LPL 10 - Round 3 - Frozen City Fashion

As I try to motivate myself to post my pictures before 2016 ends... here was my third round entry! It was a nice mix of Wargames Foundry Renaissance orcs, combined with a GW Stone Troll with a sculpted Santa hat.

These were photographed on my Frostgrave board, and were probably some of my favourite figures from the whole contest!

Also, Merry Christmas (Orcmas?) everyone!

Two More Orc(mas) Guards

As promised, here are two more orcs to go with the Orcmas theme.  I know, Orcmas is long past, so we can just appreciate these guys as orcs.  These being from the Foundry mercenary 'orcs' range rather than the 'ogres' range, they are a tad smaller than the previous two (though not by much).  Their sculpts were a bit more simpler, so the painting progressed a little bit easier.

I was quite pleased with the brown fabric on the orc on the left, I had a good time with those highlights.  The expression on his face is also quite appealing.  The orc on the right looks cool with his big book (I assume it's the Naughty or Nice list, though orcs can't read, so...).

I have almost finished  a few goblins to go with this project, so you can hopefully expect those pretty soon.

Santorc's Guards

While Orcmas many officially be over, I am still plugging away at the few figures I wanted to complete this season.  As you saw last time, I had a teaser of two WIP figures - Santorc's festive guards.  I finally finished them, and I am quite happy with the results.  These are some of the Wargames Foundry Mercenary Ogres.  They were sculpted by Kev Adams.  Very challenging figures to paint, with all of the puff and slash, but it is a nice effect when it is finished.

The blacklining on the clothing for the guard on the left took me forever.  After roughing in the colours, I went over each patch with some vallejo black ink, watered to about 60% with water and some flow improver.  Afterwards I had to redo the highlights and brighten up the white, but I really like the use of blacklining in figures like this, as it makes a nice border between the colours.  The other fun part was the gem on the right of the right-hand orc.  It's always fun trying to paint gems.

Finally, I will leave you with a shot of the terrible triad.

Kinda makes you wonder whether you should have made such a long Orcmas list, eh?  I still have a few more figures on the painting table which will hopefully make it in before the New Year.  Namely, I have a couple guards to do, as well as Santorc's biggest rival! (cue menacing music...)

Merry Orcmas!

Well, the day of Orcmas is finally upon us.  My most anticipated piece from this little project shall now be revealed to you.  You might have been thinking that my Orcmas tree looked a tad barren, but like a wise grot you did not mention this to Santorc.  Good job.

Well, Santorc does not plan to disappoint!  You see, a few years ago I ordered a few of the lovely Scibor Christmas bulbs and they were the real inspiration for this whole project.  I have the dwarf bulb unpainted still, but lets leave that for another year.

Here they are, I will start with some pics of them hanging on a WIP tree for the rest of my scenery.  From this you can get a nicer closeup:

These guys were a blast to paint, the detailed bits are very well defined so they respond well to washes.  I started these with my airbrush, more for fun, and was able to get some cool highlighting effects with my limited skills.

Now, where do these critters fit into Orcmas?  Well, even the lowliest grot knows that Santorc stuffs dwarfs inside of the bulbs, then the Orcmas squigs  arrive and try to crack them out.  There is supposed to be a feast afterwards, but the squigs usually eat it all first.

Time for a shot of the lovely tree with Santorc and the bulbs:

Finally, to show you that I have not finished, here is Santorc with his two most loyal bodyguards.  They are still a WIP, so no closeups yet.  They are almost finished, so hopefully I can share them with you in the next day or two.

Until then, Merry Orcmas, and Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like....

Orcmas!!

For the past couple years, I have had some Christmas-themed greenskin figures kicking around my storage room... some free figures, some intended purchases.  Every fall I seem to muse about assembling a nice little festive vignette.

Well, in my hobby-absence over the past couple months I have been plugging away at making the bespoke musings a reality.  While my ambitions have outpaced my production speed (as usual), I should have completed a few things I hope you will enjoy, which I will reveal over the next week or two of Christmas festivities.  Luckily the great festive occasion of Orcmas roughly coincides with the more popular Christmas season, and the two have some passing similarities.

For today's entry, I present to you 'da Boss of Orcmas himself, Santorc!

This is a Wargames Foundry figure, and if you place an order from them in the next two days, you will get him free (according to the website)!  I got him free a couple years ago and he has been patiently waiting, menacing me with his giant bell.  I even sculpted him a slightly squished gift out of greenstuff.

What's next, you ask?  Well, I would not think that Orcmas would be complete without the Orcmas tree, woudln't you agree?

Incoming Saxons!

I promised you some Saxons, did I not?  Well, better late than never, or so I have heard.  To be fair, one unit of these was finished before Christmas, I was just sitting on them for a while before taking pictures.  I was pretty active over the last month, finishing these other two units among other things - more on that later.

These Saxons are a mix of Gripping Beast and Wargames Foundry models, and I find they mix ok.  The Foundry models typically have better sculpted faces, and thus look better all around.  The Gripping Beast Saxons look taller and more imposing however.  They have been armed with a smaller buckler which was apparently more common with the Saxons of the 5th century.

Group shot:

A nice mixed yet somewhat disorderly line.  I am happy with how they turned out compared to the time I spent painting them - I tried to be as quick as possible without making them look rubbish.  This is the first unit I finished:

The figure front and centre is my favourite of all.  One of the Foundry miniatures.  Let's have a closer look, shall we?

I think the sculpting on the hand, and his moustache make him full of awesomeness.  He was quite easy to paint up as well.  Here is another closeup from this group, probably my second favourite from this bunch:

On to the next unit I painted:

I think my favourite from this group is the drunkard in the back.  He is actually a Gripping Beast viking (along with his drinking buddy from the first group) but I thought I could sneak them in without too many people noticing.

Front and centre is another fine figure from Foundry, whose smooth facial features lend to easy painting:

Lastly, a more stern and seemingly organized group - outlined by the lack of drunken louts (or perhaps I just ran out of suitable miniatures). 

Front and centre is an imposing and dour figure from Gripping Beast.  I thought he looked serious enough that his men should all appear ready to fight.

There were a couple nice, dynamic poses from this group as well.  It is always fun to paint up figures with different features and poses.  This has been a really fun project.

I hope you like these guys.  I have decided to use them first to play a game or two of SAGA, instead of Dux Britanniarum.  Mostly because I need less models to play SAGA, and it seems a bit easier to teach newcomers.  All I need to finish is a Saxon warlord and a British warlord, and choose suitable factions for them to represent, as SAGA is set about 300 years after the time period in which I have based my Arthurians and Saxons.  Enjoy!