These are the second series of Golfag’s Ogres aka Golfag’s Regiment of Ogre Mercenaries. I picked these up when they were reissued sometime in the late 1990s with many of the other Regiments of Renown in the clear hard plastic sliding-back containers. (And I’m still spewing that I didn’t get the cultists!) At the time I was collecting Ogres, and so this set was a natural, despite the higher than usual price. The set I got had 8 Ogres in it, but since the grunts were pretty weedy compared to even the current figures of that time (about the size of an Orc) and I wanted each of my ogres to be an individual model (which I still like the idea of today) I modified the mace of one (cut off the spikes and bindings) painted them with different skin tones and traded away the extras.

It took me awhile to get around to actually painting them, since I decided that I didn’t like the sculpting style of these nearly as much as Jes Goodwin’s Ogres – epitomised to my eye by figures like Hrothyogg, Ogre Captain,  “Ogre Thug” and of course, Skrag the Slaughterer.

It actually wasn’t until I was cropping the pictures of these models a few days ago when something clicked – their facial features are so very similar to another of my classic Jes Ogres – one that I really like, in fact. 5 minutes on the web and I confirmed that this round of Golfags’ Ogres were indeed sculpted by Jes. DERP!

These guys, as my least-favourite ogre models had actually sat around in the bottom shelf of my glass cabinet, with no real priority to update them. The standard bearer had been pried off his base to be blu-tacked to a chariot for KoW games and otherwise they were pretty much semi-forgotten models. When we had the large game with my friends a couple of weeks ago, they got grabbed out since they had all the right bits for a unit I needed (6 ogres, standard, musician) and so seeing they had some use, I decided to rebase them. I had originally half-considered/planned to split them out and spread them across other units and repaint them, while binning the grunts. I think the minor repaint and keeping them together is a much better aesthetic choice, and as odd as it sounds, one that respects the models a lot more.

I don’t have any photos – I considered taking some, but decided they looked too blecch to preserve for posterity- one of the things that caused me to dislike them so much was their overly-garish scheme that featured bright blue, yellow, red and green. I clearly originally painted these during GW’s “red period”. I decided that if I were going to rebase them, I may as well put in a bit of repainting work to tone them down and make them less embarassing. I went over the bright yellow with a mustard colour (old-school bubonic brown – and I accidently left the lid off, causing the very real casualty of the 20-year-old half-full pot of discontinued paint that was still going strong drying out – Ouch!)

The mustard and blue and red pants got toned down further with some Army Painter soft tone wash. Purple bags and pouches got repainted brown. Green pouches and straps (all of their straps were green!) got repainted brown, with the exception of a couple of characters’ bags. Those with red furry pants had them drybrushed with browns, though I was happy to leave the deep, brown-washed red in at the darkest part of the base. The bright red fur that lined the cap of the standard got turned to a dirty white. And finally the bright red bars on the standard got repainted black. Then white. Then washed down. They just weren’t visible enough as black.

Some things that I was happy with got left alone entirely. The ginger hair on the champion was inspired back in the day by Dwarven Troll Slayers and their bright mohawks. With such a ridiculous haircut, I figured the best thing to do would be to double-down on it and make it a big fuck-you to any Dwarves they might face down the line.

I also left the freehand tattoos on the musician and grunt and the unit (army) iconography – which was originally my Orc Army’s icon as the ogre figures started life as Allies for the Orcs. Bonus Kudos for the first one who identifies it. 😉

I couldn’t find my little baggie of broken up GW Skeleton parts, so I ended up donating one of my new WGF skeletons to the cause, and the parts of one Skeleton (sans skull – too many skulls on GW kits) ended up scattered across the units’ bases, since I’m using bones as a basing motif across the ogre army in the same way that I’m using flowers on the Dark Elves. And besides, bones on the bases fit these figures especially well. I might add a couple more at some stage.

The funny thing is that after I finished rebasing them and updating them – which was pretty much so they wouldn’t look like crap anymore, found that I quite like their new look. It keeps the uniform look, the contrast between the blue and mustard still works, but the toning down of the colours and removal of green and purple (what was I thinking?) – and the new earthy bases make them look a much better looking unit.

Figuring out where to put that standard bearer was always a bit of an issue. With 2 hero models in the unit (“Officer” and “Champion” according to SoL) as well as a standard and musician, I always had the issue of working out which was the actual unit leader. After I took the photos, put the light box away, and was putting the ogres on a shelf (and trying to figure out how to place them) I had a minor epiphany, and set them up for one last photo. Because, you know, in KoW it doesn’t actually matter if the standard is in the front rank – and this way all of the figures get to be seen. And my favourite three get to go in the front.

So after all that, and thanks to that one game, I’ve ended up with a unit of painted figures that I really didn’t care much about being reborn as a unit of models that I actually quite like. Even before I realised that they’re Jes’ sculpts. All that’s left now is to make a unit base for them out of plasticard.

Looks like a win-win situation for all! Except perhaps those who have to fight them. 😀

Ogre Index:

Jes Goodwin Classic Citadel Ogres #1

Bob Olley’s Classic Citadel Ogres

Golfag’s Ogre Mercenaries

Mantic’s Ogre Shooters: Units 1 and 2.  And Based.

Mantic Ogre WIP 1 (and army concepts/some of the other ogres pre-touchup and rebasing)

Mantic Ogre WIP 2