Broo Rescue

Look at this poor little fella. Not only is his spear broken, but some mongrel has cut off his horns! Who would do such a thing?

He was also going cheap on eBay, so I decided to rescue him and see if I couldn't fix him up.

I am far from competent with greenstuff, but 'good enough' horns were fairly straight forward. I decided I would convert him into a standard bearer, so scanned eBay for a suitable totem. The criteria was a) skulls and b) not too expensive. I found this one which had an appropriate number of skulls and a severed head (the broo has another severed head tucked under his shield). I wasn't sure where it was from so I asked on the Oldhammer Forum. Apparently it's a Chaos Space Marine Icon (1997) sculpted by Aly Morrison. I've been calling it the Evil Spaceman Thingy. 

I drilled out the spear hand to take a banner pole. For my  hobgoblin standard bearer I used a bulked out wire spear for the pole. This has needed gluing back on several times... This time around I've used a cocktail stick, which seems much more sturdy. I then bulked out the lower half of the spear shaft with greenstuff.

Anyway, here's the finished article, ready for release back into the forests of the Empire. 

Frothlip & Friends

I have very nearly cleared the backlog of draw goblins (minis that have been prepped to paint, but live in a draw so that they can't guilt trip me). From left to right we have Dwarf Maimer (Chronicle N12 Hobgoblins, 1985), Sileth Frothlip and Kudra Stunty Smasher (BC4 Mighty Ugezod's Death Commandos, 1985), all sculpted by Nick Lund, Standard Bearer (DL2 Aly Morrison's Hobgoblin Warriors, 1984) and Hobgoblin Champion 1 (Oakbound Studio, 2023), sculpted by Paul Hicks. 

In case folks were wondering where they might find reasonably priced Oldhammer-style hobs, I thought it might be useful to have a comparison shot with the Oakbound chap and some classic C36 slotta hobs. I think he scales rather well.

The backlog of hobs left to paint is still ridiculous. I've really let myself drift with this one, with a couple of year-long breaks where I got distracted by other shiny things, and with no clear end goal. I think it's time to go full Stillman on this lot. Ideally, I'd like to complete a playable hobgoblin force before the end of 2025. As with the latest lot, the target is acceptable tabletop standard and to grind through them in small batches. Well, that's the plan. Gods know, I hate batch painting :( 

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.

Come Mister Talisman, tally me hobgoblins

I have done an incredible amount of painting this week. Mercifully, I have now finished redecorating upstairs... I'm with the Mole on this one. 'Hang spring-cleaning!' 

I still managed to knock out a couple of hobgoblins this week, despite all the DIY. On the left we have the Talisman TL6 hobgoblin (1986) and on the right another C36 slotta hobgoblin (1985), both sculpted by Aly Morrison.

As a kid I was fortunate enough to have both  Talisman 2nd ed. and the Talisman Expansion Set (which included the hobgoblin character) and I must have played the game a hundred times or more. Citadel's Talisman range was based on the wonderful Gary Chalk illustrations for the game (playing pieces were cardboard characters that slotted into circular plastic bases).

I was sorely tempted to paint this fella the same as GC's hobgoblin, but in the end he got the same army spot colours as my other hobs. Once the varnish had dried, I undertook a wee stocktake on the hobgobs painted to-date. One, two... eh... three... um... some... some more...

I'm pleased with this lot. They're pretty basic paint jobs (mine usually are), but they have cohesion without veering too far towards Middlehammer uniformity. I have a cunning plan for these guys. I'm going to need twice as many, though, so I'd better pull my finger out. Cheers.

 

The Elusive Baron

I've finally got my mitts on Baron Brightgore! He's from Citadel's 1985 C36 hobgoblins range, sculpted by Aly Morrison.

I've wanted this miniature since I was a kid, after seeing him depicted as the Khan of the hobgoblin mercenary contingent in Warhammer Armies (1988). I remember thinking how cool and goblin-y he looked.

Since I've been collecting C36 hobgoblins the Baron has proved particularly elusive. After several years searching I was stoked to find him on eBay, and for less than half of what I would've been willing to pay. I'm always pleased to see paint on secondhand minis. It shows someone's had fun painting them and (hopefully) playing with them. That said, BB was definitely due a refresh, so he was sent off for a Dettol bath and then repainted in the colours of my horde. 

While I was about it, I knocked up a few more hobs for the ranks. From left to right they are a pre-slotta C36 (1984), a DL2 'Champion' (1984) and two slotta C36 (1985). 

There's plenty more where this lot came from. It's taken a while, but I've managed to collect nearly all the C36 sculpts. There's now just the small matter of painting them all. The one notable absence from the collection is 'Gyokurinti the Strangler' - a mutant hobgoblin with a maced tail from the pre-slotta range. Unfortunately he appears to be as rare as rocking horse poo. One day...

