Taking Out the Trash - And Painting More Orcs

 A little bit of scatter terrain that's been sitting primed on my bench for too long got finished the other day - some 3D printed wheeled garbage and recycling cans, printed for me by my friend Dave from STLs from Tiny Furniture. He printed two of each design, closed and slightly overflowing, so I paired them on some 40mm round bases.

These are actually painted to match the ones sitting outside my house right now, with the brown lid on the recycling bin. Not sure how standardized those are to other areas. The recycling symbol is just free-handed with some white paint. These will make some nice scatter on modern tables.

And having received more orcs for the Oldhammer Orc Project, I figured it was a sign I should paint some! I had primed a batch of 15 6th edition metal Savage Orcs about six months ago to accompany a shaman I painted a couple years back now. And since I received some more of those same Savage Orcs, I decided to start in on the primed ones. These have had their skin done, and tomorrow or this weekend I'll start in on the assorted skins and hides they're draped in. 

These were sculpted circa 2000 by Brian Nelson, and while Kev Adams is very much "the Goblinmaster," the more Brian Nelson orcs I paint, the more I appreciate his take on greenskins. They're bigger and more muscular than Kev Adams' orcs, but that musculature and the textures of the faces paint up a dream with the washes and drybrushing I favor. I'm looking forward to having some fun with the various furs and reptile skins they're wearing, and then going in and applying tattoos with a fine-tipped micron pen. 

Miniatures Acquired: 71

Miniatures Painted: 86

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 2

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

A Gift of Orcs!

 A surprisingly heavy box arrived on my doorstep today. Inside was not only what I expected to get from backing Mutant Miniatures' last kickstarter, but another bakers' dozen of orcs that Josh Slater found in his leadpile and thought deserved a home in my Oldhammer Orcs army. 

Specifically, there's a Black Orc with two hand weapons that looks like a character figure of some kind, and then a dozen 6th edition metal Savage Orcs. Which will almost double the size of the Savage Orc regiment I've got, which is currently sitting primed but unpainted. And if that's not a sign that I should get some paint on them...!

I've said it before, but in my experience the generosity of the miniatures hobby community is unmatched. I've been so fortunate in receiving multiple gifts like this over the years, and I've been proud to pay it forward as well. 

Time to update the tracker and... I'm still in the green!

Miniatures Acquired: 71

Miniatures Painted: 86

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 2

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 2

Orc Big'uns and Shaman - Clearing Space Ahead of the AHPC

 So this is a regiment that I started a few months ago for my Oldhammer Orc army, but got bogged down on during the batch painting process. These are mid-90s Orc Big'uns sculpted by Brian Nelson, accompanied by a shaman, also by Brian Nelson. Games Workshop reissued these figures with the release of Warhammer: The Old World, and 11 of these figures - two ranks of regular grunts and the shaman - were purchased either online through Games Workshop or from my local game store. 

The other nine, however, including the command group, were a gift from Josh "Cauldronborn" Slater, who has produced some pretty awesome miniatures himself - I highlighted his most recent Kickstarter here. When I received my products from his last Kickstarter, I found a bag of orcs included in my box with a note that he thought they'd find a better home with me than in his leadpile. 

I've experienced a lot of kindness and generosity in the miniatures hobby space, and this is a perfect example. It's also why I try to pay that same kindness forward every chance I get.

I was one shield short of what I needed (this has been rectified thanks to eBay - should have it sometime between Christmas and New Year's Eve), and as you can see I haven't painted a standard for the standard-bearer. 

Unfortunately, I think the pad of heavyweight graph paper that I use for painting banners got stuck in a box that's currently in the storage area under my basement stairs. I've FUBAR'd my knee pretty good, and moving shelves and rooting through the storage area's out of the question at the moment. 

Tomorrow is the beginning of this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and that means a fresh start on painting; if I were to do additional work on this unit tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to count them towards the Painting Challenge, and it would be time spent not working towards my Challenge hobby goals - in this case, 400 points' worth of 28mm models. 

So while they still need a banner and a shield, I am counting them as Done for the purposes of my own tracker because I won't be working on them again in 2025.

Figures Acquired in 2025: 246

Figures Painted in 2025: 207

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. 

Looting the Secondhand Bin at my FLGS...Again

 My wife is a generous god. Today is our wedding anniversary, and we both scheduled ourselves off work with plans to visit a local greenhouse/conservatory that is having a butterfly exhibition. Unfortunately, it's extremely hot today and Gina's MS flares up when she overheats - so between the fact that it's a bit of a hike from parking to the greenhouse and it's a hot, steamy greenhouse, we decided it might not be in our best interest to go today. Instead, she proposed we take a trip to Harlequin Hobby - I'd been wanting to check their collection of decal sheets for some Orc/Ork decals, and with her blessing I also spent some time digging through the file boxes of secondhand figures. I came away with some real goodies!

