OCTOBER - Restore or Start Again?

One of the main reasons for choosing 6mm orcs for an Orctober project was that I have a lot already painted (loads unpainted as well, of course) and I wanted them to have a purpose. Now these were done many many years ago. I can't remember when, exactly, but Bodvoc and I collected the 6mm Irregular Fantasy range way back in the late eighties or early nineties.  We adapted a set of 6mm SF rules from a wargaming magazine.  I still have a copy of our rules, but as I recall, they never quite worked.  We spent so much time play-testing them and altering them, that we never got round to actually just playing and enjoying them.

Our rules worked around using the 5 minis wide strips that Irregular Miniatures were making at the time.  So my orcs were painted up as the strips.  At some point later I must have experimented with using them for Hordes of the Things, because quite a few of them are stuck randomly on card bases that match that system.

Later still, Bodvoc and myself used 6mm for some battles using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargaming.  I started afresh with these, painting up a goblin army that will, one day, be rebased for Fantastic Battle (probably).

Rescuing The Old Orcs

The orcs are painted very much in the style of the time, check out the photo on my initial Orctober post to get some idea.  I undercoated everything in Goblin Green, then just added a few details for weapons, shields etc. I'd like them to look a bit more like my current style.  I think I've done a better job in 6mm with my dwarves, but do I want to start again with the orcs? 

Not if I can save something from the paint jobs the orcs already have.  

Time for some experimenting.  I've stuck fifteen orcs of various kinds on to a lolly stick to see what I can do.

A Wash and (Dry) Brush Up?

The first experiment was giving the orcs a wash of equal parts Army Painter Strong Tone and Dark Tone.  This shades the minis and tones down that garish eighties orc skin. 

 

The test orcs after a wash

They already look better, but can I do anything more?  Despite the wash they still look a bit 'flat'.

When I painted my dwarves I realised that just a small amount of extreme highlighting made a big difference at this scale.  This is the essence of my method for mass painting most minis these days, just taken to the max.

I tried drybrushing to pick out details, but it didn't work very well in 6mm, its too easy to obscure the detail I want to accentuate.

But very careful application of a few highlights works much better.  There's more control, and it allows me to change some of the colour choices I made all those years ago.  I don't need to add much to really make them 'pop'.

The test orcs after highlighting

I'm happy with how they look now.  Perhaps not quite how I'd paint them if I were starting from scratch, but certainly good enough, and, importantly, I've shown that they are worth saving.

they'll get a wash (the usual Army Painter Soft Tone/Strong Tone mix) before being based.  I'll add a few bow armed orcs in the mix as irregular troops in Fantastic Battles have some short range missile attacks.

Now on with the rest of them.

Unit Identity

Previously I'd tried to give the orcs shields with unit symbols on them.  You may notice crossed bones and a blue moon among other shields in the photo earlier (and if you look carefully above after the wash).  Now I'm not going to copy the shields I've used on the Orc's Drift tribes, but a variety of different shield colours across a unit does give a pleasingly random look to the horde, which is what I'm after now.

#ORCTOBER