The Return of the Soulflayer; a 3,000 point Chaos army list, change of plan, and of course Goblins.

  I have put the Dark Elf army on hold for the time being. I was'nt 100% happy with the list. I have decided to add an Ally Contingent, in the form of Snakemen (pretending to be Fimir), and I would also rather have the army General riding a Dragon Master Dragon than on the Gold one.

I have painted the core options of the army and a few other things: 40 Warriors, 10 Crossbowmen, 10 Witch Elves, a Wizard and his bound Wyvern, and the two scantily clad Harpies. Still need to base them all.

So, with an eye to what to do next, I wrote up Chaos army list.

 I always wanted to do, and long before Games Workshop decided to do it, have a seperate Beastman army and one for Chaos Warriors. With that in mind I decided to theme the army on Bryan Ansells army in Wahammer Armies (page 74-74) and have it led by the Chaos Sorcerer Soulflayer Peelbone as I have the model (incidentally, Soulflayer is his title as he is a Level 20 Wizard).

I also decided not to do a Chaos Army from one of the Powers as I wanted an unaligned army.
The bulk of the army is made up of blocks of Beastmen, with a few Minotaurs, and several bound monsters to give it a Chaos bestial feel. I did'nt have enough points for the Chaos Centaurs though :(

Chaos Army:

Soulflayer Peelbone, Level 20 Chaos Sorcerer, mounted on a Warhorse with barding
=247 points

Doomweaver Mad Jakkel, Level 15 Chaos Sorcerer
=155 points.


Bound Chaos Host:
 Level 10 Dragon Ogre =185 points
Gorgon                         =110 points
Two Harpies                 =30 points
One Chaos Hound        = 23 points

Doombellow the Deathsteer, Level 15 Minotaur Hero, Spell tempered light armour, Hellhoned blade
=243 points

4 Minotaurs, hand weapon, Level 5 hero
=250 points

4 Minotaurs, double handed weapons, level 5 hero
=290 points.

19 Beastmen, Hand Weapon, light armour, shield, Standard Bearer, Level 5 hero
 = 336 points.

19 Beastmen, Hand Weapon, light armour, shield, Standard Bearer, Level 5 hero with Hellhoned blade 
 =366 points

19 Beastmen, Hand Weapon, light armour, shield, halberds, Standard Bearer, Level 5 hero
= 380 points

19 Beastmen, Hand Weapon, light armour, shield, double handed weapons, Standard Bearer, Level 5 hero =380 points

= 2,997 points.


In addition to this, I was sorting out the loft, and found some Regiment of Renown boxes, and my (squashed) townscape scenery.

And there's photographs of more Goblins too....

Soulflayer Peelbone. 

I had long ago painted him up black with an Iron-Crowned Helm to use as the Witch King for my Nick Lund Grenadier Orc Army that I wanted to use as a Lord of the Rings army (this was back in the 1990's). I still have the army, and plan to re-vist it at some point, although I have the old 1980's Citadel Range Witch King I can use now.

 Not a very good army picture, but it gives an idea of it's battlefield footprint.

The original Dragon Ogre miniature on a chariot base.

 Battle line. 

I will do proper photographs as I paint them.

 Re-based, and bascoated Snakmen, with the Dark Elves behind them (personally, not sure I would want any of that army to get behind me!)

 Front of the box of the second Range of Regiments of Renown from the mid 1980s'.

 Rear view box art. I love the box art from the time.

 £4.50 from the long out of business Beatties of London Toy and Model shop. The one in Brighton is a Costa, and Pizza Hut or something  now :(

Whilst looking through stuff in the loft I discovered my Townscape scenery box has been squashed! Might have to disassemble them all, press them flat, and re-glue them onto bases. 

The Building on the left is part of the cut out of the Monestery of Maison Taal, from the 1986 Citadel Journal. Quite apt as I am slowly building my 1980's Skaven army up.

Anyway,  here are some more Goblins! :) 

 40 Goblin Warriors.

 Command group. 

The Stanard Bearer is a lovely sculpt, with the banner top in the form of a Gargoyle, and the banner shaft sculpted in swirly pattern. 

He is a C12 Goblin, helpfully named Standard Bearer! 

The other two are later 1980's Goblins from the Command sets.

