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!

 

Moorcockian chaos horde 1

 

This is the first of many Moorcockian chaos horde elements for Hordes of the Things and DBF. I've kitbashed a dozen of these elements; this is the first one I've finished. 

Each of them has, typically, five beastmen, which gives me about 60 to paint for just half of a HOTT army. 

Very few of the beastmen aren't kitbashed (I think there may be about five among the five dozen that are straight builds or unconverted metal figures). So there won't be many other armies that look too similar. 

Ratmen slingers

 

Here are a couple of ratmen slingers from Ral Partha Europe. They're tucked away at the end of the company's Chaos Imperium range, which consists chiefly of Bob Olley figures done for Ral Partha proper. But there are various slotta-based beastmen and the like at the end, which weren't part of the original range. I think they may have been designed by Tim Prow, though I'm not sure. 

These two are taller than classic Skaven and lack tails. But they're suitably ratty, and I'm always keen on chaos creatures being chaotic in appearance. So they'll fit in comfortably with the original Citadel metal Skaven. Slingers are always handy in Mordheim, too.

The world's oldest Space Ork?!

 

This is a converted Fantasy Tribes Orc from Citadel. He dates from 1982 and is a variant of FT06 (Orc Swinging Axe). His axe has not escaped the 80s, so I thought I'd make him a sci-fi figure in the tradition of Gary Chalk (whose converted C15 Orc Chieftain with assault rifle featured in an early White Dwarf).

I have a small warband of converted old-school orcs underway; next up will be Copplestone and Lund conversions.

Oh, and happy Year of the Dragon! Here's my son's latest offering to celebrate the Spring Festival:

Some 15mm orcs

 I've been gradually putting together some 15mm forces on 40mm squares. The main aim of these is to play Fantastic Battles, but they'll also work for Hordes of the Things, Mayhem and other games - including Dan Mersey's Arrowstorm, which I recently bought and which looks very interesting. 

These are Battle Valor orcs. They're absolutely huge by 15mm standards and would even work as 4' tall D&D-stye goblins in 25 or 28mm. I'm aiming to paint up a few bases with some command figures on 20mm squares. That will allow four bases and four command figures to be used as a goblin regiment in Kings of War. 

A quick kitbash

 This is an old chaos warrior kitbashed with an orc rider and rising beast from Scotia Grendel. He'll serve as a "lord on frostfang" in Kings of War, at least until I get a couple more done, at which point he'll be demoted to the ranks of frostfang riders.

Three Skaven

 

Here are three skittering Skaven for our upcoming forays into Mordheim. The slinger is from the second generation of Jez Goodwin Skaven; the other two are from the infamous Mordheim/Night Runners sprue - the dreaded 'dog-monkeys'. I don't mind them; I had a lot of fun painting them, and I think the sillier elements (tabi and HUGE hands) aren't too bad in the end. The faces could be a bit more rat-like (especially the guy with the leather helmet above), but they look more rodenty if painted with furry muzzles rather than with the bare faces that Skaven are increasingly painted with. 

I note that the original Citadel Skaven were usually shown with furry snouts and only their noses bare, which is much more rat-like than the naked snouts most favour today:

Anyway, these guys add to a growing Skaven swarm, and there will be a rat-ogre to follow.

Zorn orc

I've been intrigued by the Zorn palette for a while. As I'm going to be dabbling in a little Mordheim, I thought I'd try it out on an otherwise goofy GW orc for a bit of added grimdark. My only cheats were the base (burnt umber, grey and white, plus a green wash on the rocks), the metallics (Vallejo steel plus Agrax plus silver highlights) and the blood-effect paint (Citadel Blood for the Blood God). Otherwise, he was entirely painted with these colours:

I plan to do a whole warband in the same style, though I'll try to mix up what goes where. It's a lot of fun painting with such Dogme-style restrictions; I only wish the daylight had been a bit brighter here today, so that I could have taken a better photo of such a dark figure!