I started painting the Fantasy Tribes Orcs in late October last year, and this blog post is a summary of just how far I have got.
The aim was to try out the idea of regiment sized based units, something which I have since discovered other people have been pursuing as well. I chose the pre-slotta Fantasy Tribes Orcs as I thought they would work well with this concept, and I also liked the figures as well. The outcome and the output has been quite pleasing. I love the look of the miniatures of the larger bases, they give the regiments as more natural feel of spacing and moment. These stated of as an experiment, and after looking at other peoples basing, I am looking to be more creative with bases for some of the other armies in the future. For now I am concentrating on 1st/2nd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle armies, primarily Goblinoids, but later moving onto some of my other early, pre-slotta armies, especially those in the 1st Edition Forces of Fantasy booklet 'The Book of Battalions'.
The other thing has been the output boost. I have found it very easy to paint large amounts of miniatures quite quickly. My approach has been more for tabletop quality, and I am aiming for a 2nd Edition Fantasy look, rather than the contemporary highly painted and detailed miniatures. That said, I am not approaching them in a 'slapdash' manner, it is just that I am going for an older, less complicated look, with more emphasis on painting banners, shields, and character models, which I feel befits the era and miniatures. So far it's been fun.
I am in fact coming to the end of my Fantasy Tribes Orc collection, with only the stone throwers left to do. I am next looking to focus on the completing the Orcs forces from the Bloodbath at Orcs Drift scenario, using only the C15 Slotta based Orcs, although based on the regimental bases. I am also looking to get some pre-slotta goblins painted and based, some of whom will be part of Rug Longtooths army which is detailed in the 'The Book of Battalions'. In addition, I am in the final stages of assembling a pre-slotta Chaos army, based on Gyokurinti's Raiders.
Enjoy :)
There are seven regiments of Orcs, Harboths Orcs (1st Edition), Mudat's Half Orcs, Despoiling Hobgoblins, Notlob's Artillery, two smaller units of crossbow Orcs, three units of Orc archers, two units of Lesser Goblins, two Orc Wyvern riders, a pre slotta C16 Orc Hero, an Orc Wizard, and a pre slotta C16 Orc Chieftain with an Ogre standard bearer (on the 50mm round base) as the army general.
For my 2nd Edition Fantasy Battle Armies I have decided to put the Army Generals on command bases, usually 50mm lipped round bases. I have done this as I like the idea of little dioramas around the General, or maybe just a very snazzy and imposing base. I have seen this done before both in the old 1980s miniatures, and more recent ones for other rule sets. The extra miniatures themselves are just or decoration, although if I extend this idea to my 3rd edition fantasy any standard bearers could be used as the Army Standard.
Anyway, this General (who I have yet to think of a name for!) is the old C16 Orc 'Orc Chieftain' model. I really like this miniature as he look confident and cocky enough to be an Orc Warlord. The miniature itself looks to be a sculpt from the 1st Edition Harboth miniature. His standard bearer is a converted Ogre Trooper from Golgfag's Ogre Mercenaries.
I really liked this miniature and was considering using him as a regimental leader, but I thought it was a waste. So I based him up individually and he will act as an independent hero. Despite basing the regiment on the big bases I am still having certain miniatures, mainly heroes and wizards, individually based so they can have that extra freedom to attach themselves to different regiments or go off on specific missions.
They never made and Fantasy Tribes or pre-slotta Or Wizards (there were a couple of Half-Orc ones). So I have used an old, slightly damaged Nick Lund Orc from the BC4 Mighty Ugezod's Death Commandos.
I have done a blog update solely on this, and the one below here:
http://goblinlee.blogspot.com/2024/01/fantasy-tribes-orc-fto-13-wyverns-and.html
I quite pleased to have the full command for this as the champion, 'Yaskin Forit', is quite a rare miniature.
This was a regiment I never collected in the 1980s but the 2010s! Again, like Harboths, I am quite pleased to have the complete command set as they aren't always easy to find.
I have a lots of sentimental liking for this regiment as it was on of the first sets of miniatures I purchased back in the 1980s. It took me a few years to complete the set and I am quite happy to finally have them properly painted.
