Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: James Morris on November 17, 2019, 01:13:33 PM
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I’m having a bit of a mid-life Tolkien revival at the moment and thought I’d having a crack at knocking out an orc host for First Age battles. I took some old GW orcs and set to with parts from Oathmark goblins and some Perry bill arms. The paint job is a black undercoat with some quick and dirty dry-brushing and highlighting - about ten minutes per figure.
The background is a download from Jon Hodgson Maps.
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Briiliant conversions. Look like the alan lee orcs
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Lovin‘em! They look great. Nice conversions, good color palette. I hope to do something similar in the future.
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These look great!
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Superb! Nice dynamic poses and great palette!
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Very atmospheric!
I am currently re-reading the Lord of the Rings (first time in English, shame on me - the first German translation from Margarent Carroux ist fantastic though!) so I absolutely share your enthusiasm for Middle Earth. In the field of fantasy literature Tolkien is the only author aside from Terry Pratchett whose books I still read :)
How are you approaching the other side of First Age battles?
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I like these orcs! Well done.
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Those are fantastic conversions with great paint jobs. Thanks for sharing
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Great orcs!
Very inspiring as I'm working on my own orcs, mixing Perry, Fireforge bits with GW Mordor orcs and Oathmark goblins.
I'm curious as to which GW Orcs you've used and which parts?
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Excellent. Love them. Proper orcs for once 8)
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I agree with he other fellows: proper orcs. I like that the weapons and pieces of armour are not too outlandish, bordering to non-functional, as is the case with some orcs representaions.
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Briiliant conversions. Look like the alan lee orcs
Thank you - that’s exactly what I was after - also I love that old Chris Achilleos MERP cover painting.
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Great orcs!
Very inspiring as I'm working on my own orcs, mixing Perry, Fireforge bits with GW Mordor orcs and Oathmark goblins.
I'm curious as to which GW Orcs you've used and which parts?
Cheers! I’ve simply used GW LotR plastic orcs as a base for some of the figures - Uruk hai and Mordor orcs. I’ve just acquired a set of the Morannon orcs which I think will be ideal too. Weapons-wise, I’m trying to verge towards Tolkien’s descriptions of scimitars and broad-bladed spears (which I think justifies nasty looking polearms).
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Very atmospheric!
I am currently re-reading the Lord of the Rings (first time in English, shame on me - the first German translation from Margarent Carroux ist fantastic though!) so I absolutely share your enthusiasm for Middle Earth. In the field of fantasy literature Tolkien is the only author aside from Terry Pratchett whose books I still read :)
How are you approaching the other side of First Age battles?
Cheers! I’m not sure what you mean in your last question though. Do you mean rules?
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I meant: How did you depict the elves ? :)
Having found your other thread I have now seen that you are using the Oathmark elves as a basis. Excellent stuff!
Have you seen the new Oathmark Goblin Wolf Riders which were shown on the Oathmark Facebook Page today? They are pretty spot on!
So far this range exceeds my expectations and I am eagerly awaiting more releases.
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I meant: How did you depict the elves ? :)
Having found your other thread I have now seen that you are using the Oathmark elves as a basis. Excellent stuff!
Have you seen the new Oathmark Goblin Wolf Riders which were shown on the Oathmark Facebook Page today? They are pretty spot on!
So far this range exceeds my expectations and I am eagerly awaiting more releases.
Yup, Oathmark elves are the other part of the equation for me! I think they are fabulous and just right for Tolkien.
I have indeed seen the new wolf riders (I was lucky enough to get a preview sprue - some of the parts are on the the front rank orc in the second picture above - new head, thrusting spear arm, wolfs tail on helmet). I haven’t yet seen the wolves in the flesh though.
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Lovely conversions James - they look all the better for having realistic looking weapons
:)
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I have indeed seen the new wolf riders (I was lucky enough to get a preview sprue - some of the parts are on the the front rank orc in the second picture above - new head, thrusting spear arm, wolfs tail on helmet). I haven’t yet seen the wolves in the flesh though.
