Orctober: Avatars of War Orc Shaman

I ♡ orcs, but this is the first year I've managed to sync up and get one painted to show before the month ran out. Look at me, I'm participating! 😆 Here's a bit of a departure from my usual figure preferences, an orc shaman by Felix Paniagua for his Avatars of War range.

Avatars of War Orc Shaman

It's funny to me that I consider this a "new school" figure, even though it was released circa 2004 (if memory serves)! If you can believe it, I bought the figure when it was newly released and started painting it right away, and it's another figure I finally finished after well over a decade of life on the workbench. 😮

What's to say about the paintjob? I used a variety of browns, some more yellow base and some more red-base. The flesh was painted straight dark to light and I don't think I used any glazes.

The OSL magic-effect is the obvious focal point, and something I think the figure demands (but surprisingly, when I did a Google image search nearly all I saw didn't go for it). Back in 2004, the OSL potential was the main reason I went for it to include in my portfolio, and one of only a few remaining items cover when I returned to it last week. It's a bit of a hasty job but does the trick.

I like the great variety of materials and items and downplayed most of them, but added a few key details like the treatment of the potion, and the wood grain on the staff-idol.

I bought the figure to create my initial portfolio back when I was starting commission painting, and was busy with actual commissions before I finished, and they pay a lot better than random figures put up on ebay. He doesn't fit well into any of my too-numerous fantasy milieus, another key reason he never got down.

This is a rare example of the style of orc Brian Nelson popularized done well. I tend to like this style of face but loathe the gorilla anatomy that usually goes with it (the plastic GW orcs from the late nineties being the most cringe-worthy, IMO). GW seems to be taking baby steps away from that anatomy with orc (and ork) releases in recent years, but IMO the whole orc range should be superceded the way the primaris marines did the old marines. Meanwhile, this guy here could be added to either an iron jaws AOS band or one made from Gamezone orcs.