From MarkB: Curt’s Cleavers at Millsy’s Millpond (90 Points)

For the blast from the past challenge at Millsy’s Millpond I decided to add a few more Orc Warriors to my nostalgic Orc and Goblin army. My first ‘proper’ wargames rules were Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition in 1987 aged nine, and they still hold a special place for me. I wanted to capture some of those great moments in the photos that captivated me as a kid. In the introduction to that book there was a great ‘how to’ painting guide for an Orc unit using these plastic figures from the Regiments of Renown set. I’ve been collecting them slowly from eBay when they turn up at reasonable prices and got several different coloured shield units done. I’ve already get blue moons and yellow moons and now it was turn for some green moon boys! The leader figure with the two cleavers is the same metal figure as Rick Priestley allegedly purchased in the book as the unit leader (while wearing some god awful jumper if I recall correctly!) I chanced across him in a big lot of eBay Orcs a few months back and had to have him. I’ve called him Curt the Cleaver because of his rather nasty looking butchers cleavers that he wields with huge ferocity! I also hope the sycophancy is not lost on our dear patron? I tend to name the Orcs after the people who donated them to me. On my twitter feed you can also see Enry Manhide (donated by Henry Hyde) and Rich Git the nailor (donated by Richard Naylor), so this naming is not entirely without precedent!

The standard bearer is a slight conversion of a broken Orc Guy Bowers the editor of WSS gave me after last years Lard Day I was organising. He had a broken sword, so I’ve replaced it with a scratch built and hand painted banner with a suitably ugly Oldhammer Orcish motif and the title of the unit. I’ve decided he looks a bit like a veteran Orc crusader so I will dub him Sir Guy Devours after my mate. Obviously I should have added a greenstuff blonde ponytail but the figure was too nice and full of character to mess about with.

I only painted eight figures in total but all date from the mid- late 1980’s. It’s always great to get figures you dreamed of having as a kid and painting them to a better standard than you could’ve ever dreamed of back then. The shields are hand painted but in a light relief, so not quite so tricky as normal freehand.

Here is the Orc himself - Curt the Cleaver. I had lots of fun adding extra rust and dried blood on him. His butchers shop only has a one star hygiene rating on Deliveroo!

So for the points...

8 x 28mm figures at 5 points each

10 points for being figures from the 1980’s (I do have some 70’s Ral Partha and Minifigures I could have gone with, but life is too short to paint things you don’t fancy doing!)

Was the backstory enough for the bonus 10 points?😜

I make that a total of 60 points?

Now all I’ve got to do is work out the theme of my next challenge!

Cheers

Mark Backhouse

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Mark, this is a fabulous entry. From the background of you as a little 9 year-old spout, goggling at the photos from 3rd ed of WFB, to you as an, erm, 'adult' getting models from mates and those rare finds on eBay - it's all wonderful stuff. I really like the desaturated colours you used for these guys and that banner is just terrific. It all reminds me of the gritty art that you would see from those early books from faraway Nottingham.

So, 40 points for the unit, 30 for facing the challenge at Millsy's Mill Pond, 10 for the 80s vintage minis and another 10 for the backstory (AND all backed up with more than a whiff of well-placed sycophancy), which gives a grand total of 90 points! Well done Mark!

-Curt