As a Campaign gamer, I don't think of the Orc & Goblin as one combined force the way it is fielded in tournaments.  I think of their background and how they are made up of hundreds of different tribes; many of which do not get along with each other.  Therefore, in a campaign setting, it's more likely you will come upon a massive Night Goblin force of the Crooked Moon Tribe or an Orc force of the Ironclaw Tribe than some coalition force. 

 

This explains the extensive size of my collection.  In reality, I am putting together my Orcs & Goblins under the presumption of 4 separate and self-contained armies:  A basic Goblin Horde, Night Goblin Horde, Savage Horde (consisting of Forest Goblins and Savage Orcs) and an Orc Horde (using Grimgor's rules from the Storm of Chaos book).  At the moment, however, I will simply lay them out in the Showcase using the standard Army List format for ease of browsing. 

 

1,034 models

518 painted (48%)

Largest legal force I can deploy with painted models:  7,550 points

Estimated goal force strength (when collection is completed):  16,000 points

 

Always aware of the greenskin mantra that the biggest are the baddest, it made sense that my Orc Warlord be the biggest, baddest model I can find.  This is Urgzahk from Dragonrune miniatures.  He is the biggest and baddest I could find (about the size of an Ogre) and was painted up as a Black Orc Warlord by Tim Murray.

 

My Orc Warlord on a Wyvern model came as an after-thought:  The lead Wyvern by Grenedier has been part of my collection for decades and didn't have a home since Dungeons & Dragons had waned.  Yet, it had a saddle molded into it's back, so I didn't want to try and convert it to an unmounted Wyvern.  After giving an old painting student (Ed Fernandez) this rider as a practive model, I felt it was good enough to use somewhere, but not in my Boar Boyz unit.  Therefore, the conversion to mount him on the Wyvern took place.

 

The model required a lot of work as the heavy, lead wings tended not to stay on and a lot of old glue had gobbed up some of the detail.  The old metal was completely stripped and the new one pinned together.  I used stripped piece of electrical wire for the harness, which was run through a hole drilled through the jaw before final paint.  Although not a Grand Slam as far as modeling projects go, I am very pleased with the outcome considering the model is close to 30 years old.

 

This old conversion by Donny Furbush puts Azhag the Slaughterer on an old High Elf dragon from 2nd Edition.  Because the model is so small on current terms, I currently use it as an Orc Chariot (or character in a chariot).  This seems to make up for the fact that he's riding a vicious looking (albeit, small) dragon.  One of these days, I'm going to pluck him off the dragon and have him replace the old Boar Boy who sits atop my Wyvern.

 

The goblin standard on the left is a miniature by Kev Adams with a hand painted banner.  The Orc Shaman on the right is from Metal Magic; a long defunct miniature maker that provided models for many Dungeons & Dragons adventures.  In the middle, Grom the Paunch serves as a Goblin Warlord and his Night Goblin banner waver plays the role of Night Goblin Battle Standard Bearer.  These two models were removed from their chariot and painted by Donny Furbush.  At some point, I'm going to have to figure out how to get them back in the chariot, but would like to continue using them as individual models as well.

 

 

Pictured above are 3 of my 4 active Goblin Shamen (the middle one being a Night Goblins).  All of them are Games Workshop models.

 

 

The beauty of Orcs & Goblins is that many different companies and independent sculptors make them.  Although some have become somewhat diminutive over time (like a lot of my old D&D Orcs), they can still be useful as Half-Orcs or mixed in with the rest of the mob, since Orcs have a reputation of inbreeding and crossbreeding with almost anything.  This collection of Goblin Bosses and Big Bosses come from Kev Adams, an old Games Workshop sculptor who broke off as an independent.  I'm particularly partial to the one in the center with the antlers on his helmet.

 

 

This rear view of Yoda shows the unique mask that is on his back.  To the left is a Goblin Boss mounted on a wolf that I made from the basic Wolf Riders box set.  When I field an exclusively Goblin force, I have been using this model as a mounted War Boss to command from the rear and keep the troops in line.  However, I made sure he was also capable of subbing for a Wolf Riders unit Boss (added the bow, for example) because he serves in the role as well.

 

When not mounted on a Wyvern, I mount my Orc Warlord on a Boar.  In the same role as the Goblin Boss above, this is used for him to lead from the back and whip my Night Goblin hordes forward into combat.  This model was painted by Donny Furbush (complete with custom back banner).

