Orctober 26: My Original Orc Army

I mentioned recently that I'm revisiting my old Orc army; repairing and rebasing it and generally bringing it up to close to the standard of my more recent orcs.

Although much of the army can be seen on various battle reports on the blog, I've never actually specifically shown them as painted minis.

So, before I muck about with them, here they are.

Orc Axes

This was my first Kings of War unit and date back to the very early days of Kings of War. They are the mainstay of the orc army, and over the years I've added three more. They can be fielded as Troops, Regiments or Hordes* (two regiments have black shields with red axes and two have red shields with black axes so they nicely divide into two Hordes).

Ax Regiment, one of four (or half of one of two Hordes, or two of eight Troops, or...)

Greatax and Morax

The elite of the orc infantry. These were early additions to the force. The Greatax are made up from the sprues and I have just the one regiment of them.

Greatax Regiment 

Mantic did extra metal arms with axes to add to the plastic infantry to make Morax; I do have some somewhere but I managed with the bits on the infantry sprues for this troop and another troop as well.

Morax Troop

Gore Riders 

Excellent cavalry that have trampled many an elf or undead in their time.  

These are a slightly later addition. They look good once assembled, but they are 'restic' minis and require a bit more preparation than normal plastics. The regiment can be split and fielded as two troops.

Gore Riders 

Sniffs

Now called Skulks, these are Lord of the Rings orcs from GW. Mantic eventually released add on bits, rather like the Morax to build them from the standard plastic infantry.

I'll be retiring these as I now have my own way of building them using Mantic components. 

Lord of the Rings orcs

Trolls 

My first regiment of Trolls were Ghost Miniatures models, these were recently stripped and repainted for my Old School/Warlords of Erehwon collection. I painted these Mantic trolls (restic again) to replace them. 

I like the hulking brutishness of them, though some folk are less keen. I spoke to the designer, a French sculptor (sadly I can't remember his name, if you know, please put it in the comments so I can update this) who explained that it's a bit of a tradition in French graphic novels to portray monsters with disproportionately small head and legs.

Well it works for me. 

Three Trolls

Giant 

Every army should have a Giant. This was converted from a toy long before Mantic released their Giant with it's various conversion bits.

It's a bit crude, but I like it, mostly for nostalgic reasons. I'll see if I can improve the painting somewhat, and rebase him of course. 

Giant (on too small a base)

Heroes 

A mixed bag of Krudgers and Flaggers. Mantic released a metal Krudger and Flagger on foot and a metal Krudger on a Gore. The two infantry Heroes are in very similar poses. The set also included a goblin sneak, at that time an upgrade for the Krudger. The Flagger in particular has suffered and needs repairing. 

Krudger on tactical rock

Flagger in need of repairs 

There's also a mounted Flagger just made from one of the Gore Riders.

But the centrepiece has to be the Krudger on Slasher. Back in the day, Krudgers could ride Slashers or Winged Slashers. I can't remember what model I used for the Slasher, the Krudger is the mounted version of the metal hero. Sadly there's no place for it in the newer army lists, I suppose could investigate adding wings, or just keep the rider and put him on a Gore.

Krudger on Slasher 

Chariots 

The last addition back when I was regularly using the army. As you can see, they currently have no crew.  When I built them I wasn't sure how to fit the crew on. I'll get that sorted soon.

Two uncrewed chariots, I have another somewhere 

The Grey Horde 

I've also amassed a lot of unpainted orcs and bits of orcs. Plenty and more to at least double the size of the above army. 

It would be fun to paint up some of this, and there are a few troop types I'd like to add. But that's not the focus of this Orctober.

New Orcs 

I painted up a 750 point force during lockdown (and based most of them up considerably later). The intention was that it would be a demo army, so it has it's own basing style, but I think that with a bit of work my old stuff will fit in just fine.

The Forgotten 

I've also got a selection of painted orcs that aren't in units. Some of these are my old Vanguard warband and will gradually find themselves conscripted into new units. There's also a complete troop of Morax and Skulks, both of which were painted in 2020, so match the rest of that small lockdown force. Basing them up will be an easy win.

A Note on the Painting 

You'll notice that the bulk of the army isn't painted like my more modern orcs, especially the Oldhammer orcs I've been doing for Orc's Drift (such as the Severed Hand).

