Orcs of The Red Hand - A Small Conversion Project

For a while now I've been back on the fantasy bandwagon. Well, not a real fantasy bandwagon because I'm going my own way and not following any game trends whatsoever. I'm never very good at jumping on to "The New Big Thing." And I think that because that's just the way I am. No matter...

So I'm on a fantasy binge and I decided to get a box of Oathmark Orcs. These are nice figures and pretty much match up with their Goblins, although these figures are a little bit larger. The figures are okay but, to be honest, I am a bit disappointed in the weapons available in the set. They are pretty much the same selection as the Gonlins. An array of twohanded weapons would have better suited their larger stature in my opinion.

Not to worry,: Those Perry Brothers came to my rescue! I had a lot of leftovers from their Wars of the Roses plastic sets so I put them to good use.

From the Oathmark box I made two heavy companies of 12 orcs. One with various pole arms from the WotR infantry box and a unit of crossbows using bits from the European Mercenaries box. The Perry pieces needed a bit of trimming an cutting here and there but I got the bits to fit.

The figures came up looking nice and fierce. I like that these figures fit better onto a 40mm x 45mm base. The goblins don't fit well because of their stances (I had to base them 3 to a base instead of 4). But these guys fit well together.

Thinking along the WotR theme I decided to paint them in a pseudo livery of black and murrey. They looked very nice until I applied varnish. I initially used War Painter Dull Coat which came out about as glossy as it possibly could. It also ruined some of the texture (look at the shield). I applied a couple of coats of mat varnish (GW and Vallejo) but they coldn't quite remove the gloss so now they have a satin finish.

Not. Happy. Jan!

I've had too many disappointments using War Painter stuff. I think I'll just avoid it in the future.

I made the banner using my tried and true method of cutting out a piece of thin plasti-card which I glue onto the pole. It's cheap and easy but the end result looks okay. The cross piece on the standard is from the Oathmark Revenants set. The cross piece in the orc box is pretty crappy and looks like it came straight from a GW skullz and spikes set.

My goblin army has very little in the way of missile units - Just a couple of ballista and a mass of skirmishers. They needed something that would differentiate them from my elves so I decided to give them some crossbows. I'm of the opinion that crossbows are an indelicate, brutish weapon that fits the bill for orcses.

The crossbow arms needed a bit more trimming to get them to fit but I think the effort was worth it. To my eye they look mean, thuggish and slightly bemused by this new-fangled weaponry. Just what I wanted!

There are 30 figures in the Orc box so I have 6 figures left over. I still have an awful lot of Perry bits left over so I figure if I get another box of orcs I will have 36 figures. That's enough for three more companies: two of polearm infantry and one more of crossbows. I already have metal command figures that I haven't yet painted. Altogether, five of these units would make a nice "elite / assault" division for my goblin army.