Orctober wrap up

Orctober is over - what did I do with it?  Well, I didn’t take it too seriously, but did use it as motivation to get the bulk of my Orc and Goblin army tabletop ready.

Alongside the Wolf riders, bolt throwers and warlord, that mostly meant a lot of basing. Many of the models are still in old paint jobs, either my own from many moons ago, or as they were purchased secondhand, but they look coherent enough now.

Still about 20 goblins to do, plus I still have some more EM4 orca, and I need to sort some black orcs of some kind, but there is a table ‘legal’ army there now for both WFB and Fantasy Warriors.

Two bolt throwers, including a Notlob original

20 orc boys 

One of my giants (orc for scale)

The Wolf riders - will count as boars for WFB purposes

14 orc archers

Warlord and two shamans

20 more orc boys

A somewhat grisly standard

The three trolls

Another giant

Greenskins

As a change, it’s all been about green skin tones around here.

Three different Orcs (and one goblin), all from Games Workshop, showing how much their style and sculpting has changed over the years.

First up, and bang up to date, a Kruleboyz boss and stab grot from AoS.

I wasn’t 100% sure how I would find this model.  I find modern GW sculpts can be a bit ‘fussy’.  But in the end I really enjoyed it and am very pleased with the result.  The quality of sculpting encouraged good painting.  Took a while though, not sure I’d fancy a whole unit!

The mouth is actually supposed to take the peg of a visor.  But I thought the visor looked silly, and without it, the model looks like he’s bellowing defiance.

The only bit I wasn’t so keen on was the cloth at the rear.  I can see they were going for a ragged, rotted look, but no material I can think of hangs like that.  This seems to happen with virtual 3D sculpting.

That shield is quite something.  Classic Citadel minis orange face!

Here he is with his ‘Stab Grot’.  A great little model itself!

Now, compare to some older plastic orcs.  It’s not just height that’s changed!  But they still have a charm of their own!

More Goblins

Title says it all really.

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!