Veteran space orcs

Here's a unit of "orc veterans" for Grimdark Future (and doubtless other games). They're a mix of orks and fantasy orcs and black orcs. 

The two black orcs have simply been equipped with pistols to give them sci-fi credentials.

The orc on the left is a Warhammer fantasy orc with an ork head and left arm.

 

Yet more space orcs!

 There's an old John Blanche illustration from White Dwarf that I like, which I think may have been recycled into the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It was used to illustrate an article entitled The Naked Orc, and it shows a group of orcs that vary massively in stature and proportions. 

I'm going for something of the same effect with these space orcs: a diverse bunch of creatures that are united only by a few specific characteristics. These are the latest two: a Mantic marauder and a kitbashed Warhammer Fantasy orc. Many more to come ...

More space orcs!

 

I'm currently in the process of finishing off a batch of orks, many of which were started years ago. In tow of these three instances, I've retouched old paintjobs, mainly by redoing the skin. The one on the right is a new speed-paint: clothes and gear done very quickly with drybrushing and washing; skin done more slowly.

My plan for today was to get at least 10 finished; I'm up to five as of ten o'clock. I had the day off for the task, but the weather demanded plenty of outdoor exercise!

A space black orc

Here's an "orc veteran" for Grimdark Future - the first of a small unit that I hope to finish this evening. 

With my space orcs, I'm trying to keep the pink snout, ears and lower lip as the unifying characteristics, with a bit of variety in the skin colours - mainly green but also black, grey and brown - and possibly blue and dull red too.

This guy was the test for black skin; I was aiming for the original colour scheme for Citadel black orcs, as seen in Gary Chalk's illustration for Warhammer Armies (or was it Ravening Hordes - I forget). 

 

Flying space gnolls!

One of the unit types in Grimdark Future's "jackals" army list is vultures - canine beastmen equipped with jump packs. Gnolls, of course, are feliform rather than canine, but they have impeccable scavenger credentials. 

 I used space-marine backpacks with space-marine shoulder pads over the exhausts to create the appearance of mobile-jointed jets. The weapon arms come from all over the place.

Space gnolls!

 Kitbashing Frostgrave gnolls into sci-fi versions is something I've been doing since the kit came out. These guys are the picking up of a project I was working on about a year ago. Happily, the kitbashes I made then work as a unit of "jackal" trackers for Grimdark Future plus a couple of heroes (one very big - a converted Wizkids gnoll).

I painted these figures very quickly, chiefly through drybrushing, with a few select layering-and-highlights areas (the black hyena-like features and the red weapons and armour). Drybrushing can look quite rough, but I reckon it's appropriate for dusty scavengers on some desert planet.

More space orks!

The band of space orks is slowly growing. I'm going to mix eras and manufacturers entirely freely for this project; whatever these little green men are, they're going to be a widely variable species.