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THE FUTURE IS GREEN!

Hello everybody and welcome to yet another hobby plog of mine - as if I didn't have enough projects going on already! This time, we'll be talking about Greenskins, i.e. Orcs and Goblins, and in order to do that, I would like to start with a small excurse (as I am wont to do). A word of warning, though: This will be a pretty wordy post, as we take another trip down memory lane…

Anyway, let us talk of Orcs, shall we? My sympathy for Orcs and Goblins even predates my knowledge of Tolkien and his books by a couple of years. Indeed, possibly my first exposure to the concept of the Orc per se were this guy and his kin:


(HeroQuest Orc, painted by me during the early 90s)

While that approach may seem a little backwards, GW’s concept of what an Orc should look like (along with 80′s fantasy art of mostly British origin) had shaped my view of Orcs and Goblins long before I ever read the Hobbit for the first time. Consequently, when I did read the Hobbit, it was absolutely clear to me that the Orcs and Goblins appearing thoughout the story had to be very similar in appearance to the greenskinned creatures populating the labyrinths of HeroQuest.

Another huge influence in my relationship with the greenskins came when Warcraft and Warcraft II were released: Instead of going for a goofy, idiotic and mostly bumbling race of imbeciles, Blizzard’s Orcs where a proud and fierce warrior race, cunning and powerful, if a little lacking in subtlety. But still, Blizzard’s designers were obviously influenced by both Tolkien and GW, so the image of the greenskinned brute with tusk like teeth was further embellished. During all of this, my love of Orcs and Goblins made me get the 5th edition WFB army book for them, but back in those days, starting a greenskin army was prohibitively expensive, with most models only being available in metal. So I only ever got a few of the models, like these classic Brian Nelson Orcs:


(again, one of my older paintjobs: first painted sometime during the late 90s, then slightly touched up in 2000)



When the 6th edition of WFB came around in 2000, the starter box contained lots of brand-new plastic Orcs, and I decided that this was the perfect time to finally start my own army of Orcs & Goblins. Having just finished school back then, I can remember myself during my compulsory term of community service, walking up and down the corridors of the hospital I was working at, with potential colour schemes for my new greenskin army constantly at the back of my head. I was in love with GW’s Orcs and Goblins, and how could I not have been? From a design perspective, the greenskins have been among GW’s finest offerings for a long time now. And they are one of the only factions always managing to blend the legitimately scary with the darkly humorous.

So I started building and painting, and my first models made me hungry for more. Take a look:









These were all painted during late 2000 and early 2001, when I was hellbent on starting a greenskin army. Alas, it amounted to nothing: The model count needed for a whole army was what defeated my ambitions in the end. So the models went to my cupboard of shame, there to moulder for eternity. I have loved the new greenskin releases over the years, and they always made me feel slightly nostalgic, but I never felt tempted to actually pick up and finish the army: I couldn’t do it when WFB was still much smaller in scope, so I doubt I’d be able to do it now. So it was always with feelings of guilt that I remembered the greenskins resting in my cupboard, and I always took the time to lovingly sift through the different sprues, whenever I had to nick a couple of Orc parts for some INQ28 project or other.

So why all of this preamble? Well, a short time ago, a colleague told me that she and her husband were quite strongly into playing Blood Bowl. And through her constant gentle niggling, I began to think about actually starting a small BB Orc Team myself, just for the heck of it — after all, I probably had enough plastic Orcs to spare.
And while browsing through my collection of plastic Orc and Goblin bitz, the idea for two pretty different hobby projects was born…


I. The Orkheim Ultraz

Like I said, I am going to build and paint an Orcish Blood Bowl team in order to be able to give the game a spin. I have absolutely zero experience playing either football, rugby or Blood Bowl, but I am reasonably sure my colleague will at least be able to help me out with the latter. As I quickly found out, the different Orc plastic kits lend themselves very well to converting Blood Bowl models, and so, after a relatively short while, I had a couple of players tacked together:





















All of these were built from leftovers and parts from my bitzbox. I used my usual yellow putty to not only tack the models together but also to show how I wanted them to be placed on the finished base — crucial in most cases, as you can see. Looking at all the Orcs above, trying their darnedest to catch that stupid ball, I think you’ll agree that there’s quite a potential for humor in these models, and that’s what I am going for: I want these to be darkly humorous and slightly goofy.

