Boiing!

I'm bouncing along with hobby enthusiasm at the moment (and I'll credit Age of Sigmar for that). This hasn't been matched with blog updates, because my painting desk is currently stuffed with half-finished tasks. But I finally got one unit to completion.

Rataplan! Rataplan!

Squig hoppers! A novelty choice in any greenskin army, and no more so in 8th Ed, where their low initiative, poor rider profile and vulnerability to panic makes them more of a thematic choice than an optimised one.

Mind you, they did account for themselves well against Marauder Horsemen during their last battle, and I quite like the way their random movement doesn't allow any fleeing shenanigans. Not that they're worth fleeing, but assuming the squigs do get their teeth in, they can be nasty to other chaff.

"Wait ... did I have a sword?"

Of course, in AoS, anything goes, including an all-squig army (oh yes ... the Squigalanche is coming), which was incentive enough for me to slap some paint on these guys.

I do like the 'hanging on for dear life' idea...

... although this is the end that faces the enemy.

Same painting recipe as before, with some amendments for the horns and gums (as my collection of brown paints continues to expand - almost as many variations as I have of green):

• Skin: Khorne Red base, Agrax Earthshade wash, Reza Rust highlights
• Teeth, claws: Ushabti Bone base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Horns: Zandri Dustbase, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Tails: Steel Legion Drab base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Tongues: Mournfang Brown, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Gums: Dryad Bark
• Eyes: Bilious Green

A lot of the squigs have direct counterparts in the squig herd
 - I don't know whether to applaud the consistency or call it lazy sculpting.

 Same recipe for the Night Goblins, and this skin tone has quickly become my favourite flavour of greenskin. I'll be sad when there's no more to paint (lucky I've still got 100 more to go, eh?)

• Skin: Elysian Green base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Nurgling Green highlights
• Eyes: Black undercoat, Blood Red dot
• Teeth and nails: Ushabi Bone, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Robes: Black undercoat, Shadow Grey highlights
• Weapon handles: Tallern Sand base, Brown Ink wash
• Weapon heads: Black undercoat, Ironbreaker drybrush, Typhus Corrosion wash, Reza Rush highlights
• Belts and pouches: Balor Brown base, Agrax Earthshade wash

These four are the new models (if you can call 15 years ago 'new'), and I also picked up a couple of the previous hoppers:

... who look a lot more like the California Raisins.

A slightly different breed here: these ones have horns, tails and bulbous noses. They also have more aggressive riders, who actually bring real weapons to the battle.

I think in the original fluff, Hoppers were Clubbers with extra bravado.

Plenty more things to paint, so I'd better hop to it!

Available in either flavour: Age of Sigmar...

... or WFB 8th Ed.