Orcs - Angus McBride style

[James Morris]

Orcs!
A handful of mean-looking orcs from Knucklebones Minis with an Oathmark metal champion (the big fella with the axe) from Northstar.  Matt kindly sent me a complimentary set of these last year and, to my shame, I only got one painted. Fortunately I was able to fix that this week! They are heavily based on Angus McBride’s superb illustrations for the old Middle-earth role playing game and will be seeing service in my Tolkien armies. 

Knucklebones is currently offering these as STL files for 3d printing. The minis shown above are drop-cast in metal so are not as detailed as the 3d prints, but have a lovely old school quality to them.

The background is a download from Jon Hodgson’s patreon site.

[Duncan McDane]

Fab looking Orcs. Good pj. Nice.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Ah yes, those do indeed look great! Really capture that Angus McBride look... which I love for Tolkien Orcs. Brilliant sculpts with brilliant painting!

[Little Odo]

Really nice minis and a gritty paint job. What more could an aspiring warlord ask for?

I am not really up on how 3d printing works - are these figures only available from a manufacturer who prints them for you or can the STL file you mention be used to make them if you have a suitable printer? If the latter, how much do they work out per figure - is it an upfront cost for the file and then each subsequent print is just the cost of raw materials and the running cost of the printer? I am trying to work out who benefits most, the gamer who buys the file (does it work out cheaper than buying multiples of the same miniature from a traditional miniatures manufacturer or is there a break-even point that needs to be crosed to make 3d printing worthwhile?) or the designer who only gets paid for one copy of the file? Sorry to hijack your thread with these questions.

[Jagannath]

Really nice minis and a gritty paint job. What more could an aspiring warlord ask for?

I am not really up on how 3d printing works - are these figures only available from a manufacturer who prints them for you or can the STL file you mention be used to make them if you have a suitable printer? If the latter, how much do they work out per figure - is it an upfront cost for the file and then each subsequent print is just the cost of raw materials and the running cost of the printer? I am trying to work out who benefits most, the gamer who buys the file (does it work out cheaper than buying multiples of the same miniature from a traditional miniatures manufacturer or is there a break-even point that needs to be crosed to make 3d printing worthwhile?) or the designer who only gets paid for one copy of the file? Sorry to hijack your thread with these questions.

As a massive printing fan, I can answer a bit of this. The answer is sort of 'all of the above' but the real benefits for printing are for those who own printers, as opposed to buying 3d prints aftermarket.

The file will either be free (loads of free files) or at a price, usually a little cheaper than minis themselves. Then you can print to your hearts content. I use a pretty expensive resin that is a lot less brittle for my prints and it costs ~£0.70 for a 28mm mini.

I'll be honest - if you're printing 28mm fantasy minis most of the benefit for you will be in jus tincreasing the range of available figures. However it does open up some other huge benefits:

Smaller scales (particualrly 6mm sci fi) have great communities and there are so many great minis that would simply not exist without 3d design/printing available (mostly for free).

Scaling in general is easier, so if you're interested in smaller scales like 15mm you have a wider range of options as you can rescale as you wish.

In terms of cost/benefit - it's 'manufacturers' that will lose out in the long run (I think unless they produce plastic which is still in demand, and has a high cost barrier to entry) because you can either buy files direct form the sculptor or from marketplaces who just take a small cut (like myminifactory).

It's jsut another tool in your hobby arsenal though - I still buy loads of minis, love plastics etc. I like 3d printing terrain because I hate scratchbuilding it and I can also digitally design my own vehicles and terrain (which I'm not very good at using traditional modelling). Horses for courses.

Resin printing has come a huge way now, gone are the days of layer lines and 3d prints being 'worse' providing you buy a newer printer.

Edit: Sorry James, these look ace btw - I'm backing Knucklebones on Patreon but haven't printed these orcs yet.

[Wellington]

Brilliant, thats the way orcs should look like!

Do they fit with the old Mithril orcs?

[Little Odo]

Thanks Jagganath - a very comprehensive and very useful reply. I will certainly begin to look into 3d printing as an additional route into purchasing miniatures.

[BZ]

They look great, I love the strong atmosphere!

[Pattus Magnus]

Those are brilliant. I would love to buy enough for a few Oathmark units, but a 3D printer of my own isn’t an option. Might have to look into local companies that could do the printing. I expect that if there aren’t any nearby yet, there soon will be.

[Blackwolf]

Great painting 

[Coenus Scaldingus]

Good stuff, really liking the look of those.

[Robosmith]

What's with all the LOTR's stuff lately?

Really nicely painted models, nice to see Orcs with a varied flesh tone instead of all green or brown. Makes them look like mutant elves rather than just another fantasy race.

Maybe it's because of my experience with 3D printing, but these models don't hit the mark for me. If you look at the guy stooping with the curved sword you can clearly see the repeating texture brush being used for the mail. It's a problem with CAD sculpted miniatures and takes away those small imperfections we need to see something as "real". Not your fault as a painter, you've done an excellent job. But if the sculpture reads it, worth noting for future designs.

[Daeothar]

These designs look great! As you may have noticed (through my own LotR thread), I've ventured into creating McBride-esque orcs as well, although I've been kitbashing, where you have some excellent 3D prints available.

This raises so many questions. For instance; how do they scale against 28 or 32mm miniatures? How extensive is this range? Would it be worth my time to finally get started with my own 3D printer?

Your paint jobs are on point at any rate, and I have to echo the remark about the skintones; it ain't easy not being green

How large a force are you aiming for?

[James Morris]

These designs look great! As you may have noticed (through my own LotR thread), I've ventured into creating McBride-esque orcs as well, although I've been kitbashing, where you have some excellent 3D prints available.

This raises so many questions. For instance; how do they scale against 28 or 32mm miniatures? How extensive is this range? Would it be worth my time to finally get started with my own 3D printer?

Your paint jobs are on point at any rate, and I have to echo the remark about the skintones; it ain't easy not being green

How large a force are you aiming for?

The current Knucklebones ‘range’ is only three orcs in 28mm so I don’t think it’s currently worth getting a 3d printer just for that... below is a size comparison photo with Oathmark metal, Oathmark plastic and GW LOTR metal.

How large a force?  I have about 150 orc infantry already - the Knucklebones ones are just an addition. Army shot below.

[Grumpy Gnome]

You do a great job of making that much black look good.