State of the Orc Army, November 2025

 So looking back...I haven't gotten my entire Oldhammer orc and goblin army out on the table since May 2024. I have added a couple of units and big figures to the army since then, and some discussion around Warhammer: The Old World and One Page Rules Regiments with the guys I've been playing Dracula's America with got me inspired to carry everything up from the basement, array it out on the dining room table, and take stock of where I'm at.

This is my midlife crisis, by the way. No sports cars, or giant tattoos, or peroxide-blonde mistresses half my age. No, my midlife crisis is building an all-metal Warhammer army that weighs 30 lbs. The mistress might be less expensive...

First up, the goblins - 39 (plus shaman) with hand weapons, and 20 (plus shaman) with bows, two small units of 5 wolf riders with bows, and a wolf chariot, plus a character riding a wolf. I need to dig out and paint some shields for the hand weapons unit. I've got figures here from Warmonger, Knightmare, Black Tree Design, Midlam Miniatures and Games Workshop; I have another unit of wolf riders from Satyr Art Studios, as well as a couple of frankensteined chariots (including one being ridden by a shaman) in my project box still.

Next up, "Da Red Bastids" - 25 Orcs with hand weapons and shields from Warmonger Miniatures. Behind them are four Bog Trolls sculpted by Drew Williams of Satyr Art Studios years ago; I bought them from him before he sold the molds to the now-defunct Troll Soup Miniatures. I have another four Bog Trolls (purchased from Troll Soup) in my project box.

I better look at the trolls. I would run these as River Trolls in Warhammer, I think. The little runt is from Warmonger Miniatures, and the Empire casualty is a Landsknecht casualty from Warlord Games.

Up next are the Old Guard - this unit is made up almost entirely of eBay rescues, and are all sculpts initially released between 1985 and 1996. Figures here are from Games Workshop, Marauder Miniatures, Alternative Armies and Heartbreaker Miniatures.

Behind them are some artillery pieces - an eBay rescue "Doom Diver" from Games Workshop (I have another, new in box, that a friend found in their attic 20+ years after buying it), and an "Orcquebus" from Warmonger Miniatures that I proxy as a Rock Lobber. 

Up next are the "Kingbreakers" - another unit of Warmonger Orcs. I had two figures on a 25x50 base in the back row that the spaced out movement tray didn't allow me to use, so I've subbed in two orcs I painted for a baggage train. 

Behind them you can see my giant, from Old School Miniatures - I've named him Simon, after the friend who gifted him to me. The runt on the base came with the Doom Diver. 

"The Blackfire Boyz" are "Mercenary Orcs" from Warmonger Miniatures and in some of my favorite orcs that Kev Adams ever sculpted; they're encrusted with detail that brings them to life without bogging down the painting. I've painted them in the colors of Averland, the Imperial Province bordering on the Black Fire Pass and frequent defenders against orc raids in the lore of Warhammer Fantasy. The idea being, they've begun imitating the tactics of their imperial foes, and dressing in uniforms stripped off the dead. This was my first big paper banner (and first time drilling a hand for a 100mm steel flagpole) and I'm still really pleased with how it turned out.

Behind them are kind of an odd unit. These 10 "Barnorsk Great Orcs" I got from Black Tree Design in 2018, and were what initially sparked my desire to build an all-metal orc and goblin army. The paintwork is not up to my current standards and I was never happy with the old Citadel shields I put on them, so I'm not sure I'd put them on the gaming table these days; I have quite a few more (obtained with no small degree of frustration given the issues one has these days trying to buy figures from BTD!) primed and awaiting painting, so the thought is always in the back of my mind to retire these fellows and honor them as the progenitors of the entire project. 

I'm really proud of my Boar Boyz. These are from Knightmare Miniatures, and I did a fair amount of converting on these with weapon swaps, creating a standard bearer, and a musician who has a lute on his back. I'm proud of how many pig jokes I worked in - "Sum Pig," "Pork Chop," "Hog Wild," etc., and the banner is a flying pig. I think the supersized banner didn't work out quite as well this time.

"Harboth's Orc Archers," from 1987. I feel a special affinity to these guys - they first released right around the time I was born. I managed to score a phenomenally good deal on a full box set, plus some extra figures, back in 2020, and doing a full unit of 20 with freehanded face shields and a paper banner felt so satisfying. I think I can honestly say this is my favorite unit in the whole army. They're on a split movement tray so I can readily deploy them in two ranks of 10, or four ranks of 5. 

