Contemptor Kevin's Combat Patrol Issue 43 Review

Welcome back Combat Patrolers! This week's issue of Combat Patrol gives us one of Warhammer 40K's most iconic units: Ork Boyz. The foundation of an Ork mob, these boyz are made for fightin' and winnin'. But does this issue of Combat Patrol also fight and win? Let's take a look. As always, thank you to Goonhammer and Hachette for the opportunity to review these models, magazines, and materials.

Narrative Materials

This issue we don't really get much in the way of narrative materials, because it's taken up with a full build and paint guide for the Boyz. We do get an Ork Boyz unit name table, which gives us a 6x6 grid filled with Boss Nob names and then the Unit epithet. I asked Craig "MasterSlowpoke" Sniffen for some help here, and his dice rolls gave us Durmesh's Big Boyz.

Hobby Materials

This issue has a full unit of ten Boyz. This set of Boyz comes from the 2021 Ork Combat Patrol and was a refresh by not replacement for the venerable Ork Boyz kit. Unlike the Termagants, which were previously spread across two sets of two issues, this time we get the full 10 model Ork Boyz sprue at once. And that's a lot to try and finish in a week. So let's have a discussion of these dudes.

These Ork Boyz are monopose push-fit Ork Boyz. They stand a bit smaller than a Primaris Space Marine, but have substantially more materials on them than the equivalent Astartes. They have muscled skin, cloth, leather, metallics, bone, and armor. That's a lot for a little guy. I'll refer the reader to my discussion in the Combat Patrol Issue #41 review where I discuss my Ork recipe, but here's what I did for the cloth:

9. Ork Cloth a. Basecoat with ProAcryl Payne's Grey b. Mix with an off white to highlight raised areas and folds. c. Continue to add an off-white to slowly build up highlights on the folds and edges. d. Filter with Black Templar Contrast Paint.

These models are deceptively complex, but Contrast filters can really help speedpaint these guys to an acceptable parade-ready standard. Plus, painting Ork flesh is just fun. My goal was to spend less than 10 hours on this unit, because Ork armies do need a lot of Boyz and trying to make them look good fast is a challenge!

Shoota Boyz. Credit: Rockfish

I also took the time to finally try out the brushes sent out with the magazine, the Citadel STC brushes. These all white brushes are synthetics. Using the medium shade brush to get the skin and cloth painted (so a mix of GW base paints, ProAcryl paints, and Contrast paints), I was able to get relatively decent results for a brush I did not pay for. The tip did begin curl a bit, and the grip started to come loose. I would not affirmatively seek these brushes out, but I did not mine them.

Gaming Materials

With our ten assembled and (in my case, partially painted) Ork Boyz, we take them out for a spin on Scenario 28: A Good Krumpin'. Here, we have a Hammer and Anvil deployment with three objectives (one in the center of the board, and two at the center of the edge of the deployment zones). One player is the Orks, and the other is the Tyranids. The Orks have an army list of 2 units of 5 Boyz, while the Tyranids get 2 units of 10 Termagants. In order to get Victory Points, a unit must control an Objective during their player's Command Phase. The player then rolls a 1d6 to determine how many VP the point scores. On a 1, the player gets no VP. On a 2-5, the player gets 2. On a 6, the player hits the motherlode and gets 5 VP. An objective can only be looted once. After completing the base scenario, you can vary the scenario by using the different battleline units from the other Combat Patrols: either the Infernus Marines, Guardians, or Legionaries.

The Final Verdict

At the time of this article's drafting (March 14, 2026), this is a superficially good deal. This kit currently retails for $60, and this issue is that box for $15 plus a paint guide, name generator, and fun little mission to play them in. I do not regret owning it, building it, and trying to kill myself getting it painted by this article's publication date. There are a few issues that makes me hesitant to recommend this wholeheartedly: The first is that the models are monopose with a locked loadout. While the Boss Nob has a few options, and the heavy weapons Boy has a choice of heavy weapon, the other Boyz have locked loadouts and so trying to build units *beyond* Combat Patrol requires repeating models if you want more or less Slugga/Choppa Boyz. The second issue is that we are going to find out in a week and a half that we are all going to get a ton of new Ork Boyz in the 11th Edition Starer Box, and as of the time of this article we do not know how those will mix and match with this unit.

That being said, Issue 45 is in two weeks and several days after the Adepticon preview (and I will be there in person), so I will probably have more to discuss then when discussing "Hobby Materials".

Until next time Combat Patrolers!

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Tags: Orks | combat patrol | Contemptor Kevin | Hachette | Magazine Reviews