I also repurposed the members of an old WFB Orc command group to serve as members of the team’s fan club:





And a Gnoblar from the Ogre kit was used to serve as the team’s kit man — or “Kit Git”, as it were



I even caved in and finally got the box of Black Orcs I had craved for such a long time. Some of these will be used as blockers in my Blood Bowl Team, and once again, the design of the models made sure that they are looking right at home on a football…erm pardon, Blood Bowl pitch, with only very little conversion work required:



The rest of the Black Orcs, however, will be used in the second hobby project I was talking about. Before we take a look at that, though, here’s the whole team so far:




II. Orcish Gang for Mordheim

Yet another specialist system, huh? Bring it on! While I hope to develop this gang of models back to back with the Blood Bowl team, the project could not be more different in nature. Where I want the BB team to be funny and goofy, these guys will be dark and brutal, imposing and very gothic: I want to channel not only the slightly demented aesthetic of Mordheim itself, but also the dark fantasy tropes present in Blanchian artwork from the late 80s and early 90s — effectively, Tolkien by way of Brueghel and Bosch. This will be quite a daunting task though, so even if I shouldn’t be able to live up to my mission statement, I will at least strive to create a really brutal looking band of Orcs (and, possibly, Goblins). They will have lots and lots of weapons, lots of kit and strange detail, and several models will be based on Black Orcs to begin with, to make them look even more formidable and ferocious. I will probably completely ignore the Mordheim equipment tables and just go with what looks awesome.

And, after all this time, this project will give me the chance of actually using some of the Orcs I built all these years ago for WFB. Rest assured, however, that only the most imposing models will make the cut:



And even those will probably end up looking like the runts of the litter. Anyway, I also built a first actual test model for the gang, using a mix of Orc and Black Orc parts:





This guy is still missing lots and lots of bitz and strange, gothic doodads, but I think you get the picture.

I cannot even be sure whether these guys will ever end up seeing the gaming table at all — after all, this is just a hobby project trying to express both my love for greenskins as well as my admiration for a certain flavour of dark fantasy artwork. Maybe my buddy Frankie will do me the favour of playing a game of Mordheim against me one of those days, though.

In any case, by choosing two hobby projects that are limited, if not in scope then at least in model count, I can finally build some great Orc and Goblin models: A goal that was somehow always lost while frantically trying to finish enough models to make up an army. I am really looking forward to this!



I don’t have a clear deadline for either of these projects: The BB team will probably be assembled and painted rather soon, seeing how I want to try my hand at the game. I can easily see the Mordheim gang taking quite a while to complete, since it’s by far the more ambitious project of the two. And while the decision to keep both of these projects in the same thread (at least at first) may seem a little eclectic, I think this is the best way to progress for now. Anyway, I have a pile of bitz and Brian’s fantastic recipe for Orc skin. Let’s see where that will take me…

Oh, and for those of you who know - and maybe even like - my other threads: Don’t fret! A part of the future may indeed be green, but equally sizeable chunks will remain red and bronze , golden or …shadowy and secretive — yes, I realise that those last two aren’t colours

C&C always welcome! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Greenskins

Cheers, mate! So am I

Looks good so far, especially those blood bowl boyz look really funny, good work.

ah, another Kraut blog! I am obviously excited, and instantly subscribed!

Looking good, really like the orc with one eye missing.

Instantly subscribed. More conversions ftw!

