75,000+ views, basing materials from 'Forged in Blood' and 'Gaugemaster', and lots of Great Goblins/Gnolls.

Before starting this weeks update I checked my 'number of views' and as of this evening I have reached 75,773 since I started blogging in April 2013!
A big thank you to everyone who has taken a viewed my blog and taken an interest.

I have received a lot of interes, positive comments and feedback regarding the updates concerning the Great Goblins/Gnolls.  This is great (like the Goblins really! LOL) as they are a wonderful range and it has been my intention to focus my efforts on this range for the for some time. I will also be painting more FTD Dwarves and random early 1980's Citadel solid based odds an ends which fit with the 'Goblins Wars' era project of which they are all a part. I'm planning to do an update on the Goblin Wars as well. For now, here's a hill of Goblins before I start the part of the blog on concentrating on the basing/scenery materials from 'Gaugemaster' and 'Forged in Blood'.
Enjoy :)

A whole hill full of Great Goblins/Gnolls. 

I had a clear couple of days and so managed to get 12 Great Goblins/Gnolls painted.

 More on these later in the Blog.

What I wanted to achieve when I decided to re-base the Great Goblins/Gnolls and other Fantasy Tribes miniatures on 30mm bases, was to spend more time on painting each of the miniatures as individuals. Part of that was to make the bases look better and more interesting than my previous bases I had done for the 3rd Edition Warhammer armies. One of the ways I feel I have done that was adding little model flowers and ferns, and other plants. Most of these are made by a model railway company called Gaugemaster, who also owns the company 'Noch'.

Now Gaugemaster is based in Ford, which is only 30 mins along the coast from Brighton and Hove by train, so on monday I popped along the coast to take a look. They not only stock their own range, but a lot of imported item of scenery, model flowers, trees, flock, mats, and of course model trains. I found them very useful and friendly and their website can be found here:  http://www.gaugemaster.com/index.html

 'The Engine Shed', home of Gaugemaster.

They are next to Ford train station. I was still in the station's entrance when I took this photograph. 

There is nothing much else in Ford (well there's an open Prison!), but it is only 2 miles from Arundel which is still a largely medieval/old style town, with a massive Castle and Cathedral, and well worth a visit in itself. 

 Inside.

 Flowers.

 A wall of flock, flowers, tress and other scenic stuff for basing. 

Below are some of the things I bought...

 Apple Trees.

These will make a nice change for scenery and backdrop for photographing.

 Ready made stone wall, and water effect resin. I am looking forward to using with this :)

 Tiny, cute, little plants in pots. The pots themselve are 5mm high, not including the plants.

I want to use a couple of these on the base for a Troll, to suggest he has wondered into someone's garden and is doing all the mayhem that Troll's are wont do!

 More flowers in boxes, made by 'Noch'. 

These are the people who make the little ferns on some of my Goblins bases. I bought two boxes of Ferns as they are great.

 Sunflowers.

I have used a couple of these on a Great Goblin further down this blog update.

Flat pack buildings. 

These are railway '00' scale, which look similar to old 25mm/20mm size, and so work well with Goblins and Dwarves. I have here are a Village Forge, Hut, and Barn.

Now part from Gaugemaster I also had a second set of basing materials to work with...

A few weeks ago I bought some FTD Dwarves on e-bay from the e-bay seller 'magicusermodels', real name Michael. We got chatting, and I sent him a link to my blog and explained my project concerning the old Fantasy Tribes range, which he liked and informed me that he runs a company making his own basing materials. Very kindly he sent me a free sample kit, and so in return I am blantantly plugging his company and will be pointing out where I have used his basing materials on the Goblins I have just painted and based. 

Here is his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Forged-in-Blood-Ink/279298008820236?fref=ts

 Free basing kit. 

The individual types of basing material have quite cool names, such as 'Griffon's Eyrie', 'Forest Floor', and 'Emeral Elf Havens', relating to their type and look, and are good quality.

I have previewed a few of them below and mentioned which of the particular ones I have used on the Goblins. I will be using some of the others later, and will mention those as and when.

 'Forest Floor'.

