These lovely little Goblins were made around 1984 as Citadel was moving away from the Fantasy Tribes ranges and to the C-series of solid based miniatures. They were designed by Alan and Michael Perry, and share a very similar look in design style to the other solid bases C-series Goblins (C13 Night Goblins especially) which they produced around the same time. This is before Kev Adams started to domiate Citadels Gobliniod scultping with the later 1980's Slotta Goblinoid ranges. As such, I think they have a slightly different feel to them, and are contiguous with the Fantasy Tribes ranges.
The range was released in 1984 and first shown in the Second Citadel Compendium, and were available for a number of years until the late 1980's when the Slotta based Goblins began to dominate. They are sometimes listed as 'Chaos Goblins' or 'Goblin Mutants', and are part of the wider C27 Chaos Creatures range. There are ten models in the range. They were made before the Chaos books were produced ('Slaves to Darkness' and 'The Lost and the Damned'), and so unlike later Chaos models they are not aligned to any particular Chaos Power. However, as I will show later in the update, I have painted some accordingly.
Personally I like this range as they are quirky, and have a sense homour in the sculpting. They combine the pre Chaos books appraoch to generic Chaos, as well as the early feel of the Perry Twins design of Goblins. I think the will fit in with any Chaos army, but also fit nicely with my early 1980's Goblin/Dwarf Wars project as a stand alone warband.
Enjoy :)
C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.
All ten of the Chaos critters on top of the hill.
'Horns' and 'Mace-tail'.
As noted above, they were made before the explaination of the background of the Chaos Powers. So I have decided to paint a Goblin in the colours/style of one of the major Chaos powers, and Maal. I chose myself which of the Goblins I thought would fit best with each of the Chaos Powers.
Here I have chosen 'Horns' as Khorne, and 'Mace-Tail' as Slaanesh. I thought with his horns, axe, and toothy grin, 'Horns' looked more Khornate, and I helped that by painting him red skinned.
'Mace-tail' had a Slaaneshi look to me, and so I painted him with pink leather scale armour, pastel yellow clothing, blue and pink colouring, and with a Slaanesh rune tattoo on his leg.
The left sides, showing 'Horns' rune of Khorne on his shield, and 'Mace-Tails' pink leather armour.
'Plague' and 'Three-eyes'.
For me 'Plague' could not be anything else but a follower of Nurgle, so I painted this poor pox-ridden Goblin in a sickly yellow colour.
'Three-eyes' reminded me of the many eyed Tzeentchian followers in artwork. So I painted him in Tzeentchian blue and purple, with magical looking yellow eyes (all three of them!).
Side views.
Look at the icky yellow skin, poor thing :(
'Beast' and 'Hopper'.
I was stuck a little for a Maal follower, but 'Beast' allowed for a Goblin with a little mystery, and to be able to paint the shield with the black and white style of Maal.
'Hopper' is the first of the non-Chaos power Goblins. I painted this one-legged and tailed Goblin up with purple flesh, which I then highlighted with mid brown (Citadel's VX-88, the new named for Snakebite leather), to give a weird magical feel.
I was stuck a little for a Maal follower, but 'Beast' allowed for a Goblin with a little mystery, and to be able to paint the shield with the black and white style of Maal.
'Hopper' is the first of the non-Chaos power Goblins. I painted this one-legged and tailed Goblin up with purple flesh, which I then highlighted with mid brown (Citadel's VX-88, the new named for Snakebite leather), to give a weird magical feel.
Rear/side view.
'Beast' is hairy, and has green fur!
'Hopper's' shield I painted up with an early 1980's/1960's looking freaky spiral. I painted it, and then thought it does'nt look very symetrical, but then decided that was quite in line with Goblins, and Chaos Goblins at that. I painted an eye in the middle for no particular reason.
'Beast' is hairy, and has green fur!
'Hopper's' shield I painted up with an early 1980's/1960's looking freaky spiral. I painted it, and then thought it does'nt look very symetrical, but then decided that was quite in line with Goblins, and Chaos Goblins at that. I painted an eye in the middle for no particular reason.
'Twins!' and 'Long Neck'.
Both of these Goblins appear on the cover ofthe 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Rulebook, and so I painted then the same as the artwork.
I positioned the long grasses on 'Long Neck's' base to suggest he is poking his long neck through the undergrowth.
Rear/side views.
'Winged' and 'Spiky Shaman'.
With 'Winged' I thought I would paint him in the style of a cross between a Goblin and a Gargoyle, as he seemed to remind me of one. I painted him a granite grey, adding a little bit of metallic medium to suggest smooth granite stone, and chaos magic.
'Spiky Shaman' was the last of the Goblins I painted and I was stuck for how to paitn him. I painted the skin the olive green and the robe white, and then looking at his snake shaped stick I thuoght of an idea. I will paint him up as a Chaos Goblin version of Yoda! Quite apt as he is a Shaman.
Rear views of the two of them, showing 'Winged's' wings, and 'Spiky Shaman's' spikes.
Next blog update will probably be more Goblins, Great Goblins Gnolls, and maybe another Troll.
What a colourful bunch, Lee. I've never owned any of these and never seen them either painted nor clearly photographed. Always nice when that happens. Lovely work!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ed,
Deleteglad you like them and found the post useful. I try to photograph the rear and sides of miniatures when I look at a particular range as it often adds information and details for people who have only seen the miniatures in catalogue pages.
I wanted to paint them up colourful, and give a Chaos vibe about them. I have been painting up my Goblins more colourfully recently, and wanted these to really stand out too. :)
Definitely going to have to track these guys down after seeing the great job you've done on them - particularly like the idea of a Yoda Goblin Shaman!
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Deletethey are worth getting hold of. Very characterful and fun, and will fit in Chaos or Goblin armies fine. I think Don Hans painted up some for his Chaos army.
The Yoda Shaman came about a little by accident when I was trying out what colours to paint him and the idea struck me. It's not clear in the photograph but his walking stick is in the shape of a snake. I wonder if the Perry twins did sculpt him with Yoda in mind, or it's just a coincidence?
What a great collection, it's so nice to see them painted and up close, they can be a bit of a mysterious bunch. I only have the winged goblin, but I have a hankering to get a few more now!
ReplyDeleteThey are a fun little range David. Some of them pop up on e-bay, they are not too expensive,and are worthwhile tracking down. I wanted to paint them up as a little warband and a collection in their own right, and had fun doing it.
DeleteI love these and have many myself, but you done a really great job on them so my hats off to you sir.
ReplyDeleteThank you Chico,
Deletethey are a great range of Goblins, and great fun to paint. It would be good to see some of your Chaos Goblins too. :)
Good to see you getting back to the goblins :) and looking forward to seeing what you are doing with my favourites: the Fantasy tribe Gnolls/Goblins
ReplyDeleteCool, thank you Waitomo, glad you are enjoying the posts. I am really enjoying getting back to working on the Goblins as well.
DeleteI am currently basing up another 10 Great Goblins/Gnolls, and a few other things. I will be doing another update either this evening, or in the next day or so on them.
I am really enjoying painting and basing them up on the slightly larger 30mm bases and spending a little more time and attention on them. I will be focusing on the mainly Fantasy Tribes era miniatures for the forseeable future. This will mainly be the Great Goblins/Gnolls, solid based Night Goblins, FTD range Dwarves,Trolls, and some of the old solid bases Regiments of Renown. :)