Orcs! (with a 'C')

"Hi, you might know me from other posts in this blog!"

Following up from the last post, civil-wars-of-empire, I have chosen Orcs. I sorta hinted at that with the last pic in that post. I love Orks and Orcs, and I have been itching to get back to my Orks, I have kind of figured out how to paint them fairly quickly (when I apply myself that is). Plus, it's the only army that I have a rule book for and my current budget is too tight to justify dropping $50 (each-I am a completist) for the others! I figured that as I do up my fantasy Orcs it would also encourage me to finish up a few of the 40k Orks that have been in painting station limbo for way too long. Also, painting these things will be a refreshing break from many years working with Space Wolf Gray and Shadow Gray paint...

Dabbling in the Army Builder and rummaging through my mini-closet, I pulled out two complete boxes of Orc Boyz, a box of Gobos (sans 5 gobos that I turned into gretchen), an Orc Chariot (already assembled and base-coated, the arrer boyz and twin-choppa orcs from the 6th ed starter set, 4 giants (original Maurader giant, Giants of Albion set and the current plastic giant), 6 bases of painted Snottlings (originally painted late in the 40K 2nd edition era as Shokk Attack Gun ammo! A now redundant role) and 6 trolls. Not a bad start and some interesting options. Being that this is intended to be a temporary respite from 40K, I have no intention of expanding this army much (see previous comment regarding a tight budget). Although I may be forced to address the lack of artillery, but we'll play a few games and see how they fair as is.



And this is only 4 units!

So as sort of an intro to this new project, I wanted to showcase a few of the painted models. This 1st Orc Boy pictured at the top of the post is one of the twin-choppa orcs from the 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy starter set that warfrog gave to me when he decided that WFB just wasn't his bag. For the longest time these models (including the Empire ones) saw life and action as D&D minis for my 3.5 campaign. They died in droves over there so I'm sure they can replicate those results again for me in WHFB.

"Wot? No 'igh-lights on me teef?!"

This guy was painted up a few years ago when I discovered that I was running low on my precious original Bilious Green paint, I came up with a mix to extend the life of it ( I discussed this in more detail in one of my waaagh-plane posts ). This model is the standard that all of my basic Orcs (and Orks) will aspire too. I have other examples that are arguably better, but this guy just works. A particular feature of this model, and something of an experiment, is his rusted choppa. Looking at weather gardening tools, industrial machinery, farm equipment, etc, it occurred to me that these real-life tools are just as effective and useful despite their apparent age and yet everyone paints orcs as if their crude and beaten weapons just rolled off the forge! Including GW's painters! So in this boy's hands you can see the two extremes of what I was going for. For something a bit in the middle of these two examples, check out the Sword of Rust on the Boss model in my orky-love post. The other day, I added a few silver scratches on the rusty blade to indicate that this old weapon has seen some recent use.

I can not introduce this next guy without mentioning my dear friend Redbird. I introduced her to D&D (everyone's gate-way to a wider world of gaming and geekery in general, yes?) and the 1st game we played was done using the old Heroquest board as the dungeon. I had the leader and ruler of this dungeon be an Orc priest by the name of Zodbog Badgrub who captured Redbird's character and was plotting devious things to do with her when she made her escape. Zodbog would be a reoccurring nemesis for years to come. Well, Zodbog was this model:

Zodbog Badgrub. Hunting red birds since '01!

Granted, he was unpainted at the time, or primed black. I forget. Over the next....gosh, 12 years I would dabble on him, until employing the same techniques used on the orc boy above. Just the other day I added the final details to his staff and sword and glued him altogether. Despite the years of use and paint dabbling, in actual man hours of work I don't think I spent more than 5 hours on this mini, I just never focused on finishing him until the other day when I realized I needed to use this model for the 1st time in the role that it was created for!

...still, I wonder if I ought to put something else on the base? A snottling or a skull or something? See, I just don't know when to quit!

He wears that sword like it's a punishment! LOL

 So, these models are the bench mark that the rest of the horde will be reaching for! The next few posts will track the progress of this army, stay tuned!

-Neverness