Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (undead warband for Mordheim)

[Hobgoblin]

Heh, part of me wants to order a few of them right away  I like how yours turned out, and the element certainly looks the part. I've got an entire HoTT army sitting around in my drawers - I should get it painted 

Im kinda curious as to the other Essex orcs. I've been casting a few glimpses at them as well.
(And I might also have to order some Biostrip. Got a lot of stuff that could do with a re-paint)

The "Cursaa's Orcs" are really terrific. I prefer them to Bob Olley's Iron Claw/Citadel black orcs. They're a similar size, but squatter, with bigger heads and less human proportions. The photos on the Essex site do them no justice at all.

[affun]

The "Cursaa's Orcs" are really terrific. I prefer them to Bob Olley's Iron Claw/Citadel black orcs. They're a similar size, but squatter, with bigger heads and less human proportions. The photos on the Essex site do them no justice at all.

It's the case with a lot of mini companies, and especially Essex (But thats a rant I've been on before...). Aparantly, they have a lot of really good stuff hidden away in terrible pics. Their dwarf wizards are supposed to be pretty inspired as well. Looking forward to seeing them with paint on.

[Hobgoblin]

Here's the first of the Essex "Cursaa's Orcs". I'm not sure if he's finished: the trouble with Bob Olley's stuff is that there's so much detail to tinker with. I'll leave him unvarnished for a bit and see how his peers come along.

These orcs are destined to be "blades" in Hordes of the Things and Elite Foot in Dragon Rampant. I have twelve of them, and they'll go two to a 60 x 20mm base. They'll work well with that basing, as they're broad figures but not terribly deep. And they're big. The plan is to have a HOTT army that consists largely of hordes and blades, with perhaps the odd harrying pack of beasts or riders.

I really like the models. I think they're better than the Iron Claw black orcs, which are similar but a bit less characterful and more human in their proportions.

 This chap would make an excellent Azog, I think - "huge head bound in iron" and all that.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

Wow.  He has a lot of character.  I am quite impressed by your pale orcs.
Are there any orcs that you don't have in your collection?

[Severian]

Excellent work! Is he the one called "Scaley Orc with Sword & Dagger" on the Essex site (and not currently pictured)?
Quite agree re the Essex orcs - I have a fair few of them, and only one is more or less finished. But splendidly characterful and full of unexpected detail. In fact the whole Essex fantasy range is full of gems, although the proportions are a bit odd at times (all the wizards seem to be dwarves, even if they're not supposed to be, for example). The pictures on the site are pretty bad, though.

[Pappa Midnight]

I've really enjoyed going through this thread. You have a seriously nice collection of toys.
I've got to say I really love your take on the non GW Orcs and Ogres and your free-hand shield designs are excellent.

Regards
PM

[Hobgoblin]

Many thanks, all!

Is he the one called "Scaley Orc with Sword & Dagger" on the Essex site (and not currently pictured)?

No, he's not a "Scaley" orc, but Q35 - "Orc: in Helmet, Chain Mail, with Cutlass and Dagger." I also have the 15mm version of him. The "Scaley Orc with Sword & Dagger" is shown elsewhere as identical to "Scaley Orc Champion in Plate Armour", so perhaps he's a variant of that one.

Ethelred: ha! Actually, there are big gaps - there are quite a few of the first Citadel slottabased orcs that I used to have, but which went to a charity shop long ago. In general, the painted stuff I had went 20 years ago, but the unpainted stuff and my HOTT armies survived ...

And I suspect no one has all the Fantasy Tribe orcs, given their countless variants.

[Globlin]

 This chap would make an excellent Azog, I think - "huge head bound in iron" and all that.

Yes I could certainly see him come boiling out of the depths of Moria at the head of an orc horde! Lovely paintjob as always.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, Globin! Yes, indeed: "What? Yet another beggar at my doors? Must I brand you too?".

Here's another Essex orc. His recessed eyes don't show up well in the photos, but the pupils are there. I'm not sure whether these two will end up on the same base; I'll probably paint the whole batch up and then work out how best they fit so that the bases all sit together nicely.

And on Azog again: rereading the text, I noticed this (emphasis mine):

"Thereupon Azog came forth, and he was a great Orc with a huge iron-clad head, and yet agile and strong. With him came many like him, the fighters of his guard ..."

The contrast provided by "and yet" implies that the strength and agility were surprising given the size of his head. I suspect that his head, and that of the Great Goblin, is supposed to be big to the point of deformity (much like these Essex orcs, in fact). Tolkien does mention the size of orc heads in a number of places. An early version of the "Tower of Cirith Ungol" text has a note on the difficulty Sam and Frodo had in finding helmets to fit, given the typically outsized orcish head.

