Raising the Standard - further progress on Day 13

This is the state of play as of yesterday afternoon - with the Orc archers getting substantially more paint on them, the Goblin cavalry sadly in need of something to save them, one of the planned Goblin wizards coming along well enough and some paint on my Goblin banner-bearer, the bolt-throwers and crew at least started, and my unit of spearmen coming on OK - getting some more shields, and painting the bases, is next for them.. Oh, and because I forgot to photograph him last time, I've included a few shots of my Orc 'Krudger' (a hero-type excelling in close combat).

'Sniff'' (scout) unit close to completion

Yes the guy in the middle does have a arm somehwhere, and I need to do something about the boars being wider than wolves: the riders really don't 'sit right' on their backs...

Wizard made from a spear-goblin, with some shield decorations to make a staff-top; and 'Sourgutt', from the old Citadel 'Goblin King's Battle Chariot', as a banner-bearer

Old 'Notlob's Orcish Bolt-throwing Engines', with base-coated crew

Unit of 'Sharpsticks' (spear-using Goblins) including a few 'red' (purple-brown) ones. And I still need to build a drum...

Krudger for my 'Red Skull' Orcs

He's a bit of a monster...

... in quite a strange pose. I woner why he doesn't fall over?

Heads down and I'll see you at the finish, lads...

Raising the Standard - some more paint on day 11

The Red Skull Orcs assembling - shields to follow...

The Yellow Moon Orcs, likewise, though more have shields

Goblin 'Sharpsticks' about to get painted...

Eagle-eyed viewers will see that a few of the Orcs have purple or brown skins. This is because I see no reason to follow Games Workshop's painting conventions; as long as I've had Orcs I've had a few that were purple or other colours. Even going back to when I was about 13 and first starting to collect them, I planned that some of them would be purple; this was of course the time when Orcs were generally painted brownish anyway, and as far as I'm aware, Orcs aren't racially-prejudiced. So there's no reason why 'Red Orcs' (yes indeed) wouldn't be welcomed into the tribe, is what I reckon.

Raising the Standard - before and after (WIP shots, Day 8)

It's now day 8 of the challenge I set myself (well it's really day 9 now, but this was the state of play at end of day 8) - apologies for the poor state of some of these pics, the light's not very good today.

The as-yet unpainted Goblins (including the 'Very Tall Goblins' who crew the warmachines), and some Orc archers, ready to get their spray of black...

And the very same having been sprayed:

I'm beginning to think that it may even be possible to complete this! I wrote a little list of the units I need to build and paint which looks like this, as of Monday evening (20th May - 17 days to go):

G1: 19 Goblin spearmen (paint); 1 Goblin musician (build, paint) - all undercoated; need to build drum for musician

This will be the musician for the spearmen - need to make his drum

G2: 5 wolves and 5 Wolfriders with spears and shields; (find/build and paint all) - 3 wolves and 2 boars found (wolves already undercoated, boars painted), 5 riders (basecoated)

This lot will be five wolf-riders (more or less), honest

G3: banner-bearer and musician for Rabble (build and paint both) - banner bearer built (need to source banner) and painted; drummer undercoated, need to build drum

Musician and banner-bearer for the Goblin Rabble

G4: 2 Wizards (build and paint); 1 hero ('Biggit') with bow (build and paint); banner bearer ('Flaggit') (build and paint) - Wizard 1 sourced and substantially painted, need to add staff-top and accessories; need to source/build Wizard 2; Biggit built and undercoated; banner bearer sourced, need to paint

Chap on left is a hero ('Biggit') with bow, chap on right is destined to be a wizard (his staff needs something on the end)

G5: 2 bolthrowers, 4 crew - undercoated

O1: 14 'Chaos' Orcs (need new shields and painting) - basecoated, have spare shields if necessary

The Red Skull Orcs get some basecoating at least

O2: 14 'Yellow Moon' Orcs (shields and painting); musician (build and paint); banner-bearer (build and paint)- shields sorted, minis substantially basecoated; musician basecoated, need to build drum or gong; banner-bearer, basecoated, banner-pole built, need to make banner

Yellow Moon Orcs - getting there...

O3: 'Krudger' (Orc hero), build and paint - complete, I had a nearly-complete mini for this lying around so I stuck an arm on and repainted his shield

Somehow, I forgot to take his picture...


O4: 10 archers (Orc scouts or 'Sniff'), paint - undercoated

2 'Sniff'' - Orc Scouts with bows: the rest of the unit is undercoted

Feeling good about this, beginning to see the light at the end of the (Goblin) tunnel...

Raising the Standard - the Goblin forces

Unit of Goblin Spearmen ('Sharpsticks') which are 20-strong, though the chap in front, who is a Heroquest Goblin with a broken weapon, will be the drummer for this little unit. The standard-bearer will get a flag - hopefully, a yellow and black one with a spider on it - to fly from his spear.

