15mm Orc Horde w/ Every Orc Unique

[Mr.Marx]

I’m wanting to put together a proper orc horde in 15mm scale, but as the title says, without any repeated castings. I’m going round the houses in terms of manufacturers in hopes they’ll sell me one of each of their orc and goblin figures.

I’m hoping to achieve a proper ‘mongrel rabble’ effect with orcs of all different sizes and proportions. Plan is to add any models that ‘fit’ to the mix, with the Eureka 18mm Orc being the baseline proto-orc to which I will try and match all other orcs. I like the idea of mixing figures of different scales (bigger 10mm figures all the way to smaller 25/28mm figures) to achieve a proper mix of orcs 4’ to 8’ tall. The only real criteria for orcy inclusion are: 1.) I’ll be avoiding overly cartoony orcs (I want more of a ‘Lord of the Rings’ horde than a ‘Warhammer’ one), 2.) I’d like to keep to nice sculpts (so no pudgy 80’s sculpts, unless they’re particularly charming), and 3.) they just have to ‘look right’ in the horde, so if anyone happens to stick out on account of the thickness of their spear shaft or a giant head or something, they’re out.

This will be a slow burn project. The plan is to always have a lollypop stick of orcs from a mix of manufacturers primed and ready on my painting table, and to paint them a stick at a time using whatever colours I’m using while painting something else to achieve a wide range of clothing colours and skin tones. I’ll keep all the metalwork to a single rusty iron tone to keep the lot tied together. One day, maybe a little while from now, when I have 150 to 200 orcs painted up, I’ll base the lot.

I’m still in the shopping around stage right now.

I’ve already purchased everything I could for this project from the following companies’ ranges:
Alternative Armies
Eureka Miniatures
CP Models

And I’m eyeing up the following companies:

Magister Militum – I’m looking more at their 15mm goblin range than their 15mm orc range, as the latter is rather cartoony. They are pretty good for selling their figures as elements, so a good chance of not ending up with too many duplicate figures. The 10mm scale orc and ogre ranges look like they’d also make for additions to the horde – but I they are sold in big packs. Will have to contact the shop to see if they’ll sell me one of each pose, or find a nice person on here with their own orc army who might be up for selling me one of each.

Khurasan Miniatures – These orcs are lovely, particularly the ‘The Great Enemy’ range, but I know Mr Khurasan does not like to split his packs. They are really nice though, so I might buy them anyway and sell on or trade away the duplicates.

Mirliton – Both the orc and goblin ranges are fantastic. Will contact them at some point to see if they’ll split packs so I can avoid ending up with duplicates.

Ral Parth UK’s Demonworld – These are a bit cartoony, but I think they’ll fit in if there’s not too many of them. Company seems open to selling figures individually, so might be able to buy without too many duplicates.

Peter Pig – They don’t do many suitable figures and they don’t like to split packs as I recall, but I might pop them an email at some point.

Splintered Light Miniatures - Their orcs and goblins look like they'll be a good fit. They sell them in encounter packs, so that's great. They have a UK stockist too!

Pendraken - Their 10mm orcs are pretty big for 10mm, making them rather perfect for my project. They sell them in a pack without any duplicates too. Fantastic.

Battle Valor - These fit in well and there are a lot of them. Might not end up with too many duplicates UK stockist too.

Trying to buy orcs without ending up with unused duplicate poses is rather difficult. If anyone reading this has an orcy project on the go and would be up for selling me one of each pose from any of the companies I’m looking at that, I’d be dreadfully keen to take you up on that. Also, if anyone has any suggestions on other places I might go sniffing for orcs, I’m very open to suggestions.

I’ll update this thread each time I paint a stick of orcs.

Cheers,

MM.

[LouieN]

Good luck. 

For Battle Valor and Euraka they are 18mm so will be big compared to many other lines. 

[fred]

The Pendraken fantasy ranges are around 12mm, so should work well for this.

Have you look at Irregular Miniatures - they have all sorts of stuff and available in singles.

[Kikuchiyo]

What about Eurekas 18mm range, they have some very nice looking minis that should blend in with the others

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

Legio Heroica have Orcs that should fit in well.  They have 16 different figures.
Alternative Armies has a very few different poses.
Mirliton have quite a few poses but sell them in packs where they double up on poses.

