Sunday Night Bloodbowl

As mentioned last post, it's a new Bloodbowl season, and I'm fielding Orcs. Waaagh!

Andy Lawhammer - coach of the the Salzenmund Seahawks  is running things, and we kicked off on Sunday with a few friendlies. The New Orcland Hate-riots scored a 3-0 loss to the elven Laurelorn Lions - though we won on casualties! - and a hard fought 1-1 draw against the Rune Forged dwarves.

This spurred me on to paint up my ladz - albeit quickly - and here are the first batch: the heavy hitters:

#1 - Gurfang, Black Orc Blocker

#2 - Tufslab, Black Orc Blocker

#4 - Bloodjaw, Blitzer

#5 - Grimsnarl, Blitzer

Isn't it? Wasn't it? Standard.

The other day I posted about a couple of conversions I did for my army; given I'm playing Andrew B's shambling hordes on Monday, I figured I'd best pull my finger out and get on with the painting.

So I did.

LEADBELLY: Orc Battle Standard Bearer

Converted from the Avatar of War shaman model, with weapons and standards from the Orc sprues and armour and skulls from the undead sprue. I wanted him to stand out, and since red was the detail colour for my army, it made sense to do his cloak and standard in that colour. 

Given his rag-tag, mismatched armour, I decided to paint the banner as if it had been looted. So I painted it up with a black chevron, intentionally aping the design on the shield of my wolf rider musician. The idea being that Morthang's Waaagh have tangled with a Bretonnian army before, squishing some Knights Errant in the process. Then I slapped some orcy glyphs on top. The skull design has been repeated across my army, but I added a crude, stylised flaming sword, as he is Morthang Da Burna's standard bearer. 

I'm super-chuffed with how he turned out. He's virtually unrecognisable as the same model as my shaman Drogrot Gorkeye. 

I was concerned he'd look more similar from the rear, as the cloak has a lot of detail. It is amazing, though, the difference a paintjob makes. A shield slapped on, and a banner to draw the eye, combined with a lick of red paint and Gork's your uncle. 

Leadbelly from behind

I decided to "dirty up" the banner and his tattered red cloak. Initially I was going to use a brown wash (Agrax Earth Shade to the rescue) but it turned the glyphs a funny pink colour. Once that dried, and I redid the white glyphs, I opted for a drybrush of bown/black instead, and it worked really well. 

Once I put him in the unit, he looks even better, nicely offsetting the red of the shields. Here he is with the Orc Boyz unit "Da Red Skullz" and their boss Grak Skulltaker.

Leadbelly in situ with Da Red Skullz

 Finally, before I sign off, here's a shot of Leadbelly and Big Toof, my savage orc big boss. I did take a shot of Big Toof in Skargutz' Boyz, along with Drogrot the shaman, but Big Toof's sword is blocking Drogrot from the camera, so I'll try that again later.

Da Big Boss Men. Or rather orcs. 

Here's hoping the Ld boost and battle standard (which allows a reroll on all Ld tests, as well as an extra +1 combat resolution) will prove handy. I know Big Toof's attacks will...

Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

As I mentioned last post, I'm doing some converting just now: to whit, one Battle Standard Bearer (as well as some more wolf riders). I'm using the Shaman model from Avatar of War, as I ended up with 2 by accident, and I knew I had lots of spare Orcy bits. Behold: Orc Big Boss and Morthang's Battle Standard Bearer.

Leadbelly

 Flash has killed the detail on the metal bits, but hopefully you can see well enough that it's hardly recognisable as a shaman. The head and sword-hand, as well as spear/banner are basic Orc Boy bitz, while his armour is from the skelly warrior bits, donated by Andrew B. One breastplate looked too small, but I had the idea to put two on him, as if he was too big and fat to get armour that fit him. A green stuff belly and a dab of glue, and he has a name: Leadbelly. Some more undead bits and bobs finish him off, hiding the handle of the staff, and a pile o'skulls on the base. Trophies and what not.

