“It’s a bow, innit?” said Kosnaagh, pleased with the high-tech weaponry he had acquired for the lads. “Shoots arrers, dunnit?”
“Arrers?” Tuk scratched his behind with the tip of his bow. “Wot do we want wiv arrers? We should be krumping, like proper orcses.”
“Elly-ment of surprise,” Kosnaagh explained. “It is the last fing dem gits will expect.”
Tuk looked across the battlefield. The humies in the metal armour were advancing towards them with slow, steady steps. He had to admit, they probably weren’t expecting a big mob of savage orcs to stand still and plink uselessly at them.
“We iz luring dem,” Kosnaagh went on, “into a false sense of security.”
Tuk looked at his slender bow. He looked at his arrow made from twigs, a flint head and a few raggedy feathers. He looked at the thick plates of armour covering the humies from head to toe.
“Boss, I fink we iz luring dem into a real sense of security.”
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| The one with the unconvincing accent is Kosnaagh. |
Savage Orc Arrer Boyz - they're no better shots than goblins, they don't get extra hand weapons to maximise their melee lethality, and as soon as their target is in short range, they'll want to throw away their bows and charge - in other words: business as usual for the greenskin general.
I'm convinced the only reason Savage Orc archers are still an option in the army book is because of the old metal figures - they're just too good to ignore, even if they are next to useless on the battlefield.
And sure enough, I had a great time painting them. They have all the lovely detailing of the Savage Orc infantry*, but without the shields, stone hammers and bracelets (there seem to be fewer on the Arrer Boyz - and after painting c.500 bracelets, I don't mind a wee reduction), I can get through them a bit faster.
*which I believe were sculpted by the Perry Brothers - just like my Dogs of War - clearly half my collection is a Perry homage.
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| Tigerskin briefs. Ladies. |
Same painting techniques as always (although worryingly, my 20 year-old pot of Green Ink is running low, and the new stuff doesn't shade the same - it just has to last me until the Savages are done. Fingers crossed!)
I also continued the theme of different animal furs for different mobs: black and dark grey for Big 'Uns; brown and yellow for Boyz; orange tiger stripes for Boar Boyz. That left white and light grey for the Arrer Boyz (with added snow leopard spots and tiger stripes - because when you're painting on a deadline with a less than month to go, why wouldn't you take the time to add leopard spots to the models in the fifth rank?)
The fur was done with Skull White base, a wash of watered-down Dawnstone to take the edge off it, Skull White highlights, and then far too much freehand animal patterns in Chaos Black.
It was also time to say goodbye to the last of my 1998 brightly-coloured army - the luminescent arrer boys were given a makeover...
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| Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! |
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| You can blame the model on the right for the white-fur theme. |
The mob's not complete yet - so it's only 3/4 useless. Once I paint up the final seven Arrer Boyz, it will be fully useless!
NB: 200th post. Woot.
1st.
ReplyDeleteThat white fur theme is awesome. Bow chikka bow wow awesome, in fact, way more Stone Age than most of the paintjobs you usually see on GW stuff (which are mostly celtic looking affairs). By Stone Age, I mean the style I was raised on in the early 80s, so proper Flintstones and 10 000BC stone age, not anything paleo-authentic.
Congratulations on beating the rush to comment - it can be pretty hectic once Fritz the lingerie spambot gets going.
DeleteI am pleased with the fur - despite the extra time it took to achieve. The leopard spots were quite fun when I got started (assisted by Google Images), since all you have to do is: draw a spot, repeat.
As an edit, I added how I painted the fur - not because I think Lingerie Fritz needs the advice, but if I don't write it down somewhere, I'll never remember it (this blog is now my reference for 6 months' time).