Does whatever's a spider's ... thang?
Hold onto your muffets!
Back in glorious 8th Ed, the received wisdom of the Netlist was that a Goblin Big Boss on a monstrous steed was a good Fast Cavalry substitute - smaller, more manoeuvrable, with better Toughness, almost as many Wounds, the ability to take magic weapons, and no animosity to worry about.
Your choices were either a Gigantic Spider - a little slower, but reliable and unimpeded by terrain - or this unpredictable bouncing beauty - so naturally that was my first choice.
But now I have both, and a fine debut he had too - sneakily stabbing a Dwarf Thane from behind in the fine old style.
He may have even more utility as a Spiderfang general in Age of Sigmar - his command ability to ramp up poisoned attacks would help with a unit of Spider Riders, and make a Arachnarok properly fearsome.
(I was never really interested in an Arachnarok for my 8th Ed army - nice rules, but the model just seemed too big and too ridiculous - however big and ridiculous is what AoS is all about, so I may get my head turned after all)
The model itself is a mish-mash of parts: the head is a Spider Rider's banner top, the backpiece is also from the Spider Rider kit, plus offcuts of the banner, the platform is from the Arachnarok launcher, and the main body of the spider is the bottom half of some Drow/Spider Centaur from a Reaper Bones.
(note to Reaper: try not to indent 'MADE IN CHINA' prominently on the spider abdomen - it really screws with the suspension of disbelief)
The crowning glory is the old metal Forest Goblin, who's been kicking around for a long time in search of a project. I think he's meant to be a shaman, but I already have more gobbo spellcasters than the Little Waaagh! deck will accommodate, so this one will have to use his staff as a whacking stick.
In terms of colour, the goblin benefited from the same grey primer trick as my Spider Riders - washes of Biel-Tan Geen for the flesh, and Drakenhof Nightshade for the feathers/webs. The yellow spider was Seraphim Sepia wash, and the red one was a Khorne Red base.
I wanted the spider to be white, but a greenish sort of white - so again began with a Biel-Tan Green wash (how has my greenskin army gone so long without it?), then layering up Flayed One Flesh, Ushabti Bone and White Scar. The long mandibles were Incubi Darkness.
What is also notable about this model is that it brings my Orc & Goblin army over 5,000pts. My final goal is halfway to completion - if I can get my Lazy Lob moving.
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| Look out - here comes the spider's thang! |
Back in glorious 8th Ed, the received wisdom of the Netlist was that a Goblin Big Boss on a monstrous steed was a good Fast Cavalry substitute - smaller, more manoeuvrable, with better Toughness, almost as many Wounds, the ability to take magic weapons, and no animosity to worry about.
Your choices were either a Gigantic Spider - a little slower, but reliable and unimpeded by terrain - or this unpredictable bouncing beauty - so naturally that was my first choice.
But now I have both, and a fine debut he had too - sneakily stabbing a Dwarf Thane from behind in the fine old style.
He may have even more utility as a Spiderfang general in Age of Sigmar - his command ability to ramp up poisoned attacks would help with a unit of Spider Riders, and make a Arachnarok properly fearsome.
(I was never really interested in an Arachnarok for my 8th Ed army - nice rules, but the model just seemed too big and too ridiculous - however big and ridiculous is what AoS is all about, so I may get my head turned after all)
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| Careful - your Old Tomnoddy is showing |
The model itself is a mish-mash of parts: the head is a Spider Rider's banner top, the backpiece is also from the Spider Rider kit, plus offcuts of the banner, the platform is from the Arachnarok launcher, and the main body of the spider is the bottom half of some Drow/Spider Centaur from a Reaper Bones.
(note to Reaper: try not to indent 'MADE IN CHINA' prominently on the spider abdomen - it really screws with the suspension of disbelief)
The crowning glory is the old metal Forest Goblin, who's been kicking around for a long time in search of a project. I think he's meant to be a shaman, but I already have more gobbo spellcasters than the Little Waaagh! deck will accommodate, so this one will have to use his staff as a whacking stick.
In terms of colour, the goblin benefited from the same grey primer trick as my Spider Riders - washes of Biel-Tan Geen for the flesh, and Drakenhof Nightshade for the feathers/webs. The yellow spider was Seraphim Sepia wash, and the red one was a Khorne Red base.
I wanted the spider to be white, but a greenish sort of white - so again began with a Biel-Tan Green wash (how has my greenskin army gone so long without it?), then layering up Flayed One Flesh, Ushabti Bone and White Scar. The long mandibles were Incubi Darkness.
What is also notable about this model is that it brings my Orc & Goblin army over 5,000pts. My final goal is halfway to completion - if I can get my Lazy Lob moving.
I believe the correct technical term for a drow/spider centaur is a Drider, although Reaper may be renaming them (in China) to avoid copyright issues. Very nice creepy white look to it, faintly luminous even! I keep meaning to look for a good glow in the dark paint for minis, not that one would be likely to play in the dark enough to get the full effect.
ReplyDeleteThanks - I recently got a box of Citadel washes and I'm having fun discovering that there's more you can do than just weather everything with a quick Agrax.
DeleteThe Drider was originally intended to join a mixed bag of centaurs (including the couple you gave me), but they dallied too long in the leadpile, and got gazumped by a goblin.