Leadbelly from the rear

He looked pretty different from behind, too, but I popped a shield on his back to hide some of the detail, to make him look different, and to keep him in line with the Orc Boyz he'll be accompanying to battle.

`Remarkably fast to do, and I think he'll look great once he's painted.

So, on to the wolf-riders.

I wasn't planning on posting anything about these guys. I've already blogged about GW's awesome Fenrisian Wolf models, and how good they look as wolf-rider mounts. However, when I went to make my next five, I encountered a problem. Maths.

I had miscounted when I checked I had enough bitz left over for 10 riders. Specifically, I was shy right arms with bows and, more worryingly, left arms. Not just left arms with the right pose or weapon, but left arms. Period.

D'oh!

Time to adapt, improvise and overcome! To deal with the bow issue, I mostly used spears. I made a few in a throwing pose, and ensured they all had quivers and bows on their backs. This will mean I can split the spears up and say the units just have bows or, if I ever want a unit with spears, I can put them together and hey-presto! Spear unit.

The other arms were trickier though. In my first Frankenstein's monster, I used two bits of different right arms chopped up and put together to make something that looked roughly arm and elbow-like. The hand was a round stump, but that was easily hidden behind a shield. Turned out OK, in the end.

From the rear: messy

From the front: OK

So, buoyed by my pleasant surprise, I turned to the musician. I am sick to bits of the Goblin musician. There is just one instrument - a horn, gripped in the right hand - and so far I've done one for my archers and my first wolf-rider unit. I couldn't face yet another, but luckily I didn't have to as Andrew B's undead sprues contained an enormous horn, which was just too comical not to use. 

Problem was, it had a skelly arm in it. So some snipping, and finagling, and I had a goblin arm in there. The hand is a touch too small - being a skelly hand, but once the shield's whacked on, it looks grand. 

My, that's a big horn. Fnar fnar etc.

The rest of the wolf riders look pretty good. The spears are dynamic and I like this rearing (slightly out of control?) gobbo. If I ever need a boss for the unit, he'll do!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

So all converted up. Now I just need to paint the buggers!

Drogrot & Morthang

Drogrot & Morthang...sounds like a firm of Orc solicitors. I can't imagine there's much market for Orc legal advice though...

''Ello, Drogrot & Morthang!"
"I was bashin' stunties and Grimfang stole me squigs!"
"Well?"
"Can you 'elp?"
"Yeah. Bash Grimfang an' get yer squigs back!"

I don't remember Ally McBeal being like that.

Anyway, to business. Or pleasure, rather, Drogrot and Morthang are, in fact, the two characters I've just painted for my army. Wahey!

The characters themselves were actually created by Andy Lawhammer for our WFRP game. When I decided to make an Orc army, and to have a Wyvern-mounted war boss leading it, I recalled our PCs facing a Black Orc on a Wyvern. Well, I say facing. He swooped down, his Wyvern ate our rock-hard NPC henchman in one gulp, and we ran away.

So Andy filled me in on some of the details, and lo and behold! Morthang da Burna.

Morthang da Burna, on his wyvern

That flaming sword represents the Grudgebringer sword, as featured in Dark Omens and Shadow of the Horned Rat. The sword, once borne by Captain Bernhardt, found its way into the hands of this mighty Black Orc. I converted Azhag the Slaughterer with a burning wizard sword, graciously donated by Andy. In game, I'll use the Ruby Ring of Rhuin to represent its fireball attack.

A more detailed view of Morthang.

I'm pleased with how the flaming sword has come out. You may just be able to see the hint of runes I did at the base of the fire (Grudgebringer, in our canon at least, is one of Alaric the Mad's Dwarven runeweapons). Obviously Morthang has attached it to a bit of bone to give him a proper, Orcy handle (the original plan was to strap the sword onto a huge Orc choppa, but it looked silly).

The reasons for his red crown are twofold. I wanted his helmet to stand out. His armour looked rag-tag, so I wanted to paint it all bashed, rusty iron. But the helmet looked cool, with the little crown-like peaks and what-not. But, when I got to painting it, I realised I had a limited palette of colours to use. In particular, I've yet to pick up a gold colour (hence Morthang's bone hilt). I'd already done one model, an Orc Boss, with a red helmet, and liked the effect, so that's what I went for.

