More Pig-Faced Orcs! More Oink!

Well, as I promised from my first post of the Challenge, here are two classic Pig-Faced Orcs to join their venerable Minifig forebear.

These models are from Otherworld Miniatures. I think they're brilliant. They manage to convey the old school design of early roleplaying figures, while also possessing a contemporary grittiness about them. I'm really looking forward to doing more. The big fella with the flail is 'Chieftain FoulTusk', while the other, with the fancy snouted helm, is his Champion, 'BadBoi'.

Chieftain Foultusk

BadBoi

I wanted to try a flaking paint effect on their shields, but I'm not entirely convinced. The yellow is not horrible, but I shouldn't have used red for the other one as it simply looks like it's spattered with gore (not entirely out of character, but not what I wanted).  I'll give it another try when I get a resupply from Otherworld.

Also, in the spirit of terrain amortisation, I have them stomping about in some of my kickstarter-acquired Dwarven Forge Cavern tiles (whose cost, by the look of their website, is almost equivalent in their weight in gold). I hope to be using these more as I just picked up 'Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish' and the 'Thud & Blunder' rules to try some dungeon adventuring.

Next: Something from the novel 'The Rook'.

- Curt

A Classic Pig-Faced Orc

This is my first entry to this year's Painting Challenge. As a nod to our dungeon theme, here is an 'Orc with Guisarme' (Orc1) from the venerable 1979 Minifig range, I believe sculpted by David Hutchins.

Yes, he's a real old school classic. This figure was originally from a group of twelve that I had ordered with our first set of D&D books and dice, directly from TSR out of Lake Geneva. 

When I finally received the figures I was so impatient to have them painted that I used my dad's nasty automotive paints (no primer!) and 'brushed' it on using some of my mom's sewing needles. Yes, very primitive, but you can't fault the pure enthusiasm of youth.

Here is the last remaining orc of that cohort. As you can see, almost all the paint has flaked off over the years. It took several hours of rummaging through containers of random bits to find the original hexagonal shield. I did snoopy's dance of joy when I found it.

A certain charm. The archivist in me was torn whether to paint this guy or just leave him be.  

As historical background, the original concept of pig-faced orcs is usually attributed to Dave Sutherland, who was one of the main illustrators for TSR in the mid to late 70s. His work on the cover of 'Swords & Spells' (1976) is probably the first imagining of the face de cochon orc.

That same year The Brothers Hildebrandt also produced a painting of the capture of Merry and Pippin by orcs. Who influenced who, I'm not sure, but the idea took hold for those formative years.

TSR continued the porcine depiction of orcs in their 1977  Basic Set and the 1st Edition of the AD&D Monster Manual (I can't look at this book without getting misty, recalling a younger me pondering the weighty questions of which monster had the nastiest stats, the best art, the most treasure, etc.)

Orcs in the AD&D Monster Manual

...and from the D&D Basic Set

While the style of orcs have changed over time, certainly with the dominance of Games Workshop and Peter Jackson's movies, good ole pig-faced Orcs are still 'canon' for nostalgic old school D&D geeks like me. I love 'em. Oink.

I decided to repaint this guy in a fairly natty armoured hauberk, with bronze for his helmet, shield edge and boot banding. 

In a nod to Games Workshop I went with classic orky green for this skin tone, though now I wish I had gone with a dark flesh instead. Maybe I'll try that with the next ones I do. 

Fans of these types of orcs will be happy to find that Otherworld Miniatures has an entire range of re-imagined snouted Orcs available. I hope to have a few of these done later this winter.

Curt

From RossM: Old School Orcs, Pulp Villains & Mycenaeans (83 points)

Things have been a little quiet from Ross these past few weeks but he comes back to us with a great selection of entries for us to enjoy.

From Ross:

First up are the last of the current batch of retro Orcs from Citadel and Ral Partha. These seven Orcs like the previous entry are 28mm in scale. 

They have been painted in a style which is dissimilar to many Orc armies that I see currently; that is I have avoided as much as possible bright colours and gone for a more uniform approach using colours from Foundry's range of WW2 colours. This has given the Orcs a much darker appearance than some you may see elsewhere but I think it really works. So much so that I am looking at creating an Oldhammer army in this style.

Next up are three figures from Artizan Design's Pulp Hero range which are again 28mm in scale. These figures have been painted with a certain film in mind. 

The central figure should spark a few memories of Major Arnold Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well that was the inspiration.

The Braunen Brüder (Brown Brothers) are his hired helpers and will be a part of his group in several games coming up in North Africa as well as some of the DAK. As with all of the figures from Artizan these have been a pleasure to paint.

Finally my most recent Mycenaeans. These six figures are from Redoubt Miniatures 28mm range depicting the Trojan War. Not much else to say about these except the shields are taking a long time to paint and there will be more from this range over the final weeks of the challenge.

It's great to have you back with us Ross! A great variety of figures and all of them wonderful to behold. The orcs really take me back to those heady days of 1st Edition D&D and Warhammer. (It makes me a bit misty actually.) I quite like the dark tone you've gone with for these. 

The pulp villains are always crowd pleasers. I particularly like the 'Brothers Brown' - I see them having great futures as nefarious henchmen. 

Finally it's very nice to see your continuing progress with your Mycenaean project. Always lovely to see. I continue to be impressed with your clean style and your lovelyh work with the hide shields on these fellows. 

This fine group of figures will give Ross 83 points, with a bit added for those excellent Mycenaeans. Great work!