Returning to The Old World

 I got invited to a group chat organizing regular games of Warhammer: The Old World at my local game store. The people in the group seem nice and are painting their miniatures - and playing at a points value where I'm not going to destroy my back lugging my all-metal orcs and goblins to the store. 

So I sat down and sorted out a 1000-pt army that should be relatively well balanced. I asked for a little bit of help on Reddit, given my past experiences with being left to my own devices to build army lists. If all goes according to plan I'll be playing games on both Wednesday and Thursday this week - and with my wife's blessing and encouragement, no less! 

Da Pig Hussas - 5 Orc Boar Boyz (Big'uns), with full command, cavalry spears and shields. Standard bearer has the enchanted Banner of Butchery and the leader is wearing a 'Eadbuttin' 'At.

Dem Wots Got Stickas - 20 Night Goblins (pretend they have hooded cloaks) with shortbows, hiding two manic Fanatics in their ranks. Next to them is Wee Whistle, a Level 3 Night Goblin shaman.

Da Red Bastids - 25 Orc Boyz with hand weapons and shields and a full command.

Harboth's Orc Archers - 15 Orc Boyz with warbows, shields and full command. Behind them is a Doom Diver catapult with an Orc Bully to improve morale.

Big Boss Yorzolg - Orc Big Boss, army general, great weapon, Trollhide Trousers and a Charmed Shield on a Boar Chariot.

How they're shown here is more or less my plan for deployment as well, though if I can put the Doom Diver Catapult on a hill I will do so. Hopefully the Pig Hussas and Yorzolg can hit some enemy units in the flanks and cause some extra damage that way while the orcs soak up some charges and the Night Goblins...well, they're mainly there to launch the ultra-destructive and uncontrollable fanatics into the center of the table. 

Finished: Orc Shaman on War Wyvern (Marauder Miniatures 1992)

 I haven't figured out banners for him that I like, but I'm calling this figure done for now.

This feels like a recruitment poster for being an orc. And honestly, I think the finished figure came out even better than I'd hoped; the yellow skin, the fade to red on the tail, the striping, the tigerskin saddle, the orange mohawk on the helmet, the tarnished bronze bits. I feel really good calling this a centerpiece model. 

I'm counting this as five models for the purposes of tracking - the wyvern, the rider, and the three "Lesser Goblins" on the base. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 115

Figures Painted in 2025: 121

Devilry Afoot: Witches and Hills

 A few more figures finished for Devilry Afoot, and starting on some terrain pieces. I should be able to get my first game in this weekend to get a feel for it!

First up are a trio of Witches - these are Cultist miniatures, sculpted by Kev Adams for a company called Dark Fable, which is sadly no longer around, its founder Mike Burns having passed away a few years ago. They are now available through Dragon Bait Miniatures in the US, along with Dark Fable's incredible line of Egyptian miniatures. I went with a simple scheme of grimy slightly-grayish brown robes and black hoods. 

Next, an incredibly sinister goat from Pulp Figures; part of an occult accessory pack I got a while back as part of Bob's "Arcane Academics" Kickstarter. This was a very simple paint job, spray black, drybrush dark gray, pick out horns and eyes. It will serve as a Pact Devil in game. 

Next up is going to be terrain. I've got STLs for a few Tudor-style cottages as well as a blacksmith's and watermill that I need to take to my friend Dave for printing. My wife got me a few pieces of scatter terrain - a pumpkin patch, pigsty and village well - as an early anniversary present that need assembly and painting, and I bought a "Battlefield in a Box" hill a few weeks ago after watching Big Lee's video on the subject, which needs flocking.

My wife is astonishingly good to me.

I've gotten the pumpkin patch and the pieces of the well primed (though the well does seem a bit overly large), and I want to get a piece of MDF to glue the pigsty to to keep it secure and in one piece once assembled. I've even got pigs for it! 

Tonight, however, I stopped procrastinating and started flocking the hill. 

 The hill arrives as just a brown-painted resin lump with some dirt texture that's been drybrushed, with the idea being that you flock it to match your home table. This is a mix of two different shades and coarsenesses of railroad flock from Woodland Scenics - $15 a bottle, which will last me years and years at the rate I go through it. This is the same mix I use on all my miniatures' bases these days, applied in patches over a "dirt" layer of flock. 

I have placed a couple orders to round out my bestiary for Devilry Afoot - zombies, bogeymen, a barghest and some redcaps, as well as a collection of innocents for them to threaten. So between that and the figures finished, it's time to update the tracker again. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 113

Figures Painted in 2025: 116

Finished Goblin Regiment

 I'm trying to work down my leadpile, and this regiment of goblins has been staring at me waiting to be finished since October. I painted the first dozen back in 2021 as part of the Old World Army Challenge, then came back to them last year to try and round them out to a regiment of useful size for Warhammer: The Old World. I got bogged down last year with seven figures left to go to reach my target of 40 figures. 

