Orktober is HERE! Or what is an Orc to me.....?

Its back - Orctober time! Thanks to Erny, at Erny's Place we are again going to hear all sorts of stuff about one of the most iconic bad guys in Fantasy history! There have already been some great posts about the evolution of orcs, by Matthew at www.oldenhammer.com, and some are adding guns to theirs, like Leadplague. Great start to this Orctober (or is that Orktober for Leadplague)!

Not to cover lots of covered ground, I'm just going to concentrate on two things. First, as you all know, Kev Adams and Bryan Ansell created most of the iconic "look" we tend to associate with Orcs today - from the pointed ears, big jaws, fighting and humorous spirit. Even the Green tide we all know and love. In fact the last Kev Adams releases to me (around 1992-93) of goblins marks the end of the second age of Games Workshop. You can see the progression here:

Andy Craig's Favorite Fraser Grey - Orc

Thantsants wonderful model, picture from Kev Adams Challenge blog.

Some of the most classic late 80's sculpts  - Ruglud's unit of crazies!

The Stylized "New" Rugluds......

Larry Vela's Savage Orc Boss (Golden Demon winner Chicago 2012)

Those last two images show the stylized "violent and big" version that the Orcs have become. The humor and panache of the Kev Adams sculpts is gone. Is there any wonder why we love his stuff so much (And once again are so happy about Boyldrick - Thanks Kev, hope you are healing quickly!)

It is almost like it was too much of a good thing and they had to "un"-Kev them. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of things that Mr. Nelson and others have done...but they are different. A new breed of Orc, and not the ones I fell in love with.

I was recently watching Labyrinth, the movie with David Bowie, with the kids, and they could not stop laughing over the little goblins - both my 2 and 4 year old and straight through to the 17 year old! That humor is incredible, and captured in the sculpts of the 80s and 90s! I was struck while watching it, just how much was Brian Froud influenced by Games Workshop artists....or were his influences just shared by Mr.s' Miller, Blanche, et. all....That would be a curious thing, but it must have been something to do with the time and their influences.

 
The other Gobbos I was in love with as a kid was the Hobbit and Return of the King Orcs. I know, not high art, and a bit cat like, but they just always appealed to me in 1977. In fact they led me to pick up my first miniatures, some Heritage and Citadel Orcs. So in some ways, I have these guys to blame for my metal condition.

Thanks Mr. Rankin and Mr. Bass!

One note - this was supposed to be a bit about my latest hobby rescue where I tried to fix this....it fits in, and someone can probably tell what it is, but I'll be back tomorrow with a bit on this guy and how to fix it. (I would have had more but I currently have a 2 year old teething with molars. trust me, it stops your life from time to time!)

Hobby Update: Rugluds see some color - finally!

Even though I have not been posting a lot, I have made some more progress on the hobby. Time has been short, as my other, better half has now lost two Aunts in a month. Basically funerals suck, even if they are more celebrations, and make you realize the important things. But here are some pics of my beastman, sans bases. So my warband is nearing completion as soon as some tufts arrive in the post! I also have to do the banners. Did anyone else see James's at the BOYL? Maybe not that large, but mine are going to have to be pretty special!

So are you guys ready to take this on?

Much earlier in my blog I showed some WIP shots of my Ruglud's unit. I'm painting them up for use with a large Orc and Goblin force that I plan on using at the Oldhammer event. Way too much work to do, and only two months or so. But at the time I was unhappy with how they were tunring out. So I got some advice from Andy Craig on the skin tone to make my orcs look old school. Large part is Windor & Newton Green Apple ink. Now, my skills are not anywhere close to 'Eavy Metal painters, but I am pretty happy with the tone of the skin. Even if some of my brush work is a bit overhanded or sloppy, this gives me a great point for my Orc flesh! What do you guys think?

Of course, these shots are all WIP, I still need to base them, I need to paint shields and their crossbows, but they are all headed in the right direction, I think. Also, on the facebook group, Omar has shown off his. Anyone else have shots of their Ruglud's? Yes, mine are not finished, but I am getting there, and 35 down.....look below for some of what I have to go!

Here is a shot of another old model, with the tone of the old method, not sure on these pics, but they look a lot better in person then this one.....

Of course, every step forward leads to steps back! while I was working on my Ruglud's I assembled a whole lot of my old Orcs and Goblins. I am building a proper Oldhammer army for my game in Oct, and I already am lucky enough to own tons of remarkable Kev Adams and other GW models. But know I'm having to make them match my new skin tone and Ruglud's and I have a lot of these with a horrible white primer. So into the Simple Green pot a lot of them went.