[Hobgoblin]

A brief dip back into skirmish-oriented miniatures: here are a couple of Marauder orcs. They're a testament to the power of Biostrip. I got them second-hand and crudely painted, but stripped them in 20 minutes. It's amazing stuff, Biostrip - by far the best paintstripper for miniatures out there for speed, safety and smell. And efficacy: it works much better than Dettol, for example, and in a fraction of the time.

I've still to dig out some suitable shields for them. I'm swithering between their own orcish liveries or defaced shields captured from more sophisticated foes. These are my vision of what Warhammer orcs should be like. I've long held that the "greenskins" just didn't fit in with the best WHFRP stuff at all. If I were to run WHFRP, I'd reskin (pun intended) orcs to be more like this: leering footpads and brigands that exist where the fringes of civilisation give way to the wilds. And I wouldn't call them orcs, but something like bergtrolle or kobolde.

[Severian]

Great work on the orcs; and indeed on the Essex guy above.

I'm all in favour of your orcs-as-bergtrolle notion, too: something halfway between Scandinavian trolls (as a catch-all term for what traditional RPGs distinguish into kobolds, goblins, orcs, trolls, ettins, what-have-you) and the Old English mearcsteppers, eotenas and ylfenas and all that, of whom Grendel is an abnormally large and violent but not otherwise that unusual an example: envious, malicious, marked by exile and an unforgotten sense of injustice received - tragic as well as (often) villainous or wicked.

The whole later Warhammer orcs thing (waaagh and all the "humorous" misspellings) has always seemed to me a bad parody of itself. So, yes, the less of that we have, the better, in my book.

[Hybrid Alpha]

Wow! What a lovely collection of miniatures you have Mr Hobgoblin  

The more I see of the Essex Orcs the more I think they could work with 15mm miniatures. Biostrip 20 has been added to the wishlist, do you use the 750ml spray bottle or the thicker paste that comes in a 500ml tub?

[Hobgoblin]

Great work on the orcs; and indeed on the Essex guy above.

Thanks, O Lictor of Thrax!

I'm all in favour of your orcs-as-bergtrolle notion, too: something halfway between Scandinavian trolls (as a catch-all term for what traditional RPGs distinguish into kobolds, goblins, orcs, trolls, ettins, what-have-you) and the Old English mearcsteppers, eotenas and ylfenas and all that, of whom Grendel is an abnormally large and violent but not otherwise that unusual an example: envious, malicious, marked by exile and an unforgotten sense of injustice received - tragic as well as (often) villainous or wicked.

Yes indeed! Eotenas and ylfenas and all that 'descent from Cain' stuff are very close to my heart.

The whole later Warhammer orcs thing (waaagh and all the "humorous" misspellings) has always seemed to me a bad parody of itself. So, yes, the less of that we have, the better, in my book.

Well said!

[Hobgoblin]

Wow! What a lovely collection of miniatures you have Mr Hobgoblin  

Cheers!

The more I see of the Essex Orcs the more I think they could work with 15mm miniatures.

They could - and indeed would work well. But as giants - they're huge! The larger ones are around the size of the earlier Citadel ogres (Golgfag's regiment in its first and second incarnations, for example). "Agog" above could rest his chin on the heads of the two Marauder orcs above.

Oddly enough, Essex also do 15mm orcs that match the 28mm Cursaa's orcs. I have some, including a match for Agog, and will be painting them up soon.

Biostrip 20 has been added to the wishlist, do you use the 750ml spray bottle or the thicker paste that comes in a 500ml tub?

I bought the 500ml tub for about ten quid on Amazon. It's been a great bargain already. I poured some into a caper jar (big enough to hold about 20 miniatures if tightly packed) and have just finished that lot after stripping four or five batches of miniatures. The last, 12 Asgard orcs, took me about 20 minutes to scrub out of the gunk tonight, with most of it just peeling off entirely. So I reckon it works out cheaper than Dettol, which is pretty much "one use".

[Hobgoblin]

I had the day off today, but was under orders to remain in situ to await the delivery of some piece of furniture or other. The kids and their after-school activities were being taken care of by grandparents, so I took to the garden with paints, miniatures, coffee, a kettlebell and Radio 4 for a somewhat eclectic day of painting, exercise and other relaxation.

I got quite a lot done on some sci-fi kit bashes, some Asgard orcs, a Reaper Bones machine-gun ape and this Fiend Factory "red orc". He's a really early Citadel miniature - so old that he was long gone from the shops by the time my primary-school self began to accumulate miniatures. But I got hold of him and one or two others of his ilk some years later. He's languished in the lead pile ever since - until today. His face is slightly miscast, although I've neatened up the mouth a bit since taking the photo (painting in a fang, which helps). Anyway, he'll help to swell the ranks of my HOTT hordes.