An Orc for Orctober!

Just in time, I have painted an Orc for Orctober. I have'nt really been in the mood for painting, nor have I had the time, but instead I've been sorting out a lot of my miniatures into Oldhammer era only collections and armies.

I have taken all my Citadel Orcs and sorted them into four armies; three of them based on Lord of the Rings (Mordor, Minas Morgul, and White Hand), and one as group of Orcs for my 3rd Edition Warhammer army (which will be mainly Goblins, but require a few Orcs). I will take photographs in a few weks of the armies. With that in mind, I painted a Bob Olley Black Orc as an Uruk-Hai.

In addition, I have also been sorting out the Humans into seperate collections. My plan is to do an army for each of the Human nations, with the exception of Ind (for the time being, Citadel never really made 'Indian' miniatures so it might be less 'Oldhammer' only). I do have the basis for 3,000 point armies for the Empire, Bretonnian, Estalia, Tilea, The Border Princes, Kislev, Araby, Norse, Nippon/Cathy, and Albion! Again, I will photograph these as I get them sorted out of the next few weeks.

Enjoy :)

 Black Orc/Uruk-Hai.
I dislike the Lord of the Rings films, but I do like the idea of painting the Uruk-Hai in a ruddy-brown flesh tone, especially to distinguish them from other Orcs.
I stole the idea of white hand face paint from a post on the Oldhammer Facebook Page.

 Rear view, with some slightly drafty chainmail.

Fresh from the paint stripping pot: Marauder Miniatures MM41 Ogres, the MS4 Ogre Hero, and two MM42 Ogres. I purchased and painted these in the 1980's, but have paint stripped them with a mind to add them to the human armies as Mercenaries.

Next update will be the Pan Tang, as I am still really meant to be painting them, and want to finish the army soon. :)

Foundry / Warmonger Miniatures Elven Nymphs. NSFW

Whilst I am still painting my Pan Tang army, I decided to paint up a few miniatures as an aside which I have had for a long time. Please note that this post is NSFW due to the scantly clad nature of the Nymphs.

A fairly long time ago (about 2001) I bought some Nymphs which were at the time produced by Wargames Foundry. The range are a selection of female Nymphs which I think have been sculpted to look like a cross between Victorian Nymphs/Fairies, and the Fey drawn by Alan Lee and Brian Froud in their wonderful book: Fairies. Some of the range are dressed in garlands of flowers, and twee dresses slightly remincent of what some people considered 'Pagan' looking in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Think 'Rites of Spring' or Greek Classical revival. Others have Classical looking or 'Pagan' looking armour, whilst other are naked or semi nude.

The miniatures themselves are lovely and fun to paint. However the ones I purchased had terrible mould lines, and the solid metal bases of some of them are tiny, making them tricky to afix to the bases without using Milliput. I cannot comment if this is still the case or I had a duff batch.
They can still be bought from Warmonger Miniatures here:

https://warmongerminiatures.myshopify.com/collections/nymphs

I purchased the Nymphs with an idea of assembling an alternative Wood Elf army. I bought a few, painted a couple badly, and then shelved the idea. The main problem I had at the time was that being scantly clad, an army of them seemed a little sleazy. However now I decided to paint strip the ones I had painted before and revisit the idea.

The miniatures fit an idea I have for my Elven armies. I want to have one army for each of the seasons, and painted as such. The Nymphs, with their rites of Spring look, will suit the Season of Spring. I have the High Elf army consisting mostly of Elwings Regiment of Renown for Summer. The Wood Elf army I have already painted will stand for Autumn; and the Dark Elves, with their cold hearts, for Winter.

Painting wise I wanted the army not to be just scantly clad Elves, but an army of Elves that are at one with the forests and are actually Tree Nymphs. So I opted for a palette of greens, to give them that forest look. For the metal I will only use gold, being the metal used for collecting Mistletoe by Druids, and also that the Fey don't like iron. They were very quick to paint, all five taking little more than an hour.

