Old school D&D - August 25 - Pig-face Orc Shaman

[Spooktalker]

Holy cow, that's a great find at the flea market. Maybe I should start cruising a few!

The Grenadier ladies look great. That bow conversion on the ranger looks so much better than the original bow. Nice color for the thief's leotard.

There are certainly deals to be had at conventions! Thanks, and you noticed the conversion. The bow is from a plastic weapon sprue from Eccentric Miniatures. Their weapons are great, perfectly scaled for 25mm and can really improve a figure, or easily save one that lost a weapon along the way.

What wonderful nostalgia this thread brings to mind.  We had many fine sculptors working back in the '80's - Grenadier sets being among the particular high points (although most suffering from the telephone pole spear shafts that alloys of the time made necessary).  What you demonstrate that has certainly improved from that time is the level of painting that hobbyists have since mastered. 

Thanks! And I agree about the sculptors of the 80s and Grenadier in particular.

Whoa! I missed that shot of the flea-market haul: superb! Those carrion crawlers will slot into your D&D collection nicely, I'd imagine.

(My seething envy at your securing that Tom Meier giant troll champion is only mollified by this morning's fortuitous acquisition of a bunch of Citadel orc wyverns: the preslotta, Fantasy Tribes sort!)

Sounds like adequate consolation... I know the ones!

[Spooktalker]

Here are some hobbits I painted up mainly for D&D, but perhaps some day for some old school LotR.


Heritage LotR and Ral Partha Hobbits/Halflings

I wrote a comprehensive post on them on the blog, including notes on the new basing scheme I'm trying out: https://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2018/07/heritage-lotr-hobbits-d-halfings.html

[Spooktalker]

I'm excited to post these next ones as I made them from scratch and these are two more iconic encounter groups to add to my collection. 



Stirges! Bloodsucking fiends swarm the party


A desperate struggle against the stirges


At least they saw them coming! A fight against giant fire beetles






Stirges Making-of

See my previous post for more on the making of the stirges. Making the stirthe hardest part about making of the stirges. The hardest part came at the end, with the making of the flight stands. After experimenting with drilling a hole in the base and keeping a pin at 90 degrees with greenstuff, I decided soldering was the way to go. I cut squares from steel shingle and rigged up a jig using a "helping hands" tool, a mechanics square and a magnet, holding a pin to the helping hands with a magnet and lining it up with the mechanics square. Even after watching a number of how-to videos and buying recommended solder and flux, I'm nowhere close to getting solder to cooperate.When it melts it seems to run to the spot I want it least to go.

A surprise bonus to this basing method is that I can store the stirges on a metal plate with each stirge atop a rare earth magnet. The intervening .04" black plasticard base perfectly lessens the hold of the magnet to where they nicely stay put without holding so fast there's danger of breakage when I slide them off.





Stirges in AD&D

Stirges are vicious in the AD&D game as they are deadly accurate (attack as a higher HD monster) and suck HP until they are bloated full of blood or are killed.I painted them in the canonical colors, rust-brown with yellowish eyes and feet, and a pink proboscis fading to gray at the base. The size is not specified but I made them scale with the illustrations in the game. These may be the only scale stirge miniatures around, though I seem to recall an offering some years back that was pretty close.


Giant Fire Beetles Making-of





The fire beetles are cast flat in greenstuff in a one-piece mold (insta-mold material) but when I glued them to the base, I first glued a block (of off-cut lead) to the base and mounted the beetle on top of this, and then folded his legs down to glue them to the base. This way they are off the ground at a believable height, and I added a dimensionality to them that a flat casing can't provide. I used blocks made of lead to give them a little extra weight as well. The mandibles and thorax being off the ground adds a lot.


Giant fire beetles in AD&D


Giant fire beetles are the least of the giant beetles at 2.5' long, but well-protected by their exoskeleton and stronger in a fight than their size implies and can cut deep with their great mandibles. They are so-called for their three red-glowing glands, two above the eyes and one near the back of their abdomen. These models are to-scale (length measured from tip of mandible to tip of abdomen).



More on the blog: https://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2018/07/d-stirges-and-giant-fire-beetles.html

[Andym]

Fantastic project! Great additions!

[Cubs]

Those put a smile on my face. Everyone loves a good Demogorgon model, but it's the unique low-level irritators like this that are the bread and butter of D&D adventures.

[Muzfish4]

Awesome thread - plenty of memories here.

[Spooktalker]

Thanks Andym, Cubs and Muzfish4!

Those put a smile on my face. Everyone loves a good Demogorgon model, but it's the unique low-level irritators like this that are the bread and butter of D&D adventures.

Glad you like them and hah, that's a good insight! I'm so weighted toward gribbliness and utility vs big and showy that I didn't even consider my vermin might not grab as much attention, but it's true I got fewer comments on the blog than usual.  My pig-face orcs are my most crowd-pleasing creation of all, though, so maybe this one will make a splash. 



Pig-face Orc Shaman from the Grenadier Dragon Lords Orcs of the Severed Hand Box Set

Pig-face Orc Shaman, rear view

Another long-WIP figure finished and exposed to the light of day.

He's from the Grenadier Dragon Lords Orcs of the Severed Hand box set and is stock except for an added pig-snout.



"Foremost among the orcs is a leering shaman-type garbed in fur and finery, a blue diadem shining from his forehead, a bloody fork in one hand and proffering in the other a bloody, throbbing heart!"

"Roll for Surprise!"


More write-up on my blog: https://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2018/08/pig-face-orc-shaman.html

[Cubs]

Fantastic stuff.

[Mister Frau Blucher]

Great work! The pig snouts are pretty cool.

[Andym]

Cracking painting!

I must say I’m not used to seeing pig-faced orcs, but now that I have, it just ‘works’ doesn’t it? It seems it the way it should be!