I will look at creating units of four or eight generic orcs (as that is how many 25mm slotta bases will fit onto each standard movement tray) for use with Midgard from my Mordor orc collection. I have many uruk hai and Morannon orc figures, Moria and Goblin Town goblins, as well as Fell Warg Riders from The Hobbit range, but I will not be using them in this project (well at least not to begin with) - only the standard Mordor orcs and Warg Riders. This is to be a generic orc warhost that I can use as part of a Mordor or Isengard force, or just as a generic orc force for any other game system.
Here is a list, and some pictures, of all the Mordor orcs (from both Games Workshop and Medbury Miniatures) I have in my collection...
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| A generic orc army for use with Mordor or Isengard |
4 metal GW orc leaders (Grishnakh, Gorbag, Captain, Shaman)
1 metal GW orc banner
1 metal Medbury orc banner
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| Orc captain and banner bearers |
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| Grishnakh, Gorbag and orc shaman |
19 plastic GW orcs with hand weapon and shield
8 metal Medbury orcs with hand weapon and shield
16 plastic GW orcs with spears
4 metal Medbury orcs with spears
8 plastic GW orcs with 2H weapons
4 metal Medbury orcs with 2H weapons
8 plastic GW orcs with bows
4 metal Medbury orcs with bows
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| Generic orc warriors |
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| Orc warriors with bows, spears and axes |
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| Orc warriors with hand weapons and shields |
12 plastic warg riders
7 metal warg riders (incl. Sharku, Shaman)
1 metal Ballista
5 metal orc crew
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| Generic orc auxilliaries |
This gives a total of 102 orc figures.
There are probably a few more orc miniatures tucked away in my plastic and metal pile of shame that I will need to rediscover and also a few that I would like to purchase to fill some gaps to make up full Midgard bases. Warlord Games supply the old Wargames Foundry plastic orcs - these are not the greatest figures out there from what I have seen, but they will fill gaps and also be useful for weapon and head swaps. Medbury Miniatures also have about 20 or so more metal orc variants that I have not purchased yet that can also be used to fill gaps in the movement bases. I may also try to get another war machine or two, but I can always repurpose the ones I use for my Roman and Gondor factions if money is too tight. Like with the Briton and Roman armies, I want to do this as cheaply as possible using my existing figures, and only really adding if there are gaps.
So, in summary, I will look at maybe one box of Warlord Games Orcs and the remainder of the Medbury metal orcs to begin with, and then try to hunt down any extras like more leaders (not sure if I have any GW ones missing) and artillery etc. on eBay. I am also out of plastic glue and need to track down my greenstuff (or buy some more if it has dried up or cannot be found), so that is an added step in completing this army.
This will be a project on a similar scale to the Britons project, but I will be trying to push myself one step further with the painting and modelling - a bit more shading and dry-brushing for more depth and some weapon and head swaps with greenstuff "fixes" to make them look more seamless. When I get started, I will update this on a weekly-ish basis much the same as with the Britons, but I imagine my slightly more detailed painting and extra modelling will mean each unit will take a little longer, or maybe fewer figures will be painted in each batch to enable each post to hit the target.
