Painting Challenge Submission 17 - Orc Characters and Support for Warmaster

Some supporting bits for my 10mm Warmaster Orcs - metal figures from GW.

This is yet another of my concluding submissions to AHPC XII. As the end of the Challenge approached, I thought I would round out my Warmaster Orcs a bit more. That project was a major focus for me during this edition of the Challenge, and it seemed right to make the initial force more complete. Here we have an assortment of Orc characters and commanders, as well as a good old rock lobber - fun awaits! These are all metal castings from GW's long-lost "Warmaster" figure range.

Here's a serious Orc Lord!

One of the (many) things the "Warmaster" rules get so perfectly right is the use of characters. I know one common detraction for the "Warhammer Fantasy Battle" game was the way overpowered characters can take over the game. "Warmaster" is much better - the characters are essential, of course, but indirect. They cannot succeed on their own, they have to work through the units they command. They can enhance them, yes, and have a notable impact, but in doing so they are also creating risk. 

The Wyvern is tricky to assemble (and needed a pin for the base), but what an awesome figure, I just loved it.

Tried to get a leathery look for the wings on this monster.

Even the characters riding terrifying creatures, like this Orc Warlord on a Wyvern, are therefore very influential, and powerful, but also at much more risk than the equivalent in a standard Fantasy Battle game. This figure is a favourite, something I have wanted to paint ever since I saw it in a GW catalogue so long ago. It has been sitting in a blister pack in my horde for something like ten years? How fun to get some paint on this beast at last!

Let's go ladz!

Suitably angry and armed boyz for the chariot.

Nasty war boars ready to charge home!

We also have an Orc hero riding a war chariot of some sort - will be a useful commander to use when the big guy on the Wyvern is not around. That chariot looks like a totally safe ride, I'm sure everyone on board will be fine, right? 

A weedy little gobbo shaman...

Orc Shaman with handy skull supply!

"Warmaster" also totally gets the magic aspect of fantasy wargaming correct - the magic is important, but won't win anything on its own. Still, the Orcs can now get in on the spell-casting with two of the heroes here - one is an Orc Shaman (with a handy skull-shaped altar, just for Barks!) and the other is a Goblin Shaman, with a couple of squigs on hand because obviously...squigs, right?

"Put yer back inno it!"

Finally, we have a rock lobber and crew. The Orcs don't really have much in the way of missile-armed troops in their army. Given their preference for brute force, that makes sense, but going up against all of those cannons and crossbows in the Empire, they could use a little bit of artillery, and this rock lobber fits the bill. 

Troll-powered trebuchet. I'm sure things will be OK with this, right?

You get more crew figures than can actually fit on the game-sized base, so I put the "commander" for the lobber on a seperate base, leaving the poor troll and two gobbos on the same base as the lobber. Looking at the contraption, I can see the orc wanting to keep a bit of distance, in case things go wrong...

Thanks for reading - there was one more submission before things concluded in AHPC XII, and I will post that shortly, but in the interim, happy brushing everyone!

Painting Challenge Submission 14 - Warmaster Orcs!

Ready for war! 10mm Orcs for "Warmaster" - GW metal castings.

This submission to Curt's "Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge" carries, for me, a huge dose of nostalgia - here is a force of Orcs for GW's "Warmaster". These figures are all metal castings from GW - in my opinion, some of the best metal fantasy castings ever done by GW, or done by anyone. I don't want to bore you with the long story of gradually acquiring these OOP figures over many years, keeping them as part of my Smaug-like hobby horde...but The Painting Challenge smiles upon long-unpainted figures, and for the 12th edition of the Painting Challenge, I felt it was finally time to open these packs and get paint on these Orcs!

I find I can't quite throw these away...that is probably a bad sign...

There are three units of Orc boyz, two units of Goblins, a unit of Orc boar riders, a unit of Goblin wolf chariots, along with a couple of character bases - and to cap things off, a Giant! Enough to cause plenty of trouble on a raid out of the mountains and into The Empire! 

Three Regiments of Orc boyz! The core of the army.

Beautiful castings.

So many small details...really tried to capture it...

"Warmaster" is, flat out, one of the best rule sets GW has ever produced - indeed, one of the best sets of rules, period, its core mechanics having served as an underpinning for so many other rules that followed. The accompanying line of miniatures that GW released to go along the game were amazing, just wonderful castings. Painting these was definitely a "labour of love", and I tried my best to capture the many, many small features cast on to these stunning figures - a squiq here, a bone there...all sorts of wonderful little details - many perhaps beyond my brush skill, but I gave it my best shot. 

The goblin regiments...I wish I could secure more of these units...note the Orc in the front rank to keep an eye on the other gitz...

I love the poor smashed cart on the Giant's base...

Ready to crush some more stuff!

 

The Giant in particular is such fun to work on - many, many, many little details, like the smashed cart on the base, the poor patrons of the cart either hiding, or already stuck into the giant's belt for consumption later...what a cool figure. He should be fun to unleash in the game.

The boar riders, ready to charge home!

Gobbo charioteers - ready to rampage!

Curt and Byron, among others, have been posting some amazing 10mm fantasy work of their own during this Challenge. They have been basing their awesome figures for other games, but for me, I wanted to do plain old fun "Warmaster", so I based the figures up for the classic game - ready, one day, I hope, to take on my Empire troops on a game with my friends! 

Here are the characters that came with the Orc starter army. The Warlord is on the right, and an Orc boss is on the left.

As I said at the open of this post, the nostalgia factor on these figures is tremendous. For me, they are a connection to GW's Fantasy "Old World", still one of my favourite fantasy settings. I have a few more packs of Warmaster Orcs that I hope to paint up before this edition of the Challenge ends...after all, even with all of the Orcs you see here, this is actually a pretty compact Orc force for the game. Still, even if my brushes don't find more Orcs before Spring arrives, at least there is a force that is ready to go! 

Here is the full bunch - ready for war!

Thanks for reading, and have a great week! We are in the final stretch for the Painting Challenge, so watch for more in this space as the battle against the unpainted lead, plastic and resin continues!

Painting Challenge Submission 13 - Empire Handgunners for Warmaster

A unit of Empire handgunners for "Warmaster"

I was away last week, so could not get very much painting done for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I did get home in time over the weekend to crank out one more unit for my Warmaster Empire forces.  This is a unit of handgunners, very useful "missile" troops in the game for the Empire player in the Warmaster game.  Their shooting is harder to stop, and any wounds you can stick to the charging units of your enemy will really come in handy.

Astonishing variety and character in these small sculpts - incredible stuff.

The colours are really loud as before, and they are from the province of Hochland, red and green.  Once again I went with brighter colours to really make them "pop" (I hope).  And although they are of course imaginary, these troops are clearly inspired by the forces of Renaissance Europe, and I believe some rather bright colours were often employed in that era.  So the province of Hochland may have to deal with dark, brooding forests and the scary Middle Mountains, but dammit, their contingent in the army will look bright and fun when they march forth!

GW's Warmaster figures are a joy to paint, these were no exception.

In an ideal world I would include several of these units in my Empire force, as the stopping power of the handgunners is very useful, particularly when confronting cheese-bag overpowered forces such as those marshaled in the name of Chaos (*cough* Chaos Knights *cough*).  The Warmaster game, however, is long-cancelled, and the figures are found only in online aftermarkets.  Handgunners in particular figures seldom appear on Ebay, so this unit will remain a little lonely for now, although fellow Challengers have suggested several alternate sources for 10mm troops which might be useful, so I will check those out.

The yellow feathers...maybe too yellow? Oh well.

Once again I must rave at just how awesome these sculpts are from GW.  Just frigging brilliant, a true joy to paint.  Man, I can't wait to get a game in again with this stuff...haven't played Warmaster in like eight years or something...

The handgunners take their place in the ranks...not to worry gents, I'm sure those Knights behind you will hold off and not trample you or anything like that.

Of course I have to include the obligatory progress shot of the overall force, which has grown from a neglected little smattering to a healthy-sized, full force ready for a game! I'm fortunate enough to have a few more units to add (included some nice recent Ebay scores, even if I can't find many handgunners) but I think, for now, this will bring my recent Warmaster painting run to an end, although with my butterfly attention span, who knows what next week might bring?

The Empire forces for Warmaster! They even have  house to defend now! I wonder if Byron could be convinced to 3D print more of that village stuff...

I'll conclude with a photo from our visit to California last week.  We visited the Palm Springs area, and while much of the trip was taken up with important activities like relaxing by a pool, sipping drinks and shopping, we also went hiking in Joshua Tree National Park, home to a surreal and mesmerizing landscape.  What an amazing place...can't wait to visit again next year.

The Barker Dam at Joshua Tree National Park in the USA...there had been some rain two weeks prior, so there was water behind the dam...it was a peaceful and beautiful place to visit, and a lovely hike...

There 24 castings 10mm in size for this submission, so this should get me 24 points.  Trudging toward the goal of 1000 - still a ways to go, but the goal is in sight. Stay tuned for more next week (I hope).  It's another "theme round" weekend and those can be a little dodgy for me...

Be sure to check out the ongoing excellent entries at the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, including more stuff from Byron, who is apparently running a painting factory...

Challenge Theme Submission - A Home in Hochland

10mm medieval home, courtesy of 3D printing by Byron!

The third bonus theme of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge was set for this past weekend.  The theme was "Terrain: Home", and I was expecting between my intense dislike of painting any kind of terrain, a travel schedule and the fact that I didn't really have anything to fit the theme that I would end up missing this theme round...that wouldn't be the end of the world, but would have been a bit of a bummer, as I have started to enjoy them. 

Enter Byron, who joined us for our Team Yankee game last week.  He handed me this model, which he created with a 3D printer.  He had noticed all the Warmaster stuff I had been painting in the Challenge, and thought it would go well with the Empire forces. Wow!

Empire commanders review the battle plan outside of their cottage in Hochland...

I don't know about 3D printers at all, or at least, I know enough to know that I should just stay away from them.  But this is an example of the sort of cool stuff you can get when clever folks get hold of devices like 3D printers.  This particular model had some odd texture here and there, but overall it's bloody amazing.  I think there is some kind of set of files out there for "medieval village" or something..? However that works, the explanation is best left to Byron.

Meanwhile, the wizard is out back practicing spells...maybe he shouldn't stand so close to the house?

I threw some colours associated with the Empire province of Hochland on the model, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out! When the time comes for a Warmaster game, I look forward to placing this on the table as part of the action! A big "thank you" to Byron for this great little gift!

Submission 11 To The AHPC - Warmaster Empire Knights

Two units of Empire Knights for GW's "Warmaster"

Since I let the Warmaster genie out of the bottle, I can't seem to put it back.  These figures have been neglected, unpainted and unloved for more than seven years, and since I started working on them again a few week ago, I want to make the effort count during Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  Here are two more units for my Empire army in Warmaster, both units of Empire Knights, my 11th submission to the Challenge.

This unit is sporting colours from the Empire province of Hochland

I tried to use bright colours to create a contrast and a "pop" on some of the features

While I am often wary of, and frustrated by, painting horses, I still love using cavalry in a game.  The heavier, the better, and in GW's Warhammer Fantasy setting, the Knights of the Empire are at the pinnacle of heavy cavalry fun.  The Empire Knights are fantasy cavalry at its finest, at least for me - not fancy, flighty horses or silly magicians, but men and big horses covered in enough armour and barding to bring down a panzer division.

These gold coloured Knights are inspired by the "Knight of the Blazing Sun" from the Warhammer Fantasy setting

These sculpts are just total home runs - some of GW's finest work

In reality, armour imposes burdens on warrior and mount that can limit its use.  People and animals can only undertake so much activity wearing all that steel. But in the fantasy setting, we can just toss those worries into the bin, and the malleability of the Warhammer Fantasy Old World as a setting offers limitless possibilities.  Obscure Knightly orders? Sure. Elite guards for the Elector Count or the Emperor? Sure. Collection of well-financed, bad-ass nobles? Sure.  All together in the same force? Why not?

A closer shot of some of the Hochland lads

Some fellows in the gold armour for comparison

I know history offers some amazing examples of very heavy cavalry (man, I wish I could figure out either Byzantines or Persians so I could paint Kataphracts) but the Empire Knights in Warhammer Fantasy really fit the bill for fun heavy cavalry on the table.

Keen players of "Hail Caesar" and "Pike & Shotte" (like Curt and the gang in Regina) have noted the resemblance of these sculpts to the heavy cavalry gendarmes seen in eras such as the Great Italian Wars.  I'm hoping to try painting some figures similar to these in 28mm...not so sure I have the courage to yet tackle something like the Italian Wars, but maybe it's time to finally start an Oldhammer project...

Some serious armoured power for the Empire army!

As I have been saying while painting these figures, I find GW just absolutely hit it out of the park with these little metal sculpts.  They have tons of character - in the case of the Knights, beautiful barding, large plumes of feathers and massive lances with wonderful pennons - dramatic, flashy and bad-ass.  I painted two of these units this past week, but these are so nice, I could paint ten more before I got tired of them...so of course I've been scouring Ebay for more...

Obligatory overall photo - the force is getting pretty serious now!

In the Warmaster game the Knights are the Empire player's hammer, an integral part of the force.  For the Empire commander to be successful the halberdiers, crossbowmen and artillery will hopefully hold the line, while the Knights must charge home at the right time and deliver a blow for the forces of their Elector Count.  It will take some time to get some enemies painted, but I hope these Knights will get to make some kind of big and carefully thought-out totally reckless charge in a Warmaster game later this year.


This submission included 24 mounted 10mm figures, so that should put another 48 points on the pile, the drive to 1,000 points in the AHPC continues.  I have more Warmaster figures in the pending pile, but I think some more 30k stuff beckons. Hope to share more next week!

Ninth Painting Challenge Submission - More Warmaster Stuff

More troops for the Empire in GW's "Warmaster"

Since reconnecting with my old Warmaster stuff I wanted to make more progress on them in the Painting Challenge before moving back to other things.  The Empire forces in the Warmaster game are built around crossbowman and halberdiers, so I added some more of these basic units. This submission includes two more units of crossbowmen and another unit of halberdiers.

The provinces of the Empire have different colours to set them apart, but as I started to work once again on these figures two weeks ago, I noticed I had selected a palette of blue and green which seemed to match...no particular province.  Maybe I had something in mind when I first started painting these like 12 years ago? Who knows?

No matter! It's a fantasy game after all.  So for the crossbowmen I just used variants of blue and green uniforms with a dab of red here and there, and popped some bright colours on the feathers to help tell them apart on the battlefield.

Empire crossbows - blue clothing, red feathers...

Perhaps the elector count fielding these troops has access to animals with a lot of different-coloured feathers...or maybe there is just a lot of coloured dye in his province...

More crossbows...green and blue this time, with yellow feathers

For the Halberdiers, I wanted to change the colours a bit.  There is one particular province in the fictional Empire - Hochland - which interests me (connected to another hobby project, blah, blah, not interesting at this point).  Their colours are red and green, which make me think of Christmas, so that's nice! It would also look suitably different from the blue and green.  A large Empire force in Warmaster would have troops raised from several provinces anyways, I expect, so good to have some different colours into the mix. I tried them out on this unit.

Halberdiers of Hochland

The red and green are a fun colour mix, one I hope to repeat on a couple more of the units as I continue to expand the overall force.

 I love these little sculpts - total home run by GW...

These castings are some of the best work GW ever did.  Painting the Halberdiers in particular is just a great treat, with all sorts of character and small details.  They are a total joy to paint. Getting back to these figures has been like reconnecting with an old friend. It has been so much fun!

Ready to defend the Empire! One poor chap in the rear rank had his halberd break off..hopefully doesn't stand out in the unit

The overall Empire force is a good basic size now - four regiments of halberdiers, four units of crossbows, two regiments of Knights and some artillery.  On reflection, I think I need some more Knights...there is always more, and no project is ever truly "finished" :)

A good basic force of Halberdiers for the Empire

My Empire army continues to grow...those Knights are kind of lonely now...and you can see there is still room for more...

These figures netted me enough points to get me half-way toward my goal of 1000 points of painting in the Challenge. I hope to have some more Warmaster stuff ready next week.