ran out of fungus and reverted to snotlings over a generation or so and the orks took over and have been in charge ever since.

Until now…

I picked up a few 15mm miniatures with separate heads from CP Models earlier in the year, with the intention of using them as small alien scientists in 28mm.  Then while digging round in my box of ork parts for another project I found some gnoblar heads and had an idea and suddenly these models happened.

The gnoblar heads look quite large when attached to the scientist bodies, but as that look fits well with the idea of the expanded mental faculties of the Brainboyz, I went with it.

I also added slices of styrene rod to function as some sort of sci-fi, vaguely Morpheus-from-The-Matrix spectacles, cos, y’know, nerdy scientist types always wear glasses.  I am perpetuating a stereotype.

“Hmmm, yes, so, head over there, kill those humans, blow up that tank and then collect my dry cleaning… I have the ticket here somewhere… there it is, yes, theres a good chap… chop chop.”

The Brainboyz generate far more ideas for gaming than I initially expected that they would.  These little guys could somehow be the remnants of the original Brainboyz civilisation or they could be “modern” snotlings who have come across another source of the original brain enhancing fungus/another artificial brain enhancing substitute.

“All orks, no matter their design era, nor their manufacturing material, shall obey me!”

The idea of a game where the orks are actually led by these guys appeals to me quite a bit.  Im not sure that the average ork would simply bow down and accept orders from name badge and lab coat wearing, tiny, geeky greenskins, but I presume that the original Brainboyz had similar issues and found ways to deal with them.

“OBEY US!”

My favoured approach would be to assume that the Brainboyz themselves have been engineered to exude some sort of pheromone/spore that renders the orks compliant with their demands.  Alternatively, maybe the spheres that the Brainboys are carrying (the original models are supplied with a not-Ood head, so I am guessing that the spheres represent those things) are some sort of device that forces orks to do the Brainboyz bidding.

Plenty of options, all of which amuse me.

The Brainboyz debate scientific matters while Bigface provides crucial security