In a full game, when I can afford the points, I'll probably give him The Trickster's Helm. It's a pricy magic item, but quite useful for a tough old Black Orc (it forces enemies to reroll successful to-wound rolls). There's also a nice connection to my WFRP character, Adhemar, that would take too long to explain here.

Morthang from the side! From the side! (obscure Lee Evans reference)

Overall, he's painted more roughly than I'd like. I'll probably tidy some bits up (I've manged to get red in the wyvern's armpit. Wingpit?) and some of the drybrushing's a bit rough. But once he was based, he really came together, and I'm pretty chuffed overall.

Now, Andy also mentioned that Morthang was accompanied by an Orc Shaman, Drogrot Gorkeye. This fanatical visionary is convinced Morthang is the reincarnation of Mork himself, destined to bind all the Orcs together in the greatest Waaagh the world has ever seen.

Now, while the Warhammer Orc shaman is a cracking model, it didn't really capture the steely-eyed intensity Andy was describing. So, I turned to Avatars of War, who do some cracking figures. Their Orc Shaman, in particular, is wicked, and looks the part. So he became my Drogrot:

Drogrot Gorkeye; driven

I love this model. The detail, the pose. Brilliant, and really fits the character. His cloak has some cool details on it too, severed hands and skulls and what-not.

Detail on Drogrot's cloak: pleased with the severed hands!

Through an online shopping debacle, I've ended up with two of this model: I intend to convert one to become a Battle Standard bearer, but more on that later.

I've wittered on for quite long enough, all that remains is to tot up my points so far...

Lords - 320 (25%)
 Morthang on Wyvern

Heroes - 190 (15%)
 Drogrot (level 2), Mord (level 2)

Core - 615 (49%)
 10 x Savage Orc Big Uns, 15 x Orc Boyz, 20 x Goblins, 10 Spider Riders, 5 Wolf Riders

Special - 135 (11%)
 5 x Orc Boar Boyz

Total - 1,260

Not bad, not bad at all. I should also mention here that I'm using Quartermaster, an army building app that is aces. Love it.

I still have a Savage Orc Big Boss to finish painting, and a BSB to convert, and I think I'll buy myself some Savage Orc Boyz this week too. Time Skargutz's Boyz got reinforced.

Waaaagh!

'Ere We Go, 'Ere We Go, 'Ere We Go!

So, while my painting speed has slowed down dramatically since the start of term, I have finished my next unit, and the final unit from my battalion: the Orc Boyz.

 

Orc Boyz

I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. The models are lovely, and characterful (albeit characteristically difficult to rank up), and I think the unit looks good, despite the very quick, production-line paint jobs. 

Boss

Here's the Boss (unit champion) of the Boyz. I'm yet to come up with a good name for him, though I think "Skull-taka" may be an appropriate epithet. 

Boy

This is a bog-standard Orc Boy. Nothing special about him, except he reminded me of the old Heroquest Orcs, which were the first models I ever painted.

Heroquest Orc - not painted by me!

See what I mean? I suspect the sculptor did that deliberately. Made me smile. :)

Musician

Here's the musician - it's hard to see in the photo, but one of his eyes are white. There was a scar modeled on, so I thought it would be nice to have that eye blind as a result.

Standard Bearer

Yes, once again I went for the lazy option of the totemic standard. Can you blame me? :) I like this model, though he does look like he's walking into a Force 10 gale. He's been counter-balanced with a penny in his base, and he still tips over all the time!

I'll do a post about choices and army building soon(ish), as well as a step by step on my wolfriders. 

Until then...Waaaaaaaagh!

Like a boss

So I'm painting my final unit from the battalion now, my orc boyz. I had a lot of fun sticking them together; there are lots of little extra details - skulls, spikes and whatnot - so when it came to making the boss (unit champion) I decided to go a little over the top. What the hell, they're Orcs!

Boss.

