Recently a few people have asked me what minis we use for 15mm KoW. The answer depends on the army, of course, but there is now a reasonable range available. The more 'niche' and Mantic specific armies don't tend to be covered, but pretty much everything else is. Personally I use Essex for most historically based armies, such as the human troops in the League, and I'll look at their earlier Medieval ranges if and when I do a Brotherhood force. Their halflings are good too.
Both Magister Militum and Ral Partha Demonworld do very nice 15mm fantasy, and there are many more. If you want to know more, check out the 15mm Fantasy facebook group.
With one exception, or so I thought. Having been awed by the sheer number of attacks Ross' hordes of ogres could put out for a small frontage (especially deadly two against one vs orc hordes) I was thinking about getting some for 15mm, but I couldn't find a range that nicely covered the options in the army list. Then I literally stumbled over the answer.
Many years ago Merlin and I discovered the Caesar Miniatures range of 1/72, or roughly 20mm, historical figures and collected quite a few of their ancients range for Warhammer Ancient Battles. I still have a half painted Assyrian army, and quite a few Greeks. Then Caesar brought out a fantasy range, and it would have been rude not to get any.
Of course, it was an impulse purchase, or purchases, as we never really got round to doing anything with them. I had quite a collection of the goblins and orcs boxes, about a third painted, but since I had O&G in 28mm and 15mm they just got boxed and buried, until I knocked the box over.
I didn't see orcs, I saw Ogres. 20mm orcs would make great ogres.
I had two or three boxes worth, some painted with green skins, so I set out to see how well they covered the army list. Pretty well it turns out. There are some options not covered, but I knew that Caesar had done a second set of orcs, so I ordered one of those to bulk out and add variety.
I began with a test unit of the least armoured of the orcs. They would do as the Berserker braves. One of the sculpts has two weapons, a club and an axe, the other has a spiked club. In the past I carefully cut off one weapon from the dual wielder, along with the fancy top-knot off most of them.
Ha, a quick read of the KoW list suggests that the berserker braves have two weapons. I might do some pinning later. I had originally planned to save one of the top-knotted minis as a shaman, or Warlock for the KoW ogre list, but when set two arrived it has a far nicer warlock mini. In fact the whole set is generally nicer. The figures are in some respects cruder; the first set has a much smoother finish, but the second set has far better detail, down to wrist bands with teeth in them. The only thing that isn't so great is the prominence of the mould lines.
As I wanted to add extra weapons to the berserker braves I went straight on to a horde of warriors and a couple of heroes (Warlord and Warlock). Here they are, painted and based but awaiting texture and varnish. I have plans to add a little something to the base to emphasise the scale.
To help me remember, here is my ogre flesh recipe. I deliberately went for reddish skin tones to link them to Mantic's official ogres.
Base coat VGC Terracotta, wash AP Dark Tone, highlight with base colour then up through Gory Red to Blood Red, extreme highlights Fiery Orange.
Of course this doesn't quite cover all the army list entries. I'll have to do some conversion work for the hunters and for both missile types, and there aren't any red goblins, but plenty of manufacturers do goblins (see above). It's just a matter of choosing a make, and selling a bit of stuff on eBay to fund them.
You may well ask why I need another army? Well I currently only have one workable KoW army in 15mm, and I like to have two so I can get people playing. I am gradually working on Varangur, basing the 'normal' troops on my Scythians, but it seems to be a slow process, especially as I am unsure what to use for many of the units.
Ogres are ideal as the second army as they are relatively few in number, and being neutral, can fight with or against any other army.
Both Magister Militum and Ral Partha Demonworld do very nice 15mm fantasy, and there are many more. If you want to know more, check out the 15mm Fantasy facebook group.
With one exception, or so I thought. Having been awed by the sheer number of attacks Ross' hordes of ogres could put out for a small frontage (especially deadly two against one vs orc hordes) I was thinking about getting some for 15mm, but I couldn't find a range that nicely covered the options in the army list. Then I literally stumbled over the answer.
Many years ago Merlin and I discovered the Caesar Miniatures range of 1/72, or roughly 20mm, historical figures and collected quite a few of their ancients range for Warhammer Ancient Battles. I still have a half painted Assyrian army, and quite a few Greeks. Then Caesar brought out a fantasy range, and it would have been rude not to get any.
Caesar miniatures first box of orcs (random image form internet)
Of course, it was an impulse purchase, or purchases, as we never really got round to doing anything with them. I had quite a collection of the goblins and orcs boxes, about a third painted, but since I had O&G in 28mm and 15mm they just got boxed and buried, until I knocked the box over.
I didn't see orcs, I saw Ogres. 20mm orcs would make great ogres.
I had two or three boxes worth, some painted with green skins, so I set out to see how well they covered the army list. Pretty well it turns out. There are some options not covered, but I knew that Caesar had done a second set of orcs, so I ordered one of those to bulk out and add variety.
I began with a test unit of the least armoured of the orcs. They would do as the Berserker braves. One of the sculpts has two weapons, a club and an axe, the other has a spiked club. In the past I carefully cut off one weapon from the dual wielder, along with the fancy top-knot off most of them.
Ha, a quick read of the KoW list suggests that the berserker braves have two weapons. I might do some pinning later. I had originally planned to save one of the top-knotted minis as a shaman, or Warlock for the KoW ogre list, but when set two arrived it has a far nicer warlock mini. In fact the whole set is generally nicer. The figures are in some respects cruder; the first set has a much smoother finish, but the second set has far better detail, down to wrist bands with teeth in them. The only thing that isn't so great is the prominence of the mould lines.
As I wanted to add extra weapons to the berserker braves I went straight on to a horde of warriors and a couple of heroes (Warlord and Warlock). Here they are, painted and based but awaiting texture and varnish. I have plans to add a little something to the base to emphasise the scale.
A horde of Ogre warriors
Ogres facing humans. They look suitably large
Ogre warlock and warlord
Base coat VGC Terracotta, wash AP Dark Tone, highlight with base colour then up through Gory Red to Blood Red, extreme highlights Fiery Orange.
Of course this doesn't quite cover all the army list entries. I'll have to do some conversion work for the hunters and for both missile types, and there aren't any red goblins, but plenty of manufacturers do goblins (see above). It's just a matter of choosing a make, and selling a bit of stuff on eBay to fund them.
You may well ask why I need another army? Well I currently only have one workable KoW army in 15mm, and I like to have two so I can get people playing. I am gradually working on Varangur, basing the 'normal' troops on my Scythians, but it seems to be a slow process, especially as I am unsure what to use for many of the units.
Ogres are ideal as the second army as they are relatively few in number, and being neutral, can fight with or against any other army.
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