Gloranthan stuff - adventurer, 6th July

[Hobgoblin]

Great work on the great troll! He looks much better than the one on the company website - they'd be far better off using yours!

Those goblins work very well as trollkin - you've captured the quintessential trollkin look in the eyes.

[Cubs]

Gotta love the Trolls.

[Hobgoblin]

Just trying to assess the size of those Essex goblins: are yours based on pennies/20mm rounds?

[Severian]

Thanks very much guys.

you've captured the quintessential trollkin look in the eyes.

Bug-eyed is the one facial expression I can reliably reproduce...

Just trying to assess the size of those Essex goblins: are yours based on pennies/20mm rounds?

Yes, they're based on pennies. Here's a quick scale shot with a straight edge. He's more or less exactly 25mm toe to crown, which surprised me a bit. But then I discover that even fairly slight historicals (Perrys and so on) come in at 33mm or so. And as for the dark trolls...

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks - that's very helpful! I've started on an old-school goblin project (to cover both D&D and Middle Earth wargaming), and I'm wondering about adding some Essex goblins - oddly enough, probably as Uruks (or goblin king's guards in D&D). I've always loved the Essex wolfrider who looks to his left (very close to the Bolg of my imagination), and I'm intrigued by the photo-less goblin guards on the website.

[Severian]

Yes, the lacunae on the Essex website never fail...

Alas, I don't have any of the goblin guards - just a pack each of the light spearmen and macemen, and some packs of the slingers.

Be aware that some of the variants have unmistakeable beards and/or moustaches (like the pictured chieftain, in fact). I set aside a couple of the slingers and a mace guy for this reason. They might work as pygmy Ancient Britons, I suppose. But since the chieftain is facially hairy, one or more of his guards might be too. This may not matter for goblins, of course, but I thought it wasn't quite OK for trollkin. Anyway, like all the Essex range they're fun to paint, and unlike some of them they're not burdened with strange unidentifiable items of kit or costume.

[trev]

Nice troll gang there, great painting. 

The Sazdorf trolls have beards (but no mustaches) in the RQ3 Haunted Ruins.









And a few whiskers for this Uz



Even a Trollkin



PS Love the Ray Reardon look.  Perhaps the clan is famous across Dragon Pass for it's snooker players? 

This is David Vine for the Boldhome Broadcasting Corporation and you join us live now in Crabtown for this, the 500th Genertela snooker championship.   

[Severian]

Thanks!

There are some proper lockdown barnets on those RQ3 trolls, aren't there. Maybe I can have a hairy trollkin sub-clan to go alongside the Ray Reardon mob.

Now idly speculating about other Gloranthan snooker players - Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, the Orlanthi Wind Lord...

[Hobgoblin]

Ha!

Yes, moustachioed trolls (of the Gloranthan sort) wouldn't quite work - drawing too much attention to the snoutlessness of the trollkin for one thing! Goblins are another matter; I've got a soft spot for the splendidly 'tached D'glish Sharpcut of the old Citadel Goblin Raiding Party boxed set, and he's going in the new project.

Yes, the lacunae on the Essex website never fail...

They've only had around 40 years to take some photos!

Alas, I don't have any of the goblin guards - just a pack each of the light spearmen and macemen, and some packs of the slingers.

Be aware that some of the variants have unmistakeable beards and/or moustaches (like the pictured chieftain, in fact). I set aside a couple of the slingers and a mace guy for this reason. They might work as pygmy Ancient Britons, I suppose. But since the chieftain is facially hairy, one or more of his guards might be too. This may not matter for goblins, of course, but I thought it wasn't quite OK for trollkin. Anyway, like all the Essex range they're fun to paint, and unlike some of them they're not burdened with strange unidentifiable items of kit or costume.

I think you're right. My best guess is that this miniature (which a friend asked me to identify) is one of the goblin guards. Those Essex goblins were based on Down in the Dungeon, I think; the Great Scaly Orcs (which might have some troll potential, as they're close cousins to the Essex gnolls) certainly were.

[Severian]

Here's another I painted a while ago but only photographed today - a reaper something-or-other done as a nondescript RQ adventurer.



I've a couple more finished adventurer types and a few more Ray Reardon trolls. I had meant to do a group shot (with some rubble scenery I made a couple of years ago but only just painted, mostly) but have been much distracted by one thing or another. Soon perhaps. But I thought I should post this in the meantime.

[Hobgoblin]

Looks good! She's got a great 'old-school' Gloranthan vibe - like the Citadel stuff from the 1980s. The set-up behind her is tremendous too!

[Severian]

Thanks! Yes, I've always liked the look of the original RQ illustrations & the 80s stuff.

The background is just some random bits & bobs I set up on my gaming table a while ago for skirmish games. The fallen pillars are from some excellent resin terrain made by a company called (I think) The Square, who only seem to sell at shows. Fortunately I bought a lot of their stuff at Salute last year... A great range in both 28mm and 15mm (and maybe some 6mm too??), and well priced to boot.

Anyway, here are a some more adventurers. First, a Gripping Beast Early Saxon (I think) who I painted a few years ago for Dux Britanniarum and dug out and retouched recently, when I was hunting for guys in scale mail rather then the ubiquitous chainmail.



And here he is with an Essex horned helmet guy doing duty as a Storm Bull (because why not). Tried to give him a suitably ruddy nose &c...

[Cultist of Sooty]

Nice Uz!

Next, and with apologies to Gloranthan purists, some Essex goblins painted up to serve as trollkin. Obviously their heads are the wrong shape, and their tusks more Bela Lugosi than Uz, but they'll just have to do for now. I bought them a few years back and reckoned they might as well get painted. I can't decide if their collective likeness to Ray Reardon is endearing or faintly worrying (or just a sign of my age...).

Close enough to do the job for gaming purposes.

As for looking like Ray Reardon, they'll fit right in around Gringle and Quackjohn's snooker table at their pawnshop in Apple Lane.

[Severian]

Thanks!

they'll fit right in around Gringle and Quackjohn's snooker table at their pawnshop in Apple Lane.

You're right - I'd forgotten about their snooker table.

[Cultist of Sooty]

Thanks!

You're right - I'd forgotten about their snooker table.

I've got some random notes knocking around somewhere from when it came up in the RQ game I was running, how the game of snooker symbolises the Lightbringers' Quest. the final victory is sinking the black ball and symbolically ending the Great Darkness.

And that the Lunars don't like it because the Sartarites draw connections between potting the red balls and tearing down the Red Moon. So the Lunars promote Pool instead. 1 ball for each of the Seven Mothers, and the Eight-Ball (or is it the Infinity rune) for the Red Goddess,

I may overthink these things sometimes.