Auktober?

OK I've gone and done it again.  Run out of time in Orctober, this time the half term at home with the kids (and my paints) turned out to be a half term in Suffolk with the kids and no paint. Bame the wife.

We did go to Framlingham Castle which is always good, a first time for my boys too.

I read Lamentations, C. J. Sansoms 2014 historical crime novel from front to back. It's a good bit of fun set in the final months of Henry VIII's reign. It has really put me in the mood for some WHFRP.

But no little orcs to be held in my hand. But thanks to my Brother in law and intrepid world wide birder extrodinare I did witness the saving of a Little Auk. Not rare at sea these little birds are rare in land, even on the coast. My eldest son is bird mad so was over the moon to see this Orc, erm Auk transported safely back to the sea. Until they get out of the surf they can be prey to herring gulls a few of which were buzzing about but readers will be happy to know that Gauk and Mauk looked kindly on the little fella and he was soon speeding through the deeper water out to sea.

It means my Boysz haven't been finished so I've decided to keep entries to the Orctober prize give away open until I'm done myself. I really should post up what I'm giving away this year.

Orctober another catch up.

OK time for another update, in no particular order:

 Lets start with some art, from Chad at Maximum Rock and Roleplay :

Created for Ral Partha and not Orctober at all I had to ask if I could post this up for Orctober. Chad said yes so this is just one of a bunch of really great pieces. Chad has done real justice to the figures these depict (more on them lower down from Springfield) the oldschool AD&D vibe of these is just so awesome. Do go and check out Chads other stuff, you won't be disappointed.

Chico has some Copplestone LoTR orcs in 10mm. 

I'm a bit jealous of how quickly he painted these to such a nice standard.

Urion not content with a bunch of Gobbos is also painting up Orks:

Great to see this guy painted something other than red. Urions done a really nice bunch of Characters.

Springfield has been at it again:

Some ancient (well late 70's) Ral Partha orcs. The Blue skin is a different choice for sure but they are looking great for it, I always felt these sculpts looked a bit Roman and the Rune painted on the shields really gives these boyz a Late Roman look. Admittedly they were painted a few years ago but it's good to see them here.

 Mr.Mouse continues to expand his hoard:

 Baggage trains are so ignored though I have seen a few great examples of late. This waggon  very Orcish with all the gubbins on it and the mixed crew of reprobates we also get our second short story for Orctober.

The One or Mr. Papafakis has promised to finish or at least start to finish some n ice old RT orks:

 They are shaping up nicely for sure nd a cool technique with the white layers I guess washed with green.

Tarta sauce continues to show us the very best of his massive horde :

Who doesn't like these old Marauder orcs, these are old paint jobs but look vibrant and green even today. There are lots of great units to see on his blog.

Alex has some repaints of much more modern forest goblins:

Creepy little blighters. The blue faces are a nice touch, wait, more blue green skins whats going on!

Stuart has a warband on the go:

The first orc painted is stunning. I look forward to seeing the rest. Incidentally he's using the warband rules I put out last Orctober.

Sean has a nice placcy Black Orc:

 Nicely done, you have to go a see how Sean had him painted up until recently.

A Roar of engines from Riotville:

 Our first battle report and it looks like so much fun. Based on Captain Crooks Death Race 40000 from BOYL15 I know how much fun it must have been, nice report from RV.

Rochie's orc war band:

Nice subtle painting and a cool conversion on the mohawk boyz axe.

On the forum Magpie Jono has us a half orc:

Lovely painting and a half orc I've never seen before. What a quiff.

Golfag is expanding his mighty hoard with some more Black mountain boyz:

A work in progress but we can see where he's going.

Orctober week one.

 Presenting a quick roundup of Orctober 2015 week one. A little late but we've had a week and a day of Orctober now so I thought a quick round up of what has been produced so far.

Sadly no discussions about gaming, literature, art, scenarios or stories yet but a few speedy painters have finished some great models for us to gorp at and a good number of people have promised something in the future.






 Finished stuff so far, blogs first:

Javier has given us some Kevtastic Orcs and Goblins for Mordheim:

I love the fresh 90's scheme on these foundry and blacktree sculpts. The diverse skin tones are also very nice, lets see them in one of Javier's awesome battle reports now!

Urion has started a bunch of Gobbos for a chaos warband:

Great little goblin with an awesome shield that owes a little to Blanche and to Miller. Grubby and chaotic.

Riotville's orc champion is a well loved favourite with I think more promised:

Apparently this was the first figure ever painted by RV so it's an honour he stripped it and painted it up again for us. Looks great.

And a bunch of Hobgoblins from Springsfeld rounds off the blogs so far:

Part of his Thistlewood project the Lund Hobgobs look pretty mean. Their leader is actually an orc though I think he is pretending to be a Hobgoblin. I really like the glossy toy soldier look of these er.. toy soldiers.

On the Oldhammer Forum we have:

Bulldog Lopez's Harboth.

As usual a great PJ from BL the gut plate couldn't be more late 80's GW. Really nice and clean paint yet dirty and rusty at the same time. More assorted orcs have been promised.

Laava has given us some great orc boar boys with his first post ever (well at least under that name):

A little bit pastel the unit looks super. The unusual yellow and green shields and banner work well and the boars are just great, love the ginger one. Hope to see more from Laava!


There you have it, week one. Internet points for the first written article, bit of art or even Ork for Orctober and do let me know if I've missed anything from this first week.

Ruglud’s Armoured Orcs.

Part of the point of Orctober for me is to motivate myself to paint the frankly ridiculous numbers of orcs in my collection and give away some of what I can bear to give away. This will hopefully decrease the orc mountain and increase then numbers out their painted and being played with. 

To that end I have decided to get at least one unit painted this month and the unit I have chosen is a mint set of Ruglud’s Armoured Orcs.  Well near mint the box is a bit shabby but the miniatures are all as originally sold, the plastic bases, shields and crossbows are all present, untouched and on sprue. This particular set has sat on my to do pile for a good many years but my original set has been painted, they were a Christmas present from the very late 80’s and the first big boxed set of miniatures I ever got.

To give these boyz a review some twenty-five years after they were produced I would start by mentioning there are seventeen individual figures. Four sculpts unique to each boxed set com prising a hero, leader, standard and musician/shaman.  There are then thirteen troopers made up of a random mixture of four different sculpts. The mix I’ve ended up with is pretty good with a 2:3:4:4 selection.  In previous Regiments of Renown sets I have ended up with none of a particular type so I can’t complain about the mix.

The miniatures themselves are good clean casts with only a small amount of flash. The details are sharp and show all the equipment the troopers need except the crossbow and shields supplied on the plastic sprues. Obviously the greatest differences are with the unique sculpts but even the troopers show a god variation in armour and equipment.

From previous experience I know they paint up well and rank into units with no fuss. If you were going to look for these on Ebay you ought to be able to get these complete and unboxed for less than sixty quid though patience would probably be rewarded. As I write this a boxed set that needs some love is currently at twenty five pounds.

First step for these boyz is to clean them up, base them and under coat them. Back once I’m done.