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I’ve been pondering what to write in my 5000th post for a week or two now. Having concluded I don’t have anything profound to say at the moment, I’ve decided to start a P&M blog instead

This blog is based around a realisation that has slowly crept up on me over the course of 2011. I’ve been gaming for getting on 20 years and have never ever played a game on a nicely modelled battlefield where both armies were fully painted. Now I’ve always strived towards... well, more meandered in the general direction of... this ideal, but what with the demands of school, college, university, girlfriends, work, more girlfriends, wife, first house, baby, university again, I’ve just never got close to achieving it.

Part of the reason for this is that I am the world’s worst offender at starting new armies, getting distracted by the latest release and then moving onto something else. Consequently my armies have never swelled to any great size and have rarely been fully painted to tabletop standard. On the infrequent occasions that my troops were looking vaguely finished, it was the armies of my opponents that hadn't progressed past the black primer stage. And as for battlefields, the dining room table has nearly always sufficed, with the condiments and table mats briefly making way for the odd building or piece of topography. This is not to say I haven’t enjoyed my gaming life along the way, but it just feels like I’ve fallen short of what should be the proper gaming experience.

So this will be my focus for 2012... A Warhammer Fantasy Battle between two completely painted 1000 point armies played on a fully modelled 6’ by 4’ battlefield. And because I can’t trust that my rapidly shrinking pool of gaming compatriots will commit to getting their armies to the same standard, I’m going to do the whole thing myself.

Being me, I have naturally decided to start this project from scratch so I currently have the excitement (of which I never seem to tire) of starting two brand new armies. Now, even I realise the folly of trying to begin two armies simultaneously, so the aim is to get the first one rolling and then jump between the two as each unit is completed. In fact let’s make that the golden rule of this blog... I will not start another unit whilst another is still being modelled and painted.

So which armies will be taking to the field in Flashman’s Battle? Well, strangely I’ve never collected Orcs and Goblins (at least not in any great number) although I believe I’ve owned all their army books at one stage or another. I’m not sure why this is, but it might because they are the archetypal fantasy army and I’m usually attracted to armies with more outlandish troop types such as Undead, Skaven and Lizardmen. However, the very fact that they are the archetypal fantasy army is the reason I’m drawn to them now. After what I’ve come to call GW’s Michael Bay year (Storm of Magic ) I want Flashman’s Battle to get back to fantasy basics with something a little more mundane.

As for the second army, I’ve not decided yet. Undead have always been a favourite of mine and it will be interesting to see if I can resist the return of Vampire Counts next month (with associated shiny new miniatures). My mind isn’t set though, so feel free to chip in with some ideas of your own

For now though, I will concentrate on the Orcs. As you can you see from the pic below, I have already cleared the first hurdle of modelling a boxed set of 10 Orc Boyz so they can be ranked up without each miniature poking another in the eye with its sword. This is one of my customary reasons for abandoning an army project. If the models don’t rank up easily, I soon get frustrated and the unfinished set will quickly end up on ebay. In fact, I point blank refuse to attempt to put together a unit of Empire Halberdiers again until they are resculpted with the halberds pointing upwards.

Anyway, these Orcs were quite easy to put together and rank up. On the negative side, they are one of the older GW sets meaning that it’s difficult to achieve a nice level of variety. The basic Orc Boyz only have 4 legs, 4 bodies and 5 heads to choose from and the weapon options are limited too. However, I managed to find the wounded Orc from the Empire Archers set in my bits box (another abandoned project there ) and have placed him in the front rank to make the regiment look more unique. Furthermore as these Orcs are armed with two choppas, he nicely illustrates the dangers of charging across a battlefield without a shield for protection.

Amazingly, painting has also commenced and having gabbled on far longer than necessary, I think it’s time to apply some more green.

Now that is something I have always dreamt of too. Good luck with this project.

Cheers PDH

Small update - Finished painting the skin basecoat for all 10 boyz this evening, though I don't think this progress warrants another pic (just look at the photo above and imagine more green).

As an aside, I'm not going the usual route of Orkhide Shade, Goblin Green etc. I decided I wanted a more organic looking skintone, so have gone for a basecoat of Gretchin Green to be followed by a Gryphon Sepia wash and then Gretchin Green mixed with Bleached Bone for the highlights.

Good luck with the project.

Always nice to see some varied ork skin.