Orctober – A squad of Citadel Orcs

Today I finished my squad of orc warriors for Azazel’s Orktober Unit/Squad Challenge.

These figures are all Citadel/Warhammer from a couple of decades ago. 6 typical orc warriors with swords and 4 orc “bigguns” with sword and shield. Plus a single goblin spearman as a mascot. The goblin got missed when I did my earlier group of goblins because he’s a different sculpt and the only one of his type I have.

 

Following my research on orcs in RPG’s I started these guys off differently to my previous orcs. I mixed a mid grey with flesh to paint their skin and was very happy with the way they looked. I’m inclined to do the same in future, with perhaps a little more grey.

 

I used the same fushia for pants, brown for boots and red belts to match up with the previous group of orcs. The standard warriors have a similar (but not the same) brown shirt to the previous warriors. All have a green tint (Army painter ink, green tone) over gunmetal for their metal shoulder plates, to tie them in with the two orc champions that I’ve previously painted.

 

 

I spent a bit more time and effort on these compared to the previous orcs and goblins – mostly because they are slightly more detailed sculpts. I’ll also be away for two weeks near the end of the month and don’t expect to get anything else painted before I leave. I don’t really feel like starting anything else, but there’s 14 kobolds on my desk (mostly reaper bones) that I’m thinking of at least giving a base colour to.

 

 

Painting – GW Orcs finished

This took me a bit longer than planned, mostly because I got sidetracked by non-painting activities.

These are all Games Workshop/Citadel plastic figures, most of which I purchased to use with Warhammer Quest. The orc warriors are from the Hero Quest game. (Pictures can be clicked on for enlargement.)

1 black orc champion

7 orc archers

8 orc warriors – 2 with flails, 2 with cleavers and 4 with scimitars.

Like with my goblins, one of the orcs broke his sword in combat. The original sword is long-gone and the only bits I had to try and replace it with were too small. So I just trimmed it and he can hold his fist up in a threatening gesture.

I’d originally painted the orcs in flesh tones, generally darker flesh than I use for most humanoids, not green since I use most figures for D&D not Warhammer. I got sidetracked looking at different Orcs in RPGs and realised that my ideas of orc-flesh were closer to what 1st edition D&D had described, and weren’t “current” compared to recent editions. I’m not going with greyish skin, but they all did get a black ink over the top to darken their skin!

Each group is painted in almost identical fashion – the orc archers have different coloured pouches as contrast. Unlike the goblins, these guys are meant to look like a unit. While the archers have mostly yellows and greens, the warriors are mostly browns. I did use a dark fushia on nearly every figures pants (more obvious on the warriors), red for belts, and the same brown for boots. I have the same fushia and red on the champion too.

I’d previous painted a metal dark orc champion, and used the same green ink on gunmetal for the bulk of the armour to tie the two together. I’m also trying out taking photos here with a new phone. It seems to pick up the lighting better, so the images are as dark as with my previous phone (and my digital camera). Having loaded the photo, I note that I forgot to silver dry brush the champions chainmail!

EDIT: “Would you believe…” I’ve just brought all the figures in from a wonderful sunny afternoon. They have been outside drying after two coats of clear acrylic… and I found the missing orc sword! (Oh well, into the bits box.)

 

Goblins and Orcs

My megadungeon writing has reached the extent now that I’ve got plenty to keep the players busy exploring. We’ve talked about starting play in the “near” future, and with that in mind I thought it would be good to have some painted goblins.

I’ve got a bunch of goblin and orc figures – they are all Citadel from Warhammer, Warhammer Quest and Hero Quest. They have seen a lot of use over the years, but none (except one I did in 2016) have been painted. I’m going to need a few goblins in our first PF/D&D FalsKrag session, and likely more at other times as well as some orcs later on. This seems as good a reason as any to get me painting again.

It’s also the second half of the year, the weather in southern Australia is generally getting warmer, and if I want to paint at least as many figures this year as last I’ve got to get moving. I’m certainly not aiming for an average of 1 figure per day (I still can’t believe Azazel is managing that on top of work, gaming, etc) but I like the idea of 100 figures that I was aiming for last year.

Not the best photo. (Click for larger) I’ll take better quality shots once they’re done!

Last weekend gave me two relatively warm and sunny days, so I got out and sprayed 41 figures. Then got to clean up mold lines, etc and gave them another undercoat spray. This weekend I’ve been painting flesh. Since most of these figures are groups (or units) of four to eight identical (or almost identical) minis, I’m hoping that I can paint them faster than all the single unique figures that I usually find myself working on.

