Koyote's Britons & other SAGA Stuff

[Koyote]

16 hours ago, dalmer said:

for some reason i look at those barbed bracken and see tyranids

Yes, they do have that alien-feel to them.

The shape of some of the leaves is very similar to the iconography used by the Genestealer cults.

 

[Ish]

Clearly this is proof that the hive-mind has been designing its creations to best conceal themselves among our galaxy’s native flora...

[Koyote]

Here's an idea that I have been toying around with (pardon the pun). From a perspective of creating a strong, competitive list, it isn't particularly good, but from a hobby aspect, it's quite fun.

I want to add a couple of Destruction Teams to my Forest Goblin Masters of the Underearth warband.  As with my counts-as crossbows, my technologically challenged goblin theme presents certain obstacles to creating proper models for the role; however, thanks to the foresight of author of AoM, the solution was quite simple.  In the description of Destruction Teams, the AoM rulebook describes their implements of destruction as "dangerous but light weapons such as small cannon, projectile throwers, and terrifying magical war-drums."

Reaper Miniatures' Bones collection includes a set called the Goblin Honor Guard.  This set is cheap and includes an impressively sized war drum being lugged about by a little greenskin lackey.  If I keep the lackey, I'll replace its head with a gnoblar's head to give it the properly pointed features shared by my other forest goblin models.

Even a goblin knows that you can't entrust a terrifying magical war-drum to just any knucklehead.  It must be played by a shaman, or at the very least, a goblin wearing a suitably impressive mask.  To fill this role, I'll use Spellcrow Miniatures' Goblin with Frog.  Neither a stone dagger or frog make a particularly good drum mallet, so both will need to be replaced large bone clubs from the plastic forest goblin kit.  The daggers and frogs are great bits, so they will go into my bitz box.  

 

[Ish]

I swear, when I win the lottery, I’m going to mail you a massive box of minis, use some sort of random generator to pick a theme, and commission you to have at it...

”A 300 strong Napoleonic Line Infantry regiment, but they’re Dia de Los Muertos themed... Okay, they’ll be ready next Tuesday.”

[Koyote]

LOL.

What can I say?  It's my favorite part of the hobby.

I like your Dia de Los Muertos Napoleonic idea.  I'd start by sourcing models of plastic Spanish troops from the era, and replace their heads and hands with skeleton parts. I'd use tiny balls of greenstuff to give them eyeballs like the characters in Coco.  Some off them would be holding their heads aloft or under their arms like in comical ways -once again, another Coco reference. Many of the models would have to be cavorting about, lots of cavorting.  Many, of them would need greenstuff Mariachi mustaches.

What would really distinguish them from mere undead Napolenics would be how you paint them.  Their faces would need to have colorful designs and patterns painted on them. Perhaps the choice of colors could be tied to the colors used by a particular regiment at the time or the Spanish flag. Perhaps the colors could be used to distinguish the different units.

I'd also ask you to consider making the guerilla fighters as opposed to line infantry.  Arguably, the Spanish's most well known contribution to the Napoleonic period was their guerrilla fighters who fought against the French occupiers.  Supposedly, it was from these fighters that we got the term guerrilla warfare, 'guerrilla' being Spanish for 'little war'.  Making them guerrilla fighters would let me use more rustic looking models and irregulars, which would help make the theme more fun.

So many possibilities.  

[Ish]

I’ve always wanted to open my own hobby shop, with an emphasis on historical wargames. The name for it will be Gorilla Warfare.

Yes, the misspelling of guerrilla is intentional. The store’s mascot will be a cartoon ape in a shiny Patton style helmet and uniform. And the signage for each section of the store would have him in a different costume, like a knight’s helmet for the fantasy game section, a space helmet for the sci-fi section, a wizard’s robe with a pokéball on the end of a staff for the card games...

I just need those jerks at the lottery office to come through.

[Koyote]

The Sacred Ground terrain for the the Masters of the Underearth is an Underground Network.  It is represented by two pieces of terrain (each max size 6" x 6").  Units belonging to the MotU player can use move between the two pieces of terrain, regardless of their distance from one another, by activating a unit for a Maneuver within 2" of one of the Network's two terrain pieces.

In keeping with my warband's theme, I want my Underground Network terrain to look like natural formations. I could make my own using insulation board and putty, but I have too much on my hobby plate already.

I bought 2 aquarium caves (see below) on eBay for $8 each plus free shipping. They check all the boxes, plus the price is hard to beat.

I’ll mount the caves on styrene bases, add forest/jungle foliage to match my goblins’ bases, and call it good.

[Ish]

Needs some tiki masks and a whole bunch of skulls.