The Good, The Bad & The Lead Rot

 

The painting queue has been overrun by 1980s hobgoblins, shouldering past the orcs and booting wee Saxons out of their way. The latest batch were so keen to be painted that they forgot to put their trousers on! From left to right we have a DL2 (1984), a pre-slotta C36 (1984) and a slotta C36 (1985), all sculpted for Citadel by Aly Morrison.

They were undercoated black several years ago and it really was high time they were painted. However, when I started to apply the base coats I noticed that one of the hobs appeared to be suffering from early onset lead rot! I suspect that the mini may have been like that back when it was undercoated, but for the life of me I can't remember.

I sought a second opinion on the Oldhammer Community Facebook group and had the diagnosis confirmed. But what to do? In the end I decided to paint and be damned. Either the rot is now inert or it's slowly eating away at the old soldier's insides. If it's the latter then at least he'll get a few turns around a battlefield before his leg falls off.

Hobgoblin banners and shields from WFB 3rd ed. Warhammer Armies

I've also been taking stock of the hobgoblins I'd painted previously. These were my first tilt at a project when I was getting back into gaming. Many have seen a fair bit of action since as a unit of mercenaries in our games of Dragon Rampant. The four C36 hobs below needed some minor battle damage touched up, but otherwise I think they still pass muster.

Likewise, I'm still happy with these two. They are 'Manic Hobgoblin Hero' from the BC2 Monsters Starter Set (another Aly Morrison sculpt) and a Chronicle N12 hobgoblin by Nick Lund (both 1985, I think). It's odd that while the new slotta sculpts for the C36 range leaned further into the Steppe warrior aesthetic, the Chronicle range went in the exact opposite direction. The N12 hobgoblins all have fantastical versions of Samurai arms and armour, with many having a central horn reminiscent of  Japanese oni. Thankfully, this chap has a helmet on and shouldn't look too out of place alongside the older DL2 hobs.

And I'm still ridiculously pleased with how these shields turned out. I'm looking forward to painting more.

I was never going to be satisfied with all the old paint jobs. Rather than just strip and start again, I attempted to renovate the three below by painting directly on top of the old varnish. They're still not going to win any prizes, but they are a definite improvement and will look fine among the ranks.

The chap on the right is the oldest mini in the army to-date. He's 'Grizlock the Hobgoblin' from the 1983 Dungeon Monsters Starter Set. I don't know who sculpted him, but if I had to guess I'd say maybe the Perry twins? Answers on a postcard, folks.

A Fistful of Hobgobs

I fancied a bit of Oldhammering recently, so I dug out a fistful of 1980s hobgobs to colour in. They're all Citadel C36 hobgoblins sculpted by Aly Morrison. The chap on the left (Dut Doomaxe according to the old catalogues) is an early slottabase miniature from 1985. The other 3 are unnamed pre-slottas from 1984. 

There's an excellent potted history of Citadel hobgoblins on ...the Leadpile blog which goes someway to explaining why the early ranges were such a hodgepodge mess. Hobgoblins had been depicted as generic barbarian-types for the Fantasy Tribes range, proxy bakemono opponents for the Samurai range, militaristic baddies with Chinese-inspired arms and armour for the AD&D range, and eventually Steppe nomads in WFB 2nd ed. Despite having mercenary contingent lists for both 2nd and 3rd ed., this iteration of hobgoblins would be killed off at the end of 3rd ed. I guess the niche for nomadic, wolf riding marauders was already well served by the evergreen orcs and goblins (not helped by the fact that all the hobgoblin miniatures were footsloggers). There also seems to have been little appetite at GW for developing the East of the Warhammer world. For my money, though, the C36 range knocks the later Big Hat hobgoblins into a cocked hat.

Hobgoblin banner designs from WFB 2nd ed. Ravening Hordes book

I'm fortunate to have previously collected several dozen C36 hobgobs (the going rate on eBay is currently a bit too spicy for me). So, given that I recently took Tolkien to task for Orientalism, why am I so enamoured with this range? I suspect it's because they're peak 1980s fantasy. The aesthetic is 1-part Conan the Barbarian to 2-parts NWOBHM* sleeve art. In fact, while I was painting the latest batch, this tune from The Comic Strip presents... More Bad News was firmly stuck in my head!

For my money, though, the most metal of all the Citadel hobgobs are the Despoiling Hobgoblins of the Darklands (Regiments of Renown RR15 - 1985) sculpted by Jes Goodwin.

I still need to track down Grunmunter the Beast and a few more troopers, but no self-respecting hobgoblin horde should be without these scallywags. And on the subject of hobgoblins I'd like to track down, if anyone has a C36 Baron Brightgore they're willing to sell for less than the price of a kidney, then please do get in touch.

*New Wave of British Heavy Metal