Sunday 20 May 2018

Oriental Ogres


Greetings vaqueros! Today I'm showing you a trio of oriental themed ogres from the Jes Goodwin C-series range, that I've painted up for my Dragon Rampant project.
I decided I needed a bit of blunt force trauma for my Dragon Rampant forces, and Goodwin ogres are high on my 'must paint' list, so this was the perfect opportunity to tick those two boxes.
The concept of 'oni', powerful spirits from Japanese mythology, has evolved over time to be represented by large, ogre-like figures, often with horns protruding from their heads and rows of sharp snaggled teeth (previously they were some manner of invisible ghost, which is much harder to make a model of). 

"RACK OFF I'M ON THE BOG!"

Years of mythological crossover with influences of Buddhism and Hinduism, turned this invisible spirit into a brightly coloured horny beast wearing a leopard pelt, which is about as funky as mythology can get.

Season 2 of 'Samurai Gourmet' was a more literal affair...

First up we have the so named 'oriental ogre', sometimes referred to as the ogre ronin. He features a choppy cleaver and partial suit of looted samurai armour, the latter which Jes cleverly sculpted as being far too small for it's new owner, splitting at the seam and requiring additonal plates to patch up. This model was my test piece for the group, and one of the first non-greenskins painted up for my goblin samurai army. I was concerned that the established colour scheme of ochre and blue would not translate to a non-green figure but I'm pretty happy with it - the ochres, browns and skin tones contrast with the blue-grey scale armour and the bright blue silk belt, and the face on the armour plate came up nicely with some deep oranges. 

Don't sniff those fingers. 

The next ogre, known as the 'shaman', was even more challenging from a colour balance perspective - he is basically naked except for a sheepskin loincloth, so getting some blue on him, somewhere, had me puzzled. Fortunately, a bit more research turned up this rather subtly horrifying picture of a blue oni head:

"Whaf? I gof somefim in me teef?"
Brightly coloured skin, at least on the head, allowed me to add that needed splash of colour to balance all that brown. This figure is adorned with dozens of trinkets and spell ingredients, and several little bells that I painted silver - he shall have music wherever he goes, and never, ever be able to sneak up on you. Which, with his pretty face, is probably a good thing.

"Did youse say my horn is showing? How embarrasking! Aik-aik-aik-aik!"

The last ogre, known as 'ogre berzerker', is another handsome fellow, with a huge horn poking right out of his forehead. I toyed with the idea of giving him blue pants (or at least the traditional white pants with blue stripes) but in the end I settled on blue tattoos, and at the advice of theottovonbismark, blue silken cords to wrap his leg warmers, to lend a bit more balance to the figure overall. I am very fond of this guy and his lumpy, scowly face - he is like a mutated Popeye. Okay, a MORE mutated Popeye.

So there you have it - three oriental ogres for my Dragon Rampant forces. And what's next? Well, to an ogre, there is no sweeter meat than MANFLESH!

"Captain Ogreman says we all have to go oil up and roll in salt and pepper right away! No questions now, hop to it!"

Adios for now!

30 comments:

  1. They look fantastic Capt, but you didn't answer the one burning question I had while reading your post. Why did you choose blue as the unifying colour? Why a unifying colour at all? Is it a DR thing? Or are all Oni demons colour coded? Or was it just coz it looks good? I confuse :)

    You did a great job on the skin tone, I'm jelly. Makes me wanna strip my Ogres and have another crack at them.

    Well done Crooks :)

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    1. The rest of the force so far has blue trim as a feature, as it compliments yellow. I chose yellow initially because it looked good with the warm greens of the goblin skin, but I like to balance warm schemes with a bit of cooler colour, so blue is a good choice all round. Also yellow plus blue equals green, see? It's all... connected!

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    2. Thanks mate, I no confuse now :)

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    3. Very good, very good. I also use a smigeon of bright orange here and there because I love it so.

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  2. Great work. I like your technique for nipples, they're realistically empinkened. My attempts to paint nipples tend to look like jelly tots glued to the fighter's chest.

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    1. What can I say, I'm something of an expert on men's nipples.

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    2. Glad my modeling pics helped out with the project M8. LOL These turned out exceptionally well. Way to go Cap'n

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    3. That reminds me, I'll need those other pics for my naked barbarian fighting giant killer python in a pit full of enormous purple mushrooms diorama. ASAP!

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  3. Smelly fingers blue head is my fave, but the unit is simply gorgeous.

    You have upped your painting and photography games an awful lot over the last couple of years Captain. Pat yourself on the back.

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    1. Thanks cheetor :) I owe a lot of my blogging and hobby gains to your own inspiring work, and these ogres were basically your idea as well - in fact I'm hiding in your house and watching you while you sleep.

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    2. I can only dream of such a thing, as you know from observing me dreaming, running my belly until I settle.

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    3. Soffft kitty, warrrrm kitty... purrrr.... purrrrrrr

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  4. What's up with bosses demanding we oil up and roll around in salt and pepper? I hate doing that. By the way, anyone seen Bob in accounting lately?

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    1. Bob will be joining you for lunch later. You're in for a treat, he has good taste, does Bob.

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  5. This is 127% what I like the most in life mec.

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  6. So very very good. This DR army has been a treat from the outset, and these big lads are continuing the trend. They're excellent. Especially the nipples.

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    1. Thanks Mr Saturday, I hope one day my samurai goblins will meet your pottery soldiers on the field of mostly dishonourable battle (I won't fight clean, I am goblins).

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    2. That would be a glorious day. I would weep tears of joy as my animated minions dispatched the last few wounded goblins neatly and quickly, as befits such well painted opponents.

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    3. Your pottery monstrosities will be dust in the wind before the might of Gobonaga's hordes! Dussst!

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    4. Such insolence! One day you will have to atone for this insult on the field of battle.

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    5. I'll play a tone on the broken clay shells of your unnatural creations!

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  7. Go on, give us an "everything so far" all-in pic. I'm sure everyone would give the appropriate "ooh"s and "ahh"s. They're a right pretty looking bunch. For goblins.

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    1. I'll try and get one soon, it'll be pushing the limits of my photo setup though :D

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  8. Stunning work! The mix of Goodwin sculpting and Asian mythology seems to work perfectly for these great figures.

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    1. Cheers Blue. Ogres, like orks, seem to lend themselves to dress-up costume extremely well. I want an ogre pirate, ninja and cowboy now :D

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  9. These look great. The blue Oni face was a good call. You really made these funky sculpts look good.

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    1. The sculpts don't need a whole lot of help to look good, but I'm glad you like them all the same :D Cheers!

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  10. Very nice indeed--looking forward to your invisible stalker next!

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    1. I finished him ages ago in fact. It's standing in your bathroom, watching you toilet :)

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