Dragon Rampant - Who Let The Orcs Out?!

[Mr. White]

Orc Scouts



Life has been a bit wild lately, and I?d be lying if I said the geopolitical landscape hasn?t effected me. Anyway, whether I?m fiddlin? while Rome burns or I?m an echo-chamber victim and things aren?t so bad, I?ve decide to finally push forward on a project that?s been on the burner for years? Dragon Rampant proper in 28mm.

As a big fan of the Northstar Oathmark line, the original idea was to just use one box of plastic warriors (30), a blister or two of metal characters and the occasional cheap Reaper creature to supplement. It?s a pretty low cost option for a DR warband. The decision always came down to either Orcs or Dwarves and it looks like Orcs won out. Northstar recently added some fantastic wolves to their catalaog, so I expanded the original idea here and ordered a set for goblin wolf riders.

In order to get any sort of momentum on this, I?ve decided to go with my fastest paint technique which is basically just grey prime, then paint inside-out, no mistake touch-ups, and wash the skin one color and everything else Agrax Earthshade. I was never a great painter, but I would try to clean up errors and wash and highlight with appropriate shades. But now? to get though 30+ models? I?m just doing everything in Agrax and applying a little more in spots where I painted outside the lines. I don?t know how often the mood to paint will strike in these dark, modern times, but when it does I want to get through the models ASAP.

Originally, I was looking to do an old-school blue-grey shade of orc. It was suggested to me to use Vallejo Luftwaffe, but I found that to be too dark. I ended up going with that on the unit leader model above. I?ll probably use it for all the unit leader and character type models. Sorta like the black orcs of Warhammer lore being the stronger and wiser. I had a pot of Fernesian Grey that I thought looked good, but it turned out a bit more blue than I thought. Maybe because I used Citadel Nightshade? Either way, they have a Rogue Trooper-like appearance, which to be honest, is a bit of a happy accident. I?ve always wanted to do a blue Rogue Trooper like warband, but never really had a game to do that with. I guess these Dragon Rampant orcs are gonna be that.

Anyway, thoughts on these shades of blue?

EDIT: some kind of character hiccup is going on. lot's of '?' are inserted that I can't seem to take out.

[mikedemana]

I love these Orcs, and great staging of the photo, too...! I have always favored darker skinned orcs. Warhammer green is just silly to me. So, I like the leader. That said, that blue looks really nice, too -- an almost nightmarish quality to them...!

I wouldn't knock your painting skills. I know many who would love to be able to paint to your level...!

Mike Demana

[fred]

Like the blue skin tones - works well.

These look great, and not at all like they are quick paint jobs.

There is a forum bug where apostrophes and other characters are getting messed up and coming out as question marks.

[Rick]

They are simply superb - the shading on them gives them a great 3d depth and subtlety - a simple colour scheme done well can be more effective than any amount of bright or saturated colours. Excellent and inspiring figures.

[Little Odo]

The blue looks really good. And your painting is very effective. Great looking figures.

[TileaG]

Looks great, I'm the same way with my painting. 

[Sunjester]

They look really good, I tend to go for shades of brown and grey on my orcs, but I really like the blue skin on these.

[blacksoilbill]

Those have come up very nicely. I would never have thought of blue skin for orcs, but these look great.

[Mr. White]

Thanks for all the comments. It sounds like the blue is working out, which is nice to hear because I'm kinda committing. Last night I was thinking that maybe they're giving Warmachine Trollbloods or Avatar Na'vi and I hope I can unsee that because I much prefer for them to give more Rogue Trooper if they aren't going to give the desired Rankin-Bass style blue-grey orcs. Oh well.

Oh, those 6 models are a 2pt Scout Unit. I'm going to be building this force out to the standard 24pts.

[Mr. White]

Orc Shaman



Had a little momentum, so painted up the next Orc Warband unit, The Orc Shaman. I?m thinking this is going to be a Light Foot Unit with the Wizardlings fantasy option added, so a 5 point unit. This gives the unit three spells, which?ll probably be Power Bolt!, Befuddle Thee! and Heal Thee!. A range attack, a spell that batters a unit, and a healing spell. Pretty generic but probably the most flexible.

I?ve modeled this Light Foot unit with only two models. The Orc Shaman and a ?summoned? Bog Beast. The summoned part is just for Rule of Cool, I?m not going with the Summoner ability. This unit of 2 models will be 6 ST points each. Clearly, that Bog Beast can soak some damage, and the shaman has??magicks?.

I painted up the Bog Beast with the same technique I do terrain. I recently acquired a pot of Dirty Down?s Moss Effect which is great, but I wonder if that sort of technical paint makes it visually too different from the orc models. Well, it?s also a Meirce Miniature that I had kicking around the bits box for awhile and the sculpts on those are a bit more detailed than my preferred style which lies closer to the Oathmark Orc Shaman from Northstar. I hope the duo fit together though.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

First, I like the blue skin on the first lot of orcs.

Nice work on that bog beast, and the shaman looks good as well.

[fred]

Thanks for all the comments. It sounds like the blue is working out, which is nice to hear because I'm kinda committing. Last night I was thinking that maybe they're giving Warmachine Trollbloods or Avatar Na'vi and I hope I can unsee that because I much prefer for them to give more Rogue Trooper if they aren't going to give the desired Rankin-Bass style blue-grey orcs. Oh well.

Oh, those 6 models are a 2pt Scout Unit. I'm going to be building this force out to the standard 24pts.

As long as they don?t give you Smurf vibes, you should be good!

[Ultravanillasmurf]

As long as they don?t give you Smurf vibes, you should be good!

I think I saw a GW Gnome or goblin army painted as smurfs in the Leipzig Games Workshop many years ago,

[Pattus Magnus]

These figures are all looking great! I like the orcs a lot and the shaman with his (pet? minion?) is a cool depiction of the troop type you describe (I love that flexibility in Dragon Rampant). I don?t think the big beast undermines the visual style, sometimes including something a little different makes a good addition.

[Mr. White]

Thanks for the comments. No one is seeing ?Smurf? here are they?! 

I was originally wanting an Oathmark troll or ogre in this "minion" role with the shaman, but I already had the this Mierce model in the collection unpainted. Also, the one time I had a proper Warhammer army was back during that Albion campaign and I always liked the Fen Beast model (which is why I picked up this Mierce model a few years back) that was accompanied by the Truthsayer or Dark Emissary. So, in my own little way this duo is a nod back to that as well.