Ogres of the Moonlit Hunt – A Hobby Blog (5)

Note – this article is part of an ongoing series – previous articles can be found here.

With the Counter Charge Spring Painting Challenge at about the halfway mark, I had only finished two of the units necessary to reach my 1,000 point list.

Army: Ogres

Points: 1000

Unit Count: 7

Unit Strength: 13

240, Siege Breaker Horde

230, Hunter Horde

— Crocodog

155, Red Goblin Sharpstick Horde

100, Red Goblin Scout Troop

100, Red Goblin Scout Troop

110, Boomer Sergeant

— Inspiring Talisman

65, Red Goblin Blaster

That might make it seem like I am behind schedule, but the Red Goblin Sharpstick Horde represented the bulk of the work, so I think I’m actually in good shape. Besides, I had my spring break from work this past week and was able to dedicate some serious time to hobbying. Be warned, this is going to be a massive post!

In order to streamline the process, I went on an assembly binge and put together all of the remaining miniatures for the list. As much as I love painting, I am not a huge fan of assembly. I find scraping mold lines and filling gaps to be absolutely vital, but painfully tedious work. Fortunately, every miniature I’ve selected is plastic and has easy-to-reach mold lines. I am a big believer in the Citadel Mouldline Remover and find it very effective. In the harder to reach areas, I resort to my hobby knife.

Only one of the miniatures, the Boomer Sergeant (Hrothgorn from Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave), had gaps large enough to warrant the use of green stuff. The other miniatures all have minor gaps, and I recently discovered (thanks to the wonders of Twitter) that you can use PVA glue to fill minor gaps. I cannot stress how much time and effort this saved. I had to do multiple applications in some instances, but even still, it was much preferable to using green stuff.

For the Hunter Horde, I used the basic Ogre models with a few minor conversions. I gave two of the Ogres a man-trapper, which is usually reserved for the champion model. I ordered several of these bits off eBay for cheap to supplement the single one that comes in each box. 

I then did some chopping, filing, and drilling in order to equip two Ogres with hunting spears.

I gave both varieties iron-fists because I think they look slick and help to further distinguish them from the Siege Breaker Horde. I then rounded out the unit with a converted Standard Bearer and a Night Goblin Netter. The Standard Bearer was simply too much fun to not include, and the Night Goblin Netter, along with the man-trappers, is meant to represent the Ensnare special rule.

For the Red Goblin Scout Troops, I built a mixture of Squigs and Squig Hoppers. I could have gone completely with Squig Hoppers, but I prefer the variation in heights and models. I painted one up as a test and it only took twenty minutes! I went with the same red-orange skin that I used on Gobbla (from the Red Goblin Sharpstick Horde).

Finally, I assembled my Red Goblin Blaster. I used the same miniature as before (see my third blog post), and paired it with another Squig Herder.

With the assembly complete, I turned my attention to the unit bases. These are really fun to work on, and I need to give another shout-out to Billy’s article which informed my process.

Now that the bases were squared away, I could focus solely on painting. I went with the Hunter Horde, as they are clearly the most time-intensive unit remaining. I decided to batch paint them in groups of two. These were a tad easier to paint than the Siege Breaker Horde, as the massive two-handed weapons make it difficult to access all parts of the model with a paintbrush. On the other hand, I cheated and painted the eyes red on the Siege Breaker Horde. I rationalized this because I plan on taking the Chalice of Wrath on the unit (in my 1,995 point list) and it represents the Fury special rule. For these guys, however, I had to paint the eyes for real. And, if you didn’t know this, the GW Ogre models have exceptionally tiny eyes.

After finishing the unit, Jake suggested adding tattoos to help distinguish them from the Siege Breakers. I initially thought of doing some sort of war paint or tribal tattoo design but realized that would be more appropriate for Berserkers (which I may add to the army at some point in the future). Instead, I settled on a hunting spear crossed with a mushroom.

With the tattoos sorted, I glued the models to the unit base and my Hunter Horde was complete!