Drifting with the orcs again

Here’s some rather hasty snapshots of a selection of the character models from the last two scenarios in the Orc’s Drift campaign pack. I’m sorry for the slightly blurry images – I somehow couldn’t get the camera working right despite the fact that the lighting was good.

First up is the inn keepers father. It’s one of the better minis from Trish Morrison’s line of townsfolk and villagers from ‘85. A line which has caught quite some flak over the years but I must admit that I find most of them charming.

The second model is Mayor Leofwine and while the miniature isn’t exactly screaming “mayor” it has a certain imposing air to it. It’s slightly rough around the edges, but the cloak was a delight to paint.

Speaking of rough sculpting we arrive at Bertolac – a fighter who seems closely related to the Young Fighter miniature from the Adventurers Starter Set from 1985. Especially the head and the face of Bertolac is crudely shaped and a bit difficult to paint, but the I guess he’ll look just fine on the tabletop. The shield motif I copied from Gary Chalk’s rendition of Bertolac in the campaign material.

I also copied Chalk when painting the fabled Osrim Chardz; one of those rare dwarves that can be rather costly, especially when looking at the “Buy Now” prices on Ebay. I could not help myself using Chalk’s rather bold, bright colours from the depiction of Osrim on the Orc’s Drift box cover but I think they work well on the mini and while it certainly was a bit intimidating starting to paint this one I’m fairly pleased with the end result. The model is perhaps a bit too busy on the details, but he’s a cool little piece. The miniature itself seems related to a whole little group of dwarfs with the King Gorrin from the Dwarf Lords of Legend  (1985) and Pulper Spikehead from the Chaos Dwarf Renegades (1986) boxes.

   

Osrim Chardz by Gary Chalk in an ad for the Orc’s Drift box

My personal favorite from the lot however is the old dwarf adventurer who in the campaign material goes by the name Beli. I really dig the seasoned, melancholy look of this guy. In many ways this mini sums up all I love about Citadels dwarfs from the 80’s and I never really get tired of these models.

  

That’s all for now.

Cheers

Martin

 

Two bluesy orc brothers

I found time to finish these two early slotta orcs by the Perry twins. To my mind this early generation of orcs are some of the best from Citadel. I really like their smallish stature and melancholy faces devoid of the later goofiness which Kev Adams later developed into the signature look of the Citadel greenskins.

The one with the shield came from the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Monster Set from 1985 and I could not help myself, I had to try to emulate John Blanche’s take on the orc from the box cover down to the eye of Sauron on the shield. The other orc is roughly contemporary and a great little fella. I really enjoyed painting both them and hopefully they will soon be able to fight for King F’yar.

Cheers

Martin