Kronk's 'ard boyz W.I.P.

Short intro:
I've been posting for quite some time on this forum, but I newer showed any of my own works. For past two years I've been slowly assembling an orc warband. At first they were supposed to be assembled from bits and led into battle by Grimgor and some black orcs, but after some lurking I decided to make something more unique. Problem is, I never did any conversions before, so my progress with completing the warband was hindered by numerous "experiments" with bits and greenstuff. Overall, I am quite satisfied with my works, though, each miniature reflects my skill level at the time the miniature was done - which gradually changed. Now I must fight off the urge to redo all of my older minis in order to achieve more homogeneous effect

Warband Idea:
The warband wass initially supposed to be mix between Rugluds armored orcs and "bretonnian" orcs-at-arms. Man, do I love the idea of heavily armored troops! Additionally I don't like the "orky" weapons - big slabs of steel looking as if a mere boy's choppa weights at least 50kg - that should instantly kill any man with one blow, really. I figured that orcs plundering Mordheim would arm themselves with whatever they manage to loot from their defeated enemies. To sum things up - I aimed for armor clad orcs with looted 'umie weapons.

Now most of my warband-to-be is ready, they all need some bases and painting of course. Here goes nothing - enjoy!


Here are some gobbos. Only three for now, I need to make some archers and a fanatic.


Da boyz. The one with zweihander is an LGT boy - nothing more heroic than weapon raised high, wind in the hair and a roar of victory those legs may appear weird now, but on a proper base he should look nice.



Arrer boyz. Because crossbows are da best! Need to do one more guy, though.



My first Nob. He was also my first "completed" mini. Holy gork, I made him about a year ago or so.


My other Nob. One of my latest additions to the warband.


Shaman. I am thinking about naming him "Wazzap", mainly due to the fact I roll "zzap" spell really often (and I like scary movie ).



Finally, the Boss. I made him when I wanted to try some more "serious" conversions. Recently rearmed with a brand new sword and some accessories mighty Kronk is ready for battle!



For desserts: squig. My first mini that I made only with greenstuff and some wire. I will need to slightly redo him, though, upon completion I realized that I made an itty bitty mistake while sculpting him. Well, happens.


Thats it for now. Plans for the future: remaining four squigs (I have two more on the go right now), one more boy, one more arrer boy, Troll, some gobbos of all sorts and all three official orky mercs. I like to have plenty to choose from - lucky me that I am rather a patient sort of a guy

Your green stuff work puts some professional sculptors to shame man! Would love to see this stuff finished up and painted, looks great so far!

Excellent green stuff work! Great looking warband and a WONDERFUL Squig!

Very well done! But... IMHO...those chainmails are not at the same level of other details...that's a pity.

OH BABY! Your Lads in Green aren't so much conversions as a complete metamorphosis. As a Goblin Guy, unsurprisingly the Goblins & Squig are my favorites in the Group. Keep up the SPLENDID WORK!

Holy crap! Your greenstuffwork is totaly insane, love it!
Looking forward to see those minis painted, just great!

Thanks for the comments!

Now I am really motivated
I'll keep posting my minis from this point on.

About chainmails - It saddens me to admit it, but secret of making cool chainmails eludes me . Especially considering the fact, that chainmail is my favorite type of armor (who needs them full-plates, anyway?). IMO a perfect chaimail would look something like this:

Warning, those are NOT my works:

I've found those guys somewhere on this forum, though I cannot recall their creator and give him due credit. Anyway, those orcs have most awesome chainmails I have ever seen (other details are very cool too, but I am far too busy drooling over chainmails). Not to mention, the retro pig-man-orc style

If any of you guys knows of a tutorial to do somethig similar, I would be very grateful!

Again, thanks for comments!

If you want to learn...it's a simple secret...give me some time to make a proper image.

This is what i'm doing at the moment:


Yo have to work in lines...using a small pointed tool ...sticking it into gs and then dragging it a bit,hole after hole, doing something like this:
CCCCCCCCCCCCC
from left to right and, the line under it, same thing but from right to left, then third line left->right, fourth right->left...

You'll hade something similar to:

CCCCCCCCCCCC
DDDDDDDDDDDD
CCCCCCCCCCCC
DDDDDDDDDDDD

Hope i'm been able to help.

To quote Darth Vader: "Impressive, most impressive" Kronk in particular is going to look absolutely AMAZING once he's finished! Very nicely done indeed!

drakkol wrote:

If you want to learn...it's a simple secret...give me some time to make a proper image.

