Kings of War - A base for future operations

If you have GW Orcs in a fantasy army, and they were made in the last 15 years or so, they do not rank up, it's basically a fact.  Many things made playing Warhammer frustrating, and ranking up my Orcs just so every game I could have the sods fall down all the time, or pop out of movement trays due to the slightest jostling, build up of pressure or cambered deployment was a constant aggravation.
Goblins were a little better but then of course WFB being what it was you were taking them out of the box one by one to put on the table the same, taking them of in a piecemeal fashion and then putting the whole lot away again, one at a blooming time.

Even with some being on 3-figure bases, it was an enormous pain, and often led to me choosing the easier to handle Dogs of War army instead.

Kings of War offers an alternative.  In a game with no casualty removal and standard unit sizes it is perfectly possible to use unit bases, or at least large contingent bases, instead.

Realising I really could do with painting some of the huge pile of waiting Orcs and Goblins I had backed up to make my O&G army more Kings of War friendly, I decided to bite the bullet and start using Unit bases instead of individuals.  I see no reason why not to do this, given I don't play any fantasy skirmish games presently (and if I did there are many alternatives to my GW Orcs around TML towers for such activities) it would really just save time and hassle by basing my Orcs and goblins in groups of ten rather than individually.  As a result I've made a start with some models from the pile.

Converted 6th ed. Bowmen

 The templates are 3mm MDF, and because I wanted the models to be secure, and to keep life relatively easy the bases were simply trimmed down with a good craft knife and glued on with Evostik.  Life's too short to go into careful levels of detail for this lot.  I have thirty more of these guys, but as you may guess looking at the overhang on that base, ranking them up could be a challenge; as it was the only way I could get them to work here was to cram six in the front row and four behind.

7th ed. Goblins

 The painting is a simple 'flat colours finished with a glazed varnish' job.  Again, meditated to get the most models done in the least time possible.  That said I still like to vary up the clothing of my Orcs and Goblins; anything that smacked of a uniform would be too much, though similar tones are fine.

4th/5th ed. bows with a converted 6th ed. leader

I also did some single based models, mainly as they can also be used as character models.  Firstly I found two chariots, to make a unit, or three leaders!

 

 Then I kitbashed some bits into an Orc Wardrum.

In Soviet Russia Drums Beat You.

Pretty much the whole Wardrum is from a Russian kit of which we'll hear more soon, the crew were a couple of battered spares who were glad of a job!

Anyway, if this proves satisfactory on the table, and I can't see why it wouldn't, I will start the slow process of switching the old models over to new bases.  Not an activity and gamer relishes, but sometimes you just have to take on the unpleasant tasks for the rewards that come later.

And with that, back to writing MSc assignments on a Saturday afternoon....