[fred]

Another manufacturer to have a look at is Black Gate, they have some great 10mm Ogres, who should fit nicely into a 15mm Orc horde.

[Onebigriver]

How about Tin Soldier's orcs and goblins:

https://tinsoldieruk.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=413_447

[peleset]

Perhaps of use in your noble pursuit.


Left to Right: Orcs: Chariot, Ral Partha, Rank & File, Khurasan, Eureka, Grenadier/Mirliton.


Left to Right: Goblins: Chariot, Blood Dawn, Alternative Armies, Blood Dawn, Ral Partha, Mirliton.

[Mr.Marx]

An update (which is not really an update): I came down with a nasty virus shortly following my last post, and am only coming back to life again.

Hoping to get some painting done and post some pictures this week.

Replies:

Perhaps of use in your noble pursuit.


Left to Right: Orcs: Chariot, Ral Partha, Rank & File, Khurasan, Eureka, Grenadier/Mirliton.


Left to Right: Goblins: Chariot, Blood Dawn, Alternative Armies, Blood Dawn, Ral Partha, Mirliton.

This is incredibly useful. Thank you.

How about Tin Soldier's orcs and goblins:

https://tinsoldieruk.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=413_447

Thanks for the link. The sculpts look a little ropey, but good to know they exist.

Another manufacturer to have a look at is Black Gate, they have some great 10mm Ogres, who should fit nicely into a 15mm Orc horde.

I'd not heard of these before. Thanks for cluing me in to them.

Legio Heroica have Orcs that should fit in well.  They have 16 different figures.

Looks like the chap who runs LH has passed away and that whoever's taken over has shut up shop for the time being. Hopefully someone will pick their ranges up.

What about Eurekas 18mm range, they have some very nice looking minis that should blend in with the others

They should be coming through the postbox any day now.

Have you look at Irregular Miniatures - they have all sorts of stuff and available in singles.

I'd not been on Irregular's website for a little while. It's nice that they sell them as singles, but I don't know that they're sculpting 'style' would sit very well alongside more modern miniatures.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I'd not been on Irregular's website for a little while. It's nice that they sell them as singles, but I don't know that they're sculpting 'style' would sit very well alongside more modern miniatures.

I reckon you could mix them in well enough. They are big and a bit cartoony, but they're smaller than Battle Valor or the bigger Blood Dawn orcs, and the fact that they're hunched over/on all fours means that their heads are lower than those of (say) Alternative Armies. They have fantastically nasty and expressive faces too, and their unusual posture would add lots of variety to an orc horde. One or two have oversized weapons, but you could easily cut those down (and they're not much different from some of the Battle Valor weapons).

Here are some I painted about six years ago - just looking at rebasing them now and might well mix them in with AA, MM, etc. The photos don't quite show the faces to best effect.

[Cacique Caribe]

Mr Marx

I can’t wait to see what you do with them next.

Dan

[LoxIslay]

I’ve already purchased everything I could for this project from the following companies’ ranges:
Alternative Armies
Eureka Miniatures
CP Models

The CP Model orcs are the TQD 20mm? Any Chance to get a comparison pic next to Eureka and AA?

[Kikuchiyo]

The CP Model orcs are the TQD 20mm? Any Chance to get a comparison pic next to Eureka and AA?

 I was considering them for some 10mm ogres

[Mr.Marx]

The CP Model orcs are the TQD 20mm? Any Chance to get a comparison pic next to Eureka and AA?

These two are from the only packs of them that I've got so far. I'll get the others from the range at some point soon. I'm afraid I've got them all hot-glued to popsicle sticks, so not the best photo for size comparison. I'll take you a better photo once they're painted.

MM.

[Mr.Marx]

First few Goblinoids painted up. Had hoped to get quite a few more done, but real life things have been being difficult. Will hopefully be more productive in the immediate future.

Above: L to R: a 20mm Goblin, a 20mm Orc, and not particularly human looking 15mm tribal fellow, all from CP Models.

And some close-ups up make my painting look terrible:

The same figures from behind.

And some close-ups to shake away any sense of achievement or mastery I was feeling having painted them:

As for attaining more Orcys, all of the figures that look like they'll be useful for this project are on the way from Pendraken, and my order from Eureka Miniatures UK in the post, finally.

MM.