Goblinoids of different size and shape

This will be the last blog text for 2018. My december has not been very productive but with these green skins I´ll be able to close the blogging year the same way I started it - with some goblinoids.

Snotling base. The one on the front row right is actually a Blood Bowl snotling but as I had only four ´normal´snotlings and no other use for him he got a new life here.

A Marauder MM30/2c goblin with a mace and a Citadel C12 goblin Zogrod. These chaps will bulge my goblin horde that numbers 60+ at the moment.

The Vile Rune Tribe Chieftain Fangor Gripe from the Blood Bath at Orc´s Drift scenario. I don´t know if there is another orclops anywhere in any Citadel range of miniatures.

 A group photo shows how small the Marauder gobbo is. He stands just a bit taller than the biggest snots. On the other hand Zogrod is almost as tall a Fangor who would look dwarfish next to modern orcs.

Happy new year! See you in 2019!

A couple of eldar

Hi there! It´s been a December of not-much-painting but at least I´ve gotten these two space elves done. Even though they are colored red and white like Christmas they are certainly no Santa´s elves. Hope you like them!

 

 

The left one is called SGT. Mael Nightwing and seems to armed with

a laspistol and a power glowe. The one on the right is musician By the name

of Taal Spellsinger. He wields a flamer and a sword.

 

 

From this angle you can see the bag pipe/organ thing the musician is

carrying on his back. One of the best RT eldar sculpts in my opinion.

The smallest of updates or an update on the smallest

Snotlings - the smallest of the goblinoid races. Even more wretched and degenerate than goblins. Stupid, funny and totally Oldhammer.

Got myself a bunch of snots just the other day as a part of a job lot I bought online. Even though there are a plenty of more useful models in that job lot I chose to work on these little chaps first. The rules say that snotlings go 9 models on a 40x40 base but I chose to have 5 instead. Mainly because snot models are pretty expensive and to be able to field a decent sized unit with 9 models per base would cost more than I am willing to pay.

Putting five snotlings on a 40x40 is enough in my opinion. That way individual models stand out better and the base itself isn´t that full of stuff.

 I think I like that mushroom armed chap the most. There are another five snots there waiting to be painted. Hoping to finish them soon.

What I don´t undestand about snots is their points value in the 3rd edition WFB - 25 POINTS!?!?

So if you take minimum 5 bases it will cost you 125 points. And I have hard time coming up with some kind of use to them. Even with spore weapons that give you +1 to S of both melee and ranged attacks they are next to useless. And with that point value you really shouldn´t use them for screening action either. You can get 40 gobbos for that same price. And those gobbos can survive some missile fire which the snots certainly can´t.

And you should not forget that snotlings are cowardly. They cannot charge an enemy they don´t outnumber at least 3:1. Plus they have to run away if charged by an enemy they don´t outnumber 3:1. So they really suck.

Using the Rogue Trader points value formula you get a 8,25 points value for snots. If I got it right. So 8 or 8,5 points per base sounds about right for what snots are worth in combat.

Has anyone used snotlings in a 3rd edition WFB battle?

And has anyone found any use for them? 

Eldar kill team?

I feel a bit confused. Lately I´ve been mostly painting RT era eldar and I´ve never been a 40k guy. I´ve had some eldar lurking around in one of the many boxes where I keep my models. And only now have I found courage to paint them. The younger me back in the days never dared to try my humble painting skills with these. Now I´m not that critical on myself anymore I actually find these a joy to paint. I don´t know if this bunch really can be called a kill team as I don´t have the game and have never played it. Anyway - here they are: all five infantry and a robot.

The whole team with it´s current members. 

From a bit different angle.

 The warlock.

A proto-guardian trooper.

Support weapon operator. Needs that support weapon. 

Captain.

I think I have models for two squads, two heavy support weapons, a dreadnought and a war Walker. That is propably a bit too much for a kill team but enough for a narrative battle of some sort. What I´m missing is a musician or two. Anyone?

Falconer Standard

In between painting space elves I found some inspiration to finish this small conversion job I´ve had on my table for some time now. As you see it´s a classic Jes Goodwin Elf Wardancer. And the conversion part is just the backbag with standard pole attached to his back. That part came from Elf cavalry Elf6 - mounted elf personalities range ramage pieces and is called eagle standard there. Plannig on using this model as a standard bearer in a unit of falconers. But he can double as a wardancer too.

The banner itself unfortunately brings points out my lackings as a painter. Can´t do pretty much anything free hand. Luckily I did found that eagle transfer that helps a lot.

Same guy from behind. I put the same transfer on his shield too. And here the backbag standard combination is visible.

