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…….

Orc champion

I painted up an old orc champion, originally released around 1992 when I started playing WHFB. The shield design was hand painted. I have found that orange is the best colour to use as a contrast on green skinned orcs. I tried a square base on this one, but really I much prefer round, two pence coins in fact are my go to base of choice.

More green skins to come maybe in the next few weeks and months, if I can find the time.

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 

Speed Painted Savage Orcs

Many years ago, I bought the Battle for Skull Pass, which contained plastic goblins and dwarfs. I started painting both sets of figures, and it rapidly snowballed. After several years I had two fully formed armies, though not fully painted. Fast forward to now, and times have changed. I am downsizing my collection and have found new homes for both armies. This week I have been finishing a unit of savage orcs I first started painting back in 2011. I thought I would add them to the blog before they are gone forever.

The process was quite a simple one. Spray a light brown primer, then wash with dark brown. Block in the green flesh, the bones with white or light grey. Glaze the skin with a green/blue for shadows. Paint basic tattoos and other details (banner, cloth, etc). Then oil wash the whole figure with a black/brown. Clean off the oil and then rewhiten the bones and axes. Dot in the eyes, glaze them and the mouths, and done.

I posted them on facebook and got a very good reaction, I think the simple palette and the striking face paint is key to the impact of the unit. Individually they are far from stellar, but they are speed painted and the end result is judged by the unit as a whole. I am still pondering about the oil wash, is it any quicker than using a standard wash? It certainly gives a nice grimy effect, which can be useful in some cases.

Pair of Orcs

I finished painting my pair of old orcs. When I started them I applied a fairly neutral bland pale green, then added some quite intense green, blue and yellow inks to create the different green tones. I did also apply some fairly basic highlights (just dots of a light beige) before glazing with the highlight tones. The interesting thing is how intense the figures started, but gradually toned down as more shading was applied and the rest of the figure was painted. If I was really radical I could probably replace my whole collection of paints with about a dozen paints and half a dozen inks.*

These figures date back to 1992. That was the year I started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle, with the boxed set containing plastic night goblins and elves. I loved the elves, the models were really nice and it probably stirred my inner Tolkien nerd. I also collected Undead, as they were easier to paint. I never really appreciated the greenskins, they seemed deliberately jokey and not to my taste - and anyway my brother collected those so I never gave them a second thought.

Fast forward to the start of this year, 2018, so that's about 26 years later. I had been up in the loft on the annual xmas decoration hunt, when I came across all my old White Dwarf magazines. I dragged them down and had a flick through, especially those very early issues when I first started gaming. It's definitely a nostalgia trip, and a lot of figures have been collected, painted, played with and sold down that quarter of a century. Somehow, I suddenly realised how much I missed the simplicity of those older models. Not the elves, they are covered in jewels and other details, but the orcs and goblins in particular struck me as very simple, but evocative. After scoring a couple of good deals on ebay and facebook, I had a handful of greenskins to add to Mount Unpainted. And now, ten months later, I have painted three of them. Maybe, in another 25 years, I will have them completed. The original post on the troll can be found here.

*Hmmmm, maybe this would be a good project for the new year?

Orctober Orcs (and Dwarfs)

A quick post to show that I am still here, though painting has slowed due to holidays and work. Still, there is a little progress, this time on my Middlehammer projects.

These two orcs are part of a small collection I have accrued over the past year, from various places like ebay and facebook. My idea was to collect the models from 1992, the year I started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It's proven to be very difficult to get the figures, I still have some holes in the collection, but I thought I would make a start anyway on the painting. I chose these two as they do not have shields, so I don't have to fret over how to handle them. They are quite close to completion already, they were joyfully easy to paint, mainly using inks in a little experiment.

And then there are the six dwarfs. These were started in September, I wanted to see how far I could get on small sessions and am documenting the time taken in each progress photo - hence the 57:00 minutes in the top left. Things are moving along on them and they too should be finished soon.

Eventually, I will have a good sized dwarf force and a smaller band of greenskins. My aim is a  fairly haphazard one of having enough troops to play Saga (about 50 or 60 per warband), with a longer term goal of them just growing until I have finished my collection. It's strange really that they mirror my other current project, painting orcs and dwarfs for Lord of the Rings - though they feel in aesthetics and painting style like completely different ranges.