 

This Night Goblin Big Boss is the commander of my all Night Goblin force.  He is usually centrally located in with a larger group of Night Goblins alongside the Battle Standard Bearer.

 

On the left is an old Grenedier "Jungle Orc" Shaman.  He will get a painting upgrade when I turn my attention toward completing the Savage Hordes list.  On the right, the most recent Orc Shaman model

 

These old models came from the group I acquired from Donny Furbush.  On the left is a 2nd Edition Hobgoblin who seems more at home mixed in with a group of Orc Boyz.  The conversion on the right is used for the Army Battle Standard Bearer when not mounted on a boar.

 

Currently serving as a Boar-mounted Battle Standard Bearer, this 3rd Edition Savage Orc carries a converted banner pole.  The main banner is a scanned image from a Fantasy magazine that was colored with pencil.  The guidons behind it are hand drawn also using colored pencil.  This model will eventually be a traditional unit standard in a unit of Savage Orc Boar Boyz.

 

Retired Special Character Wurrzag Ud Ura Zahubu still makes a sweet Savage Orc Shaman on a boar.

 

 

 

 

 

Like the previous unit of Night Goblins, these spearmen are 4th-5th Edition plastic models.  The musician is actually a bagpipe player from the Squig Herders and the marks on the banner are old Orc decals.

 

My Night Goblins with short bows are all one-piece models from the 4th Edition boxed set (I have 2 sets of them).  Most of these were painted by my brother Duncan back when we got these boxes many years ago.  A single "normal" goblin in the middle of the first rank plays the role of a Boss.

These 2 units of common goblin spearmen (called "stikkas") also come from the 4th Edition boxed set.  Ownership of these transferred around between several people in my gaming group; last coming from Donny Furbush with the "mix and match" shield theme being adopted (presuming they just picked them up on the battlefield).  The banner on the right was scanned out of an older Army book.

 

This unit of common goblins is made up of old lead miniatures from Grenedier.  Considering the age of these models, I'm pretty happy with the hand painted shield displayed in the front next to the boss.  I painted that 15 years ago using some old Citadel artwork as a guide.

 

Like the goblins above, these goblin arrer boyz are old Grenedier models.  I have enough of each time left over that I can paint up an entire mob of 20 to make it a legal unit.

 

Leading off the cavalry section of the Orcs & Goblins Army are these Forest Goblin Spider Riders from the Skull Pass boxed set (7th Edition game).  Notice (above) that I removed the large standard bearer from the unit and replaced it with a spear.  These models also don't come with bows, so I mounted arrow quivers to them to represent this capability.  The spear and golbin quivers all came from the 45h/5th Edition Night Goblin box.

 

The command group shows the modified standard bearer (now with spear).  I took the paint scheme for the unit from various pictures of Jumping Spiders off the Internet (since these particular spiders resemble Jumping Spiders).

 

Common Goblins field Wolf Riders as their cavalry choice.  Since goblins are such horrible close combat fighters, I prefer to give them short bows and send them on missions to harass enemy war machines and flanks.  These come from the plastic Wolf Riders box.

 

These are plastic models with spear and shield come from the old Battle Masters set, which was a gold mine for beginning collectors back in the day.  The Boss is a metal 3rd Edition model.

 

This second set of Battle Masters-era Wolf Riders boasts a converted standard bearer from a Blood Bowl miniature.  The flag was hand drawn with ink and colored pencil.  The rest of the unit comes from Donny Furbush.

 

My Snotlings are a collection spanning several generations of metal and plastic, but also include some "orclings" from Wargames Foundry.  They are rarely used due to the new Swarm rules for this edition, but it may be indicative that I need to field larger units of them.

 

Moving on from basic Goblins to basic Orcs, this unit of Boyz is a hodge-podge of metal models from all over the spectrum with models painted by Tim Murray, Donny Furbush, my brother Duncan and me.

The command group were touted as "Bug Uns" in the 4th Edition.  Donny made the banner.

 

The two on the left were acquired from Tim Murray when he retired his chess set.  As 4th Edition Savage Orcs, they will move over to join more of their kind when the units are completed.  The model on the right is one of Donny's 4th Edition Black Orc Boss.

 

The two models on the right go back to 3rd Edition, metal Orcs.  They earned their stripes as Orc Tribal Champions in D&D adventures (paint by Duncan, reotuched by me).  The model on the left is also an earlier edition model done by Donny Furbush.

