"Gut You Like a Bonefish!" - Beginning of an Orc army (Archers 9/7/25)

[Garanhir]

They look splendid, really vicious-looking nasties.

Regarding the  "knuckledusters", they are indeed shield bosses. The listing for the "Armoured Orc Warriors" pack says that weapons and shields are included, and that you get a random assortment.

So I'd say there were supposed to be shields in the pack that were left out by accident. I'm sure if you drop Hobday & Hicks a line they'll get you sorted out.

[JollyBob]

These look great, proper grubby nasty orcs as God (or Morgoth) intended...

Re: replacement shields, I have bought several from this eBay seller:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/warpigmodels/WarPig-Shields/_i.html?store_cat=4131204619&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l113337

They come in a variety of styles and options for central holes for pre-attached bosses. The round ones would probably work a treat.
Pretty reasonable prices too.

[mikedemana]

Thanks, everyone for advice or offers about the shields. There are only 4 total orcs that would need the shield. The rest of my purchase was of Gripping Beast metals. These were the only Hicks & Hobday ones. So, I'm ambivalent about sending off to get them -- especially if that would be overseas (I'm in the States), with all the shipping mess going on, now.

Anyway, appreciate the encouragement and kind words. The second batch is about done muttering something about having "... nothin' but maggoty bread for three stinkin' days!"

Mike Demana

[mikedemana]

I got the Warhost Orc archers done this past week. As I figured they went much faster than the Linebreakers, which started off this thread. They're still amazing figures -- love the poses, variety, and details.



I liked how the Linebreakers came out, so I used the exact same recipe for Orc skin -- Walnut base coat, medium leather dry brush, and khaki highlight. One thing that makes this flesh tone look particularly orc-like is that the Walnut base coat is not 100% opaque. Somehow, combined with the other colors, it gives a nice, dark olive-toned flesh. Honestly, I lucked into this combination more than anything else. However, I will likely use it for the entire project.



I picked out a base coat color for each orc's main article of clothing. Earlier, I had made a list of my paints that I thought would look appropriate for orcs. I set the bottle behind each figure. Typically, when painting 28mm Dark Ages or other figures, I will glue them to a square of cardboard first. I would then scribble down on the cardboard what color I would use for the tunic, trousers, etc. With the orcs, I can't do that since I am basing them up first. I'm actually not sure why I decided to change my usual method and glue them first to their 1" plywood circles with magnetic bottoms.



From this point on, it was a matter of adding in a new base coat followed up by a dry brush for each color of clothing. Some had only one article of clothing, so only one color combo. Others had several. Either way, the variety of poses added not only interest and variety to the painting process, it made me focus and be more careful.



I am happy with how the "Orcses...filth!" (as Gollum would say) came out. I am looking forward to seeing how the Gripping Beast metal figs paint up, too, whether similarly or differently.



Thanks for all the kind comments to the first batch. I hope you guys like the archers, as well...

Mike Demana

[Little Odo]

Great additions to the growing orc horde. The archers turned out splendidly.

[mikedemana]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. And now on to the main part of the horde -- the 28mm Gripping Beast orcs and goblins from the Ragnarok range.



First up is a batch of 8 goblin archers (actually from two different packs -- the Hill goblins and the Night goblins). When I acquired the nearly 100 figures from a friend, I actually split it with a different friend. And. yes, the nearly 100 was after splitting it. I went down the middle for each figure type and pose if I could. He got half and I got half. Thus, why I have only four each of Hill and Night goblins. As you can see, though, they look good together.



I really like the faces and personality of the figures in this line. They look like evil little buggers! I used the same flesh recipe. I subscribe to the Tolkien worldview in which orcs and goblins are the same thing, just different terms or etymology. The Hobbit calls them goblins, the Lord of the Rings orcs.



I did my best to give their clothes a stain, worn look. I used mainly either dark colors or pale, washed out ones. The heavy dry brushing is intentional to give it a more faded look. I'm liking my color choices, so far, though I did head up to the craft store and picked out a couple more colors that I thought would go well with orcs and goblins.



Maybe I'm being to anal retentive and not painting any figures in the same batch with identical colors. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to do so. However, considering that I am repeating some colors over the three different batches that I've painted up for the army so far, I guess it is the same effect? I'd be curious to hear what you guys think of the color choices. Should I skip the dark burnt oranges and reds and such and stick to blacks, grays, and tans? Is there any colors I should include more?



After getting the clothes finished on this batch, I thought the quivers made them look a little plain. So, I decided to decorate them up a little. I did a search on "Orc Writing" and found an image with very cool, slashy, crude, orc-style script on it. I used my dark brown micron pen to recreate the letters on the quivers. I think it adds a nice bit of detail on the figs.

Hope you like them! Thanks in advance for any comments. For more discussion of how I painted them, feel free to check out my Lead Legionaries blog post:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2025/09/first-batch-of-28mm-gripping-beast.html

Mike Demana

[Frugalmax]

Nice work! I like the variety of colors you've put on their robes and hoods, and they look great amongst the ruins!

I'm interested in those sculpts just because the design is both very simple and also both a departure from and a bit of harkening to other goblin concepts- like perhaps they were going for something in between the more modern depictions of Tolkien orcs & goblins and the more "warhammer-y" goblins, but then also throwing some older folklore-ish depictions into the melting pot. The robes and hoods are also interesting- more like monks than warhammer night goblins (and that guy in the center with no hood on reminds me of one of the Rainbow Goblins ). Cool stuff!

[Mr. White]

I agree!
I wish all models were this simple. There’s a bit too much going on with a lot of modern models, but I guess it’s good there’s variety. I just wish there were more this simple.

And these look fantastic, Mike!