I’m planning a fairly uniform colour scheme for the orcs (pun intended) – they all wear chain mail with jackets and pants, except for the orc (? – where’s my rulebooks and WHQ notes?) leader. With the goblins I want more variety. I don’t see goblins as an organised military force, so I think I’ll stick with a limited range of colours, but there should be more individuality between the same type of figure.

 

Just got sidetracked trying to work out what the orc champion actually is. He’s an early plastic slotta-base figure. I’m positive he’s a ‘black orc champion’ from the horns, but I can’t find the same figure on the net. Enough procrastination… time to paint more faces before dinner and “The Terror” (TV series).

Zombicide: BP – Painting Survivors #3

Photographed yesterday, but painting completed late August or early September!

 

Front view

From left to right:

Lady Grimm (by Special Guest, Mark Simonetti), Milo (by Special Guest, Naiade), Piper (Isabeau, played by Michelle Pfeiffer in “Ladyhawke”).

Rear View

Like the previous Zombicide figures, I’ve tried to keep colours close to that on their cards. Lady Grimm’s cloak, under-tunic (?) and hair got brightened up a bit, and I’ve left out the scar and odd left eye. I wasn’t likely to paint a scar as fine as that shown in the images, and making her more ‘normal’ looking makes the figure more useful. (My wife is currently using her in our new Pathfinder game, mostly because of the warhammer!)

Milo’s changes are his hair – red, not black or dark brown – and the blue band on his hat. (I wanted a bit more colour.) Piper was a simple paint scheme and finished quickly as a result. If there’s any difference from her card image, it’s that her skin isn’t bright and clean!

I’ve nearly finished painting ‘Klom’ and I’ve also got started on a few dwarves.

 

 

 

Zombicide: BP – Painting Survivors #2

Morgan – Merlin (Nicol Williamson) from the movie “Excalibur” (1981).

Bob – Tim the Enchanter (John Cleese) from the movie “Monty Python & The Holy Grail”.

Baldric – Original Black Plague set.

Karl – Black Plague, Wulfsburg expansion.

 

 

Another four survivors finished. Mostly straightforward painting with these, except that both Baldric and Karl have a number of items hanging from their belts. I did spend some extra time doing some extra shading on the cloaks/robes that they all wear in addition to using ink.

 

 

I hadn’t realised (until I was going to paint the figure) that Karl wears a wolf-skin across his back. I suppose I hadn’t looked closely at the card image (or the figure) until this last week. My previous wolf painting was good preparation!

Three are straight magic skill characters – thus orange bases. Karl does have two “Combat Action” skills, but with +1 die Magic and Spellcaster as skills, I think it more likely the character will be used with magic than melee or ranged. Morgan has three distinct magic skills, but he starts with +1 die Combat at blue, and has melee choices at orange and red. As a result he’s got a dual colour base (orange/blue) to signify his playability as either magic or melee, or a combination of the two.

 

I’ve been taking photos with my phone for a while – mostly because it’s easier to use. I haven’t been particularly happy with the quality of the pics though, so today I found batteries for my camera and used that. I think they are much better, so it looks like camera again in future.

EDIT: I watched Excaliber during the week.  (Mostly to show my wife the story of Arthur, since watching ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ earlier this month didn’t explain anything.) As a result I’ve just repainted ‘Morgan’s’ skullcap to silver (like Merlin in the movie) and I think it looks much better!

Zombicide: BP The Abominotaur!

I finished this figure last weekend, which is much too long after I started it. I could have finished it to a better standard, but after all this time I just wanted it done!

Originally, I base coated the figure with burnt sienna, but that looked rather more orange than mid brown. After putting some different colour on various parts (mouth, horns, claws, etc) I went over the skin with a better brown, did a bit of highlighting to claws, horns and the tumors/lumps on his back and arm. I inked it next to get some dark shading in skin folds, etc, but it didn’t work as planned – the overall brown darkened more than I’d expected and I ended up with very little ink sitting where I wanted it.

This meant a lot more highlighting to lighten raised skin/ridges. Then I did more detail/highlighting, particularly on the swollen arm. Finally teeth, eyes, some touch ups to claws and hooves, and copper on the chain belt. Gun metal on the metal/armour plates and a little black ink on most of those. Some darker brown in grooves or behind other pieces that stuck out to hide bits of the base coat that hadn’t been covered, etc. Fluoro yellow in the eye sockets and some bright red on the eyes over that.

