Warlord!

 My Orctober efforts continue with this rather marvellous Nick Lund sculpted Orc Warlord (formerly from Grenadier Models, now available from Forlorn Hope in the UK).

My attempt at the classic Citadel ‘angry orange face’ shield.

Sometimes sculpts get criticised for being too static, I’ve done it myself.  But this one shows that this needn’t be an issue.  Perhaps a better way of putting it might be that some lack ‘intent’.  This guy may not be moving, but only because he has decided to plant himself right there and not move.

The Wolves are Running

And with that quote from The Box of Delights, the Orc Wolf Riders are complete.

As I mentioned in my previous post, these Nick Lund sculpted wolves aren’t the most realistic looking models.  These aren’t the wolves that David Attenborough gets you to empathise with, these are caricatures from Europe’s collective nightmares, with a fondness for construction minded pigs, Grannies and girls in red cloaks for their dinner.  That said, a realistic style paint job worked far better on them than I thought it would.

The white and black wolves were the request of the Little Miniature, I think the black is the more successful of the two.

The orc sculpts are of variable quality - the musician in particular is pretty weak, but I think the spear armed orcs look great.

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Sorcerer (Fantasia Style)

Former Grenadier Models Wizard, now available from Forlorn Hope Games.

A lovely little model, full of character.  He looks to me like he would be prone to launching into long, overly detail (boring) explanations of the finer points of a spell, while the rest of the party gets beaten senseless by goblins.

If the colour scheme looks familiar, that’s because I realised part way through that I might have been inspired by a certain mousey Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  However it happened, it was a chance to practice painting red robes.  This time I tried a different technique I’d seen online - GW Mephiston Red base, burgundy contrast paint for shade, the highlights with Vallejo Bloody Red and, finally, some edge highlights with VJ Rose Flesh.  Overall pleased with the result, but it could benefit from a Matt varnish to tone down the shine

He’s just big boned!

I'm not 100% sure of the origin of this chap.  He was purchased from Forlorn Hope Games, described as a Giant Troll, and cast in resin.  Forlorn Hope have a lot of the old Grenadier Range, and the style of this just screams 'Nick Lund' - from the way the mail of the fists is sculpted to the face, which is a dead ringer for the old Grenadier War Trolls - but I don't recall seeing him before.

The pose is quite static, he's ugly as a welder's bench, and the face detail is very soft and putty like but, you know what, I like that.  He's got a lovely old school vibe, and really has that 'stupid' monster look.  He was also a delight to paint, taking almost no time at all (it took me longer to get around to the base).  He's also pretty big - bigger than the former Grenadier Barbarian Giant.

Here he is with a friend for scale.  A former Heroquest henchman (just painted up and destined for ebay).

And here's that henchman again in a bit more detail

 

Last of 2022 - Ogre & Goblins

As the year ends, I squeezed in a few final models complete, although I’d been working on them for a while, on and off.

All sculpts from Nick Lund I believe.  The ogre was, if I recall correctly, from Citadel Miniature’s old ‘Chronicle’ range from the ‘80s.  I’d hoped the pale fur on the shoulders would make the dark skinned face stand out more, but it’s not turned out too bad regardless.

The goblins are from Forlorn Hope Games, but I’m pretty sure were originally part of Grenadier’s Fantasy Warriors range.  I couldn’t decide on a skin colour so, taking inspiration from the trolls I did, decided on a mix of colours, for that slightly chaotic look.

I’m not that taken with the GW style of ‘gobbos’ - these are more up my street, mean and cruel looking.  I decided to be brave and go a bit ‘old Skool’ with individual, highly decorated shields.  I’d like to thank all the other painters and bloggers I ‘borrowed’ from or was liberally inspired by in producing these!  

Much as I like them, I couldn’t help but ponder why goblins otherwise dressed in rags would have such highly decorated shields.  I came up with two ideas:

1. They decorate their shields with images of whatever gods or demons they worship, believing they frighten the enemy and bring good fortune, hence the attention paid in comparison to the rest of their gear; or

2. The folk living in ‘goblin country’ decorate them and leave them as ‘tribute’, in the hope it will catch a goblin’s eye and persuade them to leave them alone. For a while at least.

I like the first idea, as it hints at goblin society and beliefs, and the second because it echoes old folk tales of leaving gifts for spirits and supernatural beings - like leaving a bit of a Cornish pasty to appease the tommyknockers.

Anyway, expect more goblins to follow! 

Men of the cloth

Priest and monks, formerly of Grenadier Models Fantasy Warriors range, now available from Forlorn Hope Games.

I wanted these chaps to have flagstone bases like my other ‘civilians’.  Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out a way of removing the cast on bases without compromising the feet and robes, so went instead with sculpting them out of milliput.  Not perfect, but not bad I think.