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

[Hobgoblin]

Wow, they're amazing!

How'd you do the skin and armour?

Thanks!

I started off painting them the same way as the sci-fi roadagents on the previous page: black undercoat, then drybrushing in burnt umber, flat earth and silver-grey (avoiding the skin), then drybrushed the armour copper and natural steel. Then I gave it a brown wash. I did the skin to my usual goblin fashion: silver-grey (or Wych Elf Flesh) washed in a 50/50 mixture of blue and green Citadel glazes, then highlighted back up again in silver-grey.

[Severian]

Great work on the orcs, both armour and skin tone.

The contrast between old and new Warhammer orcs is very telling, isn't it. But you could probably mix the odd big fellow into a warband with his older relatives (overlooking for purposes of the exercise his super-sized weapon... what is it with the huge weaponry, anyway? I suppose they're clearly distinguishable at a tabletop distance...)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

The contrast between old and new Warhammer orcs is very telling, isn't it. But you could probably mix the odd big fellow into a warband with his older relatives (overlooking for purposes of the exercise his super-sized weapon... what is it with the huge weaponry, anyway? I suppose they're clearly distinguishable at a tabletop distance...)

Yes, indeed. As Nic says, they'd work as ogres or giant goblins or whatever amid the others. Although these orcs feature two of my blackest bętes noires (oversized weapons and 'dual wielding' - especially of axes!), I prefer them to the same designer's earlier orcs, as the new ones don't have the bizarre Donald Duck spines.

On the oversized weapons: I love what Ana at Gardens of Hecate did with the Shadespire knights by reducing weapon and shoulderpad sizes.

On using them as ogres: I've always liked the idea that most RPG/fantasy-wargame humanoids are just different variants of the same species. I think this may well have been how things were originally conceived in D&D (before the various synonyms for "goblin" acquired animal characteristics - kobolds/dogs, orcs/pigs, gnolls/hyenas, hobgoblins/mandrills). My cave goblins include various bugbear and ogre models painted with the same skintone, and the two Perry trolls I have will be done the same way.

[clanmac]

Those orcs are superb - it takes some real skill to stop them looking cartoony but you've really nailed it.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

Here's a very quickly painted ghoul (a Frostgrave gnoll). Folkloric ghouls are associated with hyenas and can turn into them sometimes, and of course Lovecraft's (and Pickman's) ghouls have that sort of look too. So I'm using my remaining Frostgrave gnolls as ghouls for Sellswords & Spellslingers and various dungeon bashes; I have an inkling that we'll do some 28mm RPG stuff this year, simply because I've got more weird and unusual monsters in this scale than in 15mm.

I've tried to assemble the other ghouls with only daggers or even just their claws, but this chap has a sword because he was originally going to be part of a HotT element. I'll probably add a fair bit of blood to the mouths and claws of most of them.

[Duncan McDane]

That looks a lot better than the yellow they paint them.

This. You really made it into a proper wargaming miniature ( and add the Orc set on my want-list aswell :-P )
Great metalwork...

[Severian]

Nice ghoul-gnoll! Might look into a box of these at some stage. Looking forward to seeing how you've done the unarmed (well, claw-armed) ones.

I've always liked the idea that most RPG/fantasy-wargame humanoids are just different variants of the same species. I think this may well have been how things were originally conceived in D&D (before the various synonyms for "goblin" acquired animal characteristics - kobolds/dogs, orcs/pigs, gnolls/hyenas, hobgoblins/mandrills). My cave goblins include various bugbear and ogre models painted with the same skintone, and the two Perry trolls I have will be done the same way.

Exactly this.

One of the appealing things about Gloranthan trolls is the way the name functions as a generic term for some very disparate creatures. I'm all for taking things back to their folkloric roots and gathering all of these nominally distinct goblins (or whatever generic term one uses) into a great hotch-potch of miscellaneous bad hats of varying sizes and shapes and characteristics, all under the banner of "goblin" (or whichever of the myriad almost-synonyms one prefers). Obviously for gaming purposes one might want to split them into a few broad types, but it shouldn't be surprising - in fact, it ought to be expected - to find a bunch of rather different types (more or less) co-operating, in a warband, dungeon, or whatever. The Trudvang RPG does this sort of thing with its own trolls, which are (unsurprisingly) very Scandinavian in tone.

And of course one of the great advantages of this, as you say, is that you can use any figures you have, or happen to like, without worrying about compatibility beyond some basic aesthetics - if I like it, it goes into the mix!

[Hobgoblin]

Nice ghoul-gnoll! Might look into a box of these at some stage. Looking forward to seeing how you've done the unarmed (well, claw-armed) ones.

Thanks! I'm now thinking that I should fit a severed head into this one's fist. A rummage in the bit box might yield something suitable.

Although I've painted up precisely two of them as straightforward gnolls, I'm viewing the using up of the remaining ones with some dismay. I shall probably have to get some more. (The others have become aliens and various chaos mutants.) My count suggests that there is one more or less intact sprue lurking somewhere in the house, though.

Exactly this.

One of the appealing things about Gloranthan trolls is the way the name functions as a generic term for some very disparate creatures. I'm all for taking things back to their folkloric roots and gathering all of these nominally distinct goblins (or whatever generic term one uses) into a great hotch-potch of miscellaneous bad hats of varying sizes and shapes and characteristics, all under the banner of "goblin" (or whichever of the myriad almost-synonyms one prefers). Obviously for gaming purposes one might want to split them into a few broad types, but it shouldn't be surprising - in fact, it ought to be expected - to find a bunch of rather different types (more or less) co-operating, in a warband, dungeon, or whatever. The Trudvang RPG does this sort of thing with its own trolls, which are (unsurprisingly) very Scandinavian in tone.

And of course one of the great advantages of this, as you say, is that you can use any figures you have, or happen to like, without worrying about compatibility beyond some basic aesthetics - if I like it, it goes into the mix!

Yup - and it keeps the players guessing! When running RPGs, I tend to just describe the creatures rather than name them. Then it's down to the players to name them as they see fit. It certainly stops them getting comfortable.

[Hobgoblin]

I found some Kev Adams zombies lurking in the cellar and decided to get them painted up for the megadungeon games I'm planning.

It might seem heresy to treat these classic miniatures to the coarsest of paintjobs - black undercoat, a few layers of drybrushing and the odd wash - but I'm keen to get lots and lots of lurking nasties done, so that's how I went. I've got seven of them just about finished now, and I'm quite pleased with how they look from "tabletop distance".

As my kids observed, these are "very old" zombies, doubtless long dead and recently unearthed. So I think lots of layers of dirt and decay would give them a fairly dark appearance.

Also, I've just discovered gesso, which has revolutionised my prep time and led me down the path of black undercoats again. I'm messing around with some skaven for the megadungeon, done both from black and white undercoats, to see which wins out.

[Hobgoblin]

Another couple of shots of the shambler:

[Bloggard]

And here he is finished, barring a lick of black around the edge of his base. I find the coloured plastic that these are cast in less receptive to undercoat than their grey kin. As he'll be handled a lot - my son was playing Shadespire properly at a friend's house today - he'll need at least a couple of coats of deeply unfashionable gloss varnish ...

absolutely love your paint job here (* 'here' refers to one of your shadowspire 'orcs') - the skin tone, and the 'all-over' approach to the metal / armour (dry-brushing over black?) which has worked brilliantly.

*I've now read your painting recipes above - not surprisingly given how superb it looks, nowhere near as simple as I'd like (you think that kind of dry-brushing / washing is 'lazy'? no way - it's clearly a really well developed combination of techniques and paint-types that 'work').

**also: I've tried gesso, and didn't get on with it - if you can elaborate on how it's worked for you, that would be much appreciated.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

Here's the gang of six zombies - enough to cover a "D6 zombies" wandering monster roll, at least.

[Hobgoblin]

On gesso: I've been using Pebeo Black Gesso, which I got for about a fiver for 500ml on Amazon. It's excellent - really quick to use, fume-free and (as far as I can see) as durable as spray primer.

[Jagannath]

That's a fantastic result for 'speedpainting' - zombies are great for that eh?

I use black, liquitex gesso for 90% of my painting - I only ever spray if I'm desperate to paint something there and then, generally if I've got time to spray and space I spend it dullcote-ing stuff. Gosh, it must be great sticking with a gloss finish!

[Hobgoblin]

Cheers! Yes - if in doubt, slop it with gore!

I've found the gesso to be much quicker-drying than spray paint. For all that GW paints claim to dry in half an hour whatever, my experience has been that they need at least a full working day to be useable without exuding noxious fumes. So, if I spray stuff in the morning, it's paintable by evening. And if sprayed in the evening and left overnight, it's fine. But if I spray things when I get home from work, they're still pretty vile by nine or ten.

Gesso, on the other hand, seems to dry almost as fast as normal acrylic - although perhaps that's been accelerated this week by our having the heating up high in response to the Caledonian clime and various maladies. I must investigate the white stuff; certainly, the Sebeo stuff is far, far cheaper than spray paint.

Every time I think about matt-varnishing something, I then think "Nah ...". In recent years, I've only ever used matt varnish to dull down the bases of my 15mm stuff, as I took to varnishing the figure, base and all, to stop the edges of the coin-bases chipping. But even then, I haven't always bothered, although I do like the contrast between a glossy figure and its matt base. The Vallejo gloss I use isn't excessively shiny, and I think the "realism" argument cuts both ways: I suspect a sweaty orc in metal armour would look more glossy than matt overall.

I have a long-standing suspicion that the shift from gloss to matt has much more to do with photographing miniatures than how they actually look on the table. But I'm aware that this is seen as a deeply eccentric view ...