From MartinN: Kev Adams Orcs (10 points)

For various reasons I've not found much time for painting lately, so you've got to contend with these two fellows down here for the time being.

These two fine specimens of the Orc race were gifted to me by a friend during one of our semi-regular painting meet ups. I've never had much track with Fantasy, but still I've always had a soft spot for the older, more cartoony Orcs of the late 80's, early 90's. So I had a blast painting up these two fine fellows. I might even have a little look-see if I can acquire some more, who knows?

Figures are sculpted by Kev Adams and available through Ral Partha. The backdrop is available from Handiwork Games and I can only recommend you giving them a try. 

Points wise I'm pretty sure we're looking squarely at a grand total of 10 points.

***

Once more Nick you grace us with a combo of hobby nostalgia and stunning brush work! The posture and proportions of these figures just shout "1990s!" to me, and these renditions look truly stunning here. While they are proper "green", the variations on the skin tone near the eblows, knuckles etc. are amazing! And the "piece de resistance" has to be the checkerboard patterns on the red shields - it just sets the whole thing off! Brilliant work Nick! I'm sure I am not the only Challenger who hopes you will find your way to acquiring a few more of these and painting them up!

GregB

From KillianF - 10mm Warmaster Black Orcs (42 points)

Good day all,

Firstly thank you for the kind comments on my first post. It's provided more than a wee bit of motivation for the next few batches.

Instead of the long-promised Goths, I procrastipainted 4 bases of Forest Dragon 3d Printed Black Orcs. I also nearly finished 3 bases of Wargames Atlantic plastic Boneblade Skeletons, but they require a little more work to be complete. Painting both however allowed me to compare 3d printed and plastic models. The ability of 3d printing to capture detail and, critically, depth at 10mm far eclipses plastic in my opinion. As fun as the Boneblades are, I have a large backlog of 3d printed Forest Dragon that I think will bump up the queue.

 

Off to do sum krumpin'

If you've got the sneaking suspicion I just picked models I could get away with a quick drybrush-wash-highlight, well done, you're quite right. That was precisely what I did. Paint smart, not hard.

Although the banner was handpainted. Why paint smart when you can paint painstakingly in minuscule detail that no-one will notice?

Black Orc Banner

Points:

40x 10mm Infantry (Orcs): 40

Total points claimed: 40

Claims

1x Squirrel Point (again please check)

Thanks again, and see you all soon.

KF 

From DaveD. Who doesn't like to a rampaging bunch of Orcs.  These look just the part . lots of aggression and I do like the massed ranks look. That's always to bonus of 10mm . That's also fine colourful banner they acquired as well. Let’s call that 42 for the total look .

Hey and Congratulations to you and your wife on your first born ! 

From Mike W - 10 x Black Orcs (50 Points)

In this post (the last of this year's Warhammer figures) - I have been working on this unit on and off for the last 6 weeks, with a view to be enable me to go out with a bang as this year's challenge draws to a close!

These figures were purchased direct form my local Games Workshop store some time ago -  can't remember when - and were built to fill a gap in my somewhat extensive Greenskin Army. So far so good. Unfortunately I had a bright idea!

The completed group of 10 (Red) Black Orcs

I was in two minds about the colour to do the armour, options being black (as per Black Orcs) or Red, as I've always liked the Evil Suns, I opted for red as I had a can of red spray paint in the garage. So the idea was good 'un but the execution was bad - the spray paint was a can of Car Repair spray from an old red car of mine, the car was long gone but the spray was still there.

In those days I still undercoated black, which I did and then almost immediately sprayed the models with the Car Spray. Imagine my surprise when the paint did not dry as expected - in fact I think it took several days to fully cure and dry and when done it was not a bright red colour as I'd remembered my car to be - but a browny mauve sort of colour. To top it all, the paint was ultra glossy and almost impossible to get other paints to adhere to.

Close-up of some of the guys, including Musician with drum in centre

Thus it was the figures were consigned to the garage for years without a further look. 

However with this year's challenge and the need for even more figures to paint I decided to try and resurrect these guys. I painted on a white undercoat on the skin areas  of these figures and then started by painting in the Green skin, then a green wash. As these figures are heavily armoured, it made sense to get the skin done before concentrating on the armour. After all these years, the new paint seems to have adhered OK to eth figures.

More of the Orcs, Unit Leader to the right 

I then used neat Vallejo 'Flat Red' to paint the armour, as I did for the recent Squigs post,  washed it with Dark Tone, then added a second coat of Flat Red to make finish consistent, after a dry brushed with a brighter red, I then washed the amour with Sepia Ink to make it 'pop'.

There was a lot of bones, teeth, skulls, tusks and the like to complete and I did these as per previously described, fur that can be found under some armour panels was done in 'Fur Brown' (naturally) and highlighted.

A better view of the Leader and Standard Bearer

All Steel was given a Dark tone was after a Silver paint job, glyphs were picked out in brass or silver and all wood was washed with Strong tone ink to give depth.  I gave the armour a light dry brush of silver to suggest wear and tear on the kit and when dry all were given a matt varnish finish.

I spent some extra time on the standard and the musician's drum to add detail but these followed the same principles noted above. Overall these Black Orcs are VERY RED!

Basing was done in my usual manner with Electrostatic grass and fine sand.

POINTS

10 x 28mm Foot Figures = 50 Points

***

These are indeed the reddest...Black Orcs...I have seen. Perhaps they are Jeremy Corbyn supporters? Anyway, well done on resurrecting an old and stalled project. And it is lovely seeing fantasy figures on proper, square bases as the Hobby Gods intended. Seeing your points total, you cannot possibly have any figures left to paint? I guess we shall see...

