Thursday, October 29, 2020

Orctober in two scales

While casting about for something a little different to paint after finishing up my most recent DBA army, I was reminded that this month is Orctober! As it happens, I did have some orcs in need of painting. In fact - I had orcs in two different sizes! 

First up is a somewhat belated addition to my 20mm Orcish army for Hordes of the Things. It looks like the last time I painted any of these was about eight years ago, but they have seen plenty of action since then - most recently, as it happens, while on loan to my dad. At the time all that was available was Caesar's original set of orcs, but in the years since they have come out with a second set. My dad picked up a box of these a while back, and passed along to me a spare shaman, which spent some time rattling around my bits box. I finally plucked him out of there this month, and found a couple of leftover orcs to provide him a pair of bodyguards. In Hordes of the Things, he should work as a Magician or possibly a Cleric.


The other orcs are more of the Reaper Bones line, in 28mm (though these guys are probably a bit bigger than that, being pretty burly!) Reaper bills them as a Slayer, a Chopper, and a Sniper. I've been working on these much more recently, to be used either for D&D or some sort of fantasy skirmish. With these three, I should now have enough for an entire crew in Ghost Archipelago, should I so choose...


(Incidentally, you may note that my 20mm orcs are green, and my 28mm orcs are gray. Why is this? Well, green skin seemed like a natural enough choice back when I was painting my original 20mm orcs, but in years since I have come down on it a bit - orcs in Warhammer or World of Warcraft might be green, but it's a pretty unusual color for mammals in the real world. When it came time to paint some 28mm orcs, I decided I wanted something different - I wanted a color that was fairly neutral, while also avoiding real-world human skin tones. Hence, gray orcs.)

With these guys out of the way, and Orctober drawing to a close, it will be back to the Bronze Age soon. I have my eye on a sixth army, and I might be able to finish it before this year is out...

6 comments:

  1. At least you are making some progress! I’ve got a bunch of 1/72 orcs (Caesar and Dark Alliance both) stalled in various phases of preparation. I should be staging a solo game or a remote game for some inspiration.

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  2. and your evidence that Orcs are mammals is?.... :)

    actually, as I recall, Tolkien described them as "swarthy" rather than "green". I always assumed brownish but greyish actually works.

    In any case they look good! Esp the little guys.

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    Replies
    1. Well, I don't know how much it signifies, but in most fantasy settings they seem to be interfertile with humans. ;)

      Besides, I have some lizardfolk in 28mm, who *are* green, so clearly not the same thing!

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  3. I like both scales Norman! Great work on these!

    Greetings
    Peter

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  4. Excellent minis, always cool to see more Orcs :)

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