Fangor Gripe and friends

 These are three retouched orcs finished today. I originally painted Fangor Gripe, the cyclops-orc, seven years ago: you can see him here. The early photos flatter the old paintjob; he looks a lot better now in the 'flesh' and considerably less washed out. My previous post shows the female orc on his left; the orc chieftain on his right was first painted around 1991 and is also shown in that post in his decades-old state. 

Fangor is a classic from the first Citadel range of slottabased orcs. These are among my favourite miniatures. 

The chieftain with sword and flail is an earlier Fantasy Tribe orc. His sword was broken when I acquired the figure in the late 80s or early 90s, and I replaced it with one that might have been cut down from a bit of scrap or something. The Fantasy Tribe orcs followed the AD&D Monster Manual in the weapons they =carried. 

Improving a decades-old paintjob to start 2026

This is an old Citadel armoured orc from the early 80s. It appears to be a female orc - a real rarity from Citadel - judging by the ample bosom beneath the hauberk (and perhaps the unusually long hair), although the head and most of the body were used for male orcs elsewhere in the range.

I painted this figure when I was a teenager, to form part of my first Hordes of the Things army. You can see her (?) below here:

Fairly recently, I rebased these orcs individually. I've decided to touch up their teenage paintwork a little bit. On the evidence of this morning, it doesn't take long - and I'm pleased with the results:

All I did was wash the flesh with Army Painter Strong Skin Shade, highlight the flesh a couple of times with magenta washes over the nose and lip beforehand, redo the eyes (I prefer glowing red eyes on my orcs as the one unifying factor in their otherwise disparate appearance) and add a few other highlights here and there.

I think there's an undeniable improvement from the paintwork of almost 35 years ago:

Next up is the fellow on the right!

 

Some Bob Olley orcs to round off 2025!

 Here are a couple of Bob Olley orcs from Essex to round off the year.

I love their almost fairy-tale vibe, with their huge heads and relatively short limbs.

They're also very chunky - they're huge compared with their Citadel peers from the 80s and are close to some 80s ogres in bulk.

Anyway, happy New Year when it comes!

Another starter warband: ratmen

 Here's another little warband destined for the same recipients as the orcs and dwarves in my previous post.

The plague monk serves as a sorcerer and leader for the band. 

Some starter warbands: orcs and dwarves

One thing I've done a fair bit of over the years is paint up some 'starter sets' for friends' kids - often by painting up a few extras when painting stuff for use with my own kids or other gaming friends. These little warbands are the seventh batch of this sort I've done, I think, using the same paint scheme as the eighth, which is a Hordes of the Things set for the Battle of the Five Armies.

I put together these warbands for use with Echidna Games' Fantasy Forces. In the past, I've accompanied rules with Ganesha Games' Song of Blades and Heroes, but this time, I went for something simpler (Song of Blades would be the natural progression).

The dwarves are from EM4, with a leader converted with some Oathmark and Frostgrave parts.

These, and their Nick Lund metal counterparts, are my favourite dwarf miniatures - especially (barring the crossbows) for Middle-earth.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

A kitbashed orc wizard for Frostgrave

 

Here's a kitbashed wizard to replace the orc leader from my previous post for Frostgrave. This fellow is almost a straight build from a GW orc sprue, with a spearhead replaced with a skull and some Frostgrave cultist bits and bobs on his belt (round the back), along with a Skaven plague-monk scroll. 

His fellows are a repainted metal orc from the 80s and a marksman ktibashed from Frostgrave demon and Mantic goblin parts.

Orcs in Frostgrave: some old roots replanted

 I needed a Frostgrave warband in a hurry for Friday night, so I rapidly repainted bases of these old orcs to match the earthy tones on my current skirmish stuff. I also matt-varnished over their ageing gloss and touched up the odd thing here or there. The chap with the two cleavers made for a rather militant necromancer, with the whip-wielding hobgoblin as his ferocious apprentice. A couple of Descent undead dog-things filled out the ranks as war hounds. 

They looked the part, I thought, but proved rather less than fearsome on the table (aside from killing one of the other players' apprentices. As a result of a total wipeout and a failure to gain any treasure, they'll be taking to the field in round 2 with neither wizard nor apprentice, both of whom are badly wounded, and neither of the dogs, who are dead. So I'm looking through their decade-old pallid kin to procure some suitably low-rent thugs and thieves ...