Made a start on my Deadzone models from Mantic. I liked the look of the Marauder faction made up of Orcs Orks Orx. They have the feel of the old Games Workshop Orks from the 90s, a kinda WWII vibe.

First issue was the damn mould lines and the fact they are cast in restic so that was a bigger hassle than it needed to be. Secondly they are multi-part, so I left the arms off and painted them separate, which solves one problem but gives you another in terms of extra fiddle. I went for a classic orcish colour scheme of black & red, they ended up with more red than I intended but it’s OK. The paint job on the two troopers is quite rough in places, don’t think the washes on the arms worked at all. The number of pouches and straps and “bits” they have is stupid, especially for warlike & primitive race like orcs. The commander came out better, I didn’t use a wash on the flesh, just highlighted it up in 3~4 stages from a dark green and was pleased how the medals and other details on his jacket turned out.

For the bases I gave my new Basius pads a try, which I got from a Kickstarter. These are effectively moulds for you to press your own 3D textured base from green-stuff putty. I can’t say I’m impressed, they are very difficult to use and getting a clean edge where the putty ends is nearly impossible. Maybe I was expecting too much but I think a scratch built base would look a lot better. Anyhow that’s almost a quarter of the starting Marauder faction done