Ruglud's Armoured Orcs - Spike-Can Commandos

 

Finally got around to Painting Ruglud's Armoured Orcs. I still need to finish the bases, the banner, and maybe some extra weathering sometime. Rather than paint their armour in the traditional way with blacks and browns (which is the colour of most of my Orc army), I thought I would try something a bit different.

The story on the back of the box describes how Ruglud came across a huge room filled with dead Dwarfs. "Spiky Stunties an' reg'lar ones... wiped each uvver out...". In other words, Dwarfs were fighting Chaos Dwarfs. The Orcs loot the Chaos Dwarf armour. So I decided to paint the armour in the style of Chaos Warriors- would dwarf armour fit an Orc? 

I then had to decide what Chaos faction to paint them: 

• Undivided - Black armour would just look like a lot of the Orc units I already have. 
• Nurgle - rusty brown metal or green, and again would not stand out. Green armour and green skin doesn't sound like a good combination. And a lot of my Orcs are already in rusty armour.
• Khorne - Reds and Blacks, tempting but still similar colours and style to some of the Orc units I have already. 
• Slaanesh ...nope. At best, just complicated to paint those pastel colours. At worst, complicated and I would end up with kinky Orcs.
• That left Tzeentch. A nice faded blue colour, and something that would look different to my other Orc and Goblin units.

This is a confusingly named regiment, the story states Gudruk is the chief, Ruglud is just an 'Orc hero' so seems to be the Champion. I'm not surprised by how many people get the models mixed up. The stat line says "Gudruk is equipped with heavy armour and a two-handed sword." and "Ruglud is equipped with heavy armour, a shield and is armed with two swords."

This is contradicted by their names being stamped on their slotta base tabs - see above (well Ludruk and Ugludd- but it's close enough).

In addition the story on the back of the box describes how Ruglud gets his head stuck in a Chaos Dwarf helmet. "The tribe feasted upon Goblin-flesh long into the night - all except for Ruglud, who couldn't get his helmet off, and was reduced to sucking broth through a straw." Which also explains his face being all squashed up.

But just to add to the confusion the end of the story also states "As the gear's discoverer and the bravest, meanest and certainly the most stupid Orc, Ruglud was made leader." So does this mean Ruglud was supposed to be the higher level hero and therefore the leader all along?

Either way, because of the slotta tabs and the story stating that Ruglud is wearing a helmet, I'm certain that Ruglud is the model on the right with the helmet on.

Finally the command group characters. From left to right- Maggot (Gudruk's offspring and standard bearer), Gudruk (the leader), Ruglud (champion), and Bambrag (musician on the xylobone and whiny, cowardly shaman).

I think I may have overdone the glow on Ruglud's sword, but it was my first time trying this technique. I plan on adding a banner later on. It will be made up of two ripped banners. The top half will be Dwarf, the bottom half will be a Chaos Tzeentch banner, all crudely stitched together. Probably add some Goblin trophies as the units battlecry is "Gobbo fer tea, Gobbo fer tea, Gobbo, Gobbo, Gobbo fer tea!"

I hope you like them!

Harboth's Orc Archers

As it's Orctober I thought I would post some pictures of the Orcs I have been working on. First up is one the classic regiments of renown- Harboth's Orc Archers. This is one of the first box sets I bought as a kid a very long time ago, and recently repainted them. 

I wanted to use the box art as inspiration for colours and for the banner or standard bearer.

The back of the box has a story with a lot of character, including information like the Orcish word for moving out can also mean deserting, running away or soling one's underwear.  I also like the information on equipment, Battlecry, Deeds, Uniforms and Shield designs.

They even spelt Harboth's name wrong here- Who is Harbath?! But you can see a close up of the banner. I like the ghostly ethereal look to it, so I set out to make my own version.

And an advert in WD. This also has a print version of the banner, in bright green for some reason, so I used this as starting point to make my own version.

At first I made a version in photoshop, but when I printed it it just didn't look right. It looked fake, a bit faded, and just... printed on a computer. I tried painting over it, but the printer ink would run and react to water based paints.

Which brings me to my final version of Harboth's standard bearer. This was painted in water colours and some acrylic paints, mainly the black. The trophies are mostly dwarf, the story on the back describes how Harboth's Orcs like to kill and eat Dwarfs -"Pulp do Stunties!" Is their warcry after all! So Dwarf trophies seemed appropriate. I'm really happy with the final result.

Here's Yaskin Forit, the units champion. Unit Champions back then didn't have to be armed identically to the rest of the unit, so he wields a two-handed Dwarf tickler. He also manages to wield a two-handed weapon and use a shield at the same time! 

His name is sounds like "You asking for it?!" - the sort of thing some aggressive thug might ask before a fight. 
I didn't like the Roman style crest on the helmet, so I removed it and stuck some horns on, I felt bad defacing the old model, but I much prefer how he looks now. Much more Orky! 
While repainting Yaskin Forit I noticed he has a necklace of ears, some are even pointy! Gruesome! I also hope to paint some design on his shield when I get time. Probably a crude face of one of his victims.

The musician- not a lot else to say, except he's the only Orc archer not wearing any chainmail or armour.

And lastly, the man himself, Harboth. His original weapon was damaged and I replaced it with an axe.