Hey Gang,
With the destruction of the Warhammer Fantasy World (and the Warhammer Fantasy Game for that matter), the fate of my most ambitious hobby project ever looked grim. I had spent literally over 12 months sculpting, converting and mostly painting, a one of a kind, Orc and Goblin army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
I have always been a massive fan of the Chaos Dwarf army and its fluff and history. Chaos Dwarves were infamous slavers who most commonly enslaved green skinned races for their own maligned purposes. A Chaos Dwarf army would be supplemented by hobgoblin, orc and black orc troops. The slave masters would throw their conscripted troops into their enemies without care as their magic and guns tore enemy troops and their slaves to pieces.
This got me thinking... What would happen if, Sparticus style, the slaves revolted and broke free?
Now what does this have to do with Kings Of War?
Well, with Fantasy gone, I have been fascinated at what will take its place, as the big fantasy battle game. Enter Mantic Games. Now in Kings of War, I have found a game with big blocks of troops, the fantasy genre and best of all, Chaos Dwarves... Or should I say: "Abyssal Dwarfs." Evil, slave taking dwarfs who dabble in magic, wear big hats and love artillery... and big rock monsters. I am sold!
While I will be transferring my beloved Chaos Dwarfs over to Kings of War at some point soon. My Orcs needed to get done!
In the next few weeks I will publish a series of articles describing my journey into KoW and detail the epic journey of finally getting this beloved project onto the tabletop.
Having played a series of 40K ork armies, I wanted to paint an orc army but I did not actually want to paint another orc army. If that makes sense? Now, I had a hundred spare heads, a box of fantasy orcs and a mountain of orc bits... and well over two hundred spare dice... So I decided to turn this (on the right) into this (on the left).
I glued two small dice on top of one another on a 25mm circular base.
I thought this would make the models easier to rank and space.
I thought this would make the models easier to rank and space.
I then added the heads. By the truckload.
You may have noticed that the front rank of orcs is not based on my stacked dice armatures. I wanted these guys to look like they were throwing back their heavy fur cloaks to get at their foes. I tried to think of what an orc slave's attire might be... I went with kilts, sleeveless tunics and boots... You can see the initial front rankers below.
I gave the exposed orcs "thrown back" fur cloaks and old notched knives.
I also tried to pick scarred, pinched and ferocious faces and beat up gear to fit my theme.
I also tried to pick scarred, pinched and ferocious faces and beat up gear to fit my theme.
From behind...
Well, there you have it, part one of the army. I hope you have enjoyed it so far.
Tune in next time for more progress, a more in depth discussion of my theme and more green stuff insanity.