I've given the orcs the same shield design, which features a red skull glyph, which will give the unit some colour. I decided to give the boss a red helmet too, to make him stand out. I think the other Boyz will have metal helms.

Boss from other side (don't ask me for
imaginative captions, I'm tired!)

I like how he's turned out. The ridiculous spikes and skulls look OK actually, and I like the helmet. The photos don't show that the eyes are painted, because they're the same colour as the helmet.

But I'm chuffed. Just 14 more of the buggers to paint and the battalion is done!

That'll do, pig. That'll do.

Oink!

Unit of Boar Boyz...done.

Iron 'Eadz - Orc Boar Boy Cavalry

Still suffering from excessively bright flash (only sometimes, though - most frustrating), but then I am just using my phone camera because I'm lazy. Nonetheless - here are my Orc Boar Boyz, the Iron 'Eadz. I'm quite pleased with them - again, if I look too closely, I see poorly highlighted musculature etc. But together, they look quite effective. 

Here's a side view, similarly overexposed, of the standard bearer. The use of an iron head as an icon is a lucky coincidence! (and born out of me not wanting to freehand a design on a banner)

Orc Boar Boy Standard Bearer

So, lets look at the points total:

Previous Total: 325 points

Boar Boyz: 135 points

5 x Boar Boyz: (80)

Shields (10)

Spears (10)

Boss, Musician & Standard (35)

TOTAL: 460

Waaagh - 500 points

Which means, add in a magic item or two, or turn one of the Orc units to Big 'Uns, and I'm playing a 500 point game, hopefully Sunday afternoon, with the Lawhammers.

Now, while I'm very pleased with the progress I've made (I've been pushing myself during the school holidays, as from next week I'll have a lot less free time) the army is a little bit...brown. It's most notable in the Boar Boyz: brown boars, brown leather, rusty metal...

It's no bad thing - the limited palette will make them look cohesive, and I always prefer naturalistic to day-glo, cartoony, but it is still a bit dull. The splashes of red do really stand out though. So I'm going to do my Spider Riders next, and I think I'll do the spiders themselves a very dark red colour. That ought to brighten everything up, but maintain the Waaaghsthetics. ;)

Iron 'Eadz

Well, a swifter update than I had imagined, as I've painted the first of my Boar Boyz. Behold!

Iron 'Ead: Boar Boy Boss

 The boars I've painted quickly: wetbrush brown over black, brown wash, then drybrush brown, sand, bone, then white. A little painted on wash over any patches that are too heavily drybrushed.

Then it's detail time: pick out flesh in green, green wash, highlight dark green, then light green (NB: I'm hand highlighting, not drybrushing, as there's not much flesh on show). Then paint metal leadbelcher, leather bits brown. Brown wash over those, then drybrush metal, then paint highlight leather and wood up to sand.

Ta da!

I'm quite pleased with the effect.

As I mentioned last time, I'm envisaging this as something of a rag-tag army of scavengers and remnants. Rather than some great Waaagh massing in the Bad Lands, this is a reconstituted Waaagh reassembling from the detritus of previous conflicts. Hence, Savage Orcs relying on a Goblin Shaman.

I always wanted my Boar Boyz to have shields and spears for that extra cavalry oomph. When I was assembling them, I elected to use all the helmeted heads (much as I avoided them for the Gobbos). It struck me that this made them look like Orc-knights, which amused me, so I tried to get them posed like that too.

And thus, the Iron 'Eadz were born.

Officer: Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!
Soldier: Their eyes are red, sir!

I see this unit of Boar Boyz as consciously aping the heavy knights of the Empire, the Elves, and Bretonnia. I ensured my musician has a spear on his back, and when I increase the size of the unit, I'm going to stick with the metal, helmets, shields, spears look. They look pretty ferocious. And I thought, for the Boss, having him with the most enclosing helmet, and giving his boar the same look, was a must.

So one down, the other 4 boars are drybrushed up, and just need the fiddly bits done. Goal is to get them done by the end of next weekend, at which point I'll be pushing 500 points painted.

Mord's Ladz

Waaagh!

Second unit: done.