 

What once were 4th Edition Black Orcs have been downgraded to simple Orc Boyz with Additional Choppa.  Most of these models are plastic, but a hand-full of them are metal.  Credit for this conglomeration, like most of the others, is shared with Donny and Duncan.

 

These command models show how much smaller the old Black Orcs are compared to their contemporaries.  Like many, the banner was scanned from an old Army Book with a wire rope added for effect.

 

These 3rd Edition metal Arrer Boyz are some of the oldest in the collection and sport most of their original paint (except for recent touch-ups to keep them table-worthy).

 

Never satisfied with what Games Workshop called "Big Uns" I was on a never-ending quest for the proper models who could wear this title in my collection.  I found it in these old "Great Orc" models from Grenedier.  They are all lead and the unit, as a whole, is very heavy.  The only unfortunate circumstance about them is that they're all wielding Great Weapons (not allowed in the current edition).

 

My command models were so large that 2 of them had to be mounted on cavalry bases.  Until the unit gets reduced to only 1 rank, I simply count the additional slot as a separate model (so ranking up works properly).

 

At the time these models were painted as "Great Orcs" for Dungeons & Dragons, we were looking to give them a more exotic appearance.  Thus, lots of tattoos (or war paint) and dyed hair were features I assigned to them.  Some of the paint on this collection is attributable to Josh Lyons, who loved the models so much that he had to paint a few.

 

 

With the larger, 4th/5th Edition Night Goblins appearing earlier in this section, here is a unit of the smaller 3rd Edition metal models (note the Lord of the Rings theme on the banner and shields).

 

A "common goblin" boss fills the role of the unit Champion until he gets replaced by one of the new Night Goblin bosses that I picked up with this latest edition (some of them were too cool to pass up). 

The least cohesive of my Night Goblin hordes are "the yellow" group.  It is made up of 3rd Edition models as well as some metal 4th Edition Clubbers from when they worked alongside the netters.  Still not having enough to fit out a unit, larger 5th Edition plastic models had to be incorporated as well.  The size disparity is a little too obvious in this group and I tend to use it the least because of this.

 

The command group highlights a hand-painted banner by Donny Furbush and the much maligned "Gobbo giving the finger."

 

Lastly (for the Core Choices), this is my mob of 4th Edition Forest Goblins.  (Currently not enough to split into 2 units).

 

This entire horde was painted by Donny Furbush in a paint-in-exchange-for deal with my brother.  I picked them up when they discontinued the Forest Goblins in 5th Edition as I still intended on building a Savage Horde themed army.

 

These days the Savage Horde is the slowest growing force due to the limited availability of the models.  They have to be acquired on EBay or subsitutes by other manufacturers have to be used.

 

[By now you can see why I will be needing to break it into a 4-part collection in the near future].

With the advent of 7th Edition Warhammer, the Night Goblin Squig Hoppers have become a much more attractive addition to the army.  I used to field only a couple since they tended to create chaos on the battlefield, but now they are a fast moving shock unit for the army (and the only skirmishing unit in the army).

 

I've shuffled around a variety of models to use as my Goblin Spear Chukka's, finally settling on these Lord of the Rings war machines to fulfill the role.  I loved these models (Uruk Hai war machines for Saruman's attack on Helm's Deep) and the very large size just made them that much more Orky.  The crew on the left are old Orc Bolt Thrower crewmen (painted by Donny Furbush) while the goblin crew on the right are all conversions (mostly from Blood Bowl models).

 

This small Rock Lobba is another vintage model that goes back as far as my Dwarf Flame Cannon (from the 3rd Edition siege book).  Likewise, I will probably have to mount it on a scenic base to give it the proper footprint. 

 

The Orc Bully on the left is an old 40K Ork Slaver model (since these make the best Bullies for the army).  On the right is an old Donny Furbush Orc that has been modified by replacing the weapon in his right hand with a whip made from green stuff. 

 

Squig Herders are much easier to use and not as disruptive as they were in previous editions.  They can be very destructive if you can get them into combat, but I found that they tend to be "arrow magnets" and rarely reach their destination.  Hoppers are fast skirmishers and difficult to hit.  Herders are not.  The trick to them is to get them to the other side of the table as quickly as possible and try not to have any other units nearby when you do.  The see regular action in my Night Goblins Only horde.

