The Goblin King's domain

After some work I got my 4th submission into the painting challenge; The Goblin King, or 'Great Goblin' as he was also known, his Scribe and two Goblin captains including Grinnah, all from the The Hobbit boxed starter set.

 I painted them all to match the existing Goblin Town goblins, in my prior post.

As usual, click on pics for a larger view.

Here is the Great Goblin, a huge loathsome hulking figure, played wonderfully in the movie my Barry Humphries, and superbly rendered by the team at Weta digital.

He's a huge figure, standing some 6cm tall to top of his crown, towering over his minions and adversaries alike.

In the game, classed as a monster, and with the new monstrous combat abilities, he's going to be a real handful to deal with!

Great Goblin

Next up is a diminutive goblin captain, un-named though I suspect he may be the character that wrestles Bilbo in the movie, and falls to his doom with him...

Goblin Captain

The second Goblin Captain, Grinnah, bears a large  spiked flailing whip, with which he keeps his charges in line.

Grinnah, Goblin Captain

Next up is the goblin scribe... this little fellow, notes the Great Goblins proclamations and orders, and in the movie is seen to be ordered to 'send word to the White Orc!', concerning Thorin's capture...

In the game, he brings much needed reinforcements to the goblin forces...

The following did not make it to the painting challenge as, though part of the The Hobbit boxed set, it would be classed as 'terrain' and thus dissallowed, but it has taken a fair amount of time to convert and paint up; The Great Goblin's Throne.

The throne was a multi-part plastic kit, like the rest of the boxed set contents and went together well, though I left the base piece off unattached to paint separately.

The only issue I had with it was that the back of the kit was an open void, which looked pretty naff if you had just left it like that. So I decided to fill the void with foam and clad it with bark chip, to effect a rock surface.
 

Throne

I checked back to the movie imagery, just to check for shape and proportion, and did note the throne forms part of the top of a giant spur of rock jutting up from floor of cavern, (see below pic), so needed to maintain its angled slope.
 

Goblin town

Back of throne clad with bark chip

And though not noticeable, that I recall, in the movie, the figure sculptors went to that level of detail typical of a Jackson movie; a hole in the seat of the throne for the Great Goblin to crap into a bucket positioned underneath!

There were also skeletal remains and entrails suggesting remnants of his last meal! Difficult to see once assembled but I painted them none the less!

So there we have them all, The Great Goblin, and all his minions in his domain of Goblin Town!

Great Goblin and goblins of Goblin Town

Now I just have to press on with Bilbo, Gandalf and a company of 13 dwarves... and not forgetting Radagast too!

The Goblins of GoblinTown - The Hobbit

I recently managed to get my 3rd submission in Curts, 3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

As always click on pics for a larger view.

I burned a bit of the midnight oil and finished off the 36 goblins I have been working on, off and on, since the beginning of the challenge. The quality of the plastic sculpts was very good, and the amount of mould line to scrape away was minimal.

As for painting them up I was in a slight dilemma as to what colour to paint them. They were not going to be classic 'green' as the majority of the Moria goblins are.

In the movie they come across as having a yellowish hue, yet a lot of stock pictures show them with a pale grey skin colour. I can only assume the lighting effect in the movie from the flaming torch-lit caverns of GoblinTown would have cast a yellow colour to their actual pale grey skin.

So I went with the pale grey base tone. After this they had shading washes and heavy drybrushing to set the flesh tones. The loin cloths and equipment were painted up, and finally the disgusting spotty lumps and bumps were given red and purple washes and the yellow spot heads added, just ripe for popping! An adolescent kid would have a field day on these buggers! ;-)

Finally facial features were added, including eyes and teeth/mouths.

I have to confess to the eyes not being the best - normally I do the eyes at the mid point of the models, but with so many washes and dry brushing going on they would probably have got messed up, so I left them to the end.

Typically by which point my fine detail brush had given up the ghost! So with nothing good to hand to dot the pupils I resorted to trimming a cocktail stick to a sharp point and used that!

Not the most accurate way of doing things and some of the eyes went a little off centre, but in the end I think it actually added to the character of the mis-shaped limbs and general ungainly poses. Bases were PVA sand textured and painted and drybrushed.

So I am rather happy with the way they turned out. Suitably loathsome!

So whilst they and their setting are clearly suitably for playing the Hobbit games in Goblin Town... I did have a bit of a lateral thought, with all this Empire of the Dead stuff taking off...

Wouldn't they do wonderfully as evil minions of the Vampire faction? I can just see the underground catacombs below the vampire castle teaming with these little villains... perhaps there to protect the Vampire when he rests in his coffin, and aid the master in his evil plots and plans...

I could run them as a 'thrall' with a hand weapon or improvised weapon, or perhaps make them a little weaker, in stats for a suitable cost reduction?

Above you can see the Vampire Hunters searching out their prey in the catacombs below 'Castle Dracula'  !

The Hobbit - Goblin Town.

I finally finished my 'Goblin Town' set up for the game scenarios from the The Hobbit game set.

Not too bad for about 2-3 weeks work...

Its the sort of set up that you could just keep building more and adding to it over time to further embellish it.

