Tales of Brush and Sorcery

Thursday, 25 February 2021

Don't Feed the Trolls

-No, they smashed my precious mailing box!

The big guys are 'ere. There is no good 'ol orc force without a bunch of these smelly guys wandering around.

These fellas were in my desk from the begining. I couldn't resist to purchase two of the Satyr Art Studio's Bog trolls when a friend of mine didn't want them. They capture the old school vibe, fit perfectly with the C20 trolls despite the size (which I inted to purchase some to grow the family in the future). And more important, if a friend has them means I do not need to purchase 'em from California, which is a lot right now. The only limit to not have more or them, or that lovely remake of the cloud giant, damn, Drew D. William has all the goods.

I wanted a reddish skin in the troll smacking the mailing box, unfortunately, I painted a more white skin tone with some reddish/unhealthy bits. Which was perfect, nonetheless. I couldn't resist to add some meal and, of course, check pattern and free hand in the bits.

The last one is from Tim Prow, sold by Ral Partha Europe. The bone clubs and the monocle give him some character, as well as that long face with huge nose. This time I nailed the reddish tone I wanted with the other troll.

My plan is to expand this unit with some C20 trolls painted with random skin tones as well. No troll shall have similar colour.

That's for now. The big guys are finished, now with the little, cunnin' 'n' sniky-like of the rabble for the next entry.

Check out!

Thursday, 14 January 2021

Da Brute Force

-Oi, anything need to be «really» crushed boss??

Happy 2021 everyone! 💃

The big black orcs have arrived. Funny unit to paint and to put together. I wanted something that really really screams BLACK ORCS with the old school vibe, as the fourth edition ones are a bit naked and do not fit the theme with the 3rd ed early slotta and preslotta boys. I wanted to collect an entire Jes Goodwin unit. However, I do not want to find myself completely bankrupt, which could be the possible scenario trying to get the entire collection in so little time for the III OWAC.

It is not impossible, but you should snipe some evilbay and fb group purchases.

In the meantime when I was doing all the preparation stuff for the next OWAC, Knightmare miniatures announced an entire line of his Iron Orc (aka black orcs) by none but Kev Adam. Sign me in. That saved me time for the OWAC and a solution for the unit, because another problem with Jes' black orcs is the amount of different sculpts. If I'll be mortgaging the house for those miniatures, at least only for one of each sculpts.

The Iron orcs do not blend completely with the Jes sculpts because they are completely different but it is the point with the third ed. orcs. Their armour is ragged and more oldhammery than other iterations of the black orcs from the different WHF editions. They match perfectly by not matching with each other.

And you will say "but that reasoning is stupid". Indeed it is, that's why it works. See for example the musician, a miniature that only exist in metal in the 4th-5th ed. black orcs. It doesn't match in style with any of the other miniatures of the unit. Neither with any of the other orcs of the army!

One of them is fine, too many of them will be horrible for my taste.

They're not bad miniatures, it is only they don't have the ragged pelts and clothes, lack armour, their armour has no spikes or broken parts... However, Jes' black orcs have little of those things that can blend with other units of the army. Kev new black orcs too, their complex armour patterns and lots of spikes, ragged clothes and such mix very well with other units. Their faces are not the traditional Kev's orc face.

I wanted them to be a bit different only in their skin tonnes and more armoured and intimidating. The armour fix the later, so I decided to try something different for the skin tonnes. That's why I went for the purplish colour and the deep purpleish greens.