Newbie, looking for general unit and army building advice

Hi all, my name is Ken Coble.  I'm joining a WFB "Paint and Grow" league at my local game store starting in June, and while I've played a few 500-pt games with some Dark Elves last year, I think for the purposes of growing up to a 2500pt army over the summer I am going to rock Ogre Kingdoms.  A long time ago I grabbed the original big Ogre Kingdoms army box (the one that came with the last codex) and I've picked up a box or two since on eBay, so I finally hope to get some use out of them!  But I am totally lost on how to build Ogre units.

Right now I have 14 Bulls, 8 Ironguts and 8 Leadbelchers (all the older plastics), as well as a Hunter w/ 2 Sabretusks and the Tyrant/Bruiser that came in the old army box, the one with the brace of pistols and ironfist.  We're going to start at 1000pts and work our way up 250 points every week until we hit 2500.  Again, my biggest question right now is how to start building the plastic guys I have already.  My current idea is to take two of those Bulls and convert some Lords/Heroes out of them, and then (eventually) run 2 units of 3x2 Bulls, two units of 4x1 Leadbelchers, and a unit of 8 Ironguts with some kind of character in there at 3x3.  But I'm not sure if these are good ways to arrange my guys, and even if they are I'm not sure how much Command to put in any of those units.  For that matter, while the Ironfist on the Bulls seems like the obvious choice to me I figure I may be wrong about that as well.

I'm also open to advice on what other stuff to buy next; I'm thinking of picking up one of the new Ogre Battalion boxes, and after that either an Ironblaster/Scraplauncher or some Mournfang Cav.  I really want to use that old metal Tyrant as my Tyrant, and am planning to convert up a Bruiser BSB and a Butcher/SM from the two 'spare' Bulls.  But I am open to suggestions on all this stuff.  I also have a giant pile of plastic Gnoblars and the old metal Trappers, but I figure I'll be using them to fill in points gaps and for Trapper traplines.

I know this is a really huge, open-ended question, but I would appreciate any feedback you folks can give.  I've been looking at army lists in the forum for a while but I still can't quite get that hang of how I ought to be putting together these 'meat and potatoes' - or I guess just raw, bloody meat, since it's Ogres - units.  I am a slow, SLOW painter so I am trying to get started as early as possible.  I spent part of last night cutting Bulls off their sprues, and hope to get the rest of them ready to assemble tonight and tomorrow night.

Thanks in advance!
Ken

Hey ken! welcome to ogres!
Started recently myself! didn't do a Paint + play style with my LGS (wish they had something like that going) but I managed to get 2500pts painted in 4 weeks! Its super easy as ogres since generally in 2000pts your going to have <30 models lol.
Ok as for painting priorities -
1- Tyrant (he's fun and a big canvas, easy to get you started)
2- Iron Guts (you will use these most often in lists) - You can maybe convert some more from a MFC box.
3- Convert a BsB (Bull body and some MFC bits + standard)
4- Buy some Mournfangs (you can use parts for other conversions and they are going to be in pretty much any list you build)
5- Buy an Iron Blaster - Same as above
6- Leadies - Bulls in no particular order.
 
To start out at 1000pts will hurt ogres pretty bad to be honest.
I would advise to go magicless at 1000pts, and start with a bruiser (will be your bsb at 1500pts with upgrade) and a solid unit of guts, an iron blaster and the rest in MFC (4 possibly for max cheese factor)
 
Ok, as for building lists you've probably noticed most of the tournament ones revolve around a big group of guts with lords/heroes in there some where.
Every week adding 250pts is quite fast paced, but for 2000pts I would aim for (what I play usually)
Lord -
Slaughter Master
Hero -
Bruiser - BsB
Butcher
Core -
Iron Guts
Ogres
Special -
4 MFC - Heavy Armour, Iron Fists, Muso, Standard of Swiftness/Flame
3x1 Sabres
Rare -
Iron Blaster
 
That is a pretty basic template allowing you to fill in magic items and unit composition as you see fit.
I would kit my list out thusly at 2000pts.
Slaughter master - Gruts Sickle, Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon, Maw lore
Bruiser - BsB, Armour of Destiny
Butcher - Level 2, Crown of Command, Sword of Striking
13x Iron Guts - Standard, Bellower, Dragonhide Banner
5x Lead Belchers - Bellower
3x MFC - HA,IF,Muso
Iron Blaster
 
That is a list I have had some success with, however If you want to go the tyrant route then I wont write up another wall of text, but Ill link you to a battle report since its already written up.
http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=26621.0
 
I would strongly advise spending an hour or two watching some of "Wargamingforfun's" videos on youtube  in our videos section Will give you an idea of what matches what well
If ive been too vague please let me know where I can help and Ill see what I can do
 
Chris

Thanks Chris!  I just got back in town so I'll have to get out the book and go through it while looking at your recommendations.  Also thanks for the video recommendations, I'll check them out.

Thanks again!

Ken

That's fine Ken, have a we look.
you have any questions or need a hand with anything just post up here and ill be more than happy to oblige you
 
Chris