Getting (Grimbeorn) ready for #sporktober

A few days ago, my pal Michele (Frontlineminiaturist) sent to Grimbeorn and me a YouTube video which launched a challenge for the month, calling that #sporktober. It's a mix between spooktober and orctober which challenges people on social media to paint an Orc or Undead miniature, and the youtuber chooses a 90s style of painting on one of the Skeletons from the Cursed City range. I leave here the link for the video 👉 YOUTUBE 📺

Michele challenged us to do the same. This isn't exactly part of my Orctober goals, but I wanted to join the ride so I said yes (maybe it will be a chance for me to revamp my painting desire). Grimbeorn said he didn't want to participate, but he'll be our judge. However, he asked if we could send him some info about this 90s style of painting. I was thinking about the info to send to him, but the fact is that I'm kinda nerdy when talking about the history of various Warhammer editions (I'm nerdy just about that, as you can imagine), and so I thought that my info for Grimbeorn could became a whole post.

And so, my dear Grimbeorn... this is for you!

Michele, Grimbeorn and I started playing Warhammer Fantasy in 2009, just a year before the 8th edition came out. We respectively started with Chaos (Warriors, then Demons), The Empire and Orcs & Goblins, but we were more focused on the gaming than the hobby aspect of the game (as we still are). We didn't know anything about previous editions and the main changes a lot of hobbyists in the Oldhammer community are familiar about, but we used the skirmish rules in the 6th edition rulebook a lot (Grimbeorn and I later managed to purchase a copy of that. I recently missed a golden chance to have it signed by Tuomas Pirinen himself... sigh...). The 90s were the real Oldhammer period, as the 6th edition came out in 2000 and it was more similar to the 7th and the 8th than the previous ones. Moreover, lots of miniatures still on sale during our first gaming and collecting years were from the 6th edition (I'm thinking about my Orc Warriors, the whole Bretonnian range, some Empire troops... just to mention).

One could easily made a research on the internet and find some 'Eavy Metal works from the 90s. But I thought about moving a step forward and refer only to the official books I have in physical copy or in PDF. I'm gonna choose, for my #sporktober challenge against Michele, an effective miniature from the 90s to paint following the steps found on these books, in a similar way in which the youtuber above chose to work (but she chose a more recent miniature, and I honestly don't love the final effect. Maybe an old painting style is more suitable for old miniatures, in my opinion).

I'll refer to some old issues published by Italian company DeAgostini in 2000, which introduced to the Warhammer world with lots of material: scenarios, painting guides, and various miniatures which you could collect issue per issue. I think they were an introduction to bring new players to the game before or during the launch of the 6th edition, and all the miniatures here are the "old" batch of miniatures from the 90s. I'll keep an eye on my 6th edition books: even more 2000ish than 90ish, obviously, and you can see that for example the Orc miniatures change a lot. However, I'll confront these two tutorials to keep track of the changes.

Orcs

This is a Black Orc painting tutorial from the issues of 2000. I have this miniature and this is one of the miniatures I'll have on my bench for the challenge

Same thing for this Orc Arrer Boy: this is the second miniature on my bench

This page is from the Orcs & Goblins Army Book for the 6th edition (2000). Even if from the same year as the issues, here all the miniatures are updated to the new feel that will remain the same for years (the Black Orcs were just adjourned in the Age of Sigmar range). The main core of my Greenskin army is made by this exact miniatures. For this challenge, I'll go with the older Orcs

Undead

This is the issue with the painting tutorial for a Skeleton Warrior (2000). Looking at the scythe here, I think this mini comes from the following sprue...

... from the (amazing) Undead Army Book of the 4th edition of Warhammer, 1994.

However, in the 5th edition Vampire Counts Army Book (1999), one year before the issues, you can already see the new Skeleton Warriors with the barbed spears...

... which you can find in the 6th edition Vampire Counts Army Book (2001). So, the issue apparently present an outdated Skeleton mini. Not a problem, obviously. However, I have a bunch of these Skeleton miniatures, while I haven't got the one from 4th edition and from the issue

Just for the sake of completeness, this are the new plastic Skeleton Warriors since the Vampire Counts Army Book for the 7th edition (2008). They went out of production recently at the time of Cursed City. I sadly haven't got any of them (even if I love this sculpts)

I'll talk about my progress in the next posts. I'll probably will try different miniatures and then choose one. The main problem is thats this old miniatures I have are pre-owned and so already painted from someone else. I'll have to unpaint them before start priming... or choose different miniatures (maybe my grey Orcs from the 2000s).

Is this enough for now, judge Grimbeorn?

How I imagine Grimbeorn getting ready for judging the challenge