Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (Rust Monster face reveal)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, Elk - look forward to seeing yours!

I'm stealing that eye effect with some black-eye nasties I have lined up. I hope it works though, because their eyes are a lot smaller.

Yeah, larceny was the only option when I saw it on Gardens of Hecate! I'm going to try it out on some of the little gilla worms that go with the newts tomorrow - not sure quite how much room for manoeuvre here will be.

Here's a quick broo I did tonight:

[gibby64]

Very cool looking sculpt!

[Hobgoblin]

He's the fourth or fifth one I've painted - with a sci-fi conversion to come!

Here's a quick, "impressionistic" Orc of the White Serpent. When I got back into miniature painting a few years back (around the start of this thread), my goal was to produce a big batch of miniatures for my son's sixth birthday (to accompany the Song of Blades rules: certainly the most successful/enduring birthday present so far!). I got about 60 done for the big day, but inevitably, there were dozens of half-finished or just-started models lurking in boxes.

One of the largest groups of unfinished models consisted of the "Orcs of the White Serpent". based on Mantic orcs; a local games-shop owner very kindly gave me dozens of the sprues for nothing. I managed to finish only three of them (two are on the second page of this thread); the rest were quite heavily converted with GW elf, dwarf and beastman bits, but didn't make it past base colours and initial washes.

And so they've remained for almost five years. The painting's quite crude and would take quite a bit of remedial effort to finish. But now I have Biostrip - and I like the conversions much more than the original paintjobs. So I'm planning to strip them and repaint them - and to make some more.

I've started with a trio that didn't get painted in the first place. Here's the first - with a very quick, messy paintjob. That's all I'm aiming for with these: the Mantic figures have lots of indistinct bits of overlapping cloth, leather and armour, all of which is just getting a base coat, a silver-grey drybrush and then an Agrax wash.

I was planning to give them blue or white eyes, but with this figure, I reverted to the hoary old red/yellow glow; the Drastik Plastik head on this one has big eyes that were designed for such, and might look a bit odd (and too big) otherwise. But I can adjust and neaten once I see how the others look. I'm pleased with the original kitbashes and conversions; they've got spears, bows and even the odd pistol or arquebus.

[Hobgoblin]

A couple more White Serpent orcs ...

[Cubs]

What a great idea well realised - that gunner looks so good.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, Cubs!

Here are three more. Six down, about a dozen to go - but I've been kitbashing a few more, so the project's getting a bit hydra-headed ...

[Vladimir Raukov]

Lovely looking models, all of them! I can't say I've seen that lizardman shield all rusted up before, but you've made it work!

[gibby64]

The rusted up armor is really working for these guys.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, guys!

Here are a couple more:

[Hobgoblin]

And three more ...

[Gallahad]

Wow, that horned orc looks very sinister. Is that using Ungor arms as well?

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! No, he's got an Ungor head and Gor arms. The Gor arms fit pretty well on the Mantic bodies.

I used Ungor arms on a couple of the gnolls on the previous page; the Ungor arms are, for the most part, a great match with the Frostgrave gnoll bodies.

[Daniel36]

Goodness gracious your rust effect is marvelous!

[Dr. Zombie]

Great job on those Orcs.

You really need to rename this thread, from some miniatures... to hordes of miniatures...

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both!

Here's a GW savage orc - a test for a cannibal in Mutants & Death Ray Guns: