Orctober Fest

Yessss!
Finally a good motivation to finish off the remaining models for my orc army.

It all started off with multiple Heroquest boxes and then Battlemasters and then the Sculpey giant and then the orc modular set and then some donations of GW standard plastics and 4 metals and finally some throw ins with a sale of other minis.

Well, now it's time to complete it all and here it finally is.

I have always really "speed painted" these guys in an effort to get them playable. (As a matter of personal honour and respect for my opponent, I don't play with unpainted models). Also, painted models fight harder.
This is also why I didn't mind many of the same model. After all, with orcs it's all about outnumbering the enemy.


Lets start a closer look with one of my favourite banners of yore.

Da Evil Sunz Clan

These guys I painted up from the Battlemasters sets and added the modular standard bearer. I liked the look of the modular set. They reminded me of what I thought the Big 'Uns of 3rd ed would look like. I would continue this theme of champions and standard bearers throughout the army. The shield design of the Evil Sunz clan was originally printed low quality and recently I reprinted one to fit the lot of them - having finished off another 10. The Standard is all hand painted and certainly one of my finer moments, but then again, I do love my standards.

Da Evil Sunz Arrer Big 'Uns

Big 'Uns from the modular set with a greenstuff banner. These will be my  elite missile troops. First small thing about these guys was the addition of the red arrow pattern on the tunic which I would carry on to other themes in the army, including the Warboss and the standards.

Da Skull Splitaz Clan

GW standard plastics with the addition of the shields and skull emblems from the skeleton modular set. The Champion is a Big 'Un with a skull adorned cloak from the Chaos Marauder set and the standard bearer als a Big 'Un with a random plastic standard conversion. Each of the skull ornaments on the belts also has been painted with the split skull motif.

Da Skull Splitaz Arrer Boyz

Most of these guys were GW plastic donations, with a couple of the modular later 'Big 'Uns" popped in as standard bearers and champion. The shock troop standard is a plastic and the Missile is a greenstuff banner and also painted up with the split skull motif on the belts.

Da Hed Huntaz

The majority of the two weapon models from the modular kit make up the Hed Huntaz. Each one of these models has either a skull or head trophy on their belt, with the more heads symbolising their status. This unit of Big 'Uns has the only musician in the army and the special champion, (Orc Snow - he knows nothin'), painted by my girlfriend.

Da Warboss and Da Boyz

Mostly all Heroquest orcs, I painted these guys long ago. Today they are joined by a Doc Hook the Standard bearer and Da Warboss! Da Warboss is the only metal model in the entire army and includes the motifs of the Evil Sunz, Skull Splittaz and Hed Huntaz, so he is gonna keep these boyz in line. There may also be an assassin lurking in those ranks.

Wild Boar Chariot

I loved doing the boars. Nice and easy and fun to do the patterns. The chariot is a pest though, as it really was just big enough to hold one figure, not two.

Wyrd Shaman on Wild Boar

Will need a new photo, as he has had some more work, but this shaman has entered a few games. Not particularly adept at spell casting, I decided to give him a scroll to remember his spell. He has been known to have a few mishaps in spellcasting that have left him riding the boar around like a bouncing squig.

Gazza the Assazza

You dinna see anyfing. I woz neva 'ere.

The Champ
(and also Part Time Blood Bowl Champ)

Couple of army shots to finish off.

Gladdishiet the Enraged

One of the most bizarre painting/modelling challenges ever, Plaiecivile decides it would be great to make the entire list of random champions from the Lost and the Damned books and calls upon the people of Oldhammer to arise. Madness. Utter madness. Our kind of madness. I accepted instantly.

The Champion I chose was:
050 - Dwarf - Irrational hatred of elves, Manic fighter, Manikin, Levitation, Regeneration, fear points 2.

I mused upon what I could actually use to create this chaotic monstrosity.Here's the list:

• That horrid plastic slayer from the Skull Pass boxed set that I hated and would never be allowed into my Dwarf army.
• A plastic snotling with a club
• Knife and ankle knife from Forgeword Imperial Guard
• Flail from plastic Flagellants boxed set
• Sword from Bretonian Knights
• Clear plastic base from Nurgle-knows-where.
• Greenstuff.

Regeneration isn't really a physical attribute you can see until the guy is wounded, but I thought, well, a fighter who heals up his wounds instantly probably doesn't care about armour or clothing because it will just become ruined. Therefore it made sense that the Chaos Dwarf would be naked except for a belt to hang his weapons.

Firstly I removed the flash from all the models. I then cut the face off the slayer and carved it a bit, but left the ear,  mouth and moustache. This mouth he would now use only for eating. For the manikin, I cut and shaped the snotling so that it would fit the face with minimal greenstuff required to make the join. I then used greenstuff to sculpt the hair and beard onto the snotling to make him look like a dwarf, and Gladdishiet was born.

Originally, to represent his Manic Fighter attribute, I also had planned to attach a spear, scimitar and hammer to him as well so that he was positively bristling with weapons, but in the end the other weapons were more than enough without them. I put him atop the clear plastic peg to imitate his levitation ability.

After basing the model, I painted the extra weapons separately. Inking and the build-up on the skin for flesh-tones was next, followed by the face and eyes. I did the hair and the weapons and glued the additional weapons in place.

I then had an idea. I had just bought some red inking was that I was using on my plaguebearers and decided it would look awesome if Gladdishiet was covered in the blood of his enemies. This would add to the manic fighter attribute further still! I tested it by flicking the paint off a used toothbrush at some undercoated models and was reasonably pleased with the result, so on it went. This also provided a good chance to bloody up the weapons, too.

I did some final touch-ups and repainted the metal rings, as I wasn't happy with the bronze and turned them iron. Basing the stand was done with green paint, glue, grass flock, rail flock and swamp tufts.


Backstory

A dwarf named Gladdishiem, driven to despair from an incident involving his decision to take his fellow clansmen to the forest edge to fell trees for lumber. They needed it, he thought, in order to build defences for the encampment at the foot of the mountain. He knew there was the risk of an elven attack, but decided that lumber would be faster and easier to collect than building walls of stone. Barely had the first tree been felled when they were set upon by elven archers and glade guard. He alone survived by hiding in a hole under a boulder. He cried tears of fear and disgrace as he heard his fellows die by spear and arrow.

Casting aside all his possessions save his axes and forsaking all else he had ever been a part of, he changed his name to Gladdishiet in shame and swore an oath never to run nor hide from anything till the day of his death.

He ventured across plains and through forests, slaughtering anything in his way, driven by anguish, sorrow and hatred. Many elves fell to his axes as his lust for vengeance began to take over his mind. His death-quest led him into deep mountains where he cut swathes through goblin hordes, orcs and trolls. The bigger the monster, the harder he fought.

After slaying one particularly ugly and mutated troll, Gladdishiet noticed a small greenstone amulet that had fallen to the ground. Kicking aside the severed head of the troll, he took it up and noticed the image of three connected spheres within. Without care, he placed it about his neck.

Months turned into years, and all the while, the amulet softly whispered to him, almost imperceptible at first, then more and more, offering suggestions, corruptions, indulgences. Gladdishiet's mind began to steadily rot from the whispers of Father Nurgle. Even his oath became twisted and corrupted. Never to run... and Gladdieshiet would lift off the ground, terrorising his foes. Never to hide... and Gladdshiet would turn on the nearest enemy, all thoughts of anything other than murder decayed away to nothing.

He would cut upon his flesh with his axes, imagining himself wounding elves, imagining their pain. He did this so often that the greenstone itself seemed to give him the power to heal up the wounds and cuts so rapidly that it seemed no longer useful for Gladdishiet to wear armour or clothing. After all, it only got in the way of the pain.

Following this new force, this whisper that had become a voice inside his skull, he began to transform. From his face he himself sprouted anew; torso, arms, head, in his own image, but this time even more furious, even more hateful. Blood became his favoured wine, flesh his favoured bread, pain his past-time and vengeance against all good things became his greatest desire.

Great Champion of Nurgle

Great Champion of Nurgle

Originally I saw this guy for sale popped in with some nuglings and a few bloodletters and picked him up, choosing him to be my Nurgle Champion. He didn't look like much to begin with and I didn't recognise him. Someone on the forum did.

"The weird-looking guy is Alakhai, Nepharite of Algaroth, from the Warzone/Mutant Chronicles line of games. Looks like his sword has broken off.

