The Green Horde: a Regiment of Orc Warriors

 It's time to show my biggest unit so far, a regiment of 20 warriors.

This time, one of these 20 figures is a plastic one by Warlord Games. The others  are a mix of Alternative Armies, Citadel, Grenadier, Old Glory and Ral Partha. 

 Let's have a closer look on some of them. The first on display is a Gargantua Orc(z) by Ral Partha, a series I've only discovered this year. Slightly biggest than the others, but perfect the way I imagine Orcs.

The next is an Old Glory figure.

The following Orc is probably more difficult to identify. It was made by a french manufacturer called Armageddon, but I couldn't find anything about this company on the net (Armageddon is not the most selective search criteria, whatever the search engine). The only element I have is an article about these figures in a famous french magazine, Casus Belli in 1992, here you are:

And my version, rather similar:

 

Next figure is a well-known Hobgoblin from the Chronicle range:

The following Orc is what I believe to be a Grenadier Orc or Goblin, not by Nick Lund? Or a Metal Magic figure? To be verified. I'm just sure that I bought him in the mid-90s. Once again, I ask the community for more info, please.

EDIT: Problem solved, it is a Grenadier figure by John Dennett, thank you Eric and Hobgoblin on LAF.

The last of this gallery of portraits is a Citadel Orc, 1984 or 85.

 

 

A last picture of the leader of the unit to conclude this post.

 

 

What do you think of them ? 

No new unit tomorrow as I'm off to see my family for a few days, so let me wish you a Merry Christmas :)

The Green Horde: Heavy Wolf Riders

 Good evening all of you.

After yesterday's archers, it's time to show you another unit of the Green Horde, a troop of Heavy Wolf Riders.

As for the other units, there's a mix of several manufacturers here:

- 2 Orcs (#3 and #4 from left to right) and 3 wolves by Grenadier

- 2 Orcs (#1 and #5) by Old Glory

- 1 Orc by Alternative Armies (#2)

- 2 Wolves by RAFM

As usual, a closer look:

This mini was made by Grenadier (and by Mirliton nowadays). It was sculpted by Nick Lund and designed for his Fantasy Warriors game.

Next one looks very dynamic, and deserved a larger wolf than his own since he has been recruited in a heavy cav unit (have a look at the 3rd picture below), so he exchanged his mount with a Grenadier Wolf:

You will have noticed that I also changed his shield for a plastic one, coming from GW's skeleton warriors.

The next one is the leader of the pack, a Grenadier Orc named Takka the Head Cutter, and he looks fierce:

 The scholars among you know that I replaced the original banner attached on his back - here you are a picture of the original figure below:

Two reasons for this small conversion:

- the original banner was missing when I bought this figure

- even if I had it, I found it too massive

The missing part was then replaced by an element from GW's Flagellants, an excuse to add some more skulls on the mini, and to paint a banner in the color of the army.

Tough those minis have all been designed in the 80s/90s, it is still possible to buy them online -the plastic parts would know be the most difficult elements to find :)

Of course I have plans for next year: add 5 more heavy riders (work in progress) and a unit of 5 archers on wolves (work in progress too).

Hope you like them. So, when do you dive into Old school Orc miniatures ?

See you tomorrow for the next unit.

The Green Horde: a Troop of Archers

 Hi everyone! Nearly the end of the year: a few days of vacation, time to paint figures and finish as many units as possible. And I've painted enough for at least 3 posts in 2023, so let's go.

In the last post (in October, 2 months ago, I promised more Orcs before the end of the month. Though I didn't show anything since that day, I've been painting a lot, but I'm always waiting to have painted units before basing - a step in the process that was done this morning only. Today, we have a look at another complete unit of the Green Horde (the project has been explained in this post) - a troop of archers.

They are all based on 25mm square bases and grouped on a movement tray. They form a Troop according to the Kings of War rules - please note that the basing is compatible with Oathmark (which I intend to test one of these days).

 As the rest of the army, the archers troop is composed of metal figures that I have bought over the ages, from the 80's to now. And if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that one of my biggest pleasures is to mix figures from various manufacturers. Here you have:

- 5 Grenadier figures

- 3 Old Glory figures

- 1 Ral Partha (?) figure

 - 1 Citadel figure

Let's have a look at the latter one. I bought this Orc in 1984 in order to use it in a AD&D campaign, and I painted him with Humbrol paints (no shadows and no highlights in this Dark Age). He has received this week a new skin made of acrylic.The upper part of the bow was broken and lost, had to replace it with plastic (from the GW Empire archers).

 

 

The next one is a Ral Partha figure, probably bought at the end of the 80's or very early 90's if I remember well. The sculptor is Bob Olley (and not Kev Adams as I first thought).

 

I've spent some time watching old catalogues to confirm the manufacturer (and sculptor), but I couldn't find him (them) - could anyone help me on my identification quest ? :)

EDIT: Hobgoblin from the LAF forum has given me the answer, it is a Ral Partha figure indeed.

The next one is a much more common figure by Grenadier (it is still possible to buy them online since Mirliton has bought the moulds and is still producing the range), sculpture by Nick Lund.

Much more common also means that I have several copies of the same mini in my Horde - which is an exception so far.

Some close-ups of some figures inside the unit to conclude this post:

Hope you like them all, old and new! Tomorrow I'll post pictures of my Wolf Riders unit - stay tuned :)

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).