Orktober pt. 1

Orktober is on and some of us are going completely crazy over this challenge, *cough* IRO *cough*!

For my part, I am hoping to get a small unit done, but sadly it might be just 1 mini. Thus I decided to do something a little different. 1 post a week on the status of the mini(s).

“As the lifeless grey eyes scowled at me from across the table…I looked upon them like a writer might sadly stare at a blank page. I turned my back, but I could still feel their eyes burning into me, like a hot coal on the back of my neck. A small swear word escaped my lips as I turned around yet again. How’d I get myself into this. And where the F-sharp do I even begin?!“

And that’s the tale, right? Where to start?! Every project has a beginning….

I have the Orcs assembled, glued to bases, and primed in good ol StyIynrez Grey Primer. Then I got hung up on the skin color. After a few swatches, I settled on a Dark Green Base under some Grey that seemed like it would work.

I still needed that spark to get going though. In this case, as in many cases, it was 1 mini. Sometimes finding the odd mini that stands out from a unit or the one who might be least noticeable (like a linemen amongst many Blood Bowl linemen) helps. Simply because you can use that as practice or a warm-up to get into the swing of things.

When assembling the minis for this unit, I had one that looked like it would make a good Half-Orc player character from D&D. I wasn’t sure that was I was going to follow that route, but holding that mini and wanting to get a start before the night is over spurred me on.

Night 1

I had a mini and a skin color. I had nearly finished the other unit I’ve been working on for our D&D game. I looked at the Half-Orc mini, mentally figuring out which colors needed to go where. I looked at some paints on my desk to figure out the remaining colors. AK Red Brown for the pants, AK Dark Grey for the tunic (probably needs a dark wash later), and AK Dark Green for the skin base. Then it was getting late, so time to watch House of Dragons with the Wife, before getting some sleep and waking for work in the early morn!

Night 2

Over the course of the day, I had been thinking about the Half-Orc I started. Which led me to thinking more about Orc skin colors and specifically Half-Orc skin colors. I checked the 1e D&D books and Half-Orcs can nearly pass for Humans. Hmm, green-grey skin probably doesn’t work then. I could try and leave the AK Dark Green as a base and work over the top. After a bit of time with Reaper Tanned Shadow I think I had something that was working. I also did the boots in Reaper Russet Brown and his wrist bands in Reaper Driftwood Brown (needs a dark brown wash). Speaking of darkening…

I went over the grey and armor bits and with my ‘Nuln Oil replacement’. One drop of Black Legion Contrast to 3 drops medium. But this time I used Scale75 Dispel Magic instead of Contrast Medium. It seemed to work pretty good. I learned about it from Stahly’s video about mediums on YouTube. It cost me about the same as Contrast Medium, but maybe it will be cheaper if I can find it somewhere other than Ebay. I also covered the armor on all the remaining Orcs. After that I applied more Vallejo Grey Sand texture to the bases, as the base tabs are still poking out on most of them. The trick here is to get enough texture on there to obscure the base tab, but not bury the feet. Always fun!

Night 3

Week has been tough and I was getting tired. Glazed and layered more skin tone on the Half-Orc, but I’m still not crazy about it and considering a purple wash. The thought is that will shade the greenish areas, help to tie the different tones together and then I can go back over with normal layering. I decided I was getting too hung up on the skin for just 1 model and applied the base skin tone on the Orcs instead. Because “progress”, right?! I started off with a brush that was too small and being really neat, and by the end I was using a crappy brush and getting paint everywhere. Something I will likely regret later.

Night 4

As soon as I got home, I applied Druchii Violet wash on the Half-Orc. That should give it time to dry before I start painting later. I also took a few minutes to dab some Vallejo Rough Grey Pumice on the bases to simulate some rockier areas. I’ve used this method on a few bases now, and it works pretty nicely.

I’m all purply!

Later I went back over the Half-Orc’s skin with Reaper Tanned Shadow. The night was going pretty well, so I decided to get some base paints on the others. I selected AK: Black Green, Medium Sand, Red Brown, and Chocolate. Plus Reaper Driftwood Brown on some boots and wrist bands. Those would be used interchangeably to make up their outfits. The colors went on pretty smoothly and reminded me of why I love to use AK paints as a base.

I took my time and was a bit neater in getting the base colors blocked out, but as the night wore on I began making mistakes and knew it was about time to quit. I pushed to get 4 Orcs (and the Half-Orc) done so at least half the unit has decent progress.

While I’ve been mostly skipping washes in my other work, I think they are going to feature more heavily on these. The washes will make things a bit quicker by providing quick shadows and bringing the colors more together.

Speaking of colors, the process of picking colors went pretty quickly and smoothly. I’ll still need to find belt/straps and pouches colors, but I don’t have to worry about the uniforms. I’m going to use those same colors over and over. I picture the Orcs as more of a unit and are not meant to be as ragtag as my Gnolls were. If I had to pick and remember as many colors as I used on the Gnolls, things would have gone even slower!

Night 5

Well tonight is the night before this post, and I didn’t get much done because it was booty night.

Yep, that’s right I was busy painting Orc boots in AK Red Brown, AK Chocolate, and Reaper Russet Brown.

Before I painted the boots, I painted up the bases in mostly AK Mud Brown and drop of Burnt Umber. Later I applied Agrax Earthshade over the base, the boots, red, yellow, and brown cloths.

That wraps up this post. The plan is to keep making my regular weekly posts and this additional Orktober post. At least until I collapse or I totally F-sharp my Orc minis.

Up next: Orktober pt. 2

• Challenges
• Fantasy minis
• Frostgrave
• Miniature Painting
• Miniatures