Cave trolls

Deep in the darkest, dankest caverns and caves, they live. Their eyes are almost useless after decades of darkness, their skin has almost calcified in the constant drip of minerals and lava sediments, their wiry bodies gangly and tough as old leather. They exist on the blind fish and crustacae that cling on to existence  in the cold, clammy pools of their subterranean homes. If a goblin or giant spider strays into their realm, it will provide them with food for a month.

And yet, the goblins do make their way into these perilous corners of their realm. The cave trolls are lumbering, almost blind and very dangerous, but this makes them ideal conscripts for the goblin armies. Prodded and goaded, they are pushed into the teeth of their enemies, blunting their defence, weakening their resolve, and possibly soiling their trousers…

It’s been a while since I posted, simply because I almost never paint minis now. However, I did recently feel the nostalgia and dug out these old stone trolls. From around 1992 when I first started Warhammer, though at the time I could not afford too many metals and my limited funds went toward my elves. Fast forward a couple of decades, I have been slowly scraping together a collection from that era. 

I have learnt more about painting, colours, ambience, etc since making the switch to canvas. And so these figures are slightly different stylistically than my other miniatures, though it’s subtle and maybe not that apparent on screen. Anyway, there’s a lot of basic dry brushing and glazing and not much else to be honest. In colour terms, the grey of stone and a pale flesh colour, with a cool red on the main facial features, to represent the effects of daylight on their light sensitive skin.

A little history lesson. The trolls were originally released as single piece models, these three in fact. Later they were released as two pieces (a separate head), presumably to allow variety for those building really big units? I prefer the single piece models, but I am happy to include a spare. 

As I said, I have been away from the world of minis for the past few years and, well, it sure has changed. So much more choice around, it’s quite mind boggling. I have been sorting through my collection, and hopefully I can get back into the hobby on a reduced scale. I have a small unit of orcs to paint next, see how that goes. It would be nice to build a force of orcs and goblins to take on my dwarfs…….

Hobgrot Slitta Conversions

It’s summer time, so there’s a new Warhammer box set in town. I thought that the new hobgrot slittas looked promising as conversion fodder, so I grabbed a set of ten from eBay. I wasn’t sure on the size, from the pictures online they looked bigger, but they are a perfect match for my Lord of the Rings collection. 

Here’s a picture of a converted hobgrot alongside a Mordor orc and a Morannon orc. As you can see they are a perfect match to the Morannon figure, or could easily be played as a Mordor orc. Or you could paint them in dark armour and use them as black orcs. I would think you could easily fit them into a Uruk hai tribe too. Good news if you are looking for some variety to your collection.

The conversions were relatively easy. I used plastic bits from the oathmark goblins set, with a few random historical plastic shields too, probably viking  in origin. You could swap with Lord of the Rings bits too I would guess. On the hobgrots, I trimmed away a lot of the extra bits, especially the ropes dangling from their armour, and I removed as many of the “grenades” as was easy to do, though I did keep one as a club. 

There were a fair few options available on the hobgrot figures. They are obviously a new incarnation of the old hobgoblin figures, and there are options to give them all helmets or keep them bare headed. The latter, in conjunction with the two dagger options, would give you a reasonable version of the old hobgoblin sneaky gits.

I originally bought the figures thinking they would make a good addition to my Warhammer goblins force, and I might still do this. But seeing them next to the LotR figures has given me a dilemma. One to ponder for a couple of months, as the annual summer hobby hibernation begins.

Orctober

Waaaaargh it's Orctober. That time of year when we all rush off and paint some greenskins. Or in my case, manage just one greenskin. Oh well, maybe next year I will get through that horde I always have in mind. The orc is an old Citadel figure, while the goblin is more recent, from Avatars of War. The orc I painted this month, the goblin was already painted I just rebased it and added a little bit more tone to the skin. Both these models will no doubt be having intense discussions over which will lead da boyz, that's sure to end amicably.

The orc boss is from around 1992/3, from my collection of Middlehammer greenskins. What a classic from the era this figure is. I tried to paint it in a similar style to that of the old days, but without straying too far from my own. I started with orange* armour, green skin of course, and worked outward from there. I was lucky enough to find a stash of old plastic shields with some greenskin iconography and used it to reinforce the orange thing. Most of the palette came naturally, just the knee pads and belt buckle caused me a little headache - they started base steel, then were yellow, finally red - definitely not go fasta red then.

*the most Warhammer colour in the world 

Goblin Boss

This is a very old figure I painted for my brother as a birthday gift, so many years ago I cannot remember when it was. It was one of a small range of metal hero figures, which have become quite collectible in recent times. They just don't make them like this now, which is a shame.

I painted it for display and so mounted it on a scenic base. I think if I was painting it today I would put some more colour on the base, those mushrooms would look good in spotty red or glowing green. Other than that, I think the paint job stands up well (metals aside).

