The Green Horde: a Wizard on Wolf

The Green Horde is not a sleeping project, but as the stats of this blog show, the summer period and the painting don't seem very compatible, with various reasons depending on the year: the heat, the summer break or the excess of work...

Anyway, I'm still painting, and I'm focused on the Orcs on wolves. Several are painted but only one is completely based so far. Since he is an important character, I thought that he deserved a post just for him.So here you are, the Orc wizard on wolf:

As some of you already know, this character is an old Grenadier figure by Nick Lund. I chose to paint his wolf white, and his cloak black for contrast, and also to stick the the army's color scheme.

The same wizard, surrounded by his troops.

And a few more pictures from different angles.

See you for the next chapter!

Greek mythology: of Minotaurs and Amazons, and more

Hi! 

What if I could write a post with tags such as 'Ancients', 'Fantasy', and '1/72' ? Yes it is possible, I promise... let's have a look at some 1/72 creatures from the Greek mythology!

A few years ago, Dark Alliance began to produce Fantasy figures from various universes, something rarely seen before, since only Caesar had produced this sort of sets before - all out of prod nowadays, and incredibly difficult to find at a fair price!

Some of their figures are clearly related to Greek mythology, for instance the Minotaurs:

And this is my painted version:

The first Minotaurs have a very classical color scheme, so I wanted to try something else:

This white figure can be seen as a boss, or as an infernal version of a Minotaur - what do you think of him ?

Next set, the Centaurs:

One of them made an appearance in the 2020 Advent Calendar in this blog - you can see the related post here.

Dark Alliance also released a set containing Cyclops, a dream come true:

If you read this blog for some time, you will remember the post dedicated to this very nice figure.

Dark Alliance also made a set dedicated to Amazons, but I must admit that it is far from my favourite (the sculpting is not the best, and my copy had too much flash). Fortunately, Linear A also released a set dedicated to these female warriors, and this time, the figures are really great:

Last but not least, the Hydra. I had to search among my oldest 25mm figures to find a relevant model, a wonderful Ral Partha figure bought some 40 years ago :)

This old snake fits well with a Dark Alliance Amazon. Here is a link to a post dedicated to this figure, one of the first of this blog back in 2016.

I now have enough figures to add 6 elements to my HoTT Greek mythology army (the Greeks themselves are ready for a long time, see here), but there will be further developments. I would like to add:

- some more of the above figures, of course

- a Harpy: I have an old 25mm citadel figure that could do the job

- a Sphinx: a 28mm figure from Reaper Bones - maybe a bit large but I haven't an alternative yet, tell me if you have any idea

- some gods represented with 25mm figures

 And I'm sure that even more is possible. All suggestions welcome!

I hope you found this post useful, or at least recreative :)

The Green Horde: some more green warriors

Hi! The production is getting very low regarding minis (the usual spring effect), but I could paint another batch of Orc warriors, gathered into a troop (10 foot figures according to Kings of War).

 

Let's have a closer look:

Hum yes, his shield was red in a previous version

 

As you may know by now, I don't like to paint twice the same mini (there are exceptions), and I like to mix figures from different brands, and even different centuries :). Some of these figs were bought a long time ago (in the 80s), and some only a few months ago. Some are new and the others second hand, which is why I can't always identify them with certainty. There are several online sites that provide info about all those figs, and I must say that the research for knowledge is one of the most interesting things regarding those 25/28mm figures :)

The two figures below are recent plastic figures by Reaper Bones. The grunt on the left was sculpted by Tre Manor, the guy on the right was sculpted by Bobby Jackson for the Bones Black range (source: Reaper Miniatures website).

 

The following Orcs are much older: they are metal figures from the 80s by Citadel.  The first on the left is a Black Orc from the N11 series in the Chronicle range. Sculpted by Nick Lund and released in 1985 (source: Collecting Citadel Miniatures).

The following are preslotta figures: the second from the left comes from C16 range released in 1984 (source: The Stuff of Legends); the two on the right come from the C15 Armoured Orcs series released in 1983 (source: Lost Minis Wiki).

