Orcs – Grimmleigh's Lab

Warcrow: Alborc the Wrathmane

Corvus Belli excels at offering outstanding lore for their wargame settings, and fantastic miniatures to live out the conflicts represented in that lore on the tabletop. Infinity’s lore has been a lot of fun to follow over the past decade, and Warcrow is proving to be even more fun only a year or so after launch.

*Early color blocking over a red a purple underpainting layer, which is really making the main colors pop! The Summoner on the right should be ready to show off soon!*

Take the Northern Tribes, for instance. Here be orcs. They don’t expect to live long, and rate their value by what they can take at the point of a spear. They live in some of the harshest climates of their world, and share that space with the Varank, outcast elves that ended up in the frozen wastes.

The Orcs of the Northern Tribes are shamanic people, and look to a Wrathmane to lead them in good times and bad. One such Wrathmane is Alborc, who is criticized openly for his willingness to work with the Varank.

*Layering in some highlights on the bone armor and mail skirt, and starting the NMM on the sword. I really hate NMM, but wanted to give it a shot!*

Alborc has had visions his entire life that he will lead his people to a better life, but only if he brings the Varank along as allies. Which means you not only get to play really awesome orcs in Warcrow, but some very cool Nordic Elves as well.

*The finished Alborc miniature in all his glory!*

The sculpt for Alborc is very dynamic, but, as it’s from the earlier offerings from Warcrow, I don’t think Corvus Belli had dialed in the casting process for Siocast as well as they have now. With those growing pains in play, Alborc suffers a little from casting artifacts that can make him a little hard to assemble.

*One of the other negatives to siocast is that it is surprisingly brittle! Here you can see a shoulder tusk that broke while I was trying to nudge it a little after gluing. Lesson learned!*

There’s also some duller aspects of the sculpt here and there, and I really do think that’s part of the early siocast work. The newer boxes of Siocast minis I’ve picked up from Corvus Belli for Warcrow have been fantastic.

The biggest challenge for me on this project was letting the underpainting exist in the final paint. The subtle pops of purple and red shining out seem really obvious up close, but from a distance they’re adding a lot to the overall tonal feel of the miniature.

Still, Alborc assembled and painted is AMAZING. These figures are so detailed and fun that I find myself looking for ways to challenge myself a little, so for my Alborc I went with a purple and red underpainting layer. I don’t have much experience with this, but holy cow… I love the results!

Now I just have to balance a mad desire to do nothing but Warcrow minis for a while! There’s a lot of grey from a lot of games in my backlog, I can’t get obsessed with just one game, hahahah!

Miniatures, Workbench

Warhammer AOS Kruleboyz Army Log: Grimmguttz the Shaman

I’m trying my damnedest to keep momentum going on my two horde army projects, but my general apathy towards modern GW games and the high burnout potential of large army builds really puts up some interesting barriers for me! Luckily, I really dig the Kruleboyz, they have a vibe that screams cool, and they’re fun to paint. I don’t know if painting fifty of them will be fun, but we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.

I’m trying not to use straight up stock miniatures as much as possible, just to keep things distinctly mine. A lot of the Kruleboyz models will be masked, which is an easy conversion by just gluing spare scareshields to their faces. It looks pretty cool to me, and sparked some lore for the army, too!

Grimmguttz was feeling less than kunning. Frankly, he was feeling dizzy, and like he was about to bring up this morning’s double portion of Stankdredd Hash. He decided to hazard a peak, cracked an eye open a hair, and began to spew forth a torrent of hash the likes of which hadn’t been seen since his Stubbins, his steward and personal chef, had been allowed to arrange the Fumpin’ Day feast.

It was only after passing what appeared to be several gallons of noxious, neon vomit did Grimmguttz realize he was rotating about in the air. Each convulsion sent him spinning around faster, the colors of his stomach’s demise liberally painting the already psychedelic landscape with lurid splashes and sprays of color.

Grimmguttz bit back the next retch, swallowed it back down, and held his breath until he stopped spinning, which took close to an hour. No matter, he thought to himself, this was nowhere near the longest he had held his breath. He could wait it out.

Finally, his lurching rotation came to a blessed, lurching stop. Grimmguttz reached out daintily with an outstretched foot, then tried to tip-toe through the air to the ground. This accomplished nothing, so he whispered a threat to Gorkamorka and dove forward, gracefully striking his chin against the craggy ground.

Grimmgutz sat up, running his sore jaw and cursing quietly to himself. He suddenly realized that he wasn’t alone. “CAW!” said the crow, blinking all six of its eyes in unison. It was the largest crow Grimmguttz had ever seen, and the lurching, sickening colors strobing through landscape and air was reflected in its feathers.

“Same atcha, stoopid bird”, burped Grimmguttz, still massaging feeling into his jaw.

“CAW! CAW! CAAAAW!!!” screamed the crow, causing Grimmguttz to scramble defensively back on his ass.

“But dey is da gods!” muttered Grimmguttz, shocked at the blasphemy the crow had just uttered.

“CAW! CAAAAAAAW!” yelled the crow.

“I see, I see”, answered Grimmguttz, as a plan bloomed freshly into place in his mind. “But to do dat, dere wood ‘ave to be a heap o’ scrappin’ an frumpin’ first, speshully if’ we’s gunna get dat much Waaagh built up!”

