With all the wizards and warlords filling up my goblin ranks, I felt the need to add some more Core troops.
I finally geared myself up to repaint and rebase these lovelies.
They were the centrepiece of my original gobbo army: ever since I set to work with nothing but a couple of regiment boxes, a gleam in my eye, and a misplaced optimism about how efficiently I could batch-paint.
I like the sculpts (and I may be in a minority there), but they are admittedly on the large side for goblins - they make the Skull Pass gobbos look like snotlings by comparison.
One the one hand, this does allow for more poseability and expression on the faces. On the other, they don't look quite as diminutive as they should - Little Grom is almost swamped when he leads them, and one could almost go eye-to-eye with the old metal Savage Orcs
In my haste to get going with these, I neglected to take any 'before' images, so you are spared having to see twice as many goblins. Be assured: they look better than they did.
Their dark green bases with grass flock was replaced for the standard badlands look; spear points and armour were rusted up, speak hafts inked to be darker; leather straps (which I'd left basecoated) were actually painted leather; wicker shields lightened up with a beige drybrush.
I also repainted some of the trousers into browns and greys - for some reason (probably efficiency), I'd done them all in red, which was far too uniform and make them look like Zouaves.
Once that was all done, the regiment looked much better. So naturally, I got cocky and decided to freehand skulls over all their shields.
What you're seeing was actually intended to be the backs of their shields (they're the version with the spike sticking out), but I snipped off the spikes and reversed them - partly to give myself a canvas (even though I never used it), and partly because the damn shields are hard enough to rank up without spikes.
The regiment box set is a nice one - as were many of them from that era - and there were a lot of options. It even had three different styles of head variety: bald goblin, wolf-rider style fur hats, and topknots.
I went with the former (since I had plans for more regiments of wolf riders and forest goblins... maybe one day), and there were enough bald headed versions to furnish the whole regiment (and still keep it looking reasonably varied). I only had to use two topknot goblins to fill the gaps - and they were quickly shorn of their locks.
Having mastered freehand skulls, I had a try at repainting the banner (which was originally a pretty poor excuse for a skull). Accordingly, I had a try at a gobbo's head - not quite the Mona Lisa, but at least it uses more than one colour (in your face, Goya!)
The unit's not quite finished, even if these goblins are. Having got to 42, it seems a waste not to slap together some unit fillers and bring them up to the full half-century. There's also the inclusion of some Nasty Skulkers (goblin assassins - yay!)
Conventional wisdom is to field these in a 10-deep, 5-wide bus of goblins with everlasting-steadfast (everfasting? steadlast?). Mind you, I like the way they look in a horde formation, and at least they'll get to throw out 40 attacks (let's not think about how many they'll take in return).
And with that, I finally join the painted-horde update club!
(although Kraken still has a few more to his credit)
 |
| Settle in, there's 36 more to go... |
I finally geared myself up to repaint and rebase these lovelies.
They were the centrepiece of my original gobbo army: ever since I set to work with nothing but a couple of regiment boxes, a gleam in my eye, and a misplaced optimism about how efficiently I could batch-paint.
 |
| Basically get the skin right, then drybrush the rest. |
I like the sculpts (and I may be in a minority there), but they are admittedly on the large side for goblins - they make the Skull Pass gobbos look like snotlings by comparison.
One the one hand, this does allow for more poseability and expression on the faces. On the other, they don't look quite as diminutive as they should - Little Grom is almost swamped when he leads them, and one could almost go eye-to-eye with the old metal Savage Orcs
 |
| It doesn't help with the ranking-up that I stuck the spears at all angles. |
In my haste to get going with these, I neglected to take any 'before' images, so you are spared having to see twice as many goblins. Be assured: they look better than they did.
Their dark green bases with grass flock was replaced for the standard badlands look; spear points and armour were rusted up, speak hafts inked to be darker; leather straps (which I'd left basecoated) were actually painted leather; wicker shields lightened up with a beige drybrush.
I also repainted some of the trousers into browns and greys - for some reason (probably efficiency), I'd done them all in red, which was far too uniform and make them look like Zouaves.
 |
| Les pantalons rouges - mon dieu! |
Once that was all done, the regiment looked much better. So naturally, I got cocky and decided to freehand skulls over all their shields.
 |
| MOAR SKULLZ! |
What you're seeing was actually intended to be the backs of their shields (they're the version with the spike sticking out), but I snipped off the spikes and reversed them - partly to give myself a canvas (even though I never used it), and partly because the damn shields are hard enough to rank up without spikes.
 |
| The goblin head on the far left has been shorn of his topknot - crew cuts only in this army. |
The regiment box set is a nice one - as were many of them from that era - and there were a lot of options. It even had three different styles of head variety: bald goblin, wolf-rider style fur hats, and topknots.
I went with the former (since I had plans for more regiments of wolf riders and forest goblins... maybe one day), and there were enough bald headed versions to furnish the whole regiment (and still keep it looking reasonably varied). I only had to use two topknot goblins to fill the gaps - and they were quickly shorn of their locks.
 |
| He carries a banner of himself. Cheaper than a mirror. |
Having mastered freehand skulls, I had a try at repainting the banner (which was originally a pretty poor excuse for a skull). Accordingly, I had a try at a gobbo's head - not quite the Mona Lisa, but at least it uses more than one colour (in your face, Goya!)
 |
| The goblins on the left ensure the required 1" separation from other units. |
The unit's not quite finished, even if these goblins are. Having got to 42, it seems a waste not to slap together some unit fillers and bring them up to the full half-century. There's also the inclusion of some Nasty Skulkers (goblin assassins - yay!)
Conventional wisdom is to field these in a 10-deep, 5-wide bus of goblins with everlasting-steadfast (everfasting? steadlast?). Mind you, I like the way they look in a horde formation, and at least they'll get to throw out 40 attacks (let's not think about how many they'll take in return).
And with that, I finally join the painted-horde update club!
(although Kraken still has a few more to his credit)
I think I shall henceforth carry a banner of myself. With my phone number on the bottom, in case people want to offer me jobs.
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