Gobbos of the Crooked Claw

Here is two goblins sculpted, of course, by Kev Adams for the now defunct Crooked Claw Miniatures. While in action Crooked Claw released a number of fine gobbos and I think Adams did a great job at creating some very colourful and nasty looking greenskins in the style he is known for today.

The two in this post, I guess, were probably produced around 2012. I bought a number of the gobbos from Crooked Claw back then around ‘13 and I almost think that these two were the last single models left unpainted.

There is not that much to say about the minis themselves. The minis are very well produced and they are fun, wicked chaps, which I had a great time painting.

 

Yep, still more greenskins

So here I am again with another mix of greenskins and this time the mix is particularly eclectic. First up is one of Kev Adams’ early 90’s night goblins. I was never really taken with the night goblins from this era, but they are certainly nice and smooth to paint and still way better than the later, plastic incarnations of the gobbos – at least to my mind.

Speaking of smooth painting the next one is an early 80’s pre-slotta so-called Red Orc from the Fiend Factory line. This is a very crude sculpt indeed and somewhat of a challenge to paint, but I must admit that I rather like the odd moon face and the strange body proportions of the red orcs.

Then we have another familiar face from the Fiend Factory line – a pre-slotta goblin archer. The outlandish fishlike face (and feet with only three toes!) of the goblin made me paint his skin tone blueish or turquoise. I don’t know if this was I wise decision but sometimes you just have to go with the flow and see where things end up. This sculpt is in many ways much better than the red orc, but I would still choose the red orc over this fella.

Finally, we return to Kev Adams with a goblin he sculpted for Crooked Claw Miniatures. Like most of his Crooked Claw gobbos this is a fun and wicked looking chap with lots a character. Good stuff.

Luckily I have now finished painting the last greenskins I was planning to do and I am thus now stated painting other stuff. Hurra. However, on the blog the next post will still be showing greenskins as I will post the remainder of my work as well. Nevertheless, bear with me, other stuff is coming down the pipeline.

Aggressive, green hoi polloi

This is my latest effort; yet another small band of greenskins. Painting them was pure comfort food as these models simply sparkle with character and overall greatness. There’s not much to tell about them. All except one are classic Citadel greenskins from around ’87 – although the goblin with the shield might be a year or two earlier.

The exception is a fine goblin by Crooked Claw Miniatures. The mini was clearly sculpted in a classic punk outfit with studded leather west, mohawk and a Sid collar. Picking up on that I decided to do the paint-job in the same spirit, keeping the leather black, the studs steely, the nails red and plenty of eyeliner for the guy. What fun.

I hope you like them. I certainly do.

Cheers

Martin

 

 

 

 

Mixed gobbos for your pleasure

It’s been a while. I’ve been swamped with work and only found time to do some short paint sessions since the beginning of the month. Sadly this appears to continue at least for another few weeks, but I’ll probably be able to fit in some occasional painting. At least that’s what I hope. I have 18 eager snotlings awaiting my brush on the workbench, but more about them in a later post.

Here you see what I have almost finished. Five gobbos – the oldest is the little fella in the middle. A so-called Lesser Night Goblin sculpted by the Perry twins around 1983. I have quite a few of those in the leadpile and I for some reason really like these gnomish goblins. They are quite different from the Citadel goblins we came to know from the mid-80’s but their minute appearance certainly is charming and I would really like to do something more with these lesser goblins.

Then you see three goblins from around 1987. The one with the shield and the chap holding a spear are excellent sculpts while the one with the bow is suffering from some awkward details and a slightly, unintentionally deformed face. He looks good from a distance but the sculpting doesn’t really hold up to closer inspection.

Finally the one on the far right is a Crooked Claw Goblin. A decent mini, although the body perhaps is a bit too rotund or trunk-like, but nothing which should keep you from getting one yourself.

There is not much to say about the paintwork. The skin turned out slightly lighter than intended but that’s how it goes with my greenskins. They seem to end up a bit different each time, which is probably because I don’t really have a preferred method to do the green skin. I added some poppie-like flowers to two of the bases.

As you can see I still need to finish the bases but that’s the easy part and something which I even might do tonight.

Cheers

 

The last monks (honestly!)

