Oldhammer Orcs!

Oh dear! Just as I thought I'd broken the spell of Games Workshop's toy-magic (under which I've been held in thrall for over 25 years) it seems that I've suffered a major relapse. And that relapse is called Oldhammer! Capturing everything I enjoy about the hobby (collecting, nostalgia, painting, and perhaps even playing for fun with a ruleset I'll enjoy) the world of Oldhammer caught me off-guard and has reeled me right back in to the GW hobby... Curses!

Having stumbled across various blogs and the Oldhammer Forum I quickly gave way and it didn't take me long to settle on the idea of collecting a Marauder Orc army. This image is to blame:

Sculpted by Trish and Ally Morrison and released in 1991 I think these models are just fine. And an admission, I once had (and binned I think) the Marauder Chaos Army so collecting this is perhaps a kind of therapy. My plan, because I know things will get out of hand, is to try to limit myself to a pocket-money budget of £20 a month and to try to paint as I go along.

Things have already gone a bit wrong as I'm already buying stuff (Feb and March budgets already spent) but painting can't begin until I clear the Flames of War stuff from the paint station. On there at the moment there's a 1200 point German Grenadier army which means infantry - lots and lots of them - so realistically I'll be painting by early April. So for now, it's shopping and daydreaming. Here's where I'm up to so far.

February

£18 of February's budget went on this lot (the little that remained went to the Oldhammer forum fund):

A great deal offered by an Oldhammer forum member which gives me the Rock Lobber, a Goblin Shaman, and a fanatic. Not the most obvious start to the Great Waaagh! but I figure the Boss of the stone thrower looks like he could head up a unit. Or perhaps it's the little shaman who is drawing the tribes together...

March 

The second month saw me win two auctions. This one for £11.50:

And this one for £8.83:

Too many duplicates there for my liking but it's a decent start to the first unit.

Books don't count. Right?

Alongside the toys I decided that I might just need something to read. And books can't count can they? Mum always used to pay for books...

I picked this up first for about £4 posted. Apart from the fact that it's got a colour page missing which sort of spoils my delight in it) it is a brilliant read with a fabulous battle report between Jervis Johnson and William King and some lovely 5th edition painting (later than the vintage I'm after but still very nice). Basically this is like a classic issue of White Dwarf and well worth picking up in my opinion.

Then I bought the Third edition rules for £15. This is the set I most remember playing (I had second ed but that I didn't use much). It's in the post now and I'm looking forward to getting it. Hopefully it'll be intact and mildew free. I'll need Warhammer Armies at some point but that can wait for now.

That's all for now. I'd best get back to painting Flames of War before I lose momentum! Thankfully I've got a game lined up for Friday so there's plenty of reason to keep me painting tiny gaiters...