Tonight, I finished those last seven figures, giving me a unit of 39 goblins with a full command, accompanied by a shaman. There's still a few shields to paint and affix but overall I'm happy calling them done. The figures are a mix from Knightmare Miniatures, Harlequin/Black Tree Design, and Midlam Miniatures, all sculpted by Goblinmaster Kevin Adams.

My favorite figure in the unit is a bit of an easter egg in the back row - a goblin eating a meat pie (with a rat tail hanging out of it) and apparently burning his tongue on it. 

I've also knocked out a trio of treasure markers - I'm going to be running some demo games of Fistful of Lead on March 8th at my local game store, and I've put together a simple scenario with groups of orcs squabbling over the division of loot following a battle. I'm hoping I can lure a couple people in. I forget where the treasure pile with the shield and chest came from, but the other two are from Reaper Miniatures - and all three have been in my bits box for the better part of a decade. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 40

Figures Painted in 2025: 47

The Kingbreakers - 25 Orc Boyz

 I'm absolutely chuffed that I can say I've finished my second big block of Orc Boyz for my Oldhammer Orc Project. Again, the first 12 of these were painted in 2021 for the Old World Army Challenge; however, rather than using the standard bearer I'd originally painted for the unit (his banner made him effectively impossible to rank up unless I put him on the end of a row), I used the fellow I'd painted in April 2021 as a possible Battle Standard Bearer for the army as a whole. His standard - a couple of halberds and swords lashed together, topped by a skull wearing a crown - gave me the identity for this regiment once the last 13 figures were painted.

 

These are the Kingbreaker Tribe - years ago they ambushed and butchered a king and his retinue as they crossed the badlands, and now they wander the Old World, looking for his kingdom, now theirs by right. At least, this is what they believe to be the case. In truth, they ambushed a traveling theater troupe and killed an actor who happened to be wearing a painted cardboard crown at the time. His skull and crown now sit atop the Kingbreakers' standard pole. Everywhere they go, they point at the skull and ask "Was dis your king?"

This unit also contains my first "unit filler" base, if it can be called that; it's two figures based together on a 25x50mm base instead of individually on 25x25s to form a little vignette that sits in the last rank. I call it, "Performance Review."

Yes, the orc in the red vest is vigorously picking his nose, while the orc in blue looks on contemplatively; this is the third nose-picking figure I've painted for this army, and I think the fourth with a booger hanging out of his nose. It's part of the Oldhammer charm on display here; these are oafish orcs, essentially soccer hooligans with tusks, instead of lean, mean killing machines. These are orcs who are going to forget about the enemy regiment right in front of them to get into a shoving match among themselves, and that's something that's important to me with this project.

Da Red Bastids - 25 Orc Boyz

 Back in 2021, as part of the 4th Old World Army Challenge, I painted two blocks of 12 Orcs from Warmonger Miniatures. I love the pot-bellied, barefoot aesthetic of these orcs, as well as the sheer variety of sculpts available (including plenty of nose-pickers and raspberry-blowers!). 12 figures set these up nicely as units that could be used for Dragon Rampant or Warlords of Erewhon, but I knew if I ever wanted to play WHFB, Kings of War or Oathmark with this army, I'd need to bulk the units up. November 2022, I decided to finally do just that and purchased an extra 26 Orcs during Warmonger's Christmas sale. I painted three figures in January, got sick of using brush-on primer, and decided to wait until the weather warmed up and dried out so I could spray prime the rest.

Over the past week, I finished up the first unit, including a new banner and new shields (also from Warmonger) because I didn't want to be fussed trying to remember where the shields I'd used for the original 12 came from and getting more (I'm pretty sure they were WHFB 6th edition Skeleton shields, actually). No longer "Dem Lads Ova Dere" or "the Beans Regiment," they are reborn as Da Red Bastids tribe.

I even did the smart thing and numbered their bases so that I can rank them back up like this in the future.

OWAC-Bound and Warming Up

 

This year I'll be taking part in the fourth Old World Army Challenge, using it as an impetus to get a good start on my Orc and Goblins army project. I've built a straightforward, no-frills 1000 point list, using what I have on hand and planning a few strategic purchases from Warmonger Miniatures and Knightmare Miniatures, that should be comfortably doable within the six months of the challenge, and might possibly end up with a few extras getting painted as well, depending how things go.

To my great glee, my friend Neil has decided to build an Averlander force in parallel to my greenskins, which means once things get better on a virus front, he and I will be able to play Warhammer 3rd edition...an edition neither one of us is old enough to have experienced firsthand during its heyday. 

That will begin January 1st, and in the meantime, I decided to warm up by finishing some figures I started a year ago. These are ten "Barnorsk Great Orcs," originally released by Harlequin Miniatures circa 1996 and recently rereleased by Black Tree Design. I picked these up from the Indiegogo campaign Black Tree ran and they're kind of what catalyzed Project Greenskins for me. Getting them cleaned up, based and ranked made me decide I wanted a metal army, with as few duplicate sculpts as possible, and as many sculpted by Kev Adams as I could get my hands on. 

