Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (minimalist beastmen for Mordheim)

[Hobgoblin]

I've been churning out warbands for SOBH to play with my son (and, potentially, my daughter, though her interventions are largely confined to "pitch invasions" with miniatures that weren't previously part of the game). I've had a twenty-odd year hiatus from gaming and painting; my focus now is just getting stuff from painting table to gaming table as quickly as possible. I remain perplexed by the abandonment of gloss varnish by most contemporary gamers; I find the substance invaluable to (literally) gloss over hasty paint jobs!

So far, I've been confining myself to old and new plastics. But as I'm increasingly confident that the kids won't gnaw on our playing pieces, I'm going to add some of the ancient lead that lurks in the cellar and the attic.

To kick off, here's a quick and dirty beastman:

[Hobgoblin]

And a slightly converted friend:

[Hobgoblin]

Here are some goblins and a bugbear (apologies for the terrible photo!):

[Hobgoblin]

And a grimmer, ghastlier goblin:

[Duncan McDane]

Good result on some old skool Battlemasters plastic Beastmen.
Like the Orcish Goblin on the bottom too  .

[DeafNala]

COOL STUFF! Quick though it may be, your brushwork is OUTSTANDING. I love the shields. GREAT WORK!

Enjoy your time with the Young Folk!

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks for the kind words!

Here's a somewhat unfinished goblin guard. These orcs are so big that I generally give them a Q4, C4 profile in SOBH.

[PatrickWR]

This stuff looks great! I particularly like your flesh tones. Are those shields freehand? If so, I'm even more impressed.

I know you said metal minis are on the horizon, but these plastics look superb in the interim.

[maxxev]

That's some seriously good looking paint work there!

[beefcake]

Very cool. I like the colour of the beastmen.

[Hobgoblin]

Many thanks!

Yes, the shields are freehand (though I'm about to post a few with embossed ones that aren't). The goblin skin tones are dimly remembered from a troupe of old Citadel night goblins (mid-1980s) that I painted up with pallid skins and grey-black robes embroidered with red runes and then sold to a friend. I had misremembered night goblins being described thus in some early edition of Warhammer, but investigation reveals that they are not. I think, then, that the inspiration was probably the svart-alfar in Alan Garner's wonderful The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (in turn probably the inspiration for some aspects of Citadel's goblins with their nets and stone clubs).

The beastman hides were inspired by medieval depictions of Hell: http://monsterbrains.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/demons-from-livre-de-la-vigne-nostre.html.

Here's an Orcish horde:

[Hobgoblin]

And some more Orcs:

[Hobgoblin]

One of those newfangled, non-chaotically identikit chaos warriors:

[Vauln]

Those are some truly amazing shields, great job!

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, Vauln!

Here's something slightly different: some of Caesar's 1/72 ratmen. They're tiny, and very cheap, and will serve as Ratmen Vermin (Q4, C1; Gregarious, Rabble, possibly with Stealth) in SBH: