I've started painting Orks in honor of the release of the 4th Edition of Warhammer 40K. I think that the new rules treat Orks kindly, so it's time to start painting an Ork army. Thing is, there's a lot more than just painting to be done with Orks, as they're an army that demands a lot of custom building.
Example: For example, this guy has a bunch of conversions and custom builds that are very cool. Take a look at his biker warboss, and then go here to see how he built the guy. That's a pretty tremendous custom build.
At this point, I'm just working on my first set of 16 slugga boyz. Slugga boyz are the core of a good Ork horde, so I will need lots of them. Probably about 40 should do it. I also need to do some small conversions to create Orks with big shootas, burnas and rokkit launchas, rather than buying the metal models that GW sells. The metal models are more expensive, more heavy (thus fragile), and you only get a few poses that way.
I'll also need to custom build wartrukks and a battlewagon. Yet again the guy above has an amazing wartrukk he built from scratch, which gives the impression that you can get good results with styrene sheet and a good sense of style. On the other hand, you can also go with a plastic model kit, and Orkify it, as he's done here. I'm planning to have a looted Leman Russ, which should be a fun conversion.
All in all, this guy's got an inspiring set of Ork models, which is really invaluable when you're starting on your own project and need a good push to get going.