Fantasy Tribes Orc FTO 13 Wyverns, and Fantasy Tribes Dwarfs.

 I've been busy painting again, making good progress with the old pre slotta fantasy Tribes Orcs, and also a few Dwarfs.

As I have mentioned previously on my blog I am basing the miniatures on regiment sized bases, and taking a more tabletop look to the painting (but still taking care), which I have found is helping with batch painting. Both of these things are quite enjoyable and also mean I am making a lot of progress. I already have another three Orc regiments nearly finished on the painting table, and there are some Goblins there too!

Anyway, I have painted two Fantasy Tribes Orc Wyverns. These were sculpted in the early 1980s by the Alan and Michael Perry. There is a useful link to the whole Fantasy tribes range here:
https://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Orcs_-_FTO_Fantasy_Tribe_(solid_base)

I have two of the three version of the Wyvern, versions 1 and 3. As for the Orcs, like all of the Fantasy Tribes range there are a myriad of different versions of the the same basic body sculpts (something I quite like). I have versions 8 and 13 of the riders. I didn't have any of the spears which they were originally supplied with, so I used a pair of pole arms from by bits box.

In addition, I have painted a few Fantasy Tribes Dwarfs. I am basing their army on the 'Dwarfs of Horrorwell' army list from the 1st Edition Warhammer supplement 'Forces of Fantasy'. I have painted these as an aside to the Orcs for the time being, more as an experiment, but I shall be returning to the army soon.

Enjoy :)

FTO13 Orc War Wyvern with Orc variant 8.

FTO13 Orc War Wyvern with Orc variant 13.

Alternate view.

1st Edition Forces of Fantasy supplement.

The Dwarfs of Horrorwell, a sample army from the Book of Battalions.
I have been collecting enough Fantasy Tribes Dwarfs to complete this army, and I shall be painting some more of these as and when.

Dwarf Crossbowmen from the Horrorwell Garrison, led by Captain Harfin.
As I was reading the background to the whole Horrorwell army it stuck me that it kept referring to the Dwarfs as being conscripted into the army. This gave me the idea of the Dwarfs joining an army very much like a 20th Century or modern army, where the conscripts and recruits are supplied with standard uniform and equipment. To this end I have decided to paint most of the dwarfs with the same (army looking olive green) uniform. Only the shield colours are different, to designate different regiments.

Rear view.

The Grimditch Garrison entry.

Part of the The Grimditch Garrison.

(The slightly ineffectual!?) Captain Perriwinkle Buryman and his Troopers.

The Grimditch Garrison crossbowmen.

Rear view.

Orcs advance on elements of the Horrorwell Garrison.

The Orc battle line closes in!

Next update will be more Orcs, and maybe some Goblins!

The army grows: More Fantasy Tribes Orcs.

 I've had a busy Christmas and New Year. Apart from working through most of it, I have spent a lot of time painting more Fantasy Tribes Orcs and basing them on the regiment sized bases. I even re-based and tinkered with the paintwork of the pre-slotta Harboth and the Black Mountain Boys Regiment of Renown which I painted some years ago. It appears I have accentually started painting up an army!

After my last blog post I discovered that the Mantic Games rules set Kings of War encourages the idea of regiment sized bases. In addition, many other people have adopted this idea, as well as basing their miniatures with a frontage of five miniatures and a depth of four. So I have adopted this look from the infantry regiments, although it might be disadvantageous for rank bonuses when playing Warhammer. I have retained a five by two base for some archer units, but these I can double up if necessary for other wargames rules. I have done this because I am planning to recreate some of the old armies from sample armies in 1st/2nd/3rd Edition, and some of those units were ten strong. So consequently I have re-based the regiment from the last blog post.

I have had a lot of fun painting these. It's nice to get back to painting some Goblinoids, and trying my hand at hand painting some banners (not my strong point). My aim is to paint most of the miniatures in this, and my other armies, to a good wargames table standard, with a little bit more care and attention taken with heroes, individual monsters, banners, and some of the random things I might end up painting. I want to make a concerted start on tackling my many fantasy armies, and so think this is the best approach. I'm a good table top standard painter, but not really Golden Demon or Cool Mini or Not level, and so I don't want to get too bogged down on hyper detailed painting miniatures which will largely be for the tabletop.

Enjoy :)

The army so far.
There are three Regiments of Orcs with Halberds, one regiment with hand weapons and shields, two crossbow regiments, Harboths regiment, and Notlobs Bolt Throwers, and an Orc Wizard.

Harboth and the Black Mountain Boys Regiment of Renown.

The first of the halberd regiments.
For all three halberd regiments I have adopted a yellow colour for them so the tie in together. I have based the shield design, a yellow moon on a blue background, on the shield from the artwork on the cover of the Warhammer 2nd Edition Fantasy Battle box.
The above standard is a lose copy of one from the 1st Edition Fantasy Battle Forces of Fantasy set.

The second of the halberd regiments.
The standard is another copy from the Warhammer 2nd Edition Fantasy Battle box.

The third of the halberd regiments.
The standard is my own variation of a style of banner I have seen over the years, with a mix of random made and 1st Edition Fantasy Battle Forces of Fantasy ones.

The orcs with hand weapons and shields from my last blog update.

Orcs with crossbows.

More orcs with crossbows.
To give a little variation I have painted these in  brown/olive green flesh tone.

Notlob's Orc Artillery.
Although a little later than the Fantasy Tribes Orcs they are still of the same era and seemed to fit in well. I have based the whole bolt thrower team on a 60mm round base as I think that they look better in their mini dioramas. I have based Notlob separately to act as an independent hero to the Artillery battery. As a note, they are all the old Notlob era bolt throwers rather than the last 1980s one.

Orc wizard.
This miniature is actually Mormo Jabberbinder from the BC4 Mighty Ugezod's Death Commandos box set. The tip of his staff is missing, and he was languishing in a box for years looking for gainful employment, and thought he would work well here. The Fantasy Tribes range of orcs didn't have any orc wizards, so here he is. I wanted him to stand out without being too much, so opted for muted brown clothing with a bright red pointy hat, and re flowers on the base to balance the whole model.

On the painting table: Fantasy Tribes Orc Wyvern riders.

More from the painting table: Fantasy Tribe Dwarfs!

Next update shall be more Fantasy Tribes miniatures.