The Gouged Eye

As something of a test for painting the Marauder Orc army that is currently sitting in an old margarine tub, my Oldhammer Odyssey began with me painting up a second edition Orc Blood Bowl team in an attempt to recapture the style of the original (Old-bowl?) style of bright colours that typified the game in the late 80s and which is a world apart from the grimy style I've tended to favour over the past 10 years of so (who knew I had a style!).



With the job of picking up a team of Kev Adam's wonderful Orcs quickly despatched thanks to a combination of friends on TalkFantasyFootball and Tritex Games, the next job was getting them painted up. Here's how they turned out:

Before I started I set myself a few 'rules' as to what might constitute Oldhammer painting. I came up with the following guidelines:

1. A white undercoat (a most terrifying prospect)
2. Bright clean colours
3. Black lining
4. Black base edges (I considered Goblin Green but that didn't work for me)
5. (perhaps most important) Paint fast. As a 16-year old I'd finish whatever figures I bought on the same day as I got them home. For this project I allowed myself five days.
6. Old paint. Not essential to my mind (I'm not a archeo-painter by any means) but as an Oldhammer bonus I did find a pot of Sunburst Yellow with which to dot their eyes. 

The paint scheme was very simple indeed (I replicate it here just in case it's helpful to someone, not because it's anything special or surprising):

Red: GW Khorne Red, GW Mephiston Red, GW Mephiston + GW Wild Rider (a red mix from the Tale of Painters guide to painting Dark Angels)

White: GW Space Wolves Grey, White

Flesh: GW Warboss Green, GW Thraka Green Wash, GW Warboss, GW Skarsnik, GW Skarsnik + Screaming Skull

Metals: VMC Oily Steel, GW Badab Black Wash, VMC Oily Steel, GW Mithril Silver

Browns: GW Scorched Brown, VMC Saddle Brown

Black Lining: VGC Black Ink

Bases: here I used a slightly dumbed-down version of BlueinVT's basing method - VMC Khaki, AP Strong Tone, VMC Khaki, VMC Buff. The grasses are GF9 Parched Straw and Spring Undergrowth. There's a really excellent description of basing on Blue's blog here: http://bluesmarauders.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/hello-all-over-last-couple-of-months.html

Finally, a partial gift from one of my earliest BB opponents, I got hold of a second edition pitch and painted it up in the same colours as the bases:

I'm still wondering if I should paint up the skull in the centre. Or maybe just the letters. Feedback so far seems to say... maybe! Having played on the pitch a couple of times I do know that the squares on the skull need to be more defined so that's now on the to-do list. The only irritation with this pitch (beyond the fact that there isn't quite enough room to lie stunned figures down) is that the throwing template is slightly out of scale with the current rules. There are lots of work-arounds for this but I still want to make a template that scales to this pitch perfectly. One for the 'to do' list...

So, is this Oldhammer enough? The miniatures are the right vintage, their sculptor is a recognised master. But what about the painting? I'm wondering what exactly Oldhammer painting might mean, I'll be giving the issue some thought over the coming days and I'd welcome any suggestions as to what it means to you.

For once I'm sticking to my plan to complete one project before beginning another so my next couple of painting sessions will see me throw some paint onto a few more Orcs, Goblins and a Troll before I start the Marauder Orc army I showed off in my last post.