Orcish Reinforcements!

 Hi!

I've finally got round to taking some pictures of my slowly expanding Orcish horde with their newest addition, the Butcher!

Orc Butcher

As with the other figures in the warband he comes from the Hall of the Orc King box that I picked up earlier in the year and have slowly been painting my way through and alongside the big spiky chap from my earlier post, he's been the most fun to paint.

The Warband thus far

Of all the figures in the set thus far the Butcher has probably had the most details but was still a pleasure to paint and actually took less time to finish than the archers did. I've got a second one to paint but have been distracted by other mini projects that have struck my fancy over the last week or so.

Butcher, Gorath's Chosen and Brewmaster

I've been quite motivated hobbywide, despite having limited time and have just finished a 54mm scale Viking chappy who will need basing alongside my 10mm Risk stuff and the Longmyre militia who have been done for a while now.

While I've not managed to concentrate on any single project, I do seem to be making up for the lack of focus by just pelting through whatever catches my fancy at present which is keeping me from getting bogged down and losing interest.

I've also rummaged out my Stump conversions and am eying them up alongside the Dark Age Brutal Quest project I started the other year and am footling around with several other bits and bobs which seems to be my method for actually getting anything done. While it means that completing any single project in a timely fashion is not really working out, I am pleased with the fact that I'm blasting through all sorts of bits and bobs that have been sitting for ages!

I'm going to try and get my Longmyre dudes based up alongside my Viking this evening (if I can find a 40mm round base!) and will post pics tomorrow if all goes well but in the meantime, All the best!

Orc Reinforcements

 Hi!

Well we're rapidly approaching the end of February and I've got the second batch of Orcs finished and begun work on the third and as it's a lovely morning, I've managed to get some decent photos of them!

Orc Archer, Gladiator, Beermaster, Spearman

I've almost finished the low level stuff with a single archer to paint and have begun work on some of the character and boss type figures from the set.

The Warband thus far

The figures have been really nice to paint and I've actually surprised myself by not losing interest in the project but just keep chipping away at it and it's been really rewarding to see a decent sized Orc warband start to form. 

Beer Master

The character and boss type models are rather fun and I did have some interesting ideas for how I'm going to represent the Beer Master in games.

Beer Masters Barrel of Bugmans

Using a mixture of speedpaints to block in colours before highlighting and shading has sped up the process somewhat and brought the best out of the models themselves and hopefully I've managed to avoid leaving any mould lines on the figures as they're a real pain to clear off the soft plastic but despite this, they do paint up pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Speaking of which, my favourite figure thus far is the big mutated chaps, of which you get two in the set:

Gorath's Chosen

I've not quite finished his base yet but he's an intimidating figure and I spent quite a bit of time painting him but figured he's worth the extra effort.

Many washes were done on his skin and armour followed by a wee bit highlighting to give the impression of rusted and battered armour over his uncouth hide.

As you can see, he's a chunky guy who towers over the already large Orc infantry figures and will make for a fantastic boss type of character to really challenge opposing warbands.

Longmyre Militia about to have a very bad day.

Once I've got the big guy's base done, I'm moving onto an Orc Butcher figure who also has loads of character but think once he's done, I may take a break to paint something else as that will mark 50% of the box being complete and I want to try something else, possibly reinforcing the Longmyre militia with some extra troops as they're decidedly outnumbered at the moment.

I also want to start work on some characters, adventuring parties and whatnot so I can actually get the campaign up and running so we'll see how we get on in the coming weeks but until then, All the best!

Brutalquest Project: Hall of the Orc King

 Hi!

I have been footling about trying to settle on a suitable project to start the year and happened to be perusing Game in Perth when I spotted they had several boxes of Epic Encounters in their sale. 

A little pondering later I ended up picking up a copy of Hall of the Orc King for £25, reduced from almost £40.

Aimed more at the RPG crowd, it none the less has 20 chunky Orcish types along with a built in campaign that suits the sort of narrative driven approach that I'm trying to do.

The set comes with nine different sculpts which are of a decent quality, especially as they worked out at 80p each with a mixture of troop types, characters and even some rather nice cavalry to add a bit of spice to encounters.

You get four Orc cavalry mounted on bears and wielding bows and short stabbing spears. while each sculpt is identical, I plan on doing a wee bit of conversion work to them to give them a bit of individuality and they're surprisingly nice figures to boot.

You also get three archers and three spearmen. Fairly workmanlike poses and sculpt quality but should be fairly easy to either sculpt on a hat or do a head swap. I'd actually like to have had another basic troop type with something like a sword or axe but I can always add to the mix at some point in the future.

The first of the specialists are a bit odd, Orc Brewmasters with a barrel of Orc Ale on their backs and spiked tankards to thrash people with, the second specialist is a Gladiator who comes with a pair of swords and a bad attitude.

Next up are the heavies, a pair of half troll types with spikes growing out of them and heavy flails and two Orc Butchers who wouldn't look out of place as 15mm scale Ogres. These two sculpts are probably my favourites of the set as they've got tons of character and I'm really looking forward to painting them.

Finally you get the Orc King himself and a Shaman to back him up. Interestingly, for the key characters in the set, they're pretty dull but will give me some characters to lead my Orcs on Aeroth. I suspect I'll do a head swap on them and eventually upgrade them to something more interesting but as already mentioned, they cost 80p so I can't grumble too much.

As a whole the boxed set is well worth the cost and comes with a battle mat and campaign book too which is nice (although the infantry figures are based on 30mm rounds and the map is gridded for 25mm which seems a bit silly). 

The sculpts themselves are pretty nice and look like they'll lend themselves well to a coat of paint and the plastic they're made from is better quality than some manufacturers as none of them have wobbly bendy weapons and the sculpts have an interesting level of detail without being too busy.

I'm hoping to paint up some basic boys to act as villains and plan on chipping away at the set as a whole over the next few months until I get the lot done and if I add say a few Gobbos and an Ogre or Troll to the mix, I think I've got enough stuff for a nice campaign in the making.

I'm hoping to get a sample figure painted up in the coming weekend to see how I get on with them and will post an update when I've got it done but I'll be keeping my eye out to see if Game do any other sets in their sale (I'd been sorely tempted to pick up some Heroquest supplements they had in the sale but I've not got the core set yet so thought it may be a bit silly to get add ons rather than the basic game).

We shall see if this rather random addition to my collection helps in the hobby slump but I'm quite interested to see how I get on with them and would recommend folks take a peek in their local shops to see if there's any bargains to be had...

All the best!