Mounted Orc Boys

More Warhammer Fantasy Battles, this time with PappaJJ's boar riders that I did for him. These models were again most excellent in many ways. First of, these are some of the only orc models that actually rank up and assemble without causing mind-numbing headaches. Secondly, the models were a snap to put together while remaining highly flexible in poses no matter the weapons that were chosen. Lastly, the large smooth areas on the armor allowed me to use the snow on metal effect extensively which I thing came off very smoothly.

Savage Orc Boys

Unlike the standard Orc trooper, the Savage Orc Boys are actually green on most of the model!  It was strange spending so much time on other orcs not painting green. But not with these chaps. I spent time trying to make sure the feral nature of these naturally feral creatures popped out. More contrast in the face and teeth was where I focused. The faces got a treatment of the new yellow glaze which really helped to add some pop.  The teeth got several doses of Secret Weapon Miniature washes (technically glazes as well).

I tried to avoid metal as much as possible on the mostly jungle themed fighters. Again, SWM washes made a huge impact on top of the old GW gray base that was aggressively highlighted. 

Here Be Goblins (More Orcs and Goblins)

While the new edition of 40K is looming closer, I wanted share some more of the Orcs and Goblins that spent most of the last year working on.
First off, goblins are pretty awesome in the lore of Warhammer Fantasy. They are mean, vile, aggressive, and completely nutty!  These spider riders were awesome to prepare and easy to paint up. I could see myself making a full goblin army (one day... in the far future perhaps!)
The purple and orange colors carried over nicely to these units. The purple on the spiders shows nicely and the orange tops gives some contrast.

I've always loved Goblin Fantatics. Its like giving your ADD youngster a kilo of coke and a machine gun. These dudes are wild and crazy and love playing against them. To be honest, these were some of my favorite models to paint up. 

Night Goblins are standard, effective, and the back bone to a goblin army. While I'd like a bit more variation in the models, they assembled easily and painted up nicely. The banner is just completely full of awesomeness. What more can I say about the goblins without getting cheesy?!?

Using Snow Effects

There has been some talk of the snow effects used on the Orc army and I wanted share my experiences using Woodland Scenics Snow Flakes. Mr. Justin has a great tutorial about using Snow Flakes which was my starting point.

Here is the effect used with WS's Realistic Water. I don't like it, to be honest. True it makes a wet snow appearance. But it doesn't have the pop that I was looking for. It was very realistic, but did catch my eye. You can also see that Realistic Water is somewhat expensive, and this technique uses a fair amount of the water (and less of the cheaper snow flakes).

Here is the effect with PVA glue which I liked much more. First off, it gives a much sharper contrast against the dark colors on the orcs. True it does look like 'fresh' snow and I used it on models that I thought would be 'out front' more in this army. It also was placed on models where I thought snow would collect. Its also much cheaper. I currently buy my PVA glue by the gallon. Its cheaper than RW (by far!) and has far more uses. Face it, at this stage of the hobby you should by buying your PVA glue by the gallon!

How To Deal With an Orc Horde (As a Painter)

The Orc Horde is upon us!

Ranking models for Warhammer Fantasy is a much different task than arranging individual models for Warhammer 40K. You have to keep models, in rows of five or ten around four rows deep, lined up in a (near) perfect square. This is great when dealing with models like goblins, elfs, and humans. When it comes to orcs, the process sucks. Big Time. These Goblins have it easy.

40K orks are allowed to be more free-form but in WFB the bulky arms and legs are nearly impossible to keep square without making the models all face the same direction. When Jason and I first started talking about the army, it was clear we both liked the 'chaos' of having spears, swords, and shields sticking out in all directions. Its a far cry from the old days of WFB where metal models all faced the same diagonal direction. Those were dark days of modeling!


The easiest way to make these models form up, is to cheat. By making use of the long bases and and the square bases from Citadel you can break up the boring squares and add some depth to some of the filler models. You can take advantage of being able to squeeze four models closer together than on four individual bases leaving room to rank up all the models around the larger bases. Here I used the 50mm Monster Bases to squeeze these orcs together to protect them from the incoming arrow fire.

"Watch 'ur 'eads mates!"

"Oi, not in me eye!"

With the Savage Orc Boys I need to pull a different trick out the box. Jason wanted to have the ability to run one forty orcs unit or two twenty orc strong units, each with banners and musicians. The problem was that I was only given forty models.  So naturally two, models were taken out as extra musician and banner which allowed me to put one model in a spot for two in the main rank.(Here I used two 25mm x 50mm bases). Because of the chaos from the unit, you don't even miss those two orcs. That is the true nature of orcs I guess. 

