I had been planning to replace Badbreff. But he wasn’t having any of it. He looked at me and didn’t say a word and I was silently cowed into submission.

Incidentally, Babreff is 37mm tall. Including his base.

Badbreff is the Nob (leader) of my mob in Gorkamorka. A total of two models have had the distinction of representing Badbreff in his various guises over the years. One was one of the plastic Orks that came with the game; the other was a metal Ork Nob that I used to replace him once my first ever Gorkamorka mob started getting too big — and far too dangerous — to be led by an Ork who was significantly smaller (and therefore less ‘ard-lookin’) than most of the current WH40K Ork range. Since this substitution, Badbreff has led at least two (I think there have been one or two more, but, alas, I have lost track of them) subequent mobs from strength to strength (the most recent of which, in Dom’s campaign, is doing particularly well), while the old model has enjoyed a dignified retirement in my old miniature cabinet.

However, all this was set to change after a brief inspiration led to my forming a whole new mob yesterday, based around the more recent plastic WH40K Ork models and a cunning conversion I came up with for an Ork trak based on an Imperial Guard Basilisk kit.

But Badbreff wasn’t having any of it. I looked at him, sitting triumphantly on my new track as a magnificent stand-in for the Nob with whom I hoped to replace him and he looked back at me. And now my new mob has a new leader. One who has already stood by me through thick and thin. And who is never in a month of Sundays going to be replaced by some scrawny little upstart yoof with fewer years of experience than he has choppas in his left hand.

A lick of paint here and there would probably do the old boy the world of good. Possibly even a few minor conversions. But it looks like essentially the same old Ork will be leading my mob to victory (and even the occasional defeat) for a few more games yet.