And then the characters:

I'm still really pleased with the Shaman on Wyvern figure I painted earlier this year. Still have to paint some banners for him though. 

So what's next? I have a half-finished unit of orc boyz with a shaman accompanying them, and two more units primed and waiting their turn, plus a couple chariots primed and awaiting painting/final assembly. Then there's a unit of night goblins that could be primed, more goblin archers, more trolls...I have a lot in the back log. 

I think I got demoralized for a while with this project between not having a nice display cabinet for them and realizing I just wasn't enjoying Warhammer: The Old World. The guys I played with during the summer were nice enough, but having to stop every turn and consult three rulebooks plus an errata document wasn't my idea of a good time and the other guys at the game store were quickly leaning into tournament mindsets, and that's just not me. 

Talking about One Page Rules with the guys I play Dracula's America with felt reinvigorating; I've always treated this project as some blend of actual gameable army and art project, a means of saying "Hey, 14 year old me, we finally have a really cool Warhammer army! We did it!" and I think right now I feel like gaming with them again for the first time in months. And maybe that means I'll finish painting another regiment, maybe some more chariots. Maybe I'll finally get my second orc on wyvern out and assembled in 2026. 

Reaper Miniatures' "Crazy Cat Lady"

 So this is a miniature that my wife Gina requested I paint for her, because she feels like this is a good representation of where she's going with her life (though so far at least, we've been able to keep things to a manageable one cat at a time). And it's...been a bit since she made that request. To the point where she's probably forgotten that she requested it. 

I found the blister pack while tidying and organizing the other week and said to myself, "self, you need to get this painted tout suite." So I got her cleaned up, based, and added two cats (off a sprue of six provided) to the base at her feet. I got her primed on a warm day last week and got to work.

None of the cats were painted to match any current or deceased cat that we've had in our lives; instead, we've got a Russian Blue, a Tuxedo, and an Orange. 

Just gluing her inside an acrylic case to protect her, and she'll be done. I'm going to surprise Gina with this figure as one of her Christmas gifts.

Figures Acquired in 2025: 246

Figures Painted in 2025: 170

Moving Forward on the Maya

I received a package today from Gringo 40s containing a small assortment of their Maya figures - shamans, a chieftain, princess, a few peasants carrying packs of maize and some casualty figures. Ged at Gringo 40s went well above and beyond in my interactions with him - detailed communication throughout (some of the figures I'd ordered had had their mold blow out, necessitating substitutions), a bonus figure as a thank you for ordering, and some hints about a planned expansion to the Gringo40s Mesoamerican line.

Naturally, I couldn't wait to get them on the workbench, cleaned up and glued to bases. The weather should be clear and well above freezing the rest of the week, so priming them is going to be possible. The chieftain, princess, casualties and peasants went on 40mm round bases - to serve as Warlords, Panicked markers and "People" objective tokens under Tribal's rules. The princess, with her extravagant headgear, could easily be either a Warlord or an objective to be rescued, kidnapped, or even sacrificed in game. 

This cleared out the last of my stock of 40mm round bases from Renedra, so I will need more at some point in the not too distant future. 

I also finished some painting for the Maya tonight!

I was anxious to get a good handle on painting Mesoamerican skin tones, so I grabbed the five figures showing the most collective skin from my pile of Lucid Eye "Jaguar Tribes" ersatz Maya. These five absolute madmen, dressed in naught but a cotton belt, are carrying hornets' nests to throw at their enemies. 

While there is some questionable historical support for hornets being weaponized by the Maya in the Popul Vuh, the idea of picking up a hornets' nest, carrying it to the battlefield and throwing it at someone hoping they get stung more than you do seems to originate in the video game "Medieval II: Total War." Still, the legend is good enough to warrant a place on my table. 

I like the way the skin tone came out - over black primer, this is two coats of Reaper "Bronzed Shadow," washed liberally with GW "Reikland Flesh Shade" before getting re-highlighted with more Bronzed Shadow. Hair is Reaper "Coal Black," which has a bit of blue-green to it; I really like it for any sort of organic black like hair, and use it quite a bit for black leather as well. It's a color Reaper only offers in December - I've got about half a bottle left but I'll probably pick some more up next month just to ensure I don't run out! The cotton cloth is base coated in Reaper "Yellowed Bone," washed with GW "Seraphim Sepia" and highlighted along the edges with "Creamy Ivory."