I'd like to think that I've improved over the years, but there are other reasons too. 

This was the first time that I ever seriously set out to paint a full army (in 28mm at least) so I was looking for shortcuts. This was about the time that Army Painter's dips were becoming popular so just about everything got a basecoat and a Strongtone dip. There aren't really any extra highlights and the whole army looks rather grungy (appropriate for orcs?).

This also affected the colour choices. At the time, the received wisdom was that the dip didn't really work well on certain colours, so I avoided those.

Is it worth repainting them?

Well, no, unless there's some obvious damage to the painting, but I might add a few extra highlights, especially on command and heroes. It just depends on how I'm feeling when I get to a particular unit.

*A Note on the Basing 

You might notice that the basing of some of the regiments is eccentric. The idea was to make it possible to field Troops, Regiments and Hordes and keep the command minis in the centre of the front rank.

While this sounds clever, I so rarely did this, and it was fiddly to field Regiments or larger, even with movement trays. I'll rebase them as mostly Regiments; I can always put two together to make a Horde.

I'm happier with the base decoration. The idea was that the orcs have sacked a city and are marching through the ruins. I used bits of broken fish tank ornaments for the pillars and fancy carving.  I also put the heroes on tactical rocks, though in second edition this gave them an advantage if I stuck rigorously to the mini's height.

When I finally got around to basing up the orcs I painted in lockdown I echoed this theme, adding bits of masonry (XPS foam bricks).

What's Next?

The first step will be to base up those Morax, despite being recently painted, they already have several broken axes (Lessax?), so a bit of repair work too.

Then I'll look at the rest of the army a unit at a time and rebase them, after carrying out relevant repairs.

And then there's Ogtober to do as well.

It's going to be a busy month.

Ogtober 26: Kings of War - Another New Army*

So my Orctober 26 project is to revisit my old Kings of War Orcs and get them rebased, repaired and revised.

But to stop myself getting bored with all that, I'm also doing an Ogtober 26 project.

The Latest Diversion 

Bodvoc and myself joke about which one of us is the worst influence on the other. I'm not sure who gets the blame for the following, though I note that in his blog he lays the blame squarely on my shoulders, so this is my side of the story.

He was inspired by my recent game of Kings of War and suggested that we get back to playing it. 

I know we have our ongoing Dark Shadows campaign to finish, but I do enjoy a bit of KoW, so I agreed. After all, a game or two shouldn't disrupt my hobbying too much. I do have plenty of Orcs and at least 1000 points of Kingdoms of Men.

Then Bodvoc mentioned that he's always liked the look of the Empire of Dust and I (foolishly) found a copy of the third edition starter set for sale, including Empire of Dust. He was tempted, but he didn't want the ogres as well.

In a moment of weakness I said I'd split the set, after all, I did pretty well with my 15mm ogres.

So now he's busy collecting and painting Empire of the Dead and I'm doing likewise for ogres, and red goblins of course.

I don't think we're going to be building massive armies; I'm thinking around 500 points to start, building up to 1000.

That's not a lot of ogres, though the goblins should up the mini count somewhat.

Vaguely Planning Ahead 

It's very tempting to go rushing off buying loads of new stuff. This is exactly the process I used with the Trident Realm, and that lack of focus is one of the reasons it remains largely unpainted.

So this time I'm going to try and be a bit more tactical with my acquisitions.

My half of the starter set consists of twelve ogre warriors (can be built as warriors with hand weapon and shield, two handed weapons or large handguns) and a warlord. If I just build these I'll have a bit over 600 points

That's a nice start, but I wanted some goblins too. 

I managed to find an ogre Ambush set**, giving me another six ogre warriors and twenty goblins, plenty to be going on with for now.

My final initial purchase was a cheap group of the old restic ogres, led by the old Nomagrok mini. He's an awesome special character (and heavy too, solid metal) but, initially at least, I'll just use him as a normal Shaman. His pals may make it into the army, depending on how well they fit alongside the new designs.

And to show that I've actually been doing something, here's the first ogre I built, a kitbashed sergeant.

Ogre Sergeant

Rear view

I'll probably also kitbash an Army Standard Bearer as well. Very useful for keeping the Warriors in the fight. 

Mantic Ogres 

My previous ogre army was in 15mm and consisted entirely of third party ranges.

