Mordor Orcs

Here's a dozen Mordor orcs I completed in an afternoon of hobby productivity! The figures are nicely detailed and very easy to paint up. A base colour and a wash give you a decent result in a short time - about four hours in this case, so around twenty minutes per figure is achievable. Obviously at this speed they are gaming level and might not stand up to close scrutiny, but sometimes it's nice to sit down for just an afternoon and have something useable at the end of it.

I have been enjoying playing skirmish games in the past few months, games like Saga and Muskets and Tomahawks. I wanted to try something similar sized but in a fantasy vein. There are some fantasy battle boards for Saga on the web, but I thought it would be worth revisiting another ruleset before trying them. The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game (now The Hobbit SBG of course) has a good sized presence on the web and seems to be well regarded. It would be silly not to give it a try. So that's exactly what we did - Matt and I have played a couple of games and we both like it.  Matt has a huge collection of LOTR figures, pretty much every faction in various sizes. I have a more modest collection of 12 men of Gondor and 12 orcs and a little bit of terrain painted up, with plenty more in the unpainted pile. The nice thing about these figures is they are pretty cheap to pick up on ebay.

EDIT And here's the next little batch ready for priming. Fifteen more Mordor orcs to add to the growing army. I will do really well if I get these done in one afternoon, given the increased numbers and the banner, so I will probably aim for two sessions.

Orcs Art Collection Part 3

Some more orc artwork, possibly more familiar to many people as these two artists' work appear in many Tolkien calendars and books. The first is John Howe, who seems to have dedicated most of his life to illustrating scenes from Tolkien writings.

Alan Lee is probably best known of all these artists. The chances are that if you own an illustrated copy of the Lord of the Rings, it will be Alan Lee illustrations.

Both these artists were chosen by Peter Jackson to work on the film trilogy as art directors, so their interpretation of orcs should be recognisable to all gamers.

Orcs Art Collection Part 2

This image and those below are among the first I can remember seeing on orcs. They were included in a book called the Tolkien Bestiary that was first published almost thirty years ago. The artist, Ian Miller, may be familiar to GW fans, since he did some work for them in the very early days, including some illustrations in the Realm of Chaos books.

These illustrations perhaps best encapsulate for me how an orc should look, though finding a description by the author in any of the books is a hard task. They are described variously as elves corrupted by the enemy, as men twisted by cruel devices, or simply as beasts like men but with swarthy features. For those interested in this type of thing, I can recommend this detailed article on Tolkien orcs. I am not even sure if the latter two images are meant to represent orcs, which perhaps is fitting given Tolkien's ambiguity on the matter.

The images are used without permission, no infringement of copyright is intended.

New plastic dwarfs from AOW

Avatars of War have announced a new dwarf regiment, this time in plastic, not the plastic-resin mix. Twenty of these to a box, which can be made up with great axes and/or crossbows. There's no mention of price as yet, but I guess they will be similar to the plastic berserkers. So that's dwarfs pencilled in for autumn for me.

Dark Prince Rising

Yes, I am still painting! It's been a long two months in coming, but here's the first of the models in my newly resurrected Daemons army. It feels good to have a new project underway, especially one that allows me to get to 2000 points in a short period of time. I have taken some time deciding on how to progress with the daemons, based on the materials I have to hand and a couple of test games. I am building the army according to my usual principles of including models I like, rather than optimal performers.

I have to confess that most of my troops are actually Tzeentch, but I had the old Azazel model and wanted to use it, so I will just have to manage. There were a few bits missing, notably the head and wings, so it became a wingless Prince with the head of a fiend. It's coming along nicely, I am enjoying playing with glazes, both for the shading and highlights.

As the general worships Slaanesh and because I already have the models, I have also made a start on some Seekers of Slaanesh. I'm not sure I really need fast cavalry as I already have 5 screamers fulfilling that role, but I do like the models and again wanted to experiment a little with glazing. One thing I have discovered is that the plastics take the paint much better than the metal. You would think that the primer would make them equal, but no. Perhaps it's the sculpting, the older metal models can seem quite clumsy when compared with the fine detail of the plastics.

I have a very leisurely deadline for these models, the end of the month for the Prince and the end of May for the Seekers. This is to coincide with the painting challenge over on the Warhammer forum. I will also be adding more Slaanesh units to the army, with embryonic plans to build a chariot and some fiends. The only problem then would be that would take the army to 2400 points, so I would need more core troops, with some plaguebearers being favourites to expand the army. For the short term though, it's the Dark Prince who will be feeling the stroke of my brush!

Orcses, filthy orcses! Art Collection part 1

I watched The Hobbit for the first time last week, now that it has been released on DVD. Barring a couple of very silly bits, I really enjoyed it. I particularly liked the design of the orcs, which were different to the Uruk Hai and Mordor orcs of the original trilogy. It got me thinking about the variety in orc models, not just in the film series, but in the miniatures world.

For many years, my experience of orcs has been those represented in the major fantasy game - a hairless gorilla physique with green skin and a big grin. It's a very popular design, it's even spread into the cosmos of the future. It's often cited on various forums as a break from the grim dark hobby background, a little light relief, for gamers who prefer "humour" and "fun" in their gaming, whatever they are. For a long time, it's been the only flavour available, since most independent companies have simply copied the market leader, in order to sell.

The introduction of the Lord of the Rings figures brought a new orc concept to gamers, courtesy of the designers of the film trilogy, who in turn were most likely influenced by various artists' works. The picture at the top of the page is by Angus McBride, well known among historical gamers for his many years of illustrating Osprey books, though he did also produce some stunning work on Middle Earth, as this small selection below illustrates.

All images used without permission, hopefully I am not infringing any copyright.