Cult of the Leering Lune- the final month

 

Well that's it everyone, the final month of the Tale of Fourth Gamers army challenge. All the goblins are painted. It's been a bit of a mammoth one, but some fun stuff this month. The army's not finished of course (when are they ever?), there are still some trolls and a giant to do, but all the goblins was what I wanted from this challenge and that has been achieved.

Most of the rank and file for July have been Oakbound sculpts which I did last summer. They were an experiment which I was pleased with and have gone into a project that's due for launch in September.

The champion and standard bearer are Old School Miniatures and (converted) Citadel. It's the only banner not to be made of fabric, but I don't think it clashes too badly. I wanted to go more classic Night Goblin colours on these units, keeping the majority in cream robes for uniformity. The web imagery is a hint of something to come...

Another big block of spears, Oakbound troops again. Those spear tips are very pointy!

Niblet, a Harlequin (I think) champion and an OSM musician. Again, more typical Night Goblin colours to wrap up the project.

Here's why there are webs! I wanted some cave spider riders instead of forest goblin spider riders. The spiders themselves are Mark Copplestone sculpts from North Star and the riders are converted 4th ed models. I hope purists will forgive that they aren't on cavalry bases, the squarish spiders looked a bit silly on big long bases. Their frontage is the same. Now I will confess- I did not want to chop up rare and expensive metal goblins to put them on spiders, so these are actually resin casts (apart from the champion). Shh, don't tell anyone.

The musician's gong and standard top are donations from Mike at Broadsword Miniatures, who is a very generous guy and also donated the final, fun piece of the army...

I believe this chap is a Satanic Panic version of a Citadel classic. To my eye he looked very much like a goblin, so a goblin he now is! With his massive throne and lectern he just had to be riding a a palanquin so a couple of squig herders were yolked to the task. Various spare heads have come in handy adorning poles and other 'boring' bits of the litter.

The back of the throne I adorned with this glorious chunk of leering lead by Kev Adams (of course) and from Foundry (Warmonger). An appropriate visage to round off the Cult of the Leering Lune with! But, of course, it would not be complete without the Warhammer Armies full army pose!

On to the next project!

Cult of the Leering Lune- the final month

Cult of the Leering Lune... where the hell are we up to now?

Yes, it's gobling time again folks. It's been such a horrible, all-consuming couple of months I have completely lost track of where we are, but I believe there are two months left of the Tale of 4th Gamers challenge and I have about a hundred gobbos left to paint, so the end is in sight. I did just about manage to pull of these chaps without straying too far into June.

The leader of this unit is from the recent Old School Miniatures Kickstarter, making him one of the newest Kev Adams goblins in the long line. More on those later. Next to him is a Nightling archer, making up even numbers in the unit.

The rest of these guys are Harlequin/BTD goblin soldiers. I got a job lot of ten from a popular online auction site almost exactly a year ago, so it's very satisfying they are finished just under that marker. I removed their roman-esque crests and puttied on some simple hoods to make them look a bit more Night Gobliny, but of course they are wearing a lot of chainmail which apparently Night Goblins aren't allowed so these will be Common Goblin archers standing in solidarity with their nighty cousins.

I'm sticking with brightly coloured bows, each unit being marked out by a different colour. These guys are the Black Arrow Brigade, as shown by the recurring motif, otherwise known as the Black an' Yellers... for yes, they do indeed have a yellow streak.

The last unit of bows are also heavily-armoured Common Goblins and also (mostly) from the Old School Miniatures Kickstarter.

The set consists of a few variations on a few poses with largely just different heads. Mostly good casts although the tankard and top of the bow on the left most chap here didn't cast properly. I gather these guys were bigger than the commissioner had intended, that seems to be par for the course for both Kev and Old School Miniatures! However the Goblinmaster has had some eye surgery and I believe is now confident he can do some smaller gobbos again in the future.

Some older, smaller goblins have also crept into the unit.

 And finally for this batch we have yet another shaman. I really must learn how magic works in 4th edition! He may not be that pleased at being demoted from goblin king, but he still has his impressive flail to take out his frustrations on the enemy. His familiar has either a selection of scrolls his master may someday read or some edicts that he may someday sign. Assuming he can read and write...

Cult of the Leering Lune... where the hell are we up to now?

Cult of the Leering Lune- Night Goblins month 2

First things first... I realised looking at my Blogger reading list that Grinning Loon has been claimed by Dave Powell for his excellent Grinning Loon Project, so in deference to his claim I have adjusted the name of my goblin clan. I originally wanted to use Grimacing or Leering but they didn't seem to have quite as satisfying a ring as Grinning for this purpose. Leering Visage was what I was initially going to go with, but it felt a bit too erudite for mere goblins. Anyway, the alliterative Leering Lune (with Lune suggesting crescent-shaped rather than mad, but both moon references) will do. It also lets me step aside from clan so as not to risk any supposed links with their pointy white-ish hoods and robes...