I kept it fairly straight forward at this stage, with simple flat platforms of varying lengths that can be overlaid in a endless array and variety. I did include a higher level walkway, which works its way down with sloping sections and ladders up and down to give a sense of 3D to the overall scene. This could lead down from the 'cage' into which the The Party was dropped in the movie.... I might build a little cage to further embellish this end...

I still of course have to include the plastic Goblin Town components from the The Hobbit boxed set, which includes the rather iconic throne. And of course I need to populate it and thats what I am busy with now... I have just about finished trimming and basing the 36 Goblins from the boxed set.

So  48" x 48" set up, with plenty of scope for variety and ease of storage as the whole is composed of many small parts...

In games terms lots of routes across and out from Goblin Town to escape, but lots of edges of platforms and walkways that will effectively trap any model that loses a fight whilst unlucky enough to be on the edge.

That will result in lots of cases where double wounds will be being rolled for!

And of course remember for this scenario the base of the board isn't there but drops away into nothingness...

Any models that fall off the edge are removed as a casualty!

So there you have it, project complete, now must press on with painting those goblins and dwarves and a certain hobbit and a wandering wizard! ;-)

The Hobbit - Goblin Town WIP - "The Capture" scenario terrain

I recently finished the rocky terrain layers, that will be used as a basis for Goblin Town, but they also are perfect for the preceeding scenario; "The Capture"

Above shows the 4' x 4' layout, with its 4 corner pieces, 4 mid side pieces, and 4 main central pieces, plus an assortment of rocky ourcrops.

Here below is the scenario from the The Hobbit rulebook....

  

... and a close up below of  the map for suggested terrain  layout....

The good thing about this terrain set up is its sufficiently 'generic' also for use in say, Shelobs Lair, Isengard, or any other evil themed desolate rocky areas...

After the crazy day that is Christmas with the kids, today, Boxing Day I managed to sneak off and spend some time to myself, while they played with their new prezzies, slicing balsa and gluing it together to make more platforms and levels for Goblin Town. Just need to get it all painted and laid out.

In the meantime now I've settled back into trimming some of the goblins from the set, with a glass of vino at my elbow.

Stay tuned for progress.

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Kick off!... 3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge underway! And Goblin Town - WIP

Well the 20th has arrived and that means the start of the Analogue Hobbies 3rd Annual Painting Challenge!

By definition of the rules, models may be undercoated before the start of the challenge, well I have managed to get 2 models prep'd and ready to go... Groblog the Goblin King of Moria for LOTR/Hobbit, and a Police Inspector for EotD...

I have manged to trim and base the first 14 goblins from the The Hobbit starter set too, so a quick blast of black undercoat and they'll be good to go...

I'd also like to get this battalia of Gondorians finished too since I have recently got back into LOTR. I started them ages ago when I first got my airbrush, thinking, 'Ooooh I can whack some silver on that lot quick as you like'. But other than a quick dark brown wash afterwards, they have languished unfinished... I realise they wont score me any points as they are already started but I'd still like to try and get them finished none the less... (I am offering this as part of an excuse when I don't score too many points during the challenge!)

And of course I am pressing madly on with Goblin Town...

It's getting to the screaming point ! If I see another bit of bark mulch I'll flip my lid! ;-)
But here it is now mostly assembled, just needs painting. I stacked the layers together just for ease of photography....

 

I have only got a few more bits to finish off assembling.... And then there was several sheets of balsa to chop up and glue together and paint brown for the wooden platforms of Goblin Town. This old ice-cream container is brimming with them, ready to use. I'm going to give them a light dry brush to finishes them off...

So thats where I am at. In some ways the Challenge hasn't come at the best time for me as I am part way into several projects, one major one of which is terrain...

But no matter, I am just along for the ride, and just happy to log whatever I can against the Challenge.

I have set myself a target of 600 points and we'll soon see how close I manage to get to it.

Heres wishing all my fellow Ronin the best of luck!

The Hobbit - SBG - ...And so it begins! Goblin Town - WIP

Well this weekend saw me skipping about with excitement. First when I came home from work on Friday night, my The Hobbit rulebook had arrived! So I had the weekend to have a perusal through and see what these new rules tweaks are all about.

Certainly a lavish book, and very pleasing to see the LotR Source Journey books are all still valid, as are the recent Warbands Armies books.

The new rules work seemlessly with the existing models and rules and stats... so all is well, and quite a relief!

And Monday when I came home from work the Starter Set was waiting for me! Wonderful!

Knowing what was going to be in the starter set -  and having seen the movie trailer, I realised I had suitable terrain for just about everything already, except 'Goblin Town'... so I made a start... I had some poly sheet and some dense poly too left over from previous projects, and a pile of balsa. I quickly used the balsa I had and grabbed some more from local toystore.

NZ$20 and I have enough blasa sheet to cover most of the board... I'll see how it goes, might need a bit more...

Goblin town wooden platforms start to take shape

So dense poly shapes cut out and a quick once over with sand textured paint, and it was starting to take shape...

Goblin Town planned out on a 4' x 4' sheet of 2" thick poly

Then a quick rummage in the garden borders and a pile of bark chip mulch was sourced.

Bark Mulch from the garden - 'Free' terrain supplies! :-)

And on it gets glued into place to effect the rock walls.

Smaller bark bits will be added to fill the gaps, and the joins sealed with more sand textured paint.

 I hope progress will continue apace!

Stay tuned Hobbit fans!