I intend at some point collecting a full army. Apart from the five here I have another seven, plus some of Wargames Foundrys / Warmongers Revenant Elves to add. Considering that they are from £4 each, it won't be a miniature heavy army, but I am sure I can sort out another 3,000 point 3rd Edition army, based on the Wood Elf army list. I also painted a huge Treeman for the army, which I have totally forgotten who produced it.

Enjoy :)

 Nymphs.
They are mounted on 20mm square bases.

 Nymph heroine.
I think that she was a limited edition miniature, and was meant to be an African Nymph. 

 Archer.

 Another archer.

 Third archer.

Short Sword.
She also has a wooden axe, but it is out of shot.

 Huuuge Treeman!
The Goblin is there for scale. I have no idea who made this 'miniature', but I bought him at Salute about 10 to 15 years ago. He is metal, and came in three parts; body, and the arms.

 Close up of the face.
He was easy to paint, but time consuming.

The Four Seasons of Elves.
From left to right:
Foundry Nymph for Spring; Elwing for Summer; Wood Elves for Autumn, Dark Elves for Winter.
For the Summer Elves I plan to add lots of flowers to the bases to suggest Summer meadows.

Next update will be Pan Tang. I have nearly finished the archers, and will be starting the Tigers very soon.

Pang Tang, Praetorians, and Easterlings.

I have finished painting all of my EC02 Pan Tang Infantry, the basing excluded. This means that the bulk of the army has been now finished, and that three Marauder Warrior units of the 3rd Edition army list army are now completed. I only have the Tiger Teams, Chaos Thug archers, a Chaos Warrior Unit, and a Sorcerer to finish.

Other than that I have been preparing for the new Astra Militarium Codex, which has been released over this weekend, by sorting out my Praetorian army. I need to buy the codex, but I do have a fair idea of what will be needed in the army. I have sorted a lot of the army into specificly posed squads. For example, some squads of ten comprise one sergeant, one greneade launcher, one two-man heavy bolter team, three standing and firing troopers, and three kneeling and firing troopers. I did paint up a pair of Praetorians to fill in a gap in a squad as well.

I also have done a little prep work for my Araby/Haradrim Warhammer army. I have collected a little unit of five of the 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings range ME54 Easterling Raider. As I only had four riders, I converted one of the foot Easterlings into a unit leader. I will probably use the Bretonnian army list for the army.

Enjoy :)

 Pan Tang!

 The first of the Pan Tang, is'nt!
He is an old 0201 Chaos Warrior from 1988 Pestilens One Eye whom I shall be using as a unit leader. I think he looks similar to the Pan Tang, and fitis in nicely. He's a great miniature, and I have been wanting to paint him for a while. I have added a little Skeletal Merman and runes to the shield.

 Nisthta.
I only bought this miniature a few weeks ago, and was the only one of the EC02 range I require to complete the set. I will do a blog update on the whole range soon.

 Levek.

 Krool.

 Pashlar, sporting a great looking sea monster helm.

 Another Krool.

 Maktar.

 Tashim.

 Skaar.

 Converted unit standard bearer, converted from an old Citadel Chaos Thug. The standard itself is an old metal part from a resin set of a Lesser Goblin horde model from the 1990's.
The big beard makes him fit in well with the rest of the Pan Tang. He looks a little 'Hipster' too! :)

 The painted army so far.

 First unit, led my the EC05 Pan Tangian Officer.

 Second unit lead by Pestilens One Eye.

 Unit three led by Nisthta.

 WIP
Archer unit comprising ten archers from Citadel's 0211 Chaos Thug range (021114 in the 1988 Catalogue). Also in the background is an armoured giant owl from Oathsworn Miniatures.

 Praetorian Imperial Guard/Astra Militarium.

 A couple of Praetorian Troopers. The first I have painted in about 7 years!
Quick paint job for the tabletop.

 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings range ME54 Easterling Raider.
I first took the foot miniature and a spare Easterling horse.

 Secondly I removed the tab, and bend the legs slightly more apart. Then using a scalpel I shaved the boots, boot fur, and parts of the rather voluminous trousers. I also cut of some of the fur on the horses saddle.

Final outcome.
The converted leader flanked by his other Easterling raiders.

The next update should be the finished Tan Tang Archers. I might make a start on the Tigers as well.