Creating Orc Standards

I want my Gundabad units to be clearly distinct from the other orc formations on the board. To this end I plan to insurt some more flags and banners into them. These Gundabad orcs are all about branding!

I started off looking through eBay for some cheap standard bearers, this wasn't easy, but I did see this guy who was broken. I thought I can fix him up with a standard in less than no time, so bought him.

 

There was also a set of the resin orcs I like, that were marching with pole arms. Luckily, the pole arms were separate and so a flag pole could be inserted instead. Having long, brittle resin pole arms would never have worked anyway, but tough brush bristles are a different story. So I rounded those up too.

To add some variation, I tried different techniques out with the standard poles. I added supports and tried some that were trailing behind rather than the usual cross post.

I started off by gluing these with gel super glue to keep them in place.

I then added blobs of super glue around the post joints.

On top of these blobs I then tied cotton to act as rope. This was nice a crude looking, orcs don't spend much time on such things.

It wasn't long before I had a new group of orcy looking banner men.

I used the odd plastic piece to finish off some of the banners poles.

Poles crudely tethered together.

The next step was to cut up some pieces of Wet wipes to use as the banner itself.

These were soaked in watered down PVA to give them form when dry.

This guy above with the big banner was created a week ago to go with the big war boss character. I had to curl it slightly so the orc could see.

Rough and ready, the more tattered... the better.

I pulled and ripped the edges of the wipes to give them a tattered look.

These will look good when sprayed with undercoat. A few holes in the banner is always a good look.

The wet wipes!

Brush bristles are bloody great aren't they!

A sea of black banners is the idea, one for almost all of the bases.

Elven encampment

This is another little side project to keep the creative juices flowing. I had the idea of painting up a Elven camp with a few character figures. This might make a nice bit of scenery or even an objective for a game.

I have an Elven king and court set from Black tree miniatures. I've always wanted to paint them as they are a characterful set. After giving this some thought, I wondered if a nice camp set would be nice to go with them.

The tents are from TTS and are nice a big. They are resin with an inner of polystyrene just to bulk them out.

The main thing now is I have to come up with a good colour to paint them. What colour is an Elven tent? Well, I'm leaning towards green of course with maybe some being Autumn browns.

The next question is do I leave them singley based or do I mount a few onto a larger base. 

The larger base does make it more of a diarama with wood piles and camp fires etc. Maybe the Kings tent could be with a couple of others and I leave a couple of single stands so I can move them around 

This is probably the closest picture to what I had I mind for colour. Something that could blend and disappear into the forest background at a glance. A bit like an Elven cloak of sorts.

These two are interesting and have details that are worth noting for reference. I like the fine detail work on the canopy, this is something I could do with a fine nib pen maybe.

 Again, a nice subtle colour that blends into the forest.

I'm liking the off white canvas look with pops of colour. Leaves painted onto the tent is a nice look for a Wood elf.

These more ochre shades are also nice, again punchoated with painted details.

Definitely some food for thought here.

Gundabad Orcs

Five more bases of dirty orcs are completed and join the gathering army of Gundabad.

These are a mix of all sorts and contain quite a few resin sculpts from eBay. This nice old sculpt from Harlequin miniatures leads the gang. He's flanked by large uruks created from the Frostgrave Cultist knights plastic set.

For this latest batch I used a lot of mud and dirt washes. These orcs are really filthy, even for orcs!

As aways I have given the metal work a thin wash of Kleer floor varnish to make it catch the light. I also gave the clothes a layer of super Matt varnish to take away any sheen.

Smaller orcs bring up the rear ranks.

My favourite resin orc finally leads his new command through the forest to assault the Elven bridge.

His base has the biggest and meanest Uruks in the group, all hand picked by himself of course.

I always tend to shy away from painting 'greenskins', but the odd one or two looks good in the mix. It helps to make the smaller folk very goblin looking.

Another base of large Uruks. The next stage for these bases is to add some small stones to act as rocks.

 

The mob gathers before the basing ritual starts.

I've also bought a huge orc standard bearer to go with the big orc war chef. He's even bigger than the boss man, but I wanted something to do justice to the new Gundabad faction. He's almost another classic Nick Lund creation, so goes well with the leader figure.

UPDATE: well this got out of hand really quickly. This latest batch driven by some unseen force or will, joined up with the previous batch and before I knew it, had destroyed the settlement and taken over the region. Killing and burning as they went, this has got out of control! What have I done?!

11 bases of orcs works out well, as it leaves one more to do...the War bosses one. This will give me three units in Oathmark, with four bases to a unit. I used a base to represent a rank.

A moving column of death and destruction heading for Moria.

Now it's time to get your rocks on! The mountainous terrain of Gundabad is well known and these bases need to show it.

By placing the stand on a plinth like tin, I could turn it around to get to all the fiddly areas more easily.

Next step is to paint all the stones grey and dry brush them.