Month 2 of the Tale of 4th Gamers challenge and the purpose of this month was to make the army 'legal' according to the 4th edition lists. I did the points calculations a the end of the last post if you're interested. That meant another big block of goblins, this time with hand weapons and shields, their requisite fanatics and a character model just to keep things interesting.

Second attempt at a banner printed onto fabric from a design in Forces of Fantasy. Ok, but still not happy with the distressing. It looks too dabbed on and not natural enough. Will revisit after I have practiced some more!

The champion is a regular goblin, but his pointy helmet spike means he doesn't look out of place. I probably ought to have put him in my unit of goblins with pointy head spikes... but maybe it's better he stands out. The musician I realised when I started painting is the same model as in the first unit. I probably should have done some conversion work on him to make him a bit different.

Middle finger gobbo is, of course, the best of the night goblin models. A unit of thirty of him would be nice... but he is also the hardest to get hold of. Probably because everyone is hanging on to theirs! I swapped the middle guy's axe for a big hammer so he can sit in the front rank and stomp elves whenever he gets the chance. Actually, I think this may be my favourite night goblin sculpt, the mischievous grinning expression is perfectly goblin. The flail goblin may be my least favourite of all the goblin sculpts, I'm not keen on the shorter robe. I think it was a mistake to highlight this by painting them with brightly-coloured shoes but I'm not going back now and painting their socks brown.

More weapon swaps for the same of variation and some bending of wrists. As it's a mixed unit and not a monopose one I want to avoid ranks of the same figure.

I will hold my hands up to a bunch of these shields being resin casts from a simple mould of the originals. Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the plastic ones in my bits box and finding bulk lots of just this shield design doesn't seem likely. I'm not totally sold on the grey metal that I have give them. It's nice and muted but quite similar to the look of the weapons in my Skaven force and I feel like the goblins should have more rusted, weathered implements. I have some rust effects and weathering powders to play with so these may get used in the future... but I don't want to duplicate the rusted effects of my Undead!

The little dudes creeping into the middle of the back ranks of this unit are Goblin Hood models (available from CP Models I believe, though I bought these from Macrocosm) placed to bulk out the numbers. I had to cut their legs off, putty long robes onto them and extend their hoods to make them pointy but having Kev Adams faces they don't look too out of place.

As you can see the Goblin Hood models are still taller and less hunched than the actual night goblins. Can't really do much about that short of basically rebuilding the models. They're ok though, it means their heads can be seen above the ranks in front and I don't expect they will be on the table for very long...

Of course every unit of night gobbos needs to have its fanatics. I wanted to get as many different fanatic models into the force as possible as they are all great. These are some C27 pre-slotta ones. Their hoods kepe them blending in nicely. I did have to make a decision as to what colour goblin hair should be. Purple and bright green crossed my mind, but I think the contrasting orange sets it off nicely and keeps the model unified with his unit.

I had to trim the metal base on the hairy goblin to fit him on his round base. This left the ball and chain exposed and, naturally enough, it has already snapped once. Soft lead and all that. I am hoping the pin, superglue and green stuff will keep it attached. The third Compendium calls two of these guys Agrat and Zitty and lists them as Perry sculpts. The sulky chap that looks the most night goblin doesn't seem to have been included in the lineup after the second Compendium but I assume he's also the work of the Perrys.

From some things much older than the rest of the unit to something newer. The goblins from 5th edition onwards (after Kev left GW) take a radical shift in aesthetic to one I'm not keen on, with the exception of this guy. Since he appeared as Oddgit the shaman in the Idol of Gork campaign and again on the cover of the 6th edition Ravening Hordes I have been a fan. He's got just enough continuity with the previous generation of goblins and as a special character some distinguishing features aren't too big a deal. I've since decided to give all my goblin shamans (yes, lots of them!) familiars so he'll be getting his next month.

Lastly, here's a preview of what's coming for October. I finally managed to get a Kev 'Ed done at BOYL! Well, actually once again I got my model in late and it was bumped down the queue, but Kev was very kind and said he'd take it away to do, then ended up staying late at Foundry and doing it there so Diane sent it through the post to me and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. Champion for the next unit.

 

Cult of the Leering Lune- Night Goblins month 2

Grinning Loon Clan- Night Goblins month1

 

I'm taking part in another army painting challenge! Yep, the Odds and Sods challenge is finished and, even better, I am within a gnat's whisker of completing all the 'started' armies on my shelves. That means I can reward myself by starting on the Night Goblin horde I have been slowly amassing over the last couple of years. Really looking forward to getting going on these!

