An Orc for Orctober

 

Since it is that time of year, it's time to paint an orc. So, I finished off the archer from my classic ME-51 Orcs of the Red Eye set. 

The orc in the middle

Rob 

Orcs vs. Dwarves

Normal Service is Resumed

Got back to painting this week, with a couple of orcs and my alternative Oldhammer Balin finished. Since I had a couple of extra Mordor and Isengard orcs, I decided paint them up using the paint scheme from the other group. So, the Mordor orcs gained an orc from the White hand and visa versa. 

The orcs settle a theological debate in typical fashion. 

And I also finished the Talisman dwarf who will be acting as Balin in my Oldhammer company of Thorin Oakenshield. 

Rob 

Horde of Orcs

As Long as Two Counts as a Horde 

Finished off two of the orcs from ME-51 Orcs of the Red Eye. I have been deliberately painting different skin tones for each of the different sets of Orcs. To be honest these orcs are looking a lot more purple in the pictures compared to real life.  

I started with a black leather (from Scalecolor) had blue tone which is why I moved through to the purple but I thought the Deathclaw brown would offset that. obviously not as much as I thought. But I am ok with the final result.  

Much happier with these eye of Sauron shield designs. I want them to look crude (they are orcs after all) but still have some artistic merit. 

And I have been looking forward to this one, as it is from a small(ish) brewery near to where I used to live. And never disappoints. 

Enjoy the long weekend (if you are in the UK). 

Rob 

Balin Takes a Battering

Time for Choices & Repair

After the new alternative Balin makes it out of the paint stripper. It is time to take a good look at him. And it turns out he has had a tough life. I hadn't noticed he has got a bit crushed at one stage. So, time for a bit of green stuff repair. The broken arm got pinned as I had no intention of putting that in the paint stripper as it would be bound to get lost!

I had a bit of debate about trying to make a new wing for the missing one. But in the end decided it would be good to make him a bit different from the classic Talisman dwarf mini. And painting continues on the Oldhammer orcs. 

Rob 

First Battle of Midgard

Hold the Hill 

As is tradition, I managed to meet up with a couple of long-term friends for a wargame between Christmas and new year. This year it was Midgard, as friend Jas had just got a copy and was keen to play. None of us had played Midgard before but Jas was familiar with the rules and had organised the forces. 

Not Jason's copy obviously

The Game

In terms of the game, the elves and fae were holding the high ground against an undead & orc horde. A third of the elves & fae were held in reserve until turn four and on turn four each side gained an extra victory (reputation) point for control of each of the three standing stones at the top of the hill. 

The undead and orcs opted to place their low value undead and orcs at the front of the horde to soak up the inevitable elf bowfire. However, the elven archers were clearly having a bit of an off day and most of the orcs and undead survived to contact the enemy. 

This then created a bit of problem in that the best orc and undead units were now all still behind the rabble. Whilst the elven spears and tree men* happily chewed up the front units. And reputation (victory) points of the elves and fae were beginning to rack up. 

*The tree men (large and small) had the brutal trait which meant they wounded on 4+ instead of the standard 5+ which did indeed make them brutal!

The giant treeman taking down the first undead unit

And the second

Before finally meeting his doom against the trolls

It wasn’t all going the elves’ way as the giant treeman had taken down several units of undead but was now surrounded by trolls and the ghouls in the centre were proving surprisingly tough even when faced with an elven spear unit supported by three heroes. 

But the tide had clearly turned and as both the black orc and second troll unit failed to make their charge rolls in the last turn. The elves and fae were then able to break the enemy force before these elite units could make the difference. 

Two heroes face off

And victory went to the elven and fae alliance. 

After the Battle

It was the first game of Midgard for all of us, but we quickly got into the swing of the game. And Jas did a grand job as rules master. Fortunately, he had a large number of movement trays otherwise it would have been a massive pain to move the units. 

And I have already put an order in with Warbases to rectify this situation for future games. And I am now looking to rebase some of the earlier minis fit in with these units. 

Oh and happy new year for tomorrow 😁.

Rob 

Trouble with Trolls

 A Monday Night Monster

Work continues on tidying up my trolls, this time - Grog Stuntycrusher.  Unlike the previous trolls, Grog doesn't have many trophies or snacks. But is a great looking figure in a really dynamic pose.  Ready for a bit of troll diplomacy. 

David the hobbit and a troll called... 

I tried using Carroburg Crimson shade to create a bit of redness around his spots and around the joints to give the impression of a bit of soreness.  Other that that it was a bit of highlighting on the skin and a quick wash on the fur. 

Not surprisingly didn't take long to finish off Saruman's orc. As I only had to sort the base out and paint the shield. This is the only one from the set, I currently have so need to find the other two. Time for a eB*y. 

A nice and simple white hand design. 

