The Bronzecast Ogrions & the Normalites of Vanillashire.

Hi everyone,

The Ogres have three types of shooting infantry: Shooters, Boomers and Goblin Spitters. I have already done a horde of Shooters which are the long range ogre variant.

Here I am presenting the short range alternative; ie the Ogre Boomers or as I call them Ogrion Archers (because they have bows!, what was I suppose to do!).

I think I will do the next regiment of Ogrion Hounds (Crocodogs), because I have a bit too much on my plate at the moment.

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finally finished painting up the giant, and just managed to take the photos and post them before going to bed!

From the last post, I added highlights and lowlights to the skin and apparel.  Everything was done in acrylics in order to match the style with the rest of the army.  If this was not the case, I would have painted this in oils.

As you can see, the armour is painted in the style of the Ogrions, and the clothes have the same colour as the Normalites.

I painted a little object-source-lighting along the legs and arms with blue oil paint.  I just wanted a bit to embellish the lightening. With oil paints this takes only 5 minutes!

I am not sure what I am going to do for next week.  I still have 9 Ogrion archers to paint up, so I might start working on them

Until next week, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

This week I decided to work on the giant.  This is a cheap model of a Storm Giant from Wizkids, that I am using as a proxy for a Mantic giant.  It is not as big as the Mantic giant, but it is inch for inch just as powerful (with all that lightening!).

The model comes pre-primed , but had a lot of mould lines and required a lot of cleaning. I then had to re-prime the model.

The next step was the paint the armour in the same quick method as the Ogrions. Then I painted the clothes as the Normalites.  This will tie the giant into the theme of the army.

Next week I will simply highlight and shade the rest of the base colours.  Unless the end of the world hits us like a meteor, I should have this finished by next week.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

The next horde up are the Ogrion Hunters.  I decided to do these simply because I am getting tired of painting bronze statues and I need to finish them before my morale collapses!

The Ogre Hunters from Mantic Games have a variety of weapons, therefore I had to do several minor weapon conversions to stimulate this on the Ogrions.  I also painted the ‘furs and leather’ as ‘fur and leather’ – in order to show that they are hunters.

Overall, this unit took me the longest to finish, but it is probably my favorite horde.

I am not sure what to do next week.  I really want to start the giant, but I might not have enough time to do it justice.  I don’t want to paint it as a statue, so it is going to take a bit more work than the average regiment.

But that is a problem for next week.  So until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I finally finished painting up my 4th and last Ogrion Warrior horde.  With this last horde of warriors I have a strong core for my army.

At this point, I have enough troops painted up to play. Therefore I can now focus on other stuff for the army like the monsters or characters.

I am not sure what to do for next week.  I have another 6 Ogrion Hounds (Crocodogs) to paint up – I could do those, or I could take a break from the bronze painting and work on the three monsters I bought several posts ago.

I will see how I feel tomorrow morning. Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

This week, I chose to paint a horde of Ogrion Berserkers for the army, because they are a unit I think I would enjoy playing with. Berserkers can be identified because they have 2 single-handed weapons.

Therefore I bought some 2nd-hand early Stormcast off Ebay.  They were very cheap with an inch of paint.  I had to strip them and make some adjustments and conversions.

For next week I want to finish up my 4th and last Ogrion Warrior horde. These warrior hordes form the core of my army, so I want them painted up before the campaign starts in April.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have just finished the 2nd Normalite Militia (Red Goblin Rabble) and used up all the miniatures in the box.  I actually had to use and convert some figures of different ranges.

Just as a caveat, I am not building this army around a gaming strategy, but on what I have.  I only buy new stuff when I don’t have a good and recognizable proxy. In fact, I bought some monsters as shown in the previous posts and I will buy some Stormcast archers as well.

Otherwise, I have a horde or regiment of every troop choice in the army list, except for the warriors of which I have 4 hordes.

No min/maxing for me. We will see how it goes!

That is all for this week. Next week, it is back to the Ogrions!

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Another quick post about a reiment that required a lot of work. Below is a regiment of Normalite Militia or Red Goblin Rabble.

