Careful with that axe...

One more post related to Orctoberfest.

After several successes on the battlefield, the strongest and wildest warriors of the Orc horde are allowed to join a group of elite warriors named the Skull Warriors. They wear warpaints on their body, and some of them use fearsome two-handed axes.

These guys below are good examples of such warriors:

A closer look on the two-handed axemen:

The ordinary warriors look almost enjoyable in comparison :)

So this is what I could paint this week-end. Still 11 days before the end of Orctober, and the picture of the whole clan !

On my todo list:
- 3 heavy warg riders
- 2 archers
- 1 chieftain with an injured Uruk-hai enemy
- 1 troll

Hope you're not fed up with Orcs...

The Mummies return, and they look angry

In September, I came back to the brushes after a hiatus of 9 months with this mini, a mummy from one of the new Dark Alliance Fantasy sets.

The painting was correct in my opinion, but it revealed difficult and long. Since I still believe I can paint complete armies, I immediately painted a second mummy using the drybrush technique, in order to speed the process up, but I was disappointed with the result: not enough contrast, the mini looks flat.

Then I started a third one, with more dark washing, and more highlight. And then, at last I thought it was ok - long, and rather difficult if you ask me, not an easy task to highlight the cloth strips one by one.

Well, enough with the technique, let's have a look:

Can you guess the order in which I painted them ?

The mummy in the center of the picture above is the first one: it looks ok, but the painting lacks precision, and a bit more contrast would be great.

The mummy with drybrush: not a good idea, almost no contrast. There's only one mini left, let's have a closer look:

This one is better... except that it is too clean for a mummy just coming back from the tomb !!
But this is Fantasy, so... I do what I want :)

There are three layers or four layers of paint on every part of this figure, which explains why I find it long and difficult, but I will paint the others with this method.

Oh, and regarding the size, maybe you wonder how they compare to other references. A couple of pictures of these guys into action will give us an answer.

The mummies are fighting against Caesar ancient Egyptians. The latter are a bit smaller, but the difference is very slight, so I can keep on preparing both camps for a bigger fight.

Just need some skeleton chariots... a strong conversion in perspective!

Hope you like them :)

Philotep.

Orc champion with followers

Good evening.

Almost no time to paint before the week-end, but I still try to add new Orcs in my army (For those who might discover this blog today, Orctober is the month in the year when you paint Orcs - Goblins  and other relatives accepted), so I took some time this saturday to finish a big guy from Caesar Orcs set 2, which I will enroll as a champion, with followers.

This mini proved longer to finish than expected - many shades of brown, and some rust effects on the metal as well. I kept on using some desert sand color for the skin, I'm not fed up with it. As for the previous one, I painted a very thin violet line on his lower lip (not easy to see on the pictures I think). I chose to paint a leather armour, except for the helmet and some iron pieces on the legs.

Some close-ups:

It took me almost 2 hours for just one mini. I'm definitely not an army painter... but I try :)

Wargs in vanguard

Ok, this is Orctober, I have to stick to the plan, at least a little.

This evening, I managed to paint two Orc riders on Warg (between a Reb and a Union zouave), and since I already had painted one in 2017, I now have a frightening scouting party of three riders.

Let's have a look:

I chose the same color scheme for the three Wargs, and as a result they look too uniformed in my opinion, so I will have to find something else for the next ones (probably grey, and maybe one black).

Unlike the Wargs, the riders are not that easy to paint: lots of details, at least 3 or 4 shades of brown on each mini. So a bit long, but they are worth it.

What do you think ? Ah yes, more Orcs, many more... still 25 days in Orctober :)

Could you stick to the plan, please ?

Well, the answer is "No" I'm afraid.

Instead of painting dozens of Orcs and Goblins, I have been wandering here and there on the net, and I had another look at Paul's ACW regiments. That's all his fault! First I wanted to buy a confederate infantry set, because there was a photographer and his ancient camera inside. And the more I looked at the resting soldiers, the more I wanted to paint some. I also remembered that I had some old sets by Airfix, Revell, ESCI and Italeri somewhere, I looked for them, found several foot soldiers, and began to represent several regiments, North and South.

So today, this October post isn't an Orctober post. For those of you not interested in Fantasy, it's probably a welcome break :)

Anyway, these are the first figures on this blog related to the American Civil War.

As for the Germanic warriors, I think that these figures from several manufacturers and made in different decades fit well together.

Hope you like them :)

Edit 4/10/2019: A zoom on an Airfix figure, a Union soldier painted grey, with a bayonet added on his rifle.

 

First day of Orctober - the Horde

Just one picture for the first day of Orctober.

Don't they look fierce ?

Wild Orc - test shot

I keep on preparing Orctober. After the Dark Alliance sets, I wanted to try to paint the Caesar figures.
Their style are very different from one another: the Dark Alliances ones are much smaller than the Caesar, which are sculpted in the spirit of the Games Workshop green horde.

At first, I wondered whether I would paint these ones in green, so that I would get two different hordes, from two different orc people, but I eventually decided to stick to the initial color scheme, and use other items to represent different people: the clothes of course, and also, why not... warpaints.

Here you are the first of my Wild Orcs, as a test shot.

A close-up to have a look at the warpaints. White for the skull and some stylized bones, with red lines and hands for blood (of course).

And last, a picture of the Wild Orc as a bodyguard for the orc queen.

What do you think ? Is the color scheme convincing ? And the warpaints ?
Thank you in advance for your wise comments, my fellow painters :)