What's in progress?

These are the next models waiting for paint.

Standard bearer (or vulture skewerer)


Badass champion (and badass picture)


Hornblower


Front rank lad


and BSB (on foot and on boar)

Second orc unit

To please my gaming friends, I have decided to paint front ranks only until all my units are painted in this way (or "somewhat" painted). Then I will return to each ranked infantry unit to paint flanks and rears. Otherwise, odds are high that job, wife and life prevent you from painting more than one or two units. In this way, I will not get bored with units either. So, its a win-lose-win situation.

This is the first orc of my second unit of orc boyz painted in Vallejo colours. It is a Rackham model (as 20 out of 25 models in the unit also are) and I am trying colour schemes and a new skin painting technique. It is not quite finished. I have to tone down the armour a bit and paint the dagger hanging in his belt and dothe base, but I am quite pleased with it.



It is an amazing model and the Rackham sculpt is so clean it is a pleasure to paint it.


Notice the little lizard snack.



This orc has seen battle before.

Two great improvements

I have abandoned and returned to GW, which has drastically improved my painting speed and quality. For colours, I have started using the Vallejo paint range, finding the bottle design and colours vastly superior to GW:s standard colours. However, a purchase of the new Foundation Paint Adeptus Battle Grey has provided me with an excellent base coat for my "grayskins".

Wolf riders

Hello master, at last I am satisfied with your wolf riders, and it took me a long time and a lot of fiddling around to finally agree with the "goblin" colour. Now it is almost, but not quite, Dead flesh in the final highlight but I kept some grey in it to prevent them from looking too much like zombies or too green.

Without any further ado, here they are...




Looking for prey (or "escape routes eeeeh alternative flanks we mean")


Drummer (from Dragonrune Goblin Command Group)




Wolf riders from the side...

Mini-tournament

Me and three buddies had a 1500-points' gathering last weekend. My orcs performed rather well, defating Undead Vampire Counts, drawing against Chaos (a revenge for the last mishap) and was finally slaughtered by Empire in a sort of "final". My Empire opponent performed well in the magic and shooting phase which he needed to decimate my ranks before I got within Waagh range. My army consisted of four blocks of infantry, three of fast cavalry, a couple of chukkas, some squig hoppers, a chariot and a troll. I had a shaman which performed decently, but I felt that another shaman would have been welcome to deal with Empire and Undead magic phases. Playing Orcs is otherwise a real blessing. Every battle is filled with crazy twists and turns, bringing joy to both generals and each battle saw "beautiful" Warhammer moments. In the rush to pack my troops, I forgot my camera. It will be used next time, since my opponents' armies are both painted and eye-catching. My wolves are soon finished and ready to be shown to Master.

And, yes, my package has arrived...

Shopping spree

Have just purchased close to 200 pounds of models and bitz, enabling me to start four crazy modelling projects. Now if they only can send it ASAP. My fingers are itching, and my master's ever watchful eye is fixed on the Royal Post Office.

Battle report 2: vs Khorne Beasts

If bad dice rolls was my nemesis in the first battle, my luck had returned just in time for the second battle. A Fanatic protecting my right flank inflicted 6 wounds on a unit of four Dragon Ogres who promptly failed a Panic test and fled off the table. The battle was won when the trap was set after forcing my opponent to fail a number of frenzied charges in front of my main battle line. My waagh succeded and my general and BSB sliced through a unit of minotaurs, a tuskgor chariot and chaos ogres led by a doombull. After that, my general succeeded in taking on a blood beast of khorne and two herds in the middle of a forest, coming out on top. My BSB fought back a huge herd (27 beasts led by a Shaman), and the battle was a massacre in my favour. Losing a big block of black orcs to Khorngors (they are really nasty), did not change the outcome.

Lessons learned: Having a lot of infantry blocks, it can be wise to push three or four of them out to the flanks, leaving room for chariots, wolf riders and trolls to support my main battle line. The Size Matters-rule can be very annoying for the enemy, when my wolf riders can flee to safer ground through orcs that do not bother.

Guzzla's battle brew will always cause stupidity on my heroes. It is safe to say that I am stupid enough to keep buying it.