As I mentioned last post, I elected to make a unit of Goblins my second unit choice. Mostly because I like the sneaky devious beggars, but also because I wanted to try out some proper army painting.

While I wouldn't describe my Savage Orcs as masterpieces, I did spend some time on them. But a Greenskin horde is, well, as horde, and if I'm going to get it painted, I'm going to need to relearn the skills I honed working for GW: production line painting.

And behold, the slightly blurry results...

Goblin Archers. Fear us.

I'm pleased with how they look en mass. Taken individually, they're a bit scrappy, but as a unit they look good. The bows and skin tones are fairly consistent. The clothes are mostly brown, of various shades, with a little grey in there too. Most of the top knots are grey too, with a little red here and there for a splash of colour. The shields are all different too, with different coloured skulls on them etc.

I didn't want any sense of uniformity: this lot are the scavengers of the Old World, stickin' folks with arrers, then lootin' their corpses. Indeed, I may ask Andy & Lindsay Lawhammer if they have any spare shields or helmets etc. that I can mix in with my next gobbo unit for a bit more variety.

Another reason for the more basic paint job, and production line painting, is that they're much smaller than the Orcs. Less than half the size!

So, with 2 units and a hero choice painted, I've got myself a legal, albeit tiny, army.

So, what's the damage, points-wise? As I track the running total, I'll assume full command groups, but no magic items. When it comes to playing, there will be shinies, and I may not always need bosses in units, but for now, they're in.

No magic items, precious?

Here's my list so far:

Mord: 90 points
Goblin Shaman (55)
Level 2 upgrade (35)

Savage Orcs: 125 points
10 x SOs (80)
Additional Hand Weapon (10)
Boss - Skargutz (15)
Musician & Standard Bearer (20)

Goblins: 110 points
20 x Goblins (60)
Shields (10)
Short Bows (10)
Boss, Musician & Standard (30)

TOTAL: 325

Mord's Ladz: Waaagh!

325 points, eh? That's... not a lot. And both units are only MINIMUM sized. Wow. 

Still, onwards and upwards. I reckon I'll probably invest in another battalion box later, not to mention the converted wolf riders. And I'm definitely getting some nasty skulkers. And maybe a Wyvern. Or an Arachnorok Spider. Or both. But that's all later, when Uncle Visa is feeling less stressed. 

For my next unit, I've opted for Boar Boyz. Orc heavy cavalry. I'd love to say I picked them because they're high points value, but the truth is I picked them a: because the models are wicked, and b: because I knew I was going to give them spears and shields. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to arm my orc boyz or spider-riders, so this option allowed me to delay deciding for a while. 

Until then, Waaagh, and all that.

Mord

A quick follow up to yesterday's post, "Who's the Boss?"

Yesterday I painted Skargutz, my Savage Orc Boss:

Skargutz - Savage Orc Boss

 Today, I've painted my first "hero" level character, Mord - Goblin Shaman:

Mord - Goblin Shaman

Mord - rear view

He's the sneaky git who is manipulating Skargutz's boyz, bringing them to the greater Waaagh, and here they are together:

Characterful...

I really wanted to post this blog for that last shot - the scale difference between the Orc boss and the Goblin is really pronounced!

Who's the Boss?

Yay! I've finished my first unit: Skargutz boyz. I'll post pics of the whole unit once I've based them, but for now, here's the main man ORC himself, Skargutz.

Skargutz: Savage Orc Boss

Not that kind of cold one!

 I'm pleased with how the unit, and Skargutz himself, have turned out. A few of the models, including Skargutz, have scaly skin for their "clothing", rather than fur. As I'm trying to keep these Orcs Old World style, exotic creatures like alligators are out (hence the fur looking like wolves, rather than zebras or tigers). I was stumped as to how to paint the scales, when I remembered that Lindsay Lawhammer is collecting a Dark Elf army. A quick message later, and she told me her corsairs' cloaks (and probably cold ones too) were a dark red up to orange. So now it looks like my boyz took down a cold one or two.

That's the fella...