Stone troll

A Stone Troll, from the days of yore. I have recently started to collect greenskins from 1992, the year I started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I got a bit nostalgic over the Christmas period when I re-discovered all my old White Dwarf magazines in the loft with the xmas decorations. Then I discovered the Middlehammer group on facebook, and it escalated quite quickly from there! Now I have about a dozen each of the orcs and goblins, plus a few other models. I couldn't resist picking this model up too and started to paint it up just as soon as the old paintwork had been stripped away.

I was torn between painting it in the old school style or giving it my own interpretation. It started as grey skinned and evolved from there. It was a real blast to paint, pretty easy too being so large. It was mostly glazing and shading up from white as I usually do, with lots of areas roughly stippled for speedy progress. The bulging eye I never really liked, so I painted it as blind to divert attention to other areas.

There are more pictures on my facebook page, more angles to view.

Happy

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2018 is a happy and productive hobby year.

For one reason and another, last year was not my best hobby year. In terms of painting, gaming and posting to the blog, it was poorer than many a previous year. I am happy to draw a line under it and look forward to the next twelve months.

Here's a little face to spread joy and happiness. Old timers will recognise this figure as a goblin doom diver from the early 1990's. He was one of my favourite figures from back when I started in the hobby. Whenever I see this figure, I am transported back to those happy days, those first faltering steps in the hobby. I have managed to collect a few orcs and goblins from that era in the past few weeks and will be starting the new year with a new project. Strap yourselves in, it's gonna be an exciting ride!

Middlehammer Nostalgia

Yep, a whopping 72 pages

You have no doubt heard of Warhammer (even though it's now dead). Possibly you are also familiar with Oldhammer - an appreciation of the older versions of the game, usually from the 1980's. But what if you were a fan of the not quite as old versions, from the 1990's onwards? Well, fear not, because now there's Middlehammer, for fans of the game from fourth edition onwards, roughly the 20 odd years from 1992 to the End Times. There is a facebook page for all your nostalgic needs.

Nostalgia has struck me recently. Well, it is 25 years since I started with this game! Up in the loft to bring down the xmas decorations, I came across a box full of old White Dwarf magazines. Leafing through them, I was transported back to those first days in the hobby, hesitantly clipping off hundreds of single-pose goblins and elves and fumbling through a first few games on the kitchen table. No internet back in those days to hold your hand! I was hooked and collected High Elves, some Undead and later a few dwarfs. For some reason I never really appreciated the orcs and goblins. I must have taken the hobby very seriously back in the day, as they always seemed a bit comical, a bit silly to me. But looking through the old magazines now, I can see why they were so popular.

Happy Smiley Greenskins

Do not adjust your monitor, things really were that lurid in the early (middle) days. And orcs did really look that happy. You can understand my original hesitation, as a fan of all things grim and realistic. But perhaps you can also forgive me my nostalgia, if you can see the simple charm of these figures. From the same issue (no 159 from March 1993), the next few pictures from a battle report give a flavour of the articles that had me hooked in those early hobby days.

Green horde on a green battlefield

Three or four kilos of a full metal army

The battle rages on, I loved these articles

Finally, a look at another page spread, chosen at random. A lovely bit of John Blanche art on the left, and a classic Mark Gibbons black and white illustration on the right. And. So. Many. Words. There might have been just 70 pages in an issue, but each page was crammed with reading material. To read an issue cover to cover would take hours. Ah, happy days. 

Words. Lots of them.

Legal Disclaimer: All these images are from White Dwarf magazine, copyright Games Workshop. I do not have permission to publish them, but do so as an enthusiastic fan of those golden, middle days.

X.III - Daemons

In this, the third of my celebratory posts, I am looking back at the year 2010. I painted lots of fantasy in that time, and played it almost exclusively, so there's a good selection of potential candidates. I added a few units to my orcs and goblins army - black orcs and green squigs stand out - and made more progress on the wood elf army. I also built but two pretty big conversions - a treeman and a shaggoth, which get honourable mentions. I reckon that already qualifies as a good vintage, but my biggest achievement for the year was putting together a small contingent of daemons.

I started by building and painting a unit of daemonettes. My aim at the time was to try something a little different, and a pink/purple palette was definitely that. These days I tend to paint in small batches of eight or twelve, but I obviously had more stamina in my youth - eighteen daemonettes.

After that I rewarded myself with a character model, a herald built from an old Warzone figure, with a whole host of (cute?) little attendants.

