Friday 29 April 2011

Waaagh Da Orcs!

Orcs and Goblins were the third army I started collecting, after Wood Elves and High Elves. The Orcs had always appealed to me, however I was always intimidated by the number of models required. It was only when I took possession of a friend's (rather large) collection that I was able to push past this and have a go with them.

Orcs are the iconic horde army in Warhammer. They are meant to be a green tide rushing toward their beleaguered enemies. As such, it was essential that I own too many of them! Actually, I'm not sure that this was the thought process per se, but it was something along those lines. One does not field small units of Orcs and Goblins. One fields vast units of them to frighten one's opponent, right up to the point where he or she realises they're really rather useless and scares them off with a loud clap or distracts them with a small, shiny unit of Pistoliers.

I was keen to start the Orcs because they are the arch-enemies of the Dwarfs, as collected by my oldest opponent. They would fight endless battles for the control of the mountain Holds, re-enact the Battle of East Gate, etc. Unfortunately we have hardly played since then, but the theory is still good.

For a long time my Orcs were my favoured tournament army, and they got far too much use. I then went the other way, being a bit sick of them and wanting to give some attention to my other armies. This on-again, off-again approach has resulted in some rather disjointed paintjobs and some rather neglected models. I have gone back and refurbished some of them, but given they are still not my main focus at the moment, they still have a long way to go.

My full painted army, as it currently stands. My poor photography doesn't really show the army to its fullest. For instance, that bright green mass at the back is about 80 Orcs all lumped in together. I think there are about 230 Savage, Black and Vanilla Orc infantry there in total

Black Orcs - 65 of them, I think. A sensible unit

My old home-made "ninja" Black Orcs, made basically from single-pose Orc Archers and Ogre swords.

The 3 Stooges

Grom the Paunch rides again!

My favoured Goblin general, Skuzzbutt. He rides Fuzzbutt, his pet furry spider

Night Goblins including my home-made netters, made from flywire

More Orc Shamans than you can points a bony stick at. If you think they look similar, this is an optical illusion caused by them being the same model

Just a couple of birdies

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