Category Archives: Warhammer Fantasy – 9th Age

Citadel C18 Night Horrors – Ghoul and Golem

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Dating from 1986 (Ghoul) and somewhere between then and 1988 (Golem), these two models originally hailed from Citadel’s Night Horrors range that started off as a kind of Gothic Horror/Hammer Horror/Cthulhu-esque range that covered everything from Ghosts, Ghouls, Vampires, Witches, Werewolves, Mummies, Headless Spectres, Wights, Devils, Demons (no æ!) and everything in between. Most of that stuff got rolled into the V̶a̶m̶p̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶C̶o̶u̶n̶t̶s̶ Undead army and as such was replaced fully in the early-mid 1990’s with official models wearing big hats, but despite some rough sculpts in the Night Horror range, others still hold up very well today.

Citadel C18 Night Horrors - Ghoul and Golem

C18 Night Horrors – Ghoul and Golem

These two models are in the upper-mid tier of those models in my opinion. They’re still decent models today, though nothing amazing. They’re not embarrassingly bad either, though. Which is always a bonus. The ghoul was probably the first non-skeleton undead model I ever painted, and served as a bit of a template for models through to this day. Using Citadel’s “Rotting Flesh” paint, shaded with purple for an unnatural and horrible effect. I’m sure I got the idea from an old ‘eavy Metal article (remember when Blanche and co used to write about their painting techniques?) or at the very least, some pictures in ‘eavy Metal. The ghoul is pretty much as I painted him back in the 1990’s, with some touching up and maybe some updated blending.

Citadel C18 Night Horrors - Ghoul and Golem

Rear View of the Undead Night Horrors

The Golem is a much more recent one. Well, started a year or two ago and finished this year a couple of months ago. I followed the same palette as the Ghoul and decided to paint the “stitches” as staples, because it just seems a bit nastier. I may have been planning to use the Golem as a Blood Bowl player at one point, but clearly never got around to it. No great loss!

These two will be rolled into Undead Army units at some stage, but they also sit happily in reserve for any kind of Fantasy Roleplaying or D&D-style boardgames.

Citadel TL13 Talisman Troll (1986)

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Another blast from the past today. The Talisman Troll. Remember when Games Workshop used to make boardgames? No, not “Specialist” (a title that came much later) minatures games that started in a big box, like Battlefleet Gothic or Necromunda or even Dark Future, but actual self-contained Board Games. Talisman was one of these, alongside things like DungeonQuest, Chaos Marauders (which was a card-based game about Orcs & Goblins), Block Mania (set in 2000ad’s world of Dredd), The Fury of Dracula and so forth. There really was quite a variety. GW was quite a prolific producer of both original and licenced boardgames for a bit of time back in the 1980’s before they went fully-Warhammer focused.

Citadel's TL13 Talisman Troll (1986)

Citadel’s TL13 Talisman Troll.

I had a few of the old metal Talisman figures, but I never really liked any of them especially. I think the Space Marine (from Timescape) got rolled into my RT-era models, though even that was an unimpressive sculpt. I’ve probably got a few of the others still floating around somewhere, I recall a man with a top hat in his hand, a woman with a small cauldron, and the Ninja being in my collection. They probably still are. In a container of junky old lead. Somewhere.

Citadel's TL13 Talisman Troll (1986)

TL13 Talisman Troll shows off his trousers.

Anyway, this troll was the one of those old figures that has gotten painted and not lost over the years. I painted him with a flesh tone rather than green as by the time I got around to painting him I had no intent to use him as a Troll or in Talisman. Instead, he was recruited to my small gang of old-school Beastmen. We’re talking old-school Beastmen, before the entire race had been retconned into the Broo-inspired Goatmen and Satyrs that dominate to this day. Not that I dislike modern Beastmen. I actually think they’re ace. I just happen to also like the variety found in the older RoC-era ones as well. So this guy fit in with the mixture of malformed miscontents quite well. Or well enough.

Citadel's TL13 Talisman Troll (1986)

Rear View of the TL13 Talisman Troll.

I gave him old-school warhammery stripey trousers and dirtied him up a little. I could obviously use him as something like a half-orc or even a more D&D-styled orc for roleplaying purposes. Whichever way, he looks very much the demi-human style thug. I’ll probably roll him back into the old-school beastmen unit for KoW that will be very much Warriors of Chaos-aligned, as the more modern Beastmen will be their own thing.

Talisman Troll Character Card & Standup –  Talisman 2nd Edition.