 

The next two are from different manufacturers. The first one is a Grenadier figure sculpted by Nick Lund and probably released in 1990 for his game 'Fantasy Warriors' (source: Lost Minis Wiki). The second one is an Old Glory Orc sculpted by Bob Naismith. I couldn't find a release date, but I'm sure that I bought this figure during the 90s.

 

The last two figures are produced nowadays by Ral Partha. The lancer (Light Orc Impaler) on the left was sculpted by Bob Olley probably during the 90s and is part of the Gargantuan Orcz ,and the guy on the right is an Orc Champion by Kev Adams, initially for Heartbreaker (sources: Lost Minis Wiki and Ral Partha websites).

I hope you like them, and also that the explanations about the origins of the figures are of interest :)

A Gallic army for DBA

Back to 1/72 and back to Ancients! The title of this blog declares that most minis should be in the One True Scale, here we are.

At the beginning of this year, I've been able to finish my (second) Gallic army for DBA, but found no time and no mood to take pictures. They're here at last, so let's have a look:

 

The figures are still to be based. There are enough figures for 2 elements of Slingers (Ps), 1 element of Gaesatae (Wb), 8 elements of warriors (Wb), and a General on chariot (LCh). Some of the figures have aleady been displayed on this blog (see here), but some others are new, let's focus on the latter.

Manufacturers, left to right: Caesar, Hät, Caesar, Newline Design

Hät, Revell, Hät, Italeri

Caesar, Caesar, Hät, Italeri

Linear, Linear, Linear, Hät, Hät

Linear chieftain on the left, others figs by Hät and already displayed

This time, I've painted the warriors as if they were related in clans wearing the same sort of tartan to identify. I'm not sure that this was common practice in that time, but I this likely, and it helps to give some sort of visual homogeneity without painting uniforms, which would be inappropriate.

Hope you like them, and appreciate the break from big 28mm monsters (I do)  :)

The Green Horde: They have a giant Troll !

Hi everyone! Here you are the latest (late) addition to my Green Horde, a giant Troll. 

He is a mercenary, interested in fighting, looting and eating. He is particularly ugly, for his pallid,wart-covered skin isn't used to the daylight - nothing surprising for a cave-dweller. He is so big than even the Orcs are afraid of him, leaving some space all around. And they are probably right, because he seems to laugh as he realizes that there's some blood on his mace and his hand.

This troll was on my workbench for a very long time - 'very' meaning more than ten years. It is a resin figure that I bought second hand, so unfortunately I don't know who the sculptor and the manufacturer are - if any of you have the answer, I would be interested to know and update this post.

I must say that I needed a break after all these green things. I don't paint very pale skins very often, I hope it is credible.

He will be played as a punching troll (110 pts) in my KOW army.

 

 

See you, sooner or later :)

The Green Horde: another regiment of Orc Warriors

 Hi everyone!

After the Christmas painting rush, I've tried to keep up the pace of production for 2024. It proved feasible in January, but it became much more difficult en February (a lot of work as usual). I could at last complete another troop of Orc Warriors, according to Kings of War unit sizes. 

 

As you can see, I've been cheating adjusting the unit according to my production capacity. Instead of ten warriors, I've painted only 6 warriors and a giant one - a venerable Chronicle Ogre into a giant Orc.

Let's have a closer look at this sort of Ogrorc:

Impressive, don't you think ? 

The other warriors are once more a mix of several manufacturers.

Chronicle Hobgoblin Champion

Ral Partha Orc Warrior - a future Linebreaker for Oathmark

A Ral Partha Orc Lancer

Citadel Black orc

Alternative Armies Lancer

Old Ral Partha figure by Bob Olley

With the previous troop, I can now assemble a regiment.

 

Since I have painted another one in 2023, I can mix my 2 regiments into a... Horde! See for yourself:

But it doesn't mean that we are at the end of the Green Horde. Several figures are currently being painted, and I intend to add the following units to my army:

- 2 troops of Wolf Riders (10 figures)

- 1 troop of Boar Riders (10 figures, 2 painted)

- 1 troop of Orc Archers (10 figures)

- 1, maybe 2 hordes of Orc Warriors (up to 80 figures)

- 1 Goblin King on his war chariot

And I've also spotted some Goblin allies, such as Spider Riders, Lancers, Rocket Flyers... It's a long way to the top (if you wanna Orc'n'Roll) :)