Its only kinda cheating. 

So the full squad contains 38 models with two extra stand-ins!

And they get to play king of the hill.

The last thing I wanted to do but just wasn't able to make it work with the orcs is to make a formidable shield wall, like the Greek Hoplites. It was outside of my ability and didn't fit the aggressive nature of the orcs. I compromised.  So the front rank here was pushed far forward to make room for the second rank of models. I also positioned orcs taking the ranged shooting while getting ready for the initial hand to hand combat.

Perhaps another army can hide behind large shields. I'm looking at you Men-At-Arms!

Lastly, I used a number and letter system with stick on labels pasted to the bottom of each model. That way units can be assembled quickly and easily. 

It Is Finished

Long time followers of this blog know that I have been working on an Orcs and Goblin Army for PappaJJ for greater than one year at this point. I am proudly announcing today, that it is finished! It features over 2K points worth of core units, two 40-orc strong units, and plenty of characters. I'll be posting the army over the next several posts and going into detail about each unit and the heroes. Don't worry, I'll be back to painting 40K armies soon enough. I have lots of Inquisitor models to share.

PappaJJ has been very gracious in making sure I had plenty of time to work on other projects while working on his army. However, I'll make it said that since Adepticon finished this year, I've work hard-core on finishing this army. Now its time for some hard earned time off, mainly to clean up my hobby and painting area!

One of the cool things about this army is that PappaJJ wanted an unusual paint scheme- no red, no yellow, no black. In fact he wanted winter colors and something that worked well with his Dark Elves. So purple and orange finally emerged as the key colors to balance out the green skin of the orcs.  It was a fun army to pain, but using this colors proved to be a fun challenge. It was great fun working with snow effects to try to create some freshly fallen snow. 

Big Units in Fantasy

That sounds like some odd porn title. but its not what I wanted to talk about today!
One of the issues I battled with this Orc army is how to keep track of all of the boys in the unit. Enter the simple and effective solution.
I picked up some customizable printer labels that you can peel off (here) for another project. For this, you simply cut down the label and put them on the underside of the base. Now you know where the guy goes and change the order over time (like for instance if GW changes the rules on you!).
Initially I used a Sharpie but it was hard to see (unless you have the super cool Silver Sharpie) and its hard to change.

There you go. Your simple tip of the day. 

Orc Boy Champion

A couple of days ago, I showed the completed unit. But today I wanted to share the unit champion in detail. While the standard troopers can get a bit repetitive over a short time, the unit leaders and the characters are nothing short of awesome.

The base is cork board with snow effects. Simple, effective. The rust effect is from Secret Weapon Miniatures. The 'dust' was added to water and applied like a regular thinned paint. 

Orc Boys, Complete!

It seems like eons ago that I started this unit, but they are done! Painting 40 Boys is no laughing matter, let me tell you. But it was great fun painting up all of these orcs. While I generally still hate a few things about the kit, it is an improvement over the prior versions of the main orc foot troops. The biggest issue is that the models are generally too big for their bases and when you trying to squeeze 40 of them into a unit, you have to get a bit creative in how you place them on the bases, and even what arms you use.
Anyway, I am happy how these guys have turned out.  I know that Pappa JJ will be happy as well, or I'll stab him in the eye with all of these spears!

Here is the unit, assembled, and ready for paint.

And here they are, all covered with paint (minus that banner thing). 

Don't worry. I'm not done yet... there is a rather large stack of boys still in my basement!

On the Painting Table- Even More Orc Boys

I am now thirty of forty Orc Boys down. Wahooo!  In fact, as I write this the other four models are dangerously close to being done with the rest of the models. At the moment, I am waiting for some Secret Weapon Miniature supplies to arrive to finish off the unit.

Oddly enough, its taken about this long to start to hit my stride with the unit. Finally, I feel like I have the colors down and further models are taking less and less time. Its an important thing to remember when doing large model count armies like this. It can take awhile to get started and get going, but then the army can be finished pretty quickly.

Here is the last of the second rank, all the individual models.

And in non-ranked up position. Some of the details are yet to come. My next update will show what I finally decided to do with some of the special bits on the models.

Here it is in their full glory (minus a banner that fell off).  Its getting close... so close.

Miniature Monday- Orcs in 4x4

One of the biggest aids in painting large regiments in Warhammer Fantasy Battles (like this huge Orc Boy mob) is to put some of your models on the long regiment bases (like last weeks post), or square monster bases. It helps break up with 'stand in a straight line' phenomenon you can otherwise get. These boys are going to be in the middle of the large unit, shields to be placed up in the air to protect them for the inevitable hail of fire.