I made a few other changes to his paint scheme to make him stand out. His face got a slightly brighter highlight, and I painted his top knot red. I also did his weapons differently: I may decide to give him a magical weapon, but his blades are very clearly chipped stone of some type. I considered obsidian (which has anti-magical properties in Warhammer canon), but instead I opted for Warpstone. Orcs are less prone to mutation, right?

Skargutz from above

I also discovered that his right eye is missing, making the eye stripe warpaint that most of my unit have make more sense. On the subject of inspirational warpaint, I tried to think about what Skargutz should have. As well as some on his face, and lightning bolts on his legs, I thought he needed something to motivate his ladz. Since Orcs lead from the front, this meant an impressive warpaint display on his back:

Skargutz from behind

Waaagh! I've used the orc skull glyph on most of the unit, and so it seemed fitting for Skargutz to have it on his back, so all the boyz can see it, and be whipped up into a frenzy. 

So, first unit done, it's time to think about what next.

I've decided to go for a general, multipurpose greenskin horde. While a themed army can be fun, it's also quite limiting. When I worked at GW and so could afford to buy - not to mention borrow - multiple armies, that was fine. But as this will be my only army, a little versatility is no bad thing. That being the case, tomorrow I'm going to pick up the Orc & Goblin Battalion box. It's pricy - at £70 - but the troops included would come to about £85 separately, so it's a decent saving. Plus, its contents - Orc Boyz, Orc Boar Boyz, Goblin Boyz and Forest Goblin Spider Riders - are exactly the units I would take for a starting Waaagh anyway. 

"Battalion" sounds too formal, no?

I've also made one other purchase in the interim - yet to be painted. I've been thinking about characters - all joking aside, Andy Lawhammer has been able to convert a pegasus riding general because he's an extant character in our Warhammer roleplaying campaign. I don't have that basis, so I need to choose something characterful and effective. And, to be honest, right now I don't know what that would be. Do I want a sneaky Goblin Warboss hiding in a big unit of boyz? A powerful Orc Warboss on a boar to lead the cavalry on a charge? Or a Warboss or Shaman on a wyvern? (Ooh, a wyvern...)

But I had a hankering for a character to paint. But what kind of character could I pick, that wouldn't nix any of the other options? Then, it struck me: a Goblin Shaman. He can go in a unit later, if I want, or he can skulk about on his own. What's more, when I saw the Goblin Shaman model, I noticed something cool...

He has a little skull, with a bone in it, like a mortar and pestle. No doubt it's intended to be him crushing up mad cap mushrooms or somesuch, but another thought occurred to me. What if he's the shaman applying the warpaint to Skargutz boyz. That's unorthodox, true, but Goblins are cunnin' and sneaky gits, after all. What if this devious shaman has stumbled across a small mob of Savage Orc boyz, and in that uniquely goblin style of being simultaneously desperate and tricksy, he ends up tricking their boss, leading him out of the depths of the forests and towards a greater Waaagh...?

So I bought the shaman. :)

Meet Ugg...

In a shameless rip off of Andy Lawhammer's "Meet Karl", here's my stage by stage painting guide. I'll assume everything's straightforward; any questions (or indeed advice) much appreciated. See you in the comments. ;)

Stage 1 - Undercoat
Because I am not a crazy mentalist, I opted for a black undercoat. Sprayed black: you don't need to see that, so on to...

Stage 2 - Basecoat Flesh
For this I used Waaagh! Flesh. I applied a neat first coat, followed immediately by a second, very quick "wet brush" (like a drybrush but with more paint on the bristles). This ensured a smooth coat, especially on the larger, flatter areas of skin (like the back muscles).

2 - Basecoat of Waaagh! Flesh

Stage 3 - 1st Highlight Flesh
For this, I drybrushed Warboss Green.

3 - Drybrush Warboss Green

Drybrushing, in case you don't know, is when you put paint on the brush, then wipe most off, before flicking the brush over the areas you want to highlight. It is a very quick way of highlighting. It looks great on sharp angular surfaces, but can look dusty if the surface is smoothly curved, like a space marine shoulder pad, or, say, savage orc muscles...