I once owned some of the old restic ogres, I believe they came in the original Kings of War Kickstarter. I've also owned and painted (back in 2015) some of the original goblins, where you got a plastic sprue for Spitters (archers) and metal components to convert them into other troops. 

But I've not seen the new goblins or ogres before. 

They are great minis; the ogres have options for hand weapon and shield, two handed weapons or boomsticks: the goblins get rabble, sharpsticks or spitters. 

There's some lovely details, such as the fancy ornamentation on the ogres armour or the cobbled together weapons on the goblin sprue, often incorporating bits of weapons from other factions.

What is particularly nice is that there are two different sprues of ogres, one with male torsos and one with female torsos. 

I do have a couple of quibbles; I'm not a fan of the shields being cast on arms, and it would have been nice to have some extra gubbins, such as shot pouches and powder horns to complement the boomers and some sort of command options (beyond the literal 'bucket helm' for the goblins). 

And of course, crocodogs should be a must on the ogre sprues.

Still, there's plenty for me to start with, indeed, the sergeant above is now painted, so expect to see her soon.

*In 28mm at least.

**Ambush was a small scale introduction to Kings of War in the third edition rulebook. Mantic produced sets of plastic minis for various armies that worked out around 330 points for a very reasonable price. They even included a handy mini rulebook and a sheet with the stats for the included army. 

They stopped producing these sets with the introduction of fourth edition, I suspect that Champions is intended to do a similar thing.

October 26: Two Overly Ambitious Kings of War Projects

**WARNING: this post contains images of miniatures that have not been kept in the best condition. Readers who care properly for their armies might find this disturbing **

With the Season of Scenery over, and having painted (nearly) all the Wildspire Miniatures set, I thought it was time to do something for October. 

Last year I started painting Old School Undead, and I've still got a load more to finish.  But the Winds of Gaming have shifted firmly towards Kings of War. So Orctober sounds like a great idea. 

For this project I'm going to look at my original orc army. Repair where necessary or possible, maybe touch up some of the painting, and rebase things more in line with my current methods.

I may add to it, but the intention is to, first and foremost, sort out what's already painted.

I'll do a separate post looking in detail at the army, but here's a picture of what I've got and an indication of what I might need to do. 

Most of my painted orcs (with a rogue unit of dwarves)

And if that's not enough to do, Boðvoc and I have both started new armies, so we're urging each other on in a vague sort of slow-gro contest. I've only just begun, one mini painted so far, but here's a clue; it's my Ogtober project. 

Season of Scenery 26 Roundup

Just a quick post to show my final entry in Dave Stone's Season of Scenery challenge 2026.

I'll witter on a bit more about the build in another post, but briefly, here's another Oldhammer building; the dairy from the Bogle's Farm in Terror of the Lichemaster. I started it last year, alongside collecting and painting minis for the scenario pack but it languished part built for many months.

The Dairy or is it a barn?

The rear of the dairy

Blank wall

And as a bonus, here's Fritzy's Kennel from the same scenario, also started last year and finished for the challenge.

Beware of the Dog!

Rear view

Challenge Summary 

A pretty good challenge for me this year. I built an extensive set of role-playing terrain for the Masterforge quest.

 

The Masterforge Assembled

I also got a bit of scatter terrain done using some old resin chess pieces.

 

The Standing Stones

And, of course, I finished off the dairy shown above.

It's been a lot of fun, and certainly spurred me on to finish stuff. The D&D terrain would have been built anyway for the game, but the standing stones were a direct response to the challenge, and finishing the dairy was also motivated by me wanting to get something else finished in time.

Mind you, I might have got more done if I'd not been distracted by the Wildspire stuff.

Thanks Dave for organising all this. It's certainly helped me expand my scenery collection.

See you on December 26 th for the next challenge?

Wildspire Miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons

Whilst assembling the minis required for the Master Forge I looked at what is available these days beyond the usual Reaper or Wizkids.  

I found Wildspire Miniatures, and thought they were an interesting collection, but by that time I'd decided what I needed, so filed them under 'possibly investigate later'.

I didn't pursue it any further until I noticed that they had a special offer on one of the boxed sets. 

At less than 50p a mini (and some of them are big) I thought it worthwhile investigating. The price has since gone back up, but they are still under 60p each.