I should probably go in with a micron pigma pen or a fine-tipped brush and apply some tattoos to these guys; I was reminded of the 2006 Mel Gibson movie "Apocalypto" tonight, so I'll probably try to rewatch it soon for inspiration. 

Tomorrow night I should really get my new recruits started for Dracula's America - can't play my next game with unpainted figures! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 246

Figures Painted in 2025: 169

Anniversary Acquisitions

 So because my wife Gina and I dated for so long before getting married, we've opted to celebrate two anniversaries a year - our wedding anniversary, on July 28th, and our dating anniversary, on November 18th. This year marks 15 years since we first met, and we've given each other our gifts early.

We both have hobbies that we've been in for a long time, so to take any guess work out of giving each other hobby supplies we both maintain wishlists that the other can pick from for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, etc. 

This year, she got me a few Old West releases from Brigade Games - a chuck wagon, and a set of figures including a cook and two cowboys eating dinner. Perfect for recreating *that* iconic scene from Blazing Saddles!

I'll have to sort out a large enough base to put the wagon, mules, cook and dining cowboys on, and maybe a campfire as well. Then figure out how to assemble the wagon! 

She also picked me up a physical copy of "Wars of Insurgency," the modern conflict ruleset from the man, the myth, the legend, Mike Demana over at Lead Legionaries. I've got the PDF already, but I can only grasp a ruleset so much from reading a PDF. I really do need a physical copy in front of me, and Mike is such a great guy that it's a pleasure to support his game design endeavors. I do have most of a 200-point force for Wars of Insurgency already painted, with only maybe 13 figures left to go. Whether that ever sees the tabletop (I'll probably need to paint an opposition force as well for that!) or not remains to be seen. 

2026 Goals #1: 6th Century "Star Wars"

 

That's a heck of a title, isn't it?

Let me explain.

Looking ahead to 2026 and planning my hobby goals, one thing I want to do is a project centered on pre-European Contact Maya culture. This stems from my friend Chris gifting me copies of some Maya miniatures he'd had sculpted and cast, which got me reading about these fascinating people of Central America for the first time since the Mesoamerican history class I took in college almost 20 years ago. 

The figures Chris gave me. They're based and primed now.

In reading "A Forest of Kings," by Linda Schele and David Freidel, I came across the concept of Maya "Star Wars." The Maya of the first millennium CE were every bit as into astronomy/astrology as the Ancient Egyptians, and they had a specific type of warfare in which city-states would attack and even overthrow one another in conjunction with certain appearances of the planet Venus (known as Chak ek', the "Great Star") in the night sky. Linda Schele named these Venus-driven conflicts "Star Wars."

Well who could resist?

To go with these figures from Chris, I've bought about 30 figures from Lucid Eye's "Savage Core" range - their "Jaguar Tribes" figures are passable Maya/generically Mesoamerican - as well as a few Maya character figures from Paymaster Games (with an eye towards getting more) and a few days ago ordered another 10 Maya figures from Gringo 40s. 

I've also bought some terrain: two MDF temples and two pairs of engraved columns from Things From The Basement, and so far two Aztec-style houses and a pair of Olmec heads from Acheson Creations. I even got a Lemax cobblestone-stamped vinyl mat from my local craft store, designed for use with Christmas village displays, to form a city square. There will be more houses, grain storage, etc., ordered from Acheson in the coming months, and probably more columns (and maybe some walls/lookout towers) from Things From The Basement. 

So what's the plan?

I want to put on a game of Maya warfare at the June 2026 Wargames Among the Warplanes show that's able to seat four players, in which one side (ideally, two players each taking one "wing" of an invading army) attacks a Maya city-state being defended by the other side (again, ideally two players each taking one "wing" of a defending army). Each army has specific goals (capture slaves/sacrifices, loot a treasury, protect the King's daughter, etc) so that victory isn't simply a matter of "we move all armies to the middle of the table and roll dice until one side's all dead."

Ruleset: Right now I'm looking at Mana Press' "Tribal, 2nd Edition" rules for this. Each warband will be about 16-18 figures (three units of five, a warlord, and a hero, maybe two heroes), which feels very doable painting-wise. And it's a ruleset that's already designed to handle ceremonial warfare among pre-gunpowder peoples, where how much Honor (or, since the game is written by non-Americans, Honour) one gains and loses is as important if not more so than actual victory in the field. 

I haven't played Tribal, but I've got 7 months to practice and get enough of a handle on it to confidently teach the game at an event. I think Chris has played it so maybe I can talk him into giving me a hand. 

