I was on a major roll in January and February. Painted tons and tons of figures, played a couple of really fun solo games/mini campaigns... figured this would be a great year for me! So I tried to take it a step further in March... not only would I keep to my goal of "one painted combat unit per week," but I tried to plan which units I'd paint and buy this month. Yeah, didn't work... I lost interest in those forces.
So, after some fairly uneventful evenings (seriously... two Micropanzer gun drones are a pitiful tally for three nights' painting), I decided to throw out the schedule. In fact, I ignored every army in my force and every bit of universe development in my notes. When in doubt - do something completely different. So, digging through the lead pile, here's what I found:
These are Orts from the old Asgard range (now sold by 15mm.Co.Uk). Whenever I order from 15mm.Co.Uk, I make it a point to grab something completely random and different along with my "planned" figures. No plans for them, no idea how to game with them... just paint them and see what happens. But it brought my mojo back! Two short evenings painting yielded a complete skirmish force.
As with most old ranges - they're great poses and castings, but are a bit lacking in variety . So... what to do with these weird little guys? The large (and protected) craniums and robes seem to imply an advanced, possibly psychic, race with limited numbers. It's a fun contrast with the dinosaur mounts. I'm thinking they would work as the command teams for a horde of primitives.
After poking around a few 15mm fantasy ranges, I found these Eureka Man-Orcs with Crossbows.
The helmet has the same general shape, and now they kinda remind me of the Mouth Of Sauron from Peter Jackson's Return Of The King. And the crossbows could easily be modified into some type of arquebus or musket, or even a simple blaster rifle.
Now it's time to develop their story. I wonder if these can be worked into an existing storyline, or if I'll just come up with something new for them?
Cheers,
Chris
The Ort could still be high tech guys - they've just landed somewhere where using a local riding beast makes more sense, like the stormtroopers out in the deep desert of Tatoonie ride giant lizards.
ReplyDeleteThe Laserburn range, also from 15mm.co.uk, has some nice grav vehicles that the Ort might use in a slightly less Jurassic environment.
"And the crossbows could easily be modified into some type of arquebus or musket, or even a simple blaster rifle."
ReplyDeleteOr a Wookie-style bowcaster perhaps?
I know what you mean about doing something different to regain your mojo - same thing happened to me the other week.
Funky old Aliens indeed. Nice work.
ReplyDeletenice as usual
ReplyDelete