Happy birthday little brother, sorry I didn't paint a new one for this year.

Goblin sketch

For the past couple of months I have been practising sketching, not quite every day, but fairly frequently. I have tried a number of mediums, but I am gravitating to simple pencil work, inked, or maybe using markers. At the moment I am simply copying/simplifying other artists' work, it's the easiest way to learn technique.

This is a sketch of a goblin I am pretty pleased with. It's a goblin to me at any rate, when I found out the source it may be that it's some other creature. The original was an illustration by Alan Langford from Ian Livingstone's Island of the Lizard King, a fighting fantasy book published in 1984 (thanks to Joe Kelly on the Middlehammer facebook page for this info). I have included the original below for reference, hopefully this does not breach any copyright. My version is simpler and not as polished, but I like it and wanted to show it off! I find sketching is a nice way to wind down in the evening, and results come much quicker than painting miniatures.

More goblins (of the more traditional sculpted and painted variety) to come soon, I seem to be a little bit obsessed with the creatures at the moment. Here's the original sketch I mentioned.

More goblin archers

Two more goblin archers added to the warband. Easing myself back into the painting habit, I found that taking a month off I had lost that familiarity with painting that regular practise brings. So I was a little tentative adding colours to these figures. Still, in the end, they turned out fine and it's good to get off the mark.

These are plastic night goblins by GW, from the now defunct night goblin boxset. They can be assembled in a number of ways and I chose to take advantage of the less common loading poses. I gave them red hoods to fit in with the theme of my warband, then added some checks for a little extra practise.

There's eight archers now, which is a decent size for a unit in most skirmish games. Looking at them in this group photo, I am not sure they fit well, even though I am a fan of diversity in my collection. I will add more eventually, probably at least another four of the plastic night goblins to make two units of six shooters which covers all the games I play. For the time being, they can be used in games of Erewhon, taking potshots at dwarfs no doubt.

The Lost Troll

A couple of years ago I started collecting minis from 1992, the year I started playing Warhammer. It was a full blown nostalgia trip, initially sparked by my finding a pile of old White Dwarfs in the attic. I started with orcs and goblins, but added a few trolls as time went by. Then I decided I really wanted the three original one-piece trolls. It's taken some time, but finally the day has arrived. The last troll has been found. He's the one that is not yet based or primed. The fourth troll, holding up the large rock at the rear, is a two piece model - the head is separate and I think it shows.

The strange thing about this tale was that it transpired I had owned the last troll many years ago. I had painted it and given it to my brother as a gift, then forgotten about it. When I posted on my facebook page that I was searching for this figure, my niece messaged to say he was in her dad's cabinet!

Here's a photo as they would have appeared in White Dwarf all those years ago, in the catalogue section at the back of the magazine. This was long, long before online images were available.

It's unlikely they will get painted any time soon, though the excitement of finally having the trio might spur me on. In the meantime, here's a couple of pictures I have been pondering as potential palettes. The traditional blue just does not work for me.

Goblin archers

Goblins come in all shapes and sizes. Most are small creatures, but some survive the rigours of life to grow a little taller. Often the tallest are those that can keep themselves out of harm's way when a boss takes them into battle. These most cunning of goblins have realised that using a bow from afar is a much easier to way survive. Being bigger than most of their comrades, they find it easier to push the little runts into combat while they shoot (and snigger) from the rear.

A unit of archers join the warband. These are a mix of figures, the taller ones are GW from the 1980s. Strictly speaking they are orc archers, but I am taking a Tolkienesque view - orcs are just big goblins. The two shorter goblins came as part of a warband sold on a facebook group, I believe they were originally part of  the Hasslefree range. Despite the difference in aesthetic, I think all these were sculpted by Kev Adams, though I am no expert on this matter.

I bought the orcs on a whim, mostly because I liked the two long snouted figures, the squat faced a bit less so. Painting them was as I expected, the details and castings are quite crude and make painting more difficult. The two smaller figures were fine, though one has a fairly noticeable casting flaw in the quiver. Despite their shortcomings, they add a certain character to the warband.

The Erehwon warband is shaping up quite nicely now. There are two melee units, this missile unit and a couple of special units (the squigs), plus a shaman and his bodyguard. That's just about enough for a small skirmish. More are waiting to be painted, though I am starting to feel drawn to other subjects.

Goblins In Progress

Almost to the end of the month, and there has been very little progress made on the goblins project, or anything else for that matter. I am struggling to get motivated for painting at the moment, I am not quite sure what the blockage is. I had set myself a target of a unit per month, which I did achieve for the first two months but am struggling to complete this month. Obviously this is just a hobby and deadlines are not urgent or important, but they do help to keep things ticking along.

