Oldhammer Orc Archers

My latest unit is a collection of orcs with bows. Four of these are classic Kev Adams sculpts from Harboth's Orc Archers (one of the boxed Regiments of Renown) and are recent acquisitions from evilbay. The remaining orc is from GWs first range of Middle Earth miniatures, one of the Orcs of the White Hand. These predate the films and look more like Citadel's Warhammer orcs.  I had a small collection of this range when they came out and I stitched got most of them.  You can see a couple of the elves here.

The new unit of Archers (dum de dum de dum de dum)

There's not a lot to say about the painting, I used my standard orc painting method, but there's a little detail that may not be obvious at first sight.  The quivers on Harboth's lads all have faces on them.  I'm tempted to say that these are the remains of trophies, probably dwarves given the regiment's backstory. They are mostly hidden by the back-slung shield or other equipment, so I just gave them a leathery colour. I might lighten the colour on the two more visible quivers (Trooper 6) to look more like parchment or tanned skin.

Quiver on Trooper 2 (and 9). They even look to have a little bit of a fringe 

Quiver on Trooper 6.  Not a happy face

I stuck with the idea of the orcs taking trophy shields from defeated foes. This time the shields have a pale hand, partly in tribute to the White Hand orc who currently leads them. It also gave me the chance to reference a shield famous in Warhammer history, though I've chosen a left hand rather than a right hand. If I do another unit belonging to this tribe I can switch this round.

There are two duplicates in the unit, but by giving them different skin tones and different shields I hope that's not too obvious.

The White Hand orc

That classic shield

Trooper 6

And trooper 6 again

 

As usual I can say that I really enjoyed these. There are a couple of points that I'm not sure of though. 

I'm also not completely happy with the severed hand. Perhaps it should be bigger on the shields?

I've also given Trooper 2 and Trooper 9 liveried jacks, again taken from their enemies. This does make them look a bit regimented for orcs, perhaps I've gone too far? Let me know in the comments.

I have another five orcs with bows to paint, again including a Middle Earth orc, but also a couple of Marauder orcs.  I might move on to these, either as an expansion of the above unit, or a new unit in their own right.  Then again, I have some orcs with spears, and the heroes I showed in the previous post.