Happy Halloween (Or Happy Zombtober)

Trick-or-Treat!!!

Leviathan Orcs size comparisons

For any interested here are some size comparisons of the Heartbreaker/Grendel Leviathan Orcs mixed with various Citadel Orcs.

Left to right:

Citadel 80's, HHG, Citadel 80's, IronClaw/Citadel Black Orc 80's, HHG, Citadel 80's, HHG, 

Citadel 90's

Citadel 2000, HHG, Citadel 80's, HHG, Citadel 80's

Citadel Ogre 80's, HHG, Citadel Ogres 80's, HHG, Chronicle/Grenadier Ogre 80's, HHG, Iron Claw/Citadel Black Orc 80's

Size wise they match up pretty well Citadel Black Orcs (which is probably why I painted them in darker tones), are larger then most standard Orcs from the 80's and are smaller then most Ogres though my only Chronicle Ogre I think is a larger one.

.

Orc Mercenaries

Its Orctober again! So I guess I'll use this Orctober as an excuse to discuss and show off some of my old Orc Mercenaries of the Eastern Steppes.

I'm feeling a bit verbiogely challenged at the moment so let me just pilfer from the old Warhammer Armies book (pg 157).

Orc Mercenary Contingent

Certain Orcs have realized that there is money to be made selling something that they do for fun anyway. The first Orc mercenaries were probably tribes that lent their aid to others for suitable reward. Orc mercenaries are not particular who they work for, as the famous utterance of the Orc Warlord Spittlebone Vorsprunk illustrates: "Look mate, if a sprogging Stuntie offered me 'arf their prisoners to eat an' some tasty loot an' all, I'd 'elp 'im raid me own village.

Orc Mercenary Commander 

The most successful Orc mercenary leaders tend to be those with an unusual glimmer of intelligence, able to intimidate the most booty out of their employers. 

Orc Renegades

Many Orc mercenaries are outcasts or renegades who managed to escape the wrath of their tribal chiefs.

Orc Renegade Arrer Boyz

The cleverest Orc mercenaries acquire bows and fight as Arrer Boyz since they can slay the enemy from a safe distance with a good chance of surviving the battle to collect their pay.

So here are my Orc mercenaries of the Split Skull band, led by Bundykhan the One-eye. Tired of being bossed about by the despotic Hobgoblin Khans, they have left their homelands in the Eastern steppe lands and have since been traveling the world plying their trade as mercenaries.

These guys were used pretty extensively throughout my 6th edition days and served as filler in several armies but most notably with my Ogres of Nippon which I only had about 2k points worth and so served to fill the gap in games over 2k points. But they also frequently served along side (and against) my Orcs and Goblin, Undead and even a friends Lizardmen. The Arrer Boyz in particular acquired a fearsome reputation, on several occasions destroying large Dark Elf regiments, the Elves scoffing at the Boyz inability to shoot straight but in their hubris forgetting those same Boyz carried large sharp choppas tucked in their fur coats.

Here they are deployed with their old friends from Nippon

I'd imagine most of you recognize these as the old Leviathan Orcs from about 1990, which are still available from Scotia Grendel miniatures for a reasonable price.  I bought the bulk of these guys way back in January of 2000, my first ebay transaction ever! I quickly painted them to a tabletop standard and set them to work.

In my opinion they fit in nicely with contemporary Citadel Orcs of the same time. They are a bit chunky or maybe hefty is a better word, they'd also make good stand-ins for Black Orcs. But this is the same period Citadel/Kevin Adams changed their style of Orcs from the beloved 80's golden age Orcs to the chunkier more cartoony 90's Orcs (A style Kevin seems to have stuck with over the years).

There are drawbacks to these guys. There are only two posses of each troop type, so two different bowman, two different swordsman etc, so there's a lot of duplication resulting in a fairly monotonous looking unit. Worse still, the swordsmen come one with shield and one with two swords, but hopefully soon I'll have enough to break them into two separate units. Also, maybe because they were made for a skirmish type game, they have some issues with ranking up neatly.

I quite like the Boss in the command set, though it sadly lacks a musician.  The fella with the halberd also has a bow and quiver strapped to his back, assumably ment to be the Boss for either the Arrer Boyz or the Spear Boyz.

They may have been my first ebay purchase but certainly not the last, maybe they are to blame for this addiction. But I have acquired over the years enough to complete a unit of spears, now waiting patiently to be painted.  That will make three units, four actually once I split out the shielded Orcs from the two hand weapons. Then they'll nearly be an army in their own right.

.

New Blog: The Hobby Stash

So I started a new blog The Hobby Stash.  No plans to close 'Old Orcs Never Die'.  The problem is I want to keep this blog dedicated to Greenskins so I haven't really been able to post, discuss or brag about any of my other hobbies or even my other non-greenskin fantasy miniatures.  Seeing all these amazing blogs showing off their Rogue Trader era gangs and stuff really got me motivated to get this new blog kicked off and a good excuse to start painting up some of my old stuff.

So here we go-

The Hobby Stash!

Half-Orcs Done!

I can't believe I started these guys way back in February, long gone are the days of kicking out a unit a week.

I might be alone in this but I don't particularly care for my greenskins to be clones of one another, not only is it a bore to paint but it just doesn't feel natural on greenskins. So feeling the need to explain away their peculiar lack of individuality here goes....
Murdork's Murderin' Mercenaries have recently entered Mordro Valley, flush with victory over the notorious necromancer Edwardo Scheerfingin scourge of of Border Princess.  Hailed as heroes throughout the Border Princess they have left that land intent on bringing justice and freedom to those in need... for a price.

The local Orcs of the Mordro valley are naturally skeptical of these 'damn stinkin halfgrots' story and a bit confused on how they got past the Toll Boof in the first place.  So long as they keep their hands to themselves I suppose they can be tolerated.

Murdork's Murderin' Mercenaries appear to represent a more stable community of half-orcs with less exaggerated and varied features, probably having kept amongst themselves for several generations. Of course that doesn't make them any better or worse as half-orcs.
Naturally the 'story' as they tell it has been embellished quite a bit.  Having backstabbed, bushwhacked and extorted every community in the Border Princess they finally threw their lot in as mercenaries with the local necromancer Edwardo Scheerfingin. Freshly armed and armored to a somewhat consistent standard and puffed with pride they remained true to their nature and deserted. The noose was getting a bit to tight in the Border Princess so they've moved on and eventually manageing to take refuge in Mordro Valley.

 Murdork's Murderin' Mercenaries

 

Murdork on the left, musician and standard.

A selection of a few of the boys showing off their varied skin tones.

.

Happy 4th of July!

May the 4th by with you!

Giant! Just a giant.

Over five years ago I picked up the Descent: Journeys in the Dark game. Although the game is pretty good, but even better it also comes with a pretty healthy selection of miniatures many which have filtered down into various armies, my undead army has especially benefited.

One of my favorites is the giant... well at least from the waist up, his legs are cartoonishly small and about half way through painting him I decided they just wouldn't do and snipped each leg under the knee and added about a half stilt.  And there he languished for the last four years until now.

During my recent Half-Orc painting sessions I forced myself to nip away at him and finally got him finished up at least to table top standards.

I quite like him. Although he's not technically from the "Golden" era of miniatures there is something of an oldschool feel about him in a Ral Partha sorta way. 

And here he sat, shimmed and ready to go for the past four years and two house moves always managing to end up back on the hobby table.

A little before and after size comparison.

Hobgoblins....

Since Chico started posting Hobgoblin fluff and tidbits on his blog  its gotten me perusing through my own plethora of Hobgoblins.  Though I still harbor grand plans for these guys I don't see anything coming to fruition any time soon, I still have way too many Orcs and Goblins to sort through before embarking or re-embarking on the "Hobgoblin project".  But I did snap a picture from my increasingly failing camera of a couple Hobo's I painted a very long time ago.  I greenstuffed fir rims to give a more Mongol look.