Abominotaur – left side

Abominotaur – right side

The weather was good today, so he got spray varnished this morning and left out to dry. I’ll probably give him another quick spray coat tomorrow.

There’s nice detail on the figure and it wasn’t a hard paint… just time consuming when my ideas didn’t match what actually happened during painting. I’m very pleased to have finally finished all my Zombicide Abominations now!

 

Zombicide BP: The Abominalpha

I finished painting the Abominalpha about three weeks ago and had hoped to finish the minotaur as well and post both of them. The minotaur is nearly done, but light was good this morning so I finally got some pics of the Alpha! The photos came up really well and show the colour and detail as I see the figure, with the only exception being that the claws are slightly darker (and flecked with black) in RL.

A long, hot and humid summer in Melbourne meant I really didn’t feel like painting for most of Feb/March and only got back to the last two Abominations in April. I really like the Alpha figure – good sculpting and lots of detail. It wasn’t until I started painting and paying a lot of attention to the box pamphlet image that I realised he’s wearing human skin – there’s two feet hanging down at the front!

 

Abominalpha – front

I started with a mid grey base coat, rather like my Wolf Abominations, and a dark blue-grey on the arms and back of the head with the longer ‘fur’. A little dark brown ink (or black – I can’t remember now) for shading. A mix of yellows and light browns for the skins, and some brown ink for detail. Then lots of white dry brushing all over – I like the white fur of the original image – and over the grey I feel the shading/highlight has worked really well. I wanted a dark constrast with the horns and thought black wouldn’t show the detail there, and tried red over the gray base-coat. This looked good and got some black paint that sits in most of the grooves. I’d had a few ideas for the claws that didn’t seem to work and after the way the horns worked, decided to do all the claws the same way.

 

Abominalpha – rear

I could have done some more work on the skins, but I’m happy with the look I have. I would have liked to do more with the shrunken heads, but anything better is beyond my current ability. Look at this site to see what someone has produced – I don’t know if their heads had better detail, or they have steadier hands to create the detail and better painting skills! (Probably the latter from looking at the claws.)

I might take him out this afternoon for another coat of spray varnish while the weather’s nice!

 

2016: The Year of Zombicide!

Looking back over 2016, I note that I painted from scratch about half as many figures as the year before (27 compared to 60). But it’s easy to see what I did spend a lot of time on – Zombicide: Black Plague! I spent more time playing Zombicide than any of my usual RPGs, or any other game. My game review of Z:BP was my most seen post, with 771 views (8 times as popular as the 2nd place comer) Of the figures I did paint – 12 were from Zombicide.

On New Year’s Eve, I ran my third playtest of Gamma World 4.5 (my d20 rule set is pretty much complete now) and played two games of Zombicide!

2016 was a pretty good year for the blog. Compared to 2015, I tripled my number of visitors (3041 views, 2045 visitors from 67 countries!) I had a lot of fun – revisiting old game systems that I hadn’t looked at for a decade or more (MERP, Gamma World), finishing a major part of the D&D campaign I run, and starting a Greyhawk/Pathfinder project for Hero Lab.

This year has started off with me enjoying my annual leave break (but I go back to work tomorrow) and I’ve spent a lot of it playing World of Warcraft, some more Zombicide, and a lot of sleeping in. I’ve been reading through the “Sword of Truth” series by Terry Goodking (in book four now) and had a couple of sessions of Pathfinder.

 

 

Yesterday I finished my first miniature painting of the year – the Abominatroll from Zombicide: Black Plague.

 

He was enjoyable to paint. Mostly a dark green base coat, some brown paint and dark tone ink for give some depth and shading, then a lighter “field grey” (more dull green than any grey) for highlighting. Touches of yellow, pink, red, white etc for various detail. Mostly flesh and white, then brown ink for finger & toe nails, with a distict “light olive” for the lumps. It’s a bit brighter in colour than the images make it look.

 

I still have the minotaur and wolf alpha to go – then I hope to get onto painting heroes/survivors!

