Finishing up old projects.

It felt good today to be finishing up this squadron of Round heads. Two more bases of trotters to take the fight to the Royalists. These are queuing up ready to be put into their horses and then painted with the Dip. The horses will be a simple affair mostly bays and the Dip will shade them too.

The line for the toilets at Euston station!

Base colours for the troopers, I’ve been playing around with different Buff paints again. These guys from Essex Miniatures are wearing a helmet sketched in the Osprey ECW cavalry book. It’s described as a simple style of helmet knocked together by a blacksmith. It makes sense to me that when finished, this will be a newly raised, ‘green’ unit. So the shoddy looking buff coats will help with the look of that, hastily thrown together and equipped quickly from different sources.

The ‘to do’ tray is a bit of a mixed bag this month. A few old jobs and some moving repairs made it into the tray.
 

Getting Ready for the Flock!

Well, I’ve been in the new rented house for a few weeks now and I thought it time to finally catch up with all the unfinished projects. Bolg and his mighty bodyguard are still in need of some love. The two elites of the army, Bolg’s bodyguard and the Black Uruks meet up for a photo opportunity and a great time is had by all.

It’s also time to see to the casualties of the move. This poor troll lost his hand after I lost my balance and the whole box tipped 45 degrees.

 It took me ages but I found my unfinished ECW cavalry too. Very annoying when you can’t find anything but I pushed on and found the little sh#ts hiding in a random box. Note to self, must pack better.

 

Orc spares

The orcs that were painted as spares get a base all of their own. These will find their way into the mass hordes rather than the elite fur clad group.

This base took a bit of rearranging and the odd figure swop but we got there. More meat for the grinder.

 

Black Uruks of Mordor

A mass of angry warriors pours forth.

Having completed some more fur cloaked conversions, I went back and replaced some of the earlier painted figures on the first two bases. They look a lot better now, the spare orcs will be put on a base of their own.

The demon neck guard stuck to the helmet looks great when painted.

 

The Next Batch

The next couple of bases are well underway and the unit of veteran warriors is almost complete. Using the first bases as a guide, I’ve decided the fur cloak look was a good one and it helps tie the unit together visually. These Black Uruks will be equipped in black leather armour but also have black fur cloaks to add to their veteran look. I have also chosen a nice fur clad chieftain to lead them from Reaper Miniatures.

These figures are literally ‘half orcs’, half Frost Grave, have Warlordgames.

Amongst the Demon sprues were next guards for the armour, these are great for sticking on the helmets to create orcy creations. Although you may not use these on the actual torsos, they are definitely worth hanging on to, as they make great face guards too.

Another variation on the visored helmet by using the neck guard.

Most of the orcs on this post are the Demons with the goat legs that have been spliced with Warlordgames orc legs. These mid sized orcs add to the look of the unit and insure that there is not wastage on the sprue.

I have stuck a bow on this hooded guy to make him more into a tracker/scout. His shorter build means he is probably lower down the pecking order of the other armoured warriors.
 

Frost Grave Demons as Orcs

See what I mean... these Demons make for great Morannon orcs from the Jackson films. Very handy for GW players.

The motley line up, quickly mustered and sent off to the front.

I do like the Demon shields with all the rivets and overlapping plates.

The black watch, I painted these as black Uruks with black/ blue skin. I actually used confederate grey from Foundry for some of the flesh tones.

“Stop pushing at the back you maggots!”

Black leather armour looks good and is different from what I have done before. I bought some GW Contrast paints from eBay and the ‘Black Templar’ is very useful for this.

This is interesting, a Mantic goblin on the right makes for a nice Snaga archer. The next figure is half FG Demon and half Warlordgames orc. The goat legged Demons can be sawn in half so as not to waste the torso. The big guy is a Frost Grave Demon with orc head.

Close up of the mix of the two sprues. They make for a good medium size orc.
 

Frost Grave Demons as Orcs

Yesterday I spent a few hours on these mainly because I was excited to see what the armour would look like in leather. The fur cloaks helped the orcy look for sure. These are large warrior looking orcs, their veteran status has awarded them the best equipment.

Although different I have quite a soft spot for these smaller orcs. These have had their Demon goat legs replaced with warlordgames orc legs. The Demon helmets actually make for good orc ones too. The arms on this guy are from the Oathmark goblin set. I didn’t really use a lot of spear arms so always have loads left over.

I went for a armour being made of think leather plates, but this shot does show the armour as metal just for reference. I have to say, it makes for a great Morannon orc from Jackson’s LOTR films.

This is a nice orc skin colour, it’s greatcoat grey washed with Army painter flesh wash.

 The best thing about painting orcs is messing around with their skin colours, even putting patchy skin together then washing it with brown ink. Always my favourite part of the figure the flesh part.

 The Demon kit also comes with little extras like this chin guard, I stuck it on the helmet for more spiky goodness.