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Rob Dean

Vintage Minifigs Orcs

By Rob Dean, in Show Off: Painting

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Rob Dean    14699

Rob Dean
Posted

post-12821-0-17185100-1477303469_thumb.jpg

 

I've been working with some of the earliest fantasy miniatures produced, just for fun. From left to right, ME23, a "true orc archer", ME24 "true orc swordsman", and a later DA28 Dark Ages Frankish human. When I say later, the DA series is still probably before 1980, but the orcs are from ~1974.

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malefactus    53605

malefactus
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They are cool little Guys, AND BEAUTIFULLY painted & based...especially considering the size.  VERY WELL DONE!

The first Mini Figs Orcs I was aware of were the Pig Faced ones...that was later in the '70s.

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Rob Dean    14699

Rob Dean
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Those look great, Rob!

It's so interesting how the appearance of Orc figures have changed so much over the decades!

Yes, sculpting has come a long way in 45 years...still, the more I work with these early figures, the more they grow on me. I would have been much happier with them back in the day if I had today's tools and techniques available to paint them, rather than tins of Humbrol and brushes that had no points...

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Rob Dean    14699

Rob Dean
Posted

They are cool little Guys, AND BEAUTIFULLY painted & based...especially considering the size.  VERY WELL DONE!

The first Mini Figs Orcs I was aware of were the Pig Faced ones...that was later in the '70s.

You know, if you need pig-faced orc reinforcements, the current holder of the Minifig rights does have a bunch of them available. The D&D orcs, the Valley of the Four Winds orcs, and the Aureola Rococo orcs were all released by Minfigs in a short period, after the MEs. I'm not sure about the exact order, though...

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Rob Dean    14699

Rob Dean
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Lovely freehand on the shield, excellent color choices. Also really like your base work.

Thanks! I've been trying to keep to a fairly consistent base style for all these old school revival figures I've been doing, so I've kept it to something that I can reliably execute, and that will not look too odd when they are all together in a game. I've painted ~650 Dark Ages historicals, so I've had lots of practice on those shields. ::):

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Pingo    109314

Pingo
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Good golly, those are primitive-looking.

 

Your paint job and basing are great!

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Pingo    109314

Pingo
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But but they're too tiny to be orcs!  Awesome job on those!  It's always cool to see something old school like that.

Minifigs are among the oldest of Old School figures. I have a couple of their hobbits and they are little faceless blobs with bowl haircuts.

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Rob Dean    14699

Rob Dean
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But but they're too tiny to be orcs!  Awesome job on those!  It's always cool to see something old school like that.

Minifigs are among the oldest of Old School figures. I have a couple of their hobbits and they are little faceless blobs with bowl haircuts.

As far as I know, the Minifig Mythical Earth figures were the first fantasy range produced, but I'd be happy to be corrected if there's something even earlier. I've got a few of those hobbits to do sometime in the new year, but they are so small that handling them to strip the old paint is going to be a pain. ::):

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Rob Dean    14699

Rob Dean
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post-12821-0-69135500-1477476564_thumb.jpg

 

Regarding size, these giys were the middle ones in the series. One of Saruman's man-orcs, awaiting paint on the roght, is the big one. Sir Forscale is on a thinner base, too...

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