Warlords of Erehwon Orcs... thoughts?

[Mr. White]

Anyone have any experience with the Orcs from Warlords of Erehwon? I think I like the look of them, but I don’t feel like i see a lot of people using em. Is the casting good? The plastic?

[Grumpy Gnome]

I quite like them. Decent quality and I like the aesthetic. But it really is a matter of personal taste.

[Elbows]

Like many of Warlord's products - these are sculpts/tools they bought when Wargames Factory gave up selling their own kits.  They're completely "okay".  They tried to be clever and produce torsos that were able to face either direction (for added...variety?) which gives all of the torsos a perfect up/down straight profile.  Scale is more classic 25mm than, say, GW sized.  Sculpt quality is decent, and you do get loads of weapons, shields, heads, etc.

With the quality coming out from things like Oathmark and Frostgrave - I'd probably be more tempted to wait for Oathmark orcs.  I sold my painted Wargames Factory orcs a while back because they just didn't "do it for me".

Another downside to Warlord buying up the WF kits was that they all magically became more expensive overnight.  WF used to sell their stuff extremely cheap, and that was a huge bonus.

If you're in the US, I might have a spare sprue or two if you want to check them out before buying.

PS: A lot of people like them because the aesthetic is straight from early illustrated versions of the old Hobbit/LOTR books, etc.  So if you're aiming for that look, these'll be a solid investment.

[Mr. White]

To be honest, it’s their potential Angus McBride lotr aesthetic that has me intrigued.

I’m in Texas so let me know the asking price on your test sprues.

Cheers!

[Hobgoblin]

I've used them quite a bit, both straight up and in kitbashes (here are some from five years ago).

It's an odd kit, for all the reasons that Elbows sets out. The arms are - for the most part - terrible, with Playmobil hands. But they'll take spare Frostgrave gnoll and barbarian arms happily enough, and they're nice enough otherwise. They also look great with the arms from the GW wolfriders.

One grave mistake in the sprue design, I think, is having an eyepatch on the only bare head. That head would have been much better as a more generic effort; eyepatches are easily added with greenstuff where required, and a more regular bare head would have been better for kitbashing.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Elbows and Hobgoblin make great points and in general I agree with them.

The arms, the hands in particular, are disappointing. I rely on kitbashing to work around that. The “universal” torso can make for an awkward posture and the  eyepatch on the one bare head is indeed limiting.

I respectfully disagree with the esteemed Elbows however about being them being more 25mm though, I find them rather tall compared to my GW LOTR Orcs. They are however not as bulky as GW Fantasy Orcs. And are, probably as to be expected, taller than the Oathmatk Goblins which many folks use as Orcs. I will try to get a comparison photo up later today.

I am very curious to see what the Oathmark Orcs eventually look like.

[Elbows]

That's fair, I'd just argue they're more...suitable to a smaller range rather than a larger one, particularly if you expect Orcs to be bigger than human sized (which in some cases they are not).  They're a little small compared to the 28-32mm style Reaper ranges, though I'd imagine they work well with the smaller D&D ranges.

PS: Jack...it may be a day or two extra before I can ship the orcs.  USPS doesn't allow postage for first class to be purchased online (why?  I've no frikkin' idea...) and I work night shift hours, so getting to the post office may take a couple days.

PSS: here are the small batch that I did and sold off a while ago.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Fair point about Reaper, those being on the bigger side. I used to think of Orcs as bigger than human (... and Green...thanks WHFB!)!but my thoughts on that have changed over the years. My thoughts on what Goblins should look has changed as well, largely due to trying to come to terms with Tolkien’s usage of the words.

I have tried to show relative heights, Oathmark Goblin, Warlord Games Orc, Games Workshop LOTR Orc from left to right. Notice the basing differences as well.

EDIT: Elbows, your Orcs look great!