More Armored Orcs for the Bonefish Band

    9 more armored orcs for the 'Bonefish Band' - my orc & goblin army for Dragon Rampant

Some of the miniatures that I bought for my Dragon Rampant orc & goblin army from my friend Jeff were primed or even partially painted. I held off painting them to make sure I had my own way of doing them down. When 2026 dawned, I decided to get them ready as my first batch of orcs for the year. I wasn't sure if I should start from scratch and repaint everything? Should I leave some of what Jeff painted "as is"? In the end, I decided not to re-prime them, but otherwise to mostly paint over them completely. About half had only primer on them, some had their armor done, while one or two were even further along. 

    These are from 28mm orcs from the 'Ragnarok' line by Gripping Beast -- I really love these figs!

Jeff had given spears to eight of the nine figures. The empty handed orc received a sword to even out the weapons some. For some reason, I decided to use white glue and temporarily affix them to cardboard squares, which is how I have traditionally held onto miniatures while painting them. For this army, though, I've been putting them on their round base and simply holding onto that. I honestly have no idea why I glued these to cardboard...haha! Anyway, the first step was to paint my base Walnut Brown flesh on the orcs. I followed that up with the two dry brushes of Raw Sienna and Khaki, and then went to work on their armor.

    Close up of one batch -- I like the orc with the 2-handed grip on his spear & snarl on his face!

It kind of pained me to paint over Jeff's chainmail he'd done on some of them, but I didn't want the armor of this batch of orcs to look different from the rest of the army. I have to admit, his armor looked nice, but I like mine with the Iron Wind Steel as a base coat better. I was also painting their helmets at the same time while doing the armor. I really do like the sheer variety of helmets that these Gripping Beast orcs from the Ragnarok line are sculpted with. I feel it really adds to their rag-tag appearance. This is probably helped by the variety of tunic, pants, and cloak colors that I use. No two figures in a batch tend to have the same tunic color (except for the warlord's bodyguard, who were painted semi-uniform). The same holds true for shields and even pouches at their waist. I usually use four different colors, mixing them up on each orc.

    Middle & orc on right had their shields 'brush painted,' while the rest were with my micron pens

While painting these nine figures, I actually got a chance to play my first DR! game with the Bonefish Band, as I call my horde. It dawned on my while painting that I really didn't need these figures to field the army. What's more, there are at least two more batches worth unpainted orcs and goblins in the drawer (if not three). So, why even paint them? Well, there's always the chance I may want to field two forces using my orcs and goblins for an evening of gaming. Not all of the Sunday Evening group have their own armies. If I have enough for two, I could lend one of them out, right? I like having nicely painted miniatures on the tabletop, and I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out! Especially in our skirmish games, all of the figures on the table are mine. So, why not paint all of these?

    Speaking of shields, here is the obligatory 'shield shot' of all nine lined up in a row

I did my usual "tribal-themed" designs on each shield for this batch, too. I was reading my National Geography History magazine recently and had to do a double take. There was an article about ancient scripts that have yet to be deciphered, such as Linear A, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and early Elamite. They reminded me quite a bit of the Google Image I had downloaded with supposedly tribal patterns and designs. I may have to pull up and save an image of each of these scripts to use for future projects. They were all pictograph based and struck me immediately as being possibilities for future shield designs on some project!

    Close up of the last three orcs ready to create some mayhem on the battlefields on Sunday evening!

So, what else is on my painting desk? Would you believe...more armored orcs? I guess it didn't dawn on my how high a proportion of the miniatures I bought from Jeff were armored as opposed to unarmored. I know that I just said that I already have more than enough troops for a DR! force, but I may actually end up buying more figures from the Ragnarok line. These would be unarmored goblin warriors (not archers), though. I have only about half a dozen of this variety, and I need quite a bit more for skirmish games using Sellswords and Spellslingers. Most scenarios differentiate between goblins, who are less powerful, than orcs. I need more ordinary goblin warriors -- I DO have plenty of archers.

    Final look at this batch of orcs posed on my brand new 'Blood Moon' stone Cigar Box battle mat

I should go downstairs and count how many I have remaining, but I don't want to be disappointed. As much as I'm enjoying this project, I am just about burn out on painting armored orcs. Side note -- some of these may actually be armored goblins, but the Ragnarok line didn't do a clear size difference between the orcs and goblins. So, I am considering anyone wearing armor an orc, while those without or goblins. It certainly makes it easy to tell them on sight! I'm also working on some terrain at the moment. My next Star Wars scenario will involve investigating a mysterious alien spacecraft that has crashed on Tatooine. So, I am making a half dozen or so bases of crashed spacecraft sections. So, look for those soon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 2

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 4