Here’s my next few Savage Orcs. They’re a mix of the Alan Perry Orc models from ’95-96 and then the later batch released in ’98 – though to be honest they were probably all sculpted around the same time by the look of them. I’ve (naturally) got a whole lot more of them to get to and through, but these at least are now finished. The shields are taken from the current range of Savage Orcs/Orruks and with a tiny bit of cutting and drilling have been made to fit these older models. Being from the mid-late 90’s they’re not considered “real” “Oldhammer”, but being 20 years old, they’re still far from new!

Obviously and firstly, they’re Neglected Models. They’ve been sitting, basecoated (badly, by someone else) in a Chessex case since the early 2000s at best until very recently, when they got taken out of there and basically redone from scratch – including new bases – simply using the old basecoat as a coloured undercoat because if I stripped them, I’d never get around to painting them. Secondly, they’re a small unit that I managed to actually complete – and so Squaduary – because why not?

And thirdly, Alex (of Leadbaloony) has a small challenge-type thing of his own. Well, a couple of them, but these Orcs aren’t here for Fembruary.

So I’ve decided to attempt to jump on board with Alex’ Tale-of-AoS-Gamers challenge, but as with all of these things that aren’t my own, I’ve had to bend and bastardise the rules to make it fit me, but them’s the breaks!

The ‘rules’ of the project are as follows:

Build & paint 100ish ‘renown’ points in Feb (to include our Generals), and 25ish renown per month thereafter, up to 250 pts. This should equate to a manageable 3ish minis per month.

I’m going to use the Shieldwolf Mountain Orc hero that I painted only last month as my hero for the Bonesplitterz/Savage Orcs. He would count as a Savage Big Boss at 120pts, but that’s the closest that particular faction allows for a melee hero.

So for this month, instead I’m going to add to that 5 Savage Boyz @12pts ea = 60pts

I’m also tried to do something similar with a second force that has only a couple of models done – but I failed to get the hero model done. We’ll see if I can catch up next month. There’s also a third faction, that I might actually be able to swing (again, with minor cheats) if I stop typing and get back to painting…

The warband must be from a faction we don’t currently collect. Ross and I chose the faction for each other, with me getting Daughters of Khaine, and Ross getting Sylvaneth

Given that I had only that one Savage Orc painted, and only three “troop” models from that second faction, I’m going to call it “close enough” on both, here.

Set in a common realm, (realm tbd), based & modelled accordingly

I’ll be using my standard basing – keeps them consistent with the rest of my fantasy collection. Though to be fair, I probably won’t be playing against Alex, Ross or Wudugast anytime soon, so it doesn’t really matter here

Push the modelling & painting – AoS28 style, crazy conversions, grim-dark, etc.

Uh…. maybe not with the modelling, outside of duplicate models. I’m very loathe to cut up non-duplicate old classic metals after all – especially unless it’s going to be necessary to represent something special. Paint on the other hand.. I’m keen to continue the body paint of my orcs, and maybe see if I can find something interesting to do with the others with the brush.

Lowest cost possible – beg/borrow/steal, freebees, scratch build, re-use, etc.

Dipping into my existing collection of unpainted and neglected models here is a given.

Narrative rather than competitive warbands – named characters, backstories, etc.

I’m not really one for writing background fiction for my models, though I do often name heroes and units – and more importantly go for models that are background-friendly as well as fun and interesting to paint over “competitive”.

And here they are. So far.