First up, another blister pack of old metal Night Goblin fanatics, as well as a metal Black Orc standard bearer that had been converted by a previous owner with a resin head. A vintage Orc Shaman and a goblin with a flail that was I think originally a Heartbreaker miniature. 

When I went to pay for these (as well as my sheet of Ork decals), she insisted on treating me. 

Why yes, I did marry out of my league. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 120

Figures Painted in 2025: 121

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

Lucky Finds at my FLGS

 My area has an absurd number of gaming-related stores. To the point where most of them have needed to engage in some degree of niche specialization to remain viable and not overwhelm the environment. So much like the finches of the Galapagos islands, we have game stores that focus primarily on board games, stores that cater to the collectible card gamer, a few big generalists who have been here the longest. One store also runs Escape Rooms to differentiate themselves. 

My game store of choice, Harlequin Hobby, is almost exclusively a wargaming store. They have a little bit of shelf space dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and board games, but mostly it's wargaming, with the various Games Workshop games and Battletech getting the most real estate, but a decent selection of Warlord Games offerings for Bolt Action, Pike & Shotte, and Hail Caesar. 

They also have an unbelievable treasure trove of secondhand goods. I think the owner might buy job lots on eBay to supplement old stuff that gamers unload in exchange for store credit to spend on the latest Warhammer releases. There's an entire shelving unit of file boxes; a lot of the relatively recent Games Workshop stuff that's been sold back is sorted by faction for browsers' convenience, but the real motherlode for me are the boxes labeled simply "Fantasy."

I've managed to dig a handful of vintage GW (and competitors!) orcs and goblins out of there, treasures of the early 90s for the most part. There's also a shelf of secondhand rulebooks and supplements.

I stopped by the store yesterday morning because I knew they'd gotten some 6th edition Warhammer goblins in that I wanted to maybe lay claim to. I walked out with more than I'd anticipated. 

I got my blister pack of Night Goblin Fanatics (only 2 in the blister - maybe from 7th or 8th edition? In 6th they were 3 to a pack...) and a 5th edition Warhammer Battle Book, which looks like it was included in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles starter boxed set for that edition. It's got an overview of the hobby written by Rick Priestley, painting guides, an overview of the different armies available, and a series of scenarios to play beyond simple pitched battles. And it's in almost mint condition! I couldn't believe they only wanted $15 for it, so I quickly snapped it up. 

There were more goblins I could have gotten...should get...I may go back for those later this week or, more likely, see if they're still there after I get my next paycheck. They must be mine...

Figures Purchased in 2025: 115

Figures Painted in 2025: 116

WIP: Orc Shaman on War Wyvern

 I was able to spend an unexpectedly large amount of time today painting, which was nice. I'd originally planned on teaching a couple of friends to play Devilry Afoot and Perilous Tales, but when one had to cancel last minute due to some health issues, my friend Rick and I pivoted to having a relaxed paint-and-chat session at my dining room table. The two of us and our wives had lunch together, chatted for a while, and then from about 2:15 in the afternoon until probably about 5:30, Rick and I were parked at the table, hunched over our respective projects. 

I finished the primary color for the War Wyvern (a slightly orange-tinged yellow), and painted the tombstone on the base it will be leaning against. I also painted the furs, wood and bone bits on the shaman's saddle, with the furs painted as tiger skins; I've been wanting to do some tiger skins for a while now, and my fur-clad Savage Orcs were a ways down my to-do list. I think it worked out really, really well, and I'm a bit disappointed the shaman will be covering a lot of it. 

The wyvern, saddle and base are still separate from each other, just propped together for a quick photo. The wyvern itself is going to get a pattern of dark stripes down its back and head (and maybe some patterning on the backs of the wings), and I think the tail is going to fade to red towards the tip. Claws and horns in ivory shades, and the inside of the mouth I'm thinking blue. there's a bunch of tassels on the saddle (and another on the Shaman's belt) that I'm thinking bright purple for. Might as well go as visually loud as possible on a centerpiece model, right? 

