Wargames Among the Warplanes, Spring 2025 Show

 I had an absolutely amazing time today at Wargames Among the Warplanes, a twice-annual 1-day event held at the National Warplanes Museum in beautiful Geneseo, New York. I went to college in Geneseo, and never knew there was a warplanes museum five minutes from campus, until now. 

Truth be told, I almost didn't make it to the show today - in the past week I've pinched a nerve in my shoulder and had my car break down (was thankfully able to get it repaired - to the tune of $1500 - on Thursday!) and this morning I woke up queasy, with last night's dinner disagreeing vigorously. I'm so glad I soldiered through and made it though. 

I ran a homebrew scenario for Fistful of Lead for four players, with me just standing to the side and refereeing. Here's the precis the players were given:

 Angela Dellamorte, the daughter of the head of the Dellamorte crime family, has been kidnapped by the Jamaican Kings, an upstart gang newly arrived in town. Her father has tasked his top lieutenants with getting her back and punishing her kidnappers. The lieutenants see an opportunity to get each other out of the way and ensure their own advancement in the family. After all, once the bullets start flying, who's to say who shot who?  

Everyone except the Jamaicans were armed exclusively with short-range weapons - pistols, submachine guns, and shotguns. The Jamaicans had a trio of submachine guns, as well as an automatic rifle and a LMG being carried by their hulking behemoth of a leader. I figured the Jamaicans could stand to have a little extra firepower since they were under siege and outnumbered, and the shorter ranges would make players move their figures around the board instead of just hunkering down and sniping at each other.

Additionally, there were a few side-missions that could be undertaken for additional victory points - collecting pallets of laundered money and hard drugs and carrying them off the table, giving a sympathetic interview with the TV news crew, and trading in their small arms for an unlicensed automatic rifle from the guy running the fireworks stand. 

Not to toot my own horn too hard or anything, but my table looked great and I got a ton of compliments on my terrain and my figures as well, which felt really good. 

To my very great surprise, I actually had more buildings than would fit on the table. Go me!

The players had a great time, especially once they learned they could hotwire the various vehicles on the table and go on vehicular manslaughter joyrides. One gang quickly piled into the Taco Truck and went on an absolute rampage of destruction before totaling it against the front of the bingo hall. Most of the pictures I took were of that rampage:

Get in, youse guys, we're going on a rampage.

They didn't even run these guys over, just gave 'em a driveby shotgunning.

Ramming speed!

The destruction smelled amazing, though.

The mobster known as "Fat Paulie" was ultimately the winner - having rescued Angela Dellamorte, put two rival gang leaders (and most of their henchmen) out of action, and having a gang member upgrade their weapon at the fireworks stand. The Jamaicans came in second place, having given an interview and collected the laundered money.

Make sure you get my good side, or you'll get on my bad side!

All Paulie is thinking about is the tragic destruction of the taco truck.

I didn't play in anybody else's games (though there was a biplanes vs. King Kong game I would have loved to have played), simply because I had a very long commute and my game took three hours to play through. I did walk around during the lunch break though and took a look at some beautiful tables.

I also had a couple people encourage me to bring my game, or something similar, to Running GAGG - the annual gaming convention put on by the gaming club at the college, which I've been attending for the past 20 years - next year, to increase the number of wargames being played there, and to better promote "Hey! There's more to wargaming than just Warhammer!" to the next generation of gamers. I'm open to the idea, but I might choose to bring something where I don't need a giant tote bin of terrain and can run 30-minute demo games instead of one 3-hour scenario. 

***

Today was really, really good for me. Like, being at Wargames Among the Warplanes today nourished my soul. I've taken a few knocks in the hobby lately - some verbal scrapping with people who think I'm an elitist for wanting to play with painted miniatures, people telling me that seeing my painted miniatures makes them feel bad about their own painting, and so, so, so many people who think tournament Warhammer is the alpha and omega of miniatures wargaming and refuse to even acknowledge that anything else exists. 

