em4 Miniatures Grenadier Orcs challenge

[sukhe_bator]

Inspired by the excellent conversion work of Perry WOTR plastics by Captain Blood and others on the Medieval Adventures forum, and my own success converting the same for my Westeros project, I embarked on another conversion challenge.
I'm a lifelong fan of Nick Lund's Orcs, and have been collecting them since my early teens back in the day when he launched Chronicle Miniatures, and later moved onto Citadel and then Grenadier. I have amassed a respectable horde of his metal minis over the years.



My collection of orcs has been outnumbered and outgunned by my Haradrim army in recent years which is completely unacceptable. I wanted to boost numbers beyond what was financially acceptable collecting more metals. Then I became aware of the Fantasy Warriors plastics sold by em4 Miniatures.
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Copy_of_Fantasy.html
For a modest £30 I now have 150 figures in 3 poses, archer, swordsman and spearman, plus 100 shields, postage included. That's half the price for a similar number of Perry plastics with imho just as much conversion potential. This pic is after I've hived off 20 odd to work on.

Inspired by articles which hint at their potential with even the most straightforward of conversions I have decided to have a go. My challenge is to create 147 variants - including leaders, champions, standard bearers and musicians compatable with my metal collection and will pretty much clean out my bits box!
http://www.combatzonechronicles.net/em4/orcsy.htm
20 odd conversions in I am pleasantly surprised at how relatively easy they are to rework and can recommend them to other Nick Lund fans out there. They are well worth the effort - W.I.P pics to follow
Nick, if you are out there, thanks... 'Gothmog the Terrible' will rise again!   

[Belgian]

Interesting are they really hard plastic or the softer variant such as reaper bones and heroclix material? Looking forward in seeing the conversion.

[beefcake]

I'll be interested in seeing how this turns out. I've often looked at the plastic orcs they have. So cheap

[Red Orc]

Great project. I've got some of the Chronicle Hobgoblin Wolfriders (had then since about 1985) but have never seriously tried to incorporate them into my Goblin army. I think I'm now seeing more potential to add a lot of Lund-y goodness to my force!

Are you blogging this, or are you planning on using the LAF thread as the blog?

[sukhe_bator]

Belgian,
although the articles say to use superglue rather than a plastic cement, the plastic seems to behave broadly similar to the Perry miniatures figures and quite easy to carve with a craft knife, drill etc.

[sukhe_bator]

Red orc,
I'm not a blogger - so plan to simply post w.i.p. on the LAF from time to time

[Mason]

Looking for to this, SB!

I love those old Lund orcs.
These and the Asgard uglies are my earliest memories of fantasy orcs, so will always have a place for me.
 

I am going down the old-skool-orc route myself very soon, as I have plans for a LotR SAGA project, and will be utilising Asgard orcs for the Mordor board.
I can see an Isengard force based on the Lund creations, though.
Love those Wolf Riders.
 

Looking forward to seeing the conversion potential so that I can shamelessly steal your ideas!
 

[Rob_bresnen]

I'll watch with interest. £30 for a whole army is good going!

[phreedh]

The plastic is more or less identical to the plastic GW use(d?) in the 90s for the mono-pose regiment boxes of skaven, dwarves, chaos warriors etc.

I have a handfull of these that I got for free from cheetor (not forgotten, mate!) and I've been toying with the idea of creating a single unit with the three sculpts and use them as hobgoblins.

[Jevenkah]

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh LUND ORCS!  What a fantastic challenge for yourself.  I have no frame of reference myself, so I'm very interested to hear the nitty-grittty details of how they carve, set up, etc. We've (husband Teshub and self) always worked with metals, having recently infused our own Lund orc horde with the metal minis from mirliton. Our kids now want to play Fantasy Warriors as well since they've seen the tabletop and rules books, perhaps these plastics you've drawn my attention to is the way to go for their forces.

That is a mighty great Lund army you've got there!

Jevenkah

[Chico]

Hmmm i think i might try this out with there Dwarfs, I'll watch these space thougha nd learn from any mistakes you make

[sukhe_bator]

Jevenkah,
I have been admiring your Lund orc horde as well. 
I am trying to sculpt if not in Nick Lund's inimitable style then at least in a sympathetic way, using examples from my metals as reference. Once I have sculpted to my satisfaction I will be separating some from their original bases in order to reposition them and in some cases altering foot poses as well for added variation.

[Vermis]

20 odd conversions in I am pleasantly surprised at how relatively easy they are to rework and can recommend them to other Nick Lund fans out there. They are well worth the effort - W.I.P pics to follow

Tease!

[Admiral Benbow]

Great challenging project!
 

[Just John]

I too love the old Chronicle orcs and am looking forward to seeing this project develop. Now hurry up and post some WIP pics