MrSmith's Gnoblog

Hello to all in the ogre stronghold! having been a long-time lurker in the ogre stronghold forums i have decided that with the new edition of the ogre kingdoms i shall start a new army! i plan to use this gnoblog to detail the building of my new army and hopefully gain some useful feedback and criticisms. 

Before I start though, may I mention what a fantastic website this is with many great members.

Well to get started I have a few ideas that i have been working around in my head and i would like to throw them out to you guys and girls to see if you can help me to bring them more to life, and also maybe throw a few more ideas my way. 

The general feel of the army will be of an ogre army that either is in the process of raiding an empire city or has in the past and is now residing within. So all of the bases will be stone pathed or a cobble effect and will try to include empire materials or parts along the way.

The next list includes some of things i have thought to include in my army and i would love your advice on ;

a) Should I include empire people in the army? As either being food! Or maybe they have integrated into the army taking over the gnoblars role?
b) If I build my army in the process of raiding an empire city (i.e. many of the units including some sort of mini diorama) will this distract from the army as a whole when playing non empire armies?

Moving on to actual characters in my army i have the following ideas;

The main two characters in my army will be the hunter and the tyrant. The hunter will be a collector of sorts and has been around the world collecting rare and exotic creatures. This will tie into the army when I am playing storm of magic games as the creatures included will be branded by the hunters mark.

Along the lines of the tyrant I am thinking along the lines that he is more of a puppet. He is exceptionally stupid for a tyrant but is very strong and though. Maybe controlled by gnoblar wispering ideas into his ear etc?

I better stop now or this post will get even longer! well thanks for reading the first part of the blog I will keep you updated several times a week on my progress and please feel free to add your own thoughts and views on my ideas!!

Welcome to the Stronghold MrSmith.
Answers;
a) If you want. You know, the person controlling the tyrant could be an empire wizard or general (maybe from a rival city)
b) Not in the least. A cool looking army always looks cool.

I'd be more interested in seeing an ogre army raiding an empire city, because empire themed ogre armies, while not super common, aren't unheard of. Still, if it looks cool then its a good idea.

Thanks for the reply! Thats a very cool idea! I was thinking maybe he could be controlled though a magic item, maybe along the lines of the Orc warboss Azhag? If only I knew what other items nagash has left lying around the place!! I could even give him the name that made him suffer from stupidity!

If only I knew what other items nagash has left lying around the place!!

I'm going to tell you a secret- it doesn't matter. Nagash was the most powerful necromancer who ever lived, and possibly the most powerful wizard who ever existed, and his lair was a mountain with a warpstone mine. He probably had hundreds of magic items laying around that place, so make it up.

Even a small piece of an item associated with Nagash would be wildly magically.

Yeah im not the best when it comes to fluff 

So far i have my tyrant which will need some type of magical item that used to belong to nagash (working on that). And nagash will be using the army to do his bidding!! collect other nagash items maybe....lol not sure about the empire city raiding theme though..

Right update time! i have started my firebelly and have started doing his skin... what do you guys think?




 personally i think i need to improve the blending of the layers so i may do some glazes and im also not sure if i need to highlight futher. when he is done he should be on a stone paved base and with a little gnoblar in front doing somthing comical like copying his boss...

More blending of the colours is exactly what I thought needed improving if anything.
It's pretty much the darkest colour, which I think is a wash or ink of some kind, that is providing the problem.
The step up from that colour to the mid flesh tone is too stark.
If you definetly wanted to keep that darkness, it works better in a thinner line rather than the thicker lines on the back and side of the model.
the front of the model is just about there I think.

I like some of the ideas in here, it's not too disimliar to how I did my Skaven army (which needs an update seriously as it's so different from my plog)

yeah the main problem i have is if i try to spend to much time on a model i never get anything done lol..... i not sure if i should highlight further as that may be enough to distract from the difference in step up.

i not sure if i should highlight further as that may be enough to distract from the difference in step up.

I really don't think it needs it and actually think it would have the opposite effect.

If I was to do anything, I would use your darkest flesh colour (not the wash) to just paint closer to the recesses on the back and sides.

It still looks very nice and better than a lot of painting you see, just a note on if you was wanting to improve it.

No i really appreciate the advice  im not nearly arrogant enough to realise there is better painters out there than me! and any advie or critism is great

right update time!!! as to fantasyfreaks advice i have toned down the skin highlighting marginally! let me kow what you guys think! please.

Much better imo!

Cant wait to see it finished!

It's hard to tell properly because the lighting and camera angles are different.

From what I can see though it looks to be a great improvement!
Looks great!

I agree with FF, it looks better as far as I can tell

your fire belly looks great its way better than i can paint so well done. also i love the idea for your army, i love armys based on a story. the hunter is a great tie in for storm of magic and there is a lot of possabilaty of great plot hooks with the tyrant