The figures I have right now are enough to yield two warbands. So I'm already off to a great start in terms of purchasing, I just have to start slinging paint at them. I've got four figures I need to paint for my Dracula's America posse ahead of them, but once those are taken care of I plan to jump on painting my Maya. The sooner they're painted the sooner they're on the gaming table. 

I might grab another eight or nine packs of Lucid Eye Jaguar Tribes to make up the second two warbands, or I might order a bunch of Maya from Gringo 40s; the only thing I'm maybe worried about there is I've heard their alloy is softer, so spears and atlatls tend to be on the bendy side. Ged at Gringo 40s has also let me know in the email exchange following my order that he's planning on expanding their Mesoamerican offerings in the coming year. So either way I'm anticipating another Gringo 40s order or two or three in the coming months. 

As mentioned above, I've made a start on terrain collecting. For a lot of my terrain I'm taking beaucoup inspiration from Mark Morin's 2022 Mesoamerican project; reading his blog posts reminded me of Acheson's offerings (which fortuitously came back into production exactly when I started considering this project). Things From The Basement also ran a 20% off sale on their Mesoamerican-inspired "Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago" line of buildings a few months ago, allowing me to get both temples and a pair of column sets at a discount. 

I'm still so damn proud of how these turned out.

I also have my jungle terrain that I scratchbuilt; it surprisingly does not provide that much coverage on a 3x3 table, much less the 4x4 I'd want to use for an event game. So producing more bases of jungle terrain will be a necessity; fortunately, they're pretty fast and easy to make all things considered! Maybe do another 20 terrain bases? 

I've got a pair of Olmec stone heads from Acheson, one intact and one ruined; I'll incorporate these into terrain bases for variety and because the Maya were aware of the Olmec people and saw them as their ancestors, so having Olmec ruins on the table is not anachronistic or anything like that. Less anachronistic than having "Aztec" branded architecture, though from what I've seen in my readings so far there was probably a lot of overlap between cultures in that regard. I'm not expecting any tenured Maya studies scholars showing up at my wargaming table! 

So let's start breaking this down into steps:

1. Paint 34 figures that I already have cleaned, based and primed.
2. Begin practicing Tribal, using the solo rules provided in the rulebook and Chris' help if he's amenable.
3. Buy and paint an additional 34 figures (plus additional figures for objective markers).
4. Assemble and paint the terrain I already have.
5. DETERMINE HOW MANY MORE BUILDINGS I WANT TO HAVE ON THE TABLE. This is a project I can easily see growing dangerously, to the point where I end up with a village filling half the table and that's probably not necessary. I just need to evoke the feel of a Maya city on the tabletop, not build an accurate recreation. My love of cluttered urban table setups does not need to come into play here! It helps that the Maya didn't have wheeled vehicles or carts, domesticated animals, crates, barrels, garbage cans or any of my usual street scatter. 
6. Buy, assemble and paint the remaining buildings I want/need.
7. Produce another 20 bases of jungle terrain. 
8. Make sure I can pack it all securely and ensure it fits in my car. Another vitally important step in the process! 

This feels like a big project but one that breaks down into manageable chunks; one eats an elephant a bite at a time, and I feel like this divides neatly into phases or sub-projects that I can hopefully rotate between to keep things feeling fresh. Having an outlined plan will also hopefully help me stay motivated and moving forward. 

I do also want to make sure I'm allowing myself grace to paint other things along the way; if I need to paint new posse members for Dracula's America, or if I want to paint aliens for Majestic 13, I should feel free to do so and not let my anxiety convince me that I'm meaningfully taking away from the larger Maya project by doing so. 

I think that sums up the project outline, at least for now. As we wargamers know all too well, no plan survives contact with the enemy, so we'll see what needs to change as I work my way through it. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 244

Figures Painted in 2025: 164

How Have I Done? A Look Back At My 2025 Goals

 Last year, I wrote a blog post laying out 2025 goals for myself for the hobby - "an actionable plan for responsible hobbying," I called it. And while it's not been quite a year since writing that, I think it's a good time to look back over what I've accomplished towards that set of goals. Also, I've wrenched my knee good and hard and hobbling downstairs to my work bench is more hassle than I'm eager to engage in right now. 

I set three goals for myself:

• Focus my efforts on one era and locale - modern urban skirmishes.
• Play at least two games a month, solo or otherwise.
• Paint more figures than I buy. 

So how'd I do?

