Kitbashed orcs (part seven)

 And on they march! Here's the latest batch of kitbashes. I'm most pleased with the axeman and the spearman in the centre. The former benefits from repositioning at the waist while the latter has a repositioned left arm and a new fist to add a bit of dynamism.

Kitbashed orcs (part six)

 And a few more orcs to keep the dwarves in the previous post busy!

Dwarf kitbashes in progress

 

Painting time has been scarce (though, with the current weather, who's complaining?). But I've started to explore kitbashing possibilities with the EM4 dwarves. Along with lots of spare Oathmark heads, I've got quite a few GW bits and bobs of a dwarven nature. So, having bought a bag of EM4 dwarves on a whim some years ago, I have an opportunity to use them up. The plan is to make a few Kings of War-style multi-based units. I also have some painted Oathmark dwarves that may very well find themselves rebased for KoW, and I have lots of old Citadel dwarves to use for characters.

We do most of our rank'n'flank gaming in 1/72 scale, but with fantasy games, it all becomes a bit slippery. Because of the Warhammer-legacy basing in Kings of War, orcs have to be significantly bigger than humans to justify 25mm base sizes. Older orcs - like those from Mithril, 80s Citadel and EM4 - fill the bases nicely and look suitably imposing next to 1/72 humans. They're still sufficiently muscular and brutish-looking to justify their KoW 'Crushing Strength' in 28mm, though. So they work at both scales.

And happily, that means that 28mm dwarves like these chaps fit in fine too. Actually, we wouldn't balk at fielding them with 1/72 humans - the dwarves are still a head shorter than the humans, even if they're twice as broad!

Kitbashed orcs (part five)

Here are yet more, including a kettle-hatted axeman and a fur-hatted archer. There's something peculiarly satisfying about converting an archer to be ... an archer. The spearman on the left was also pleasing - a sliced-off spear-arm fitted seamlessly onto the torso of a swordsman.

I'll assemble these in Kings of War 'troops' - eight to ten figures on a 125 x 50mm base. When they're fielded as larger units, the front element can designate the specified troop type if that's in short supply.

Kitbashed orcs (part four)

 Three more kitbashed EM4 orcs - a couple of scouts/archers and a swordsman. 

Kitbashed orcs (part three)

 Another couple of kitbashed EM4 orcs. These two have three arms from Mantic ratkin, helmets from an Oathmark dwarf and human, and an old GW orc shield. I'm particularly pleased with the conversion of the archer on the left - he's ended up in quite a dynamic pose. 

Kitbashing orcs (part two)

 A quick lunchtime session means that the unit is ready for basing and painting, barring some green-stuff repairs.  

Kitbashing orcs

 

This is the start of an orcish unit for Kings of War - and possibly for Impetus too. I suspect Impetus may be fairly forgiving of minor variations in frontage, which would mean that the 125mm frontages of KoW orc and cavalry units won't matter too much alongside doubled-up Hordes of the Things bases (so 120mm) for most units. 

Kings of War's Warhammer legacy in having 20mm and 25mm bases for various humanoids is a slight annoyance when basing for maximum versatility. For the most part, I'm now basing regular infantry units on a mix of 60mm and 40mm frontages, which allows the two to be used together to create a KoW 100mm frontage, and then two of the 60s or three of the 40s can form Impetus units. Meanwhile, the 60s and 40s can be used in Hordes of the Things in 28mm and 15mm respectively; we tend to use 1/72 figures for regular humans in massed-battle games, which means that they work in both 15mm and 28mm HotT. 

These orcs are based mainly on the EM4 monopose plastics, with bits added from Mantic orcs, GW Skaven, Frostgrave demons, Fireforge Mongols and Oathmark orcs and dwarves. The leader is a Frostgrave demon with only a minor conversion to lower his head into his shoulders for a more orcish look. The fellow with the two-handed axe is a Frostgrave demon with a Fireforge cataphract head. He'll probably end up in a different uinit.