Monopose Orcs!

Holei Haziran 12, 2022

Greetings vaqueros! Today I'm going to show you the start of a unit of orcs made almost entirely from plastic models sourced from various board games from the 90's.

This is an idea I've had on the backburner for a while, born of the guilt associated with owning piles of old miniature based board games chock full of unpainted pieces, but when theottovonbismark presented his inspiring monopose dark elf unit recently, I knew that now was the time to make it happen. The concept was basically to unite all the orcs of old plastic-kind under the one banner, with a limited palette and matched accessories to bring them together as a unit.

'Ere we gooo!

I chose these shields as a means of lowering the goofiness level, as they are rusty and crusty and mean looking. I discovered after the fact that they are from the current plastic beastman range, which changes nothing really, but is worth knowing if I need more!

First up we have the Battle Masters orc boyz; both have had new shields stuck over their integrated frisbees, and one has been subtly converted to hold a big ol' banner. The Battle Masters set, which was a sort of Warhammer Lite developed by Milton Bradley and Games Workshop, came with 100 Citadel miniatures, including 10 of these large and nicely detailed orcs to make two units of 5. Since I've painted 10 orcs so far, I can tick them off a potential future Battle Masters project, which is nice :)

Next up, the HeroQuest orcs - evergreen favourites, they need little introduction, but you should check out the HeroQuest Hero Quest over at Scale Creep if you haven't already. Their 'shield' arm is at a really awkward pose for the purpose, and if I were to do this again I'd probably repose it, but for the purposes of this unit of rabble, they work just fine as is. At some point I'll paint the cleaver orc as well so all 4 variants will be represented. 10 orcs is more than enough to play the basic HeroQuest set missions, so that's another tick for the project box!

These good looking fellows are from Canada's answer to HeroQuest - Dark World. Waddington's didn't have help from Games Workshop's well established miniatures design team, and they made some sad choices with the heroes that make them almost unpaintable without seriously risking your sanity (the dwarf proportions are some real Cthulu level madness) but a few of the monsters are real class acts, and I'm hoping to use them in a similar project in the future. The orcs are far and away my favourites from that box; through clever use of the moulding process they made a very dynamic striding pose which you'll seldom find in any miniatures of the era, especially of the monopose plastic kind. Apart from the shields, I swapped their very blobby scimitars for some spare HQ orc weapons, which gives them a little more connection as a unit. 10 orcs is more than enough to play through the single quest of Dark World, so there's another tick right there.

Finally we have this sordid pair - a Warhammer Fantasy Regiments orc, and the orc warrior from Warhammer Quest that was also used as the regiment filler orc in 4th edition Warhammer. I only had one useable WHQ orc and his sword is the most fancy, so he became the boss. The WFR orc is the only model so far that wasn't a board game piece, but I included him for completeness, and because he looked really sad at the thought of being left out. Just look at him... so forlorn. How could I say no?

"I just... I don't want to orc today. I don't feel good."

The WHR orcs have a neck that protrudes quite far out from the body so I trimmed it right back and pinned the head to the body directly so he matched the other guys more closely. Unfortunately I pinned it at a funny angle that makes him look really glum, but it ain't all roses being an orc.

Just ask this guy - oh wait, you can't, he's been de-rezzed...

So there you have it - 10 orc warriors that can fill a number of different roles in several games. With two additional orcs I'll have enough for a Dragon Rampant unit, and another 10 will make a fine Warhammer Fantasy unit, if I were so inclined. Short term I plan to add a Psychostyrene orc and this weird unidentified orc I was given when I was 12 years old - if anyone has any idea where he is from please let me know in the comments!
(UPDATE: This orc is actually from the boardgame Dragonfire - the info was provided on the Facebook!)

"Come at me braaa!"

And what's next? Well, since we're all about the goofy plastic at the moment, behold, the New Dwarf Lords of Legend! Grumbling their way to a mead hall near you! Eventually!