Basing Goblins (and friends, and enemies).

 I haven't managed to do any painting for a while, but I have been focusing on basing, re-basing, and organising my collection. I have got to a point where I want to reorganise my collection, take stock of what I have, and aim to focus complete anything I require. 

All this is no mean feat as I do own quite a lot of miniatures, several thousand probably. It will involve a lot of basing, paint stripping, painting. Over the last few months, with the exception of a distracted foray into Rogue Trader Eldar, I have been basing a lot of my old Fantasy Tribes miniatures onto multi bases for the Midgard rules set, something I have yet to blog about.

Now as that nears it's completion it had got me thinking about how to organise my collection as a whole and I came up with the the following ideas that I would use organise everything. My Fantasy Tribes Great Goblins/Gnolls and Dwarfs, and some pre slotta miniatures would be organised for Midgard. My 3rd Edition Fantasy miniatures would be organised into armies consistent with the Warhammer Armies book. My 1980's Regiments of Renown shall be an independent project, with Regiments of 20, and the miniatures based individually. I have quite a lot of Chaos stuff as well, and they shall be organised via the Slaves to Darkness and Lost and the Damned books Daemon Army lists. In addition, I have a collection of non Chaos Daemons with which I shall construct an independent Daemon army (mainly Great Daemons and Gargoyles).  I will still have a Chaos Army constructed via Warhammer Armies book Chaos Army, and my pre slotta Chaos army via Midgard as well.  

Other than the main focus of 1980's Warhammer Fantasy, I still have my 4th Edition Chaos Dwarfs to finish off, and the Tomb Kings Army to re base (and a Bone Dragon to construct and paint). Then there's the 40k collections, which I am less concerned about at the moment, although it would be nice to re-visit the Chaos Legions at some point. Finally, I would like to look at doing a few historical projects, something which I have always wanted to do, but have always put off by never finding a good set of rules or being daunted by just getting started with uniforms or organising. 

Anyway, back to 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy. Where to start? Well Goblins of course! Now lets get the basing thing out of the way first. With the recent release of Warhammer The Old World, the basing size of infantry has increased to 25mm. Even in the 1980's some people preferred 25mm round bases for miniatures, and this has carried on ever since. I have always disliked 20mm bases. Many of the miniatures never really fitting on them, and ranking up some ranges was a nightmare ( Marauder Dark Elves!!). Also, I felt that may 1980's  miniatures are lovely, but squashing them into regiments with tiny bases meant that you never got to appreciate them. So I am basing all the infantry on 25mm square bases. By doing so I have found that I am acquiring a new found love and appreciation of the miniatures, and having more fun basing. I shall be adding shields to many of the miniatures at a later date. 

Enjoy :) 

Goblins!
This is just the start. I have a lot of goblins and I am looking forward to returning to paint them. I have based them with rocks on the base to suggest the Worlds Edge Mountains. I always think of Goblins up in the mountains, annoying Dwarfs.  

From left to right,C12 goblin Biglub, Oggbod Dogbreath from the MD6 Goblin Battle Chariot releases, and C12 Blodgutt.

C12 Leg Ripper, Dofblot ( this is the name listed for a Goblin which looks like him, but I am not convinced the listing is the correct goblin), and Blimblam Blimblamblamblom (I kid you not!). 

An unlisted Goblin (he's not from the MD6 Goblin Battle Chariot releases) Splat, and Hagbagg. 

Goblin archers. 

Bugshot, Blart, and Keen Eye. 

Mastog Underarm, Arag, Anseg Shortbow.

Bartog the Naff, Deddwud Fargo from the Goblin Battle Chariots, and Jonsog Moonhat. 

Two goblin fanatics, Haggrub Grinswathe and Bograt the Loon. 
I have based these on round bases the same size as the Goblin Fanatic template. 

C12 Bagblower, the Snotling Wizard (to be used as a Level 5 goblin Wizard), and the C21 Goblin Wolf Riders wolf Fang.

Pre slotta C20 Trolls. 
Davogrod Gutsucker, Skuttlescree Soresmeer, Rattlebones Bowlegs, and Shakined Bone Bender. I have and half dozen of these in the paint stripper queue, including the Hobol Firebreath and Grog Stuntycrusher. 

A pair of C09 Dark Elves. 
Morathar Manbane, and Crossbow. 

Imperial Dwarf Crossbowmen. 

 Dwarfs. 

More Dwarfs. 

Even more Dwarfs. 

Two Dwarf Command, and a Norse Dwarf (I think!). 

A mix of C15 Orcs, Orc Champions, and Orc Command.  

Ratnose Snotgurgle, the Goblin Wizard from the Goblin Battle Chariots mail order flyer. I mail ordered him at the time (1988) and he has been a Level 25 Goblin Wizard all these years! 

C28 Giant: Bottle Snortle. 

C28 Giant: Nine Fingers.

Trolls.

On the left the later C20 Warrior Troll  from 1987.
On the right is the Talisman Troll. I tried to position him so it looks like he is stepping off of the rocks. 

Some of my Regiments of Renown. I have all of the 1980's Regiments of Renown, and am only missing three of the miniatures, and in need of a few more troopers here and there, from the whole range. 

RR18 Eeza Ugezod's Mother Crushers. 

 RR4  Mengil Manhide's Dark Elves (version 2). 

RR6 Mad Mullah Aklan'd's Death Commandos. 

RR2 The Knights of Origo.
The musicians sword broke and so I replaced it with a thin piece plasti-card and drilled and pinned it in place of the original blade. 

RR17 Knights of the Cleansing Flame. 
The trooper miniatures are a pain as I have found that the spears can be very brittle if bent. I'm pleased to have an unbroken Standard Bearer, with the brazier top still attached though.

