I’ve been finishing up the primed figures that I have laying around the hobby room. I have a few more to go, but this seemed like a sufficient amount of painting for a blog post. Plus, I desperately need to get these guys dullcoted for use in games, and wanted to photograph them naked (so to speak).
Otherworld Miniatures – Pig Faced Orcs. These are wonderful sculpts to paint…just the right amount of detail. Except for the eyes. I think I’m going to have to learn to paint eyes (gulp!), otherwise they look like they’re squinting in photos. Orc Tribe: Squintface Skullsplitter.
I located the boxed set of Pig Faced Orcs from Otherwold on the Paizo website, of all places, and ordered it as a Christmas present to myself. These figures are great! I debated giving them rusty weapons, and such, but in the end decided to keep it clean. There are another 21 figures in the box set, and I’m planning to give them a variety of skin colors. I don’t think I’ll use the blue-grey you see on the center orcs again, though…it looks ok in photos, but is rather murky in real life. I’m really tempted to order the Otherworld box set of female adventurers…they’re sensibly dressed and fitted out in adventuring gear, which is important if for no other reason than we have a couple of female players in our gaming group.
Reaper wolves and dire wolves. I think the dire wolves turned out ok, but I’m pretty sure no real-world wolf ever sported such horrible looking fur. I have fur fatigue, though, and they are unlikely to be repainted.
These worgs/dire wolves were fun to paint. The normal wolves, not so much. I need to put some real effort into figuring out how to paint fur…it’s a ubiquitous material in fantasy figures (especially monsters), and even makes an appearance in Napoleonics from time to time.
A Tom Meier sculpt for the De Terlizzi Masterworks line from Dark Sword. Great sculpt (of course), and the casting was near flawless, requiring all of about 30 seconds of cleanup. I really love this figure, though I’m a bit nervous about transporting it around to games.
These Meier figures are great, and the casts from Dark Sword are nearl-immaculate. I only wish there were more of them available for purchase. I didn’t intentionally paint this figure up like some sort of armored pit crew for Team Lotus, but I do quite like the colors.
A few random figures that I’ve had around forever. I’m certain the spear-armed lady on the right is a Reaper figure. I suspect the skeleton is also Reaper. The priest might be an old 25mm Grenadier figure, but its provenance is lost to me in the murky depths of time.
Verdigris is tough. It’s a lot of fun painting up 20 (and maybe older than that in the case of the priest) year old figures. I have the old Grenadier boxed set of halflings on my shelf, and maybe I’ll get around to painting them, someday.
I have a few more figures to paint up from my stash of primered models, and then I’ll be moving on to a terrain project. I had intended to do an elaborate gaming board, but I think I’m pivoting (trendy word, right?!) to cheap cardboard modular dungeon tiles, simply because I know they’ll get used many times.
There are some rear views of these figures in the gallery below. Enjoy.
ArkieGamer 
Comments
Great paintjobs all around.
Pig faced Orcs: Good use of skin-tones to really give them some variety. I actually like the grey-blue one :). The shield designs really add to the overall impression and are visually pleasing.
Wolves: The middle ones are my favourite. I think the fur looks quite naturalistic. What company makes those?
Tom Meier goodness: The metal looks very good, nice subtle shading and ‘depth’ to it.
Last lot: The priest is my favourite, even though the vedigris effect on the skeleton shield looks very convincing. I would have swapped the spear of the lady for a thinner one, but that is my personal preference. Still looks ace.
Dungeon tiles: Take the middle road: Make a flagstone press mold and then mount the results on cardboard or MDF. I did some experimenting with a laser-cut frame for dungeon tiles. it has holes on each side to insert magnets if needed to fit larger designs together. The height is compatible with Dwarven Forge and Hirst Arts, 2 inch by 6 I believe. I have to alter a small detail (the fit of the pegs could be tighter, to make assembly easier) and then they are finished. If you like I send you a review sample, just drop me an email via the contact page.
As always, thank you for the detailed commentary.
You are right about that spear – it has the proportions of a telephone pole! I should order some wire spears for future use, or I guess I could just beat the end of some music wire with a hammer…
I’ll contact you about the frames – I’d love to see some photos, or design drawings, if nothing else.
Awesome work Mr. Arkie, the orcs are very characterful :)
Thank you, sir!
I agree, the differing skin tones on the pigpeople/orcs is very nice. All of the miniatures and paint jobs are very nice, though my personal favorite was the white warg.
Thank you very much! I have a couple dozen orcs to paint, so we’ll see how the varied skin tones look when they’re viewed as a group. Hopefully it looks natural and not completely random.
I like that warg, too.
Nice work, I particularly like how you have painted the animals
cheers JOHn
Thanks, John!