 

Speaking of Night Goblins themed armies- these are Squigors.  The models are resin and cast lead, produced by Grendel many years ago.  After sitting idle for so long, I decided to assemble them and, along with some green stuff, make them the equivelent of Boar Boyz for my Night Goblin Horde.  Several didn't rank up well on standard cavalry bases, so I had to double them up on a wider base to make the unit work.  Unfortunately, I bought them when ranks only needed to be 4-wide, so I have given up my rank bonus with this unit, too.

 

Goblin Wolf Chariots used to be my favorite unit in the army.  They were cheap, you could run them out there ahead of the force and try to split the enemy line before your mobs got there.  That was before the 7th Edition rules where fleeing chariots cause impact damage to your own forces!  Now, they collect dust on my shelf.  The last thing you want to put on the table with a horde army is a low leadership chariot that will mow them down when the thing runs away.

 

Similar to the Goblin Wolf Chariots, my Orc Chariot has also spent more time on the shelf than running down opponents on the battlefield.  This is the plastic model that came with the 6th Edition box set.

 

My Boar Boyz transcend several generations of models.  This group, armed with hand weapon and shield, are mostly metal and mounted on the old 4th Edition Boar models.  When I run my boars in larger groups (usually a unit of 10) these models take the back rank behind the more recent (and better painted) models.

 

The more recent group are mounted on the larger plastic boars and are armed with spears.  I chose to unify this unit with a consistent shield pattern and color scheme.

 

My Black Orcs are 5th Edition metal models.  They will normally be fielded mixed (about 10 models with additional hand weapon and 10 models with great weapons deployed in the same unit).  However, for the sake of identifying the 2 separate units on the Internet, I have them shown here separately.  These are the Black Orcs with additional hand weapons. 

 

This close-up of the Command Group shows the limited Edition Games Day 2001 model painted by Tim Murray that I use for the unit Champion.  On occasions when this unit is not used, he also makes a good Black Orc Big Boss.

 

The newest edition of 23 Black Orcs with great weapons came from a later 5th/6th Edition release around the time the Storm of Chaos supplement came out. 

 

This command group features Norg Bloodtusk, a Reaper miniature as the unit champion.

 

The Games Workshop 5th Edition model was too small for my liking (only slightly larger than the contemporary Ogres).  Therefore, I opted to convert a plastic Mage Knight model to take this prominant place in my army.

 

To convert the model I had to cut the Dwarf crew, their guns and several other pieces of equipment away from the model.  I patched the saw damage with green stuff and created a couple of Night Goblin passengers using green stuff and bits from the 5th Edition Night Goblins sprue.  Lastly, the face and upper body were repainted to hide all the damage caused bu the conversion (thus, the 5 o'clock shadow was added).

 

My "Troll dilemma" started with the purchase of this model from Pete Underwood.  Although the model is a Stone Troll, I had other plans for my Stone Trolls (a grey skin tone) and, therefore, this one was declared a "normal" troll (one with no upgrades).  The dilemma, then, was in finding other models to add to this one to make a unit of 4.

 

Pete's troll occupied a lone position for several years until Games Workshop released the new plastic troll with the Skull Pass boxed set.  This model was different enough from the others that it worked as a "common" troll.  In the meantim, I had acquired some other models that I wanted to use in my collection, such as the Troll King model on the left by Reaper.

 

Because of the similar jaw line, I found my Lord of the Rings Cave Troll also fit in with my "common troll" unit.  This was the last of the 4 to complete the unit.

 

Some of my favorite models are still the River Trolls that I picked up from Tim Murray.  He'd all ready done a great job on getting the metallic look out of the scales, but they still didn't look quite right.  I tempered down their neon-like skin tone using variations of Hawk Turquois (how often do you use that color?) and repainted their mouths using washes to add some depth to the teeth and tongue.  The combined effort porduced some convincingly "fishy" looking trolls.

 

 

At one time, I think there were 6 assorted Doom Divers in the collection.  But, over time, they were sold off, lost, damaged and so on.  These are the remaining models (luckily enough to make up the full compliment for a unit).  Donny Furbush gets the credit for the one on the right.

 

I think it was 4th Edition when Games Workshop was notorious for putting units in an army book and not producing a model for them.  During this stretch, the Snotling Pump Wagon was one such model.  Unable to find one of the old "buggy" versions on EBay (a 3rd Edition model) I opted to scratch build one.  Thus, the "Ouch Roller" was born.  The red flames, painted on my wife's suggestion, ended up looking like blood when it included the nasty looking roller on the front.  The crew are mostly "Orclings" from Wargames Foundry.  I'm partial to the "Snot Momma" leading the charge with her chicken leg in hand.