 

Zombicide: Black Plague – Painting Abominations (Part one)

It’s taken me a week (multiple attempts, time and lighting) to get a good set of photographs. The painting itself was over three or four weeks and has been some of the most enjoyable miniature painting that I’ve done. The largest figure is about 90mm high, making a wonderful change from trying to get detail on something like a 20mm halfling. I had a good idea of colour schemes for these figures – mostly following the published images/cards/rulebook. Most of them got used in a game before I’d finished everything and they’ve had plenty of favourable comments from friends over the last month. They’ve all had two solid coats of clear acrylic since I expect to continue playing Zombicide fairly often – and the figures get a lot of handling.

 

“A dire rat can grow up to 4 feet long…” (D&D 3.5 Monster Manual) By scale, this guy stands 13 feet high.

The first figure I really started with was the Abominarat and I had a ball! If I had spent that much time on anything previously I would have been really tired of the painting and just wanted to finish and get it out of the way.

I started with a base coat of flesh, then started building up the fur and trying a few different colours to bring out the skin folds, spikes, lumps, etc. Brown ink shading (I’m so happy to have been introduced to Army Painter Quickshade – thanks Azazel) darkened everything and brought out some of the detail. I slightly prefer the lighter flesh tones on most of the rat that I had before the quickshade, but to highlight most of the skin back to something lighter was too much work. I highlighted some of the fur and went on with pinks and yellows for all the growths, then spikes, teeth, eyes, etc. The ‘rat was impressive on the game board simply because of it’s size – with colour it really stands out now – as do the other abominations.

 

Abominarat – Rear view

 

Side view… I don’t think he has a “good” side.

 

As well as looking through my rulebooks & leaflets, I spent some time browsing the internet to see what other people had done and watched some YouTube painting video’s. There’s some very good stuff around. I’ve kept images of most of the abominations, necromancers and survivors to use as a guide. It’s easier to load an image on a screen than be peering at a card while painting.

 

You really don’t want both of these on the board at once…

I thought the wolfbominations (I’ve got two) might be easier to paint than most of the other minis so they came next. One wolf was base coated in light grey (mid grey fur) and the other in mid grey (dark brown/black fur) – and that’s most of the work done. White on ribs and teeth, a dark pink/red for exposed flesh and around the mouth, touched up after ink shading with bright red. A little bit of highlighting on the limbs, black on nose and claws and fluoro orange in the eyes. A little extra red for blood near teeth and on the raised claw.

 

Side and rear view

They came out very well, and I’ll use the same principles to paint all 24 of my wolfz later. They are already undercoated, and will be good to see how I go with a large group of multiple similar figures. I’m considering three base colours – light grey, mid grey and light brown. I don’t plan on painting all the general zombies (walkers, runners, fatties) but the wolf abominations were fairly quick and the zombie wolfz should be too. Plus, I don’t have any wolf figures in my general D&D miniatures collection and if I don’t paint the exposed flesh of some of the wolfz they can double as normal wolves in other games.

 

Now when they turn around, everyone hide!

 

Next post: standard abominations and the blob.

Painting: Citadel Dwarven Trollslayers

It’s nice when free time, good weather and the desire to paint can all happen at the same time! I completed this pair of dwarves yesterday and they are outside drying after a spray coat of varnish. This now means I’ve reached having about 99% of my hero/adventurer figures (human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling) painted. It leaves a lot of “monster” humanoids to go.

 

A pair of troll-slayers ready for battle!

 

I bought these two together in a blister pack to use in Warhammer Quest a long time ago. (One of Azazel’s posts dates them to the early 90’s.) They are Citadel warhammer metal figures and they have a nice pose and reasonable detail. I didn’t go for anything fancy, just simple colours.

 

Dwarves – about face!

 

My next painting project is Zombicide – Black Plague. I’d undercoated a bunch of figures a month or two ago. While I didn’t get to start painting, the white has helped the necromancers stand out on the game board from the general zombies. I started painting flesh last night and should do more today. I’m aiming to paint the necromancers and the full range of abominations. Later, I’ll also start to paint the survivors.

 

I don’t want to see all of these on the board at the same time!

 

After painting my black orc recently, I really would like to paint a set of orcs. While unlikely to see use as army units, they do get used as NPC’s and in small groups in my D&D games. I’m sure that all my orcs (about thirty) are Citadel Warhammer figures, from a few different sets over a short space of years. There’s some variety of pose and equipment, but they have a uniform look. I really like the idea of painting a group of miniatures all with a very similar (or the same) colour scheme – as opposed to the very different work that all my unique heroes and adventurers have required.