This will be the banner-bearer for my Goblin Rabble, again a flag flying from his spear is in order, this time a red one I think as the regiment has red shields. Mostly these are from Grom's Goblin Guard, an old Citadel Regiment of Renown. Not this guy though.

Various ne'er-do-wells that will serve as heroes, Shamen, musicians and whatnot, as well as some 'tall Goblins' that are the crews for the warmachines. Back in the 1980s, Citadel made warmachines crewed by Orcs; but now, even Mantic's rules have them crewed by Goblins. So the two 'Notlob's Orcish Bolt-throwers' will be painted up, with Orcs for crew, that will then stand on small bases as 'tall Goblins'.

Raising the Standard - first pictures of the Orcs

Some of the existing Orcs, in need of shields, that are currently part of my Orc force. They'll be given suitable shields as soon as I decide what colour to paint them, and moved into my new Orc 'Ax Horde' that I'm thinking of as the 'Chaos Orcs'. Probably, as I think about it, their shields will have red skulls on ... I dunno, black maybe?

This is the rest of what will become the 'Chaos Orc Ax Horde', which might be already morphing into the 'Redskulls'. Perhaps I should paint all the skulls on their belts red as well. This lot, with their brethren above and the 10 of their comrades not pictured, with the drummer and standard bearer I have for them, will be the 'O1' unit mentioned in the first part of 'Raising the Standard'.

These are the Orcs that will make up the second 'Ax Horde' - the 'Yellow Moon Orcs'. I have 14 of these guys already - they're currently in a unit with the 14 'Chaos Orcs' I have painted up, but want them to be transferred into their own unit. In the front are the minis that I hope I'll be able to transform into a drummer and a standard bearer. This unit is the 'O2' unit in the lists.

This is the 'Sniff'' (scout) half-regiment. Very little painting done on these chaps but I plan on trying to use what has already been done - though it's a little garish for my tastes and it might just be easier to overpaint everything. This is 'O4' on my list.

Raising the Standard - putting together an army in 25 days, Day 1

Well, I have a game of 'Kings of War' coming up and need some new units for my Orc and Goblin Army (armies really, as Kings of War uses different army lists for Orcs and Goblins... and I've just realised I'm using the last iteration of the rules, so I'll have to check what's going on with 3rd edition).

I'm hopefully going to be playing two encounters - one a small engagement at 1,000pts, the other a big battle. At the moment, I'm discussing with my opponent ideas about making the two battles tell some kind of story.

There's no way I can get everything properly painted and based but I would like at least to get some paint on the minis. I'd like to be able to get the following units painted up - and indeed for some of them, built - in time for the battle:

G1 - 20 Goblin spearmen ('Sharpsticks'), including banner bearer (a flag attached to a spear is fine for this, I'm looking for one with a spider on it to match some of the unit's shields) and a musician - I'll probably using a Heroquest Goblin and converting him to make a drummer.

G2 - five wolf-riders ('Fleabag Riders') with spear and shield, to add to the five (including banner and musician) I already have. These additions will I hope make the unit much more resiliant. They all exist, luckily, it's just a question of painting them (maybe gluing some spears back together) and finding some bases for the wolves.

G3 - a banner and musician for my 'Rabble' unit of close-combat Goblins. Again, I'll have to make these somehow. Another Heroquest Goblin for a drummer I think... do you see a pattern emerging? I have a banner-bearer that might serve here, but again he needs painting.

G4 - a selection of Hero figures; perhaps a couple of Wizards, a hero ('Biggit') armed with a bow and another banner bearer ('Flaggit') might be in order here.

G5 - two bolt-throwers ('Sharpstick Throwers') using the old GW Orc Bolt-thrower models. So sharpstick throwers with 'Very Tall Goblins' as crew.

That little lot should give me plenty of options for my Goblins, increasing my potential force from 825 to 1200 points.

For my Orcs, I think I need:

O1 - 14 Orcs that need painting, to add to an already-existing unit to make a new 'Ax Horde' of  'Chaos' Orcs.

O2 - 16 Orcs including banner bearer and musician (I'm going to be using a converted Heroquest Orc as a musician... bet no-one saw that coming) for a second 'Ax Horde' (I'm planning on splitting my existing Ax Horde into two groups, and adding these new troops to make two new Hordes). Some of these will require assembly I'm certain. These guys will be the 'Yellow Moon' Orcs, as the existing ones have yellow moons on their shields.

O3 - a Hero ('Krudger') which I can make out of some Black Orc bits I have lying around. He's dependent on getting the 30 Orcs from O1 and O2 sorted - can't unlock another hero until I can field another full unit. He's the reward for painting 28 Orc warriors and building a standard-bearer and musician.

O4 - 10 archers ('Sniff') to give me some much-needed firepower, as Orcs are the only army that can't unlock war machines.

That's 305 points of Orcs that I can add to my currrent 880 points. At a combined total of 2,385 points, that should give me a certain flexibility when chosing the 2,000 I need for the big battle.

So, between the two armies I'm trying to add 700 points in 25 days. More than I can chew? Quite possibly... we'll have to see.