"Goblins. Fahsends of 'em"

Hello to you all on this last day of June.

In about three and a half months, I have brought my little (no pun intended) fantasy project to a state where I can successfully call something "finished". Well, strictly speaking, I may well add more figures in due course, but I have more than enough painted, based, varnished and ready to go to play some games of "Warband" if ever I can get the Nephews or sundry other associates in the same place at the same time sometime soon...

So, here for your delectation/ mild amusement/ distaste (set your own level to suit), I give you the "Burning Skulls" and their various hangers on. I don't normally paint Orcs green, but they looked right after I had painted the first few, so I stuck with it. Technically, in the rules, they are classed as "goblins" anyway, which I do paint green...

I am over-thinking this...

I was concerned about how I would base them (and was right to be), but settled on Basetex. This has caused a tiny bit of base warping as it has dried and contracted, but I hope to be able to sort that out by magnetising the ends of the bases only, rather than the middle. I trust this will cause the base to be pulled into shape better during storage, but I must admit there is no science behind this. I also stuck the figures down in stages on those bases with 20+ figures, then did a bit of texturing, then added more figures, etc. I am happy with the end result though.

They are not all I have been doing during this past three+ months, as I have also painted their High Elf opponents, but they are neither varnished nor based so you will not see them yet. Maybe by the end of July. And then there are the proposed reinforcements. And then I want some 10mm Balrogs. And something akin to some Haradrim would not go amiss...

Talk about project creep.

All the figures are Pendraken. I am impressed with them, especially given their size. They also cover lots of historical stuff for those not inclined towards fantasy, so do check them out at shows or their website.

G

The Bossmen - a command unit and another of shamen/ shamans. The little boxes at the rear corner of each base hold little dice used to mark unit strength in the "Warband" rules.

The boss and his entourage. The basic command pack only comes with five figures, so I added some spare warriors. Can you spot the theme for these bodyguard-types?

Mighty Magic-men of Mordor! Or hapless dupes if truth be told...I have a habit in fantasy games of seeing my wizards blow themselves up. I deliberately left other figures off this base: 1) See the first part of this caption and, 2) I doubt anyone would really want to stand by the average Orc shaman because they would probably expect some pain in my book!

Artillery (small scale). Reinforcements will include some bigger stuff...These will do for now.

Blokes on dogs. Erm, Wolf Riders, I mean.

What is the Black Speech word for "Charge!!!"

Blokes with bent sticks. The rearmost unit is one of Scouts, who have suitable special rules in the "Warband" book to do with something called "scouting". No, I don't know what that is either...

A close up of some of the blokes with bent sticks.

Ah, the Mirkwood Leichte Panzer Division.

Warriors!

And a close up of some general cannon fodder/ warriors.

And some others who wanted the publicity...

BIG STUFF, in the form of some Trolls. I don't know why I did three units. In the "Warband" rules, you can only have 200pts of these "Special" types, and these bases are 90pts each! Oh yes, I remember now. I don't just want to play basic games! (And I am a megalomaniac with a passion for big gribblies!)

Bill, Tom and the other one. With three of their friends.

And a few more. Where is Turin Turambar when you need him? (Go and read "The Silmarillion" if you don't get the reference you heathen).