 'Mithril Diamond Mine' and 'Gorgon Stone'.

I like the Mithril one as it has little bits of silver glitter in it, and would work well with my Dwarf and Moria Goblin Lord of the Rings armies, so I might re-base them up in the near future.

The 'Gorgon Stone' reminds me of Brighton and Hove beach, and so will be used in conjuction with the water effect resin for a waterline base.  

 Leaves! 

These came in the same pack as the 'Ancient Forest' pack, and are great to add to bases as general leaf litter.

 'Spiky Grass, Wood of Winter', and 'Goblin Grasslands'.

 'Ancient Forest', with big bits of logs and lots of leaves.

...and now onto the Great Goblins/Gnolls.

 On the left FTG 1Great Goblin/Gnoll with Polearm. On his base is a little bit of the 'Ancient Forest'.

On the right is C12 Goblin with a mix of 'Spiky Grass' and Gaugemaster flock with bits of cork in it.

The backdrop behind the Goblins is the backing card which came with the apple trees. The wall is the ready made wall, and I bought a little static grass mat to replace the rather tired old boards I have been using for a while.

 Left a FTG16 Goblin with short sword and shield.

Right another FTG1 Great Goblin/Gnoll, with a 'Stone Age' stone on his base.

A bit of one of the apple trees is just sneaking in the top left hand of the photograph.

 Close up of the FTG16 Goblins base. On the left of the base is the dark looking flock named 'The Black Forest'. On the right of the base is some of the 'Goblin Grasslands'.

Two more FTG1 Great Goblin/Gnolls with Pole Arms.

On the left are a few of the leaves from the 'Ancient Forest' pack. 

On the right is some of the 'Conspiracy of Rats' pack, and a 'Noch' Fern.

 One FTG2 Great Goblin/Gnoll attacking with Hand Weapon, and a FTG3 Great Goblin/Gnoll standing with Hand Weapon. He is standing with his Hand Weapon in front of a couple of the Sunflowers I bought from Gaugemaster.

 Close up of the bases. 

On the left, more leaves. On the right some 'Spiky Grass', and a little 'Emerald Elf Havens'.

 Two more FTG3 Great Goblin/Gnoll standing with Hand Weapon.

The Goblin on the left has a pair of 'Stone Age' stones. There's a little bit of supeglue staining it dark, making it look damp.

 Close up of base with some 'Goblin Grasslands' and a little 'Noch' Nosta. 

I am quite pleased with how his Sallet came out, all battered and old.

 FTG15 Great Goblin/Gnoll Priest with Mace. He is also listed as a C12 Goblin. 

Next to him is a Fantasy Specials FS70 Sacrifical Goat. I have had the Goat for ages and thought he would look good on the base of the Great Goblin/Gnoll Priest. 

The basing is just normal Gaugemaster flock with bits of cork in it.

In the background are the Apple Trees, and part of a plastic fence I bought from e-bay and painted. 

I love the way the background card, wall, and fence, give a sense of depth to the photograph.

Rear view.

Next weeks blog update will be more Great Goblins/Gnolls, as well as a couple of other old solid bases miniatures I have been painting.

C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

Continuing my painting of Citadel Fantasy Tribes/early C-series miniatures in line with my idea of the Goblin/Dwarf Wars, I have moved slightly forward in time to 1984 and the start of the C-series. This week I have painted up the complete set of the C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

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.

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.

'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.

Allies (and a couple of enemies) of the Great Goblins/Gnolls.

Continuing in the same vein of me painting Great Goblins/Gnolls individually and on 30mm bases, I have added some old solid based Goblins allies, and a Troll to the mix. I have also painting up a couple of Dwarves too.

Well I say painted, a few (but not all) of the Goblins, and the Troll, were already painted by me some years ago. I have however re-visited the paintwork on those few and rebased all of them on the 30mm bases with all of the snazzy basing details added.

Now I am really enjoying painting up these miniatures and it has got me looking at all the other models I own from the Fantasy Tribes ranges, as well as the other pre-slotta Citadel miniatures from the 1980's. To me the models from this era are really evocative of 1st and 2nd Editions of  Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and I have a soft spot for 2nd Edition as it was the edition I started with a like the most. For me one of the most interesting parts of this era (apart from the Slann) is the 'Goblin/Dwarf War'.

