Patreon 2023- The Stirlanders

 

The Oakbound Patreon 2023 is drawing to a close, just waiting on the fancy packaging boxes to arrive now. This was a fun one, the Patreon serving its purpose to present some different-from-the-usual subjects for me to sculpt. The consensus for this year was a Mordheim Stirlander warband. From other ideas thrown into the pot we ended up with a witch hunter of Morr leading a rabble of Free Foresters. They are accompanied by a halfling servant they saved from burning at the stake but who they don't like much and force to do all the heavy toil. Acting as guides to find the hated necromance who is the nemesis to our witch hunter are two bodies with one spirit- a skeleton which is the final mortal remains of a soldier raised to unlife by the aforementioned necromancer (restrained) and the krank medium who ended up becoming possessed by the soldier's immortal spirit. Angry at the misuse of his body, the soul has refused to depart in peace until the necromancer has been hunted down and destroyed forever.

I already had Tony Hough in mind for the concept art this year, but the subject matter absolutely clinched it. I can't think of anyone better to draw up black and white, gothic, semi-horror fantasy characters than the master of Fighting Fantasy illustration. He's done a stonking job as always.

The witch hunter has two head options as Tony originally drew him with a big hat. The head druid last year also had a tall hat and the patrons were divided on whether it should be a recurring theme in 2023.

The conversation about next year's theme is underway, so if you're interested in jumping aboard for the Patreon Warband 2024 now's a good time to have your say. You can even request to have the 2022 and/or 2023 warband sent to you as well as/instead of the 2024 band if you're sad about missing out. Just head on over to the Oakbound Patreon page. Subscription is £5 a month and you get input into the development of the warband, a step-by-step insight into the production process and a set of exclusive metal models in a nice presentation box at the end of the year.

Cult of the Leering Lune month 4

Another month, another band of grinning loonies! Technically these aren't Night Goblins (despite mostly being comprised of Night Goblin champions) since Night Gobbos aren't allowed armour in 4th edition. Nevertheless, since they clearly ARE Night Goblins with armour they have been allowed to join the army. That they are 'technically' Common Goblins (for those who care about such things...) allows me to field Doom Divers, which are also so obviously Night Goblins that I have to have some. Note that in White Dwarf Jervis Johnson himself fields an 'illegal' Orcs and Goblins army which includes Doom Divers without a single Common Goblin unit,  so yah boo shucks rules lawyers. And to the 'Doom Divers aren't Night Goblins' brigade I call your attention to the army showcase pages of the 4th ed O&G army book which clearly captions one 'Night Goblin Doom Diver'. 

Night Goblin champions with the armour they are definitely not allowed according to the army list... maybe it's made of fungus. Have you ever noticed when collecting miniatures that some specific figures are a lot more prolific than others in a range? For a while it seemed like every command group I picked up had this guy as the champion. I could have traded them out again I guess but I thought a unit of them was more fun.

I wanted to go bright and colourful on the armour whilst still trying to fit with the look of the other units and complement the skin tone. Weirdly, whilst the Molotow undercoat I have put on all my Night Goblins has been fine to paint over on other units, on this one it was really resisting painting over. Just kept sliding off the shoulder pads. It took me a good few layers of pulling paint around on the surface to get it where I wanted. Maybe there isn't as much minute texture on the pads as on the robes so coming out with a glossier surface finish. Definitely something to watch out for.

Big thanks to Dave Gillson of Snickit's Tale for the boss I was missing. He's a badass boss leading a unit of bosses! At least he has equipment he's actually 'allowed' according to the army list! He's accompanied by some enthusiastic characters from diverse places filling out the ranks.

To pad out the unit a bit I have a rear rank of these lovely Heartbreaker Goblins from Ral Partha Europe. Actually only one of them was bought new, the others I picked up in a lot with a bunch of other Heartbreaker models destined for a different unit. With their similar spiky armour and armaments I thought they complemented the champion models quite well. Being a bit taller helps them to see from the rear!

Since the unit is Common Goblins not Night Goblins I couldn't add Fanatics, boo. Although I discovered recently that in 3rd Edition any Goblin unit can have Fanatics (since Night Goblins aren't in 3rd, despite being in 2nd and 4th...) so maybe I need some spares for when we play 3rd... Anyhow, instead I chose some other crazy random-movement troops... the Squig Hoppers!

There aren't that many unique Squig Hopper models so I did some weapon swapping and arm bending to give some variation. The 'champion' is a shameless rip-off idea from someone I saw on Instagram, sorry I don't remember who. I posed Gobbla on one leg, chopping the other and moving it back a bit to make him a look bouncier. The rider is a Fanatic chopped at the waist, reposed and pinned, with his ball and chain swapped for one of the other Squig rider's clubs. He's gotta be careful where he bounces with that horn front and centre on Gobbla's head! 

For one of the early Golden Gobbo competitions I did a Chaos Warrior conversion whose head was the Squig on one foot (with his feet removed) and now it always surprises me to see one without his 'body'! On reflection I really like the more yellow colouration for the Squigs, they remind me of the Golden Demon artwork. Hey ho, not repainting them now.

Two Snotlings are trying to get in on the Squig Hopper action... being later Kev Adams sculpts they're actually a bit larger than the average Night Gobbo! These are Orcling Space Hoppers from Foundry. A few years back GROG ran a Space Hopper race game at BOYL using Foundry's Orcling Space Hopper miniatures and Marcus Ansell liked it so much he asked Kev to convert some to represent two of the common 'upgrades' from the game- Stompy Boots and a Spiky Helmet. They're now a part of the Foundry range, perhaps we should dig the race game board out again...

And last but not least, another Shaman. This time with a Snotling familiar who I am sure is a lot of use... Second time I have painted this Shaman model (I did one for my Heroquest set) and he is always a joy. I have one more (modified) copy of him to do for the army in a forthcoming month.

For those who care about points and stuff that gives me:

19 Common Goblins with Light Armour and 2-Handed Weapons- 85.5pts, 12 Gold Crowns

Plus Command Group (the football hooligan sings badly)- 5pts, 2.5 Gold Crowns

Plus Champion with Light Armour and Shield- 3pts, 1,5 Gold Crowns

8 Squig Hoppers- 400pts, 24 Gold Crowns

Shaman Champion- 83pts, 2 Gold Crowns

Army total so far- 1701pts (1070pts Mobs, 631pts Characters), 6.15 Gold Crowns in the bank.