Battle report 1: vs Khorne Mortals

This weekend my boyz saw some serious action. First, they were massacred, and then they held the beating stick themselves against diverse followers of Khorne. I am currently at work with graphical ways of presenting them, but I thought a little "lessons learned" could be in order. The battles were fought at 2500 points and my love for rank and file really clogged my battle line. I fielded almost 200 models including eight blocks of infantry, three light cavalries, a wolf chariot, goblin squig hoppers, some trolls, a pump wagon and a couple of chukkas. I lost against Chaos mortals of Khorne and won against Chaos Beasts of Khorne.

The first battle was lost in turn two when a terror-causing giant and a demon prince drew near my battle line. Everything except my stupid savage orcs failed their terror tests with ld 9. Promptly, my BSB and my general fled towards the enemy's battle line. The squig hoppers tried to save the general by charging a beast herd and claiming the wood as an escape path for the general, but did not manage to inflict enough wounds to win the battle so chaos warhounds could run my general into the braying beast herd (enemy in the way). From then, every roll that mattered failed, while my opponent succeeded with every break test (one with his demon prince, and one with his aspiring champion. It turned out pretty one-sided, but all-in-all, I learned some good lessons about wielding a horde army. Facing a winged terror-causing monster, I should have kept my pump wagon and squig hoppers bouncing back and forth behind the battle-line. Then he would not have dared to fly behind me. Check. Keep depth in battle formation when facing fliers.

Guzzla's Battle Brew

This innocent-looking item with great potential has now let me down for three consecutive battles. First my general turned stupid against undeads and fail the test at a crucial moment, and this weekend saw a Savage Orc Bigboss not only turn stupid twice out of twice, but actually act stupid as well. In the first battle, he failed two out of two tests - slowly walking straight into Chaos Warriors led by an Aspiring Champion of Khorne. In the second battle, he failed his first three tests only to end up in a wood for the remainder of the battle.

First wolf boy

Surrounding the trail of destruction that marks the progress of an Orc campaign are bands of goblin wolf riders, eager to form raiding parties. This is the first one in a unit of five. My wolf riders performed quite well in my second battle, luring Khornate beasts into cunning counter-charges and generally staying well away from anything that would involve actual dice rolls.


Yip, yip!



Go fetch!



Goblins are renowned throughout the entire Warhammer universe for taking good care of their weapons and armour.



Goblin's best friend.

Eyy! Where'z our support!

Coming right up. The first of the mandatory two spear chukkas that tag along any given orc army. The paint job made them perform exceptionally well, both in defeat and victory during the last weekend. In the first battle, they took down a giant before fleeing off the table. In the second battle, they took out a tuskgor chariot heading their way in two bolts. Conclusion: painted spear chukkas aim better.


Chukka in action



Close-up of the crew

Warboss Azog of the Misty Mountains

In the multitude of rocky mountain tops that are known as the Misty Mountains, the orcs are gathering under the banner of Azog, the greatest Warlord of the Third Age.

Azog, for quite apparent reasons, regularly sees battle as my black orc warboss. Keeping him on foot might seem bad, but at least he will be close to the center of action, providing desperately needed leadership to the troups surrounding him.



Azog wants you.



The muscles are all there.



Dwarven braids for trophies



Dear God, look at the size of that thing!

More boyz

Three more boyz for the spear unit: musician, champion and rank and file.




Coming up: Badass warboss...

One becomes two

Here comes the totem bearer. Looking for ways to make a banner and thinking about design. I have been busy as a bee - painting, that is - and not taking pictures. Will try to take more pictures this week. There's an upcoming war that the boyz look forward to this weekend. Some cracking skulls and sipping of beer. Yes, there are way more boyz than these two, but they're not painted yet.

First orc

In a moment of Tolkien truth, I decided to opt for a black/gray skin colour scheme for my orcs and goblins' horde. The first time I ever heard of orcs, I was eleven years old and had just finished reading The Lord of the Rings. Although I can appreciate Games Workshop for trying to create an orcish race with a particular appearance and image, my "black" heart has always remained true to the black/gray skin. Looking at a greenskin army can sometimes be too much of a carneval. After all, we want our army to look bad, don't we. Without further ado, here is the first orc in an upcoming unit of 23 (making room for da Boss).

Without looking too uniform, there will be a repetition of some colours. With the gray skin, I particularly find that reds, browns and blacks work well, with the additional white detail.

Coming up, banner bearer...