A few of my Slaves to Darkness Khornate Daemon Legion.
 There are a lot more in the paint stripper. I also have been basing my Slaaneshi, Nurgle, and Tzeentch Daemon Legions. 

All of my Chaos armies are based with spikes in the bases, made using cocktail sticks. The idea is that it is an extra spiky part of the Chaos Wastes or Daemonic Plains. Below (two down) is how the bases will look once painted. 

A (famous!?) Bloodletter  conversion. 

Chaos Familiar with the Chaos spiky base. This little chap is part of my 3rd Chaos Dwarf army, but more on that in another update. 

Next update will probably be more basing. I am very busy with a lot of non hobby stuff at the moment, and so basing and organising is an easy, relaxing thing to do. I've been spending a fortune on Milliput though! 

Early Rogue Trader era Eldar Pirates.

 Keeping with my recent early Rogue Trader era theme, I have painted some early release Eldar. Now I never liked the Eldar at the time, too busy collecting Orks and Slann, but on later reflection I quite like them and see them nearly as iconic as the Crimson Fist Space Marines for the early era (1987/8) as the are photograph all through the rule book. 

I have organised them as per the Eldar army list in the Book of the Astronomican (1988), in squads of five miniatures. There were two basic types of squads. The first was the Serpent Squads, consisting of a squad leader with flamer and power sword, a trooper with a melta gun, and three troopers with shuriken catapults. The other type was the heavy/special weapon squad, the Dragon Squads, consisting of a leader with power glove and a plasma gun, a trooper with a heavy plasma gun, a trooper with a flamer, and two troopers with shuriken catapults. 

As for painting I chose the series of paint schemes found in both the Rogue Trader rule book, and in both the artwork and Eldar Dreadnought advert in White Dwarf #100. I really wanted to capture that old Eldar Pirate look, before the re-dux in 1990 with all of the Aspect Warriors, etc. I also want to paint each squad slightly differently, even if they are in the same Pirate group, just to break up a monotonous look. They were great fun to paint and I am happy with how they turned out. I might paint some more! 

Enjoy :) 

A Dragon Squad belonging to Yriel's Eldritch Raiders, copied from the rule book miniatures. 

Squad leader. 

Heavy weapon and flamer. 

Troopers.

A Serpent squad of Xian's Black Raiders. 

Squad Leader and melta gun trooper. 

Troopers. 

A Serpent Squad based on some of the miniatures painted for the early Eldar (Space Elves) adverts. I will use them as a squad of the Scarlet Command Pirate force. 

Squad leader and melta gunner. 

Trooper. 

Serpent Squad, based on some of the Eldar painted on p180-181 in the Rogue Trader rule book. These will end up as a Scarlet Command squad as well. 

Melta gunner and squad leader. 

Troopers. 

Eldar Pirates from Yriel's Eldritch Raiders and Xian's Black Raiders defend themselves from an attack by the Scarlet Command. 

The next update might be some more Rogue Trader stuff as I am in that vibe at the moment,

and I am in between projects. 

Rogue Trader era Zoats.

 For a lot of the year I have so far been blogging about my Mithril Evil Army, which is fine, but I had  finished painting them in about May and have really only been catching up with photographs. Since then I have been doing a lot of other things, mainly re/basing Rogue Trader era miniatures. Outside of the hobby my life has been taken over by a lot of various busy things, and so I have been relaxing mainly by re/basing rather than painting. However yesterday I had some free time and got to painting. 

Zoats! I love 'em. 

When I first saw the 40k versions back in 1987 I thought they really did have that alien feel. Unlike the humanoid looking aliens (except for the Slann), the Zoats (and the Tyranids) really felt alien. The green sickly, unearthly looking green painting in the advert (see below) worked well, and that was how mine were painted for ages (give or take the odd experimental scheme). Anyway, as mentioned,  I have been re/basing a lot of Rogue Trader stuff and so it was only a matter of time before I got to the Tyranids. I had collected a fair sized army based on the 1992 Tyranid Army list, which was the first army list since the basic one in the 40k rule book. So with the Zoats, paint stripped and re-based, and sitting on the desk I thought, 'I want to paint these'. And so I did. 

Now the original colour scheme was great, but I want these to be part of a wider Tyranid Hive Fleet. So I opted for the Hive Fleet Behemoth. This was apparently the first Hive Fleet to be encountered, which I thought suited Rogue Trader era miniatures, and it was similar to the 1992 paint scheme. Also I just really liked the alien looking red and blue. Painting wise (as always) I wanted to keep it simple, concentrating on the two main colours.

Using all Citadel paints, after a Mechanicus Standard Grey undercoat, the red was Khorne Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, with light highlights of Troll Slayer Orange. The blue was Kantor Blue, Thunderhawk Blue, with Calgar Blue highlights, and a final edge highlight with White Scar. I added a little Moot Green highlights on a little of the equipment/weapons. I used Technical 'Ardcoat to varnish them as I wanted that shiny, icky, alien look.

All in all, I am very pleased with how they came out, and I will be seeing if I have enough time to paint the rest of the Zoats, and maybe the rest of the Hive Fleet army. I am also pleased with how the muddy, barbed wire strewn bases, which are going to be standard for my Rogue Trader era miniatures, look. 

Enjoy :) 

Zoats!
In the 1992 army list Zoats aren't organised into squads but are purchased individually. However I have kept with the old rule book (and Book of the Astronomicon 1988) convention of squads of four. 

Squad leader with Power Fist and Flesh Ripper Pistol. 

Zoat with Barber Strangler. 

Two Zoat troopers with Flesh Ripper Pistols. 

All of my Zoats! 
(one of the squads here is the one which I have painted). 

The advertisement from 1987. 
(from the Stuff of Legends website). 

Next update might be some more Tyranids.