Orc Siege Gun

 I'll be taking part in the Old World Army Challenge again in 2024, with an amusing little WHFB 3rd edition Empire Army with Halfling Allies. In prepping for January 1st, I've been very much in an Oldhammer frame of mind, and have been keeping myself busy with some of the orcs in my collection; even if I'm taking a break for the duration of the OWAC, I'm thinking the Oldhammer Orc project is going to be a constant for me, because there will always be something to add to it, and it gives me so much joy. 

The latest figure to be completed is this bunch from Warmonger Miniatures - Here we have mercenary orc "Curroneth" with his Orcquebus siege gun and crew. Another Kev Adams sculpt (like the bulk of my army), I think the mercenary orcs he did for Warmonger are some of his best and most underrated sculpts; the landsknecht style clothing and the sheer volume of looted goods they're crusted with cry out for bright colors and reward the patient painter. 

The "orclings" forming the gun rest as well as the reloading crew all came with Curroneth, but I added another one, similarly dressed in puff-and-slash and admiring himself in a hand mirror; I painted his clothes to match Curroneth's, with quartered red-yellow and blue-white. 

I also drilled out the gun barrels; I'd gotten a little bit of flack on social media for not drilling out the horns some of my musicians were blowing, so I figured I'd get ahead of that. 

Other than the "Leadbelcher" cannon in the 3rd edition list, orcs have not had access to gunpowder weapons in Warhammer Fantasy Battles; I figure I'll use this as a proxy Rock Lobba catapult if I ever get a chance to play. 

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Finally, I have something very cool to share. Last week, my wife Gina found out that I have hobby "white whales" - old figures that I'd love to get my hands on given a chance. She asked for a list of what some of these white whales were, and got to work. 

Top of the list was the 6th edition WHFB "Orc Warboss on Wyvern" - I fell in love with this kit the very first time I walked into a Games Workshop store in August 2001. They had a painted example on a turntable in the display case and I was absolutely entranced - the short neck and bulldog face on the wyvern was so cool to 14 year old me.

Alas, I had neither the money nor the attention span to focus long enough to build a 2000-pt 6th edition army; I bought a few boxed sets here and there - Night Goblins, Orcs, Skeletons, Chaos Warriors - but never managed to get far enough to be thinking about characters. So I never bought the Warboss on Wyvern. 

Earlier this week, it arrived:

It feels surreal to hold it in my hands. It had become a pipe dream, a mythical "if I see one for sale that's not in too-terrible a shape, that doesn't cost a kidney." I don't think I was expecting to ever actually get one. It might not get painted until spring, because my priming window is rapidly closing for the year, but I'm excited to finally get a chance to paint it.