This year's challenge is the 'Tale of 4th Gamers' organised by Dave/Snickit on the 4th Ed Warhammer Facebook group. The idea is to spend a certain amount of 'gold coins' (imaginary ones) per month, making sure after the first month that the army is a 'legal' 4th edition one. I'm going to be playing the legality a bit fast and loose I think as Night Goblins themselves are extremely cheap... but it's a good basis to use to paint the army. The first month is the general so I thought I would go all out early and stick Skarsnik (not actually Skarsnik in the list) on the best wyvern ever.

A Night Goblin warboss isn't a terribly terrifying prospect, not even Skarsnik himself. I wanted him to be a big centrepiece for the army (and eat up a bunch of points since goblins are dirt cheap and I do want this army to rival my undead one in size), enter the mighty wyvern! I think I'm right in saying this is a Nick Bibby sculpt? It has that smack of real-life animal to it which is a sign of the master's work.

My wyvern was short of his horns so I had to make some new ones. Not too bad, but I may swap them out for some actual ones if I can find them. The re-use of components in these kits is such that they are the same horns as the Bibby Khazad Dum Balrog. I have that Balrog... also missing his horns! On that note though, the wings have also been used in at least three other places I know of, can you name them all? I decided his fangs weren't horrifying enough so I puttied some new, bigger ones for him.

I figured the whole 'drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword' thing applied equally to this model and swapped out Skarsnik's sword for a mighty bow. He might not ever hit anything with it but at least he can have a go! I removed his trident prongs to give him more of a lance, probably unnecessarily but I wanted to make it clear he isn't actually Skarsnik.

The prevalent imagery of the force I wanted to be the classic, grinning face. I have therefore taken every opportunity to putty faces on his bow and saddle and paint one on his shield. In various forms this leering countenance will be present across every unit and character model in the army.

From the second month of the challenge onwards the force is expected to be 'legal' in 4th edition list terms. That means painting a whole lotta gobbos to balance out a boss on a wyvern! Yes, I do have trolls, war machines, doom divers etc. to make up points as well, but there's nothing quite like seeing a sea of goblins going to war! To get ahead of the game a bit I thought I would go for the first unit of 30 in the first month. 

For the banners I am trying a tip from Ryan (ManicMan on the forum) about printing onto fabric using freezer paper. I have printed out a bunch of the banner and shield designs from Forces of Fantasy which are going to form the basis of the banners. This one isn't quite finished here, it needs a bunch more distressing adding to it, but you get the idea. 

Part of the appeal of a goblin army is having enough random elements in there that any battlefield successes or failures can't be laid at the door of my bad generalship. If you're going to play a game that's fundamentally tied to throwing buckets of dice why not go all out? That means Squig Hoppers, Pump Wagons, Trolls, Doom Divers... and, of course, as many Fanatics as I can put in! Three per unit of Night Goblins is the limit in 4th so here are the three for this unit.

As I expect the goblins to be removed from the battlefield in large numbers (routing if nothing else!) I figured it made sense to mount them on unit bases. Thanks to Bil Curd for the big bag of unit bases! It also gives me the opportunity to stick toadstools on them... I might have to go all out on some later on and do Kev Adams style putty plants etc.

I have deliberated over the painting of these goblins for a long time, all whilst painting up my odds and sods last year. I wanted something that would be quite quick given how many of them I would need, but that would allow me to show appreciation for the quality of sculpts and not rush them. I settled early on light coloured robes as black feels either too stark/cartoonish or would take too long to shade and highlight appropriately. These dirty cream robes have the benefit of only needing a base coat (I sprayed them with Montana Elm spray paint, giving and undercoat and base coat in one) and wash with Army Painter Soft Tone to look suitably detailed and grimy. I did a second wash in the darkest recesses and a few spot highlights on important (front rank) models. As that's most of the model done I could then spend more time getting the skin as I wanted it. Hopefully the pale robes aren't so pale they look like Klan...

This unit all have the metal leering face shields GW produced. I don't have enough of them for the full army but have been slowly acquiring them alongside the goblins themselves to have enough to do the monopose unit of spear gobbos I wanted to see most of all. I did consider mixing in the second sculpt in this pose (head variant) but in the end decided that a uniform unit of the same model was what I wanted to see. The other units will be more mixed.

29 Night Goblins with spears and shields, including command and 3 Fanatics is 198.5pts. Their boss is 17pts. The Night Goblin Warboss with lance, bow and shield on wyvern is 234pts. That means so far 251pts of characters and 198.5pts of troops (without magic items). Hopefully my September submission can comprise of another unit of 30 goblins with shields (93pts) and fanatics (90pts) and that should give me a force that is legal and has room for another boss (16pts) and shaman champion (83pts)- 350pts characters, 381.5pts troops, 731.5pts total... almost a quarter of the way to a full 3000pt force! I think I may be going slightly over 3000pts somehow!

Grinning Loon Clan- Night Goblins month1