Let's Paint - Orcs (RPG Miniature Painting)

The Painting Adventure Continues - Orc Marauder
Welcome back.  Last time I started my painting adventure by tapping in to the Reaper Bones Learn to Paint Kit and painting up some Skeletons.

The second mini in the kit is and Orc Marauder.  There's a lot more happening on this mini than the skeleton.  There's fur, leather, chainmail, spikes, and more details in general.

I followed the guide mostly, but like the skeleton, I took some liberties.  Apparently I just can't follow instructions.

Learning from the skeleton, I used brown for the orc base, and later drybrushed green for a grass effect.  I also kept the green of the orc skin muted, using mixes of green and tan to keep it from looking so cartoonish.

A word on skin tone.  I have some regrets on diving into the stereotypical green orc.  Namely, I like green goblins.  I would have liked a more dramatic differentiation between orcs and goblins but I like things to look unified and it is far too late to change the color.  But I am happy that the green on the orcs stands out against the browns and tans of the clothing and accessories.

This guy took a lot longer than the skeletons, but only helped cement my confidence in mini painting.  If I could get someone with this much detail looking okay then I stood a chance at this hobby.

I am particularly happy with the contouring of the skin, especially on all these muscles.  I am not very happy with the teeth however.  I think my brush was a bit too wet, as I didn't have this problem on any of the other orcs.  I also do not feel confident with eyes yet and just let some black seep into the sockets.  It looks fine enough from a distance.  Eyes will be a challenge for the future.

Filling Out the Hoard - More Orcs

Following my success at batch painting the skeletons I decided to paint up a group of orcs.  I scoured my collection and pulled out any orc I could find.  Although I had some orcs from the Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game, I decided to keep it simple and paint up a handful of Reaper Bones Orcs.

I kept to the same paint scheme as the first, but I did try slight variations in skin tone for each orc.  Ultimately the differences aren't very strong, as the various coats ended up unifying them but that may be for the best.

I also went back later and tried to add some details like stones, grass, and logs to the base using moss, tooth picks, and aquarium stones.  Although I'm mostly happy with the results, I will probably cave and buy proper flocking and static grass for the future as the moss was difficult to work with.  The tooth picks and stones needed painted to be included in the scene which proved tedious.  I might try gluing them to the base before priming next time.  Check out the gang:

Orc Slicer:

Orc Slayer:

Orc Grunt:

Orc Chopper:

I'm very happy with how the rest of the orcs turned out.  The paint job seams cleaner, maybe because I started cleaning my brush more frequently while painting.  They were also a lot harder to get through.  The batch of three took a lot longer and many times I got sick of working on them and wanted to stop.  It might be worth it to paint them in stages next time, making smaller goals instead of expecting to go from start to finish in one go.

I actually missed the Orc Chopper, the guy with the silly hat.  I found him buried in a box of minis later and decided to paint him up to add to the crew.

Here's a shot of the whole gang all together:

They look really cool all together like that.  I haven't used orcs in any of my D&D games yet but that will probably have to change.

Next time I'll finish off the Learn to Paint Kit with the Knight, Mangu Timur.

Minis Used:

Reaper Bones

77042: Orc Marauder (Sword and Shield)
77432: Orc Slicer (Scimitar & Shield)
77430: Orc Slayer (Axe & Shield)
77429: Orc Grunt
77431: Orc Chopper (2H Axe)