Then I finished off the project with a unit of pink horrors, the classic metal figures from that time and still my favourite renditions of the model.

Though the daemons started as an add-on for my chaos warriors, I did have grand plans to develop them into a full army. I have metal plaguebearers painted up and bloodletters half-painted, plus more daemonettes, screamers and various other figures. However, as with so many grand plans, nothing came of it.

One figure I did add a few years later was a Daemon Prince, converted from an old Azazel model. I left off the wings and replaced the head with that of an old school metal Fiend of Slaanesh, the tail I forget the source. I had this model half-painted for a good few years, but thought it would be nice to finally complete it as part of my celebrations.

North Star Goblins previewed

I spotted this picture on the Lead Adventure Forum - a preview of upcoming plastic orcs/goblins. These are three ups, master models which are reduced in size - the final versions will have slimmer bases, slightly less defined details. I like the look of these, they are different to the usual orcs available to gamers. I posted some artwork on various interpretations of orcs in the past (here, here and here).

These orcs follow on from the recently released plastic dwarfs and will in turn (according to rumour) be followed by plastic elves. I didn't like the dwarfs much, they strayed a bit too close to the Disney/garden gnome aesthetic for my taste, but it will be interesting to see the elves when they finally surface. I posted a review of the Osprey book on dwarfs (here), though never picked up the orcs or elves books.

Orcs!

Osprey Books are releasing a fantasy book called Orc Warfare. Yes, that Osprey Books, makers of millions of military books! Recently, they have branched out into mythology, steampunk and wargames rules, but this appears to be a new direction. It seems to be a background book on a fantasy race but written in the style of one of their factual military issues. Take a look at the preview.

I am intrigued by this development. One of the big attractions for me to WHFB was the background material - the art in particular, but also the early days of the fluff, though sadly this was often just regurgitated in later material. A completely new and original set of art and scribblings will be well worth a look. It's due for release at the end of the month. On the Osprey blog it also mentions the development of similar style books on Dwarfs and Elves, later in the year. Now it could be a coincidence, but isn't that when Dragon Rampant is released? Interesting times for any fantasy player.

Another upcoming project to watch is Atlantis Miniatures kickstarter. This is a new company based in the UK, with some excellent looking renders on their facebook page. There's always room in my collection for good quality sculpts and these seem to be shaping up very nicely indeed. I am patiently waiting for July 1st, just to see where the bear fits in!

And yet more orcs that have cropped up on my radar are by another new company, MOM miniatures based in Spain. These are actually in production and available in their webstore. There's a growing range of fantasy troops, not just orcs but also dwarfs, elves, humans. I cannot find any detailed reviews around, probably because they are such a new company, but the photos look promising. The prices too are cheap, slightly offset by the postage. Well worth a look at the whole range, I particularly liked their dwarfs too. Here's a small taster image, best to visit the website for a better look. Another set of minis to add to my wishlist!

Orc Brute

The orc brute from Avatars of War, a figure I painted up for a competition over on the WAMP forum. It didn't place in the top three, but then the guy who finished third offered me part of his prize as he thought I should have placed higher. That was a really nice gesture on his part, and my consolation prize was another Avatars mini to add to Mount Unpainted.

I tried quite a few new methods on this figure. On the skin I painted wet in wet blending for the first time, after viewing the excellent Painting Buddha videos on youtube. On the rock I lifted something from my photography hobby - dual toning. Instead of shading and highlighting with black and white, I used blue as the shadow and a yellow as the highlight. The rock is actually a piece of bark from a tree (picked up from the forest floor I hasten to add). The gnarled shrub is the stalk from a tomato, dried and painted.

If I was starting it again, I would go with a much paler skin tone, the intense green of this one is too much. Other than that, I think the balance of colours is quite good, something I continue to work on to improve.

Battle Report: WHFB Daemons vs Orcs and Goblins

Turn 1

I can't remember the last time I played a game at my own house, I usually go round to a friend's for my Friday night action. When my son Ben offered me a game, I jumped at the chance. A 4x4 battle mat on a table tennis table in the garage was set up with a small selection of scenery, a few woods on the fringes, a swamp on my left and arcane ruins just off centre of my right. The ruins were declared the objective of the game, whichever side was in control at the end of the game would be the winner.

