... and he did not think it too many

I've talked on here before about my love of Nick Lund sculpts, and my view that his best work was done for Grenadier back in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

I've always liked dwarfs so when i saw these in Tottenham Court Road Virgin Games Store i had to get some. They were grim, dour, and looked the business. No orange haired silliness in sight, just a massed line of chain mail and axes. Proper Dwarfs.

Over the years I've dropped into ebay and bought a few more.

I started basing these figures around 4 years ago, on laser-cut ply supplied by the rather wonderful Fenris Games. But I still have some way to go. The Ply is then on magnetic tape which holds the figures in Games Workshop movement trays lined with steel sheet.

Today I got organised and took some pictures. Its amazing how the numbers build up slowly over 20 years. I think only a handful of these were bought full price. All the rest are e-bay buys.

That's 200 Heavy Infantry on the right, not 120...

Note that the Bear Chariots are NOT grenadier or Nick Lund - I think they may be old Ral Partha Snow Barbarian chariots or some such. I just like the, but they have made me want to put snow on all the bases and paint the bears as Polar Bears!

This is 460 Infantry, 20 Bear Cavalry, 3 Cannon and 20 Ballista.

You can't buy one army without having something to fight it. As a Nick Lund fan it was only natural that I'd get orcs. Nick's orcs were just like his dwarfs, brutal, functional and grim. The black orcs that nick sculpted for citadel back in the day became the basic pattern since. Before they got all "Waaarggghhh!" and spoke in comedic brummy accents.

So I started picking up a few of them. This is what I ended up with. All but a handful are e-bay buys, with a few extra musicians and heroes from the ever helpful Doug at em-4 miniatures, and a couple of Mirliton purchases.

One of the best things about Orcs are the Wolf Riders. I didn't seem to have many of them. So...

I have included here a number of Citadel N14 Orc Wolf Riders as they were again sculpted by Nick and although they are a tiny bit smaller the style is the same and there is greater variety to make a unit look more of a rabble.

I make that about 250 Infantry, 44 wolf riders and 26 assorted Big things, 3 Heavy Chariots and a Juggernaut (which I hate the sculpt for- but have included for completeness... thank you OCD!)

Now, one of the great things about Orc armies is the amount of allies they have and the variety in the troops. If you are going to have orcs then you really do have to have Goblins!

The goblins haven't had anything like as much love as the Dwarfs and Orcs, and aren't even glued to bases.

170 infantry, 10 flying gargoyle riders, 12 lizard riders, 6 spider riders.

The orcs have those three lovely Big 4 wolf Chariots. And we all know that what orcs have goblins want, only smaller and faster. So ...

That's enough parts to make 8 Chronicle 2-wolf light chariots, except I am two wolves short and had to include 10 wheels from elsewhere. There were 3 versions of this chariot as you can see from the variations in the number of sides and the crew. Also, the sythes, and rams head fronts of the chariots vary. I'm not sure which went with which versions as the only references I can see on the web do not have photographs, so I'm going to mix them up a bit.

And I forgot to photograph it, but I have one of these too. Again bought from Mirliton.

 
Well there you go. One long days organising and categorising.

A total of:

880 Infantry
100 Cavalry
14 Chariots
30 Big Beasties
33 War machines


I should point out that I have managed to paint a grand total of 20 dwarfs out of this whole list. Everything else with paint on it is as it came from e-bay.

I have a lot of work to do...

Not again!

Those of you who have been reading my mutterings from the time before laser cutting took over may remember my long time project to create opposing Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Dwarf and Orc/Goblin armies.

One of the models that has alluded me for some time are the Chronicle Miniatures Orc and Goblin Chariots. Although not technically Grenadier figures they were sculpted by the same sculptor who did the FW line - Nick Lund. I have three of the Grenadier Orc Warchief Chariots but want the other variants too!

BN1

There was One on ebay recently from New Zealand... and for the 6th time in the last 3-4 years I managed to be the SECOND highest bidder. Despite sniping the auction I was outbid by another sniper! I'm not complaining about this practice, its a sensible way of bidding - it's just frustrating that I continue the hunt yet again.

I did turn down a chariot a few months ago that had the driver figure missing and i reasoned i was unlikely to be able to find a spare driver from the set - I'm beginning to regret that.

So in the vain hope that any of you guys out there have any of the Chronicle chariots and are prepared to sell or swap then please let me know. It might be worth reminding you that I have a 'Wanted Page' which I try to keep up to date with my current obsessions. 

B.

Now thats what I call a lizard rider!

I picked up a couple of these on ebay recently.

No Idea why really, as I had told myself I was limiting my Orc army to just Grenadier Fantasy Warrior figures (well, plus a few Chronicle ones thrown in, but then they're by the same sculptor - Nick Lund - so no one would spot them would they???).

Actually I do know why... because they LOOK LIKE BIG BIRD!!!.

It's a properly awkward, gangly, long-legged riding lizard. It just looks as though it's meant to be striding about the waste lands and galloping away from predators (or the cookie monster)! Far better than the "not-hot" lizards produced by other companies I thought.

Clearly these aren't the shock troops of an army but highly mobile advanced scouting parties and mounted skirmish troopers. Who wouldn't want a unit of these on their Orc Flank?

Anyway a bit of scouting about on the web lead me to the Ral Partha Europe website (which is always a little treasure trove of miniatures you think are gone forever) and hey presto (or abaracadabara, or izzy wizzy lets get busy - or whatever your magical innvocation of choice is...) they are still available! They come as archer (3 variants) , spears (shown), commander and standard bearer, all unfortunately on the same pose of mount known as a Death Jaw.

Now I had bought them to complement the Grenadier Lizard riders I had picked up, but as you can see they're clearly a different species and unless you have a very broad multi-cultural diversity policy in your units they simply wont mix.

Both of these figures are shown on 40mm square bases. At £5.75 the Ral Partha lizards are pretty good value; they stand almost 80mm to the top of the head! The bodies come in three sections; left leg and lower body + right leg and lower body + head, neck upper body and tail. It goes together OK, but needs a thick superglue to fill the joint and some poxy filler.

I'm not too enamoured of the style of the riders, and they are quite large, but I can easily swap these for say Orc wolf riders from the Grenadier or Chronicle range.

Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Orcs III

I have around 200 of the old Grenadier Orcs mainly picked up from ebay over the last couple of years, and progress is being made putting them on bases as enemies of my FW Dwarfs.

Now for some odd reason I have 23 orc archers, but they are all the same pose - with bow fully drawn, and I have a number of 'vacancies' in all of the other infantry units.

So it was with interest that i came across these two articles from Combat Zone Chronicles.
1. Playing with Plastic Orcs
2. Playing with More Plastic Orcs

Now I'd seen that Doug over at EM-4 Miniatures is selling the old Grenadier plastic Orc and Dwarf figures for some time and had even ordered samples of them but had gone no further.

After reading this article I think I've found the cheapest way possible to bulk out the existing units and create a genuine horde. I'm not sure I would build whole units of these plastic orcs but I think mixing them in with other metal units should work well.

At only 15p a figure I can't go wrong.

Oh, except of course I need to be actually get around to painting them!!

Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Orcs II

Thanks to the 52 people who voted on my recent poll "What colour are orcs?" and to all those that left comments on The Miniatures Page and the Forum of Doom.

Well, the poll is closed, the results are in and they look compelling.

But, in the true spirit of online polls I'm going to do what I want to regardless! I'll explain why:

In the multi-racial horde that is coming together to to challenge my Dwarf Host I have the following species in roughly decreasing order of size/toughness. (Yes, I know that if I follow the FW rules I cant put all these in the same army- nor can I in WHFB, but hey they're my figures.)

• Trolls
• Orges
• Greater Orcs
• Hob Goblins
• Orcs
• Half Orcs
• Goblins
• Goblin rabble (lesser goblins)

Thats 8 separate although somewhat related races, and I'd like to be able to subtly distinguish between them by skin colour. (Yes, I realise that to confuse a troll with a lesser goblin you'd have to be extremely short sighted no matter what colour I paint them!)

So i'm going to paint them all in slightly different shades of the same basic colours I highlighted. Broadly using darker tones at the top of the list and much lighter ones lower down.

So, well done, If you voted Quagmire, Drab or Moss - Then you won. If you voted for stupid green - please report the the Games Workshop reconditioning unit. If you voted for "something else" and then failed to leave any kind of comment here or on the forums above then thanks for being so helpful :-)

I have a couple of units undercoated (Hob Goblins and Orcs) so will do some demo and WIP pictures in the next few days.

Grenadier Fantasy Warrior Orcs I

Well, its a simple question.... "What colour are Orcs?"

I love the old Grenadier Fantasy Warriors game and the Grenadier Miniatures that went with it. And i've been picking up second hand from ebay. I've started on the Dwarfs but also have around 150 Orc/(hob)goblins too.

Now I like to think of these sculpts as old school (certainly they don't have the definition of of modern sculpts and in some places are very poor, but for me its a nostalgia thing). And to me old school orcs don't have bright green comedy skin. I want something a little more 'realistic'. Yes i do realise the irony of asking for a realistic skin tone for a fictional creature. Maybe something like a green/flesh tone mix.

I work in Foundry Paints and am thinking of using either Moss or Drab or maybe even Quagmire?

What do you guys think? Please vote in the Poll on the right >>>

Then, once the skin tone is sorted I need to establish a colour scheme/theme for the army. They will mostly fight my Dwarfs who are in Teal and Grey/White colours. And they are likely to be fighting in snowy tundra terrain (thats how my dwarfs are/will be based).

So any great ideas for a simple two-colour strong theme? suggestions on Orc/Goblin symbols and heraldry also welcome. I'm not doing dags and checks! I like the lidless eye and white hand motifs but want to do something similar in simplicity and concept but a different symbol.

There is a Hasslefree Miniatures link here too. I see my Grymn as descendents of my Fantasy Dwarfs (a few hundred generations later). So am planning to buy a bundle of Hasslefree Bohkin (sci-fi goblins)for my Grymn to fight. These Bohkin would then keep the same livery as the Fantasy Orcs etc.

All suggestions and debate welcome...