The process is the same as the Normalite Militia, except that I added shields from the very early 1990s. I had them laying around for years, and I finally found a use of them. This time I put the mounted leader up in the front to distinguish them from the spearmen.

Next week I will post the 2nd Normalite Militia unit I have.  Until then stay safe and have fun.

Regards,

NR

Hi everyone,

Finally found the time to finish basing the Normalite spearmen, so this will be a short post.  I have some free days this week and I intend to push the work on the Normalites.  I will try to finish the two Normalite militia regiments (Goblin Rabble) by the end of January.

That is all for this week.  Hopefully I will finish the next regiment by late next week.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have started to paint the first 2 of 4 boxes of Perry 100 Year’s War figures, that I have for my Red Goblin proxies in my Ogrion army.

I was never going to use these for a 100 Year’s War force anyway, because I was never going to paint up all those diverse colour schemes and heraldry. Also, since Perry miniatures are a bit smaller than normal fantasy ranges, I think they would convincingly pass as goblin proxies.

Altogether, I will be able to make one unit of Sharpsticks (Spearmen) and two units of Rabble (Militia). To accomplish this, each regiment will have 13 men and a leader on horse. This will bring the number up to 15 models per unit and in line with the ‘preferred model count’ (PMC) for Kings of War.

(The fact that there are less on a base will give the impression that the regiment is weaker because it is not at full force – that is the idea!)

As regards painting, I wanted something very simple.  I knew that it would take me at least twice the work and time to paint up a regiment of Normalites, than to paint up a horde up Ogrions. Not only because there are 3 times more miniatures on a regiment, but also because there are more varying details on the models.

So my I decided to keep the paint scheme simple with a two colour pattern.  I also would not paint in shadows – that would be the job of oil washes. This way I would speed up the production of these miniatures while keeping the result neat and tabletop worthy.

In the next post, I will have based this regiment and I will post the finished result. Multi-basing these miniatures to match my Ogrions is going to be a chore in itself, but I wanted to post something this week.

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Below is the third Ogrion Warrior Horde with Two-Handed Weapons. Unlike the other warrior hordes, these have cloaks, so I painted them up with a white colour scheme like the Ogrion Shooters.

The cloaks added so much more work, but I think the look is worth it.

I just have one last warrior horde to paint up, and the core of my army will be ready.

For next week I have decided to paint up my first Normalite (Goblin) regiment. The Normalites are far more time intensive.  There are more models per base and involve more colours. I only have 6 regiments of Normalites to paint up, so I better pull up my socks and get started.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

This week I have something a bit different.  I just received a present from my alter ego – The Nightrunner – 3 monsters for my Ogrion army. I have been thinking on what to go for as proxies for these monster choices. These monsters are from Wizkids:

1] A Storm Giant for my giant selection.

2] Isperia, Law Incarnate instead of a Goblin Slasher.

3] A Cosmo Wolf instead of a mammoth.

I was surprised how cheap these are.  I bought them (I mean Nightrunner bought them) from Ebay from a shop in Germany and they arrived in just 2 weeks.

In the coming weeks, I will start to work on these one at a time, but before that I will put all the monsters on their bases and undercoat them so I can play with them if I don’t manage to paint them before the campaign starts.

Until next week, stay safe and have fun – and happy holidays to all who celebrate them.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finished another Warrior horde.  I have enough to make four hordes altogether.  These will be the mainstay of my army, unlike the other hordes of which I only have a horde of each.

I am not a min/max type of player, and I enjoy playing only with what I have and not what I would like to – just like how the great generals of old fought.

This army is taking shape very nicely and is building up well.  I have to start the Normalites sooner or later, but I am sure a regiment will take much longer to finish.

I will choose what I will start next tomorrow.  In the meantime I have received several monsters for this army that I bought on the cheap and I will prepare a post for that soon.

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

This unit of Ogrion Shooters is the first unit that differs slightly in the colour and paint scheme.

These miniatures differ from other Stormcast due to the robes they were.  In order to keep things simple and allow me to paint quickly, I went with white.  I painted the white with contrast and oils.

Next week, I will paint up another unit of warriors in order to bolster my battle line.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR.

Hi everyone,

A short but fun post.  I finished up a regiment of Ogrion Hounds (a proxy for Crocodogs).