 KrautScientist wrote:
Cheers, mate! So am I

Given some of your previous work I have no doubt you'll deliver

You're mad for doing four blogs at once
This will be a really interesting thread. I'm taking a particular interest in the Blood-Bowl team your doing. Nearly bouth the PC version last week
Looking forward to that this blog will bring

Fantastic introduction to this plog mate, great read I felt a lot like you when I went and did this:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?339792-WAAAGH!-Red-Skullz-marches-again
(sorry that plog is not on dakka)

I don`t know Mordheim that well but as far as Blood Bowl goes it is probably one of my fav games ever. It`s very addictive as you can see here:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?245977-Red-s-BloodBowl-Log
(again sorry, not on dakka).

Not intending to plug my own stuff here but I hope that it may serve as inspiration/help/whatever

R

PS: do check out this guys converted BB teams, he is God of BB...
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?167233-Rich-s-blood-bowl-teams

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ ghosty & Dreadclaw69: Aww, you do me too much honour, gentlemen! Still, I hope that I'll be able to live up to your expectations!

@ Nashbashem: Well, I am a hobby butterfly, mate. What am I to do?

@ Red Skullz: Cheers, mate! Those threads you posted are chock-full of fantastic inspirations and will prove really useful! Thanks a lot and great job!

Nae thank you mate I hope that this will push your conversions even further on the orc team as your skills are not lacking in any way (rather on the contrary I would say)

R

Aww, mate, that's nice of you to say

Anyway, couldn't keep my hands off the greenskins last weekend, so I sat down and painted the first test model for the Mordheim gang. Like I said, I used the recipe for Orc skin posted by Brian over at A Gentleman's Ones some time ago, and the recipe turned out to be pure gold: Turned out exactly like I wanted it to, so I'll probably be using this particular skin tone for both the BB and Mordheim models.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the model:









As you can see, I tried to keep the colour palette rather subdued. Unfortunately, the lighting in the pictures makes his clothes look a bit darker and less defined than they actually are, but since it started snowing again over the weekend, heading outside to take some better pictures is right out of the question atm.

The model itself may be looking relatively conventional, but that's because I didn't want to use up all my cool bitz on a test model. All in all, I am pretty pleased with the piece.

Let me know what you think!

Very nice The skin looks great on him, not too light and cartoony but darker and more brutal. Everything about him, from the weapons, to the cobbled together armour and the trophies makes him look like a suitably brutal veteran of Mordheim.

I like the realistic skin palette as well. A bit more green than my palette (which is more brown) but it works great. However what about a spot colour in there. Orcs fit strong spit colours

R

Hoorah for the Heroquest Orc! I just came from my parent's house and found our treasure trove of HQ stuff... build boxes, furniture, and of course, plastics.

I like the Bloodbowl conversions - Never would have thought of it, although, Orks/Orcs are not on my menu.

The Mordheim Orc, however, has caught my eye... did you gouge out his eye yourself? Either way, that dirty dark flavor on his gear really works, as does the muted skin-tone. The thought of battle-weary warbands in the ruins of Mordheim... oooh yea.... I'd deffo do the Skaven assassins, but not quite as "clean" as the ones the 'Eavy Metal team made for GW's battle reports.

Damn... another blog to keep an eye on... can't wait to see the rest of these guys!

-Remi

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ Red Skullz: I am pretty sure the other models in the gang will have additional spot colours here or there. With this guy, I just wanted to establish a baseline standard for the rest of the gang to follow. On the whole, I will be trying to keep the palette rather limited, though, to get a grittier, more realistic look.

@ HF Izanagi: Cheers, Remi Yeah, those HeroQuest days were great, weren't they? I may go back one of these days and paint a whole set...

Anyway, I have wanted to try my hand at a Mordheim gang for a long time, and I have wanted to build some really cool Orcs ever since I had to abandon my plan to actually field an army of them, so this project really lets me kill two birds with one stone! The head was like that, btw, gouged-out eye and all. It's one of the heads from the plastic Waaghboss kit.


During the last few days, I have been painting more greenskins -- for the Blood Bowl team this time. I'll post some pictures soon!

Alright, here's the promised update:

With the Mordheim side taken care of, I next wanted to paint a test model for my Blood Bowl team, the Orkheim Ultraz.

I chose this model, one of my Blitzers:



Since the model had been kitbashed from all kinds of leftovers, it looked a little rough around the edges: As you can see, the right arm had even been painted in my own, early 2000s’ recipe for Orc skin. However, the rather sorry state of the model made it perfect to serve as a test piece, so I got to work.

I initially approached the whole matter exactly like I had with the Mordheim Orc: The model was undercoated using brown spray paint. Then the skin was painted (more on that later!). The model’s clothes were either left brown or painted in a slightly darker tone. In order to add a visual flourish that would be necessary to make the model look more like an actual Blood Bowl player, all pieces of armour were painted with GW Mephiston Red.

Let me take a moment to tell you that this is the red colour I have always wanted, because it produces a strong, quite vibrant red and works without a hitch, even over a black undercoat. It also still looks good after being thoroughly washed with brown, which clearly differentiates it from the old Mechrite Red – oh, and It also lacks the latter’s “chalky” quality, which is a definite advantage in my book.

Then the whole model was liberally washed using GW Gryphonne Sepia (for the skin), GW Nuln Oil (for the metallic parts) and GW Agrax Earthshade (for pretty much everything). I then added accents, scratches and overall grime (lightly drybrushing the brown areas with GW Graveyard Earth provided a nice accent while also making the model’s clothes look suitably worn and grimy). It was a nice surprise that the red still makes the model pop rather nicely, even after being suitably dirtied and scratched up. Take a look:







As you can see, I went for a tan shirt to make the model look slightly less dark and gritty than the Mordheim piece. Oh, and I also added some pretty old Gorkamorka decals to the model’s armour, since the yellow nicely contrasted with the red.

When it came to doing the base, I wanted to emulate the look of a somewhat roughened up football pitch: still grassy enough, but with patches of trampled mud emerging here and there. So I mixed wood glue with small pieces of cork and modelling sand and generously covered the surface of the base in the mix. When everything had dried, the base was undercoated in black, then painted in brown, then washed and drybrushed to bring out the texture. Then I used a generous helping of static grass to actually make it look like a Blood Bowl pitch. Funny story: I actually got that bag of static grass more than ten years ago at the GW store in Cologne, yet I somehow never got around to using it. And while the strong, slightly synthetic tone of green would probably look wrong for 40k or WFB bases, I think it’s a pretty good fit for a fantasy football pitch



So with that, my two Orky test pieces were completed. Here they are, side by side:



While I’ll admit that they share quite a bit of common heritage, I think they still look different enough: The Mordheim Orc is slightly grittier and darker, as befits the setting. As I previously mentioned, both models were painted using the marvelous recipe for Orc skin posted by Brian over at A Gentleman’s Ones, and I simply cannot recommend that recipe enough: Not only did it provide me with the perfect skin tone for my models, it’s also possibly the only recipe I ever got from the internet that looks exactly as described on the finished miniature. If my 18 year old self had had access to that recipe, I might have managed to paint a whole greenskin army after all. Go head over there right now to check it out, if you haven’t already!



So with my first two models for my greenskin projects such a success, I found myself itching to proceed. So I sat down and painted two more models:



A couple of Night Goblins for my Blood Bowl team. These were built from the remains of an old plastic Night Goblin regiment, and while there may be more recent plastic Night Goblins in GW’s catalogue, I still love these guys to bits: Granted, their scale may be slightly off (especially when compared to human models) and the sculpt may seem a little clunky in places, but they are still absolutely iconic, in my opinion: Those pointy ears and huge noses, and those mean little faces — you simply gotta love ‘em! I’ve always had a soft spot for Night Goblins, and these models are perfect representations of all that’s cool about the race — whereas the newer models are just looking a little runtish, if you ask me…

Anyway, these were painted using the same recipe as the Blitzer above. In fact, I tried to push myself in order to see how fast I could finish these, using a slightly impressionistic – even slapdash – approach to painting. In the end, I was able to complete these guys in about one and a half hours, basing included. Not bad, huh? And they are certainly good enough for me!