(A quick note, this is an expansion to the Classic Encounters Essentials set, so is, perhaps, a little less immediately useful.  Both sets are available in the Classic Encounters Complete set).

That's a small box for 60 minis!

Well packed though

Contents

An 'Acid Elemental'* and three oozes.  I'll admit I thought these might work nicely for some of the elementals in the forge, though in the end they stayed in the box.

They are nicely detailed, and will definitely get some table time. They might get a wash and perhaps a very light highlight, but they're pretty much ready as is.

Translucent Green stuff

Air Elemental and Gas Serpents*. More nicely detailed minis.  I do have Air Elementals already, notably Reaper Bones, but a bit of variety is nice. I'm not sure what a gas serpent is, but the minis look fun.

Translucent clear minis

Bugbear, cultist, bandit and unholy knight*. All reasonable minis and pretty useful. They mostly have obvious D&D stats (I'd probably use the unholy knight as a wight). There are four of each of these in the set.

 A good set of adversaries for most heroes

Giant worm*, imp, ghoul and werewolf. There are some noticeable gaps on the ghoul and the werewolf, some filler should help here. Again, there are four of each in the set.

I'm sure I've seen all these in films

Dire wolf, boar, harpy and mummy. The wolf is a nice wolf, but small for a dire wolf. It's a refreshing change to have a clothed harpy. Yet again, four of each.

Are you my mummy?

Naga, giant and earth elemental. One of each of these. These are great minis. 

If I'm being picky, I like my earth elementals a bit chunkier and the pose could be more threatening.

Big stuff

First Impressions 

These are good minis, especially for the price. 

There are some odd sizes when compared to the Monster Manual descriptions, but nothing too egregious. 

Detail is generally good, though it's occasionally soft on some (the bugbear's face for instance). For some reason, the translucent minis seem better detailed. 

Most of these will do the job nicely, though not necessarily better than stuff I've already got painted up in my collection.

What's Next?

I've already started painting some of these (expect posts showing them over the next few weeks).  They easily chunk into groups of four so I'm getting through them steadily.

Will I get any more? 

I'm tempted if I find any more on offer. I've looked at the creatures here, but they also do sets of heroes, which look interesting, with a wide variety of species and class, and a good mix of male and female characters.

I'll do another post analysing the range and coming to some sort of conclusion if they are a must have for role players, or just a big disappointment (though how can you be disappointed by that giant?)

*Wildspire do a booklet of stats and various other downloads which should explain what some of the less familiar creatures are.

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

Wildspire Miniatures Bandits and Oozes

This is the final batch of the Wildspire minis for now, I'm saving the giant for something a little different. 

The final lot (apart from that giant)

Bandits

Firstly, yes, awful mould lines. I confess I'd got a bit complacent regarding mould lines and model clean up. Perhaps, also, I was rushing as I got towards the end of the box.

Once I started painting I realised just how obvious they are, particularly on the right hand.

If the colour scheme looks vaguely familiar, I based it on the Cultists. I even gave them red bandanas, though this was a nod to the Redcloak bandits in the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure; the fact that the Cultists' hoods are also red is a happy accident (or is it something more sinister?).

They are good minis (or would be with proper prep), looking suitably furtive; actually I think they look more like they are picking pockets rather than demanding money with threats. Detail is certainly better for painting than the Unholy Knights.

The bandits - watch your pockets

Ooze

If you check the Monster Manual you'll find Gray (sic) Ooze, and Green Slime is a hazard in the Dungeon Master's Guide. No Green Ooze though. 

However, Wildspire's stats make it clear that the Green Ooze is simply a recoloured Grey Ooze.

Lovely though the translucent green is, I'm far more likely to want a Grey Ooze or four, so I decided to paint two as Green Oozes and two as Grey Oozes.

Green Ooze 

The painting was pretty much the same as the Acid Elemental. I tried to be a bit more careful with the wash.

Green Ooze

Grey Ooze 

The Ooze was base coated with Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal Gray, then I added a few brown blotches (they are supposed to blend in with stonework). The whole lot was drybrushed with VGC Cold Grey and Stonewall Gray.  I think the hints of brown make them a bit more interesting.

