1 October 2014

Happy orctober, Digest fans!

Yup, it's that time of year again. The nights are just starting to draw in, apples are ripening, conkers are taunting us with their utterly pointless abundance (I want to gather thousands of them, but what would I do with them?), spiders are invading our homes, and a gamer's thoughts turn naturally to that archetypal fantasy baddy, the orc.

Awesome painting by the fabulously talented Mr. Zhu

Whether you prefer your orcs to be the hulking green gorillas of recent GW fare, the stooped and debased elves of Tolkien, mid-level dungeon menace of D&D, or something else entirely, it's hard to deny the place of the humble, quarrelsome orc in the vast array of threats to the nations of men, dwarves and elves.

From a gaming point of view, orcs were my first "army" thanks to the 4th Edition boxed set replete with sprue after sprue of goblins and high elves; I may even have finished painting a couple of them! In combat, I have to admit, the serried of rock-hard black orcs that nearly actually won a battle one time were almost entirely made up from 25mm square pieces of cereal packet to mark out their base size. Not exactly Erny's civilisation-threatening horde.

One small snapshot of a much larger army
I mention Erny in particular as a point of comparison as Orctober was his idea in the first place. He is encouraging gamers to paint some orcish figures or do something creative with an orcy flavour (I'm not sure that orcs would taste nice...) during this month both for the hell of it, and possibly for a prize as well.

Anyway, why am I posting about orcs? Well, I seem to have bought an orc army without noticing. A couple of years back I picked up a handful of Kev Adams' (naturally) new sculpts from Rhoninstorm miniatures. Rhoninstorm are sadly, as far as I know, totally defunct but the sculpts were picked up by another KA fan and they are not only still available from him (trading as Crooked Claw Miniatures) but the range is steadily expanding with a recent successful Indiegogo campaign. Long story short, I acquired more CC goblins at various sales. And in the Indiegogo. And I got a joblot of preslotta bits and bobs which turned out to be mostly of the orcish variety. And then there was a bargain on ebay. And then phreedh was selling a wyvern I've always wanted. And...

I think we all know how that goes, don't we?



So, it turns out I have almost an entire fieldable orc and goblin army:

  • general on wyvern
  • 15 preslotta biguns
  • 20 orc boys
  • 16 arrer boys
  • 22 goblins
  • 7 goblin stikkas
  • 5 goblin wolf riders
  • 4 orc boar riders
  • 3 trolls
  • about 30 snotlings/lesser goblins
  • half a dozen or so wolves
  • goblin shaman in chariot
  • a giant 
While that might seem fairly paltry compared to, say, Thantsant's vast horde (below), it will give me plenty to be getting on with. I think I might start with the snotlings/lesser goblins for a change of scale from the giant I'm slowly working through.

Yes, that is a war tortoise in the centre.

Now, where'd my pot of goblin green go...

Rab

16 comments:

  1. Don't forget the Windsor and NEwton Green Apple ink....Andy Craig suggested it, and I can not talk about its glorious results enough!

    ReplyDelete
  2. From little acorns and all that!

    Happy Orctober - looking forward to seeing the colour of your greenies! ; )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Little acorns?! Show off....

      As to the colour of my greenies, they may end up being more brownies in a Tolkien/Gygax mash-up.

      Delete
  3. orcs rule...long live the orc....have loads, love them and will be getting loads more once baby son allows me to sleep again and thus be able to actually focus enough at night to get back to painting.

    now I have to go waste some time looking at orc models during this test rather than doing the work I am meant to be doing....damn you

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Orcsies does not taste very nice does they precious?"

    Guess it's time to once more do some work on Grom's Goblinoid Horde....................

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's some giant - no orc horde is complete without one. Just don't let him near the Crabbies.

    Looking forward to seeing this painted up, especially the Crooked Claws!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Crabbies? I think it'd take a bit more than that - look at the size of him!

      Delete
  6. Suddenly, Orcs! Thousands of them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It did feel like that, separating out the lead pile into Bretonnians, Chaos and Orcs; I couldn't quite believe there were so many of the buggers. I think they've been spawning down there....

      Remember, don't shoot until you can see the reds of their eyes!

      Delete
  7. I really need to get in gear with my Chaos force, so that we can play! Unfortunately, I'm working 80 to 90 hour weeks at the moment as my new job is at tad challenging, half term will be my next hobby time.

    I read your next post to and I too prefer a dirty orangey-brown Orc. Love what you've done with you gobbos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hear you on the work front - I got the last two posts written during class tests as I barely feel I've had a free breathe for a fortnight or so. Boo hiss! Still, I should get a little brush time in this weekend. Hopefully!

      Delete