 The poor injured Goblin on the left comes from the late 1980's warrior range, where as his happier friend in the centre is Nikord the Crazy, from the Goblin Battle Chariot release flyer. However, on the back of the flyer is the same picture of the Goblin under the name Oggbod Dogbreath!?  [See Below]

The third Goblin is a solid based C13 Night Goblin. They were apparently first released as FTO Gnomes, but became Goblins. He is very similar to the Petrified Gnome on a Wolf Model.

 It occurred to me that I was typing about away about the Goblin Battle Chariot flyer, and I have'nt seen it on the internet, so was'nt sure if people were aware of it. It came free when I bought the Goblin Battle Chariot boxed set.

The rear of the flyer.

I used the flyer to do part of my first mail order about 1988, and is how I got all the Goblin crew, as well as some of the more unusal chariot parts.  I need to re-base and re-paint the chariots, but might add photographs later of the bits if people wanted to see them.

 Three Iron Claw Goblins. 

The shield on spearman is a Hasslefree one, on the right and old Harlequin one.

 Three more Goblins.

The one on the left is another one of the Chariot crew that came in the box, not sure of his name. The other two are warriors.

 More Goblins warriors.

 Two of the Goblin spearmen with the long type of spears.

 Another of the longer spear wielding Goblins, and a solid based C13 Night Goblin with a dinkier spear, poking his tongue out.

On the right is a Goblin Javelinman. 

Looking at the photo now, it seems both goblins are smirking at the one in the middle.   :)

 The Goblin in the centre is actually a 15mm scale Troll from Alternative armies HOTT range from early to mid 1990's. I thought he worked better as a Goblin.

 The other two are goblins, solid based ones from C12 and C13 ranges.

 Two more C13 Night Goblins, looking very unhappy in thier orange hoods. The other one is a lovely detailed Iron Claw Goblin.

 Another couple of solid based C12 Goblin, and a C27 Chaos Goblin Mutant named Beast. 

 On the left, a Fiend Factory Citadel Red Orc/Goblin. The centre is another Goblin with Spear, and on the right is a Hasslefree Goblins named Mikal.

The C12 Goblin 'Legbiter' armed with a slingshot, a warrior in Norman helmet, and a Champion from the command set.

 Runequest Trollkin/Goblin, centre a Harlequin Goblin, and right a Javelinmen in a pointy helmet.

 ...and finally a Goblin Hero with a bored looking (Bloodbowl) Snotling picking his nose.

Quick post of more Goblins.

Quick update today as I am pushed for time. I might do another update later on in the week, maybe of the unpainted Goblins I need to do.

As promised, as part of my grand plan of photographing all of the painted Goblins, here is another batch of 40 painted Goblins, this time warriors.
I have also added  a couple of shots of Chaos odds and ends to be added to my Beastman themed 3rd Edition Army. I need to write up a list for them soon.

Apart from that, I am still painting the Dark Elves, and I am picking up things from e-bay bit by bit my 3rd Ed Skaven army, the only army I never really collected at the time.

 Happy smiling Goblins, inviting you to dinner :)

 40 Warriors. 

One of those blocks from the last blog update!

 Solid based C13 Night Goblin Standard bearer, unit leader Rikrite Tallgit from the Goblin Battle Chariots extras flyer, and Bag Blower, C12 Goblin with Bagpipes.

 Another happy Goblin, this a Citadel spearman from the later 1980's. Centre is a Harlequin/Black Tree one, and third, another Goblin with spear.

I am sure when I was looking through my old White Dwarf's a little while ago that there are several adverts for Goblins from 1985/6/7 with many of thier names on which  are'nt uploaded to sites such as the Stuff of Legends, etc. I'll have a look for them later.

 Three Goblin spearmen, the centre one is C12 Knee Spiker.

 I think the one on the right might have been part of the Goblins with javelins range.

 Three Iron Claw Goblins.

 Goblin wearing shades, C27 Chaos Goblin 'Three-eyes' ,  and Iron Claw Goblin with battle axe.

 Manic looking Goblin with club, Goblin with spear (I think he looks like Marty Feldman!), and another spear armed Goblin from the Goblin Javelinmen range.

 Goblin with two handed weapon (and stripey leggings), and two solid based C13 Night Goblins. The one on the right is one of the few Goblins I painted greenish......

 ....as is this hooded toothy Goblin.