I like the riders. While there arent a lot of new bits compared to the infantry, the new bits look great.
The wolves though... they're too cartoony for my tastes. That said I'll probably but at least 1 box for the riders alone.
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They look brilliant!
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Very much like those, suitably grim and dirty, as Tolkien described them. ('I must not start doing fantasy, I must not start doing fantasy'.)
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Why have I never thought about it - those bills look like really spot on weapons for orcs or goblins, with all the curved blades and spikes pointing in various directions! And I have had those Perry arms around for years. Will need to keep this in mind if I run into any figures needing a replacement for a broken weapon.
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Yup, Oathmark elves are the other part of the equation for me! I think they are fabulous and just right for Tolkien.
I have indeed seen the new wolf riders (I was lucky enough to get a preview sprue - some of the parts are on the the front rank orc in the second picture above - new head, thrusting spear arm, wolfs tail on helmet). I haven’t yet seen the wolves in the flesh though.
The author of Oathmark has a painted preview sprue Wolfrider on his blog and it looks great:
http://therenaissancetroll.blogspot.com/2019/11/wolf-rider.html
Will you expand on the orc / goblin infantry or is your project nearly finished? Would love to see more of these or some scenes from you games in the other tread :)
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Cheers; I saw Joe’s rider via the Facebook page and he’s done a fine job.
This project is in no way done! I am working on about 40+ orcs right now plus more elves. Not sure where it will end up but I’m enjoying it. I will keep posting updates when I have something new.
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Wonderful orcs here, well done! Agree with op on Chris Achilleos' orcs and the coming Oathmark wolf riders look awesome too (the wolf is as if straight out of Battle Masters).
I'm personally very interested in first age (Silmarillion), second age Numenor vs. lesser men (HoME XII, Tal-Elmar) and the fourth age with its possible orc cults (HoME XII, The New Shadow).
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Wow, these are fantastic. So atmospheric, they are exactly what I think off when I read the books.
I love the oathmark kits, I think they look fantastic as is, but you've made them even better mixing them with the orc stuff!
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A few more workbench shots...having a great time with these.
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Loving these lads. Spearmen look tops
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I've been enjoying this thread; playing around with all the plastic kits available these days is almost a hobby in it's self.
The problem for me seems to be commitment, actually gluing stuff down. I admire you and all those who blaze a trail for us waverers to follow!
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Love what I’m seeing here! Much. Etter than what a great Hollywood director made out of Tolkien lol lol
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Great orcs :)
When you add Oathmark heads to GW bodies, do you snip the GW head at the neck or slightly further up?
I'm asking because I've done a couple of these and since the Oathmark heads dont come with neck, they tend to sit rather low on the BW bodies.
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I love what you are doing here. They look absolutely great :-*
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Great orcs :)
When you add Oathmark heads to GW bodies, do you snip the GW head at the neck or slightly further up?
I'm asking because I've done a couple of these and since the Oathmark heads dont come with neck, they tend to sit rather low on the BW bodies.
Good question! I’m cutting the GW orc horizontally across the head about nose level (that sounds bad, I know) and then shaving the remaining face/ neck to create a stump that I can fit the Oathmark head onto. A bit of greenstuff would help but I’m time limited!
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Thanks for the advice :)
Too many hunchbacks and it starts to look weird...
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Thanks for the advice :)
Too many hunchbacks and it starts to look weird...
Even for orcs! lol
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Some shots of the latest finished units. Dropping my painting standards has really increased productivity! But quite happy with the overall look.
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Stunning with that terrain and backdrop. Respect!
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Excellent work. 'Dropping' your painting standard? I'd have to work up to that!
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Excellent work. 'Dropping' your painting standard? I'd have to work up to that!
This.
Excellent looking project James
:)
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Agreed. These look really great :-*
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This is a real eye candy. More please!
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Just how i imagined the orcs when i first read lord of the rings. Well played indeed
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great work! With the massing of the orcs, the grittyness of the color palette works perfect. With orcs like these you can get away with a lesser paint job... I think it all looks great!
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This.
Excellent looking project James
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Yeah! Totally agree!