As soon as I got him in the post I soaked him and scrubbed him back, straightened his central horn, cut and filed out the brow, cut and filed the boot spurs, then greenstuffed the eye in place, altered the boots and patched the one which had a big hole in it.

For the missing hand, I cut up a spare orc plastic arm. the size was perfect. For the Great Flail, I used a plastic sceptre (from Diplo - I think) , cut the crucifix off and put on the chain from the Marauders set and the mace top from the Chaos Knight multi set.

A quick spray undercoat and leave him to dry.

This gave me time and the head-space to come up with a different way of painting him. Sometimes, when you get a painted model, it can be difficult to imagine a different colour scheme, so I thought about what the armour would be made of. I decided iron is far too common in my army already and this guy is a champion, so perhaps some other metal. Bronze! Yes, bronze.

I have had a lot of practice on other miniatures with doing rust - ferrous rust on iron, but bronze corrodes differently, due to the copper content, turning it green, turquoise and crumbly. Being a champion of Nurgle, everything decays and corrodes. I looked up many images of corroding bronze before I set to work on a completely new oxide challenge.

After I was reasonably satisfied with the result, I took to putting the above photo through photoshop to test some skin colours and pant/boot colours. After mucking about with colours slides and shades I went ahead with an approximation in paint.

Rusting up the Great Flail was no longer a challenge; it was just fun.

The gemstones I decided to use the new Citadel red wash to gleam them up, whilst also testing them on his creeping buboes. Also painted up his skull trophy as a Nurlge Death's Head. Nasty.

For the cloak I had an idea that it was going to be some heavy fabric used in drapes. Perhaps the Champion had looted them from a temple he had razed. I searched on Google Images for "old drapes" and saw a few horrid examples of some green/gold heavy material from the 70's that would even make the straightest of guys throw it away and hire an interior decorator. The drapes looked like they had never been washed in over 40 years. Perfect.

Family Photo to finish off.

Necromunda Gangs

I'll expand on the gangs at a later time, but let's kick it off with a few group photos.


House Delaque - Sump Piranhas

My first foray into Necromunda. I was enticed because of the small amount of models needed to play and the availability of other players who had gangs.

Bounty Hunters

OK, so one might be an assassin, or a drop-in Spyrer and one might be just Hive Scum, but I snagged these models and they have made their rounds many times. The assassin and yellow bounty hunter might be up for a repaint though. It's been a while.

Ratskins

A mish-mash of acquired models, some with dodgy paint jobs, all touched up. Just need to base them now to make them a little more interesting.

House Van Saar - UnderHive Rangers

Purchased in a single block from Forgeworld, I painted up these guys in the style of the Wasteland Rangers from Fallout 3. They can sorta double up as Arbites - and I have a few robo-hounds and a couple of Dreads to kit them out a bit.

The Wheel of Pain - War Altar of Chaos

A mostly home-built project, primarily made with wooden skewers, straws, wire and glue, this centrepiece is a real joy to bring to the table.

I started it off reasonable simple, and for every battle it was in, I added more victims to it. It has now become a thing of terror, covered in offal and wriggling with maggots. Stained with blood and excrement, this hideous altar of live offerings is the one thing to strike terror into the hearts and minds of even the bravest of warriors.

Edit: Updated the base with particle board and carved notches for the altar guards. I took up the suggestion of red clear, but couldn't get Tamiya, but got the citadel red clear instead. Definitely gives it a "fresher" feel and really bloddies it up. I can almost smell it from here. I also used the red clear for the base underneath the altar with some clear 2-part gloss poured n top to make it look like a lot of the blood and yuks have soaked through into the ground.

I finally finished off the last of the Heroquest Chaos models for the green part of the altar guard and this is - hooray! - the actual last of all the Heroquest models completed!

The next phase of this is the addition of the gallows arm and more victims.

Mortimer - Necromancer of Nurgle

Introducing my first Realm of Chaos Champion - Mortimer - Necromancer of Nurgle.

I think this model is an old citadel plastic Bright Wizard, but I cut the top of the staff and replaced it with a few skulls. Painted him up in his death-robe and rolled him up from the Realms of Chaos rulebooks. A nice level 15 wizard with a vampiric chaos sword. A fine start.

I would run many, many skirmishes with friends in 1998 and onwards; Mortimer not always winning, but more importantly, staying alive and using his warband to take the hits for him, including his never failing, trusted green crystal beastman. Summoning skeletons was one of his first moves on the field and always a great way to surprise the opponent!

Over the years he began to change, becoming fatter and fatter, balder and balder and more powerful. After a particularly savage battle, Nurgle himself decided to bless Mortimer by rotting off all the flesh from his face, thus creating a truly fearsome sight. Everyone would know to fear the Necromancer of Nurgle! 

Replacing his sword with the powerful Staff of Nurgle and creating Death Heads from his fallen enemies, Mortimer became very feared by anyone that stood against him.

Blessed again by Nurgle, Mortimer gained the ability to regenerate and a final gift from his deity was a high pitched, squeaky voice. Now he would shriek at his warband. The warband had become strong.

Mortimer finally met his death in the fearsome battle against the Dark Elves in 1989. See the battle report for details. Is it over? No. Not yet, for the champion belongs to Nurgle for a year and a day as an undead champion before he is allowed to rest in Oblivion.

Sculpey

Oh, so poor was I...

When I was a student I especially had very little money to spend on miniatures, yet desperate was I to join in on the games being run at the local hobby store.

There was only one thing to do. Make my own.

Hmmm - easier said than done. I had never modelled anything so small before and really had no idea how to go about it.

A few toothpicks, pins and some old dentists tools later I got to work on what I could afford. A block of Sculpey from the craft store.

It's almost shameful to post this, but what the heck. It's for posterity. I can afford some posterity, can't I?

Swamp Trolls

I built up the Sculpey just barely over these weird plastic featureless monster models someone threw out and then carefully baked them, cooled them and painted them. A terrible job, but trolls were neither available or affordable for me at the time, so these would do.

Much to my surprise, many of the people loved them, goofy and as fragile as they were and they sure saw their fair share of tabletop battles, (and still do).

The Giant 

You gotta be kidding me! I can't afford the GW giant! Shit, I can't even afford him now!

Enter the Sculpey giant. Based on a plastic football trophy, I moulded this guy, club, base and all. That's right. I didn't even have a plastic base. The ale barrel he carries is where the trophy was carrying a football.

Once again, to my surprise, when I busted this guy out years later at a 4 way orc and goblin vs skaven battle, everyone was amazed that I had made him myself. He is getting quite old now and the Sculpey is finally beginning to crack around his feet.

The Ogre

I based this guy around a plastic pink Power Ranger and used the dentist tool on him for a chainmaille effect.

Armed with a metallic painted, skewer mounted hammer of earplug, this is one ogre you don't wanna cross.

Occasionally, he would wear a metal painted upside-down suction cap stolen from one of those stupid "Baby-on-Board" signs hung from the back wind-shield of a car to give him a slightly Oriental look.

Father Nurgle

No, I couldn't afford the Nurgle metals either. This Nurgle Great Unclean One I slopped together right out of Sculpey and nothing else. Armed only with a paperclip and a plastic base, created an atrocity.
He used to look.... uh... better too. Years of being uncared for, banged around and covered in dust has left this guy neglected. Mebbe I'll give him some new paint and a bit of a fix-up.

Edit: A bit of a repaint, greenstuff horns and some wings with a bit of red clear too ooze him up a bit.

Beast of Nurgle

The metal Beast of Nurgle was a little weird, but I liked it. Sculpey to the rescue to sloppily recreate this slimey horror.

The Melties

Yeah, you guessed it - I couldn't even afford dwarves. This is before the age o' plastic mind you.

The thing about Sculpey is that you have to bake it. It isn't air hardening like greenstuff. The thing about baking is that it is random. Stuff begins to melt in seconds. Thus - The melties.

Anyway - along comes the plastic skeletons box some time later and all of a sudden I have good weapons for these guys that make them suck just a little less.

Strangely, and I really don't get this...but when I cautiously brought these guys to the battlefield to fill out my meagre army, they were welcomed with praise by the other players. Now, obviously they aren't terribly good, but maybe because I gave them what small life I could, somewhere, some people noticed. A little spark of life from me to them. Well, they sure fought as hard as any metal dwarf, I'll give them that!