I chose the orange look for the Hobgoblin flesh as it was the one I associate with the Hobgoblins in the 1980s, and it suits them. I made sure to keep the tone muted though, least I have a regiment of Oompa Loompas!
Many of these became part of the C15 Armoured Orcs range.
The banner was originally used by one of the Polearm armed Orc regiments, but I swapped them over as it match the spear armed Orcs shields better.
I have selected the Orcs with the half moon shield, and painted them up to match the paint scheme of the Polearm Orcs, who some of whom also have the half moon shield. I have also mixed a few non archer models in with them to give some variety.
These are lovely miniature, but the bows can be very fragile. I have had to replace several bows with bent brass rod.
I opted for an olive green/brown flesh colour just to vary the look of the army and because some of the old 1980s Orcs were occasionally painted this colour.
These are so tiny. They were a race in 1st/2nd Edition Warhammer, which was then superseded in it's function by the Snotlings (which were introduced in 1986, which were initially named 'Micro Goblins', I clearly remember buying a packed called this in 1987).
Anyway, these tiny goblins are part of the army of Rug Longtooth, from the 1st Edition Book of Battalions, and a part of Mim's Regiment.
Next update could be anything. I am currently painting Fantasy Tribes Dwarfs, but I have an idea of painting a pre-slotta Chaos army, as well painting more Orcs based on the 'Bloodbath at Orcs Drift' scenario Orc armies. I also have painted more Iron Claw Squats than I have posted on this blog, so I have a lot of options.
Great looking army Lee, and I'm coming to like these unit bases as it allows a lot more with the basing work, and allows each stand to tell a story.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dave. As I progress I am hoping to add more scenery and some specific miniatures to tell stories and give individual character to each of the bases, as well as selecting miniatures which can lend an identity to the regiments.
DeleteWhat a splendid post. A fantasy tribes orc charging with spear was one of the very first miniatures I ever owned. A beautiful collection and a formidable looking army. Congratulations on these. I look forward to seeing the dwarves.
ReplyDeleteThank you. The Orcs charging with spears/polearms are a lovely set of miniatures, they really have a feel of movement and feel like they are really advancing on some poor hapless foe.
DeleteA very fine looking army.
ReplyDeleteThank you, glad you like them .
DeleteNow *this* is some proper Old World. I can't really state how awesome does this look. Congrats, what a magnificent work!
ReplyDeleteThank you Suber. I really wanted to give them that 1st/2nd Edition Fantasy Battle vibe ( I started gaming with 2nd Edition in 1986).
DeleteGreat looking army
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteNice to see them painted up. Regarding the Orc's Drift scenario, I would love to know what the army deal actually consisted of. I bought a lot of orcs from ebay that contained all the named orc characters including Hagar but came with Harboth's orcs, not C15 orcs, and the seller said they purchased them direct from GW mailorder at the time.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteApart from the named characters, there were no official Orc troops for the scenario. However, as all the character miniatures except Hagar (who was unique to the scenario) were the new slotta based C15 range, so it was likely that early mail orders would have been from that range, sculpted by the Perry Twins, with the last batch being sculpted by Kev Adams in 1986.
I don't think GW were still supplying pre slotta miniatures by then, although they still had stock of them, and some pre slotta ranges could be mailed ordered until about 1986, with some of the pre slotta Regiments of Renown, including the old version of Harboths, made it into mid 1987 as part of Mail Order sales.
Concerning Harboths, it depends which version you have. If his mail order was a lot later than 1985, then GW might have honoured the deal by adding whatever Orcs they had to hand. By 1987 more of the later 1980s Orc ranges designed by Kevin Adams were bring released, including the new version of Harboth's Orc with bows and slotta bases. An example of this was when sent off for the Slann army deal for the Magnificent Sven offer in 1987, but by them they no longer produced the miniatures from the release sheet, and so sent me a big box of Slann from the 1986 released C32 range.
Hope this helps.
So inspiring. Thank you for your work.
ReplyDeleteThank you, glad you are enjoying them.
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