I also got the skin tones base coated and washed on the rider and a trio of Kev Adams-sculpted "Lesser Goblins" from Alternative Armies, who will be scattered around the wyvern's feet. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 113

Figures Painted in 2025: 116

October Progress Report

 I'll be honest, I've slowed to a crawl with the goblins. I've painted 16 over the past month, but I'm kind of feeling burned out and maybe sludgey towards the orc and goblin project right now. Some of that is, I just painted 16 goblins and a giant and I'm ready to do something else for a bit. Some of it's that anything I paint is going right back into storage as soon as it's varnished because we're having trouble finding space in our house for me to put a display case and put my army up on display. It's a small house and other things have gotten prioritized; things we might have put downstairs in the basement otherwise have to be upstairs for my wife to be able to use them - her MS has left her with nerve damage in her legs that makes walking up and down stairs challenging for her. At this point, if I get a display case it will probably end up in the basement next to the laundry area. C'est la vie.

Goblins aren't much of anything to look at, but I am well pleased with how the giant (Bert from Old School Miniatures) has turned out:

And I've also painted the first two figures for wargaming with samurai:

The figure in the blue kimono is "Toshiro, Male Ronin" from Reaper Miniatures:

And his companion is an unnamed ronin from Bad Squiddo Games. Yes, her kimono is based on the Arizona Green Tea can.

They kind of have a "winter and spring" vibe that I think means I'm going to end up painting a "Summer" and "Autumn" ronin to go with them. 

Progress Report

 The Fireworks Stand itself is completed; I've got Mark himself and a few resin bits I want to glue into the fireworks stand still to complete, but I might leave those for another day.

Correction: I am absolutely leaving those for another day. Why? Because Goblins, that's why. 

Right now, with having just bought a house and making arrangements for insurance, a snowplow service for our driveway for the winter, and a sudden leak in our ceiling that manifested during a thunderstorm last night, I am more or less on Hobby No-Buy for the foreseeable future. I'll replace paints as they run out/dry out and buy some supplies here and there, but no new miniatures or terrain pieces for a while. Fortunately, I have quite the ample "Closet of Opportunity" to pull from. And October is in view, and that means Orctober, meaning I paint some more greenskins for my ongoing Oldhammer Orc & Goblin army. 

And I am drastically short on painted goblins. 20 archers, 10 wolf riders, and a dozen infantry with hand weapons are all I've got to show of the smaller, weedier grots. I've been meaning to get the dozen foot-sloggers bolstered up to a much more robust regiment of 40, and I think now's a perfect time to get those done. 

Here's a shot of the 40-figure movement tray loaded up with painted and unpainted goblins alike to get a sense of the project at hand. Most of these are either Knightmare Miniatures or Black Tree Design/Harlequin, but two figures here are from Midlam Miniatures - and all 40 are from the talented hands of Kev "Goblinmaster" Adams. I even got to include a fun little easter egg to reward sharp-eyed viewers; one of the goblins in the last row has thrust his club through a belt loop and is taking the time to scarf down a meat pie - one that has a rat's tail hanging out of it. 

There is a painted figure in the back row of that photo; he's one of a handful of Black Tree goblins I painted back in 2018, when I first decided I wanted to try building an all-metal Orc & Goblin army, and was still figuring out color schemes and skin tones. I wound up stripping the paint off of all of those the other day and selecting a few to repaint and include in this unit - replacing the figures with spears in the above picture with ones holding clubs or scimitars. 

I also get an extra shaman figure back for use in my army; I'd especially never been happy with the paint job I'd given him back in 2018, so looking forward to doing a better job on him this time around. 

State of the Orc Army, May 2024

 Been a while since I've posted! Haven't done a ton of gaming since March; we're actually moving at the end of the summer, from our current one bedroom apartment into an actual house! In fact, the house I grew up in; my parents are looking to downsize as they get older, so my wife and I are buying their house from them. A lot of my wargaming terrain has already been moved into the basement at the house, just because it's delicate and I didn't want to risk anything breaking if I could help it. My painted miniatures will all be moved over in the coming weeks as well.

In the meantime, I did get my entire Oldhammer orc and goblin army out on the table this past weekend for the six-month muster. 

First things first, here's the entire* army:

So this technically isn't everything that's painted; my 3rd edition Hobgoblin contingent wasn't unpacked for this, and my Doom Diver catapult needs some repairs so it was left off the table this time around. Let's take a closer look:

Some miscellaneous characters; since the last muster I've added Grimgor Ironhide, Black Orc Warboss from Games Workshop, 6th edition WHFB on the left there, and a Heartbreaker Orc Shaman (now available through Ral Partha Europe) on the far right. 

Goblins! I've added a unit of Wolfriders from Warmonger miniatures (foreground) and a wolf chariot (in the back) from GW, as well as a shaman from Old School Miniatures (red hood). Someday soon I should bulk out that regiment of 12 up to...around 40. Maybe 48. 

