SomeOrc's WIP thread

Hello,

primarly to harvest feedback, I'll put some of my stuff online here. I am happy about any constructive criticism. It is neither meant to be perfect nor as stunning as the stuff seen here from other people who are much better than me.

I've been painting minis a while now, though unfortunately I lack the time to really finish everything off as I'd like to.

Previously, I have mainly had WHFB High Elves, and decided to go with Orc&Goblins in Mordheim, owing mainly due to the fact that I have a few of them from an old WHFB starter pack.

Thanks for watching and any comments.

Scales and sizes

First piece, done to get acquianted with the materials and technique after reading this great tutorial. Google has the english translation.



Since then, I've acquired brownish grass as well to go for a more ruined look.

(The orc with his mismatched weapons is actually the very very first model I ever - partly - painted, in 2000/2001 or so. He is not meeting the high standards of his fellow greenskins, and thus has to stay at home during gaming. )

Several pieces of ruins. This is done after the plans of the Ruined Fieldstone Tower from Hirst Arts (cut from polystyrene though).



After another layer of drybrushing, and in action:

Greeting from the greenskins (everything WIP):

I like the way you're headed, but have a smalll tip, when painting scenery (or models for that matter) avoid a thick final highlight, as it looks sloppy and fake, if you use a bit less paint, the structure of your work comes out better, and it doesn't look "painted" giving a lot better results!

keep it up, and I look forward to see your city grow!

Ezekiel wrote:

avoid a thick final highlight

I know what you mean, I've splattered a bit much of the final white layer on a few parts of the ruins. Ah well, live and learn.

Two more WIP pieces (the tower for size comparisons). Btw, everything looks darker in RL, the camera did its own thing there.



Both the spiral stairway and the house ruin were relatively quickly (2-3 hours each) thrown together. Focus was on function, not looks.

I'm not totally happy with the scale on the "house", mainly because the floors are too thick. I had no other materials for them at hand, and had to cut the poly out of 4cm thick sheets - while I invested a lot of effort in cutting out the tower walls to the right thickness (not so easy with the usual X-acto knifes and "Teppichmesser"), the house parts were just quickly done with a big wood saw.

I did not find a source for 5mm polystyrene sheets in Germany yet...

Well, it's mainly a prop so we can use it in gameplay, I can always throw it away after I got all the Gidian-level buildings built up.

SomeOrc wrote:

First piece, done to get acquianted with the materials and technique after a great tutorial somewhere (will add the URL when I'm at home).



Since then, I've acquired brownish grass as well to go for a more ruined look.

(The orc with his mismatched weapons is actually the very very first model I ever - partly - painted, in 2000/2001 or so. He is not meeting the high standards of his fellow greenskins, and thus has to stay at home during gaming. )

Welcome to the forums SomeOrc

Awesome pieces. I love the ruins really!

We want that url!!!

LOOKIN' GOOD!

I like them all, but I must admit that the first little ruin is my favorite, AND, to a large extent it's because of the grass [NO, I'm NOT having a drug flashback..like man ]. It seems grass has a real affinity for ruins; give it some destroyed piece of masonry & it will run rampant; planted, fertilized, & watered out in front of a home, it DIES ! WELL DONE!

AND May Gork or, possibly, Mork smile upon your Orc Warband!

Pyyr wrote:

We want that url!!!

Sir, yes sir! Link has been added.

Well... well. Ah well. Sometimes you lose, and sometimes someone else wins. The brownish stuff didn't work so well (brown grass = dead grass, and dead grass does not grow so cleanly). Guess a mixture is needed. As well, grass should be put only where it could conceivably grow in reality.

And now that I got DeafNala's point of view, I can't help but like the green much more, myself, as opposed to the brown.

I don't know... I kinda like the brown!
it fits with the thick material you use, I envision a nordic setting, cold winds, thick walls, cold winters and early autums, dead grass!

maybe I should give that a try myself...

They look good! The last pic somehow reminds me of Ziterdes stuff.

cianty wrote:

Ziterdes stuff.

Never heard of them, but their stuff looks great. Nice inspirations there.

*Must* *conentrate* *on* *work*...

SomeOrc wrote:

Pyyr wrote:

We want that url!!!

Sir, yes sir! Link has been added.

Thanks a lot ^^

I also really like the first little ruin - it is super sharp and I do think i like it best because of the grass though in this case I think it is because of the added colour contrast that the grass gives the piece. I am also very fond of the piece with the steps.You have great construction techniques as these look well textured and I couldnt tell what they were made of on first look. If you either drybrush a little colour into your dead grass or add few patches of the green with glue it should look great. A mixture of the two will look nice on future pieces. Keep up the excellent work.

My wife, who actually made the two longish pieces, went ahead and fixed up the brown.



Me likes.

VERY NICE!

Congratulations on winning the love of such a Talented Lady.
The mix of brown & green patchs looks GREAT.

DeafNala wrote:

The mix of brown & green patchs looks GREAT.

Sweet man! I havn't yet purchased any grass of any color because I didn't think it would look good in Mordheim, and although I still am against the green grass in Mordheim, you have done a fantastic job here. Bravo!

What I'm working on now:



Here we have the spiral stair, another straight stair, a floor for the tower, and a house ruin with wrong scale (castle? saloon? ). Some highlighting done, more to do.

i like

i like alot

In the last weeks, I built myself a styrodur cutter (actual working time - about 1 hour). Today I had my first cutting session...



Top left - a pre-cutter house ruin, lower floor mostly done.
Top right - a very quick job to try out some cutter techniques. This is so much faster than going with a knife (glue is wet, hence visible).
Bottom right - another impromptu house ruin. Since it all goes so fast and painless, it's more inviting to just go ahead without a plan and see what happens.
Bottom left - assorted rocks, ruined pillars etc.

No knife has kissed those pieces (except top left), and all are cut from 4cm styrodur.

COOL LOOKING STUFF! I LOVE watching WIP pieces. Seeing how things develop is a REAL inspiration trip for moi.

Pics from a recent game or two:

Table setup #1 (I really have to paint those goblins, I can hardly find them when gaming). The 40k-like items and the paper houses are not from me.



The lady in the shell (not painted by me) is not taking part in the game, unfortunately!



The mighty shaman has struck down his foe, but the next rat is already in view:



Another table setup in a breakthrough scenario against some BTB ogres:



One unpainted goblin fails a 2" climb:



A shaman too:



Hopeless! I was almost giving up and shaking hands...



When, after a few more throws of the dice, I somehow one (he failed his test and had to flee). Close one, though:

Some progress (WIP):

I LOVE the pink Squigs, but then Tom's Singing, Dancing, Pink Orcs are what got me here to begin with.