For those keeping track of the army, the weapons need the rust effect finalized and the shields with emblems will be placed. Twenty-four down, only sixteen left to go!

Movin' to the Boyz

Here are the first couple of Orc Boyz to get my feet wet on the big guys. As much of a pain in the ass these models were to assemble, they paint very nicely. I hope the orange vests and the purple-leather skirts come as well as I envisioned them.  With all of the washes and no dull coat, the models tend to reflect a lot of light.  It will probably take awhile to get the full unit of 40 boyz done... but at least it will be fun!

Goblins are Done!

Things have been silent a bit around here for a couple of reasons.  I was waiting for a WarStore order that continue the Scenic Snow to arrive and for some new lights (from Target of course) for the light box. So in other words, I've been lazy. :)

The snow/mountain effect of the snow was fun to do, and it was the first time I've done this. Being unsure the 'best' way to proceed, I took my cues from Mr. Justine at Secret Weapon Miniatures Tutorial.

I ended up doing the 'wet snow' technique to represent the horde of orcs marching over the snow, causing it to melt a bit underneath. Making wet snow is easy- place Realistic Water and then douse with the fake snow. I put some 'fresh' snow on top, using a PVA glue/snow mix to add some variety to the consistency of the snow.

Night Gobbo' Command

I am nearly done with the first unit of the Orcs and Goblins army project- only some touch ups and basing to complete. The part I like the least on these guys is the purple. However, there is going to be a WarStore order in my future. I'm pretty happy with the rough highlights and then using lots of inks and washes to complete the model. The effect looks nice and it doesn't take forever to complete.

WiP Night Goblins

Question to the group- favorite snow effect products on the market that you like?

Next on the order is starting on a large unit of orc boys!

Working on Night Goblins

After pushing the oversized orc boys off a cliff, I moved to the Night Goblins. These models are more like it!  Only a couple of pieces of beautifully carved plastic that fit well within their bases. Nice work Games Workshop.

The paint scheme/method was going to be a bit different than your typical paint job. One of the things that I need to be able to do is to produce a good (or better) table-top quality army without spending most of my life doing it. 

So the model gets base coats all around then highlighted pretty aggressively. More aggressively than you might think. The first pass looks pretty weird- no shadows, lots of messy highlights. But then you start throwing inks, washes, and other shadows on top of the model and viola! You get some pretty nice looking models without spending tons of hours on the models. 

This is my variation on the methods taught on the Miniature Mentor Website and the Wapple's class this year at Adepticon. A couple of things to note. The main thing is that you need to highlight more than you think. A whole lot more. In fact it should look like "peptobismol"  according to Jim Wapple. This is something I'll do more as I start working on the front ranks. The other thing is that you'll loose some of the highlight along the way and you'll have to go back and redo some of the areas. It will help bring out the pop more. Lastly, black sucks. No easy way to do it and I'm glad the main units of orcs don't wear black robes. I should have chosen purple or something!

Its Fantasy Time!

No, not that kind of fantasy. Thats for another blog.
Now that your mind is back in the gutter.... a few months ago an old friend (he's old and we've known each other for a long time!), prolific blogger, and long-time reader of this blog (can you believe its the same person!) asked me to paint an army for him.  How could I refuse PapaJJ?  I eagerly accepted the 'job' and waited for the details. Well that was a mistake, as I should have asked for the details and then accepted the job!  A few days later a huge box of Orcs and Goblins showed up on my doorstep... and my follies were only just beginning.

All kidding aside, this is going to be a fun army build. The only bad part is that this is probably going to take awhile to complete. That is the nature of WFB armies, particularly large ones like the O&G's.  So sit back for the next few months as I struggle to build these monsters (as fun loving as they might be).

Background:
JJ also has a Dark Elf army that he built for Adepticon this year that he plans to grow. According to the fluff in the army book, the DE's at one time held O&G slaves. The idea quickly sprung from there that these orcs were going to be escaped/freed slaves of the Dark Elves. With that, the color scheme and basing were settle on: Snow capped mountains for the terrain and the complementary color set of yellow-green (skin tones) with purple and orange highlights.
The hope is to create a visually unique army that will tie in with his Dark Elves. The purple-orange is different from the red-yellow-white of most O&G armies out there.

The Start:
The first thing I wanted to start was the huge unit of orc boys with choppa and shield.

Proof that they all will rank together...  just barely!

However, those damn orcs are a pain to assemble on a base. The feet and bodies are way to big, even for the larger square bases. After cussing at Games Workshop for a few days assembling these bad boys, I moved to something more sane for the first coat of paint- goblins. And I'l