It gets discouraging after a while to be steeped in all that, but the congenial atmosphere, good sportsmanship, and just general community spirit I saw today - I helped carry drinks and snacks from the organizer's car into the venue, and had offers to help me carry my tote bins of stuff back to my car when I'd packed up - was reaffirming. This is what I want out of the wargaming hobby. I want more of this atmosphere, this community. I want to spend more time surrounded by people who just want to have a few laughs pushing painted figures around on a table with some nice terrain on it. 

And I'm going to get it. Because in chatting with the organizer, he asked if I'd be open to doing more wargaming outreach-type programs like this. He was so happy to see me add Fistful of Lead to the schedule, because he's played it before and thinks it's a great game, and regretted that he had administrative work to do alongside refereeing a Bolt Action tournament that forced him to miss out on playing it. He mentioned how happy it made him that everybody brought painted figures and terrain to the event today; there was no bare plastic or metal to be seen anywhere except the flea market table. Hearing him say that was music to my ears and affirmed that I was among my tribe. 

Plus, I bought a T-shirt so I'm now officially part of the Greater Niagara Wargamers; next up will be joining the organizer's club, the Whiskey 7 Wargamers. They've got snappy short-sleeve button-down shirts with embroidered club logos. 

I'm excited for the next show, and for what the future holds. 

organizer's photo of me talking through some of the rules with some of my attendees.

First Game of Warhammer: The Old World

 I had a really nice afternoon at the game store today, got to chat with a couple of good guys, picked up a bit of scatter terrain for my big game at Wargames Among the Warplanes in June, and of course got my very first game of Warhammer: The Old World in!

I had the worst dice luck I can remember ever having in 20 years of gaming. I could not pass a Leadership test. My trolls, even with a babysitter, could not pass a Stupidity test, and remained irreversibly stupid. I could not successfully charge. 

But that's fine - I'm not playing orcs to *win*, I'm playing orcs to laugh when things go awry - for example, my trolls spending three turns staring in befuddlement at a giant eagle before getting obliterated by it. 

The High Elf General charges my orc spearmen.

My General charges the High Elf General and is promptly killed.

The last of my trolls falling to the Sky-Cutter. 

Even in losing, I enjoyed the experience, and my opponent was a gracious teacher (who, unfortunately, is moving out of the area next week). Another guy I talked to offered to meet me for games any time I'm available so this will not be my last game. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 70

Happy Easter and Some Gaming

 Happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate. We're having a very low-key Sunday here, nothing too fancy on the menu or any visiting planned. Except...

On Friday, I found out that my local game store, Harlequin Hobby, is open for gaming today and there were people looking to play Warhammer: The Old World. I happen to have an army for Warhammer: The Old World. With no other plans, I cleared an afternoon spent at the game store with my wife, and asked if anybody would be open to a 500-point game to help me learn the ropes. Having confirmed that someone would be happy to do so, I drew up plans for a 500-point army that would be easy to transport.

I threw my back out earlier this week and am still on the mend, and it's situations like this that might maybe make me curse my deep love of metal miniatures. 

So here's what I'm taking to the store today:

Orc General on Boar. Figure by Knightmare.

Goblin Wolf Riders with Bows. Figures by Foundry/Warmonger

Orc Spearmen in looted Empire uniforms. Figures by Foundry/Warmonger

Trolls originally from Satyr Art Studios, currently OOP. Goblin handler by Knightmare.

I'll be back later with a play report or two!

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 70

Fistful of Lead Fantasy: "Ambush!"

 It's been a while since my last game, so I decided to get myself organized to play something; I was showing my Oldhammer Orcs off on Discord the other day, and that got me inspired to use them for a Fantasy skirmish. I picked out the Archmage Lutholio to oppose them and a scenario from the second volume of the Fistful of Lead fantasy trilogy and away we went!

The set-up for this scenario is that Archmage Lutholio and his retinue have been hunting the orc warboss Thrashemall Bonegrinder through the dusty hills; when they pause at a bubbling spring to refill their waterskins, Bonegrinder's mob sprung out at them from ambush. Notably, Bonegrinder himself was held in reserve.

