Monster March - Classic Ogres - Week 4

It's been a bit of a disjointed week on the painting front, so much so that I've sort of forgotten about these ogres I managed to finish off!

Fresh from their raid on the local brewery.

Don't panic, I haven't painted all of these within the week. In fact after last week's update, I only had the banner bearer left to paint. Of course I had to go to the trouble of making him a banner out of green stuff! I've been putting this unit together as part of a goblin army I'm making for Warhammer fantasy fifth edition and I'm pleased to report that this brings them up to the 1000 point mark.

You can see a couple of Golgfag's ogres lurking in the back.

The majority of the unit are models from the early 90's back in the herohammer days. I've supplemented these with three of Golgfag's ogres which were part of the regiment of renown released later on. I think they match pretty well but I must admit I prefer the older models. I've had these models hanging around unpainted for over twenty years, so it's quite delightful to have them all painted up.

Sorry the photos are all a bit samey.

So what's next for Monster March? Well, I have a Kings of War giant which I would love to include in this growing goblin army. However it's a huge model and I'm not sure I'll be able to get it done in time. Still, I'm determined to make the effort, tune in next time to see how far I get!

Monster March - Golgfag's Ogres - Week 3

Monster March marches on and I have kept up the pace this week. Last time I pledged to paint some classic ogres to join my growing goblin army and I'm pleased to say I've finished two more.

Hideous? Or full of character?

I've had these models for decades and never painted them (or even fielded them) so it's been really nice to pick them up and get them finished off. Honestly I'd kind of written them off as ugly old sculpts that I would never want to paint, but they have proved to be incredibly enjoyable. These old metal hand sculpts have lots of nice details and respond really well to simple techniques like washes and drybrushing. I've enjoyed them so much that I've now painted seven of them!

The drummer is wandering off to the right for some reason.

Those of you who are long in the tooth (like me) may recognise these models as some of Golgfag's Ogres which were released as part of the fifth edition fantasy Dogs of War army. Honestly the only reason I have them is because my local store was doing a promotion at the time where they gave them away for free if you spent a certain amount. I guess they weren't selling well! 

I'm really enjoying Monster March this year; as always it's being superbly run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. Loads of people have joined the challenge and seeing the work they are producing is very motivating. Keep up the good work everyone!

Right, I've got another ugly old ogre to paint so I'll see you next time for more Monster March!

Monster March - Warhammer Hydra - Week 2

We're back with another installment of Monster March. Last week I pledged to paint a hydra to join my old school goblin army and I've raced ahead with the painting. Behold the result below!

Somehow, it's finished.

Yep that's right, I went and got all excited and finished my pledge in the first week. It wasn't all plain sailing though and I'm still not one hundred percent sure about the finished model. If you like it, leave some positive reinforcement in the comments to stop me from repainting the damn thing!

As I said last time, I really wasn't sure which colours to use on this beastie. I knew I wanted to use green so that it tied in with the goblins. So I started with a Vallejo yellow-green basecoat, but that really didn't look right.

Yeah, I hate it.

After doing this basecoat on Wednesday night, I slept on it and then covered all the green areas with a layer of contrast terradon turquoise the next day. That made me feel a little better about things.

I chose the orange because a hydra strikes me as a semi-aquatic creature and I thought something like a fire bellied newt might look cool. Plus in Warhammer 5th edition they can breathe fire so I wanted something that would tie in with that. I basecoated it with Vallejo game air orange over a white undercoat which looked quite nice but was a bit wishy-washy.

Basecoats looking better.

So I painted on a sort of striped pattern with Citadel blazing orange which gave it a bit more life. It still needed some depth though, so I put on a coat of Reikland fleshshade. I tried doing the claws in purple but that looked dreadful as well, how frustrating! In the end, I settled on a nice neutral colour.

That's a lot of heads to paint.

By comparison, the shaman rider was very easy to paint. I already have an established scheme for my night goblins so I just used that. Even perched up there behind the head crest he wasn't too tricky.

The finished article.

Anyway, after what felt like a rather arduous week of painting I'm pleased to have it done. I like the final colour scheme, but I'm worried that it clashes horribly with the rest of the army! At the moment it's sitting in the cabinet next to the goblins and we'll see if I go nuts and try for a repaint.

Putting the hydra aside for a moment, I've somehow finished my Monster March pledge. Time to go for some stretch goals then! I've been working on a unit of old metal ogres as part of the goblin horde and I have a few more to paint, so it seems like a good time to break them out and see if I can finish them as well!

Here's two I made earlier.

I love these classic ogre models and it would be great to finish the unit. Come back next week to see how I'm getting on!

Monster March - Warhammer Hydra - Week 1

Somehow it's time for Monster March again. That seemed to come around quickly!

For those who are unaware, Monster March is a community painting event hosted by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. I have participated for the last four years and am very much looking forward to getting involved again this year with the hydra pictured below.

White undercoat for that old school look.

It's been quite a while since I updated the blog, but I felt like making the effort to support my favourite community painting event. Over the past couple of months I have been delving back into Warhammer Fantasy 5th edition and returning to my early wargaming roots. I've updated my ancient Dwarf army and begun building a horde of Night Goblins as well. The hydra which I will be painting for Monster March will form part of this force.

For anyone who doesn't remember the old orc and goblin rules from 5th edition fantasy (probably everyone?) they have a huge selection of monsters which can be ridden by various characters. I've chosen to add a hydra ridden by a Night Goblin shaman mostly because they're uncommon and I like the model.

The hydra itself is part of the Start Collecting: Anvilgard box set which I split with Blazmo over at Tabletop Apocalypse. He's working on a Dark Elf force, so it worked out nicely. For the shaman rider, I mostly used parts from the Night Goblin boss model along with a couple of chains from the Drukhari range.

So far, I've built the model along with the rider and primed it white. Next up is basing and then I'll start slapping on some basecoats. I'm not really sure what colour I want to paint it yet, so tune in next time to find out!