Here are some additional detail shots:









I love how this little guy seems to be basking in the crowd’s adoration — you have to wonder though why they would be cheering him in the first place…

His colleague, meanwhile, seems a little more dedicated to the task at hand:









And last but not least, here’s another picture of the Orkheim Ultraz‘ humble beginnings:



So, in closing, my first painting efforts on my greenskins have been both a success and a blast! Expect to see more Orcs and Goblins here pretty soon. Until then, C&C are always welcome!

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I really like this blog. It reminds me of my ork mordhiem warband. My attempt at an army was equally unsuccessful. A wall of grey plastic with a few painted night goblins and characters. Which were from my mordhiem warband. Even that was only half painted... This blog inspires me to return to them and finish painting them up. Going to check out the painting ork flesh link.

I think this tactic may work well in painting up my own version of WHQ.

While I never got into blood bowl (I had a terrible demo game against someone running 2 rat ogres on the wing). I am really impressed by they amount of dynamism you have achieved with just the plastic infantry. So often you see miniatures converted to blood bowl with only the weapons cut off. But these look like they were made for a blood splattered pitch!

Looking good, I can't wait to see the rest of the team and the warband.
Mordheim was released just as I was starting to get out of the hobby and it was a shame. It looked like the Warhammer version of Necromunda that was begging for a release.

Thanks, guys!

@ Zwan1One: That sounds fairly close to my own sad story Give this recipe a try, though! It has thoroughly re-invigorated my motivation for painting Orcs, and seeing how I am a phenomenally lazy painter, that is no mean feat Most of those conversions are indeed far less involved than it seems, by the way, but more about that in my next update

@ Dreadclaw69: Yes, that was always my take on Mordheim as well. I think it has lots of potential, and it allows players to basically get "miniature armies" for the factions they like in WFB, which, let's face it, is the only way I am ever going to realistically get any WFB-related thing finished

That was one of the attractions of games like Necromunda and Gorka Morka too, you could collect a small number of figures and spend much more time on painting and converting them than you would do for other games. Some of the sculpts were really nice too, especially the Warhammer Quest ones.

@ Dreadclaw69: Exactly! Liberated from the task of having to paint 100 models to make up an army, I can feel all my old enthusiasm for the Greenskins returning!

Speaking of which, here's a rather substantial update: To tell you the truth, I am actually quite addicted to painting models for my Blood Bowl team at the moment: Rarely has a painting recipe ever worked so well for me, and the fact that I do not need to be 100% accurate when painting these guys makes this small project a tremendous amount of fun. So expect a rather massive update today, with lots of new players for the Orkheim Ultraz. Here we go:

Blitzers



In order to make them recognisable as Blitzers, I gave these guys quite a few pieces of armour. Not as much as you would see on a Black Orc, mind you, but I wanted them to look reasonably similar to actual football players. As a matter of fact, I did actually use a couple of Black Orc parts to achieve that effect. And I quickly found out that bog standard Space Marine shoulderpads work really well to approximate football gear
I also tried to use what Space Ork parts I had on the Blitzers, since the parts look more heavily armoured and really fit the football look.

Anyway, here’s a closer look at the individual models:









You may have spotted this model during the team’s WIP phase. Since then, I added a couple of the aforementioned shoulderpads to bulk it out a little. I also used a spiked armour plate to make the helmet resemble a football helmet. I rather like the static pose on this guy: He looks like he’s daring his opponents to make their move…

As you can see, I used quite a few more Gorkamorka decals here, and they really make the armour pieces look more interesting and believable. The key point in using the decals was to add them right after the base colours were done, but before the washes and weathering effects were applied. That way, I was able to “age” the decals along with the rest of the model’s kit, making them look quite a bit more realistic.