 

ARCHMAGE LUTHOLIO'S RETINUE (Group Trait: Fearless)

• Archmage Lutholio (Leader; Spellcaster, Cunning, Impervious), armed with a Sword and Staff 
• Captain Arnulf von Grenzstadt (Sergeant; Brute, Determined), armed with a Sword, Shield and Heavy Armor
• Hans (Regular; Cunning), armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor
• Franz (Regular; Thundering Charge), armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor 
• Halfling Scouts (Rabble; Deadeye, Small, Slippery), armed with Bows

 

BONEGRINDER'S MOB (Group Trait: Bloodthirsty)

 

• Warboss Thrashemall Bonegrinder (Leader; Veteran, Inspiring, Fearsome Appearance), armed with a Sword, Shield, Heavy Armor and riding a Warboar
• Wyrdboy Oldgit Finkem (Sergeant; Spellcaster, Cunning), armed with a Sword and Staff
• Bogloaf Gunderstank (Regular; Ferocious) armed with a Two-Handed Axe and Light Armor
• Zagrot Scabknees (Regular; Solid as a Rock) armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor
• Foamin Mad Arsegit (Regular; Flurry of Blows) armed with a Club, Shield and Light Armor
• Goblin Rabble (Rabble; Ranger, Small, Slippery) armed with Bows 

Activating first, Lutholio threw a fireball at the goblin rabble, incinerating one of the little blighters and sending the other two scurrying for cover. Not to be outdone, Oldgit Finkem waved his staff and summoned heavy clouds, bathing the battlefield in darkness. Zagrot Scabknees leapt out of cover to attack Hans, while the first turn saw everyone else more or less moving into position.  One of the surviving goblins fired a shot at Lutholio, putting a Shock token on the wizard.

 

Turn two is where things started to get interesting. Lutholio tried to recover from Shock and rolled a "1," meaning he routed off the battlefield entirely. Not only did this not bode well for the rest of his retinue, but it also meant that the orcs couldn't get the victory points for killing him. 

 

Zagrot found himself fighting Hans and Franz, and getting wounded. Bogloaf rushed Captain Arnulf, which didn't go well for him; the Captain immediately Shook Bogloaf, then activated and attacked again, wounding the orc. Oldgit Finkem kept his spell of darkness going for a second round, keeping ranged attacks limited. Foamin Mad Arsegit charged the Captain as well, with no better results than Bogloaf had. 

At the beginning of Turn 3, Thrashemall charged onto the battlefield, immediately trampling one of the halflings into paste. Captain Arnulf stepped over Foamin Mad's carcass and finished off Bogloaf Gunderstank. Oldgit Finkem, allowing the darkness spell to dissipate, cast "Lightning Bolt" on Captain Arnulf, frying him instantly. Zagrot, down and getting kicked repeatedly by Hans and Franz, managed to crawl away and route off the table. 

 

The next few rounds are a little samey-samey; Hans and Thrashemall stay locked in combat for a bit, while Hans darts off to challenge Oldgit; the remaining halflings squabble with the remaining goblins. I will say that Hans really held his own against the orc warboss for a lot longer than I expected he would, and managed to score a few hits of his own before being gutted and stomped into the ground. 

 

Hans made short work of Oldgit Finkem once he managed to close into melee with the orc spellcaster, and the remaining halflings finish off the goblins before one of them routed from shock and the other got run down by Thrashemall. At the end it came down to Hans versus Thrashemall, and when the dust settled, Thrashemall was fleeing the battlefield as fast as his pig could carry him. 

In the final tally of victory points (counting each group of Rabble as only 1 point), the Wizard's Retinue scored 10 VP, while the orcs scored 3. But with Lutholio fleeing the table at the first sign of actual danger and leaving his men to die in his absence, we'll see how long it is until the Tower of the Archmage is under new management.

Improving my Solitude

 So I've been in a bit of an odd space mentally in regards my hobbies lately, and it's got me doing some soul searching. I posted a condensed version of this on Instagram earlier, but I want to use this space to flesh it out a bit more. 