I have twelve of these little pups and I will make two regiments out of them. The first in the picture below, and the other six I will finish later.

I have heard good things about this new unit for the Ogres, I and definitely will be using them as a distraction or flanking unit.

That is all for today.  I will start another Warrior Horde this week in order to build up my rank and file.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Just finished painting up and basing the Ogrion Siege Breakers. These are obviously proxies for Ogre Siege Breakers. The painting style is the same as the previous post, but I think the models just look better, even though they are more static.

The systematic approach to their painting has really helped speed up things.  Just painting one or two stages at a time over a week has allowed me to finish these models nearly effortlessly.  I have calculate that I spent no more than an 1hr and 20 minutes on each model!

That for a slow painter like me is an achievement.

Still more Ogrion units to come, but I will decide tomorrow what to start.

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Just finished painting and basing up my first horde of Ogrion Warriors. These will be proxies for Ogre Warriors.  I have to say I never liked the Stormcast Eternals and I bought them because they were dirt cheap (and I am a sucker for deals on miniatures).  I also did not know what to do with them until now.

I think making them living statues is the best way to utilize them and I am quite happy with the speed I painted them up and the basic tabletop quality I have managed to get.

I just added some quick ‘energy’ effects and some quick fire effects on the blades, in order to break the monotony of the colour scheme.

I will base the Ogrions all as regiments. This will allow me to field them as regiments or Hordes and give me more tactical and strategic options.

I also decided to add dice frames on the back to track wounds and special effects like Crocodogs by using different coloured dice. I will do this for every regiment.

That is all for this week.  Tomorrow I will start work on the next horde, probably the Ogrion Siege Breakers.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

In April next year, my club is going to host a Kings of War (KOW) narrative campaign between six players. Until then we are all preparing our armies for the coming clash.

I have a half painted metal Elf army, but I did not want to carry that weight around with me.  So I decided to make a completely new plastic army.

After seeing Lloyd’s and Ben’s army projects I decided to embark on a completely original proxy army based on one of the existing KOW armies.  I had bought  two sets and several boxes of Stormcast Eternals on the very cheap, that had been sitting in a box for a couple of years; besides several boxes of 100 Year War Perry plastics that I was never really going to use anyway!

So I decided to paint them up as bronze animated statues as a proxy for an Ogre Kingdoms army.  The Perry plastics will act as proxies for the goblins.

THE PLAN

I have decided to paint the models in the following way in order to finish them quickly as possible but keep them tabletop presentable.

THE COLOUR SCHEME

I have already finished up a test mini for the army.  The whole process is divided into 10 quick steps. I will paint the units up as hordes of six models each.  By the time I finish one step, the first model is dry.  Otherwise I can speed up the drying time with a hair-dryer.

1 – The first step is putting the miniature together and giving it a black primer.

2 – Next is to give it a good cover of Screaming Bell from GW Paints.

3 – The fist dry-brushing is with Vallejo Bronze.

4 – A second dry-brushing is done lightly with Shining Gold from an old GW paint.  You can just add some silver to a standard gold to achieve the same colour tone.

5 – When the drybrushing has dried properly, I gave it a first wash with 50% Agrax Earthshade and 50% water.

6 – I then gave it another diluted wash with Agrax Earthshade and some Blue Green from Vallejo.

7 – When the washes have dried, I mix some GW Contrast medium with Blue Green from Vallejo till I get a milky consistency and with a fine brush I gave the model localized washes in the crevices of the model.

8 – I do the same as above, but with a Contrast medium and Verdigris mix from Vallejo. I just cover less than the first Blue Green wash.  The consistency is also that of milk.

9 – The last localized wash is with Contrast medium and Verdigris Glaze only on the higher areas. This is effectively a highlight.

10 – The next and last step is not represented here, but is basically painting in red eyes and maybe a fire effect on the blade (if I can find a way to do it quickly).

Hopefully, by the end of next week I will have the first horde done (6 miniatures). I will try to do 1 or 2 steps a day and hopefully I can maintain a chain production until I paint up the army.

When I decide how to paint up the Normalites, I will do something similar like I did here.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR