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!