A blast from the past: OGRE Miniatures

There was a lot of hoopla a couple weeks ago on The Miniatures Page, on THIS thread, and now THIS ONE.  It's about the announcement by Steve Jackson Games that they are working on a new version of OGRE, the 6th Edition, and this one is supposed to be "Deluxe", for about $100.  Personally, I define a "Deluxe" version of OGRE one that includes huge metal miniatures, but hey... that's just me.  At any rate, all the discussion inspired me to go in search of my old OGRE miniatures... I finally found them, and so lets wheel them out and show them off! And keep in mind, I painted these back in the 'old days', over 15 years gone, and the standard of painting was not quite so high back then!

North American Combine OGREs, Mk IV, Mk V, and a Mk III, and 2 GEVs.

I flirted briefly back in the early 1990's with getting into the OGRE Miniatures game.  I had just gone to work for Ral Partha at the time, and Partha was producing the OGRE range.  The figures were great -- I've always admired the stark, angular design of the OGRE Mk V.  I suspect if it were designed today it would look very different, as the trend these days has moved to overloading sci-fi with silly and pointless details.  The OGRE is simple, direct, and looks like something that is the size of a city block and could withstand a near-miss by a nuclear weapon!  Unfortunately, my OGRE kick was short-lived, as I could never convince my local gaming buddies to paint up their own forces.  The killer was when Partha ceased production of the OGRE Miniatures range around 1994, and no one could get the minis anymore.  By that time I had painted up 2 forces, a Pan-European armored tank battalion, and 3 Combine OGREs to take them on.  The tanks went into a case, and there they have been this whole time.
The OGRE's Mk III and V were painted up with WW2-style naval camo, which seemed appropriate for the huge tanks  I did those 2 first, and then I read the rulebook... it explains that the questionable tactical value of trying to hide a tank the size of a city block, on a battlefield where the typical engagement is an over-the-horizon affair.  So as a result of this,  OGREs often were painted with outlandish color schemes, the brighter and more obnoxious the better.  British "Dazzle" camo patterns would also have been cool!










And so we have the 'confederate' OGRE Mk IV, which was painted up for a cybertank re-enactment of the battle of Gettysburg that was planned with another of the Partha dudes, yet never happened.  (Disclaimer: please don't assume any sort of weird, 'south must rise again' mentality on my part.  It's just a toy tank with a goofy paint-scheme.)  Anyway, this tank was supposed to represent the forces of General Lee, we were going to do a tank with a Union flag go General Meade, but the other tank never got finished and so the battle never happened.  This particular Mk IV is actually quite a rare model.  It was sculpted by my pal Jeff Wilhelm, and was the last of the OGREs that Partha made.  Only a few were actually cast up, before the Partha/Steve Jackson relationship ended.Steve Jackson eventually released a new version of the Mk IV, but it was a very different sculpt, based on the Mk III.  Personally, I like the Partha sculpture lots better, but apparently Steve Jackson didn't, and the Mk IV was later redesigned.










Last, we have my Paneuropean armored battalion.  These were done with a conventional grey-green camo, which I repeated on the big Fencer cybertank.  Lots of people notice the little infantry stand with the go-cart.  This is supposed to be an Engineering Infantry unit, the go-cart was from the old Citadel "Battlecars" mini range from the 1980's.  I still have a few more of these, if anyone is desperate to get a couple for themselves.  :-)

Paneuropean battle force: Fencer & lots and lots of tanks!

I don't really have the heart to put these guys back in a box for another 20 years, so if there are any members of my Blog who would like to give them a good home, feel free to email me an offer.  This army easily includes over $200 in out-of-production miniatures and one very rare, unreleased OGRE Mk IV, and all are painted to a very respectable standard.  Only serious offers, please!  I can be contacted at Crocodile Games.  If I don't find a worthy home for them, I'll be unleashing them onto ebay in a couple weeks.

UPDATED MARCH 27:  I just posted these all on ebay, anyone who is interested can see them there:

EBAY LINK: Mk 4
EBAY LINK: COMBINE OGRES Mk 3 & 5
EBAY LINK: PANEUROPEAN ARMY