Grinning Skull Miniatures release: The Oggborg

Another week, another Grinning Skull release over at Alternative Armies! This time we’ve got the oggborg and oggbot, enhanced cybered up oggum war vets.

 Oggborgs (also known as Cybogs) are battle worn veterans of serious conflict. When an Oggum trooper survives greivous injury, they are sometimes fixed and augmented with crude cybernetic technology of Oggum design.
Although this surgery is mostly voluntary, it’s usually forced upon the wounded by their warlord’s unwillingness to let their favourite lackeys from leaving his retinue.
Once an Oggum undergoes such an experiment, most will experience severe psycological changes, even possibly suffering partial or full lobotomisation in the process. Usually these subjects are then reprogrammed soley for battle, wiping out their previous personality for good.
An Ogbot is such an oggborg who has undergone so much cybernetic enhancement that all remenants of their previous life has gone, and are now little more than a machine with a few organic parts, but it is not uncommon for ogbots to have full concious thought if a fresh undamaged brain was first transplanted into a suitable host machine.
Still, not all conversions serve so willingly, and many will resist against control software to enjoy a semi normal existence. Those who have become so mentally damaged may reject everything and turn to the life of a wanderer and all the trappings of freedom. These might find the employ of other warlords, pirates and mercenaries or other groups of outcasts, so an oggborg may be found anywhere in alliance with anyone.
This technology is widely used by most factions, such as the Santyr cult of the Iron legion, or the mighty Og-mech of the golden Imperialists. Even the Okvan scholars and scientists create their brainwashed minions using this tech. The Scrofa tend to shun such things as is not natural, but even oggborg renegades and converts can be found in their number.
Even with the erratic malfunctions and glitches inherent in oggum technology, these grizzled warriors are legendry in combat, and should be engaged in battle with great caution.

These little bleeders are fun minis, I’m sure there’s plenty of games they’ll fit into, if not just oggum! These figures are available now from Alternative Armies, as is the rest of the Grinning Skull Miniature range, along with this months other new releases, like the Kize and the Oggra!

Related articles

• Oggborg Squad released by Grinning Skull
• KC1 Coblynau Lesser Goblins Released!
• DH12 Dwarf Knight on Pig at Alternative Armies
• Oggum Oggra released by Grinning Skull
• DH7 Dwarf Cavern Fighters at Alternative Armies

Terrain Workshop: The Oggum settlement (part 1)

Well, it’s been a while in the making, but here is a mostly done terrain set up specially for my Grinning Skull Oggum (oggam) figures. I’ve been meaning to take some pictures for ages, but haven’t got round to it until now. My inside lighting is rather poor, so I try to take advantage of the brighter light outside. The trouble is, after taking time to gather the separate pieces from their storage areas, set them up on my outdoor table and get in the zone for a bit of photography, what do you think happens?

Yes, it starts to pour down with rain! Just my luck.

Still, I did manage to get a few pictures with some bits in situ (I do have a variety of set pieces but not all at hand) I just knew I shouldn’t have started planting those conifers earlier and got some shots done back when the weather was a little sunnier!

What I will do is (tomorrow if its dry) I’ll start again with the lot and get some better shots, with more dynamism (that being with more oggam for scale) and better close ups too, until then these will have to do.

I’ll be back later with some better pics, and with a bonus for you miniature gamers (a free oggum hut PDF paper model)!

Related articles

• Grinning Skull Miniatures: My growing Oggam warhosts…
• [The Grinning Skull] New Mugal Concept art for Oggam forces!
• So, what’s what in the new Grinning Skull range? (Part 2)
• Grinning Skull Miniatures Released Today!!
• Deadzone – Bar Terrain Finished!

Grinning Skull Miniatures: FAQ Session

I get asked a lot of questions about the Grinning Skull range, and with that in mind, I’d like to clear up a few points that have been addressed to me on the web and in person. Of course this is just a cross cut of some of the more frequent ones I have been asked, so I thought I’d have a go at posting them up here, so if you would like to ask anything regarding the range, forward your queries to the usual address and I’ll try and answer them!

Is it just Sci-fi that will be in the range?

No, there will be other stuff eventually, fantasy, pulp, zombies/post apoc will feature too. The current emphasis is on the Oggam and the other stuff that inhabits the same universe (See Carnage Continuum)

What’s with all the anthropomorphism?

