Orcs & Goblins o' the Old Skull Tribe - Jun. 28: big pic dump p.2

[Spooktalker]

Here's the start of a big project I was working on a few years ago never got a around to showing off. If you've seen my D&D thread (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=32158.0) hopefully it won't shock you to learn that however big my D&D pile is, my Citadel pile is even bigger, and possibly even dearer to me.

It just happened I was taking some pictures of some of these around the time I heard what happened to Kev Adams, and so I'd like to post these with a shout out to the Goblin Master and with wishes for a speedy recovery. And I think it's pretty great how the community is responding with Goblin Aid.

Anyway, here's the tip of a big iceberg, the first few orcs o' the Old Skull Tribe. These were painted back in 2009. I have a Mordheim-size gang painted up at this point so more pics to come. And tons more figures wait to be painted one day.






Manufacturer: Citadel
Range: ?
Figure: Shaman
Base Markings: ?
Release date: c. 1986-1988
Sculptor: Kev Adams
Date painted: 2009

BTW, haven't been able to find this figure in the Citadel catalogs and flyers until the 1990s catalog, but I'm pretty sure it's from the 80s. Can anyone peg him to a specific range or release?








Manufacturer: Citadel
Range: 0506 Orcs Command Group
Figure: 18 leader
Base Markings: ?
Release date: 1987?
Sculptor: Kev Adams
Date painted: 2009







Manufacturer: Citadel
Range: C15 Orcs
Figure: Officer
Base Markings: ?
Release date: 1985
Sculptor: Alan & Michael Perry
Date painted: 2009


Basing

The gang I'll be showing for awhile here were painted back in 2009-2010. I'm not sure when I'll be getting back to the project to do more. Part of the reason is a dilemma with regard to basing. You'll see I use thin, flat bases and my aim with the terrain on them was to represent generic ground that would look equally good in outdoor and underground games. This is a bit of a tall order, but I like the result of many of the figures in the gang. One of these too, the one with the green face on the shield, you'll have to excuse though, as originally I had a different terrain represented and then just covered it over with Sculptamold. His is a bit crap next to the others, and I've tried to distract your eye with a colorful bit of fungus. Generally these bases are Sculptamold with a little glue and a few bits of Woodland Scenics talus and course ballast.

I'm at a cross-roads regarding the basing. Part of me is being drawn back to using slottas and having the terrain be in the more traditional outdoor variety. Given how many figures are in the collection, the consequences of the decision are far-reaching, and that's one reason the D&D project (free of any concern for slottas) gets all the attention I have to devote to painting, these days. I might say more about this later.
Painting

Call me a traditionalist, but Citadel orcs aren't right unless they are John-Blanche-yellow-green. Browns, greys and olive hues are best saved for other figure lines and I have never been taken with the minty and shamrock greens currently en vogue. My recipe is to start over a black primer layer with a dark green. I put the dark green on my wet pallet and then build up through a brilliant middle green, through almost pure orange-yellow, and then put some few whitish yellow-tan highlights as needed. I experimented with glazes on a few figures but these and most you'll see coming up just use the straight build-from-black-to-light method. In recent times I sometimes do underpainting, and I plan to expand my use of this as I now have a quiet compressor for my airbrush, but as I said these orcs were painted years ago. The specific colors I used, from dark to light, were:

    GW Orkhide Shade
    P3 Necrotite green (this is the key for the intense color)
    GW Snakebite leather and/or Bestial Brown
    GW Tausept Ochre (careful with this one as the pigment is so strong)
    GW Golden Yellow
    For the gums, mix in a little GW Dwarf Flesh
    Add a tiny bit of Vallejo Pale Sand if needed for final highlights

Shields

The shield designs are from old Warhammer publications. These are both from a color spread in the Warhammer Armies hardback.

More at this blog post:
http://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2013/03/to-health-of-goblin-master.html
The collection is at flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spooktalker/collections/72157633012209554/
http://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2013/03/to-health-of-goblin-master.html

[OSHIROmodels]

Wonderful painting on those, really like the skin tone (agree about the JB colour) and the shields 

cheers

James

[Imp522]

Simply outstanding work. The shields are just fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

[Damien]

Damn those are nice! This is going to sound very odd, but the last shield reminded me of a tattoo that I recently saw on an arm; you wouldn't be a tattoo artist would you? Whatever you do for a living these are pure art and as everyone has already mentioned the skin tone and the shields are outstanding. I hope you post that Mordeim warband soon.


Cheers
 Damien

[DeafNala]

The Old Green Guys look FANTASTIC after your OUTSTANDING brushwork...the shields are WORKS OF ART! VERY WELL DONE!

[Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.]

Fantastic, the shields are superb!

[stone-cold-lead]

Hands up who's got wood! 

These are brilliant. Love the skin tones. Bright but not too bright. Lovely armour and metallics too.

Oh, and the shields... I'm envious as hell.

 

[Funghy-Fipps]

Just wonderful! Possibly the coolest paintjobs on old-school GW Orcs I've had the pleasure to clap my eyes on.

[Blue in vt]

My hand is up!

Those are wonderful and full of awesome!

Please give us an update soon!

Blue

[majorsmith]

awesome figures! the shields are mind blowing! wish i could paint like that!

[Gibby]

Wow! 

The jewels in the goblin's arm rings 

Fantastic!

[Mason]

 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
What they said!

 

[zorg]

The Hannya shield is fantastic!

[Suber]

Really fantastic!!

[Spooktalker]

Huge thanks everyone, I'm really glad you like them!

Damn those are nice! This is going to sound very odd, but the last shield reminded me of a tattoo that I recently saw on an arm; you wouldn't be a tattoo artist would you? Whatever you do for a living these are pure art and as everyone has already mentioned the skin tone and the shields are outstanding. I hope you post that Mordeim warband soon.


Cheers
 Damien

Thanks and no, not a tattoo artist.    You know, the design is from the Warhammer Armies hardback circa 1988, so several possibilities exist. The artist may have been influenced by a tattoo, either one he saw or one he saw in a book of flash designs, or maybe the one you saw was on a big orc fan, or maybe coincidence. As Hannya points out it looks like a Japanese Noh mask, maybe the inspiration for both the tattoo and the shield. As for what I do for a living, I'm one of the many that has been to art school and is now in an unrelated career. However, said career is stable enough now that I am trying to carve out more creative time. For awhile even painting miniatures for myself was a luxury... now I am hoping to branch out to a few other endeavors as well.

... And yes, I'm hoping to photograph some more soon! Now that I have the twin magic bullets of Adobe Lightroom and this lighter gray background I feel like nothing can stop me.