The Cult of the Beetle

After a bit of a break, here are some orc members of the Cult of the Beetle.

These guys took me a little while to get done, but the most sluggish point was the beginning as I tried to work out the best way to represent the participants in the Pulp Alley campaign. Having decided to try and avoid buying new miniatures for a few months, I set about trawling through my backlog of sprues and partially assembled / unpainted models to put a force together.

Now, I was determined not to get bogged down too long on any one model, so they needed to be easy to convert and easy to paint. I had discovered a skin tone I liked by using Vallejo Sepia Wash over a basecoat of Vallejo Tan Earth, so aimed to do most of the fodder troops using nothing but basecoats and washes.

First up we have Fierce Cultists and Militant Cultists, the most basic of Orkwyrd's minions which ironically required the most work. They're Wargames Factory orc heads on Warlord Games celt bodies, both elements needing chopping and filing down so as to join neatly together. Painting-wise they were all done using three different browns for basecoats, one silver, one bronze, one off-white and one black, which were all finished with either a plain brown wash or a strongtone shader.

The Faceless Ones, the specialised warriors, were by far the easiest. Plain LotR Berserkers with the same paint scheme as the cultist minions.

The Beetle Priest, one of the living cult leaders, was a Gripping Beast Arab archer body and arms with a Warlord Games orc head filed down to suit. A minimal amount of highlighting involved on this one.

And finally the Risen Priest, a LotR Ringwraith with hands painted as bone rather than armour. Very quick and basic highlighting again.

Altogether, these models should be enough for me to play the first chapter of the Tomb of the Beetle (Serpent), though I need to source a decent miniature from my collection to represent Orkwyrd's physical avatar. I shall keep searching.