“CAW!” agreed the crow, flapping its wings lazily.

“But even den, da gods wood sees us a comin’ miles away and fess wutt we’s a doin’ fore we had a chance a da trick!”

A wisp of purple energy started to coalesce around the bird, obscuring its appearance. Grimmguttz watched, fascinated and confused as the crow became impossible to discern from the landscape.

And with that, Grimmguttz the Kunnin’ came to in the Stankdredd marsh, sprawled on the ground next to Grakkskull’s hut. The boss looked down at the battered, nauseous wizard and let out a chuckle.

“Nice a yoos to join us, Guttz”, said the boss, strapping his scareshield to his arm. Grimmguttz stared into the face of the shield, a plan forming in his mind. A plan that would make it so the gods, even as formidable as they were, would never see Grakkskull’s krew coming…

… and even if they did, wouldn’t know who it was, until it was too late.

I’ll have more on Grakkskull and Grimmguttz, as they plot to raise enough Waaagh energy to elevate the Throne of Crows to divinity!

Miniatures, Workbench

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Kruleboyz Army Log: Da’ Boss Arrives!

I picked up a long-dormant project over the summer, when my now scattered game group decided to get together for a weekend of Age of Sigmar‘s pretty awesome Spearhead supplement. I had the better part of a Kruleboyz Spearhead already finished, so it was time to get the rest done, which I’ll share in a separate post.

Long story short, we had a blast. My health wasn’t the best, but I still managed to get a game in with my friend Jeff, and we both had an excellent time!

This lead to all of us deciding to work on a Path to Glory league together, with a full campaign and stories to tell about our armies. Our first task is going to be to flesh out those Spearheads to 1,000 points, and for that to work, we’re going to be needing bosses! Or at least I will. Sure, I could use the Spearhead boss, he’s cool enough, but this project deserves something custom!

That’s where Grakkskull, da’ King of Crows comes in! I had this amazing Warhammer Underworlds Kruleboy leader, and after figuring out how to get more crows on the figure Grakkskull was born!

First step was coming up with some extras to make him EXTRA. I had just finished putting some Kroot together, so I had some extra meat bits and hooks. Perfect. Also, that cage on this dude’s head gave me some ideas, and I found a crow from my Cursed City box set that set more ideas in motion. Also, that whip needs to be swapped out with something stabbier, so a cleaver from a Khorn jerk should come in handy!

The crow on the trident has a key in its beak, which is one of the motivations behind Grakkskull’s madness. He just wants to find that key and unlock the stupid cage on his head! In the meantime, he had a scare shield welded to the cage so that the gods couldn’t see his schemes and thwart him.

Paint basics have been laid in, next up is detailing and basing! Then his stabgrot, Bootlick, will be joining the mob! Stay tuned for more!

Miniatures, Workbench

Tiny Orcs Still Go Dead ‘Ard!

More from the lab from the 15mm Fantasy project! I’ve been feeling a bit green lately, so I figured I would mark the occasion with a little greenskin action. And when I say little, I mean really little…

As I mentioned in a previous post, 15mm has become my Goldilocks scale for miniatures. Stuff just prints up lovely, and there’s a ton of options out there from some independent miniature companies.

This particular Green Menace started out as a subscription set of STL files I got from Forest Dragon Miniatures, but my doctor says I need to avoid printing with resin, so I have been ordering the rest of the army from a company on Etsy that does a pretty nice job!

The first finished fig is an Orc Warboss on a Wyvern, and I seriously love this mini! There’s a print defect on the wing, but he’s pretty small and it’s hardly noticeable:

I also finished up a small group of grunts, which were mounted to #10 washers for bases. Those work out to about 1/2″ wide, which allows a pretty solid balance between functionality and display needs. I originally had 3/4″ washers on there, but that made the miniatures hard to place on terrain!

I plan on using these guys for skirmish games, and there’s a travel board in the works that will have some pretty sweet terrain packed into it! More to come soon! (pay no attention to the ratboi in the basement!)

Miniatures, monsters

Zombicide: Green Horde is Here!

I came home today with a surprise on my stoop, a whole bunch of ~~new Frostgrave figures!~~ ORC ZOMBIES!!! WOOHOO!!!

Okay, first things first: Cool Mini or Not is NOT messing around. This campaign wrapped just a couple of months back, and having the core box in hand this early was a bit of a treat. The main box looks great, nice and sturdy, too. Inside, there is another box with the real goodies tucked away…

The top tray has the hero figs, a trebuchet, the stat card holders, dice, pegs, and one of each zombie type with their Orcish Necromancer. The tray underneath? How about another 54 zombies? Hehehehe…

The heroes look great, too, with a lot of cool characters that will most likely find their way onto my Frostgrave table. That dwarf, for instance, doesn’t even know he was the missing piece in my dwarven warband. Speaking of Frostgrave…

ZOMBIES! Okay, I KNOW the board game is supposed to be cool as hell. I can’t wait to get in to it and play a few scenarios. I’ll even open up the components and do another post showing off the non-mini coolness that’s in the big box. But these zombies in Frostgrave? Oh, man. I cannot wait. Just having some different shufflers to put on the board makes me goofy in the goomba.

This is only the first wave, too. The next wave ships later in the year and has giants, more heroes, and more baddies. As Kickstarter campaigns go, this was a solid win.