Black Orc Done

I know I've made a big deal about long-lasting projects, but I started this one when the Millennium Bug was a thing... 

Onwards to the future!

This pack of metal menaces are the original Black Orcs, back when the design aesthetic for greenskins was more Kev Adams impish, and less hunched-over muscleboyz (although I've got a few of them too).

I finished this unit (or so I thought) before the turn of the century, and they served my greenskins well. Although they did take a bit of chip damage when my then-flatmate booted the unit across the living room, which explains my reluctance to take on the extra work of rebasing them.

One thing led to another, and touching up the chip damage basically resulted in me repainting the entire unit.

Repainting has its own challenges, since I had to rediscover paint colours that no longer existed. I could just about manage with black, and Liberator Gold was a good match for that pale metallic that I used to loathe until Retributor Armour came along to save us all.

The real issue was trying to match Scab Red armour. I thought I had it with Khorne Red, but it was just off enough to demand a full repaint. 

 

The upside of this was that the Black Orcs armour was finally the shade of red I always wanted for them (for years, I'd thought Scab Red was too burgundy for them)

 

I was also adding half a dozen new (well, unpainted - they hadn't been new since the mid-90s) Black Orcs to the mix, so finding paint matches was worthwhile. To make them all match up, I also had to rediscover my paint style - which was pretty basic, and the real challenge was sticking to single layers and a bit of drybrushing.

I'd found this additional batch of models on eBay, and the previous owner had already done all the weapon swaps, which was handy for me, since they only made six types of rank-and-file, so my regiment was already pretty repetitive.

This fine chap with the single horn was the reason I'd bought them in the first place - he was my favourite of the sculpts, but his mould had been retired long before the others, so he was even rarer.

To round it all off, I replaced whatever paper banner had long-since disintegrated with a nice plastic one, and gave it some no-nonsense Black Orc patterns.

With a nice spaced-out movement tray to make them all legal (I'm not shifting any of these to 30mm), the Black Orcs are once again ready to rumble!

Whilst I had my rebasing kit out, I went to work on the Wyvern too. This one I was happy to put on a larger base, and it fits the model so much better.

Now that Mangler Squigs are just regular monsters, rather than massive fanatic-type objects, they have to be on square bases, rather than round ones.

I was reluctant to move them, as I really liked their round bases, but I don't think anything is lost and it will certainly make them easier to play. But I'm still not stacking both squigs on top of each other - that's one dollar you're not getting from me GW!

And finally, a new base for an old model - this Giant has been knocking around for almost as long as the Black Orcs. While I flatter myself that I could do a better paint job now, I left it alone for the historical record.

I'd like to say that his half-body tattoo was inspired my Joe Abercrombie's Fenris the Feared, but that was decades away, so I instead copied George Clooney in From Dusk 'Till Dawn. You take your inspiration where you find it.