Orctober 2016!

Orctober 2016! Woooohoooo! *Ahem* I mean Waaaaaaggghhh! ...obviously.

Firstly and most importantly, big shout out to Erny, the Oldhammer blogging legend behind Orctober, for this year's banner! And to his brother Snickit for poking him with a stick encouraging him!

This was supposed to be a post detailing my Orctober pledge. Sadly it has been another busy month of REAL LIFE and even my week off, planned to be full of nerdly goodness, was hijacked both being poorly and looking after poorly family members. Booooo!

So, it is a post detailing my meagre efforts for Orctober 2016 retrospectively. However, without the motivation of the monthly painting theme I'm not sure I would have got much if anything finished this month. At least I managed to get the bulk of what I had planned done. And that was...

28 Night Goblin Archers from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th Edition box set!

Here they are lined up in black undercoat behind a test piece to get the colour scheme right

I have to say I have a real soft spot for these guys, and to a slightly lesser extent their spear wielding brethren from the same set (I have 28 of those coming up too, but they were never part of the Orctober plan, as I have to press mould a ton more shields before I can do that). It's a cheap and cheerful plastic monopose sculpt, and many people lament the rise of such miniatures in the history of GW, but their cheeky yet malevolent faces still manage to convey something of what was the quintessential Warhammer (dare I say Oldhammer? I do think this was lost in later editions) Goblin vibe.

'Da Yellaz' ranked up in front of the set of hills Dave the Scenery Savant made for me

I've painted these to match my existing greenskin army - i.e. as if they had been done by a young teen aged me with just three pots of paint and one brush with only two hairs left on it - and I think I have achieved that aim admirably! I've gone for what AVP Shaun would euphemistically refer to as 'Tournament Ready' (meaning they are fully covered in paint and have at least three colours on them, but not much more than that), making full use of a healthy coat of black under coat in the finished model.

They are a sister unit to one that was already painted, which was itself just carrying on the black and red paint job that the previous owner had started.

Here you can see Da Redz as the yarrived in the post. I decided to just upcycle them rather than satrting again. They were pretty close to the colour scheme I had in mind anyway.

I wanted these to fit with that look but be distinct as a separate unit so after the same super quick Snot Green/Orc Flesh Wash treatment, I went for yellow as the unit theme colour, using Bubonic Brown on everything that wasn't going to be green or black (I find it gives fantastic coverage over dark colours and lets you work up to some really vibrant yellows), and then either flesh wash for the leather parts or yellow wash for the arrow fletchings and bow tips. And that was it.

See, they are just as terrible from the back as they are from the front

Here you can see Da Yellaz next to Da Redz. I'm slightly annoyed I forgot to do one unit leader with the colours on the bow reversed as Da Redz have, but then I plan to add proper champions, standards and musicians to both units before sorting out movement trays once final numbers are known, so Da Yellaz unit leader can also be sorted out in time.

Both units badly need command. Large mobs of gobbos going around without any direction like this is why the yare so easily bullied into things they'd rather not do. Of course having command doesn't help that much either, but...

Hopefully you get the sense of them being two distinct units, but from the same tribe or army

I'd hoped to be able to finish a few other choice pieces for Orctober, and to a much higher standard than the Gobbo archers, including a Blood Bowl to Rogue Trader conversion for my ongoing Rogue Quest project that would have been a nod to the 40K theme suggested by Erny's awesome banner. Sadly this was not to be. The only other piece I got finished this month (today in fact) that qualifies for Orctober is a Bugbear from the Citadel AD&D Dungeon Monsters set.

I wanted for a different look for the eyes, not just red like I tend to for my Warhammer greenskins. I thought they should be beady so I went for dark blue with a very light grey fleck, I think it has worked OK.

More Bubonic Brown and Flesh Wash here, as well as Bestial Brown and Back Ink for the skin and fur of the Bugbear. Fairly classic colouration and in keeping with the description in the AD&D Monstrous Manual. He's due to make an appearance in my D&D game this coming weekend, so another great example of monthly painting challenges fuelling productivity for actual gaming.

I really, really need to get a better camera/lighting set up.

Scenery September Update!

 

I've also finished the 'Hut in the Swamp' I started as part of the Middlehammer group's Scenery September challenge, adding a mushroom garden around the two slime pools, and some seasonal pumpkin heads around the entrance. Ultimately, it still looks like a box turned upside down and painted brown, but I'm only aiming for producing usable pieces that add something to our gaming at the moment, so I think it will do the job nicely.

The Hut in the Swamp is going to feature in a future D&D session, but was made very much with longer term use for Warhammer in mind.

Assorted mushrooms and toadstools made from Milliput and lentils. Snake made from left over green stuff.

The slime pools were made with a hot glue gun. The photos don't show the colour variation, but there was still a lot that could have been done to improve them.

The pumpkin lanterns are press moulded from the head of The Carver from Malifaux

Thanks for stopping by, and if you've been working on any of your own Orctober projects please leave links in the comments. I'd love to see them!