Orctober: Boar Rider

 Hi everyone!

This is Orctober, and I wanted to paint at least one Orc this year, unlike last year when I was completely out of the hobby.

Some years ago, I bought a box of Mantic Gore Riders for Kings of War. I liked these figs, and wanted to paint them fast for a game, but I was rather disappointed when I discovered that the boars were not easy to assemble - the parts didn't join very well, which meant that some green stuff was required to get a decent result, and I'm far from comfortable with that activity. Moreover, I didn't like the heads of the riders that I found too small, hence the box found a place on the shelves and that was all.

Probably due to the last post (Pigs at Risk!!), I reopened the box and decided to give it another try. I lately acquired a box of Warlord Games Orcs, in which you can find extra heads on each sprue. I chose one for my test figure in order to give him a darker look (you will tell me if you agree). I then assembled both rider and boar, added some green stuff to fill the gaps (I'm still not good at that, but with experience, it is slowly getting acceptable), and painted them with the color scheme I use for my 28mm Orc army - here is a link to the post introducing my work on the Green Horde.

And here you are the result:

An Orc from the Green Horde has a green skin, nothing original :) The armor is mainly composed of rusty steel parts, with a few bronze (with verdigris) elements. The shield is black with a Red Eye symbol, just like the rest of the army. 

Some close-up pictures to have a better look at the weathering:

The silhouette has something of Don Quixote, don't you think ? On the picture below, he has to hide his face from the rising sun.

 

 

Hope you like this slightly converted figure. Still nine riders to assemble.

Maybe some more Orcs before the end of the month!

 

 

Pigs at Risk!!

 After the summer hiatus (no new post since July, but a lot of painting as you'll see in the future), something new at last, and a bit different from my usual warbands.

Thanks to fellow forumers at Benno's, I've recently discovered a MDF buildings manufacturer called Blotz, with an interesting 20mm range - which is rather rare since I only new one so far. Among other things, They propose a Dark Age houses series, which should be great with Viking, medieval or even Fantasy figures. 

I assembled and painted the first buildings a few weeks ago. Then I searched my figures collection and found a few peasants, farm animals and medieval soldiers, so that today, I can show you the last Philotep's production, in Mini-o-rama: 

 

Let's start with the beginning... A long time ago, in a small village somewhere in Europe, lived a poor farmer with his wife. They had two grown-up sons, almost men, a precious manpower for the farm's work. They lived all together in a tiny but nice thatched house, and were fortunate enough to owe a few pigs.

One morning, they were alerted by the unusal noise of the pigs. - What's happening ? said one boy to the other - Let's have a look, answered the other. They went out in the courtyard to discover that some brigands were just robbing the pigs! And the men looked dangerous - probably some mercenaries looking for food.

 Too bad their dog had just died, he would have warned them earlier.

(technical comment: the truth is that I have not painted any dog figure yet, I will put one on my todo list, I promise)

- Dad, dad, help! shouted the younger boy, they're trying to get into the storehouse, I won't be able to defend it alone!

Fortunately, the farmer was working in a field near the house, and he was back very soon, ready to engage the looters himself.

 

The mercenaries were fierce, but the farmer much stronger, and his sons courageous. Step by step, the looters were losing ground. Taking benefit of the thieves' distraction, the stolen pig turned back and run straight into its pig pen. At this sight, the armed men lost their motivation and started to retreat, not without insulting the farmers and the pigs.

- They might return, said the farmer's wife, more of them, hungry and dangerous. But for today, I am very proud of you all.

And so we leave the whole family in their small farm, in a happy end this time.

Will the mercenaries return ? How many of them ? Will there still be some pigs, or will they have been all eaten ? And what about the dog ?

You will find answers to all this questions and many more one day in the next episode: The pigs at risk 2!! (or not).

Oh, credits:

- farmers by Strelets, Valdemar and Zvezda

- farmer's wife by Hät

- looters by Orion, Strelets and Accurate

- pigs by Pegasus

- buildings by Blotz

Every pig used in this story has not been harmed. You may have noticed that I didn't paint them pink - not because they are dirty, but because the actual pink pigs that we see today are the result of crossings between European and Asian pigs that started during the 18th century. The medieval pigs were probably darker, grey brown or black (source: Michel Pastoureau in Libération, 2018).