Ork and Goblin Fantasy Mounts Painted And Giant Skeleton Creatures

Here they are, the heavy and fast orcs on their formidably scaly mounts.

First off I should say I am not trying to replicate exactly any one particular story in fiction or established games. Tolkien popularised the idea of orcs which also had a mythological origin originally meaning something like demons. In Tolkien's Lord Of the Rings they are base and brutal humanoids of sallow or dark skin colour and the instruments of evil. Goblin and orc are terms used interchangeably.

Another place where orcs and goblins figure strongly is in Games Workshop. There are orcs and their are Space Orks. They normally have green skin and the goblins are small and beaky nosed, crafty but lorded over by the bigger and stronger orcs (or orks). The orks are usually a little like gorillas in body shape although hairless and green and capable of wielding or shooting weapons.

I follow the GW precedent of green skin and two distinct races of goblins and orcs.

In GW there are various monstrous mounts for heroes and others. Orcs often ride large boars and goblins ride large wolves and spiders. There are also very large squiggoths that many can ride in howdahs. Even gigantic spiders can perform this role.

Unlike GW the figures I use most are 1/32 so I can send them into combat against various historical or fictitious human 54mm armies such as knights or English Civil War etc.

rather than strictly sticking to a GW list of beasts I use what are available. There are squillions of cheap toy dinosaurs around new or second hand. I particularly like the quadrupeds with moths open to display pointed teeth. These are what I am using for the orc cavalry to ride. They will be slower than horses but stronger and vicious in combat and perhaps also more prone to not cooperating.

Below: The Ferocious Four. The second from the left I made some time ago, from an Incredible Hulk. I originally got the idea of using these beasts as mounts with matchstick bits from an old article in Plastic Warrior although the rider was large scale Citadel. The figure at far left has been given a Timpo Roman shield.

                               Why Purple? Why mot? I don't know what colour the actual dinosaurs were but wasn't keen in painting them in boring dull greenish greys. In any case these here are fantasy beasts.

                            The saddle cloth is painted with a mix of oranges, yellow and light brown with black stripes and spots. One of the creatures has been given a putty tongue.

                                      The triceratops has printed under him 'Imperial'. This is the rubbery figure which was going to remain sticky until I coated over the paint with PVA.

 The putty harness or collars were an after thought and will be painted red-brown when they are dry.

                                          These goblin riders were a bet with myself to see if I could use apparently useless toys to make something useful. I sometimes buy packets of cheap animals because there is a particular creature that has a wargame use but this is the first time I have employed roosters! The cheapo Indians are now green skinned goblins. (Incidentally, I paint goblins with paler skin than orcs). I don't know how that mark got on the shield - I'll fix it later - but the design is influenced by lord of the Rings; eyes on shields look cool anyway. The figure at far left is mounted on a fantasy bird from somewhere.

                                          Something Different Again! With Halloween coming up my local Cheap as Chips had skeleton spiders! I already had one from last time and now he has a friend! Yes, I know it is biologically inaccurate but so is any skeleton holding together without muscles and sinews! These will have skeleton riders. Only one explanation is available for mobile skeletons and that is supernatural or magic. Also with the spiders are skeleton frog, rat, wind uptriceratops, tyrannosaurus and humanoid giant skeleton. The dinosaur has been repainted with washes and dry brushing. A little work was also done on the giant. It is funny that spiders can be as large as dinosaurs even allowing for making the dinosaurs smaller for humanoid riders.