Rob 

Friday Painting Round Up

 After this Time for a Beer

Another 80's Aly Morrison high elf. 

The colour shift paint doesn't show up that well in this picture but does look ok when viewed face on. 

Definitely high status noble

What I like about these figures is that every figure is an individual which tons of unique features such as animal skin over the shoulder and the war pick. You can see that the high elves became much plainer in later models. And then finally moved to a very uniformed appearance in the first plastics. 

Two more wood elf test paints. Still not wood elves!

The flesh tones of both revenants were painted in the same way except the one on the left was given an extra wash of Nuln oil to darken the skin. Still don't think I have got the right flesh tones that could be used on the wood elves (but getting closer)  and now thinking I might have work out some woad patterns for their skin. 

Not all orcs are green

I gave the flesh tone some low lights with Carroburg Crimson wash because it looked a bit flat,. Interestingly the wash shows up much more in the photo, so will have to do a bit more blending in. 

ME-42 Orc of the White Hand

Obviously need to add a white hand to this shield. 

Rob 

Paint An Orc for Orctober

 A 300% Improvement

Beware the mighty Orctober Horde

As it is Orctober, I have managed to paint some orcs, three to be precise which as the mathematically three times as many as one. Which is how many I painted last year (hence the subtitle above). Last year I managed to finish Ugezod and this year it was the turn of his banner bearer and musician (ex-Grenadier Nick Lund Orcs via Fornlorn Hope).  As expected these sculpts fit in very well as the Ugezod's Death Commandos and are a fraction of the price of alternative Citadel ones.  I also managed an odd orc trooper from 1984 Regiment of Renown - Harboth's Black Mountain Boys.

Rob  

Thistlewood - Lord Vassago's Heavy Hitters

 Trolls, Wyvern and Uruks

Ugrash-Ka, Trolls & Wyvern

When I found the trolls, I also found the giant hill troll who was with them. He seemed a much better choice for Ugrash-Ka. The one pictured in the White Dwarf article is large ogre / troll ? from Ral Partha (See below). So out goes the Dunderling and in comes the hill troll, Both were painted already so didn't requirement any extra work. 😀

The original Ugrash-Ka

Ready for War!

With the completion of a standard bearer and musician (Nick Lund's Grenadier Orcs from Fornlorn Hope)  for Ugezod's Death Commandos, this finishes the unit of ten needed for the fighting Uruks in Lord Vassago's army.

This will bring me up to 82% for the evil forces. The forces of good are lagging behind on 62%. So I will need to work out what I want to get to finish them off. I am thinking I might convert some beastmen into centaurs (only three needed) so that they could also be used for my Fae and Chaos armies if I don't make them heroic/chaotic/faerie*. 

* delete as appropriate. 

Rob

Custom Movement Tray

 Ugezod takes to the Field

Ugezod's Mighty Death Commandos

Because I chose to mount Ugezod on a larger base (30mm) he didn't fit with the rest of the Death Commandoes who were on 25mm bases. So I wasn't able to fit them all on one movement tray. So I made a movement tray just for them. After hunting around for 25mm and 32mm drill bits I cut out the required number of holes in a thin piece of plywood. I wanted the battle line to be a bit irregular so made sure that the holes did not line exactly. Ugezod was at the centre naturally as befits an orc of his importance. 

One down...

Making sure the drill didn't wander was the tricky bit. 

One the joining pieces did get damaged by a bit of over enthusiastic drilling but this was easily fixed by a bit of Milliput. Also because I used a 25mm drill bit, I had to sand out the holes a bit bigger so the bases did not stick. The 32mm hole was already big enough.  The tray was glued to a thick piece of card to provide a base. The top was then covered with builders sand and undercoated black.  My method of painting bases has changed since I did the Death Commandos but I wanted the tray to match with them. So once dry it was dry brushed with layers of brown with a little white added gradually. A bit of battle scenery was added in the form a broken shield and a arrow. The movement tray was then finally toped with some static grass.  This static grass looks a bit electric green  now but it does match  orcs. 

I now realise than I really need a standard bearer and musician to finish these guys off but I may add the ex-Grenadier ones done by Nick Lund rather than the other Ugezod ones.

Rob

Warrior Fanzine Part 3

 Kill Zone Sneaks  In

I am steadily working through my copies of Warrior. These articles are taken from Issue 8. 

The first one to feature a front cover. The cover art work for  Kill Zone. Doug from Grenadier was obviously very busy this month with three articles. You will notice that some original art work has started to appear in Warrior. Unfortunately I don't know by which artist. 

Another cracking battle report from Derek & Steve. 

Sneaky tricks and tactics from Doug 

More design notes from Mark Copplestone on dark elves.

First Scenario from Doug's campaign ' The Little Wars' 

Rob