 His two compainions are another solid based Goblin and an Iron Claw one.

 Two handed weaponed C12 Goblin called Horub, and two more spearmen, both with sheilds added from Hasslefree miniatures.

 Two mace armed Goblins, and one with an axe.

 Three Goblins with clubs. 

The one of the left is a Redbox Games 'Boneback', the centre Goblin is Harlequin/Black Tree, and the final one is a C12 Goblin named appropriately 'Clubber' (although he might also be a fan of nightlife!) .

 Left is Hasslefree Goblin named Bela, and two more Iron Claw Goblins.

 The Goblin warror on the left has an old Citadel metal shield. The spearmen centre is a variant of the happy Goblin in the fourth photo and the 'Marty Feldman Goblin'. 

The third Goblin is a Runequest Trollkin with spear, also released as a C13 Night Goblin. He's missing the top of his spear, but I have several others with the spear intact.

 Marauder Goblin in a Jesters hat with stone club. 

I have seperated most of my Marauder Goblin into thier own regiments. I feel they are a largley different style to the Citadel Goblins and similar to Citadel-style Goblins. To add them to the main Goblin regiments would dilute the feel of the old style Citadel Goblins in my view.

This Goblin is one of the waifs and strays that fits fine with the main bulk of Goblins.

 Chaos Centaurs, and Ally Contingent for the Chaos Beastmen army. 

I seem to be missing a torso for one, but that should turn up as I am reboxing and sorting stuff out. If not, I have some old Chaos Warrior torsos I can add.

12 of the old C27 Chaos Snakemen.

 Unsure what to do with these but I wanted to include them in the Chaos Army. I was thinking of putting them on cavalry bases (I reasted a couple on them for the photo) and using them as more Centuars. 

I read on someones blog they put them on 40mm bases and used them as Ogres, a great idea, but I like to avoid using mercenaires. As they have shields they can't be 'stand in' Minotaurs.

Many many Goblins.

After the interest from people over the recent posts of Goblins and Goblin Wolf Riders, I thought I would photograph all of my painted Goblins to give an idea of what they look like as whole.

This presented a challange as I been photographing miniatures on the two small boards on a shelf. However, by adding a cloth over a big wooden chest in the living room, I managed to get a big enough space for distance shots (Dwarf Gyrocopter recon shots if you like!).

Now it would be crazy for me to photgraph all of the Goblins individually in one go and then post them all at once. I have also forgotten which goblins I have photograhed, and so did'nt want to end up posting the same Goblins all the time.
So the plan is to start again, taking groups of 40 Goblins per blog update, and photographing them in two's and three's . I chose 40 as that is the standard size of my Gobbo Warrior Regiments, or of two Archer regiments. I will still add whatever WIP's I am doing to posts as well.
I still have many more Goblin warriors, archers, wolf riders, warmachines, chariots, and other odds and ends to paint.

Concerning other things, I am plodding along with the Dark Elves, and have included a few finished (but unbased) and WIP photographs. I am kind of bored with them as I have lost the feel for the army as I have been photographing Goblins, and picking up odds and ends of Skaven. Might switch to something else and come back to them, or maybe just focus and keep going.

Anyway, here are the Goblins:

 All the painted Goblins and associated regiments (please excuse the state of the living room bay window!)

In this photo are 415 Goblin Warriors, 104 Archers, 43 Wolf riders, 80 Great Goblins/Gnolls, 20 Trolls, 25 Ogres, 4 Giants, 3 Chariots, 4 Warmachines (and 13 crew), and 6 Wizards. 

All but one of these miniatures are metal (and that one is resin).

In total 661 Goblins.

 Side view.

Most of my Goblins are 1980's Citadel Goblin's, but there are a few others from Grenadier, Alternative Armies, Essex, Harlequin/Black Tree, Marauder and smaller companies, but no Citadel Goblins later than 1990.

 Slightly better, if further away view 

(I stood on a chair to take this photo!)

 Nine regiments of 40 Goblin Warriors

 View of the Goblins on thier left flank.

 Centre.

 Right flank of the warrior block.

 Warriors, Archers and a few Wolf Riders. Each of the archer units are 20 strong, although a couple of regiments need the addition of standard bearer.

 Closer up to the archers.

Two regiments of 30 Great Goblins/Gnolls in front, and one regiment of 20 just behind them.