Just looking at the figures in the bare metal state makes me quite happy, these are nice sculpts with a certain appeal, definitely of a different era. The trolls were released around 1992 and were sculpted by Michael Perry. The orcs are even older, 1985 on the tabs, while the two goblins are old Hasslefree sculpts I think. My aim is to paint the archers first, then the trolls, though I will probably start them all off together and maybe switch between the two sets when the going gets tough. Sometimes hopping from one to another like this can keep the motivation going. We shall see.

Squigs

Of all the many creatures living in the hidden and dark places of Nordverden, these beasts are the strangest. Practically blind, they rely on sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell to detect their prey, then simply gobble them up in one bite. The goblins learned long ago that these creatures and their ravenous appetite are to be avoided at all cost. Incredibly, a few crazy goblins actively seek them out, having discovered that the beasts' sensitive hearing makes them afraid of loud noises, they use makeshift instruments that gives them some rudimentary control. Such herders and their bizarre flock are highly prized by goblin generals for the destruction they can wreak on a battlefield. The fact that a handful of goblins may be eaten along the way is a price well worth paying. 

These are, of course, night goblin squigs and herders - at least that's what they were called in the days of Warhammer. The new(ish) plastic kits are very much in the tradition of the older metal figures. When they were released a couple of years ago, it was like travelling back to the early 90s. So while my goblin warband is predominantly metal, I am happy to include these newer plastics, which seem more Middlehammer to me than the original metals they were based on, if that makes sense.

On the painting, I knew I did not want the traditional orange, instead I went for the exact opposite with a bright blue skin. I started them with a neutral buff colour for their under bellies, then stippled on green and then blue. Then I dotted on random stripes and lines in various inks (blue, red, purple) before finally glazing with a very diluted blue/purple mix. The end result is a very vibrant blue green effect, which contrasts really well with the lips and gums. The beady little eyes were really easy to do - over a grey base I added a spot of black mixed with a gloss varnish. I am really happy with the way they turned out.

The herders are both playing makeshift musical instruments. The kit includes two options, one musician and one prodder. I hacked the latter body so I could use both sets of music makers. They need to make lots of noise to keep those hungry beasts on the move, a proddy stick just isn't going to have the same effect!

In game terms, there are stats for Gobble Dogs in the goblin warband which are uncannily close to the original squig herds. Funny that. In Dragon Rampant I could probably nominate them as berserk troops. I am unsure how they would be played in Saga, not sure they would fit into that game. If anybody has any ideas, let me know in the comments please.

Cave Goblins

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.

Goblins WIP

Things have been moving slowly on the hobby front, and will not speed up much for at least another week, so I have just a WIP to show for the time being. I have around twenty of these old goblin spear figures which I was hoping to get finished for the end of the month, but two things have been slowing me down.

I cannot quite settle on a palette. I do not want to copy the old style, it's not really me and I don't see the point in trying to replicate what others have done before. I am aiming for a cool skin, warm clothing look, but I cannot decide if the result is interesting and varied tones, or just a mess of too many colours. I probably should put the ground and shields on to make the decision easier.

The other thing that is bothering me is the duplication of poses. There are five different night goblins holding a spear, I have four of them, but multiple copies of each. It's a bit clone wars, probably looks better in a disciplined army like elves or dwarves, but not so much in a rabble/horde like goblins.

The big news is that I managed to find a giant on ebay that would not need a remortgage to buy. Prices on old metals has gone through the roof recently and have reached a point far beyond my budget. So I was pretty happy to stumble across this when browsing during a coffee break. A lucky break, in this case. The paint work is too bright for my taste, but it's nicely done and the face is particularly striking. The oily goblin from the previous post makes a good contrast. On that front, I have suspended experiments in oils on the goblins, I need bigger models to practise on. I will come back to oils at some point. I feel a need for a change, to reinvigorate my hobby.

Oily little git

I don't usually post work in progress shots on my blog, they are usually dumped on to my facebook page. This place is where I tend to post fully finished work. However, this is a completely new technique for me, so I thought it would be worth recording. This is an oily little goblin. And I mean that in the literal sense, as it's been painted in acrylic, then washed in oils. It's a technique I was vaguely familiar with, I know that it's used on vehicles and some folks use it to paint horses.

I was inspired after seeing this amazing video by Marco Frisoni. I am all for achieving effects quickly, and like grimey paint work, so I thought I would give it a try. And for a first attempt, I am reasonably happy. I can see how it could help me to speed things along with my goblins, which has to be a good thing.

I learned a few things on this first experiment. The oil paint has to be much thinner than I used. And I would not use a pure black next time, probably try a range of browns. Below you can see the goblin before he got to this stage. I primed it brown, then painted on basic tones, then smothered it in the oily mix which was too thick. Even with this blunder, it produced an interesting result - the desaturation from the original colours is quite marked. I will try again with more colours/oils for sure, there are dozens of little goblins waiting to be painted.

