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You get three of each mob type - excepting the bosses where you get one of each. So enough to mix into/bulk out similar units but way too few to make anything.

Looking good! I think the 3 skellie fire throwers could be a stand in for a 5-man Skeleton Archer unit (if they can go that small)? It's chaff, but chaff is great for KoW anyway!

The D&D minis look great, especially seeing as the plastic they use for these is so awfully wonky! Well, mine from Ravenloft are anyway. Were your spectrals also cast in transparent blue plastic? Though the detailing on the models isn't bad at all for minis that are supposedly cast in a single colour and chucked in a box at the end of a game as boardgame pieces first and painting pieces not at all.

I think Skelly archers start at 10-man units. I could always try to find some kind of appropriate filler and make up a diorama-unit base, as long as I can still remove them for Ravenloft/roleplaying.

The Wraiths and Blazing Skellies were both cast in the transparent blue. Some of them have wonky bases, and even hot water doesn't do much to reset them. I found the Ashardalon Archer Orcs yesterday, so I might do them soon. (Queue-jumpers!) As they give off a very nice Uruk-hai vibe.

Finally finished a bunch of those metal Moria goblins yesterday as well. 11 Moria Goblin Prowlers, 4 Archer Captains and 1 Spear Captain. Now just 2 more Sword & Board ones to go, and then it's onto Duburz, the other King who comes on a Warg and Foot, and then it's just plastics (and trolls!) left for Moria. Perhaps time to buy a shaman or two, and maybe knock out some Wild Wargs and Orc Warg Riders to use in their army...

I've decided that I want to finish ALL of my Moria Goblins (perhaps not all of the trolls) and ALL of my Gondor models (no exceptions) this year... I'm going to need some luck!

I still maintain that if I didn't have so many things to do already, and if I wasn't in a hobby spending freeze... I would totally get some of those Moria goblins. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the rest of those goblins and LotR minis. I never got into buying them myself, but seeing what you and Paradigm have come up with for them makes me feel like I missed out a bit

Keep up the good work!

I should be able to get some photos of the Prowlers by the end of the week, the Captains and their units will very much depend on the weather and how much it rains so I can get my varnish happening.

I'd look at getting some of the Moria Goblins now if you ever want to get them. They'll only get roe expensive and harder to get hold of as time goes by, so you may as well grab some now while they're reasonably priced. I think with my next pay I'll have to get some new LotR stuff from GW direct. It's getting to the buy it now or don't ever get it stage for some of the stuff there - and eBay is way more expensive that GW direct for so much of it as well...

@Grim: if you want a couple dozen Moria Goblins for use as generic short stabby things, check eBay. They've featured in several LotR starter sets over the years, so the core troops are still rather cheap and available. Might have harder time finding the metals, though, as half of them are OOP now.

Some great stuff going on here, the Fanatics are my favourite...they just evoke so many memories of getting into the hobby. Whether that was taking chunks out of your opponents or your own army is an entirely different matter.

I love seeing the different ranges of minis I have no idea about too. I really like the flaming Skeletons, a nice ethereal fire effect you have there.

Thanks! I enjoyed painting the Night Gobboes so much that a few more made it out of the purgatory of the half-painted figure case on the weekend to become queue-jumpers. Bastards!

In the meantime, here are some of their dirty cousins - the Moria Goblins!



I finally finished these Goblin Prowlers last weekend after starting them about a month ago during my Moria Goblin push. Unfortunately, and, I guess rather predictably, I got sick of painting Moria Goblins, and they sank to the back of the front of my queue. I took them to work a couple of times. but there were just too many of them to get anything substantial done, so they sat for a little while. I finally split them into two groups and took them to work last week to get stuff done in a more focused manner, and then finished them off on the weekend.


As with this sort of thing, I put more effort into these than I do with faceless plastics, but still - they're not exactly models that inspire my top-tier paintjobs. I also wanted them to look grotty and grubby, so after my usual highlighting and shading I gave them a glaze/wash of AP Soft Tone. One commentator remarked at one point that they felt that the Moria Goblins were Ochre rather than Green, but my reviewing of both stills as well as and statues and other such merchandise makes them pretty well green. Though it's more of a light olive. I'm using Citadel Foundation Gretchin Green (sadly discontinued) as a base, then highlighting it with blends into VGA Rotting Flesh. They do blend upwards into yellow-greens, but Ochre really seems to be something based off this particular still, which can be found with more than one tone to it anyway. Either way, this tone fits the Moria mob much more than the traditional Goblin Green of my (and many other) WHFB Orcs and Goblins.

Both pics here just pulled from pages on the intarwebs, with no touch-up by myself except for resizing and renaming.


How Green is my Goblin?


All depends on the light or filter, I guess?



In Kings of War they'll be part of my Goblin army, though I couldn't find an appropriate unit for how they're armed - and the actual goblin infantry all seem to be listed as pretty much rabble.