Giants, trolls, Ogres, Great Goblins, Warmachines, chariots, wolfriders, and wizards.

I will start to photograph the Trolls again too, but not the Ogres as I have already done those completely.

 Goblin wizards, from left to right; Pogo Wildchant from the Goblin Raiding party set, Ratnose Snotgurgle from the Goblin battle Chariots, Great Goblin/Gnoll Shaman, Orc Shaman from BC4 Mighty Ugezods Death Commandos (he's missing the tip of his staff).

 A Ral Partha miniature I use as a nightmare style Goblin wizard, and a witch with haunted club and face mask.

 Essex Miniatures Goblin on wolf, and a tiny Goblin on Dog from Battleforge.

 20 Goblin archers.

I picked two random regiments of Goblin archers to start the re-photgraphing of the Goblins.

For those of you unaware, I paint my Goblins a mix of flesh colours, browns, greys, and other similar shades as I am painting them in the style of Brian Frouds artwork for the Labyrinth and the Goblins that appeared in the film, as well as giving them a slightly more fairytale feel to them from the artwork of Arthur Rackman and Alan Lee.

 The second of this blogs update of 20 goblin archers.

 From the first regiment; the standard bearer (technically the Shaman model, but it serves better as a standard) and musician from the Goblin command packs, and Goblin archer (or Sticka).

 Centre is a Solid based C13 Night goblin, and is flanked by two Iron Claw Goblins.

 3 more Goblin, the ones of the left and right are dismounted Wolf riders that were also sold as archers.

 On left an archer with Hasslefree shield, centre is a bearded goblin, and on the right a random goblin archer.

 Another two later 1980's citadel Goblins, either side of an Iron Claw goblin.

...and the inverse, two Iron Claw Goblins with a central citadel Goblin.

 Iron Claw goblin, and C12 goblin called Zit. Instead of a shield on his back I gave him got a large pavise. He reminds me of Terry Gilliam.

 The command from the other Goblin regiment.

A Ral Partha Orc horn blower. I added him to the goblins for want of anywhere else to put him, and he fits in well. 

The other Goblin is a Black Tree Design/Harlequin Shaman, again better use as a Standard bearer

 Goblin with whiskers, Iron Claw Goblin, and Goblin Archer, Bow 22 from the old 1991 Red Catalogue.

 Three more Iron Claw!

 I love the deatil of Iron Claw Goblins, I might do a seperate update on just them and their details .

 Solid based C13 Night Goblin in jesters hat, a Harlequin goblin, and gobbo stcikka (Bow 10). For many of the Goblins I have not painted the legs bare, but gone for painting in leggings. I think it adds colour and gives a more realistic feel to them.

 Yet again, 3 more Iron Claw! 

 On the left is an Alternative Armies Goblin, and two more Goblin Stickas.

 Two more of Kev Adam's finest late 1980's Goblins (again one with a beard), and a Snagga Goblin from the 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings Range.

 These 3 goblins are part of the half dozen spare Goblin whose regiment is'nt finished yet. 

 All are later 1980's goblins, the one on the left being a C12 Goblin with a crossbow (which sadly counts as a short bow as goblins are'nt allow to wield them in Warhammer) named Blart.

 and these are the other 3 goblins, another C13 Night Goblin in jester hat, and two more late 1980's goblins.

 After getting a little bored with the Dark Elves, I thought I might try paitning a few Skaven. 

Here is a Poisoned Wind Globadier.

 Skaven Warpfire-thrower team. 

I am slowly starting a Skaven army for 3rd Edtion as it's the only army I never really collected (beyond about a dozen and a half).

 The two scantily clad Harpies from the Dark Elf Army. 

I went for this colour to give them a less human feel than if I went for flesh colour. It also ties in with the Dark Elf flesh tone I am using, which surprisingly is a Vallejo German World War 2 Field Grey base and higlhlighted with white.

 Grenadier Rock Dragon/ Wyvern. 

I have ditched the HippoGriff in the Dark Elf army and subsituted it for a Wyvern as I prefer it and it suits the army better.

 Rear view. I like the way the tail has been sculpted around the rocky outcrop.

 WIP: Solid based first version of Mengil Manhides Dark Elves.

and to end, a group shot of 415 Goblin Warriors.