Yo have to work in lines...using a small pointed tool ...sticking it into gs and then dragging it a bit,hole after hole, doing something like this:
CCCCCCCCCCCCC
from left to right and, the line under it, same thing but from right to left, then third line left->right, fourth right->left...

You'll hade something similar to:

CCCCCCCCCCCC
DDDDDDDDDDDD
CCCCCCCCCCCC
DDDDDDDDDDDD

Hope i'm been able to help.

Thanks! I'll try it on my remaining arrer boy. I do recall doing something similar, only with the back of a needle. Didn't turn out very well, but this time I'll get it right

Hmm, I must admit, that is some very nice dwarf sculpt - can't wait to see that one finished

Oh great work one of the most carachterful orc warband i've seen!
looking forward for more!

I LOVE the orc with the mail-coif and morningstar, seriously one of the coolest minis I've seen! Looking forward to seeing some paintjobs on these ladz

Lovely conversions! So full of character.

Thanks Aureus, you're kind...but let's come back in topic...your models! I'm very curious to see your next model with chainmail!

Excellent work I really love the guy with the tiny ball bearings in the studded armour, must have been a lot of work?

On the subject of Chainmail; I use a rounded head needle (I forget the name of the type unfortunately) that I glued / Greenstuffed into the end of an old paint brush, I'm not not great at it but it did help me with the longer handle / more control:



In general though chainmail requires more patience and hand control than I am able to muster and I can make it look good for a couple of rows and then I loose it somewhere in the middle.

maxxev wrote:

Excellent work I really love the guy with the tiny ball bearings in the studded armour, must have been a lot of work?

Thanks! Well, it was similar to making a chainmai in a way, realtively easy but lengthy and somewhat tiring. The fun part is that this guy was one of my first boyz and on the picture you can see my third "version" of this armor. Also, that guy is my greatest "greenstuff waster" thus far, not only thanks to armor - can't recall how many times I remade his legs to get his posse right ( Those were the times when I didn't use any wire. In hindsight, tiny bit of wire would speed things up a bit). Hmm , Why do you always gain experience right after you need it?

maxxev wrote:

On the subject of Chainmail; I use a rounded head needle (I forget the name of the type unfortunately) that I glued / Greenstuffed into the end of an old paint brush, I'm not not great at it but it did help me with the longer handle / more control:

In general though chainmail requires more patience and hand control than I am able to muster and I can make it look good for a couple of rows and then I loose it somewhere in the middle.

Its the same with me - big parts of chaimail or any other bits that require lengthy greenstuffing tire me greatly and I tend to lose concentration. Not to mention, I am prone to accidentally touch "finished" parts of greenstuff, that has't dried completely yet. Hmm, that can be quite frustrating

Rounded head needle? There are such things, damn. A the time I tried many things - needles, various sizes of wires and even some guitar strings. In the end I dipped the tip of a needle in a bit of super glue (however silly that may sound). Works good enough, but it never occurred to me that such needles can be bought .

I just dug out the packet, it's a "tapestry" needle, I bought a pack of them in Hobbycraft while I was there last specifically for chainmail. They work well for me, I just need more practise I think.

Good luck

Some sculptors ad Forgeworld use some sort of prefab metal mesh... havent been able to find any myself but it seems like a really good idea...

I think your scale armor is awesome!!! scale is ,y favorite type of armor

Arr! time for some updates! Recently I have been quite busy, but finally I finished two more squigs

Squig no 1.



Squig no 2.




Sorry for poor pic quality.

OH BABY! Those have to be among the OH-SO-COOLEST of Squigs. The one doing the one foot hop is INCREDIBLE. WONDERFULLY WELL DONE!

Thanks! Only two more now and I'll have a full herd

Your skill with greenstuff is VERY cool! Like the other comments, I would very much like to see these greenies painted up!

haha. The second one is great. I just noticed he's changing wine into water - and the look of relief on his face. really good! I guess we'll playtest him in the next battle?

Thread necromancy!

Stars are in aligment and morrslieb turns red yet again - an omen of what is yet to come... Soooo, time is right for another update!

Sigh, my progress is so slow that I really could post pics only during significant astronomical events.

Another glorious squig - the squiglops!


And now - "Lanky" the goblin marksman!

Size comparison groupshot!


The goblin turned out a bit too tall IMO, but I'm still quite pleased. Hopefully I'll post some more gobbos and orcs and squigs (and whatnot) within reasonable period of time