Stage 4 - Shading

As drybrushing can leave a dusty effect, and there's lots of mice musculature detail, I applied a wash with Athonian Camoshade, a very dark green ink wash. This runs into all the crevices, as well as smoothing and deepening the overall colour.

4 - Wash with Athonian Camoshade 

Stage 5 - Finishing the flesh

The final stage of the flesh is a final highlight of Warboss Green. This is a fairly minor highlight, just drawing out major areas that look too dark. The face gets the most attention, so that all the edges are sharply defined as Warboss Green. 

The beauty of savage orcs is their warpaint. Any mistakes made on the skin tone can be covered by a glyph. Lazy? Moi? 

5 - Flesh re-highlighted with Warboss Green

6 - Basecoat Details

I've always found the key to army painting (that is, painting an entire army to look decent together, but primarily to play with, rather than for display) is to limit your palette and choose straightforward colours that are easy to apply. So my bone and leather details use the same colour range, with the leather essentially being one tone darker.

Leather - Gorthor Brown --> Tallarn Sand --> Ushabti Bone

Bone - Tallarn Sand --> Ushabti Bone --> White Scar

So for stage 6, I basecoated the leather Gorthor Brown and the bone Tallarn Sand. I also basecoated the fur Eshin Grey. 

6 - Basecoat the details - Gorthor Brown, Tallarn Sand, Eshin Grey

7 - Shade the details

Again, when army painting, laziness is a virtue. It's all about efficiency, and Agrax Earthshade is very efficient. It's a brown wash, which, conveniently, works on my bone, leather and even fur. What's more, if a little seeps onto the orc skin? It looks fine. 

So, a quick wash over the bone, leather and fur really picks out the sculpted details.

7 - Shade the details with Agrax Earthshade

 8 - Highlight the details
Now it's time to highlight the details - the end is in sight! I use the colours listed above to finish off the various savage orc accoutrements.

Leather gets a highlight in its base layer of Gorthor Brown, before getting a fairly heavy highlight of Tallarn Sand and a final edge highlight of Ushabti Bone (in some places - don't want it looking too pale.

Bone gets a Tallarn Sand highlight, followed by a fairly heavy Ushabti Bone highlight, with White Scar to finish.

Fur gets drybrushed with Fenrisian Grey, then White Scar. I don't rehighlight with the Eshin Grey, as I want a starker contrast on the fur.

8 - Highlight the details

9 - Flint Weapons

I left the flint weapons to last because they're the aspect I'm least happy with. The box art has them painted a bright grey, almost concrete in colour, and I don't like that. I've opted for a darker grey, highlighting black with Eshin Grey and Fenrisian Grey, then washing with Agrax Earthshade. I'm still not 100% sold on it. 

The problem is that there's lots of chipped flint detail, but it's not sharp enough to really require a line highlight. 

I'm reasonably happy with the effect, but I may revisit them before I varnish them.

Highlight the flint weapons - Eshin Grey then Fensrisian Grey, then Agrax Earthshade Wash

10 - Finishing Touches

The finishing touches really make the model - eyes and warpaint (plus any tidying up required). 

The eyes are Screamer Pink, Evil Sunz Scarlet and a tiny dot of Squig Orange. You may think you can't see three colours there, but trust me, if I missed any of those stages out, it would look worse!

The warpaint is Fenrisian Grey, then a White Scar Highlight. I've opted for an arm band on the right arm, and a lightning bolt on the left shoulder, plus some face paint. That's the general theme for the unit, with variations on each orc as the fancy takes me.

10 - The finished Ugg!

Ugg rear view

 Part of the fun of savage orcs is their crudeness (not that way! Although, that being said, also that way!). So my clumsy, childlike attempts at drawing symbols and glyphs look authentically orcy and "in character". Score!

I painted another orc at the same time as Ugg:

The Third Orc

So my little unit is up to three painted orcs, with two more half-done. Here's how my boyz are looking now:

Waaagh!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty damned chuffed. Next post will discuss my plans for the army, as well as my painting set up.

Thanks for reading!