First stage - basic colours (acrylic)

Second stage - oil "wash" which was more a tarring!

Cave Goblin Shaman

As their name suggests, cave goblins spend most of their time underground. As a result, they are a little different to other goblin folk. They tend to be smaller, paler and less well equipped, often with little more than a crude club and a set of filthy robes. However, they do have an affinity with the other creatures of the dank underworld realms, and will often drive these before them into battle. When a goblin warlord recruits the cave goblins into his warband, he does so expecting them to bring along trolls, spiders or other beasts from the dark caverns. The cave goblins also have a greater tendency to practise magic than their overground relatives, perhaps as a result of their diet of mind expanding fungi and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

This is the doom goblin shaman from Knightmare Games. This was one of the first models from that range that caught my eye. The fungi staff is just a brilliant touch. I changed the name from doom to cave to fit my own vision of goblins and how they live. I wanted to give them a pale skin, as I imagine their pigment would naturally fade after generations in the darkness. The red around the eyes could be due to the stress of controlling the magical forces in his mind, or maybe it's just a reaction to the hated daylight. It gives him a nicely manic appearance.

Here is the shaman with a small group of the black goblins, to illustrate the size difference. The bulk of the goblin force will be more like the cave goblin in size - smaller and runtier, as you would expect. Next in the queue, I could paint up a handful of old GW goblins I managed to collect over the past couple of years, but I do now have a preference for these Knightmare figures. I just have to get some more!

Sargob The Old

This is probably the oldest figure in my collection, certainly the oldest goblin. It's so old I cannot remember where it came from, possibly gifted to me by another player years ago when I was a club member. I painted it a few years ago, possibly about ten years back.

 Looking on the Stuff of Legends website, I have identified it as a Citadel C12 goblin, named Sargob, from around 1987. Judging by the style, I would guess it was sculpted by one of the Perry twins, he looks a bit too serious to have been sculpted by Kev Adams.

The first thing you might notice is the moustache, which is a bit strange on a goblin. The shield is a modern addition, a plastic from the chaos marauders set. I have recently rebased the figure from square to round, to better fit the new goblins warband I am building. All I had to do was paint the base and he fits right in.

Black Goblins

The Greater Goblins of the Black Vale, or Black Goblins as they are more commonly known, are the biggest of their kind. While most goblins are small, wretched, scrawny creatures, Black Goblins are much larger, some as tall as a dwarf. Consequently, they tend to be leaders, bodyguard or even warlords. They are the best armed of their kind, as they have the pick of  the loot from the battlefields, and steal arms and armour from their compatriots at will. Few goblin warbands go to battle without these bruisers leading the way.

These are the Black Goblins from Knightmare Games. When I first ordered the figures, I had no idea that they were such a large scale. I dreamt up the concept of them being the larger, elite troops of the race - not an original thought I admit, given the role of Black Orcs in Warhammer and black uruks in Lord of the Rings. You can see my first impressions of the models in this post.

I googled images of black orcs to get a few ideas for darker skinned goblins. However, I found it hard to break the mould and started with green skin tones, intending to shade them down quite darkly, but made a bit of a mess of it. I added too many different shades and it just did not turn out as I would have hoped. In future, I will stick to my tried and tested base coat and glazes routine. In the end, I decided to leave the skin and move on to other areas, see how it looked with all the other bits painted. It's often better to get an idea of the overall picture before obsessing on one little bit. With the rest of the colours on, the figures came together and they don't look too bad. I probably spent longer on touching up the skin than I would usually, lesson learned for next time.

The figures are not sold with shields or bases. I used my default system of two pence coins for the bases - they add a bit of weight and stability and are also magnetic. The shields are more of a problem, should I add some, and if yes, what should I use? In the meantime, they will just have to rely on their armour.

Flippin' eck....

.....these goblins are big guys. Yes, I did manage to fit in a pancake day pun.

These are black goblins from Knightmare Games, part of their Greenskin Wars range. I ordered them not realising they are bigger than your average goblin, but that's fine, I like size variation. As you can see, they are single piece metal sculpts, oozing with character and good levels of detail. The eyes have an iris and a pupil!

How big are they? Here's a comparison with a couple of plastic figures, a goblin and an orc. They tower over the little goblin, almost reaching the height and bulk of the orc. These are going to be the bruisers in my goblin force, either the bodyguard of the general or maybe an elite unit.

Just like their cousins the Black Orcs of the Warhammer world, or the black uruks of Tolkien's world, they are the biggest and toughest in the army. Conveniently, that suggests a palette to me - black skin with dark robes and armour. So here's a few examples of dark skinned orcs to act as inspiration.