Dark Alliance 1/72 Plastic Orc Warg Riders

These figures are billed as 1/72 scale figures, plastic, at a cost, delivered, of $1.21 per Orc/Warg mount figure.  Check out the photo's, and scans, below.  The figures are, in reality, around 22mm, sole of foot to top of head, in a seated position, not 20mm-23mm tall, as most 1/72 scale figures generally are.  They are cast in plastic, injection molded, and they have a surprising amount of detail in them.  They were also very cleanly cast, easy to cut off of the sprue, requiring very little cleaning up of flash.

Heavy Warg Orc set.

Light Warg Orc set.

Box art on the front:  used on both boxed sets, only the background is blue, on the Set 1 box.

The box art is rather nice!  It is actually a watercolor painting, which is an uncommon media.  Most artists work in anything but watercolor -- it is more subtle in colors, absolutely unforgiving, as all colors are nearly transparent, so no "do-over's" allowed.  Take a closer look at it, if interested.  It is really well done.  I wish it were available as a poster, without the text overlays...

Scan of the Light Warg Orc box back, showing all figures included within.

Scan of the Heavy Warg Orc box back, showing all figures included within.

Scan of actual figures, with a ruler showing centimeters, for size.

You can see some of the details molded into these plastic figures -- quite a bit of detail, actually!  (The photo, above, is 600 DPI.  Click on it for a larger view.)  These are surprisingly good figures, for the amazing price, as discussed previously:  $7.83 per set + $11.06 S/H (Air Mail, Ukraine to USA, for two sets) -- which works out to $1.21 per Warg+Rider figure.  One thing to note, in the photo above:  one of the Wargs is sporting an arrow protruding from its neck -- it has been shot, but it continues to fight (Or route?...  Screaming?).

Both Sets #1 and #2 use the same Warg molds, so you will receive two each, of six different Warg poses, and 12 different Orc rider poses, in each set.  The scans of the back of the boxes, above, show exactly what you will receive in each Set.

I will be painting these figures directly onto the plastic, without primer:  I plan on using the plastic's color as a base for the Wargs, with paint used to vary their color, attempting to model them somewhat on the box artwork.  The Dip (MinWax Polyshades urethane-stain) will darken the plastic's color, as well as bringing out the molded details.  I've done this for years, with plastic Army Men figures, painting those parts which vary from the color of the plastic, with great success.  As long as they look decent at arm's length, I will be happy.  They will prove to be very useful for my Orc armies, which until now, have not had any cavalry!  This should make them more interesting, and versatile, to play in my BattleSystem games.

I ordered these figures from a company (Scale-Model-Kits) out of Ukraine!  They shipped by air mail, to Minnesota, a State in the middle of the USA, arriving 10 days after I paid for them with PayPal.  They proved to be such a good deal, and of high enough quality, that I ordered a second set, bringing my Orc Warg Cavalry to a total of 48 figures, two boxes of Set #1, and two boxes of Set #2.  Now the Orc army will be much better able to fight, with infantry, archers (still limited to Short Bows only...), and Cavalry -- Warg Cavalry.  If you can accept their sizes, they are an amazingly inexpensive way to bulk up your Orc hordes for battle!  Compare these prices to metal, or resin, and I think you will see what a bargain these figures really are.  Cheers!

08-17-2014 Update:  Some painted Armored Wargs, and a new basing technique to share...

I have managed to paint the Armored Warg mounts for these sets.  Here are some photo's to show them, as well as a new basing technique I am using.  First some enticing eye candy, then an explanation of the technique:

Finished Armored Wargs for the leader figures, showing a new basing technique.

The new basing technique is super-simple, super-easy, and super-fast.  I applied Clear PVA Glue (Elmer's Clear School Glue -- dries to a clear glossy finish), brushed it around the entire base, to cover it evenly, then I dunked the base in a bowl containing a mixture of lime green, fine-grained sand, coarse tan-colored sand, as well as an even coarser sand, which looks like 1-foot sized rocks in this scale.  All three types of sand were purchased at Michael's Hobby Store.  Yes, I could have used sand I gathered off the grounds of a park, for free, but these sands were already colored, so all I needed to do, was apply them.  No painting required!  I like that.  I really like that...

For the sand mixture, I used mostly the lime green fine-grained sand (90%), a small amount of the coarse grained, tan-colored sand (5%), and a small amount of the larger, more coarse sand, which is more like finely crushed brown rock (5%).  I just swirl the mixture in a disposable plastic container [the type sandwich meat comes in, which I normally wash and use as a cheap alternative to Tupperware(R)].  The hardest part about this basing technique, is waiting for it to dry.

Here are a couple of additional photo's of the finished Armored Warg mounts, from different angles.  Hope this inspires you to craft your own armies, no matter the race, or type.  Cheers!

Frontal view -- the riders are not done yet, but they will be soon -- I hope!

Another side view, clearly showing the improvement from simple green paint on the base, compared to painting it with Clear PVA Glue, and dunking it in the mixed sand.  There is definitely an improvement which is worth the small effort.

Update, 7/30/2023:  All of the Warg Riders have been painted, based, and are ready for the tabletop.:

The Riders were attached to their mounts using E6000 Glue (solvent based, solvent evaporates hardening the glue into a rubber-like compound).  I wrapped some blue Painter's Tape around two figures which refused to sit flush in their saddles; the other 14 figures, in this particular lot, all sat deeply into their saddles without assistance.  I wrapped the blue tape around the rider and his mount, wrapping the whole with it.  I let them cure for several hours, before removing the tape:  they are now fully seated in their saddles, and ready for battle.

These figures are all injection molded.  Note, in the first photos, above, how well sculpted they are, with nice details.  The fact that the super-majority of the cast riders sank into their saddles without coercion, speaks volumes as to the sculpting and molding quality.  These are surprisingly good figures for their scale, size, and price.  Five star rating from me!  Cheers!