I added up my painted daemons and it came to around 1600 points, so I scribbled down a similar sized list of my painted greenskins. I went for fairly easy-going armies - each had a lord to lead them, and small magic support. The daemons had a Tzeentch herald on a disc plus two units of horrors, while the greenskins had an orc shaman and a night goblin shaman.

Turn 2

The game started with the daemons electing to take first turn. A swarm of nurglings had been enjoying an afternoon frolic in the swamp, their fun interrupted by a vanguarding unit of wolf riders. The nurglings charged in and easily despatched the wolf riders for the cost of just one wound - you can see the tiny orange dice marking this in the first picture above. Sweeping forward they threatened the spear chukkas, picture right. Supported by screamers, it already looked a little tricky for the greenskin left flank. A spear chukka shot wounded a beast of Nurgle, and poisoned arrows from the night goblin archers took down one screamer, but it was not enough to prevent the daemonic advance. The centre stalled as the trolls went stupid and ambled forward a little. The right flank showed some promise, as a pair of wolf riders survived daemon flames to make a surprise charge on a Tzeentch herald on disc, but they were easily fought off.

Turn 3

The main action was in the centre of the board. A single beast of Nurgle held up the trolls, while the daemonettes survived a defeat and then slowly gained the upper hand against the orcs. The screamers slashed the night goblin shaman, but amazingly he took just one wound from the 5 or 6 hits, only to gobble down a poisoned mushroom in the next turn! The screamers then crashed into the rear of the night goblin archers, defeated them easily and pursued into the back of the trolls. With two beasts of Nurgle to the front and screamers in the rear, the trolls too were easily overcome. The nurglings steadily swarmed over the spear chukkas, the greenskin left flank was in tatters, the right flank was ineffective as the squig herd moved up under fire from flamers and pink horrors, slowly whittling down the ranks.

The picture above shows the scene just before it all went horribly wrong for the greenskins. The trolls are just about to be surrounded and destroyed, while the orcs are about to be flanked by the Daemon Prince. His three kills and a good round from the daemonettes saw the orcs destroyed (despite my forgetting his thunderstomp rule), the daemonettes then pursuing into the black orcs. Things might not have been that bad if the orc warlord had survived. He was engulfed by blue fire of Tzeentch, I had overlooked the horrors lurking by the ruins, the single wound from the spell augmented by the warpflame toughness test was too much for the poor orc to endure. Adding insult to injury, the daemonettes then easily defeated the black orcs in combat and ran them down. We fought one last combat between the herald of Tzeentch with his super-charged wand of whimsy and the orc shaman with his glowing green fists of gork, but it was a bad day to be green and the orc shaman was killed. With just half a unit of goblin spearmen and a depleted herd of squigs remaining, I conceded defeat.

The dead daemons, all 6 of them

A fine victory for the daemons, their casualties (right) were virtually none, while the bulk of the greenskins had been destroyed. A surprising result for a fun afternoon with plenty of drama, a few laughs and a good smattering of random events. At one point, Nurgle himself intervened but did not harm a single one of the five Tzeentch units on the board, but did manage to take out some black orcs and a fanatic. The daemons also benefitted from an enhanced save in one turn, so the reign of chaos rolls helped rather than hindered the daemon cause. On the other hand, warpflame gave about half of the greenskin units a regeneration save, which made the warlord episode particularly funny as his toughness 5 meant he would have gained regeneration on any roll but a 6, so I promptly rolled the 6 to kill him off! A classic dice roll very fitting in a game of random carnage.

A final note. We were playing a slightly modified version of 8th edition rules, in case you are bemused by the small size of the regiments. I took out the supporting attack rule and I also allowed just the front rank to fire missiles. The result is slightly less carnage in shooting and combat, but otherwise the game plays pretty much the same as the full-on version, only without the need for regiments the size of house bricks. Much easier on the eye, in my view.

It Ain't Easy Being Green

Part 1 : How to Lose With a Goblin Army

After several fantasy-gaming-free months, I decided to give Warhammer another go. I love playing Saga and have enjoyed several games of Blitzkrieg Commander, but recently I have been looking at my Warhammer collection, wondering if I should keep some or sell them, to make way for newer toys. If I was to sell, it would almost certainly be elves or greenskins under the auction hammer, so I decided to give them a last chance.

Looking through the orcs and goblins army book, I remembered that I had wanted to try an all-goblin force at one point in the past, so I scoured my "little black book" for clues. This is a little notebook I keep with all my army lists, the occasional battle report, ideas, sketches, etc. Sure enough, written earlier in the year, a 2000 point all goblin list.

