A base of archers completed.

I have decided to have some orcs made so have sorted some inspiration. Have to refine my thoughts a bit and get a sculptor to agree to do it. 

This is the kind of look I want, probably one in scale (like this one), one in mail, and one in something like the second picture. 

Poses will probably be like these that I created in 28mm from a mix of plastic kits.

First base of Orcs completed. On a ready made 12cm by 6cm Impetus base. Pretty happy with these, although they don't necessarily rank up well. I suppose having the orcs looking too regular isn't the right approach but I think I'll need to get some made at some point.

As far as rules go, i’ll use Impetus which, although not everyone’s choice, allows for some nice scenic bases and fairly fast moving games. For close order Infantry i’ll use the 12cm by 8cm bases and for archers or open order i’ll use 12cm by 6.

I have mocked up a couple of bases below.

Orcs

Issue no1. The only 40mm size Orcs that I have found are the old Combat Hex range long defunct. These appear on eBay fairly regularly.

My youngest son found some while clearing out his room so I repainted one to see how it would come up. I have added a photo below of the end result alongside a Games Workshop goblin for size comparison.

Not bad. So I bought some more on eBay. The main issues with these figures are the limited range of poses, the soft bendy plastic, and they are based on the LOTR films. I liked the films and the orcs were great, but I wanted to get away from that look. For the moment though, they will do nicely.

I have another photo below of a size comparison with a Fighting 15s 40mm Romano-British figure. I think the Orcs come out about right, not quite human sized.

This blog will chart what will be a long a slow process of creating and, at some point, gaming, with 40mm Miniatures that depict Middle Earth as I see it. Clearly, this might not be your vision, but I hope it might inspire someone to have to at it themselves.

Availability of miniatures will be an issue. There will, at some point, need to be some converting and probably some new figures commissioned.