The Whale Eater Tribe

Here's my Ogre tribe so far.  They're seafarers (not pirates, though, more Norse raider type), hence the severe salt water corrosion on all their gear.  As escaped galley slaves of the Dark Elves, they've got heavy scarring on their backs, and a number of DE corsair bits scattered throughout.  I thought it would be an interesting touch to show that these Ogres lack the subtlety to see any irony in assimilating the culture of a race they utterly despise.

Here's my Tyrant, Thag the Conqueror.  Scrolling through, you should be able to see the rest of the tribe as well.
http://s992.photobucket.com/user/Twelvehook/media/Whale%20Eater%20Tribe/100_1216.jpg.html?sort=6&o=0

I very much like the theme of the army, it has a unique hook that I haven't heard of before, so that instantly piqued my interest; I like people that put some imagination into their work- and I like it even more when they manage to make that imagination run with (instead of go against) established Warhammer fluff

I would offer a small critique on the execution, however (sorry but I am very picky ), in that due to the severe salt-water weathering, the detail on the skin seems a little flat and hard to make out; it seems like a hard road to go down, since the skin palette is so similar to the weathering effect. I realise that using pink skin tones would look out of place (galley slaves should be weathered themselves, of course) but I think that a slightly different tone would suit them better, and help distinguish weathered Ogre flesh from weathered iron/ steel/ brass and copper tones.

I look forward to seeing more of your army though, and I hope you don't take the comment as being too negative

A great idea and very well executed. Love the whip marks, the corroded effect and the use of a wide but appropriate load of bitz to amke your models unique. Very cool.

Hey, thanks for the kind feedback, guys!

Bob, the very issue of the similar palette between their skin and the patina on their weapons kept me from winning Best Painted a number of times during the paint and play league when I was building this army.  I really did love the old ogre complexion in our last book, and I wanted to keep that grey-green hue instead of the fleshy pink they've gone with now.  A darker tan color would have offered some better contrast, you're absolutely right.  I appreciate the critique!

I'm new to digital cameras, and am just now realizing exactly how much cat hair is stuck to my models in these photos thanks to the higher resolution.  Darn kitties!

A couple things I could point out regarding the theme/fluff here, if anyone's interested:
Edged weapons, being harder to maintain with all the corrosion going on, are pretty sparse in the tribe.  The regular Bulls, occupied as they are with manning the ships most of the time, all carry basic clubs.

Horned helms are a status symbol here, and the butcher is actually sprouting real horns.  The tribe's original butcher died when everyone got captured;  this new one is the apprentice of a Slaughtermaster the tribe picked up in Ind.  Their skin is purple from their rite of passage:  They have to eat the entire ink sac of a giant kraken.

More of the tribe's fluff is in my profile, which explains the Leviathan motif on the banners and a few other things.  Thanks for reading; Maybe I'll get some WIP pictures of my Slaughtermaster and Lustrian Maneaters up next.

Sorry to hear about the painting competitions  At least you know what stopped you winning this time, so the next time you enter you'll stand a much better chance I'm sure; I need to start posting my own army pictures up soon, as I look forward to getting some opinions and discussing new painting methods- for example, weapon/ armour weathering is not something I'd considered before, but I think it's something I;m going to have to take a crack at now, as it seems very fitting for Ogres, generally.

I absolutely know what you mean about the old skin tone- I dislike the human-pink the new Ogres have; the mix I use tries to recapture the 'earthy' and more boulder-like feel of the old one. I start with a basecoat of Scorched Brown, then move up to Scorched Brown + Catachan green (only leaving dark brown in a few of the recesses but not all of them), then  start adding Graveyard earth to the mix before adding even more for highlights. I had similar problems though when I painted the bases too lightly and now there's a little too much light earth tone on the models I think re-basing to a darker, more Border Princes than Badlands look would be much better, but will take a lot of time to correct...

I would love to see the Lustrian Maneaters! I am looking to convert a unit of Bulls to Maneaters myself (purely to reduce the hefty cost...) and am very interested in getting ideas from everyone and everywhere

Congrats on the beautiful army. In my opinion unique, inspired forces like this are the very essence of Warhammer. Plus great fluff and a solid, interesting theme? I wish more people hobbied and played this way. Hats off to you!

Praise aside, I don't think it is problematic to have a skin tone that is similar to the patina on their gear. It looks natural and gritty to me. It may not be as immediately gripping from across the room, but the rest of your work more than makes up for it. I'm definitely biased toward more neutral, natural tones in an army and you nailed it.

My only suggestion would be to find opponents willing to throw down some Storm of Magic games- that way you can paint up the mighty Merwyrm these Ogres deserve to fight alongside. 

Thanks for such kind words!

The Merwyrm model caught my attention as soon as it came up on the Forge World site.  I'm thinking even in non-SoM games I could proxy it as a giant or something.  It's by far my favorite sculpt they've done for Warhammer forge; I just hope my painting can do it some sort of justice!

I'm going to try and get the camera again this weekend, and then maybe I can get some WIP photos up.  Once the maneaters and slaughtermaster are done, I may even start on some gnoblars...