1) Focus my efforts on one era and locale: I did really well with this for the first six months of the year. And I think part of that came down to me having a specific goal I was painting towards - the Spring Wargames Among the Warplanes show, where I put on a modern urban skirmish using Fistful of Lead. After that is where I started to drift and flail about, picking up new games, new eras (ECW with Devilry Afoot, Mayans, Modern Africa, Dracula's America) and falling off the wagon of discipline. I had initially intended to demo Devilry Afoot at the fall Wargames Among the Warplanes, but I didn't feel confident enough in my grasp of the game, and defaulted back to a modern urban skirmish using Perilous Tales. 

2) Play at least two games a month: This one I aced, because if I did have a month where I only played one game, I made up for it with three games the next month. And I don't see myself falling off the wagon with this one in the last month and a half of 2025. No notes, I'm great at this.

3) Paint more figures than I buy: So as of right now I'm 80 figures in the red. And a lot of that is directly attributable to the post-June flailing I mentioned in point 1 above; picking up new eras meant picking up new figures. Some of these purchases are more forgivable than others, in my eyes. Getting invited to join a group of guys playing Dracula's America and consequently buying 15 or so Wild West figures and getting half of them painted up to start playing with immediately is one thing; adding 20-30 figures to my "Back of Beyond" leadpile because I'm interested in the period and I've got a pipe dream of running a game (that I would have to paint 2-4 separate armies for!) at an event with them is something different. 

So what can I learn from all this?

I think going forward I want to set some more specific goals for myself, in the form of "I am painting these figures because I want to play X game with them on Y date." Having Wargames Among the Warplanes in June kept me pretty well focused from January on, with a few small side forays along the way. 

I also think I've done pretty well overall with not impulse buying (at least not too severely). Any time I made a purchase it was "I have a project in mind for this," even if that project (*cough* Back of Beyond *cough*) was a bit nebulous. Dracula's America is where I've done the best at that - I bought my initial posse, and only ordered 7 additional figures, of which only one was really an "impulse" figure (I couldn't resist throwing a Rooster Cogburn-lookalike into an order from Brigade Games!). Again, I think the more tightly focused and detailed my gaming plan is, the better I do with the shopping aspect of things. 

For 2026, I am looking at running games at both the spring and fall Wargames Among the Warplanes again, so maybe this means I set a "first six months" goal of prepping for the spring show, then a "next three months" goal of prepping for the fall show, and then after September I begin planning for 2027. I am thinking about attending "Fall-In!" convention in Pennsylvania next November (I've got a couple people tugging on my sleeve to attend, and the pictures on Facebook were enticing to say the least) if I can swing it financially; our driveway really needs to be redone and that is going to be a hefty chunk of cash. 

It's all going to take more thought; I'll get a blog post up in the coming weeks outlining specific hobby goals for 2026. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 244

Figures Painted in 2025: 164

Nickel City Smoke Shop (As Finished As It's Gonna Get in 2025!)

 Last night it began to snow here in Buffalo, NY. And it's been snowing all day today so far. Which means my window for priming and varnishing outdoors has closed until next spring.

The view from my WFH desk today.

Which means I can't get a coat of spray varnish on to the Nickel City Smoke Shop, and consequently can't glue the window panes into place (since I need to varnish first so the glass doesn't "frost"). It also means any furniture I order for this building likely won't get primed and painted until spring. 

So that means that, with the signs, posters and ads I glued on over the weekend, the Nickel City Smoke Shop is as done as it's going to get this year.

I'm really proud of the sign over the window. I eyeballed sizing on the sign itself when I was making it in MSPaint, cut it out and put it up against a 20x40mm base I'd sprayed black - and barely had to do any trimming to make it fit right. 

"Anaconda Malt Liquor" is a reference to the 2009 Blaxploitation spoof "Black Dynamite," in which the drink is a major plot point. I won't spoil it, but the scene of Black Dynamite and his companions decoding the hidden message in the label is a side-splitter. 

While doing Google Image Searches for posters and ideas for signs and, admittedly, with an eye towards emphasizing a run-down seediness to the terrain, I stumbled across an ad that ran on Facebook for a strip club in California offering "Welfare Wednesdays," offering discounts to patrons who could show proof they were receiving government assistance. It was so low-brow, so tacky, I immediately saved the picture to my terrain folder.  

And on the inside of the Smoke Shop, posters for "Up in Smoke" and "Nice Dreams" from Cheech and Chong.

I do still need to figure out something to put over the pegs from the awning that stick out on the inside.