Saturday, 11 April 2020

Another ugly orc



Here's a C16 orc archer. He's one of a few early Citadel orcs that I began to paint a few years back and have started to repurpose for the square-base project.



As with his immediate predecessor, he's in Gygaxian colours as set out in the Monster Manual. He even had a bit of bluishness about him to begin with, as I'd originally painted him with a blue-green wash as with these chaps, but with pinkish mouthparts, nose and hands. He was supposed to look like an intermediate sort between two orcish schemes.



He's got the same face as one of the armoured orcs in this photo, with a huge, bulging left eye. The inventive reworking of the same elements is one of the joys of early Citadel miniatures (for my money, Aly Morrison was the leading light in this, in that some of his half-orcs and hobgoblins reuse the same bodies but in such inventive ways that the recycling can go unnoticed for years).


The next task is to get this orc's other long-neglected and half-painted brethren finished off. There are  three more half-painted ones, plus a few more that are merely undercoated. And I have a shaman from a more modern source underway too.



2 comments:

  1. Nice colours. Looking forward to painting my grenadier orcs.

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    1. Thanks! Which species of Grenadier orc do you have? I think there were at least four main sorts: the small, ape-like Orc's Lair ones (with some others appearing in the Swamp Dragon set); the big Orcs of the Severed Hand and their blister-packed kin; the Orcs of the Black River and their blister-packed lookalikes (mounted orc hero, orc beer wagon, etc.); and the good old Nick Lund/Fantasy Warriors variety (in some ways the worst, in others the best!).

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