Classic C23 Citadel Ogres for Kings of War – Unit 2: Ogre Berserkers!

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C23 “Chaos Ogre”. See what I mean about looking like a nutjob?

Another of the figures that I’ve just finished this week after initially being started years ago, restarted a couple of years ago, and re-restarted several months ago – the C32 Chaos Ogre from the mid 1980s. He nicely provided the final figure in another unit of three – my Berserkers. I think I may have originally been planning to use him as one of my two single-Ogre units – since he looks like the kind of complete nutjob that Ogres might allow to fight alongside them, but, you know, don’t get too close to me – but since they’ll be removed as an option in the new edition of Kings of War, I’ve just dropped him onto the Base with the other two C23 Ogres that I’m using as Berserkers for now.

It took awhile to work out a skintone that would work well with the armour. The ruddy tones for his face and horrid pink and purple for his lower jaw seem to provide enough contrast without looking too garish. Red-browns for his leathergoods, and bronze for the metal trim again provide enough contrast without overwhelming the model or making it too busy.

C23 "Chaos Ogre"

As you can see, I decided to go with a Nurgle-themed look to him in the end, though not so completely over the top as so many of the current models. A green tinge to his beaten-up and damaged armour, and some glistening, oozing pustules on his shield were enough to match the model’s aesthetic. He’s much more “Chaos Warrior” than “Chaos Spawn”, after all.

C23 "Chaos Ogre"

Unsurprisingly, the rear of the model is the least interesting side. Armour plates are as armour plates do, after all. I used brass/bronze chain to break up the endless green a little.

C23 "Ogre Berserker"

C23 “Ogre Berserker” How appropriate!

I really thought I’d shown off the other two, but I can’t find them in my archives, so here goes. These guys were both painted a long time ago in the early 1990’s. Last year I cleaned them up a little while maintaining as much of the original work as possible. In practice this really just came down to smoothing the blends in their flesh and brightening up things like metal that had become dull, rather than any kind of major repaints.

This guy was (is) actually called “Ogre Berserker”, so how appropriate for his current role in my collection. The mono-horn predates the whole Nurgle aspect by several years, but I admit does fit in thematically with his fellow here. I’ve got some “proper” Forge World Chaos Ogres somewhere, but their time will come later on down the line. I want to finish all of my old-school Ogre models before starting on newer ones like those.

C23 "Ogre Berserker"

Nothing special on his rear view, though you can tell that he was painted in the same general timeframe as the Dark Angels Scouts I posted the other day as his pants are in “choc chip” desert camo and his loincloth in woodland. I think this might have been the figure that inspired me to paint my Marine Scouts in Desert Storm camouflage.

C23 "Ogre Berserker"

I’ve got to say – I really love the mean expressions and character that Jes Goodwin put into these Ogres. I’m pretty sure I’ve said it before, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time, either!

C23 “Matthog, Ogre Mercenary”

This next Ogre has clearly seen better days. With a peg leg, an eyepatch and a hook-hand, he’s got the pirate battle-wound triptych down. All he needs is a parrot and a tricorne hat (or bandanna) to complete the look completely into self-parody. SA clear forerunner and inspiration for many of the Maneaters that came decades later (as are many of the Original Ogres). This particular figure is quite special to me, for reasons you’re about to see.

C23 "Matthog, Ogre Mercenary"

There’s a nice glimpse of it. When I painted this one, it must have been 1991 or 1992, and I was working in the fringes of the music industry, taking home a lot of CDs each week.

C23 "Matthog, Ogre Mercenary"

Search and Destroy – Life is Pain – I Want to be Insane

C23 "Matthog, Ogre Mercenary"

More Than Soul – Death Trip

C23 "Matthog, Ogre Mercenary"

Creepy Crawl – Wash This Out of Your Life

Yeah, once I finished the skin on this guy, I just started painting Henry Rollins’ tattoos onto him. Not planned or anything, it just happened. If I’d planned it, I would have chosen a much more suitable figure to be the canvas for it, with a fully-exposed back, visible forearms, etc. Maybe even exposed legs. I’m planning to do another Ogre in the semi-near future with Rollins’ tattoos on him, and do a better job. But for work that’s more than 20 years old, this guy still stands the test of time for me and remains one of my special favourites from all of my painted models.