These are really special. I painted the first 12 of Harboth's Orc Archers from 1987 back in 2021, and finished the remaining 8 (including standard bearer, musician and champion) in January of this year. They all have hand-painted face shields and I freehanded the banner as well. Behind them you can see one of my two 25-strong Orc regiments.

"The Old Guard" is 35-strong, consisting of orcs released between 1985 and 1996; a mix of Citadel, Marauder, Heartbreaker, Alternative Armies, maybe some I'm forgetting.

My Boar Boyz, from Knightmare Miniatures; have done a couple weapon swaps on these, including making the standard bearer.

Up front are my Black Orcs; these are "Barnorsk Great Orcs" from Black Tree Design, and the first figures I painted for this army. I have another 10 to add to them, and I'll be redoing shields. Also probably redoing the standard bearer, replacing the cast standard pole with a 4" steel pin and a new paper flag. Behind them is my second 25-man orc unit.

Trolls are from Satyr Art Studio originally; the molds were sold to Troll Soup Miniatures but I don't know if they're still in production; they're marked sold out every time I check the site. Next to them is a Warmonger Orc carrying a siege gun, which I'll be using as a Rock Lobber.

I have no idea if they'll ever make it on the table for a game, but I do still love the "Black Fire Boyz" - a group of orcs that have started wearing Imperial uniforms stripped from fallen foes and imitating pike tactics. 

And finally the baggage train; again, not something that'll ever see use past 3rd edition games (should those ever happen for me), but a characterful and fun addition. 

So that's it for now, minus the units I mentioned above. 

What's next?

I did recently score a complete set of the 2002 version of Ruglud's Armored Orcs, sculpted by Brian Nelson during the 6th edition era. These were kind of a "White Whale" for me - the issue of White Dwarf they were introduced in was one of the first issues I had as a teenager entering the hobby, and every greenskins army list I wrote up back then included them as a choice. Those are on my painting table right now. 

I have a bunch of chariots, more goblins, more black orcs, a unit of Night Goblins to do...

Really the biggest thing I should do is magnetize all these bases. I have 3D printed movement trays to adapt these base sizes to Warhammer: The Old World and I really should get magnets and steel squares so I can take these to a game without spending an hour ranking everyone up at the table.

January Painting

 *blows off the dust* I guess it's been a minute since I updated around here, huh? Well, I do have some painted miniatures to show off.

First up are "Totleger's Carvers," my first regiment for the "Defenders of Vogelburgh," my 3rd edition Empire/Halflings army for this year's Old World Army Challenge. A unit of halberdiers (or Helblitzen, as they're called in the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book), the human figures are War of the Roses infantrymen from Front Rank (since as of 1987, GW hadn't settled on a landsknecht aesthetic for the Empire yet), supported by a mercenary ogre from Knightmare Miniatures and a particularly feisty rooster from Dunkeldorf. Chickens of various types are going to be a theme throughout this army. 

The banner is painted on graph paper and entirely freehand. 

Here's a better look at the ogre; the barrel on his base is a resin bit from Dunkeldorf, and represents the regiment's lager ration.

With these figures finished around January 21st, rather than jumping right into the next unit for the Old World Army Challenge, I decided to paint up eight more orc archers from the 1987 Harboth's Orc Archers boxed set. I painted a dozen of them, including Harboth himself, back in 2021 as part of my first entry into the Old World Army Challenge, but wanted to finish the rest of the command group and enough rank-and-file to bring the unit up to a proper 20 figures. And that meant I also had to paint shields and a banner for the regiment.

The box describes Harboth and his boyz painting their shields with the faces of particularly noteworthy enemies; I went instead for a variety of grinning, disgruntled and suffering faces, with pallid green skin and glowing orange eyes. Are they orcs? Zombies? Who knows!

I went for a similar face, framed with wild white hair, for the banner; in retrospect it's got a little bit of an Eddie vibe from the band Iron Maiden, which I think works well.

 

Again, the banner is freehand on painted graph paper.

Finally, here's a shot of Harboth's shield; I had originally done a plain shield for him back in 2021, but pried it off and replaced it with an original Citadel plastic shield from the 80s. As I painted the face, it started to look like one eye was squinting a bit so I added a little Carroburg Crimson wash for a bleeding, empty socket. It differentiates him just a little bit from the boyz under his command.

All in all, January was a very productive month for me; February is shaping up to be less so, but we'll see what the next 12 days bring.

Also, I have bought the rulebooks for Warhammer: The Old World, as well as movement trays with spacers to adjust for the changed base sizes for the new game. I am hoping to be able to bring out my all metal orcs and goblins army and begin actually playing with them!