Moria Goblin Spearmen (2 of 3)

Finished up another batch of spearmen this weekend - much the same to the last lot, although they took less time to paint for similar results. I think I'm painting a little more efficiently now - I'm working from skin to outer clothing and worrying less about getting paint on areas I haven't painted yet which means I can spend more time making very sure I don't catch any 'finished' areas.

I'm sticking with my original painting strategy of base/wash/very-unsubtle-highlights to ensure the whole army is consistent but I think that I may try to step it up a bit for my next army and try to introduce some blending of colours and other more interesting techniques.

Moria Goblin Prowlers (2 of 2)

I unexpectedly found myself with some time on my hands today and managed to complete my second batch of Prowlers for a total of 15 - that's all the Prowlers done and ready to make up the front lines of my 3 close combat warbands (each of which will be completed a with captain/shaman and a rank of spearmen)

A few detail shots of some of the conversions I made:

Hooded cloak (down)	Hooded Cloak (up)
Front: Eyepatch	Rear: Pouch

Moria Goblin Archers (1 of 3)

This week I painted up a batch of archers. Nothing particularly different from the previous two sets except I used a couple of extra colours - some Ceramite White & White Scar to do the arrow fletching and some Doombull Brown to do the quivers and their straps.

I think my faces are improving a little - these guys seem to have more expression than the last ones did.

Front Detail

Rear Detail

Moria Goblin Prowlers (1 of 2)

This weekend I painted up another batch of goblins - this time I went for some of the prowlers I converted as I was interested to see how my modelling held up after painting.

Overall I'm pretty pleased - the first one I converted looks a bit dodgy:

He looks a bit like something is sat on his face

And the hood is rather angular

but the rest came out quite nicely:

Head tie	Hood
Full Hood	Bandana
Sash	Head tie (rear)

The shields were painted with Leadbelcher then washed with Nuln oil to get deep shadows, I then highlighted with Ironbreaker trying to get a scratched look around the edges and finally washed with Agrax Earthshade to get a nice rusty tint.

Moria Goblin Spearmen (1 of 3)

Over the past week I've painted up two sets of goblins. For ease of painting I have decided to do them in batches of 8 - I've tried various sized sets in the past but 8 has proven to be the right balance of 'making enough progress' and 'not getting bored' for me.

The first set I painted up was a batch of spearmen, I picked these guys to start with as the sculpts are very similar so they're very easy to paint en-masse.

I decided to keep to the traditional GW colour scheme for these guys but opted for a slightly brighter green than I usually see to keep them close to the goblins of the films.

Colours: Elysian Green, Memphiston Red, Abaddon Black, Skavenblight Dinge, Dryad Bark, Leadbelcher

Following a base coat with the appropriate colours this gave some very basic looking goblins:

Which I washed with Agrax Earthshade to magically add some depth:

And then highlighted with appropriate lighter shades of each colour:

Ogryn Camo, Administratum Grey, Screaming Skull (teeth), Gorthor Brown, Ironbreaker, Stormvermin Fur (straps) Skavenblight Dinge (hair), Wazdakka Red, Yriel Yellow (eyes) and Dawnstone (base)

The bases are painted with Skavenblight Dinge then washed with Nuln Oil and highlighted with Dawnstone to represent the mines of Moria. 

Looking at the finished models I'm fairly happy with these guys considering they're the first I've painted for about 10 years; that being said there's definitely room for improvement so it will be interesting to see how I (hopefully!) improve

They Have a Cave Troll (Preparation)

Over the course of a couple of weeks I have assembled my troops and prepared them for painting. Most of the time was spent converting models however one thrilling weekend was spent basing and cleaning up the mould lines (more efficient en-masse but very, very tedious).

Here they are in all their rough glory - 6 warbands of 12 goblins at the back + 24 spares at the front and a cave troll to the right.

And now some detail of the converted models:

Gundabad Blackshields (x5)

These guys are made from regular sword & shield goblins with helmets with a couple of modifications - from the GW description their main identifying features are their "mighty shields... like little walking walls" and "the possession of a White Warg pelt" so:

I made more impressive shields from green stuff using a Milliput mould of a standard shield which I then reversed and imprinted again to make a larger, double-pronged shield. To make the actual shields I simply pressed greenstuff into the mould and left it to set completely before carefully prising it out and cleaning up the edges.

I sculpted warg-skin cloaks from greenstuff by simply creating a very rough and bulky cloak shape on the model and then using a craft knife to create a fur effect and guide the final shape of the cloak. Fur is very forgiving and these were sculpted directly onto the models - I used this tutorial to get an idea of what to do but made a very simplified version for my little models.

By comparison to a standard Moria goblin they appear considerably more bulky - these are effectively the same model but the Gundabad is notably 'heavier' looking.

Goblin Prowlers (x 15)

To differentiate from the Gundabad Blackshields I picked models that were bare-headed for my Prowlers

I tried various cloth additions including:

a simple bandanna around the head and a pouch for loot

a more detailed hooded cloak

or a sash

Goblin Shamans

The theme for the Shamans was skulls and staffs:

 My first attempt may need some extra bits adding as it doesn't look particularly different to a regular spearman

 The second one came out a lot better - he is a bowman who has been given a spear and his bow has been trimmed down and reattached to make a swirly dagger 

And the last one is my favourite - a sword & shield chap who's shield socket was carved out and cleaned up then replaced with a skull staff and new hand with a new right arm (from a bowman) and a dagger made from the other end of the bow used for #2.

Goblin Captain with Sword

This was an idea I saw online (I couldn't trace the original source, but I used this guide) which I basically copied exactly except that instead of placing his bow on his back I removed the quiver all together and sculpted some extra hair to cover the damaged area.

Goblin Captain with Bow

This fellow was made in a similar way to the captain but here I simply switched his arms over and took off the open hand and replaced it with a sculpted hand with a pointing finger so he can direct his troops. This guide gave great directions for sculpting hands.

They Have a Cave Troll...(Planning)

My first army will be made up of the denizens of Moria. These days there is a fairly wide selection of models available from Games Workshop including exotic drakes and dragons but I am going to try to theme my armies around the books & movies so I will be assembling a more traditional force based around the encounter the Fellowship have at Balin's tomb in the Mines of Moria.

My initial forces for Moria were quite modest and consisted of:

The Balrog
The Goblin King
13 unpainted Moria Goblins (5 spear, 4 bow, 4 sword & shield)
11 painted Moria Goblins (3 spear, 4 bow, 4 sword & shield)

The Balrog doesn't fit my theme so he's not going to form part of my army and can endlessly duel Gandalf off to one side - the remaining 25 goblins clearly need some reinforcements if they are to make a viable force.

I calculated that the entire fellowship with their appropriate weaponry comes to almost exactly 750 points therefore this seemed like a reasonable size for my Moria army but of course 750 points of Moria is an awful lot more models than 750 points of heroes!

Clearly I needed more models.... fortunately Ebay came to my rescue and, thanks to the apparent unpopularity of Moria Goblins, I was able to secure my reinforcements at a very reasonable price:

1 Cave Troll at a price of £11.99 (RRP £18.50)
72 Moria Goblins were secured for the bargain price of £22.80 (RRP £90)

The initial goblins all came from Battle Games in Middle Earth at £3.99/issue so 3x3.99 = £11.97 for a total army cost of £46.76 which I think is pretty reasonable

The full army list is as follows:

Warband 1    12/12
Durbûrz, the Goblin King of Moria
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Gundabad Blackshield
1 Cave Troll with Troll Chain;
----
Warband 2    11/12
Moria Goblin Shaman
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Moria Goblin Prowler with Shield;
----
Warband 3    11/12
Moria Goblin Captain with Shield;
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Moria Goblin Prowler with Shield;
----
Warband 4    11/12
Moria Goblin Shaman
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Moria Goblin Prowler with Shield;
----
Warband 5    11/12
Moria Goblin Captain with Orc bow;
11 Moria Goblin Warrior with Orc bow;
----
Warband 6    11/12
Moria Goblin Shaman
11 Moria Goblin Warrior with Orc bow;

A total of 73 models of whom 23 have bows and 15 have throwing weapons costing exactly 750pts

As I was able to get so many goblins so cheaply it seems silly to spend more money on the specialised troops so I will be doing a fair amount of sculpting to modify the standard goblins I purchased to complete my list:

• 15 Goblin  Prowlers with swords/shields (GW never made these, but they do provide rules for them!)
• 5 Gundabad Blackshields 
• 3 Goblin Shaman
• 1 Goblin Captain with bow 
• 1 Goblin Captain with sword 

I treated myself to a few tools to make the process easier / possible:

A set of GW sculpting tools, green stuff in putty & liquid forms, two clay shapers and a craft knife

An Introduction

Many, many years ago I subscribed to a DeAgostini part work called Battle Games in Middle Earth and over the course of that subscription I built up a veritable horde of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings miniatures.

I used to love nothing better than to sit down at the kitchen table and spend hours painting (usually to the despair of my poor mum who inevitably wanted to use said table to serve dinner). But then university happened and my little miniatures were boxed up and sat patiently in the loft for oh, about a decade.

I was clearing through all my old boxes a month or so ago and I came across this trove of forgotten treasures - given the time that had passed I figured I should find them a new home and I headed for ebay to determine if it was worth selling them (yes).

But here's the thing, after spending an afternoon painstakingly identifying my entire collection (all 420 of them) I realised that I really didn't want to see them go. I couldn't justify keeping them just to stick them back in the attic so instead I have decided to rediscover my old hobby.

The plan is to work through each force in turn and make it up into a proper army; I never actually played with any of my models and the magazine never provided complete forces so I will definitely need to pick up some extras along the way to make game-legal armies... but then that's part of the fun.

Given my lack of paints (oddly enough my old ones are rather solid now) I have decided to start with a force with a nice simple colour scheme - the denizens of Moria. These guys were never a favourite of mine so I painted very few and they will provide a nice blank canvas to start on.