Two weeks ago in my monthly session with my therapist, I told her I felt profoundly lonely; that I felt torn between two competing drives: on the one hand, I miss in person gaming. I'm not sure how I feel about returning to running and playing games at my FLGS (more on that later), and I am playing in a semi-regular D&D campaign with some friends face to face, though it's now been over two months since I've been able to meet with them. On the other hand, I have the well-being of my spouse, who is immunocompromised, to take into account; every trip out is a calculated risk and I feel hard-pressed to justify spending a couple hours at the game store where, lets face it, even at the best of times some of my fellow patrons struggle with the concept of personal space. One of my favorite stories to tell is the time in 2019 I was running a game in store, and someone standing behind my chair adjusted the straps on the backpack so that it was resting on my shoulders instead of theirs. Very much a "what the hell" moment at the time, but very illustrative of my point. 

These feelings have been compounded by an increasing difficulty I've had in even getting a virtual table together for a role-playing one-shot over the past four or five months. These two people want to play, but won't play at the same table as each other (even virtually), this person wants a game but can't (or won't) find space in their schedule where they can meet me halfway, that person has a history of canceling an hour before game when they've known for three weeks they can't make it on the date scheduled, and I've had a half-dozen people practically begging me for games but as soon as I ask them "what days and times work for you" I get ghosted. I've bent and twisted myself in knots trying to accommodate people for months and it feels like no one will meet me half way, and I'm tired of feeling taken advantage off. I think the straw that broke the camel's back was a player I've run for, on and off, for five or six years now, who told me they'd double-booked themselves for a date and time I'd finally managed to pull together a game on, and that they'd decided they were more excited for the other game. Just tell me you can't make it, because this was just salt in a wound. 

As far as my miniature painting/wargaming hobby goes, I spent last weekend cleaning and organizing my hobby space. My wife and I live in a one bedroom apartment and so I stake out the back half of our dining room table as a painting space, I've got a shelving unit next to the table with terrain, battlemats, and project boxes on it, and a large storage tote in the bedroom closet that's something of an unofficial "Graveyard of Dead Projects." I cleaned things up, condensed things (all my unpainted orcs and goblins for Warhammer are in one box now instead of two, etc.), pulled boxes out to pass along to wargamers who will appreciate them, and in so doing I've made myself a lot more introspective about my hobby.

These are my shelves post-cleanup. Not perfect, but leagues better than they were.

 

Going forward, I want to be a lot more thoughtful about what I bring into the apartment; I want to make sure my wife has her craft space secured and that I'm not overflowing into it, and I don't want to be shoveling money into projects that I may never actually start, let alone finish. I want to get away from the sense of FOMO I get with miniature kickstarters as well. 

And that leads me into wargaming. I bought the Stargrave rulebook about three weeks ago, because my friend Tom tipped me off that there would potentially be some Stargrave campaigning going on at our FLGS. I haven't been a regular at my game store since they've re-opened to general gaming; and I asked on the store's Discord server about how busy the store tended to be on Thursday nights (which is wargaming night), explaining that with my wife's illness, if the store was likely to be crowded I probably wouldn't be able to attend. The response from the store's social media person (not the owner) rubbed me the wrong way; they told me not to use the crowdedness of the store to judge personal safety and it came across, to me, very condescending and read like "well just don't come in if you think there's any risk." My therapist, reading this person's response, instead interpreted it as "well you'll never mitigate all risk, so just come in." 

I replied to this person that no, the presence or absence of a crowd isn't our sole metric for assessing risk, but it is one of the factors we take into account. Still, I'm having difficulty shaking the nettled feeling I got from the interaction. Maybe it's how the pandemic changed me, maybe it's how it changed the business, but I've felt less welcome when I've gone in for books or paints since 2021 and this feels like a continuation of that trend. And it's made me stop and ask myself, "Do I really want to go in on Thursday nights after work to play Stargrave?"

And finding an answer to that question has gotten...messy. I've had a lot more bad experiences playing wargames in the various gaming stores around Rochester than I've had good ones, unfortunately. Between unabashed cheating, people bringing crowd-sourced tournament lists to "friendly" games, bellicose people who are looking for someone to take their frustrations out on and people who get belligerent at the thought of playing with any victory condition other than "table the opponent"...do I want to keep subjecting myself to that?