Next up, this guy:







Since you last saw him during the WIP phase, I swapped the head (which was slightly too large) for that of a Space Ork nob. His right arm (which, looking at it now, is a tad too short, by the way: seems like this player is just a little challenged when it comes to proportions…) came from the Black Orc kit. All that piercings make him look like a pretty tough guy, don’t you think?

Realising that I had yet to add a model wearing one of the Orcs’ fabled metal jaws, I built this guy:







As you can see, he’s in the middle of some kind of maneuvre that is sure to make somebody hurt pretty bad. Getting more dynamic poses on these guys was achieved by simply adding some leftover sprue to their base that, even after being covered in the basing materials, could still be used to glue the model to the base in a more interesting position. I wanted some of these models to be really dynamic, and I guess we can call this particular mission accomplished.

The fact that this model already had that huge metal jaw meant I could assemble him with a helmetless head, to get some more visual variety across the team.


Thrower and Linemen



When building these guys, my two main ideas behind them were to make them look less heavily armoured than the Blitzers and to pose them rather dynamically (making it look like most of them were trying their best to catch a ball). To achieve those aims, I used more fantasy Orc parts on the models, since some of those are less armoured. I used bowmen from the WFB 6th edition starter box for the models, just replacing a hand or arm here and there and cutting off the bows. By attaching these to the bases at more interesting angles, the poses were really easy to get right and took almost no conversion at all!

Let’s take a closer look:















You cannot help feeling sorry for these guys, as one can almost imagine the ball sailing right past their outstretched hands. In any case, they add some goofy humour to the team, so they’re definitely pulling their weight after all.

I also built a thrower, using a very similar recipe:








I wanted him to be striking a fairly iconic, athletic pose, and I think that worked. Plus I finally got a chance to use that old head from a metal special weapons Ork boy from the late 90s — easily one of my favourite heads ever! I even added a touch of gloss varnish to his goggles to make them look more like actual glass.



When it came to attaching him to the base, I added a skull to make his pose a little more impressive. It may be Blood Bowl, but it’s still the Warhammer world after all — when in doubt, use a skull!


So with that, nine models of my initial team roster have been completed. That leaves only the two Black Orcs and an additional Lineman for now, although I can easily see myself painting some more models for added tactical variety. And I’ll still need to finish those fans, of course. Not a problem, though, since working on these guys is really a blast! Here’s the team so far:



C&C always welcome! And, as usual, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

This is some really great stuff!

Very impressive. I love the dynamic poses of the figures, so much better than some of the original ones GW produced.

Great update. Your receivers don't look like they will be catching a ball any time soon though..
Speaking of which, your thrower need a spikey football for his right hand. Do that and he's perfect. Can't decide weather his googles are to protect his eyes from a gouging or because he has bad eyesight?
The paint work is developing a real unity in the team. Great use of transfers. The transfers really come to life with the game damage making them part of the uniform.

I definitely don't want to meet your blitzes on a pitch!
Shaping up to be a great team I eagerly look forward to your next update!

Thanks a lot for the kind words, guys! I really appreciate it!

@ Zwan1One: Cheers, mate! Well spotted about the goggles -- that was indeed the effect I was trying to achieve

As for the football, I didn't add one because a) I didn't have one and b) I think it's slightly silly if several models on the pitch have a ball at the same time. It's something I may have to think about some more, though.

LOL... awesome! The team looks great - like a new/ 2010 kit version.

I've never played Blood Blowl... is it any fun...? Either way, very cool paintjob on these guys. It looks very simple, but effective. Trying to tone down the painting on my guys (yet still get a good quality like this) as they're not GD figures, but play figures for this Inq campaign we're trying to get off the ground.

Good stuff! If you play any games, Batrep with pics, please!

-Remi

Brilliant progress and excellent work. Blood Bowl would be an excellent game if I could ever make the role to pick up the ball once!

Thanks a lot, guys!

Still waiting for my first game myself -- although building and painting these guys was such a lot of fun that I guess it was already worth it, even if the game turns out to be crap

Seriously though, I've seldomly experienced a hobby project that was such a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended!