I’ve never really participated in the yearly “Orctober” challenge before, wherein one paints orcs during the month of October. This year I figured I’d give it a shot. I have no idea who is hosting this challenge (I assume there is more than one person), so this isn’t a formal thing for me. I just feel like painting some orcs.
Contrary to what 90% of participants choose to paint, I will not be painting any orcs made by Games Workshop. Although I have a veritable assload of 40K Orks in metal and in plastic (still on the sprue, in most cases), I am choosing to indulge myself in some old-school lead once again.
Behold! One of the first miniature sets I ever purchased, back when I was a wee lad just learning to play Red Box D&D. I painted these guys before, way back in the 80’s, using my tried (and failed) Testor’s enamel paints, which of course looked hideous. I stripped them about 15 years ago, intending to paint them again someday. That someday has arrived.
Pretty sure the date on the bottom is 1981; which fits with the classic gold-box era of Grenadier. No idea who sculpted these, but my money is on Andrew Chernak. Oddly enough, orcs in D&D back then were depicted as the classic, pig-faced variety; but these are more simian in appearance, kind of like the flying monkeys of Oz. Anyway, I like them.
Although, 40+ years later I still have a full set, this fellow lost his axe-head at some point. I gave him a new one from the bitz box.
I figured if I actually posted about my painting goal this month, it might motivate me to, you know, actually DO it. Here’s hoping I break out of this slump!
Also: I’m hoping to host another painting challenge next month in honor of Movember, the month where men everywhere grow their facial hair to support men’s health. Well, men other than me, anyway. I hate facial hair. I cannot grow a beard for longer than two weeks without wanting to claw it off my face. BUT…I do love Dwarfs, and dwarfs love facial hair. Sooooooo…
DWARVEMBER, anyone?
Wow that set takes me back it was the first set of miniatures I ever bought, that set me on the slippery ride to where I ended up now, mine to were painted with Enamels, as was the way back then ! LOL Look forward to seeing this progress Keith, Luke is hosting Orktober here is his blog https://imperialrebelork.wordpress.com/ as for the Dwarvember, I don’t have any I’m afraid, but you could always do it in conjunction with Roger who normally does Movember.
Sounds like a plan, Dave! I’ll hit Roger up about that. I know he knows Bob Olley, who is, without reservation, the friggin’ Dwarf King. I assume Roger has a few dwarfs laying about here and there…and you have a bunch of cowboy dwarfs on your webstore, dude!!!! Grab one of them and paint him up!!! 🙂
As for IRO, I think my Grenadier orcs won’t fit with his particular take on the Orctober challenge, but that’s fine. I love IRO’s stuff and will always be a fan of what he puts out. The guy’s talent is legendary. To be honest, I think I was just looking for an excuse to paint some old-school metal miniatures, so that’s what I’m gonna do.
I’ve already painted up one of each of those, so I’ll see what I can come up with mate
That’s…a compelling point, Dave. I suppose you’re the guy who painted the ones on your site…the very dwarfs I’m suggesting you paint. I know you can’t see me(probably), but I’m facepalming pretty hard.
You only need a half face palm mate, as the ones on my site were painted by Minaturemen’s painter, but the ones I posted on my blog were painted by me ! LOL
Lovely miniatures, so full of character. Looking forward to seeing how you paint them! And nice to see that you’re participating in Orctober, I’ll probably also paint an Orc this month – but that’s not really special for me since most of the minis I paint are greenskins, haha.
As for Dwarvember/Movember, maybe I’ll join in as well – got a few beardy guys lying around.
Nice! Lovely to have you back, Snapfit! Looking forward to seeing what you paint.
As Snapfit says, these are minis packed with character and I can’t wait to see what you do with them. I’m up for Dwarvember as it sounds fun and dwarves are probably the mini I’ve painted the least of (I think I have one?).
Great news! Welcome aboard, Matt! Now that I have some participants, I officially have a challenge!