I think every hunter needs a hunting hound too. And that´s one big doggie if you compare it to the elf.

Not setting any clear goals for myself but I think I´ll start putting together a wood elf force. Will propable aim for something like 1000 points first. And will make sure the army includes falconers, animal handlers and eventually shape changers too.

Something different

Orctober is over and it´s gnovember time. But I´ve not started this month with gnomes but something that I´ve never painted before - RT era Eldar. I´ve had these models for some time now but I finally found myself the inspiration to do something about them. Here are the first two that I´ve completed.

 

RT401 Space elf and a spirit warrior (eldar war robot).

 From a bit different angle showing spirit warrior´s power glove with shuriken catapult.

 Note the crossbow-like shuriken catapult.

My favorite part of this model is the pointy helmet hanging on his back.

I think I´ll set myself to paint a kill team of a sort. I do have a few eldar models there but I´m going to need so more infantry to make it a decent sized team.

Orctober 2018 - Final tally

The green month is almost over and as I don´t think I´ll have time to do more painting I´m going to sum it up here and now. 2017 my only greenish thing painted was a troll so I think I did a bit better this year.

Bolt thrower #1. Skinny and sinewy orcs with very little clothing, armor and equipment.

Bolt thrower #2. Thick and muscular orcs with more of everything.

Two camp followers. An orc villager with scimitar and a bag of loot and a half orc slave.

And of course a Group Picture.

Orctober part II

3rd edition WFB Orcs&goblins have a pretty good access to war machines and  it´s been a shame that I haven´t have any in my army before this. For Orctober I took the bull by the horns and put some paint on one of the war machines I´ve collected over the years - an orc bolt thrower.

 These are some lightly equipped green skins for sure. Each is wearing a loin cloth and not much else. Only the spotted had a side arm while the two other seem to carry just the bolts.

A telescope is a pretty high tech piece of equipment for orcs in my opinion but it makes a nice model out of that spotter.

I will try to complete another bolt thrower during this orctober and then I just might dig out that skull crusher that´s been waiting to be painted for too long. 

Happy orctober aka an orc and a half

So it´s the green month again. I think I didn´t get a single green skin painted last year for orctober so this time I´m taking an early start. Just two models here and one of them isn´t completely green but Now the game is on and I´m sure I´ll be able to post more orcy things later.

The proper green skin is this bolt thrower crew orc. Very quick and simple to paint. Base colors, wash and higlights. Expect to meet the other crew members and their warmachine later this month.

Second half-orc slave for baggage train. Where his half-brother has light green skin and human eyes this chap got himself a more human toned skin but red eyes.

The two slaves together. With the first one´s chains I propably overdid the rust effect a bit and tried to go a tad easier with the second one.

And as last the Vanhaa Vasarointia orctober opening act together.

One for the gob mob and one for the baggage train

That fast food selling goblin made me dig through one of the many boxes that hold my unpainted miniatures as I remembered having something that would fit the green skin baggage train. And actually found two of the shackles carrying guys. They are from the C27 Slave ogre & Half-orc handlers set. But I see them as half orc slaves doing those jobs too dirty for their pure blooded cousins.

The other model in the pictures is a C12 goblin. Just wanted to show that back in those days goblins came in many shapes and sizes. I mean he is one Big gobbo as he stands almost as tall as the half orc.

Looked for light green skin, dark hair and human eyes with that half orc. Clothes are pretty plain and dirty. The shackles he is carrying are brown-red with rust.I have another one of these models and might give him a more human skin but red goblinoid eyes.

The goblin wears studded leather armor on a mail shirt. I was not sure what that thing on his sword arm is but I imagined being a arm band of some sort.

Next in line are some elf war hounds, an orc villager or two and perhaps high elf kith. Stay tuned!

Squig´n chips

2nd model of my very slowly growing orcs & golins baggage train is this goblin fast food merchant. Not exactly an oldhammer model by it´s age but has the right feel in it, doesn´t it?

Holding one of his mechadise in his hand this goblin is carrying a lot of bag. Apparently filled with more commercial goods.

 You can see a couple of snouts sticking out from that bag under his left arm. Poor little buggers.

 Can´t really tell what the creatures on sale are - some sort of squigs perhaps. But as Traject0ry pointed out they sure do look a lot like the shingouz from Valerian and Laureline.

Flying horse and a hero

As mentioned before I don´t enjoy painting horses. So after completing a unit of silver helms and a warwain I naturally chose to work on a pegasus. The idea came from a plastic bodied dark elf pegasus I had lying in one of the many boxes containing all sorts of bits and bobs. The I think 5th edition era pegasus was in bad shape having lost its head and tail completely. One of it´s wings had broken away from the body too.

