Another double-set from the Wrath of Ashardalon today – we have the Orc Hero model – a Storm Shaman as well as three archers.
Painting was pretty simple, as with the Orc Smashers before them, I went with a Uruk-Hai-inspired paint scheme based around a reddish-brown skin rather than a GW-style “greenskin” look. I figure that when the models diverge wildly in style, Orcs (and a lot of creatures) work better in a colour scheme that fits the setting a bit more. Despite being painted last, the Archers are the models that actually inspired the Uruk-style scheme first seen on these D&D models 5 years ago when I finished painting the Smashers. as they were much more reminiscent (to me) of the Uruk look than anything approaching GW’s Orcs. Besides, the ruddy skin tone fits in well with Ashardalon, being a Red Dragon and all.
The Shaman got a little bit of extra love, but I wanted to keep the palette used on him restricted to earthy tones, with the exception of the magical glow coming from his talisman. He was pretty quick to paint as well, as the model isn’t too busy, and thankfully half of the model is cloaked in a wolfskin, making it much easier to complete!
To finish up, what better than a group shot alongside the Orc Smashers, who have been waiting patiently over the past five years for their brethren to catch up with them and finally get painted!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Looking good
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Cheers, mate!
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Excellent work, the Uruk colour suits them really well
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Thanks Dave – the archers immediately gave me an Uruk vibe the first time that I got the models out of the box.
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Yep, very nice indeed! 🙂 Colours all look spot on!
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Thanks John 🙂
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Excellent – GW green wouldn’t have suited them (and would have looked pretty weird if they’re meant to be hanging out with Ashardalon). These are more natural looking creatures and so a more natural looking colour scheme works perfectly.
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Yeah, that’s the vibe I was going for. Despite some of the wacky D&D stuff in the same box, these ones look a lot more grounded.
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Very nice- the colour choice you made for them was the right one.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete. Earthy tones work nicely for them. 🙂
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Nice work on those orcs, and I like how you did their bases too!
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Cheers Dave – it works well for the board game. I assume it’d also work well for P&P D&D as long as it was indoors! 😉
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Awesome Az-Man. Great colour choices I say
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Thanks IRO! 🙂
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My first thought before I saw you mention it was those look like a mix of Uruk-Hai and the orcs in Warcraft. I’m fairly certainly there is a shaman character in Warcraft 3 that wears a pelt like the one you painted. These might be my favorite D&D sculpts you’ve painted yet and you chose a great scheme to make them stand out 🙂
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I never played fully through WCIII, but googling it shows you’re right. 🙂
There are some good sculpts upcoming in some of the more recent games as well, so hope you enjoy seeing those as well once they get painted!
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That is great to know that my memory still works a bit 🙂 Warcraft 3 is a classic as well! I do enjoy fantasy minis quite a bit so I’ve been enjoying all of your D&D updates!
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Nicely done mate – they look appropriately savage, and kudos on that wolf pelt!
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Cheers Alex – they’ll be able to do some backup work as a small unit of Uruks if needed, or populate the rear ranks of a unit-tray unit for KoW as well. 🙂
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