This gets asked a lot. Why not? I don’t see why some object to creatures/aliens or whatever just being anthropomorphised versions of various animals. Hell, I’d even go for doing some munch bunch inspired scifi fruit and veg just because it’s funny and I could! While I realise it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I know there’s lots of folks who like it too. The oggam grew quite naturally from the ideas from the fluff, so a natural progression was the baahl (Sheep/goatmen) Mugal (Bull/cow/minotaurs) Chukk (chickens etc) If you take a bit of time to read the background, these creatures were formed from supersized agricultural stock, so I had to fit the farmyard in there! Plus I wanted to provide some beastmen proxies for players too. The Draxx were another race based around the proxy idea, to add to lots of the other options for a scifi lizard/draconic army. Will there be other hybrid animal humans in the range? Yes probably, and I’ll apologise beforehand if the idea offends!

Are you going to expand some of your alien races with more options/poses?

Yes, I have ideas for the Pliiim, Kize, Volpurgi, Draxx and other races (some that haven’t made an appearance yet) I’d like to think that when I’m finished, you could make a serviceable fighting force of any race in the range. I’d like to think that eventually there will even be specific vehicles and support weapons, but that might be a fair bit off just yet!

So what have you got planned for the future?

Loads of new ideas that add more to the entire oggam background, and expand the Carnage Continuum background with additional races, fighting forces and off the wall craziness. Charcodonians, Rafinx and Errg to name but a few, but there are a ton more ideas I’d like to develop over time. With the popularity of the Northampton Clown, I just might make a mini of him to add to the killer clowns I’ve done! I don’t think I could run out of ideas anytime soon!!

What are you working on at the moment?

Finishing off a few, a Scrofa Hoggit gang set, League of Anthracks Tor fire warriors (Firrog), Volpurgi troopers, and a few odds and sods. The main focus at present is the Kize, my take on the invasive consuming alien in popular scifi (like tyranids/alien/bio gribblies) I have the first set almost done (general kize warriors) so that will take the available Kize sculpts up to 5 different poses, in addition a set of Kirzor kize has begun (Kirzor are kize with praying mantis blade hands) and a Sluketh bio transport. There’s a few more Kize types planned.

What about vehicle support for the Oggam factions?

I’m still in the planning mode for these, but it will be the bikers and cavalry types that will be done before anything more beefy. I’d like to create an Og-mech as well, but this is pretty far off as we speak as I’m concentrating on infantry mostly at the moment.

What is the Carnage Continuum?

This is my background universe in which the Oggam, Kize, Draxx etc reside. Think of it as an outrageous tongue in cheek cartoony war filled mash up of all sorts. It’s based upon an old RPG setting I created for ICE’s SPACEMASTER game we used to play many moons ago.

Will there ever be 28mm Oggam?

For sure, I’d like to do a multipart oggam soldier, with a set of different heads and weapon options. It might take me a while to get done, since the size of an Oggam in 28mm is around the size of an ogre. I’m not used to bigger sizes so it takes longer compared to 15mm to do as you can imagine, but I’m up for the challenge. Hopefully when it’s done, someone will pic it up and cast it and make it available for purchase (Might even go for KS if there’s enough interest) Time will tell!!

If you have anything to ask about the Grinning skull range, please contact me and I’ll try and answer it best I can!! If you’d like to get hold of some Grinning Skull miniature goodness, check out http://15mm.co.uk/Grinning_Skull_Miniatures.htm

Ciao!

Related articles

• [The Grinning Skull] Grinning Skull Miniatures: Greens, greens everywhere etc, etc..
• Grinning Skull Miniatures: My growing Oggam warhosts…
• [The Grinning Skull] Miniature Bids launched! Free auction site for wargames miniatures and games
• [The Grinning Skull] We all float down here: Tales of Northampton’s creepy clown!
• [The Grinning Skull] 15mm musings: 10 Scooby doo monsters that should be 15mm miniatures!

Weird Science: Chimp + Pig = Human?

Totally bizarre news here, it would seem that some scientists would like us to believe that humans are the result of a wild pig breeding with a chimpanzee at some point of our history. Even so this might sound a little far fetched, it would explain why cannibal tribes describe human flesh as long pig (well, those who say it tastes of chicken might disagree…)

As much as the so called evidence can provide, I thought this was interesting, something I might like to include in the background fluff of my Oggam backstory as a bit of fun, well maybe, seeing as though this is all so far fetched!

With the crazy scientists at one end and their oddball theories, to the wacky creationists and their funny stories, I think it’s best to wait for some real evidence of our origins to turn up, either way I’m not going to loose too much sleep over it!

Anyway, heres the link to the info, so you can see for yourselves, and you can make your own mind up if we’re not just monkey’s cousins, but now we’re to include pigs in our family tree….

A chimp-pig hybrid origin for humans?.

Related articles

• Cryptozoology – Chimp + pig = pimp
• A chimp-pig hybrid origin for humans?
• Human hybrids: a closer look at the theory and evidence
• Something Complicated and Something Awesome
• PG Tips chimp dies aged 37

So, what’s what in the new Grinning Skull range? (Part 2)

Ok, part two in the guide to the latest Grinning Skull releases at 15mm.co.uk!

GRN13: League of Anthracks Fire warrior.

The Fire warriors of the moon of Tor are total fanatics, hence the tall pointed cultist attire. They carry a burner with attatched gas tanks and proceed with the LOA troops to provide flamer support. Smoky bacon anyone? On my list is an entire set or two of the Tor fire worshipping heathens. They look too cool in the pointy helm, that’s they problem with em’!

GRN14:  Light infantry heavy weapons Bazooka.

Ground troops need a bit of help against heavily armored foes, so here with that bit of extra firepower is the light infantry bazooka heavy. There will be more heavy weapons in the future, with maybe a set of heavies for each side, just depends if folks want them (If they do, I’ll do it!)

GRN15: Light Infantry Hero.

I love this oggam, he certainly to me is perfect for that dashing Og type that would swoop in and save the day (or ruin it if you use him as a baddie) but he’s got a great face! I’d like a unit of these as special ops empire troops, but I can imagine tons of use for him in all sorts of games.

GRN16: Light Infantry Trooper #3.

This was the very first Oggam I sculpted, and he’s pretty good if I can say that. He’s definitely a rank and file bod, with his imperial crest and pack, he’s very cute! Since doing this one, the facial style of the oggam have changed much, I still like it’s more cutesy look. Wait till you see some of the Blander assitants, they are even cuter!

GRN17: Oggam Light Infantry Demolitions.

Right from the start, I knew that I wanted to provide people with lots of personalisation with the Oggam, so when creating an Oggam force of any kind, folks would really have a good choice in making a warband personal. That’s why there will always be more and more expansions with other oggam types. Here’s the demolitions expert, ready to plant his explosives, and run away!!

GRN18: Light Infantry Officer.

Every unit needs some direction, so here’s some in the form of this big bruiser! With little or no work he’d easily fit in the LOA or Uggaram (or Scrofa for that matter) He’s a stern looking Og, and fits the idea that the biggest and most corpulent Oggam tend to dominate in Oggam society. (What is termed as Oggra by other oggam)

GRN19: Oggam Light infantry trooper#4.

You’ll notice there’s a few ferals in the mix with the Light infantry lot, I thought this would be best, since I didn’t want all the oggam to be total carbon copies of the standard snorts. There too is a certain feel of revolutionary about him, but I really like how he’s turned out (they look good as rank and file troopers too, so jobs a good un’!)

GRN20: Oggam Light Infantry Medic.

Even the Oggam need a bit of medical care, even so it might be a bit haphazard and involve unwanted amputations or surgery in the field! Again diversity in troop types is what I wanted to achieve so I created him. I do have some more medical staff and scientists planned, but I have others to get done before these will see the light of day. I have a picture in my book of an oggam surgeon with a huge anesthetic hypodermic needle that needs to be made!

GRN21: League of Anthracks Battle Brother #2.

This Battle brother is equipped in partial armor and respirator of the Okvan factory designs, they are made with blending in the Okvan storm trooper and plain brothers (as another Okvan type or just well equipped city state troops) The LOA use a lot of toxic attacks so even those who peddle the black pig of death’s wares need a bit of protection!

GRN22: Oggam Light infantry Comms.

Every command unit needs a comms guy, so here’s what we have. He’s big, but he needs to be when he’s carrying around a load of bulky radio equipment!

GRN23: Light Infantry Trooper #4.

This is the last of bog standard troopers, this one being the assault trooper, armed with both handgun and sword. I think I’ll need to do a few more generic trooper types, maybe armed with an axe, two pistols, blunderbuss etc. Let me know if you want to suggest something!!

GRN24: League of Anthracks Battle Brother #3.

This is just the basic robed brother. Fodder for the Black pig of death me thinks! I have a unit of these brethren ready to be painted and I do think he’s the part. As with everything it seems, I do want some other variants of the brothers, so they too will be on the cards for the future. One can never have enough types of Oggam!

So there you have it, a run down of all the first releases in the Grinning Skull range, please let me know if you have any questions or comments about the range, the Oggam or anything else that you want to put to me.

All hail the black Pig!!

Related articles

• So, what’s what in the new Grinning Skull range? (Part 1)
• Grinning Skull Miniatures Released Today!!
• Grinning Skull Reviews: Triples 2013 photos!
• Crowdfunding Spotlight: Fun-Gi’s to be with: Myconids from Gloom Glade on Indiegogo
• The disturbing world of Thimo Graef on Indiegogo