Topic: Fantasy Tribes Brown Orcs Project (FINISHED ARMY SHOTS!)

[Zygmund]

Various old GW skeleton boxes had similar scimitars and axes. They might be too big, though. And hard to get.

Maybe some historical Asiatic warriors have fitting weapons, if you can source some leftovers from fellow hobbyists?

-Z

[Shadespyre]

The old plastic skellies are a good call, I'll keep an eye out on ebay.

[Shadespyre]

A solution to the no-musicians problem?



I like this because there is no damage at all to the original model - it's half an hour in stripper away from a return to normal. And so I've scoured ebay and picked up 5 of these!

[orcyboy]

Works perfectly.

For some reason I interpret that Orc as female.

[Shadespyre]

Me too! It's got a different errrm "chest shape" from the rest of the range, certainly. Never seen it officially described as female, though.

[Shadespyre]

Trial Orc: Brown



Steel Legion Drab + Tallarn Flesh highlight + Earthshade Wash

Maybe a little pinker than I envisaged, also slightly worried this will blend into wood and clothing colours? But any thoughts appreciated!

[orcyboy]

Looks good so far.
So long as you stick to darker browns I wouldn't too much about colors blending in.

[Shadespyre]

Orc fashion?

"Orcs prefer to wear colors that most humans think unpleasant: blood red, rust red, mustard yellow, yellow green, moss green, greenish purple, and blackish brown. Their armor is unattractive besides—dirty and often a bit rusty."

I'm thinking of trying much paler wood colours than I normally choose. I quite like the idea of having brown skinned orcs wearing a lot of green, so I'll see how that works...

[ZeroTwentythree]

The old plastic skellies are a good call, I'll keep an eye out on ebay.

I can see if I've got any left over from my recent project, but I fear its probably all scythes.

I like the brown. I dont think that a lack of contrast would necessarily be bad. More like a filthy unwahsed horde.

The drummer conversion is simple yet brilliant. I imagine that once its painted you'll never notice it is a conversion.

[Shadespyre]

On the plus side, if I end up buying more of the old skeletons just to steal the scimitars then I know where to send the remains...   not a priority as I have lots of orcs I could paint before I get to those.

I think unwashed horde is what I'm looking for. I'm thinking of keeping the colours to a limited palette of what could be natural plant dyes, so maybe some pale colours but not too bright. Sloshed some brown-yellows, off greens and a nice russet around last night and I like how it looks.

[Shadespyre]

[GamesPoet]

Now that the other colors have been added, they are starting to look more towards the color of human skin.  And not complaining.

[ZeroTwentythree]

I found a single scimitar... guess I've burned through my stash. Sorry. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I really like them. and I'm fond of the unwashed horde look. I never won any awards for my Skaven, which were also painted earthy & filthy, but I personally think it suits both armies.

I'm digging the flesh color even more seeing them in a small group. Between the sculpts and the paint, they look like a meeting point halfway between GW aesthetics and Tolkein's. Satisfying to two fandoms at once.

[Shadespyre]

Now that the other colors have been added, they are starting to look more towards the colour of human skin.  And not complaining.

I washed out the photos a little, but I suspect you're right. I want to tone down the pinkness a little, keeping it more to the highlights and I think only on the faces. I think a photo next to some of my human models would probably show more contrast. Probably finishing the bases will add more colour balance, too. I need to settle on a direction for those (I'm thinking scrubby hills, but with a D&D monster there is always the temptation to go dungeon corridor!).

I'm also not sure about plain wooden shields - I like the functionality of it but it's an opportunity for extra colour and a hint of uniform which may otherwise be missing. Most of the sculpted shields on this range sport the crescent moon design, so that may become universal (probably crudely painted onto the flat wooden shields).

I'm digging the flesh color even more seeing them in a small group. Between the sculpts and the paint, they look like a meeting point halfway between GW aesthetics and Tolkein's. Satisfying to two fandoms at once.

Exactly what I want to hear, thanks! 

[Shadespyre]

10 Crossbow Orcs



Quite possibly these are looted weapons rather than orc made, as they are quite rare in the army list.

[GamesPoet]

I think the skin color is interesting in that it seems to look slightly different with the different colors of their clothing.

[ZeroTwentythree]

I agree. I wonder if the depth of the detail is also helping wirh that.

They look good!

[Padre]

They're great! Now, simply produce a whole army of them and you will enter WFB heaven!

[Shadespyre]

Well, I'm enjoying it so far so let's push on. I've based and undercoated the following...

about 16 of the sword and shield orcs
about 15 orcs with pole arms
about 20 or archers
a few converted drummers

and a tribe of trolls! ( those will be my reserve option for if brown orcs get a little tiresome - but what colour will they be?  )

[Padre]

Paint them brown.

And don't flock the bases, instead make it look like they're all fighting on brown mud.

Anything they carry or wear that isn't brown, assume it is filthy and smeared with mud. So paint that brown too.

Fifty shades of Brown!

[Shadespyre]

Hahaha! Starting to sound a bit like my Beastmen army...

Working on the swords-orcs at the moment. I wanted to add a bit more variety to the cloth colours, so I've thrown in some more neutral tones. Actually, this seems like a good moment to jot down some paint colours for later reference...?

Brown Orc Skin - Steel Legion Drab / Tallarn Flesh
Orc Teeth          - Kommando Khaki
Orc Eyes           - Dwarf Flesh

Wood                - Baneblade Brown
Dark Leather     - Charadon Granite
Steel                 - Ironbreaker

Cloth                 - Skrag Brown, Bubonic Brown, Zandri Dust, Dryad Bark
                        - Adeptus Battlegrey, Gretchin Green, Knarloc Green
                        - Hormagaunt Purple, Mephiston Red

Probably not much use to anyone else but you never know...

Had a quick look ahead at trolls - classic AD&D trolls are grey to moss green, often mottled, and with iron grey or greenish black hair, apparently. I've got a really old pot of Ghoul Grey which might be getting a last hurrah, I think!

[Shadespyre]

Having a few issues with the photobucket editor again, so I hope these come out ok.

Here's a unit of swords-orcs, complete with converted drummer. I left a space for a future standard bearer...



And here are some future standard bearers. Having so many broken orcs gives me lots of guilt-free conversion opportunities!



No idea what might end up on these poles at the moment!

[GamesPoet]

 

[Shadespyre]

And now some archers

[Shadespyre]

Filthy dirty and nekkid - three test Trolls - yes, three of them, cos why not?



Black eyes are from the AD&D description. They kinda work but I can't help thinking the faces would benefit from more visible eyes, so I might revisit that.

Still unable to use the photobucket pic editor, and everything seems to be coming out greener than usual? Maybe this army really wants to be green? Ironically enough, I used Orchide Shade for the green hair on these guys.