Cave goblin spears #9 – Some balls

Voilà, the next to last batch of cave goblin spears!

We want bases!

I realised I missed the eyes on the little fellow to the left of the formation, but apart from that they look ok. This time I put some checkers on the hem of a couple of cloaks – they don’t look very good in one line only – and two different kinds of triangle patters on two others, for variety.

Out from the mists of the past, here’s three old fanatics, who miraculously managed to keep their balls intact, and which I am nostalgic enough not to retouch. Eventually, I’ll try to find some replacements.

Crude, but still effective

I’ll do my best to wrap up the painting part of the project by next week!

Then (still without the new supplies) there will be basing…

Orc ‘Eadbashers #1 – Champion WIP

I’m suffering from a cave goblin burnout at the moment, I could only paint two out of the six gobbos I had in my plans for last week. But… I started working on a slightly converted plastic / metal champion for the future horde of orc ‘eadbashers, to see how the skin shadows palette could be converted from goblin to orc.

Don’t look at the arms – they’re not done yet – but the face seems to work out pretty well, what do you think?

Also, I spent a lot of time NMMing the huge ax (trophy from a slain chaos warrior) but I should still add a few glazes… and the supplies shipment I ordered almost two months ago still isn’t here! Grrr – you can see the orc is mad too.

More goblins next time, I promise 🙂

Cave Goblin Witchdoctors #1

Work and travels made me fall behind schedule on the cave goblin project. In order to show something this Monday, then, I’m giving you a preview on the next goblin project – the cave goblin witchdoctors. Each of them is meant to be used for a different way of magic among the three available in the 9^th age for goblin mages, and each miniature has a distinctive feel matching it.

The first model is a classic miniature from GW and will represent the Pyromancy witchdoctor, due to the flame motif on the back of his cape. I gave the mini a decent paintjob years ago, and now is definitely time for a revamping. I might put more flames on the robe and I’m considering to make the robe itself red. It would also be nice to resculpt the staff to make it more appropriately “flaming”, but that’s probably beyond my skills.

The second model is part of the Battle for Skull Pass night goblins set. He’s going to represent the witchdoctor of Thaumaturgy, a way of magic focusing on the divine, on account of his pot full of sacred mushrooms and what might count as a goblin-god fetiche of some sorts. Or something to scare little gnashers away from mushrooms pads. Since the model in itself cannot match the other two’s imposing presence, I’m planning to work on the base and plop him on a high mystical rock.

The third model is from Rackham and will count as the mage of Witchcraft, which is the way of magic of the wild and the wicked. A bigger model, and very slick, this witchdoctor has snorted up more winds of magic than the other two combined, and ended up with two nice horns. This one I’ll have to downplay as I come to do the basing, but it won’t be difficult since he already occupies most of the base.

Here it is for now. Now for the final rash# of green grunts…

Cave goblin spears #8 – Bringing out the trash

Apparently, we got killing blow against cavalry.

Here we go, another batch of nasty greenskins with pokey sticks.

The hunched guy should be one of the crew models from an old 40k Ork scrap launching warmachine – I’m sorry I didn’t have the time to look up a better reference. It works well as a netter: in this way I have five netter models without any repeat sculpt, which is nice.

As I layer, rinse and repeat through more and more goblin faces, I’m getting to the point that I’m almost wet blending. Sweet!

Two more batches, an extra command group, some fanatics and we are done!

Cave goblin spears #7 – Glass eye champion

This one is supposed to hold the place of the king in the regiment whenever the king has other kingly things to do.

Another great sculpt, clean and simple. Apparently they had a thing with big bulging eyes in this series: after the eye on the little squig I showed at the beginning of the project, I decided to paint this as a glass eye and I think it turned out fine.

Next, we’ll be back to some rank and file, with a cameo from an old 40k model to spice things up, so… more to come!

Cave goblin spears #6 – Goblin king

I’m steaming!

Running on steam, foul brew, mind-bending mushrooms, ignorance and evil the king in his metal skin rules in the caves. Although honestly it looks more like the armour was put together with pieces of a dwarven stove, the king is proud of his magic trinket, which at once symbolizes his power and helped more than once against backstabbing.

This gorgeous Rachkam miniature stands out just enough and brings the right kind of chutzpah to the unit. In fact, I had to find a way for it not to stand out too much. The original colour scheme for the model, although I love the blues on the metal and I would have liked the shape of the helmet to suggest a moon using some yellow, would not have worked.

So I went for some dark non-metallic metal, which was not easy to pull off. I’m reasonably pleased, but it’s still a long way to nmm country.

Yes, he has some sort of gas mask on his chest, which makes little sense. But that’s goblins for you, folks. More to come!

PS Anyone wants to come up with a name?

Cave goblin spears #5 – Clubbers and spears

We were clubbing in the ’90s and we’re still at it!

Clubbers don’t have specific rules anymore in the 9th age, but do you think they care? They are nice sculpts and they break up the monotony of the ranks of their millennial comrades.

Now that I look at them in picture, I might put a darker glaze on the left one’s rope belt – the effect is a bit too stark, don’t you think?

Spearheading the O&G project.

Here I’m trying to use the moons to add some variety and flash. In the future I’ll have to use a glaze medium to put the purple on the shield, using a wash works fine to the real eye but not so well for the camera, it seems.

Anyway, I’m almost halfway through the regiment – it can be done! Beware, for next will come the king…