Sunday, January 3, 2016

'Nostalgia' from KeithS - Classic Orcs & Goblins

The Holidays are finally slowing down enough to allow me some painting time!  First up for me (for my first painting challenge, no less) is a group of 28mm Orcs and Goblins that have been sitting in a box since the late 80s or early 90s.  They are all, I believe, by Grenadier though I don't have the slightest recollection of when, or why, I bought them.  Anyhow, they scream old school D&D to me, hence the nostalgia!  They might be from a bit later -- they are too big to be 25mm and scale well with other 28mm figs.

The first group is of four Orcs, all fairly well armed and armored.  They always reminded me of old Tim Kirk illustrations for Lord of the Rings, which is perhaps not a coincidence.



They were quite straightforward to paint, which is good as I am in the process of ramping up my skills!  From the back:



I like this style a lot more than the more "modern" Orc look from Warhammer, Lord of the Rings, etc.  I based the color scheme more or less on the description of Orcs from the AD&D Monster Manual (ditto for the Goblins), so more brownish-green skin than just green.  In hindsight, I'd have browned them up even more.



There were also seven Goblins in the pile I dug out of the depths.  These guys were insanely well equipped -- most of them had at least 3 weapons, multiple bags, lots of straps, etc.  Not hard to paint, but a little time consuming.  Still, I like the variety of poses and weapons, especially the military fork.



Some of the lads.  I tried to keep the prominent teeth from being too stand-outish!



I like these guys a bit less than the Orcs, as their faces are too snoutish for my tastes.  Still, fun enough to paint.



I have some more "ash and trash" leftover lead from the 80s to paint, but I did not have enough time for "Nostalgia Week" to get anything further done (I did finish three matching mounted Goblins but did not get to their Warg mounts, so I'll save them for a later week).  After that decades-overdue cleanout is finished, I plan on shifting to 28mm Vikings and Saxons for use in Saga.  Happily, they are all assembled and primed and ready for painting.

13 comments:

  1. Oh wow, I had a Tolkien poster for LotR once which was lined with Goblins like these! Really takes me back down memory lane...

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  2. Grenidier models were always hard to get in the UK. I did have one caller "Herman the German" when I was about 13 though and these bring back d&d memories.

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  3. These have so much character... I think they need to be re-released to show people how real goblin sculpts should be done!

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  4. Old school orcs and gobbos; always fun to paint!

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  5. Some seriously classic lead there Keith. Nice one.

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  6. I much prefer the brown-green skin tone for orcs and gobbos over the more recent bright green.

    Very nice work for your first submission in your first Challenge Keith :)

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  7. Nice work these have a lot of character to them

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  8. I have a batch of these old gems as well. I love the raw sculpting style and how many of them, as you point out, were armed/armoured to the teeth!

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  9. Thanks, all! I just finished the three matching warg riders and will have those as part of this week's batch.

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  10. I've never seen these before, pretty cool and definitely evocative of the era.

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  11. I never had these fellows, but I have seen their ilk at the long departed FLGS. You know the one with all the inked lead behind the glass case with alpha-numeric coding to direct the shop keeper which drawer had your mini?!
    Good job on the green skins, I too dislike the goblin snouts, but I do lIke these models all the same for their charm!

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  12. Finally out of the box and ready for action. Lovely paint job.

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