Throg's Hobgoblin Despoilers

Here is the Regiment of Renown - Throg's Hobgoblin Despoilers

While painting the unit I started to think up a backstory for them (does anyone else do that while they paint?). I always found the champion, Grunmunter the Beast, quite unusual. I imagine that he had killed a sorcerer of Tzeentch and looted the armour and mask. This is slowly warping his body and mind, hence the nickname The Beast. Throg is either a scouting force sent out by the great Khan, or an outcast that has fled the lands of the Khan. At some point they turned mercenary, and although they originally rode wolves, their mounts have long since died (and been subsequently eaten). Their wolf skin cloaks are all that remains of their beloved wolf mounts.

You can read more about the original Throgg's Hobgoblin Despoilers here:

http://www.solegends.com/citrr/1rr15throggs/index.htm

I went for an eastern or Mongol theme to their clothes and colours. For the mono-pose cloned troopers, I added some green stuff to their helmets and shields. On some I added fur around the rim of their helmets, or I added a plume of hair, or a spike. And on the shields I added some shield bosses or studs to make them look more like Mongol shields. The shirts are all a light grey linen colour, and the wolf cloaks have a little colour variation in them.

The banner I made the design in photoshop, then printed it on paper, and then I did some weathering afterwards. The Chinese characters 黒龍 say Black Dragon. It's not quite what the Mongol's would have had, its not like I'm not trying to be historically accurate, but the style is eastern and something different to the other banners I have in my collection.

Hill Giant

This is a few firsts for me; it’s the first true print I’ve done on my 3D printer, first time painting a resin print, and first time trying out blending flesh tones and on such a large model.

 

 

 

The hill giant stl model comes from loot studios. Below you can see work in progress.

 

 

 

I'm quite pleased with how it came out. I like the sculpt, he has a real solid weighty feel to him, unlike some other skinny giants I've seen. And doesn't have big comic feet.

It will be added to my warhammer 3rd edition orc and goblin army, or Norse army.

Ruglud's Armoured Orcs - Spike-Can Commandos

Finally got around to finishing Ruglud's Armoured Orcs. 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 and the Orcs loot the Chaos Dwarf armour. So I decided to paint the armour in the style of Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch. I didn't go with black as I have a lot of Orc units in that colour already and wanted to go with a colour that I hadn't used before. 
Not sure I like the final result though (there's an old saying about blue and green colours clashing - blue and green shouldn't be seen) and might repaint them some day.

It's a confusingly named regiment being named after the champion Ruglud, he's the one with the two handed sword. However, the story on the back of the box describes how Ruglud got his head stuck in a helmet which is why it's all squashed up with eyes squeezed together.

"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."

The banner is made from a Dwarf banner and a Chaos banner stitched together. I figured the Orcs would not only loot the armour but also loot any standards that are left over. There's also some goblin trophies as the back of the box states they were fighting mountain goblins.

Savage Orcs!

  

Finally managed to finish some Savage Orcs that had been sitting on the painting bench for ages. Every time I thought I had finished there was always one more thing to do!

These are Oldhammer metal savage orcs made for warhammer fantasy battle 3rd edition. They will join my Orc and Goblin army. 

First up is an Orc hero. I feel like he should a tribal chief name, something like Stranger Come Knocking, or Tul Duru Thunderhead. 

He is armed with a stone headed axe and a boomerang. I love the details on this model, he is covered in bones, teeth, feathers, bird skulls, bone through his nose and you can even see the stitching and fur of the hides that make up his clothes.

Next up is Groldog, not sure if he is a shaman, champion or hero. He is armed with a bone spear, has 3 severed heads on his belt although they are very small so they either the heads of children or perhaps shrunken heads. Like the savage orc above he is covered in bones, bird skulls and you can even see the stitching and fur of the hides that make up his clothes.

The whole Savage Orc unit. All Savage Orcs wear war paint, it even protects them in battle. So I decided to paint them with native American war paint as this seemed more dramatic, and was thankfully easier to paint!

 

I tried to avoid any metal weapons and armour and tried to keep their weapons and equipment very tribal and naturalistic. Some of them are carrying swords and hand scythes, I did think about replacing their weapons with something more stone age, something non-metal like spears. But I didn't want to convert them too much, so bronze age weapons seemed a good compromise.

I imagine that these Orcs live in a mountain region so remote that they are still living in the past. They also have Zulu style hide shields as these seemed to fit the tribal look I was going for. Again avoiding metal rimmed shields. And even the banner is made up of natural, organic trophies- no chains or spikes for these guys!

Lastly is Gutbag, an old , smelly, and likely incontinent, Orc Shaman. I tried to make his skin look wrinkled and  wizened. He is from the orc war wyvern box and previously had a knife in his left hand which I removed and gave him a tambourine type of thing (I had seen a Mongol shaman holding something similar). 

Orc wolf rider hero

This old Nick Lund model used to be my Orc general. I remember buying him when I was a kid and that it came in a yellow coloured blister packet. For a time he had to ride a boar, because Orcs in warhammer can only ride boars. But I wanted to return him to his original glory. I love old Nick Lund models, so full of character and detail.

Orctober-work in progress

 Bratt's Boar Boyz

Orcs were the first army I truly collected so they hold a special place in my heart. When I think of Orcs I think Paul Bonner's versions, maybe crossed with Tolkien's (from the books, not the movies so much).

Here are my work in progress Orc Boar Boyz:

One of my favourite Orc units was my boar boys. They used to strike fear in my opponents as they were so hard to kill. But the models were never that impressive. The marauder orc models I had at the time didn't seem to represent the weapons and armour I had paid points for. Few of them had spears and some didn't even have armour or even clothes!

I was inspired by one of the Regiments of the Renown called Bratt's Boar Boyz (back in WD 106). I always hoped GW or someone would bring out models like these. This is how I imagined Orc boar riders to be. This story really brings Orcs to life, places them in what feels like an actual society full of character, unlike the new crap they churn out which is more about how many times the author can fit Waaaaaghh in a paragraph. A unit of Orc ferocity, bristling with spears and barely controlled boar mounts. 

    

So here they are, work in progress. Twenty Orc Grunta's and Snorta's!

The majority have spears and the majority have armour of some sort.  The size of the boars varies, maybe one day I will acquire boars all the same size, preferably boars that look like they are charging!

Now I just need to add shields, an impressive banner, and finish painting them!

And Man Mangler the Orc mangonel catapult. Love the carved face on the front of this. Painted it orange to contrast with all the green skin and drab clothes. It looks a bit like a pumpkin, which may or may not be a bad thing. Added puddles using varnish.

Orc with flag

I'm not a fan of the newer Orc models, they are too cartoony with ridiculous muscles that look like inflated balloons. Plus their heads seem too stretched, like something that has melted in the sun. Prefer my Orcs to be bandy legged, crook-backed evil creatures.

This guy:

And a sad troll. I don't know why he is so sad looking!