Category Archives: Fantasy Gaming

From the Painting Desk #12 – Yet another LotR Goblin Challenge

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Well, strictly speaking, I failed the last one of these. Two metal goblins still left, as well as the Dwarf Slayer and Ogre (who didn’t get touched). Between a solid batch of videogaming and friends coming over for some Zombicide – and just needing a bit of a break from painting. So for this week, which I have off work – I’ll be trying to finish those four, as well as several additions by this coming Sunday night:

Yet More Goblins on the WIP desk.

So now the priority queue is:

  1. C23 Ogre Bounty Hunter.
  2. Dwarf Slayer (Finally identified him – he’s a Daemon Slayer circa ’96-97).
  3. Those last two Metal Moria Goblins to be used as Captains and Unit Leaders (Spear, Sword). Perhaps the odd Biggit.
  4. 7 more Metal Moria Goblins for use as above. 4 Bows, 1 spear, 2 swords.
  5. 4 Goblin Prowlers. They’ll combine with the other three to make a unit. Shame I can’t find another one, cheaply.
  6. 6 plastic goblins with sword & shield.
  7. 10 plastic goblins with spears.
  8. Durbûrz, Goblin King of Moria.
  9. Tom Bombadil (GW) and Lady Geneve of the Council of Seven, Speaker of the Far Stars (Red Box Games) – to be painted and used as Goldberry.
  10. Reaper Bones II “Cython” (a Grick from D&D*)
  11. Reaper Bones II  “Mind Eater” (an Intellect Devourer from D&D*)

So… 36 models. The goblins shouldn’t be too hard, but the more individual characters might throw up a bit of a difficulty. I’d wanted to paint something nice on my break as a reward to myself for my recent productivity. Perhaps a Minotaur or the Greek Talos. Instead, I’m going for more goblins. I guess the reward there is getting a ton of them done and out into the War Room as a very quickly put together starter KoW army.

After I finish the above, the remaining (for now) push of Goblins I plan to paint will be made up of Golfimbul, Foot & Mounted; 6 Warg Riders (strictly speaking, Orcs); 18 Wild Wargs with a Wild Warg Chieftain; a possibility of 2 more sprues of these Moria Goblins (24 in total) and several “Hobbit” plastic goblins to use as Shamans, since I’ve been unable to get find any “proper” Moria Goblin Shaman figures for a reasonable price. Same deal, unfortunately with the War-Drums. The problem with all of those is that while they round out the (new) KoW force and also allow some more LotR SBG scenario play, they’re not “half-painted”, and so would all be freshly started models. So the question will be whether I continue to clear the desk, or let these upstarts jump the queue…

…and my plans were to finish Gondor, then start on the Dwarves…

*Thanks to Tarmor for IDing the D&D critters – I’m not especially familiar with the D&D menagerie of exotic monsters.

Wargames Foundry Skeletons – The Hydra’s Teeth, Unit 2: Spear

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Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears

The second unit for the Mythical Greek army is the one shown below – made up of Reaper Bones Skeletal Spearmen and the starts of the show – the other half of the Wargames Foundry Greek Mythology Skeletons range. “Children of the Hydra.” Unfortunately, the whole range is made up of only 10 models across two blisters – 4 with spears and 6 with swords. Within that only a few of them look distinctly Greek, so with 6 models needed to fill out the regiment, I decided to look elsewhere rather than order another pack from Foundry (I prefer fewer doubled-up figures, anyway). Their sister unit, armed with swords was finished some time ago, as was most of this unit, but some recruiting issues drew finishing this lot out for longer than I’d hoped.

The metals from Foundry worked out well. I just wish more of them had more explicitly Greek gear. I replaced their metal spears in the end with plastic ones from the Wargames Factory skeleton set. The shield on this guy comes from Little Big Men, and was a real bear to apply. Apparently it may have come from a faulty batch, since the plastic film would just not come off, and destroyed two other transfers in the process/attempts…

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons

Wargames Factory (now Warlord Games) Plastic Skeletons join the Wargames Foundry Metal Skeleton.

In the end to fill out the missing two in the ranks, I again turned to the Wargames Factory plastic skeletons. They’re already Greek-themed to an extent, which is great. My only concern was how fine they are, and as such are very susceptible to breakage as wargaming figures – especially with spears sticking up everywhere. Still, with these guys towards the middle it should be fine. Again WGF comes to the rescue of the WGF-dominated unit. In the end, I decided against adding shields to the skeletons bracing their spears – mostly because there was no easy and effective way to attach them that would still look good. A bit of a shame, but c’est la vie.

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons

Wargames Factory and Foundry Skeletons fight side-by-side

I went with the one skeleton coming out of the ground to help invoke the whole Jason and the Argonauts thing. A classic from our youth, (even if it was made before many of us were born, it was often shown late on Saturday Mornings here, as well as when VHS arrived.

And now, The obligatory Finished Unit shots:

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons

The Hydra’s Teeth – Spear: Finished!

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons, Reaper Bones Bronze Bull

The Mythical Greek Army begins to take shape.

And finally, an army shot of the Mythological Greeks so far. Not a whole lot yet, but it shows the two units of Skeletons along with the Bronze Bull painted earlier this year.