Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (ogre bodyguard for Mordheim)

[Jagannath]

These are really great - the green's top. Are they 15mm.co.uk? This Dragon Rampant army must be pretty hefty now!

[Severian]

Fine work indeed - striking colours on the lizard men!

The RP goblin above is really excellent - the orcs are all very effective, but he works superbly.

[Hobgoblin]

Cheers!

No, they're Magister Militum (lizardman wizards or some such). They do two ranges of lizardmen: these fiddly fellows, who are quite small, heavily detailed and usually heavily armed (formerly Chariot Miniatures, I think); and bigger, more primitive-looking ones (formerly Blood Dawn?). The smaller ones have much more stuff: a big turtle, the ceratopsian cavalry at the top of the previous page, and crossbows. The big ones are a hell of a lot easier to paint - my son did one a few pages back.

We managed a four-player DR game last weekend with about 36 points a piece, although we used a lot of 28mm dragons and giants. I should have two units of orcs and a band of small trolls finished very soon, and then I have some cavalry to do: Irregular boar riders and chaos warriors. And of course the sci-fi figures work very well; we either give them magic (i.e. high-tech) powers or the venomous rule (much more deadly missile attacks), or both.

[Hobgoblin]

The RP goblin above is really excellent - the orcs are all very effective, but he works superbly.

Thanks! He's an interesting stage in the evolution of the RP orc; you have the not-Middle Earth ones, which are charming but very crude by today's standards, then you have these ones, and then you have the 1979 giant goblins/orcs/half-orcs, which are still pretty much unsurpassed.

[Hobgoblin]

Having been smitten by the flu, I went to bed at seven last night for a febrile sleep. Being excused all child-related duties today, I embarked on my convalescence by painting up some old Citadel armoured orcs that I recently acquired from mikemystery (thanks, Mike!).

These are really quick paintjobs, but they're designed to match all the "fish-white" orcs at the start of this thread. I'm going to base up the new ones for HOTT, but they'll work well with the individually based ones for 28mm Dragon Rampant or whatever; I've found that DR is hugely improved by the use of either sabots or some blocks of multi-based models - it speeds the movement up so much.

I've got loads of the orcs in this range kicking around, so I might even manage a complete 24-AP HOTT army of them (chiefly warbands with the odd base of shooters - and who knows, perhaps a wyvern rider as an arial hero ...).

I've doubtless prattled about this before on this thread or elsewhere on this forum, but I love the C15/16 orc range for the variety (among other things). Shortly afterwards, the Citadel orcs became first more standardised and then more comic. But these have a huge amount of variety - huge fangs as well as upward-pointing tusks; radically different facial structures; and the occasional beard or full head of hair. All things that were much missed in the subsequent ranges (by me at least).

[Severian]

Very fine work as usual - the skin tone contrasts nicely with your vigorous colours! Properly post-febrile.... And good luck with shaking the flu - it's been bouncing around my system for a couple of weeks now in various tiresome forms.

The C15/16 orcs are a great range, aren't they. What strikes me most about them (and indeed about a lot of their Citadel contemporaries) is the sheer fun the sculptors had in doing all these random variants. I have buckets of the old FT dwarves and not one is wholly like another. Marvellous stuff. Looking forward to more of them from your hoard (or I suppose horde)...

[fred]

They are cool.

I agree these are some of the best Orcs out there. The variety of them is great. I've got all 3 above, but only 1 has the same head!!

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both!

The range of variants is indeed tremendous. I've just conducted a quick audit, and I reckon that before stripping down any of the old ones on page 4, I've got enough for seven warbands, one archer and - I think - four "spears" (the polearm-wielding Fantasy Tribe orcs). That would give me a nicely varied (though infantry-heavy) HotT army - and if I get the contemporaneous war wyvern stripped and based up ...

I'm painfully aware that the smaller Fantasy Tribe wyverns would be much easier to base for HotT than the King F'yar one I have - but they've so far eluded me on eBay with a will!

[majorsmith]

Love those orcs!

[DeafNala]

The latest additions are WONDERFUL old minis, BEAUTIFULLY painted.
Basing them up for H.O.T.T. sounds like a great opportunity for a cool vignette. Have fun with it.

[Hobgoblin]

Many thanks, DeafNala! And here they are - with some friends. I'm going to harmonise the bases of the individuals gradually.

[Hobgoblin]

I got most of these three done last night as well. I envisaged today as another day of recuperation aided by painting therapy, but felt a lot better. So time was eaten up by party-ferrying, bike-fixing, cycling supervising and cooking. Still, I got them finished off tonight.

Two of these are from the Fantasy Tribe range (slightly earlier than the armoured orcs, though there are overlaps. The one with the glaive is a variant of the Harboth's trooper and is from a range of (less armoured) orcs that came out at the same time as the armoured ones. I have two or three other variants of the chieftain with sword and flail, but this is the only one with an intact scimitar - which means I'm almost bound to drop him before he's safely based ...

[Jagannath]

Sorry, haven't commented for a wee bit - last few updates are lovely. Great minis, and the blue skintone is great. I absolutely love that last chap's shield with the monster face in profile, something really charming about it... I can imagine him sitting and painting it in between all his pillaging.

[fred]

Another 3 classic figures. I do like the look of how you are painting these orcs.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both!

I absolutely love that last chap's shield with the monster face in profile, something really charming about it... I can imagine him sitting and painting it in between all his pillaging.

Cheers! It's loosely based on a viking ship's prow. I've used it a few times before on these orcs, as it's easy to paint on shields with a heavy wood grain and an iron rim. By the way, did you see my post about that Battle Valor wizard? If he has "gone on holiday by mistake", just let me know and I'll post him back!

The element's based now: for some reason, it's my favourite of the (many) HotT elements I've finished. The two new ones will see action this weekend.