Fangor Gripe and friends

 These are three retouched orcs finished today. I originally painted Fangor Gripe, the cyclops-orc, seven years ago: you can see him here. The early photos flatter the old paintjob; he looks a lot better now in the 'flesh' and considerably less washed out. My previous post shows the female orc on his left; the orc chieftain on his right was first painted around 1991 and is also shown in that post in his decades-old state. 

Fangor is a classic from the first Citadel range of slottabased orcs. These are among my favourite miniatures. 

The chieftain with sword and flail is an earlier Fantasy Tribe orc. His sword was broken when I acquired the figure in the late 80s or early 90s, and I replaced it with one that might have been cut down from a bit of scrap or something. The Fantasy Tribe orcs followed the AD&D Monster Manual in the weapons they =carried. 

Improving a decades-old paintjob to start 2026

This is an old Citadel armoured orc from the early 80s. It appears to be a female orc - a real rarity from Citadel - judging by the ample bosom beneath the hauberk (and perhaps the unusually long hair), although the head and most of the body were used for male orcs elsewhere in the range.

I painted this figure when I was a teenager, to form part of my first Hordes of the Things army. You can see her (?) below here:

Fairly recently, I rebased these orcs individually. I've decided to touch up their teenage paintwork a little bit. On the evidence of this morning, it doesn't take long - and I'm pleased with the results:

All I did was wash the flesh with Army Painter Strong Skin Shade, highlight the flesh a couple of times with magenta washes over the nose and lip beforehand, redo the eyes (I prefer glowing red eyes on my orcs as the one unifying factor in their otherwise disparate appearance) and add a few other highlights here and there.

I think there's an undeniable improvement from the paintwork of almost 35 years ago:

Next up is the fellow on the right!