Orc army completed for the last day of Orctober, Waaaagh!

Ok, let's resume the situation here. Every year, lots of figure painters and wargamers around the world paint some Orcs (or their kin) during the month of Orctober. I don't when this tradition begun, but I like it. I imagine that at the end of the month, all painted Orcs gather for the Orctoberfest, an orcish variant of Halloween maybe.

Last year, I proposed a challenge for 1/72 fantasy painters at Benno's: to paint some Orcs for Orctober 2019. Several persons answered the challenge - you can see the result here.

My personal challenge was to complete an Orc army for OTT / AdG Fantasy, and for once... I succeeded! I'm a happy general.

So, what do they look like ? Are they more impressive when they are together ?

Let's have a look in detail. Last painted but first because of his rank, the new leader of the army, Vorgorog the Insane, surrounded by the elite of his warband, the Skull warriors:

No, the Uruk-hai are not their allies

Any general needs cavalry, hence a unit of heavy Warg riders, good for scouting and as a fast shock troop.

The extra heavy shock troop, not as fast as the Wargs, is this one, the troll unit, super massive and with dark armours.

the most dangerous place in this army

 The Orcs can find allies in the mountains, such as these goblins, nasty little troglodyte creatures. Not very reliable allies, but allies nevertheless, at least before the beginning of the battle.

The whole army: not very large, but more than enough for HOTT.

The army list:
- 1 Orc general
- 1 unit of skull warriors, 3 figs
- 1 unit of Warg riders, 6 figs
- 1 warband of Orc warriors, 29 figs
- 1 unit of archers, 4 figs (including an old green Orc - wasn't convinced with this color)
- 1 unit of Goblins, 7 figs
- 1 unit of Trolls, 4 figs
- 1 unit of lesser Goblins or Imps, 2 figs

16 of them have been painted this month. And you know what ? I'm happy with the result, and it's time to move on. I have a lot of other projects in mind, it's time to go back to historical minis, such as Napoleonics (the variety of colors in the Peninsula troops is very attractive), Ancients (any Ancient) or maybe a few more ACW soldiers. What do you think ?

A couple of pictures to conclude. Happy Orctoberfest!

Heavy Wargs

Three more Wargs for my heavy Wargs unit. I used the same color scheme as for the previous riders, except that, as promised, I painted one of the Wargs black, so that the standard bearer is different from the other riders.

A series of individual pictures, starting with the standard bearer:

The poses are very dynamic, so even if repeating the same color scheme is boring, the minis are still nice to paint. And of course, they even look better when they are together with the previous ones:

Hope you like them.
Tomorrow, the last post dedicated to Orctober, with pictures of the whole warband !

Heavy Metal - Troll chieftain

One more entry for the Orctober challenge. Not orcs (it's good to change from time to time), but a huge troll to command my troll squad.

This is the fourth troll from Dark Alliance War Trolls set 1, the three others have been painted previously, see here and there.

As a chieftain, this guy has got a shield, which is simultaneously a defensive and an offensive weapon. I also wanted to give him an armour assembling pieces of various materials: iron, bronze and also copper.

I used the same color scheme as usual for the skin (troll skin, I mean), so nothing particular to say about this subject.

The metallic parts are more interesting, since I can paint what I like, which is corrosion (Corrosion, ins't there a Metal band with this name ?): rust for iron, and verdigris for bronze and copper.

Some close-ups to show the different sorts of corrosion:

I must say that I am quite happy with that shield :)
And the traditional family picture to conclude this post.

These minis are tall enough to represent trolls in my 28mm Orc army, which is fortunate since I should play a Kings of War battle against my son before the end of this week.
Probably no battle report to come (I can't play and take pictures, and many figures are not even painted), but I will tell you if this battle is a new disaster, I win less than once in ten games.

Hope you like these trolls :)

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.