As I don't own that many goblins, it was not a balanced army. I had to boost the character allocation considerably in order to make up the points, and there is far more rare choices than I would normally use, but it would give me a chance to try something a bit different. A goblin warboss, a night goblin army standard and two night goblin shamen prodded forward night goblins with netters, night goblin archers, fanatics, wolf riders, spider riders, a squig herd, and a 40 strong mob of gobboes. A couple of spear chukkas, a doom diver and a stone thrower made up the artillery. A handful of trolls added some dubious hitting power, while a pair a pump wagons added a random chance for some carnage. The basic plan was to use the night goblin netters and goblins as anvils, hoping that the trolls or squig herd could function as hammers.

Across the table was a pretty scary-looking chaos army, warriors, knights, a giant, ogres, dragon ogres, all powerful and hard hitting units, led by a Sorceror Lord safely ensconsed in a unit of maruaders. Things started badly when the night goblin shamen lord's very first spell cast with irresistible force, causing him to forget three of his four spells. A very lucky bolt killed two chaos ogres, but that was the highlight of the game and it quickly went downhill thereafter. The squig herd was extremely unlucky in combat with dragon ogres, as the mighty beasts made 5 armour saves (6's) from 7 dice! I guessed at this point that Gork (or Mork) were seriously annoyed at me for neglecting them for so long. Needless to say, the squigs broke and went wild. A trio of fanatics held up the forces of chaos for a little while, but they quickly throttled themselves or span wildly into a forest, making little impact on the enemy advance. Such are the whims of dice rolls.

From a tactical point of view I messed up in a few areas. For some reason I moved my pump wagons forward, they were charged and obliterated by the remaining chaos ogres. Night goblin netters were next on the ogre revenge list (still smarting from that early bolt no doubt), and while the little gits held them up for a couple of turns in classic anvil style, nothing was available to act as a hammer. This was mostly due to me badly positioning the hammer units, the trolls, which were sensibly sticking near to the goblin boss for his inspired command yelps, but were totally out of position on the wrong side of the board! Ah well, it has been six months since my last game.

Most amusing moment of the game? Possibly the giant and stone trolls in combat, the giant yelled and bawled, the trolls were unable to fight back, but held. Then he took a chomp out of one, restoring his wounds, the trolls swung ineffectively, so then resorted to vomit. They spent the whole game (of four turns) in this fashion, rooted to the spot taking chunks out of each other, regenerating them, in a comical never-ending combat. My only real "chance" came from a surprise charge from 5 wolf riders, who failed their animosity roll and then rolled double 6 to just scrape a successful charge of 21 inches onto the rear of the marauders and Sorceror Lord. After some bizarre dice rolling the marauders ended up taking a break test! Which they passed, then turned around, pummelled the upstart goblins into the ground and normal service was resumed. By the end of turn 4 most of my units were dead or dejected and we called it a night.

I knew that using an all-goblin force would be an uphill struggle, but combined with my rustiness, a powerful enemy and some awful dice, it was more of a massacre than I expected. I can't remember the last time I conceded in turn four. Having said that, it was great fun! I want to give the little green gits another go, partly to see if I can improve (I can't really get much worse) and partly to give my opponent more of a challenge. A few tweaks and some more practise is needed.

New plastic goblin shaman

Now this is a little surprise, a sneaky little goblin shaman sneaking into the latest set of GW releases. Very sneaky indeed! As I am in the middle of painting up some goblins it caught my attention over on the Warhammer Forum (originally posted on Warseer).

It's a nice enough figure for sure, well proportioned hands on a plastic goblin is a welcome improvement. It's a nice pose too, a bit more considered than the usual manic waving of staff in the air. The head/face is a little underwhelming, not that different to any of the rank and file. For me, it's a candidate for an army standard bearer rather than a shaman, reasonable conversion fodder. A boxed regiment of this style of goblin would have been very exciting about a year ago, when the new army book was released.

Will I buy it? Probably not. I tend to use night goblin shamans for mushroom shenanigans and already have 2 or 3 of those in my army. Similarly I don't need an army standard bearer as I already have one. Maybe I might buy one to paint up just for the fun of it! I can decide in a couple of weeks' time.

Goblin Warlord painted

As promised in the previous post, here are the pictures of the painted goblin warlord, ready to lead his pathetic troops to almost certain defeat.