New old hobgoblins - plan E

When I first started drafting this post it was to declare that, if I could happily field old and new Citadel goblins, with their drastically different proportions, then I could also happily field the slightly tall, skinny Wargames Factory orcs alongside my Fantasy Tribe hobgoblins.

1989 Kev Adams wolf rider, C21 goblin on Citadel wolf, Wargames Factory orc, FT hobgoblin

Then I decided that, even if I stripped and repainted the brutal childhood paint job, then I still couldn't field those wolf riders together, and I was going to have to shell out on more of the newer ones. A more immediate point though was that, much as I like the Wargames Factory orcs (not so keen on the reversible torsos, but they have buckets of character), I just couldn't field them along with the proper hobgoblins either.

So my search continued. I picked up another of the Grenadier goblins (lovely, but too few poses in the right style), and still more to go in what will be my more-eastern-equipped elite unit. But there's nothing out there quite like the Fantasy Tribes, and the more I look at them the more I like them.

One option at this point, and not inconceivable given the cost of all these false starts, is just to pay the silly prices these chaps go for on eBay. But I'm determined to stick with the original how to Oldhammer initiative (which specifies cheap as chips or still available) and besides, I'm getting a bit obsessed at this point (nearly a year and counting)...!

So I took another look at my earlier observation that there's something a bit Roman about the FT hobgoblins, and am hoping that some of Warlord Games' imperial Romans (plastic kits, so easy to convert, and seem more chunky and less regimented than some out there), combined with Hasslefree orc heads, plus some green stuff, might get me somewhere close.

So far I'm cautiously optimistic - the heads are a bit on the small side, but I'm feeling that once they're bulked out with hair and helmets they might be there, or thereabouts.

Hopefully in less than another year's time...

Painting projects for the year - ambitious version

I've been idly musing several painting projects in my head, while failing to put paintbrush to the orcs I'm meant to be painting...

Having looked at my actual output for 2014 I've scaled this list back somewhat - but it's still way more than I'm likely to finish in 2015. However, stuff I'd like to paint next -

• My Oldhammer forum avatar and the standard bearer for my main orc unit
• The hobgoblins and wolf riders from the Dolgan Raiders scenario, including Bagnol, Blackeye and a wagon. In other words about the same figure count as my entire output for 2014, but by August...
• Some Gondor guards in mail - because in Middle Earth they've not invented plate armour yet
• The figures from an entire old school scenario - OK, Terror of the Lichmaster's Assault on the Mine only has 21 skeletons and 6 dwarves, but still...
• Some good guys - my daughters refer to my orcs as "my knights", I think it's time I painted something a bit closer to knightly. Probably the billmen I picked up at Foundry last year
• The thugs from my Gulgan's raiders project

That's around 100 figures - realistically way more than I'll get to paint this year. Hopefully BOYL will be enough motivation to get the biggest chunk done though, and then we'll see!

Still searching for new old hobgoblins

I've been dithering excessively over my new hobgoblins - 7 months and counting  :(  - after having second thoughts over a few of them, and hence broadening my search for other options.

A big part of the problem is that I have two Fantasy Tribe and two C36 hobgoblins that I want to include in the mix, and singles or pairs from four other ranges, while hopefully ending up with a fairly coherent (but not uniform) unit.

In parallel to that, it's quite hard to say what defines a Citadel hobgoblin. The Fantasy Tribe figures are very much in fantasy armour - it's hard to identify any real world parallels. In fact the closest I can come for a match is imperial Roman armour, with distinctly non-Roman helms. See for example this Roman general -

Warlord Games' Roman general - image from Bob's Miniature Wargaming Blog

- whose armour bears a passing resemblance to the Fantasy Tribe chieftain seen here on the right, or so I feel -

Eastern hobgoblin from Mirliton, Armalion Red Moon orc, FT hobgoblin

The later C36 hobgoblins and especially the DL2 Hobgoblin Warriors move to somewhat more of an eastern vibe, but rather than full on samurai armour the C36 miniatures are more like full mail with patches of samurai armour, and the DL2s have samurai armour over flesh, whereas most samurai miniatures seem to be armour over clothing (sort of like the eastern hobgoblin in the picture above, although it's hard to tell much with the undercoating, sorry...).

Nihon orc, Grenadier goblin, FT again for size

The Mirliton Nihon orc shown above seems to me to fit well with the more eastern of the Citadel miniatures, or the N17 Chronicle hobgoblins, however he is unfortunately the only one of the range I particularly like. The others all seem a bit chunky and crude and, as can be seen by the amount of crouching in the picture above, they're also a fair bit bigger than the other hobgoblins I've assembled. The goblin on the other hand is too short, but looks so great I had to include him!

I next looked to the Wargames Factory orc warband, which I rather like, however as shown below they're a bit on the skinny / realistic proportion side, in comparison to these other figures -

Wargames Factory warband orc, FT for comparison

They do however have a good-enough match for the Fantasy Tribes armour, I feel. I'm thinking of heroic-ing them by chopping the body in half vertically and puttying it back together with broader shoulders, and then adding bigger heads - perhaps the Hasslefree goblin ones. Rather more work than I was planning on originally!

I've one further plan up my sleeve - the ronin from Black Hat's samurai range seem a good source for samurai armour over flesh, so again I'm thinking of giving these some head swaps.

I do realise this is all slightly silly - given the amout of work involved I'd be much better off just holding my nose and paying over the odds on Ebay for actual Citadel hobgoblins, but this way is so much more interesting!