Tootles!

WIP: Half-Orcs- Painting

I finished off a handful of the Mudats Half-Orcs as well as a few Grom's Gaurds just to make sure they fit in. Not much progress beyond that.

On the goblins (now half-orcs) I slapped some putty on their shields and gave them a more oval shape to match the rest of the Half-Orcs and painted on the device to match.  It seems to work ok and Im sure they'll blend in fine once they're all done.

The Mudat's Half-Orcs have a terrible mold line down the helmet and shield which stands out worse then I thought it would, I'll have to do a little more filing and filling on the next batch.

Well here's a couple test shots.  I'll get more done as soon as time permits.

Tootles!

WIP: Half-Orcs –inventory

Having acquired a nice size unit of Mudat's Mercenary Half-Orcs I decided to switch projects and start on a couple units of Half-Orc mercenaries.  My Tom Meier Orcs once again find themselves on the back burner.

So I’ve spent the last few days rummaging through the lead piles trying to dig up anything suitable for Half-Orcs and here's what I've come up with.

 

So here’s Mudat's Half-Orcs based and primed, ready for painting.  I had twenty four of them but I like my 20mm based units to round out to thirty.  So I added six of Grom’s Goblin Guard troopers which I think are appropriate given their dubious ancestry per the old background.  Hopefully it will also help break up the monotony of identical troopers.

 

I then pulled my painted LOTR Half-Orcs together for a head count (They were lurking with my Hobgoblin units).  I found five with a sixth spearmen gone missing to the lead abyss, I’m sure he’ll turn up someday.

 

Here’s the next seven. The horn blower is actually a Hobgoblin but works just as well.  The gentlemen with the severed head is actually part of the barbarian line but his crude primordial features fits nicely as a Half-Orc, he’ll likely be the unit leader.

 

A dozen Citadel Half-Orcs hardly makes a real unit.  Fortunately I have a little over a dozen Viking Forge/Asgard Orcs and Goblins. A few of them were originally destined for my allusive Hobgoblin project but that’s a very long ways down the line so they’ll be Half-Orcs.  Their varied physics, shaggy hair, long limbs and unpleasant faces fit my idea of a Half-Orcs quite nicely.   Also rounded up an odd Rafm Orc that seems to work.

 

So here’s my start. A unit of 30 and unit of about 24.  I’d like to also add a unit of 15 bowman skirmishers I’ll probably squeeze together using various plastic bits.  Then maybe a unit of 10 light horsemen of some sort, though not in the 3^rd edition Warhammer Armies book something seems fitting about having a small unit of horsemen for scouting, foraging and cattle rustling.

 

Latest ebay score.

It seems like getting good deals on eBay is getting harder and harder to come by these days, but just as I'm about to give up eBay always pulls through for me in the end.

So I'd thought I'd take a second to brag about my latest score.  I picked a few lots up for 30 dollars including shipping the other week.  Not super cheap, not as awesome as the 99 cents plus free shipping deal I pulled off in 2012 but very awesome none the less.

The item description was "24 Kobolds" but I recognized the little fellows as 'Mudat's Mercenary Half-Orcs'.


You know you've got something good in the mail when it comes packaged in a Citadel 'Monster Paint Set'.

And here's what I got- a nice whole unit of 24 Mudat's Half-Orcs, 5 more Orcs for my Ol' Rusty Axe gang, a Dark Elf sorceress a few odds and ends and my very own Slann warrior on Cold-one.  Sorry for the hazy phone pic.

Combined with my handful of other citadel Half-Orcs I should now have a nice healthy unit of 30 or so.  This will be a back-burner project for now, got a few others things ahead so the little dirty bushwhackers will be soaking in Simple Green for a bit.