Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Head on a Stick


Cards for Chaos Marauders illustrated by John Blanche (GW 1987)

Hobgoblins in 1st and 2nd edition Warhammer were subject to frenzy. This meant that, if they could get a charge off first, hobgoblin infantry could hit pretty hard. With 3rd edition this trait became linked with fielding a sacred army standard. I'm not sure why there was this shift to hobgoblins carrying totems into battle, but I do wonder if the excellent Hobgoblin Standard cards from the Chaos Marauders game, released the year before, might have had an influence?

The entry for hobgoblins in the 3rd ed. rulebook included the following rules:

"Hobgoblin forces always carry their army standard into battle. This takes the form of a staff or pole bearing a trophy or sign, and is carried in a small wagon drawn by a span of fierce Hobhounds. So long as their standard remains intact, any Mournguls are subject to frenzy. The army standard, its wagon and crew must be included.

"The Hobgoblin standard is the symbol of the tribe's honour. Any enemy unit engaged in close combat against it is hated by all Mourngul units on the table. 
"The standard is a potent magical symbol to the Hobgoblin wizard. Totems always have the ability to act as a magical reservoir as described under magic standards. All Hobgoblin wizards must surrender half of their magic points before the battle and place them in the standard."

 

As there was no model for this, the cart and totem would need to be cobbled together using bits from other ranges or scratch built! A superb example can be seen over on the Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold blog, but drawn by a lobotomised ogre rather than a span of hobhounds.

The requirements were less onerous for the hobgoblin mercenary contingent list in Warhammer Armies. Now you could take a standard bearer rather than needing to scratch build a dogcart. The contingent standard was also optional, but then why wouldn't you take one?


"The contingent standard is a sacred tribal fetish. As long as the standard remains intact, all Hobgoblins are subject to frenzy. Any enemy unit engaged in close combat with the standard bearer will be hated by all Hobgoblins."

 

From Warhammer Armies supplement for WFB 3rd ed. (GW 1988)

The obvious choice of model, and the only hobgoblin standard bearer in production in 1988, would have been from the Despoiling Hobgoblins of the Darklands Regiments of Renown set. However, I currently have enough despoiling hobgoblin troopers in the Dettol jar to field Throg and the boys as their own unit, complete with their iconic standard as Goodwin intended. This meant I'd have to leave my comfort zone and convert another hob for the tribal fetish wrangler. I settled on a DL2 discipline master (from the Aly Morrison's Hobgoblin Warriors boxed set) who had come with a job lot of hobs minus his man-catcher.


I initially toyed with giving this chap a banner rather than a totem, but it didn't really fit the vibe. Clearly, what was required was a head on a stick! For the pole I drilled a small hole into the hand and glued a wire spear in place. This was then padded out to the required thickness with green stuff. For the 'board' to attach the head to the pole I used a plastic shield from the bitz box. The chains and skulls are from a GW goblin sprue.


I'd only ever attempted some basic green stuff furs, so the head proved to be a challenge. With more than a nod to the Despoiling Hobgoblins standard, I was aiming for the skinned face of some 'orrible chaos ogre-type beastie that has been nailed to a board. It turns out that sculpting faces is tricky. That said, I felt this was a reasonable first stab. I then put the model in a draw and forgot about it for a year...

...and now, with hobgobs back on the menu, I've banned myself from painting any new shinnies until I've painted the draw goblins. It was time to tackle ol' Big Head.


This actually turned out far better than I was expecting. I'll be the first to admit that it's a rather basic paint job, but I think I've managed to capture the 3rd ed. vibe with this one. I'm pleased with it.

Here's my conversion next to the Jes Goodwin classic Despoiling Hobgoblins standard bearer (I call him 'Old Scrote' due to his wrinkly head). I think Mr Goodwin's sculpting might just have the edge over mine... 


And here's more of the draw goblins finally coloured in. These are all slotta C36 hobgoblins.


This hob got a 'orrible chaos ogre-type beastie for his tower shield. I haven't done one of these in ages. I'd forgotten how much fun they are to paint. 


I've still quite a few draw goblins to get through. Whether I manage to paint them all before I get side tracked remains to be seen, but it feels like I'm on a bit of a roll. Next up will either be some ADD54 hobs or some Chronicle hobs. I'm veering towards the Chronicle hobs at the mo' as they're a little less fiddly. We'll see. 

Thanks for taking a look. 'Til next time, go easy folks.