Here is what one batch got me at the end of the day.

And here is some of the units laid out for the army....lots of painting to do, but I am really excited to have a newly painted Oldhammer force. One other note, I have a bunch of old Grenadier Orcs and Gobbo wolf riders (by Nick Lund) and some other stuff that may also be there. And I have lead belchers, rock lobbers, bolt thrower, man manglers and more in another box. So it should be pretty cool when it is all done!

Hobby Update: The Goal and Progress So Far!

Well to get the hobby updates started I get to talk about my goals first.

I have a ton of Games Workshop that I have collected over the years. A ton of it is Oldhammer from the days I was buying as a kid - from pre-slotta to early stuff all the way to the great Lead Sell-off. When I was trolling around and found Oldhammer as a movement, most of it was just sitting in one of my two storage buildings. As I have said before....I may have a bit of a problem.

Anyway, as all the photos I posted up on facebook show I have a ton of stuff, including a lot in shrinkwrap. So if I'm going to do the Oldhammer thing, where do I start? One of my first true armies (not minis but full fledged ideas for an entire army) was Undead. They will always have a special place in my heart. Back then I had friends who I got to play, but they were basically unable to afford hardly anything. So what to do....ok I bought tons of figures for their armies. That way I had ready made opponents and more figures! Win-Win, right? Well yes, but it has left me with a pile of unpainted minis that would shock most people. One of the brothers Horton did High Elves, one did Chaos and Orcs. I played Undead, Empire, and anything else to make a fun game. So I have all of these options. And I doubt I have to buy too much from ebay to make any one army - of course, I will because I'll want that one special figure - but that is different from needing to go out and spend.

I want to do my Undead again, and I have a ton of the models, but to be honest, I want to accomplish something else first. Then I thought about Kev "Goblinmaster" Adams (see below) and thought - ok...Its Orcs and Gobbos!

I started puling out figures (some with primer, some sprayed green (really bad green form some spray we found in the late 80s), some bare, some black....its like a mono-toned rainbow). I am going to go through jars of Simple Green just to clean them all. I still have things to find that I know are in there somewhere, but I have found enough to get a really good start on my complete army (complete in my head - not points!)  I decided to just concentrate on the slottas for now and I have grouped them in two basic groups - 85-90 and 91-92. The former has the regiments, skullcrushers, leadbelchers, etc. the former has some of the "newer" orcs and savage orcs. I'm really starting on the older group first, have like 6 units of infantry, gobbo wolf riders, orc boar boyz, war machines, fanatics, and chariots. I want them done but the whole thing won't be finished until those savage orcs have tattoos!

But I wanted to start with one of my favorite things...the old regiments of renown. So I decided to do Ruglud's (because I can find everything for two boxes except either of Harboth himself - more searching to do!). Anyway, these were pretty rough and painted when I was 15 or so I think (or at least half done - hey it was my friends army he was borrowing from me.) So I gave them a bath, and presto - bare metal! Here are some of them coming out of their bath:

Well I had a full box (which is 17) and I wanted at least 20 and hopefully 30 - I wanted a really big unit of these guys. Luckily I was able to get some more of them from Rusty, and It brought me up to 27 - and I just added three other Orcs with the right weapons to the back rank, and I had my thirty. One of the ones Rusty sent me was missing a hablerd - it was broken before he got it - so I had to fix em. Here is my little plastic whittling job. Its a bit rough, but in my opinion it makes him look like he's already been in a few fights!

In the photo it looks a lot bigger, but it is more because of his hand placement - I used the one on the right as a template of sorts. So I was all ready to go and get started when on the facebook page Andy Craig mentioned how he painted Orcs. Basically Green Apple Windsor and Newton ink with mid tones and yellows added - I think I have that right! Anyway I have always wanted to be able to get the old look of Orc skin down and could just never do it (using the Citadel paints at the time) and now i know why. So I ordered some Red and Green Apple inks and I'm waiting for them to arrive.

If you have never used Red with your red paints, then you should give it a try. I learned that one long ago, as it keeps your paints from getting too pink (unless you want them to). I am not a painting expert, so I'll just keep it to what I am trying to do. For excellent tips and paint jobs, please see some of the others on the facebook page. I'm afraid I will never win a Golden Daemon, or even come close. But I have long painted until I am happy with things and played lots of games. I am trying to get better, and hopefully this project will help - but I just want to warn you.

Anyway, as I am currently waiting for the inks to arrive, I am cleaning a bunch more of the Orcs and Gobbos now. Lots of cleaning to do!

Also, my blog is less than 24 hours old - and I only told three people. But somehow I have 100 pageviews already. Very cool!