I'd gotten everything but the wood, leather, brass and details finished a year ago; I redid their skintones, as the highlights were too high-contrast for my liking, and then finished up the rest and touched up the few spots where the paint had been scraped off during their year in a box in the closet with some goblins and a Frostgrave warband.

The shields are some classic Warhammer shields I'd gotten through one of the Oldhammer Facebook groups, and I did them with brush-on primer after sticking them to a piece of cardboard for stability. Drawing inspiration from classic 'Eavy Metal examples from the late '80s and early '90s, especially studio painter Colin Dixon's work, I painted gruesome little snaggletoothed faces on each shield and did a bigger version on a piece of paper for the banner. I've done paper banners before (including for my Averlander Mordheim band two years ago), but this is definitely the most complex yet. Good practice for the OWAC, since I've got two units of Orcs that will be getting similar.

And now, the picture dump:

MORE DAKKA, BOYZ!

 As of this evening, work is officially done on my Ork Boyz from the last post.  Not much more to say here, other than that I'm really pleased with how they turned out.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ERE WE GO!

 I needed a bit of a break from Egyptians - I finished my Asar Spearmen, I'll post pictures shortly - so last night I pulled out some Space Orks I'd primed months ago and never started work on, and began painting them up as a crew for Wiley Games' Galactic Heroes and Wasteland Warriors rulesets.  The figure with the heavy machine-gun is a Games Workshop metal figure from Warhammer 40K, the rest are from Knightmare Games and I think sculpted by Kev Adams.  

Group shot of the squad

I managed to do skintones and then most of the cloth - trousers, padded tunics, the ratty shirt worn by the heavy weapons guy last night.  Metallic bits, leathers (they all have backpacks and an assortment of belt pouches) and details will get done today I think.  

Saluting, or trying to see where that errant shot went?

I think I really nailed the skintones here - over black primer, I laid down a basecoat of Reaper "Driftwood Brown," and once that was dry gave it a heavy wash of GW "Agrax Earthshade" to accentuate all the creases and wrinkles in their ugly faces.  Finally I lightly built up highlights of Vallejo "Dead Flesh" which is a wonderful yellow-green.  The end result to me reads as a very organic, natural green instead of the more cartoony colors favored by Games Workshop these days.  

The Boss and the lone GW figure.  I like the cigar hanging out of his mouth.

The Knightmare sculpts have a ton of personality to them that is a joy to paint and some charming details - I like how each one has a different hat on, and the fact that they're carrying stick grenades on their belts.  The boss has a giant stogie clenched in his teeth and most of them having earrings or nose rings.  

They look so happy to be causing mayhem!

I'm looking forward to getting them done and on the table - maybe I'll play a quick solo game of Galactic Heroes this weekend to pit them against Captain Crash Carter and his Space Rangers. 

Clearing the Painting Desk

In preparation for the Painting Challenge, I'm trying to get some partially-finished stuff off my work bench (aka, the side of the kitchen table my partner and I don't eat on) since nothing begun before December 21st can qualify for the Challenge. 

First up, a pair of Giant Leeches from the Reaper Bones 4 Kickstarter, part of the "Dreadmere" expansion:

These were base-coated in Reaper "Uniform Brown," given two heavy washes of GW "Athonian Camoshade" and then a light drybrushing of "Green Ochre" before picking out the jaws and tongues.  Nothing fancy but they came out pretty well I think.

Next up is the beginnings of a project I'm very excited for.  First, a bit of back-story: I first came into miniature painting and wargaming in the early 2000s, probably 2001 - in fact, looking at White Dwarf back-issues, I'm thinking I must have made my first foray into a Games Workshop store in August of 2001.  6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles was in full swing, and the helpful clerk at the GW store asked me a few questions and determined that Orcs and Goblins were the force for me.  A few models in particular really caught my eye, but I'd never end up buying them.  These included the Stone Trolls, the Orc Warboss on Wyvern, and "Grom the Paunch," a morbidly obese goblin warlord in a chariot (that required an extra wolf to pull due to Grom's bulk). 

With the announcement of "Warhammer: The Old World," and with both "Dragon Rampant" and "Warlords of Erehwon" sitting on my shelf as alternatives, I decided it was finally time to build the Greenskin army I'd always dreamed of.  I've read enough Oldhammer blogs, and recognized that more than anything I love Kev Adams-sculpted orcs and goblins.  So I knew I wanted to focus on Kev Adams sculpts, from a variety of lines and manufacturers, and build an army that I could use across multiple rulesets.  This is going to be an ongoing project throughout 2020 and beyond. 

I am now the proud owner of an unbuilt Grom's chariot, and also got a spare Grom off eBay that I based on foot, and got a couple packs of Kev-sculpted goblins, originally by Harlequin Miniatures that have since been rereleased by Black Tree Designs, giving me the beginnings of a regiment as well as a shaman.  I got these glued to 20mm bases, primed, and painted to test my color scheme.  I still have to flock the bases, but I'll let you judge the results so far: