The cave goblins are among the smallest of their kind. Living underground in almost perpetual darkness, with little to eat but mushrooms and the occasional insect or unfortunate comrade, they tend to be small, scrawny and undernourished. In isolation, they are rarely a danger, but in numbers they can be dangerous foe. When forced to the surface by their bigger kindred, they huddle in packs, preferring spears or bows, in order to attack their enemy at range - then run away and hide if the boss is not around to stop them.
When I first started collecting the goblins, my eye was on the standard goblins released in the early 1990's, which was when I started playing Warhammer. When I saw these night goblins on a forum sale, they were not my first choice, but I didn't want to look the gift horse in the mouth so I snapped them up despite my dislike of duplicate poses. These are mainly night goblins from around 1992, with the two slightly bigger models being common goblins from the same era. The shields are a selection of spare bits from various sources.
They have been really pesky little things, painting them has been difficult. I knew I did not want them in black robes with green skin in the traditional manner - it's been done by so many others. I also knew I wanted to have some variation in the skin tones, hoping that this might detract from the identical poses. My main inspiration was to paint the hoods red, after reading about the redcap from folk tales. After many stops and starts, I finally got them to this stage. The shields are mostly painted in leather hide shades, which helps to tie them together but without being too uniform.
In game terms, they are destined to play as levy troops in Saga (twelve per unit), or as light infantry in Rampant (twelve per unit), or in games of Erewhon (up to ten per unit). I expect them to cause very little damage to the enemy and then run away, any better performance than that is a real bonus.
I have the next goblin unit assembled and ready to be primed. This time, I have a much clearer idea on a palette and should blast through them quickly. So the next batch should come bounding (maybe lumbering) into view much quicker.
7 comments:
Wow, what a great paint job. Just perfect. I particularly like the tone of the leather(?) on the shields. This is really something!
Cheers
Great job indeed!
Love these models! I have a horde of them waiting for when I have time to get them based up and painted.
Particularly, your bases look kinda sweet! What is the base itself made from?
I've seen fender washers and other bits and bobs from the olden days used so I am curious as to what you've used here.
Thanks Fogey!
As always, sublime painting - they don’t even look like GW minis. Like something from when I were a lad in the 80s and ‘Eavy Metal showcased lots of different styles.
Thanks guys. The bases are UK coins, which are usefully magnetic. Covered with a few stones and a mix of fine sand and tile grout.
The leather shields was a last minute idea, it was a kind of homage to the original painting scheme in WD, which used lots of orange and yellow, I just toned it down to a more natural appearance.
I just love these old GW goblin sculpts, so much character!
These are wonderful, almost like something from marginalia - especially how you have accented their cheeky faces. Can I ask how you painted the skin, it's such a lovely colour
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