Don't get me wrong, I've had a couple really good games at local stores, and games with my friend Tom are always a pleasure, even when he has tabled me. But it's hard not to be wary of gaming with randos. The other thing I'm wary of with gaming at the store is getting caught up in chasing the Next Big Shiny Thing. Right now Stargrave is popular; I don't want to rush to paint a whole bestiary and terrain and this that and the other thing (all of which takes up space - see my earlier point) only for interest to disappear entirely in three months as the community moves on to the next game that catches people's interest. I busted my hump trying to get people at the store to play Frostgrave a couple years back, followed by a similarly failed attempt to interest anyone in Fistful of Lead. 

The only way I'm going to ensure that the local community is going to stay invested in a game long enough for me to be able to afford buy-in and paint everything I need to paint is if I jump back on the Games Workshop wagon; and even then, it's an arms race to stay "competitive" since none of these people play Warhammer 40K or Age of Sigmar as anything but an aggressive, competitive game, always preparing for the next tournament. I danced the Age of Sigmar dance a few years ago, spent a couple hundred bucks and after a few painful months realized I was having a miserable time. I don't want to get back on that wagon, and I'm pretty sure my wife would bounce me off all four walls of our apartment if I tried. She loves me, she supports my wargaming, but she's got no love for Games Workshop either. She also saw how despondent I came home after my last game of Age of Sigmar and how I put my AoS army in the closet and didn't touch it for months afterwards. She won't let me do that to myself again. 

That also takes me to my Oldhammer Orc and Goblin army. I dusted it off last month and started adding to it with plans to take it to Da Boyz GT this year but - why? When I stop and think about it, I almost question my sanity. I've never heard anything about Warhammer tournaments that make them sound like experiences I want - timed games of cutthroat competitiveness and army lists tailored towards victory at all costs is the precise opposite of the leisurely art of kriegspiel that I want to involve myself in. I think I saw the photos of 2022's event and went "I have the miniatures to participate in that!" and jumped in with both feet without thinking. The more I think about it (especially in the light of my wife's illness) the less desire I feel to participate.

I've been playing solo games through the pandemic, and last week, while my wife was in the hospital for a round of treatment, I put Donald Featherstone's 1973 book "Solo Wargaming" on my Kindle and read it while sitting next to her. I came away so much more energized and inspired than I'd been in weeks, eager to resume solo play with a host of new (to me) ideas to make my games more interesting for me such as chance cards, ways of randomizing deployment, etc. I was immediately excited at the prospect of a solo campaign, complete with a map of the area, tracking wins and losses, and letting individual toy soldiers develop histories, personalities, accolades. 

I decided I wanted to go with 6mm scale for ease of storage and gentleness on my wallet; it helped I'd invested in some 6mm scifi terrain a couple months back for use with Wiley Games' "Battlesuit Alpha." A sci-fi campaign set on some imagined world in an imagined future with hover tanks and laser cannons (and maybe a few giant stompy mech suits) sounds very appealing to me. I've got a core idea I've been kicking around for the past few days of what the conflict is and who the belligerents are in it, and I ordered some figures and vehicles (from Microworld Games, since the cyber attack on the Royal Mail puts UK manufacturers beyond my grasp for the moment) to start getting a feel for 6mm scale. I'm anticipating using "Battlesuit Alpha" for tank battles and "Bigger Battles" for more strictly infantry battles. 

Which circles me back to where I started this post; maybe it's not that I'm lonely, per se. Maybe I just need to improve the quality of my solitude. It's important for me not to lose sight of the fact that first and foremost I should be enjoying myself - that this is a hobby, a respite from the day to day, and if it's stressing me out or making me unhappy, I am doing it wrong. Making sure it's a creative outlet that inspires and encourages me, a pleasant place my mind can drift during the drudgery of the work day, I think that will do much more for my mental and emotional well-being then just gaming for the sake of gaming. One of my big takeaways from Age of Sigmar was that not playing games was better than playing games I wasn't enjoying, and I don't want to backtrack on that. 

So this has been a long post, and it's been a lot of kind of just organizing the thoughts that have been swirling through my head for the past two weeks. Call this a journaling exercise maybe. I hope it hasn't come across as too bitter or aggressive; I think I've just not let myself realize how trampled I've been feeling.