A lot of the background for the 1st/2nd Edition era Goblin/Dwarf War focuses on, unsurprisingly, Goblins and Dwarves fighting each other, and the role of the various Regiments of Renown involved. So with that in mind I have decided to develop my idea of just painting up my Great Goblins/Gnolls on the 30mm bases, to include a broader range of Fantasy Tribes miniatures and early 1980's models which I feel would be relevant to the Goblin/Dwarf War era. These will include Dwarves, Great Goblins/Gnolls, ordinary Goblins (termed Night Goblins in the 1st Edition), Red Goblins, Lesser Goblins, Hobgoblins,Trolls, Ogres, Giants, and maybe some Halflings.  I will not be at this time consider adding any Orcs as I want to keep it to the various types of Goblins and their Troll/Ogre allies, but if I do they will be from the Fantasy Tribes range too.

In additon, I will also add the three Regiments of Renown which have direct participation in the Goblin/Dwarf Wars mentioned as part of their background: Bugmans Dwarves; Groms Goblin Guard; and Golgfag's Ogres. The idea is to just use miniatures from the 1st/2nd Edition era to give this project that early Warhammer feel. As I have both versions of the Regiments of Renown from the 1980's I don't have a problem with basing them on the 30mm bases. I also intend to paint up the SS4 Goblin Raiding Party set, and the C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

I will still be happily taking my time and treating each miniature individually, but will have a fun framework in which to paint the miniatures. I am also fortunate to have miniatures of the main personalites of the War, such as Grom, Bugman, Thorgrimm Brandedimm, Golgfag, Rug Longtooth, and several other named models from the era. I will do a 'personalites' update a little later.

Enjoy :)

A hill of Goblins!!!

All of the miniatures are solid based Citadel from the early to mid 1980's.

Two C13 Night Goblins, one with sword, the other with a spear.

I have followed the description in the 1st Edition Warhammer 'Forces of Fantasy' supplement regarding Night Goblins when painting their skin. For skin tone it suggests that the Goblins are a palid green, so have opted for a slightly more 'realistic' looking pale olive colour.

C13 Night Goblins with bows. 

Unlike the Great Goblins/Gnoll bows, which I will paint up in snake skin pattern colours, the Night Goblin bows will be patterned, but not to any style. I think the painting the bows, and some weapon hafts, like this make them look more interesting and less just like a stick. I think that John Blanche painted some of his Orcs bows like this too back in the 1980's.

Two of the same C13 Night Goblin with bow. 

The one on the right was bent over a little, so instead of straightening him out, I left him to look like he was leening around tall grasses, and then added the grasses accordingly.

C13 Night Goblin with bow (left), and club (right).

C13 Night Goblins, with pitch fork, and axe.

An early C36 Hobgoblin. 

The very early Citadel Hobgoblins were not Far Eastern/Mongol in their design. 

I like to think that these are more appropriate for the Goblin/Dwarf War, being more Western looking, before the Hobgoblins were pushed out of the West and into in the Badlands of the East. 

I have painted him in the leathery orange flesh tone of the early 1980's style of Hobgoblins.

C20 Troll, Hobol Firebreath.

I have based the Troll on a 50mm base, in the same way I have based the Goblins on slightly larger bases.

Enemies of the Goblins! 

FTD Fantasy Tribes Dwarves.

Dwarf smoking a pipe.

A lot of the FTD Dwarf miniatures seem to smoke pipes! :)

Another FTD Dwarf, this time a Dwarf from the 'shieldwall'.

 RR1 Bugman's Dwarf Rangers, WIP.

...and now something from the late 1980's, a Marauder Miniatures Halfling.
I thought I would paint him up as a one-off and base him up as a farmer in his field of leeks.

Rear view, with leeks! 

Next update will be more Great Goblins/Gnolls, which I haven't as of yet painted!! 

I might, if I get time, also do a small piece on the Goblin/Dwarf War.