C23 Ogres - Berserker Unit!

C23 Ogres – Berserker Unit!

C23 Ogres - Berserker Unit!

These guys should make an impressively scary unit on the table, each figure an individual you wouldn’t want to fuck with combined into a very nasty unit. Now to get onto finishing their Shaman…

 

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’s Ogre Shooters: Units 3 and 4.

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

Mantic Ogre WIP 2

Dark Angels Space Marine Scouts – 1998 Metals

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These figures are part of the fourth wave of Space Marine Scouts, released in 1998. The first were the initial two models, followed a year or two later by the second wave – an expanded range in the same style. With Advanced Space Crusade came the Scouts who dressed like a weird combination of Landsknechts and the previous designs (with clown colours to top things off). Then these guys were released, with the first Space Wolf Wolf Scouts being released shortly before, and acting in many ways as the prototype/sketch book pages for these.

If you browse the Stuff of Legends page for these figures, you’ll notice that no actual bolter-armed model exists in the line. This is why I’ve got a squad armed with shotguns. With no bolter-armed models available, these guys could be (and were) alternately armed with Bolters or Shotguns, as appropriate to the game being played. The “Sergeant” model came later. I think he was released alongside the bolter-armed model a few years later from the initial models. I believe I acquired him later on, but painted the whole gang at once anyway.

Metal Dark Angel Space Marine Scouts with Shotguns

Dark Angels Scouts – Kicking it 1998 style.

Eagle-eyed viewers might notice that these guys aren’t actually painted much like the typical Space Marine or Dark Angels Scouts. Space Marine Scouts’ of whichever chapter tend to have their armoured bits painted like their Chapter’s armour, and the soft “cloth” bits painted in a beige/off-white. All the better to scout with, obviously.

Dark Angel Scouts – Traditional Scheme

Ultramarine Scouts – Traditional Scheme

I made two choices about scouts and my 40k armies, long long ago. One is that Scouts should be dressed to scout. While it’s fine for the fully-armoured Marine brothers to charge forward in their bright, heraldic powered armour, I thought the guys with the job of doing actual reconnaissance, ambushes, infiltration, and general sneaking around should be dressed a bit more appropriately. I chose the 1991 Desert Storm 6-colour “choc chip” camouflage pattern for the Dark Angels because it was fun to paint, still pretty much in common memory, and because I didn’t want to paint them in a predominantly green camouflage. With this in mind (and reference pictures from Iraq in my folder), I painted both the “hard” armour and fatigue clothing in the camo pattern and their webbing and pouches with a nice “webbing” green. Boots were brown/black, and the weapons were given a dull green (plastic/plasteel/etc) for the furniture.

Metal Dark Angel Space Marine Scouts with Shotguns

Dark Angels Scouts – Rear and Side Views.

I used white Dark Angels transfers for the shoulders as low-visibility army identification. The white doesn’t particularly stand out on their camouflaged armour, just like real armies. The Sergeant has a slightly different transfer to make him stand out to me and other players (aside from the model’s pose), but not so much as is usual for Marine NCOs.

Metal Dark Angel Space Marine Scouts with Shotguns

Dark Angels Scouts – Army Identification

The other painting variation from the traditional theme? Several of the scouts aren’t painted with Caucasian skin tones. It comes up from time to time when people question why pretty much all Warhammer/40k models are painted as though they come from Coventry, and without getting into a whole discussion on the origins of GW, Warammer and 40k, it always bothered me a bit that there was never any growth or movement in that aspect (and still isn’t). It’s nothing to do with Political Correctness and everything to do with realism in modern armies – particularly in large armies and forces that recruit from entire worlds or a wide variety of locales.