Pig-faced orcs!

 This weekend is going to be dominated by that toad. But I managed to kitbash these D&D-style pig-faced orcs before knuckling down. I've given them all Monster Manual-compliant gear. 

These are made largely from Frostgrave cultists and cultist knights, with heads from Wargames Atlantic and shields from Victrix.

Kitbashed EM4 space orcs - and orkish work in progress

A couple of months ago, I kitbashed some EM4 Fantasy Warriors orcs into space orcs through the tried-and-tested route of "stick a gun on a fantasy figure and call it a spaceman". I painted these up for a game in June but forgot to record them. There are many more to come. 

Since playing One Page Rules: Grimdark Future then, I've been putting together some multi-based orks for that game and similar sci-fi ones (e.g. Xenos Rampant). I like the 3/2/1 basing system that some people use for the Rampant games, and I've realised that it would work just fine in Grimdark Future. Here are some WIP bases, both for primitive orks ("berserkers" in GF) and more tech-savvy ones:

I really like this style of basing and might extend it to include some 4s and 5s. For games that involve large groups of figures, it makes movement so much easier and avoids the unsightly spectacle of lots of individually based figures crammed together and falling over each other on the table. 

Edit: a size comparison with first-edition 40K and Gorkamorka orks:

 

The Battle of the Five Armies with Hordes of the Things

 

Over the past few months, I assembled and painted up a set of Hordes of the Things matched forces for the Battle of the Five Armies from The Hobbit. This was for a friend's kids; the armies were handed over at the weekend, and the inaugural battle was fought - largely according to the book, although Beorn was a notable casualty and Thorin survived. In the end, it was the stout Lake Men who put paid to Bolg.

Here are the HOTT elements involved:

Beorn:

Dain and his dwarves:

Thorin Oakenshield and his companions:

Gandalf, Bilbo, the Elf-king and the elves:

The Lake Men:

The forces of good (minus Beorn and the Eagle):

The goblin hordes:

Bolg of the North and his bodyguard:

The wargs:

Warg riders:

"They ride upon wolves, and the wargs are in their train":

The forces of evil:

The eagles:

The whole lot, more or less, including the bat clouds at the back.

A space ettin!

I realise that I've had this fellow in the works for more than three years (!) now, but he's finally done. He's a converted ettin from the Descent boardgame. 

Ettin, of course, is an archaic English word that means 'giant'. It's cognate with the Norse jotun: both words seem to stem from a root that means 'eater'.

 In the Monster Manual, Gary Gygax describes ettins as two-headed giants that are evidently "closely related to orcs". He probably got his concept of the ettin from the fairy tale Red Ettin, which features a three-headed giant who keeps two-headed cattle. I thought a sci-fi version might do nicely as a space-orc chieftain.

A whole lot more orks ,,,

Here's another batch of space orcs - most of them old Citadel from the 80s, along with a Mantic marauder and a more recent GW ork with a bit of kitbashing. 

 I added a little bit of an homage to the late John Blanche: a titan of illustration and miniature painting, who will be very much missed. RIP.

And another ...

 This is one of Thrugg Bullneck's raiders from the very first 40K releases. He appears to be a leader of some kind, though he's neither Thrugg, Hrukk nor the unnamed squad leader with the heavy bolter. I suspect he was meant to be a second squad leader but lost his position in a mix-up with the heavy gunner. 

Another space orc!

 

Here's another space orc - this one a conversion of a Battle Masters orc. 

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 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.

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.