The Orcs are Back
Hello dear friends!
This month has been a hell of a ride, and I'm extremely proud to finally share with you the trailer for the set of July, the Blackcrag Orcs! You are invited to turn on your audio and click play on the trailer above!
If you want, I'd love to tell you the story behind this orc set, so get prepared for a very personal and long post.
The Orc Barbarians
With Orr'ugs (half ogre), the Oni, and the dread Frostmetal Clan, the only pure orcs I sculpted were the Orc Barbarians from Set 03, in July 2019! It’s funny, but I didn’t notice until now that they were also released in July! The Orc Barbarian set was one of our most popular. Even though it was published in 2019, I remember sculpting some of these orcs back in 2013 when I was working full-time with my dear friend Benoit Guerville from Raging Heroes. At that stage, my orcs & dwarves project was just a hobby, sculpting for fun. I never imagined I would seem them painted by so many hobbyst one day.
I remember when Benoit helped me improve those orcs. The Warcraft movie wasn’t out yet, and the orc imagery in games was quite different, more goofy. "Work on the attitude of that orc chief, make it more like a rockstar," he said. He is great at art-directing minis, and I can't thank him enough for helping me become what I am today, especially because he even helped me with my side projects.
When 3D printers became popular, I wanted to finish the orcs I had started and make them suited for the 3D printer generation. I was less experienced then, and my style wasn’t fully developed yet. Besides, 3D printers have improved a lot, allowing for finer details. Even my stylized sculpts, designed to be easy to print and paint, could benefit. After so many years, I knew the 2019 orcs deserved better. At the end of May, just after the trailer release, I decided to spend a day on ZBrush to make an orc from scratch.
Orcs are one of my favourite race, and I would just make him like my ideal orc for playing an rpg.
I never got to work on the classic orc barbarian after 2019.
My rule was simple: let's sculpt from scratch without looking at the old one. After a few hours, I was happy with the new orc design (the green one to the right) and opened one of my old sculpts… wow, what a change! I loved the new orc. I called him a Blackcrag Orc since the old ones didn’t have a place on the map (the Map of Mundus was less detailed back then).
I couldn’t stop there; I wanted to recreate the Orc Barbarian from scratch, with innovative mounts (since with the modular mounts system you can put the new orcs on Worgs, Dire Wolves, or dozens of other mounts from previous months). "You know what?" I said. On Discord, someone suggested Orcs on larger Orcs could be cool, so why not giant apes? I never worked on an ape-like creature, and it could work as Barlgura for DnD, demon gorilla, or anything else. I'll call them Ape Fiends, apes corrupted by the Lord of War and Blood... and one will have four harms, as requested in our Discord!
Five minutes in Photoshop and I was extremely happy with that. The Orcs, after fleeing the tentacular Slathaai prisons thanks to the Chainbreaker rebellion, passed through the jungles, tamed some Apefiends, and reached the Blackcrag, those mountains in the north. I couldn’t make an Orc Warlord sculpt, which was mandatory as one of the Heroes of the Set, but I wanted to bring justice to my old Throgar Chainbreaker. He is one of my favorite characters, and I wanted to reimagine him in an even more epic version, as a liberator of orc slaves becoming an Orc King. I wanted to do the same for Vesdra, the orc shaman, resculpting her with more experience and tools. Honestly, I'm extremely happy with the final result!
This time, Throgar would have a truly epic mount, since Epic Bosses are now part of every monthly set. A worg is cool, but I've made tons of them. I craved to make something legendary, and a Manticore fit perfectly! This huge beast, standing on a 10cm base, is raging and massive, perfect as a mount for your wargames general or as a beast to face in any RPG.
I don't want to spoil all the surprises in the set, so make sure to check out the trailer above. Are you excited for the Blackcrag Orcs? What do you think of their design and weapons? Share your thoughts in the comments!
The Blackcrag Orcs will be live at the beginning of July.
We are heading to the convention at Cres (check our previous post) in few days, hopefully we manage to publish the set from there on day 2 from the mobile app. Thanks for your patience!
Cheers dear friends!
Andrea
Comments (54)
Your art style really makes those muscles POP. The King especially looks like a badass
haveing go it yet :S
same. all printers have ceased printing so they can get straight to printing!
when is the july bundle available???
Post below says July 4th.
I see, make a set that's hard to wait for then go to a conference! 😆
😆
Is the July bundle not available yet?
On the 4th I think.
as your going back and updateing some of your work , any chance of gino the brewmaster getting redone? i do love your dwarves :D
Can't get enough dwarves quite honestly.
sensing a strong connection to world of warcraft with these. Definitely going to create a Gul'Dan and Gromash Hellscream with the warlock and warchief
besides loving your tier of sculpts every month i like the music that is playing on youre videos is there a chance to get this music from somewhere its great gothic style and hardrock rifs i am hoping for an answer keep doing what you are doing
I really enjoy the muscle mommy pinup and I will print many other minis of this set as well. Just a question aside. Is there a plan to release a few more exotic races? While going to "monsters of the multiverse" I always wish for AG sets of asimar, tabaxi, fairys and more.
Another fantastic set, you never fail to deliver. But...we all know the apes all need 4 arms, not just one 😜
I always love your cavalry models but these have to be amongst my favorite you've ever done.
Thank you! I'm happy they come out cool :)
Love that one of the ape fiends has six arms, so it can be used as a Girallon. Is there a reason they aren't all possessing the same number of limbs?
The basic Ape Fiend have 4 limbs like normal apes, but being fiendish mutation, sometime things like 4 arms are possible. Designs and schemes of Duum, Lord of Blood and War ;)
Ah ! A double-ended axe ! Reminds me of the good old 3.5 player handbook :) Amazing set !
Thank you! We wanted to bring some classic flavour to the set.
new manticore looks nice.
Thanks Eric!
Amazing set!!! One question Throgar has a chopped head in his hand in the video? I don't see that option in the weapons/hands image
I guess I forget to put those extra pieces in the render of the weapons, as I did those the last day. They will still be part of the set, thanks for pointing it out :)
This is really cool. I'm currently working on a kitbash project using your other ogres as a basis for some goblins. I've barely changed any of the bodies because your previous set has just translated perfectly. It'll be fun to play around with these too! https://i.imgur.com/PqBHid4.png
Those looks surprisingly good with pathfinder goblin head!
Alright I'm going to need to find an appropriately sized guitar for a weapon swap because the warboss guy looks like he is definitely ready to rock.
So these orcs will definitely be seeing use in my RPG campaign!
I'm surprised at how excited I am to see this collection. Now I'm going to have to seriously consider picking up the original set as well. Oh and the mounts, just freaking amazing.
Thank you so much :) I'm happy the Apes turned out good.
Cool set! The pin-up seems a bit Barbie-esque though, if you know what I mean.
The orc 03 is one of my fav. set and althoug this new set is awsome, i think the old set is a masterpiece as well. I made from one of the orcs a really brutal human barbarian for my rpg session (head swap), because humans were not thick enough. And the old Thorgar is my all time favourite orc modell ever. I eager to see the new one printed.
Thank you, that's so good to hear! I hope your barbarian will live a very long adventure!
Such a good set for what I feel like orcs really look like (WoW) amazing work yet again!
Thank you!
These are awesome. Love the mounts
Thank you William!
Dude I don't know how you keep doing it but stuff is amazing. Also your trailers have really gotten some product value.
Thanks Raymond! I have lot of respect for the creatures of Mundus, that's what motivate me to make them look good :)
I can’t wait for next month!!! These look amazing!!!
Thanks Matthew!
INCREDIBLE RELEASE! The monthly releases are why I will ALWAYS be a Paton.
Thanks Zot! It has been a challenge to make these orcs :)
These dudes look brutal! Very nice! Interesting to see the progression from some of the early orcs and the manticore you made so long ago to today.
Thank you so much Miles! I appreciate your comment a lot
I am more excited about this one than I thought I would be!5
Thanks Jeffrey! Me too haha
Absolutely BAD ASS!! I love it!
Thanks David!
Those mounts are insane! Love the set <3
Thanks! Can't wait to see a paintjob on them :)
I love the refresh on these orcs. Also wanted to comment that having painted minis in the preview video is really great. Looking like another awesome set!
Thank you so much Jess!