And Grey Ooze

Once matt varnished I used Vallejo Gloss Varnish on all the oozes to make them look wet.

These are really good minis, possibly with more detail than the subject merits.

There's a nice bit of detail on the underside of the head? pseudopod? tentacle? Some sort of mouth possibly. Maybe for feeding? It's not obvious from the above picture, so here's an upside down close up.

Detail on the underside

So that's it, apart from the giant, which I've already started painting (probably for Kings of War).

These have been a fun project, and are a great addition to my RPG minis. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well I've kept focused on the project. This is probably because there was a lot of variety in the set, and sticking to just four minis at a time kept up the impetus. 

I'll post a summary of my thoughts on the set, and also look at the rest of the range shortly. I just want to get a group photo done. 

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

Wildspire Summary

Wildspire Miniatures Gas Serpent, Imp Hulk, Unholy Knight

Another batch of three different sculpts, and we're nearing the end of the set.

Eleven more minis

Gas serpent

There are only three of these in the set. Why? I've no idea. 

Still, they look nice, and should be fairly easy minis to paint. 

When I painted the Air Elemental I thought the same technique would work fine for these. However, after checking the free PDF, (and realising they are called Gas Serpents, not Vapour Serpents) I wanted something close to a turquoise-ish colour, but still preserving their translucent nature.

As an experiment I tried Army Painter Speedpaint Prismatic Bolt. The serpents have wispy vapour trailing off them, and I wanted this to look a bit different.  So I gave the snakes themselves a coat of the Prismatic Bolt and finished off with the Vallejo Game Wash Pale Gray for the vapour. 

The bases were finished off with Vallejo Game Color Cold Gray.

Gas Serpents, bound to be useful somewhere

Imp Hulks

Next up were the four Imps, or rather Imp Hulks, explaining the bigger size. 

I went for red skin here to match the Monster Manual imp. 

Over a prime (I used Vallejo Surface Primer German Green Brown, but it doesn't really matter what colour, though perhaps not black) I painted a base coat of Vallejo Extra Opaque Dark Red mixed with a bit of black for a really dark red. This was then drybrushed with VGC Red Gore, then Blood Red, Flaming Orange and finally Hot Orange.

Final details were an opportunity to add some extra spot colours, so yellow eyes, grey claws and a poisonous looking green on the stinger on the tail (love that VMC Livery Green).

The drybrushing did get a bit tedious, but the worst part by far was painting the base while trying not to get grey on the imp (not always successfully).

Imp Hulks

Unholy Knights 

I've been looking forward to painting these since I first saw them, they look suitably impressive foes.

After priming I painted all the metals in VGC Chainmail Silver.

Then I did the cloak; black of course, starting with black and then shading up with VEO Charcoal.

The armour and cloak were washed with Vallejo Game Wash Black, which I keep forgetting is a bit too good at covering detail, especially when that detail is rather shallow. I tried to bring back some of the highlights with Silver 

I took the opportunity to vary the colours on the other bits of fabric to help with identification on the tabletop. Then I picked out a few ornamental bits on the armour and sword in VGC Tinny Tin, Brazen Bronze and finally Shining Gold.

The skull was painted pretty much the same as my old school skeletons. There isn't really much detail on the hands, so I painted them as leather gauntlets.  But that looked dull, so I dotted in some VGC Bonewhite and White to give the impression of fingers. It's not my neatest, but it doesn't look too bad.

The whole lot got a wash with Marine Juice, which pretty much covered the highlights on the cloak, so that got another drybrush with Charcoal Gray to bring them back.

I found the Knights less fun than I thought. I was continually frustrated by the lack of detail, so my usual base coat - highlights - wash technique wasn't that effective.

Still, they're done and they're ok. I'll probably use them as Wights or perhaps some sort of undead boss monster.

Unholy Knights

So another batch done, and relatively quickly too.

The collection is growing nicely and I'm very pleased with my progress.

What's Next?

Well, only nine left. I'll get the remaining Medium sized minis done soon and I have plans regarding the giant so I'm saving her for later.

I do have a summary post looking at the whole set and the others available coming soon.

Not many left

I'd also like to get a bit more scenery done to take advantage of Dave Stone's Season of Scenery challenge.

And there's my Undead to return to.

And I'd like to do some more Kings of War stuff too.

I'm not short of options.

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant