Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (undead warband for Mordheim)

[Hobgoblin]

Here's a skirmish-based hobgoblin. I was thinking about how to paint the HOTT army, a large chunk of which emerged from the Biostrip earlier this evening and decided to try out the bluish skin tone I've been using on other orcish creatures - not least because it nods to the Japanese oni. I think it works pretty well - and, most importantly, it was very quick to do!

I'll also probably do some in other colours for variety - as below, but also perhaps bright red skin (nodding to the oni again) in black armour.

[fred]

That works!

I've noticed you have now reached 100,000 views for this thread. Great going.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! I hadn't noticed the numbers. Here's another shot of the hobgoblin - I'm quite pleased with how his face turned out, so was trying to get a shot of it in better light. Alas, it's come out slightly pointillist in this one!

[randycarter]

Thanks! I hadn't noticed the numbers. Here's another shot of the hobgoblin - I'm quite pleased with how his face turned out, so was trying to get a shot of it in better light. Alas, it's come out slightly pointillist in this one!

Yes, those reddish shades on nose, lips and eyebrows are a wery nice touch, wery well done. Good job!

[DeafNala]

The only place I ever saw those Hobgoblins was in White Dwarf photos. Yours look a great deal better than the ones I recall. VERY WELL DONE!

[Hummster]

I do miss those old GW figures, I liked the sculpting far more than the modern ones. Nice paintjobs and callout to the oni.

[Remgain]

Hi Justin!

Neve saw this thread! 
Outstanding!!!
You've quite a collection! !!

Marco

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, all!

Here are the first "steampunk goblin" shooter units for HOTT. With the artillery element, these are a point off being a third of a HOTT army. While they await further recruits, they'll serve as auxiliaries for my other HOTT goblins.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

What a beast of a thread! And so much goodness in there. I love SoBH (and Advanced SoBH). HOTT is still on the list. For that I'll repurpose my 10mm Thirty Years War stuff as Warhammer Empire-like stuff.

Anyway, you got a great collection there. Proper old-school (good school) minis for all occasions. Keep it up!

[Severian]

Lots of good things in the past week or two: the hobgoblins in particular are very fine. The blue skin tone works well; I'm thinking about trying it out on a goblin or two...

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

Here's a different sort of hobgoblin - one of the old Perry Fantasy Tribe ones from 1982. I have a few of these kicking about, including three that I painted up for HOTT as a teenager. And I've just acquired a few more, the first of which I painted last night.

The Perry hobgoblins are interesting in several respects. They are nowhere near as good as the Ali Morrison ones that replaced them (both had the C36 code), but they have quite a bit of charm of their own. They seem to come from a transitional stage in the Perrys' development, as some are fairly crude and others are rather good (the one with the spear in the HOTT block below, for example). The best look fine next to the C15 armoured orcs, whereas the worst are on a par with the Fiend Factory goblins.

They don't have the oriental trappings of their Morrison cousins, who sport samurai armour, asymmetrical bows, Mongol-type helmets and katanas, naginatas and yaris. But they do have quite a bit in common: most notably, horned helmets and peculiar three-toed feet.

That said, the models aren't really compatible - the Morrison ones are far superior and a lot less rough in the finish, and The Perry gear and large heads are quite distinct. So I don't plan to mix them. Instead, I plan to base up four HOTT warband elements, which will also serve as a single Dragon Rampant unit of bellicose foot. Any spares will be based individually as casualty markers (I only need a couple for DR, and I already have this chap, who can fit in as some sort of albino if need be).

Four warband elements make up a third of a conventional HOTT army. I'm trying to create lots of different "modular" bits of HOTT armies, so that friends (and my son's friends) can put together armies quickly and easily before getting a game started. So the Perry hobgoblins will work as a nice group to that end. I might pair them with an old Citadel wizard as they were originally advertised together, and I have the one with the scroll and horned helmet (top figure, bottom right). A hobgoblin bodyguard on his base would tie the elements together nicely. And then it's a small matter to add some demon flyers or skeletal hordes to flesh out a full army ...

There seem to be very few examples of painted Perry hobgoblins on the web. The excellent Eldritch Epistles blog has some of Bryan Ansell's, and there's one on the Greblord site. But that's about it.

The old HOTT element, below, will be Biostripped and repainted to match the new one once I've worked through the unpainted ones.

[Severian]

He's excellent - great work as ever.

Those Perry hobgoblins are more or less my era; I think I'd drifted into other teenage preoccupations before their successors came along... Don't think I ever owned any back in the day, though I remember them from catalogues and the like.

Your teenage paintjobs aren't at all bad, btw. I'd be tempted to recondition them rather than redo them from scratch, if you think they need sprucing up.

[Hobgoblin]

Many thanks!

Those Perry hobgoblins are more or less my era; I think I'd drifted into other teenage preoccupations before their successors came along... Don't think I ever owned any back in the day, though I remember them from catalogues and the like.

I think they were just before my time - I never saw them in the shops, and the ones I had as a teenager were acquired second-hand. Grizlock, the one with the big mace over his shoulder, was an exception, I think, because the boxed set he was part of persisted until the slotta era.

Your teenage paintjobs aren't at all bad, btw. I'd be tempted to recondition them rather than redo them from scratch, if you think they need sprucing up.

Thanks! They've seen quite a bit of use recently in HOTT and DR games, but they are a bit tired close up. They weren't the best I could do even then, because I rushed them out to start playing HOTT (which was then brand new):



 Oddly enough, they look better in photos than on the table, where the less drab colours of the new one really distinguish it. So I will eventually strip them on the basis that it'll be easier to get them to match the others by starting from scratch than by fiddling around with varnished models. But I won't do it until the other elements are finished.

[Ragsta]

This is one of my favourite threads here. Your painting (and basing) style is a refreshing change from others I see, and all the old models have so much character in them. You also seem like a nice chap for responding to everyone, which not all bloggers do

I do find myself wondering what your model mountain from days of yore really looks like though.... Rank upon rank of figures waiting to march forth? 

[beefcake]

Nice. I really love the skin painting you do.
I had a recent arrival of some armoured trolls. They are huge. Great for 28mms ranges. Thanks for posting them here.