Since this simply won't do, I'll be using the unit profile of a KoM unit - either Foot Guard with 2-handers or perhaps Berserkers - it works legally as the armies can be allied anyway, and it thematically fits the unit. I'll be doing a similar thing with the Gundabad Blackshields when I get around to doing them (probably "regular" Foor Guard). My only real issue is that even Goblin Kings in KoW are Yellow-Bellied, so it'll be a bit odd to have their Elites braver than their leader. Then again... even that kinda works thematically as well if you think about it...



12 for a Regiment of "20", and two leftover for other duties and fill-ins. Unfortunately with only three sculpts there are no fancy-pants models to be banner bearers or leaders, but such is life. Let's face it, I'm way too slack to convert any for this mob! More pics over on the Wordpress for anyone interested in more individual shots rather than the unit-based ones.

The Goblins work well. The color scheme is great, I really like the hooded guys with their faces covered. Although I am pretty sure I saw someone that looked just like that tagging a wall the other day. Now that is a creepy thought.

I think Bezerkers would work well as they may be too crazed to care about courage or bravery and its a good way to explain why they won't run away.

For a banner bearer you could simply hang a banner off the axe of one of the guys waving it menacingly in the air.

Yeah, I like the goblins, good work!

Aye, they're cool! Prowlers don't strike me as the type to need/appreciate banners or horns or anything, they're too busy beating up the enemy.

On that now, though, do you have the Moria War Drum? It would make an awesome Army Standard substitute!

Gah. Stop posting fantastic Lord of the Rings, they're really pushing me to get my force up and running but I'd have to fill it out with OOP models. If I cave and end up purchasing them, I will hold you and Paradigm responsible

But surely it wouldn't hurt to check ebay... that can't be too bad can it?

eBay is a real mixed bag. Worth checking ...though your wallet might regret it.

I don't have the War Drum ...yet. That might be changing real soon now, though.

I don't think they need a banner, etc, but I think they'd work well with a horn, and perhaps a goblin with one of those axes in one hand, and pointing with the other.

Because pointing denotes leadership skills.

 ONI-S3 wrote:
If I cave and end up purchasing them, I will hold you and Paradigm responsible

But surely it wouldn't hurt to check ebay... that can't be too bad can it?

I could say the same to you about Halo Fleet, but I was already going for that anyway!

EBay is great for the plastic troop minis that will form the bulk of your force, and be easily converted to Captains/banners ect. The OOP metals though will tend to cost more than a shiny penny, to the point where even die-hard LotR fanatics like me baulk! Still, you should find something to get you going, especially if you can get a good price on a job lot.

I won't drag Az's thread further off topic, but if you find yourself interested in starting up then start a thread down in the LotR forum or PM me and I'm more than happy to give you some advice on getting going.


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@Az: perhaps an archer would be a good conversion base. Cut the bow and replace it with a pointy hand, then stick an axe in the other being waved above his head?

The plastic archers just don't inspire me. I reckon a unit of metal hard-cases like that deserves a metal leader. I'll keep the idea in mind, though. Perhaps if I pick up more metals in the future I'll convert something appropriate. I've got a few that would probably have done the trick as conversion bases, but they're already done now (to be shown soon, when I finish the last two). In the meantime, here's the latest stuff I've been working on (sans the Zombicide stuff I've been working on at work in my breaks)


Some of my old(hammer) 3rd ed-era goblins getting rebased 2015-style. Also an old Bolt Thrower-crew Orc who was started 10? years ago and is now nearing completion. A couple of old Skeleton command also getting close in the back, as well as my first two Goblin Fanatics - ugly Bob Olley models.



Here we have a mix - more goblin fanatics (1991-era) that got started back then but never finished, as well as a really old (2e?) goblin and various other things. Old Skelly, original Bloodletters, Celtos Skeletons, Moria Goblin kings, clubber and netter, and in the back that bloody Dwarf Slayer and Ogre I've been trying to get around to finishing for a month or more now...

Lots of WHFB goblins that got started a long time ago and never finished. Their time is now. fethed if I know what I'll do with so many fanatics, though. And I have more to come...

You know some of those old goblin sculpts look truly evil. Something about those grins and deep set eyes just give me the creeps.

Its great to see some love for these old models which are a great trip down memory lane.

I like the aesthetic with your paint work. Highlights the character of each of the models really well.

I'm hoping to have a good chunk of those old Gobboes finished this weekend. We'll see how I go. I think I'm getting sick... damn winter.

Here's some painted stuff I completed a week or so ago. I picked up this pair of Skeleton Spearmen recently via eBay, paired with some Rackham Ghouls. They were reasonably priced and looked nice enough, and I was buying other stuff from the same seller, and I'm building an undead army, so why not?



The one with the helmet had a spike atop his headgear which I thought looked a bit crappy, so out came the clippers and it was a problem of the past. The same fellow also had what I initially assumed was a kind of banded mail but turned out to be somewhat unconvincingly-sculpted ribs. His radius was also way-oversized, with a tiny ulna to match. I decided to cover up these issues by painting both as bone-themed iron armour - the ribs as the banded mail I thought they were in the first place, and the entire right forearm as a bracer. His mate had much more sensibly-sculpted proportions, so they were all left as bone. I painted the pair in the Undead Army's themed colours - Black and Red with (obviously) Bone, worn metal equipment with worn brass/verdigris-blue-green accents.



Nice enough figures bought for about AU$2.50 each. Can't say no to that! Now I just need to get them 10-22 mates and we've got another unit for the table! A bit of research has revealed that they're from the Fir Bolg range for the Celtos Miniatures Game. The tabs of these models had "I-Kore" on them, and so apparently Celtos was originally created by I-Kore, and later sold to Urban Mammoth and later on-sold again to Brigade Models who currently own the game.

Parts of that range seem to have a strong influence from Chronopia, but I'm more interested in sticking to these (Irish, apparently) Skeletons. I might grab some more, now that I know where to get them. I've got a soft spot for metal skeletons for some reason. They're almost like the perfect things for me to paint at work. Might be a few other things for me to pick up as I scour through their range. I better get onto them before they're sold again or disappear completely!

I like the guy with the armour and robes- looks pretty good compared to the helmet skelly.

Not bad considering the sculpts! Good save on the rib/armour!

Nice cover up with the ribs and the arm lol. I didn't notice till you pointed it out. I like the colour scheme too. Looks great

I really don't mind the sculpts at all. May have something to do with how you have painted them. The banded mail looks fantastic. But the poses and cloak really make them look more than the run of the mill skeletons running around the place.

Yeah, I'm happy with how they came out. I think I'll be buying some more of them this week, now that I've tracked them down (and found that they're quite reasonably priced).

Keltos has some good stuff in it got a Fir Bolg command group recently. Brigade gives excellent service as well.

That's great to hear. While playing around with their site, I found that their shipping is very fair and they deduct the 20% VAT, so they seem very much above board.

In other news, I finished some of those Goblins tonight and found that it's officially now too cold to spray models in the evening. Gotta hope it's a reasonable morning/afternoon, then!

This weekend I finally knuckled down and finished the C23 Ogre Mercenary with 2-hander who I'd been staring at for the last couple of months. He's outside having the varnish dry in the sun. So far, so good. I'll get some pics of him and his unit this coming week and show them off then. With him down, the next part-painted-aeons-ago Ogre steps into the front rank of stuff to get finished soon.

This guy:



I think the reason this guy has been in the "stuck" file is because I just can't figure out what colours to use for him. I'd originally given him a purple skirt with the intention of painting some stars and moons and pentagrams, etc on it - which I think is based on mis-remembering the first time I saw him painted, which was probably the figure pictured in this White Dwarf advertisement from 1989. Orclord of SoL fame also has a nicely painted example in his personal collection.

So what of this guy? Well, the purple robe would have worked better is his outfit was a onesie, but he's got that fur-cuffed vest as well, so that means we need something else as well. I'm thinking dirty grey-white hair to give him a sense of age and authority. His pauldron could either be worn steel, "coloured" metal, as in the Chaos Ogre from the berserker unit this guy will be inspiring/attached to, or a bright, enamelled red as worn by the one member of Olley's Ogres. It all depends on how much I decide to make it "pop" as both former solutions are much more subtle and low-key than the latter, and this guy is, after all, a Character in the army.

I'll clean up the chestnut browns on his boots and arm wrapping, go with my typical bone effect for the warhammer-head, and go with contrasting browns for his pouches and belts, but ultimately it's the skirt and vest that have got me stuck.

My Ogre force does not have "army colours" as many of my other armies will and do. Some units will have their own heraldry (or just a dominant colour) but nothing across the whole army, which I see as a collection of individuals from a number of tribes.

I could go with strong reds to make him stand out on the battlefield? Keep the purple and give it the patterns I thought of originally? (But what of the vest?) Copy Orclord's scheme? Something completely different? I really don't know, which is why I'm posting this here and on a forum I frequent, so I can see if I can get some feedback that will inspire me enough to get this guy finished - and to take less than three months to actually get it done.

With the wild hair and the horns, I'd be inclined to say this guy pops enough that you don't need red or purple on him. I vote to keep his clothes as leather, with the belts and pouches in a darker color so they don't get lost.

What are you planning to use him as. If you ever want to play GW games either a Butcher or Firebelly should recommend a palette. He'd look good in the Reds Yellows and Oranges of a Bright/Fire Wizard as well.

I think sticking with leather and browns would be a bit dull for him, especially in context of the guys he'll be alongside. He's going to be used in KoW as an Ogre Shaman. I can't see myself going back to WHFB, so I'm not too concerned there - though I do have the actual Firebelly model that I'll paint with a Māori colour scheme, Tā moko-inspired kirituhi and tattoos.

いIn that case, how technically-advanced are your ogres? Would they have access to the same dyes or fabrics as, say, Basileans or Dwarves? Or would they use leaves and mashed bugs to dye their hides?