mercredi 21 février 2024

The Green Horde: another regiment of Orc Warriors

 Hi everyone!

After the Christmas painting rush, I've tried to keep up the pace of production for 2024. It proved feasible in January, but it became much more difficult en February (a lot of work as usual). I could at last complete another troop of Orc Warriors, according to Kings of War unit sizes. 




 

As you can see, I've been cheating adjusting the unit according to my production capacity. Instead of ten warriors, I've painted only 6 warriors and a giant one - a venerable Chronicle Ogre into a giant Orc.


Let's have a closer look at this sort of Ogrorc:


Impressive, don't you think ? 

The other warriors are once more a mix of several manufacturers.

Chronicle Hobgoblin Champion

Ral Partha Orc Warrior - a future Linebreaker for Oathmark

A Ral Partha Orc Lancer

Citadel Black orc

Alternative Armies Lancer

Old Ral Partha figure by Bob Olley

With the previous troop, I can now assemble a regiment.



 

Since I have painted another one in 2023, I can mix my 2 regiments into a... Horde! See for yourself:


But it doesn't mean that we are at the end of the Green Horde. Several figures are currently being painted, and I intend to add the following units to my army:

- 2 troops of Wolf Riders (10 figures)

- 1 troop of Boar Riders (10 figures, 2 painted)

- 1 troop of Orc Archers (10 figures)

- 1, maybe 2 hordes of Orc Warriors (up to 80 figures)

- 1 Goblin King on his war chariot

And I've also spotted some Goblin allies, such as Spider Riders, Lancers, Rocket Flyers... It's a long way to the top (if you wanna Orc'n'Roll) :)

dimanche 28 janvier 2024

The Green Horde: Tork the Animal

 This week-end, I could find time to paint and take a few pictures, at last! I'm still in the mood to add figures to my Orcs army, but I also need some variety, and I have a huge pile of Rackham figures to paint, so I decided to paint one of my oldest, an Orc wizard from the Bran-o-Kor faction.

Let me introduce you Tork the Animal:



This is an initiate of the Magic of the Earth. He concentrates his power in a magical rock that he can throw at his enemies and cause considerable damage.

Though I intend to use him as part of the Green Horde, I consider him as an ally from another clan, the Orcs of Bran-o-Kor. In Confrontation's world, this Orc tribe lives in dry deserts and canyons, which explains why the bases are different from the bulk of the Horde.

Close-ups in the pictures below, where you can see Tork with a body guard, a brute warrior from the same tribe.



Hope you like him :)

More Orcs to come next month, and maybe some 1/72 figures too!

samedi 13 janvier 2024

The Green Horde: another troop of Orc Warriors

 Hi! Here you are another episode of the building of the Green Horde - an army made of all the Orc and Goblin figures I'm gathering together since the 80s. If you're new to this blog, here you are the previous episodes:

- The Green Horde - A beginning the start of the project

- Orctober - Boar Rider A first boar rider, general of the army so far

- The Green Horde: a Troop of Archers first 10 archers, more to come in the future

- The Green Horde: Heavy Wolf Riders 5 wolf riders from various manufacturers

- The Green Horde: a Regiment of Orc Warriors A regiment is composed of 20 figures at Kings of War 

- The Green Horde: a Goblin Skull Crusher A Goblin catapult 

Today's post is about the beginning of a new regiment. The first 10 Orcs are painted, they form a troop before 10 others join their ranks. Let's have a look:


Once again, the figures come from several manufacturers: Citadel, Ral Partha, Grenadier, Old Glory.

Let's have a closer look: the warrior with the round shield below is a Grenadier figure. The original shield is engraved with an Eye pattern that I didn't like, so I stuck a round shield over, and painted a red eye, symbol of the army.

The next is also a Grenadier figure. The connoisseurs will recognise Nick Lund's style.


The next one comes from an Old Glory fantasy range (with a new plastic shield):


The next ones are Citadel figures. The first is a Chronicle Hobgoblin:

And the next ones are two variants of the same lancer from the 80s (preslotta era):

The last figures on display are 3 Orcs by Grenadier, and not Ral Partha as I originally thought - Hobgoblin from LAF once again could identify them! They were sculpted by Sandra Garrity and released by Grenadier during the 90s as part of the Fantasy Legends range.


That's all for today! See you for the next episode.


mercredi 10 janvier 2024

The Green Horde: a Goblin Skull Crusher

 Hi!

I know that this blog is meant to be mostly dedicated to 1/72 figures, but these days I'm in the mood to work on my 28mm Orcs and Goblins army for Kings of War. I have to say that the comments, here and on various forums, have been rather positive, and I took them as an encouragement to go on.

Today, I want to show you a War Machine, the sort of things that Orcs usually don't use - they leave the sophisticated and bizarre things to lesser warriors, meaning Goblins!



The machine is called a Skull Crusher. It was sculpted by Kev Adams and released by Citadel in 1986. The machine itself is full of small details as you can see below.




There's a team of 4 Goblins to handle it. From left to right: Winder1, Winder2, Boggrub Legbiter the team leader and Loader.


I love these funny Goblins, and probably will add some more of them as allies to the Orcs. I have a troop of warriors, a few archers and a War Chariot to paint. Hmm, makes me think that I also have a DBA Gallic army to base, all the figures are painted.

See you soon for a post dedicated to Celts, and for a bigger Orcs army!


dimanche 31 décembre 2023

2023 Review - I've painted a bit more than previously shown

 Hi everyone!

Each end of the year, I say to myself that I should/will write a review and announce projects for the future... and never do it. Why not ? I see several good, or bad, reasons:

- so many people write a review, why another ?