This weekend we finally played Marktag Bloody Marktag and as the amateur I am, I of course forgot to bring my camera. I took some photos with my phone but they ended very random and of poor quality. Alas, what turned out to be a quite fun endeavor was left undocumented. Oh well. I’ll try to do something with the pics I did take and probably make some sort of proper presentation of the scenario at a later stage. Right now I need to digest the whole thing for a while.

But let me tell you this, the monks of St Gotthard never saw what hit them. The undead force attacking the monastery came crawling through the dusk and took the poor monks and their guests by complete surprise. They never managed to organize their defenses and the skeletons and ghouls attacking thus ploughed through their opponents, setting fire to buildings and spreading fear. It was quite cool actually, although Rasmus playing the monks gradually lost any hope of repelling the attack.

After last weekend I haven’t touched a brush but my appetite for new projects is already slowly returning.   However, here you see the five last monks I finished before leaving. If you have been following these posts you’ll probably know the drill. The colours are the same and the manufacturers are also more or less so. From left to right you see a monk from Black Tree Design, an old Metal Magic monk, One of Foundry’s “jolly monks”, and the next one is another fella from Black Tree. Finally we have a cleric from Citadel. Frankly I’m not sure if this is a man or woman. I always assumed it was a woman and in our scenario we used her as the nun Ulrike Herberiner. Nevertheless while painting the mini I started to wonder if this indeed is a woman. It could easily be a slightly feminine chap. Well, she/he is a nice mini although the use of crosses in fantasy settings always seems slightly odd.

Any thoughts on the monks (and nun/cleric?)?

Up next on my workbench is this lot of fierce, delightful goblins. A nice mix of old, very old and very recent minis. This is going to be a nice change of pace after having painted monks and adventurers these last two months.

Cheers and good times

Martin

 

 

More painted goblins

As stated in a previous post I have been painting goblins lately. As with the last batch these chaps were more or less selected randomly from my box of unpainted greenskins. I like the eclectic mix of goblins from different periods. It enhances the mongrel feel of the goblinoids and makes them fun and diverse to paint.

The models are all well-known and hardly need further introduction. Three are 80’s Citadel goblins, one is a Citadel night goblin from the early 90’s and the final goblin is from Crooked Claw’s excellent range of greenskins. Frankly I’m not too happy with the skin colour. It turned out a bit too neon green and I’ll certainly be more careful with my washes when I paint goblins – or orcs – next time.

That’s it for now. Cheers.

 

 

 

 

 

Goblins ahoy

I have been painting goblins lately and had lots of fun with it. As it shows from the pictures (sorry for the bad ones!) I just sort of picked random minis from my box with unpainted goblins. I really like the jumbled, unruly look gained by combining goblins from different eras and producers. It enhances the sense of the greenskins being these large hordes of more or less inbred creatures of havoc.

The newest mini is of course the spear-wielding guy by Crooked Claw Miniatures. He looks rather posh and ornate. It’s almost too much. I prefer my goblins scruffy and less well-clad. But then again, I guess one would find sharp dressers even among goblinoids.

The rest are assorted Citadel goblins from the 80’s. These minis are pure gold in my view and boy do I love Bob Olley’s absolutely bizarre Iron claw specimens.

I’ll be back soon with more goblins and some terrain.

Back again with old and new greenskins

It has been a while. I’ve been preoccupied with other things and had little time to paint. I actually also decided not to buy any new lead before I had finished some substantial painting. This promise to myself I kept, although I did buy several sheets (or boards?) of balsa wood for some future terrain projects. I also bought some miniature barrels. But terrain materials are something completely different from miniatures, right!?

However, I did manage to paint up these five greenskins. It’s a motley group of new and old models. Firstly we have two of Crooked Claw’s wonderful, evil looking goblins. I really like a lot of his models and their retro, “Oldhammer” vibe. And furthermore they paint wonderfully.

Then we have an early 90’s Citadel night goblin with a late 80’s shield. I did not want him to have the usual black look of the night goblins – instead I gave him a drab brown robe and hat. Simple, but I like it. The redorange shield lightens the model nicely I think.

Then we have a mid-80’s Marauder orc. One from their “mongol” line. Not the best work from Marauder but ok.

Last up we have an old citadel orc. A very simple model, but damn nice. It was difficult to paint but I really enjoy these early slotta base orcs. By the way – the base is not finished on neither of the orcs.

Well, that’s it. I hope to start working on some dwarves soon and then Hamburg Tactica is coming in February, which ought to inspire some activity on the blog.