Skargutz's Boyz

OK! So, now the boring preamble is out the way - phew! - we can cut to the chase: the ladz. 

As I mentioned before, I went for Savage Orc boyz to start with; partly this was born out of nostalgia for a previous greenskin army, but also I have an empathy for wild berserkers that cover themselves in facepaint. Indeed, it's a good thing that my time frequenting the Scottish Claymores games predated facebook. 

"Historically inaccurate", you say? "FREEEEEEEEDOM!", I retort.

So I took my savage orcs home, dug out my clippers, unscrewed the poly-cement, opened the box, and reveled in the joy that is multipart plastics. I love 'em. I know some people prefer lead, or tin, or white-metal (or, nowadays, resin), but I've always loved multipart plastics. I think it may be early memories of airfix kits and weird knock-off Gundam mechas, as well as the ability to give your models character. 

That comes from the sheer variety on offer. There may only be, essentially, two different body poses, but with the different arms, weapons, heads and accessories, there's lots of options.

Ah.

Options. 

Right, I have to make decisions before I get to stick 'em together, don't I. Bugger. 

As I haven't picked up the army book yet, or indeed the rulebook (coming soon - Baz tells me 8th edition has some significant changes in it) I'm going on historical information and the collective wisdom of the internet. Neither especially reliable. Then again, I'm building an orc and goblin army, so that goes with the territory. I did find this blog to be a really useful source of advice, and I expect I'll be visiting it quite often!

Now, Savage Orcs get frenzy - it's part of their charm - giving them 2 attacks. Not bad. I recall that popular options in the past for them were spears, as in previous editions, that allowed you to attack with a second rank, giving you even more attacks if you were charged. However, some rudimentary investigation implies that things are more complicated now. 

The other popular option was additional hand weapons, giving the models - you guessed it - yet another attack. Quite aside from the tabletop benefit of Orcs doling out 3 attacks each, the image of these maddened, frenzied orcs flailing around like maniacs with both hands is just too awesome, so additional hand weapons it is. 

My first unit - Savage Orc Boyz with additional hand weapons

Now, as I mentioned before, what I love about good multipart plastics, is the ability to build character, as well as choose effective combos, aka being beardy - long story. Now, unlike my beardy mate Andy, I'm not ready to start thinking about army generals yet. I'm not sure if I'm going for an all primitive army (savage orcs and forest goblins), an all orc army (no stinkin' gobbos!), or a more balanced Waaagh. I'm expecting to go balanced, just because that will give me more options, but we'll see.

But a unit needs a champion - or Boss, in orcy terms - and this unit was no exception. The champion model has an exposed torso, and the name "Skargutz" just popped into my head. So, I whipped out the modelling knife, and scarred his guts.

Someone's been in a tussle with Hugh Jackman...

I realised that three thin scores wouldn't actually make any difference once sprayed, painted and varnished, so I actually cut out thin slivers from his body. Hopefully they'll give it some definition when I paint it. 

In terms of back-story, I'm thinking that given orcs resolve their disputes physically, maybe Skargutz got his scars in a leadership bid. Possibly he'll have received them from whichever suitably impressive orc I end up using as a warboss. 

Something else I noticed in the box was the prevalence of jawbones, both in the weaponry of the orcs, and also in their accessories. Skargutz has an extended mandible tusk rig, and some of the others do too:

Skargutz, musician and unnamed accomplice

Now the exaggerated square jaw and protruding tusk has long been a staple both of orcy faces and their iconography. See exhibits A through C:

Evil Suns orc tribe

Old orc icon

Waaagh etc.

So I'm intending to use that iconography throughout the army, and in the case of Skargutz's boyz, I'm thinking about having those orcs without enhanced mandibles to have their warpaint along the jawbone. I'm not sure where, or how exactly, and it may look guff, but we'll see.

I'm also toying with colour ideas for warpaint. Blue is, I feel, a little too obvious. Been there, done that. Red could work, but I'm currently leaning towards white. That would tie with the bone / tusk motif quite nicely, though I'm not sure how well they'll stand out on green.

This chap has done some lovely warpaint, but there's no way I've got the patience (or steady hand) for that! 

Whereas this chap has done some minimalist warpaint, and it looks good.

So, decisions to be made. I plan to pick up paints and brushes tomorrow, so I should have one painted sometime next week. Think I'll paint a basic boy first, rather than starting with the command models. If it looks bad, he can be a back-ranker.

Until the next update...