- it's not something to write in February or March

- it sounds too much like office work

- it's boring to read, I prefer to look at painted minis

- it will only reveal that all my projects are late!!!

Does it sound familiar to some of you ? Nevertheless, it would be great to write such a report at least once, and insert pictures of never displayed-so-far figures, and prove that this year, I've upgraded my painter status from SLOW to REASONABLY SLOW. Oh yes, that would be great, so let's go.


2023 Review - a year of painting minis

 

For the first time since I've been in the hobby, I've been painting more than 200 minis and scenery elements in a year - compared with less than 100 in 2022, and an average number around 120 during the five previous years.

Figures 199
Scenery Elements 4
Total 203

Most of the scenery elements are on display in this post: Pigs at Risk!!.

 But what about the minis ? What period, what size, for what purpose?

 

1. Size

Let's start with the size. The title of this blog claims that it is mostly dedicated to 1/72 figures, but the last posts were all related to 28mm - maybe a new direction for the future ? Let's count what was painted and take time to analyze.

1/72 figures 152
28mm figures 47
Total 199

75% of the painted minis are in 1/72 scale, so I can still say that the One True Scale remains my first area of interest. The ratio between the two scales was the same last year, but 2022 and 2023 have seen a change compared to the previous years when 1/72 figures represented up to 90% of the painted minis. The main reason is that, last year, I could convince my son to give Kings of War a try, and so reuse his old Warhammer Undead figures against my much older Orcs that you have seen in the previous posts. These Orcs represent almost 75% of the 28mm paintjob in 2023.


2. Historical vs Fantasy vs SF

Historical Fantasy SF
118 78 3
59 % 39 % 2 %

 Still more historical than Fantasy figures - SF is more casual, only a few Star Wars figures for Empire Assault, and you can see them here:

The Empire and its Associates wish you a Happy New Year!

 

A very representative year actually, since you'll find the very same proportions if you count the posts of this blog by period (on the left panel of this blog, web version):


I would have thought that the time dedicated to painting 28mm Orcs would increase the Fantasy digits, but no. On the other hand, painting a 28mm mini is longer than a 1/72 one :)

 

3. Historical periods

All historical figures I paint are exclusively 1/72, we now count them by period:

Ancients 25 21 %
Medieval 15 13 %
Napoleonics 76 32 %
Others 2 2 %
Total 118 100 %

That's very unusual: I've painted way more Napoleonics than the previous year, and displayed none on
the blog so far. Actually, I didn't show any of the historical figures painted this year, except for the 2 medieval pigs in Pigs at Risk!! :D

That's something I want to make up right now, here you are some of them:

Enguerrand, Templar Knight, wishes you a Heavenly New Year

The Dragoons of the 12th regiment wish you another Sun of Austerlitz

Aymé, simple soldier in the Régiment du Lyonnais, wishes everybody a pair of dry socks
 

4. And the projects... ?

Some good news, and some not so good. The good news:

- My DBA Early German and Imperial Roman armies are based and ready for action

- the first step of restoration of my old 28mm Orcs army is done - still enough figures for the next two years. I don't want, nor can't be faster, I won't paint green monsters every day.

- the pile of WIP figures has clearly diminished, since I forced myself to finish some minis that were on my desk for years. Reduction from 50 to 10, including many Celts that I should show you one of these days.

The not so good news:

- My Mythologic armies are in the same condition as at the start of the year - except for the Mythologic Greeks who count now 5 minotaurs and 3 more Amazons

- nothing new concerning Ostland since the beginning of the year, idem for Conan

- 4 more archers for my DBA HYW English are not enough


5. Conclusion

As you all know already, I am not a mono-project guy. I don't like to paint several times the same uniform, and even less the same mini (Napoleonic battalions are a real pain), but I like the result, so I keep on painting for several parallel projects, and switching from the one to the other according to my mood. And of course, dear readers, your own projects are always a temptation to copy!

But a hobby is not a job: I paint what I want, when I want to, and fortunately I'm most of the time happy with the result. 


Hope you didn't find all this too boring. We're at the end of this post, and it is time to wish you all a happy new year !!


samedi 23 décembre 2023

The Green Horde: a Regiment of Orc Warriors

 It's time to show my biggest unit so far, a regiment of 20 warriors.


This time, one of these 20 figures is a plastic one by Warlord Games. The others  are a mix of Alternative Armies, Citadel, Grenadier, Old Glory and Ral Partha. 

 Let's have a closer look on some of them. The first on display is a Gargantua Orc(z) by Ral Partha, a series I've only discovered this year. Slightly biggest than the others, but perfect the way I imagine Orcs.


The next is an Old Glory figure.


The following Orc is probably more difficult to identify. It was made by a french manufacturer called Armageddon, but I couldn't find anything about this company on the net (Armageddon is not the most selective search criteria, whatever the search engine). The only element I have is an article about these figures in a famous french magazine, Casus Belli in 1992, here you are:


And my version, rather similar:


 

Next figure is a well-known Hobgoblin from the Chronicle range:


The following Orc is what I believe to be a Grenadier Orc or Goblin, not by Nick Lund? Or a Metal Magic figure? To be verified. I'm just sure that I bought him in the mid-90s. Once again, I ask the community for more info, please.

EDIT: Problem solved, it is a Grenadier figure by John Dennett, thank you Eric and Hobgoblin on LAF.



The last of this gallery of portraits is a Citadel Orc, 1984 or 85.

 

 

A last picture of the leader of the unit to conclude this post.

 

 

What do you think of them ? 

No new unit tomorrow as I'm off to see my family for a few days, so let me wish you a Merry Christmas :)