Congrats on adding to the stonking pile of points.

GregB

From TeemuL: Oldhammer time [Vogsphere] (90 points)

I have been slowly painting my WH40k Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) army, which consist of some vehicles and metal-only infantry. I created some back story for them a year or so ago in Challenge XI: the Imperial Reenactment 7th. Here is a short quote from the original text: "For those who don't know, they are like theater act or LARP players in the 40th century, they are used to rise the morale of the citizens, advertise the military for the new recruits and provide some entertainment for the people. Some of them are civilian volunteers, some are actual guardsmen on leave, on punishment, on reward, on commission, retired or misplaced. -- Several time Imperial Reenactment 7th (and others like this) have been incorrectly ordered to real battlezones - the administration of the Imperium is not very clear, efficient or correct in many places. So sometimes they arrive on real warzone, they even might have some live ammunition. Sometimes they have blanks. Sometimes they have live ammunition when performing a play... "

Eagle-eyed from you will notice, that there is a small error, of course they are not from "40th century", that is a mistake made by me. Anyway, because of this backstory, I will propose a claim to the Vogsphere planet, which calls for Bureaucracy and/or Black Comedy. This entry probably fills both of the criteria. And since I'm currently located in the Challenge Star, I can easily use the Great Abyssal and move myself to the Middle Ring, where Vogsphere is right next to the Abyssal. Nice and easy.

So yes, these are metal miniatures from Games Workshop, 20 years old or so and most likely sculpted by the Perry twins. These are all Valhallan models, even though I do have other planets represented as well, Imperial Army is very open minded. I have painted them in bright primary colours, so that the spectators can spot them easily. I used Contrast colours over white undercoat. The basing is my usual method, glue sand over black base, wash with brownish wash and drybrush with grey, quite easy and quick (excluding the drying times).

Some might wonder why 8, why not full 10 and where is the heavy weapons team? Well, last year I painted couple of heavy weapons teams, which I can use as a unit of their own or use as part of the squads - giving me some flexibility.

And since we are getting closer to the Challenge end, I'll add another group (no planets this time) to this post. When I first joined this Challenge, it was Challenge V, and I mostly painted some LotR and Blood Bowl minis (before neither of them was rebooted) and Oldhammer (before the Old World was exploded). Lots has changed in the GW world during that time. Lots has changed in my world since that, too. I have painted some 40k minis and some Epic minis, but mostly I have been painting non-GW stuff, while I used to paint GW-only stuff. There are multiple reasons for that, but I have not abandoned none of those old friends - I have painted some Blood Bowl in this Challenge and I will give you some Lotr stuff too, but now I present some Oldhammer. These are Black Orcs to join my Orcs & Goblins army, which is slowly growing.

There are four identical plastic minis and one metal mini, maybe a leader of the group or something. I tried to follow the simple, bright and clear colours of the 80s and 90s so they can easily fit my existing units and I think it worked ok, all the way to the Goblin Green bases. Coat d'Arms provides nice selection of paints, identical to the old Citadel paints from the previous century - all the way to the thin reds and yellows which won't cover white, even straight from the pot! :)

I know Black Orcs should be black, but I have always liked them green and think Black just means Big... So they are rather green, with mostly red equipments again nodding to the their past.

This post gives me two more squirrels, 22 skulls (9 from Black Orcs and 13 from the guard) and 85 points (13 28mm miniatures 5 points each and 20 for Vogsphere).

Two of the skulls

My personal Squirrel count: 15

- 20mm Napoleonic

- 28mm Sludge

- 28mm Pulp

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Xenos

- 28mm General (including Gloranthan) Fantasy

- 1:300 Cruel Seas

- 6mm Epic Imperial Fists

- 28mm ADD Boardgame

- 28mm Runewars Waiqar

- 28mm Blood Bowl

- 28mm Simians

- 15mm Mid War Germans

- 28mm Age of Sigmar Sylvaneths

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Imperium

- 28mm Warhammer Fantasy Orcs & Goblins

From Millsy:

I never cease to be amazed by your bold and outside the box colour choices Teemu! In my wildest, cheese-fuelled dreams I would never have conceived of painting Valhallans in a colour scheme like that. It has made my morning so kudos to you mate.

I really like your orcs too and the hand painted checks (which I can attest are a nightmare on a compound curve) are awesome. Have an extra 5 points to go towards some therapy :-)

From ArthurS: The Last Post. (30 points)

 Hoi 

Arthur says:

"This will be my last real post for the Challenge this year! I have set myself a points limit of 75 points and with this entry I will reach that goal. I have enjoyed joining you all for this year's Challenge and hope to join next year too.

For my last post I have painted up a Whirlwind tank for my Powerwings Space marines. Pssst, don't let anyone hear it, but since my hobby budget is rather limited, Dad printed me the main tank hull on his  3D printer and we put a real GW rocket launcher set on top. 

Apart from the Whirlwind I also would like to show you my first painted Blood Bowl figures. My team is the new Black Orcs team and here's one of my Black Orcs and a Goblin Shaman that can be used to summon down the Foot of Gork (or is it Mork?)  on the playing field. 

 

I am mighty proud of the Shaman since I think I really made the mushrooms work very well. They were painted in the rainbow colours to provide extra magical energy. 

Finally Dad also printed a scatter template and I painted it in my team colours as well. Now the vehicle (28mm) and the two figures (28mm) will net me another 30 points.

Thanks everyone for looking in  at my post!

Arthur

Those are all great, Arthur. It's been a pleasure having you taking part in your own right this year and a shame that this is your last entry. You've done very well, and we look forward to having you back with us next year.

Tamsin