writes:This little project began because of a discussion on our forum:
I lucked into some secondhand 15mm figures, can anyone identify this fellow?
Round shield with boss, jacket (I don't think it's chainmail, maybe fur) over tunic, pot helmet, quiver, bow, apparently wearing pants.
Suggestions were made that it might be Mike's Models Armenians, or Minifigs old strip-type figures.
And then Twilight Samurai wisely posted:
The real question is, what can your lucky dip fellow be now?
And I thought: You're right! I only have a handful of these figures, I don't know what they're supposed to be, they are old-style sculpts, I'm not going to build an army around these figures… but sure, they could be some kind of fantasy unit!
He suggested rustic Dwarves, but I thought their faces (they remind me a bit of the old Alley Oop cartoon) would work better as Half-Orcs!
So here they are – Half-Orc archers!
I had already stripped the figures and begun repainting them, so the conversion to Half-Orcs simply entailed a green flesh coat.
Next came dark-brown Super Wash (from Coat d'Arms), followed by some touch-ups.
The figures are based on Mighty Armies 1" x 2" plastic bases (available from Rebel Minis).
FlexSteel (available from LITKO) is applied to the base bottoms, so they will stick to magnet-lined storage boxes.
So, instead of going in the trash bin, these venerable old figures have a new life in my Half-Orc army. The base with only two figures could be the unit command… but wait! I have spare Half-Orc command figures around here somewhere…