A converted space orc

 

Here's the latest in an occasional series of "stick a gun on it and call it a spaceman" - the best and most nostalgic form of miniature conversion. This is a Grenadier orc by Nick Lund; he'd lost his sword and helmet spike, so got a plastic gun and plume as compensation. He should fit in nicely with the converted EM4 (ex Grenadier) plastics in the previous post.

Kitbashed space orcs!

A friend of mine who used to play a lot of 40K suggest that we give One Page Rules' Grimdark Future game a tryout in the summer, so that he can use some of his exquisitely painted armies. I haven't played 40K since the first edition, but the OPR rules look nice and streamlined: a bit of Song of Blades and Heroes (with the Quality stat); a bit FUBAR (with the alternating activations); and a bit Kings of War (the general streamlining): all good things, and the rules and list-builder are free to boot.

I was planning to paint up a lot of first-edition 40K space orks for the summer session, but I'm aware that time and work commitments may limit what I can do (and I don't want to rush those old treasures). But I have no qualms about speed-painting kitbashed EM4 plastic orcs (wonderfully cheap and readily convertible). I converted one to sci-fi a while back, along with an associated metal Nick Lund Grenadier orc, so I thought I'd convert a few more. 

One welcome discovery has been that the new Frostgrave cultists have bulky arms and gloved hands that work nicely with the EM4 orc torsos. The arms (and chainsaw) of the figures in the first photo come from that kit. Stargrave scavenger arms and various other sci-fi bits make up the rest. 

As far as I can see from the Grimdark Future rules, the orc profile is all about aggression rather than toughness (as in the original 40K, where T4 was an ork's main advantage). So these smaller, rather simian orcs should look the part so long as they're armed to the teeth. 

 

A kitbashed chaos warrior

 

Here's a quickly kitbashed chaos warrior with a similarly rapid paintjob (lots of wetbrushing all over with a reddish brown to start with). I put a few of these rogues together the other night to use up various bits and pieces from the bits box. 

I much prefer Citadel's original chaos warriors, with their weird variety and Moorcockian vibe, to the later almost uniform armoured behemoths. So this fellow's a bit of a callback to that sort of thing.

Slightly better shots of that little Grenadier orc (auto-enhance be damned!)

Since I got a new phone (because the camera in the last one was in very poor nick), I've been somewhat dismayed by the photos I've taken of miniatures. Depending on the light, they've been ending up almost "rasterised", with the brushwork looking a lot cruder than it does to the naked eye - as in the bottom photo in this post and in all the photos in the preceding one.

I noticed that when I first looked at a photo, it looked OK, but then an automatic "enhancement" kicked in and made my highlights and shading look a lot rougher (as below). Apparently, this is because of an unstoppable iPhone feature called Deep Fusion. For the two photos above, I got round this in slightly convoluted ways. For the first, I took a screenshot of the photo as soon as I'd taken it - before Deep Fusion had its wicked way. For the second, I took a "live" shot and then went into the breakdown of that and selected a still (Deep Fusion leaves it alone). 

The focus isn't great in either case, and I've downloaded the Halide app to see if that will help. But even the slightly unfocused shots above are better - and more true to life - than the unnaturally sharpened image below.

 

A tiny Grenadier orc

This tiny fellow is from Grenadier's Orcs of the Black River boxed set. He's on a 20mm base with plenty of room.

An odd thing about Grenadier's orcs is how often they changed design. Even those designed by John Dennett (as here) vary considerably. The Black River orcs match up with much larger horse-mounted orc chieftain, a couple of wagon drivers, the dragon rider and the orcish giant, and there are also a couple of blisters of converted Black River orcs. But the other Dennett orcs are a bit different, with longer muzzles, in line with the Orcs of the Severed Hand. And then there are the ranges by various other designers, including Cliff Linton, Andrew Chernak and Nick Lund, all of which are different again.

In any case, they're all good. The photo below shows the Black River orc against one of Nick Lund's later orcs for the Fantasy Warriors range - quite a contrast in size.

 

Another hobgoblin

My mixed force of Chronicle and Dixon hobgoblins (bakemono and oni in the latter case) is growing.

 It's quite liberating to follow the example of Japanese goblins and ogres and disregard any consistency of colour entirely. After all, D&D (and hence Warhammer) hobgoblins are, in their original conception, creatures of chaos.

A Dixon bakemono goblin

 

Dixon Miniatures' Legends of Nippon range is a marvel - especially the superb oni and "bakemono goblins". I gather these figures were designed by Mark Copplestone; they certainly hold up well today.

As far as I can tell, the "bakemono goblin" concept is essentially the creation of Western games designers; Japanese goblins - bakemono or yokai - are weird and wonderfully varied beings, not the smaller oni-like creatures of Bushido and Oriental Adventures. 

But no matter! The Dixon figures are terrific and are perfect for the oni-inflected hobgoblins of D&D and Warhammer's Old World.