Mounted Orc Warboss (Knightmare Miniatures)

 So in 2021 I painted 1000 points' worth of Orcs and Goblins for 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles as part of the Old World Army Challenge. I signed up to paint another 1000 points this year, but couldn't keep up on my painting and got disqualified halfway through. So I have a lot of greenskins here that have been primed and awaiting paint for a year now.

Earlier this month, I found out that a local tournament, Da Boyz GT, had a Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition tourney this year. And I have my wife's enthusiastic support for me to attend in 2023 (our health allowing), if I get enough minis painted up to qualify. I've never actually played Warhammer; 20-21 years ago I walked into a Games Workshop store for the first time and walked out with a box of plastic Night Goblins, a blister of Fanatics, a blister of Squigs and a River Troll. As a teenager I didn't have the money or the attention span to focus on an army long enough to get one built. So were I to attend it would fulfill a bunch of teenage dreams of mine. 

This got me inspired to dig out some primed greenskins and start painting, starting with this mounted Warboss from Knightmare Miniatures. He was a birthday present from my wife in 2021, and a great starting point to resume painting my orcs and goblins. I love that he's riding a warthog instead of a standard boar.

OWAC IV Preparation: The Waaagh Kev'adumz (the Heavy Hitters)

I've posted recently about Project Greenskins, my ongoing plan to build a big, old school Warhammer Fantasy Battles army of orcs and goblins, complete with Goblin Green bases and all metal figures, the majority of which being Kev Adams sculpts.  I've joined Iannick Martin's excellent Old World Army Challenge for their fourth iteration, using it as impetus to build out at least the core of an army, and in so doing, given my project its "official" name: the Waaagh Kev'adumz.

I'd posted an initial army list with my introductory post at the OWAC blog, but after finding and repainting my Barnorsk Great Orcs, I realized they really covered the Black Orcs I'd originally planned on including in my army. Some revision was in order, along with double-checking my math, especially once I realized the default Orc chariot in the Warhammer Armies book was drawn by Wolves, not Boars. I ended up going to the "Chariots" section of the main rulebook for WHFB 3rd edition and calculating out exactly what the model I'm using would end up costing points-wise.

What I ended up with could be considered, along with the Black Orcs painted earlier this month, the "heavy hitters" of the army - the orcs, especially the Big'uns, and the trolls providing a lot of the muscle for the army, with the drawback of not being as mobile. Maybe OWAC V will see the speedy, shooty side of the Waaagh Kev'adumz!

Here's what I'll be painting over the next six months:

Yorzolg the Conquerer, Level 25 Orc Hero, Light Armor and Shield (146), riding in a Boar Cart* with 2 Crew armed with hand weapons (86): 232

Bogloaf, Level 15 Orc Hero, Shield, Army Standard Bearer: 139

The Black Fire Boyz, 14 Orc Big'uns, Spears, Standard and Musician (168), accompanied by Grubrot, Level 15 Orc Hero, Double-Handed Weapon (92): 260

Dem Lads Ova Dere, 11 Orcs Boyz, Standard and Musician (110.5), accompanied by Arzenut, Level 5 Orc Hero, Light Armor and Shield (36): 146.5

Dese Lads Ova Here, 11 Orcs Boyz, Standard and Musician (110.5), accompanied by Zartanesh, Level 5 Orc Hero, Light Armor and Shield (36): 146.5

Cannon Fodda, 12 Goblins, Standard and Musician: 56

 The Big Lads, 4 Trolls: 260

Total: 1,240

Rank and File: 705 (56%)

Characters: 535 (44%)

*As a four-wheeled vehicle, Yorzolg's ride is technically a "Wagon" in WHFB, slower and less maneuverable than a regular chariot but able to carry a larger complement of crewmembers. I'm picturing something akin to an Orcish version of the ceremonial chariot used to parade Julius Caesar during his Triumph in HBO's Rome. It might not be the best use of points in an army, or make the most tactical sense, but it'll be a showy centerpiece and look really cool on the table and that's what counts.

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: