The Bloodshield Boyz, 2 trolls

Hi everyone.

My army is based around an orc tribe called the Bloodshields. The Bloodshield tribe come from the Badlands. But recently they have started raiding into the nearby Border Princes. The current warboss, named Gorfang, has begun building a mighty waaaggh!

TBH I was reluctant starting a blog having seen the standard and quality of other people's painting. A lot of my minis were painted a long time ago, even now I am not much of a painter. Yeh I would like to improve but for now if I can manage a basic tabletop standard that will be fine. Even if the standard of paint-work on show here is not great I hope that maintaining a blog will help me to keep going with my army list...

Most of my figures are 3rd or 4th edition. I have about 300 figures, including maybe 200 not-very-well-painted, from when I was much younger. I don't have the motivation to strip them all and start again (it would take forever and I would never get round to painting anything new) so instead I am going through them unit by unit, just touching up the paintwork in the areas that need most attention. Once this first operation is complete I will move onto painting new miniatures.

Here is what I have completed re-painting so far:



*Lurking on the top right are my old Skarsnik and Gobbla models which I have re-mounted on a plasticard base. However Skarsnik is not a part of my current waaagh (I already have a warboss!), for now he just sits in my cabinet looking menacing.


One area in need of attention on all models was the bases. I decided to go for a simple grass effect because my orcs are from the Badlands which I always imagined as a great rolling plain, a bit like the great plains of the American West.

I started with a tub of standard GW grass and some GW sand, but I wasn't happy with the standard grass colour (too sickly, almost like litchen). So I decided to go ahead with just the sand, drybrushed light green (back in 4th ed. many people did their bases this way even the GW Eavy Metal team). I did 3 entire 3 units in this way then realised I still wasn't happy with them. Arrrrgh! So I started to look at other peoples army blogs for ideas.

Finally I went back to my GW store and had another look at the range of static grass products. Nothing looked quite right so I decided I would have to mix my own. After some experimenting I have settled on a mixture of glade grass and dead grass, as shown on the photos below. As you see the bases are quite simple, but nonetheless I am fairly satisfied with the look.







This regiment are 'Da Young Guard'. These are the fierce young warriors of the Bloodshield tribe. Each of the Young Guard has to scavenge their own weapons and armour, using whatever they can lay they hands on. If they can survive long enough then some day they will join 'Da Old Guard'.

The original paint job on these orcs was very rough. Generally I have touched up only the more visible areas such as the faces and shields and ofc the bases. However I did do a bit more work on the command group. Sneakily I also added in a HeroQuest orc to full out the rear ranks. Finally I added a new banner to the standard bearer model.







Here are my 5 wolf riders. These particular wolf riders ride ahead of the main waaagh operating as scouts and tracking down the enemy. In this role they are highly effective. For this reason even the toughest orc boyz have a grudging admiration towards them.

I love the dynamic postures of the old wolf models. I converted the middle rider into a musician, my first greenstuff effort. Apart from that all I have really done is repaint the wolf fur and do the bases. However I gave special time & attention to the 2 grey wolves. I wanted them to be more like real life wolves. In real life wolves are not simply grey all over. So I studied a lot of wolf photos and from those photos I copied the fur pattern.







My 2 wolf chariots. They are prone to crazy driving and making suicidal charges. In keeping with warhammer-rules each chariot is fitted with an imaginary hand-brake which allows it to pivot on the spot.


Again the original paint job was quite rough. I repainted the wolf fur, I did a little tidying up on the machine but not very much. Besides that the chariot parts were quite badly glued together and the glue itself (aroldite glue) had left nasty blobs showing. So I had to pull them both apart, clean them up, and reassemble them, which was a very long job since the parts were so fiddly and awkward. I then mounted each chariot on a new base.

Also each chariot originally had just 2 crewmen. To match the models to the current wolf-chariot rules I decided to add a 3rd crewman, however it was very a tricky job to fit them on since the model was designed for only 2 gobbos. I tried out about half a dozen 3rd crewmen in different poses. As you see one crewman is leaning over the side. For the other crewman with the spear I had to slightly extend the rear of the platform.





These spider riders give me some flexibility in choosing my fast cav. They were already painted when I got them on ebay a while back. I am happy with their existing paint job so left them untouched, save for the bases. But I included their photo cuz they are part of my waaagh!

Yeah I know, shocking laziness to buy pre-painted... but I already have enough figures to paint.


Next up I shall be working on another unit of orc boyz...

This post has been edited by Craze_b0i on Jun 25 2012, 07:25 PM

Nice! I love seeing the old orcs and goblins from when I first joined the hobby, especially the wolf riders and chariots. Actually as soon as I saw them I searched on ebay to see if I could find some even though I can't afford it at the moment!

The army looks good and ought to be very cool on the table! Good luck with your continued touch up efforts!

Wazoo

Uargh.. Old minis bye the lot! I love It

Screw plastics and easy fitting, old metal orcs is the way to go.

I am so looking forward to seeing much more!

hurrah for old school

This isn’t much different from the start of a blog anyway - you’ve already posted your images above for us to see, so it won’t be much different doing the same in the army blog section.

I like your models, were not all pro-painters and I'm in awe of some of the stuff I’ve seen on da-warpath and feel that my blog is rather naff in comparison, but hey we all love to look at pictures of figures from every one isn’t that right? We especially love to see massed ranks of Gobo's, so what’s stopping you starting a blog now?

By the way I love those chariots. I was bidding on some older style chariots on ebay recently but was outbid and had already spent my allotted earnings this month on the new edition of Warhammer!

Oh yeah one more thing. That stand looks cool. It’s just a shame about the light glare in the picture.

edit - this is the army blog section haha.

This post has been edited by Snikpik on Jul 6 2010, 09:10 AM

Thankyou for the encouragement guys.

Love the look of the army mate.

Great consistent theme and you managed to make those bases look excellent.

Can't wait to see more...

Bidiot.

Cheers Bidot.

Just a small update today...

For my first few games I started out using a carry case (plus several ice-cream tubs for larger figures) to get my models down to my club. However since O&G is a horde army I, like many before me, found it could take anything up to half an hour setting the gitz up. So as well as re-painting I am currently in the process of magnetising.

I got these boxes some time ago. Last night I fitted the bottom with steel paper. Between them they should carry up to 2000 pts.



To make them easier and safer to carry I needed a carrying-bag that would carry them upright. I spent some time searching for a bag large enough. This was the largest one I could find and luckily it is just the right size.



***

Also on a different subject, I am not completely satisfied with my painted banner on the orcs (see above). I find it hard to paint images & detail on banner. Any tips on banner-painting would be appreciated. Thanks!


This post has been edited by Craze_b0i on Jul 7 2010, 09:44 AM

Hm, cheery colours!

Bases looking well-flocked. Good job on that. They stand up, ass opposed to many others i've seen. I would suggest to paint the sides of the bases brown though, to make the bases pop better. Green bases and green flock does'nt go all that well together in my opinion.

Just my thoughts.

Theo

Ty for the input. I though a lot about doing brown edges. In the end I stuck on green because I wanted them to blend with the battlefield. But maybe I should paint up a test-base with brown and see...

Nice work, love seeing the older models like my own still in use.

Seriously, try the brown edge.. like a Bestial Brown.. you wont be sorry.
Definately following this one, keep it up!

Ikea bags are amazing!

Your minis look great! Can't wait to see more pics.

Great ideas on the carry cases mate.

I also have no ideas what to do for banners. I'm fine if I can colour a design that has already been done, but freehand scares the living daylights out of me.

I heard an idea a while back where you get an image from the internet and reduce it to the size of the banner, print it out and stick it on the banner then paint over it.

Not sure if this works but it sounds like something I will try at some point in order to save you all from my horrible freehand.

Bidiot.

PS. Yours is better than mine would be.

This post has been edited by Bidiot Dwarf Stomper on Jul 11 2010, 07:39 AM

Small update. I finally got started on some new movement trays for my units. Secondly I was thinking about the fact I don't have any character model to ride with my boar boyz (more about them later). Then I found an orc warboss kit for just £7.50. Bargain!

So here is my assembled warboss. The only thing I didn't like on this model was the long tusks so I cut them down and did a bit of sculpting.



I probably won't actually use this guy in battle until boar boyz come down in points, so you might call him an investment for the future.


This post has been edited by Craze_b0i on Jul 18 2010, 11:56 AM

YOu can make your own decals (for your banners), though ive never tried but am tempted. YOu can by the stuff on ebay. I'll let you know what happens if I decide to try it.

Out of interest, can you fit a real foldable tower in to that big blue bag?

This post has been edited by Snikpik on Jul 18 2010, 01:26 PM