I removed also the other wing and scrabbed the mauled plastic body. Having an extra elf horse I did some drilling and pinning and the high elf pegasus was born. From another bits box a suitable rider was discovered and I was ready to prime the whole thing. I would have loved to mount a wizard on the flying horse but did not have a suitable model and went with this hero.

Simple white horse with grayish mane and tail. Hooves are very light pinkish brown. The sculpt of the riders face is pretty flat and with my skills it was difficult to get any life into it.

The rider is an ebay puchase I made before aquiring enough Jes Goodwin elf cavalry to make a unit. It was left unused and I´ve even forgotten it´s origins. I think it´s a Julie Guthrie model but not sure about that. If anyone knows who he is please comment below.

Pegasus is listed as a riding animal both here and in the high elf army list. They can be chosen to be ridden by a character model. What confuses me a bit is the fact that a unicorn is listed as a war beast. And rules for war beasts differ a lot from the rules for riding animals. I think I need to take a look into that some day.

Pegasi are pretty fast and strong and they deliver ´magical´ attacks. Their WS is only 3 and having just one attack means that they are not that effective in close combat. But as flyers they can take that one character model behind enemy lines to wreck havoc there. I will definately use mine one day to do that.

Warwain - Elven attack chariot

I remember admiring this model at the local game store back in the early years of the 90´s. As it cost a lot and looked too complex for my humble painting skill I never came to buy it. After getting back to hobby and getting more brave with painting I had the opportunity to get one of these beautiful Jes Goodwin sculpts. The best elven chariot there is - hands down.

The painted attack chariots you see around the internet usually follow the mostly white color theme of the original package. I however chose to follow my blue and white army theme with dark brown horses. It took me a while but here´s the completed chariot and it´s crew.

Dark blue is the main color with white details. Armor and some decorations are colored steel and copper. The blue feather theme is carried from the horses´ headpieces to archer´s neclace, leader´s helmet and to the bannerpole top.

The horses are based with pretty widely apart. Might rebase the whole model one day.

That driver looks like a singer from some late 80´s metal band. I keep imagining a microphone in his hands: "Run to the hills....".

Closer look at the crew as a whole.


One step closer to having one of each unit of high elves listed in 3rd edition WFB: Armies book. Now it´s just Dragonkin and Kith left.

Elven cavalry for July

One of the hobbying goals I set for myself this year was to paint the units in 3rd edition high elf army list I didn´t have yet. This unit of Silver helms is the first one to get completed. Now I just need to get working on Kith, Warwain and Dragonkin. To be honest I might not make it this year but we´ll see.

Released on Jan-Mar 1988 and presented in WD99 these Jes Goodwin sculpted elf knights are simply put my alltime favourite elven cavalry models. The horses are a bit smallish but that is a very minor detail imo.

The blue and white theme is the same as with the rest of my high elf army. The riders were fun to paint but I did struggle with the horses. I wanted the horses to look realistic and I didn´t want to have just white one as modern Citadel elves tend to have. So it´s mostly different browns with dark tail and mane. I did use some white markings on legs and heads but not sure how well I did with them.

The unit leader´s mount has some barding and is less dynamically posed than the rank and file troopers´ mounts. Every model is magnetized so that there is as little contact as possible between the rider model and the horse. This was done to prevent paint chipping and to keep the riders in saddle.

Silver helms are the most hard hitting troops the high elves can have. WS5, S4 and lances are a fearsome combination that can deliver a lot of damage. But they are expensive. My ten elf squadron will easily cost me 500 points if given a standard and a decent leader.

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I´m working on some more elves to complete that Kith unit. And I have some goblins too to boost gobbo horde closer to 50 models. But this july will be very busy and can´t be sure if I can find time to paint and blog.

Sextet of Stupidity

There it is: 390 points worth of trolls. As I mentioned in one of my earlier postings my trolls have fared terribly in the games they have been in. Twice routed with no wounds caused to enemy. But the biggest unit of them so far used has been only three strong. I concluded that the reason for their abysmal performance is that I just haven´t fielded enough of them. Now their numbers are doubled - what could possibly go wrong?!?!

 Mixture of pre-slotta Citadel and newer Marauder models most of these have been presented here earlier. The new guy is that C20 Skuttlescree Soresmeer in front row left.

Ran out of the flock I used for 5/6 but being lazy I´ll just go with this different shade. It´s close enough and won´t affect their effectivenes on battle field.

A couple of nice details from Skuttlescree Soresmeer: a severed head and something little for snack.