[Koyote]

12 hours ago, Ish said:

Needs some tiki masks and a whole bunch of skulls.

Great idea!

[Koyote]

I don't have many virtues, and of those I do possess, patience certainly isn't one of them... 🙂

I couldn't wait for my frog sacrificing goblins to arrive from Poland, so I made my own from the Shieldwolf forest goblin kit.  The masks are shields from the kit with eye holes drilled through them.

The trees are limbs from the Citadel Woods kit.  The spiders come from GW's Arachnarok Spider kit.  The Orc skull comes from the GW Orc Warriors Regiment box set (circa 1999).

 

[Koyote]

I built a Static War Machine for my Masters of the Underearth forest goblins.  I used bits from the Arachnarok Spider kit that I purchased on eBay to make the catapult and Shieldwolf Miniatures' for its crew.  When mounted on the Arachnarok Spider, the catapult isn't fitted onto a raised structure, so I used different parts of the kit (a raised howdah assembly) and a good deal of pinning and greenstuff to assemble this particular build.  It still needs some touch up and a little more GS work, but it's in good enough shape for play testing.

Based upon its rules, I don't believe that the Static War Machine is a very good option, but like the Destruction Teams, this catapult is an excuse to build and paint fun models.

[Ish]

Pure theoryhammer, having not gotten to play Age of Magic yet, I think the Static War Machine is just fine... But it requires the investment of a second unit of infantry to babysit it and your opponent having enough targets at range to make it worthwhile.

Good for large pitched battles, not so great for smaller skirmishes.

[Koyote]

On 2/15/2020 at 11:00 AM, Koyote said:

I don't have many virtues, and of those I do possess, patience certainly isn't one of them... 🙂

I couldn't wait for my frog sacrificing goblins to arrive from Poland, so I made my own from the Shieldwolf forest goblin kit.  The masks are shields from the kit with eye holes drilled through them.

My tiki-mask goblin minis have arrived.  

Spellcrow advertises that it's miniatures as 28mm or  "ideal for use with 28 mm scale models".  Based upon my previous experience with Spellcrow's minis (I own a couple dozen of them), their models are on the larger end of the 28mm heroic scaled model spectrum. So, when I ordered these goblins, my concern was that they would be a tad bit too large.  It turns out the opposite is true.  This particular goblin mini is quite a bit smaller and skinnier than my Shieldwolf forest goblins.  The model's proportions are comparable to Games Workshop's Ogre Kingdom's gnoblar minis.

Thanks to the size of the mask, the difference in scale isn't too obvious when you look at the front of the model. The difference becomes most noticeable when you look at the rear of the model.

Rather than convert these diminutive goblins into drummers, I'm going to stick with the forest goblin models that I previously converted for my Destruction Teams.

Fear not, the Tiki-masked, frog wielding goblins are too cool not to incorporate into my forest goblin warband, so I will find a use for them.

One idea is to use them as counts-as Shapeshifters for a forest goblin Lords of the Wild warband.  I have a friend who has as dwarven Masters of the Underearth warband, so when I play against him, I intend to use my forest goblins as a LotW warband.  In my desert nomads LotW warband, I use assassins as counts-as Shapeshifters. I can do something similar with my forest goblins.  Instead of assassins, my counts-as Shapeshifters will be fanatics who, by licking the skin of poisonous tree frogs, enter into a nigh unstoppable frenzy when battle is joined.  

These fanatics are recruited into the Cult of the Frog Lickers as adolescents (who are generally too young and dumb to know better). Sadly, because the cult's activities involve two very dangerous pastimes, imbibing poisonous hallucinogens and frenzied hand-to-hand combat, few of the cult's warriors ever make it to adulthood.

[Ish]

You could apply the same reasoning and say that the tiki-masked gobbos are the some chosen youths of the tribe, sent to war to play the drums to signal and inspire the warriors. Not unlike the fifers and drummers* seen in 18th and 19th Century armies.

Bonus points if you make a gobbo version of the Spirit of ‘76 trio.

* (Who were actually most commonly adult men, but children in the role were common enough that they came to be commonly depicted in stories, songs, and artwork as a romantic, heroic, tragic, or sentimental figure as needed by the storyteller.)

[Romans832]

4 hours ago, Koyote said:

My tiki-mask goblin minis have arrived.  

Those are sick, can't wait to see them painted!

[Koyote]

After a couple of close losses with my Masters of the Underearth forest goblins in scenarios that include objective markers, I've come to the conclusion that my footslogging warband would benefit from some mobility.  One idea is to add a small unit of mounted Hearthguard.  Since it's a warband of forest goblins, the obvious choice of models is Games Workshops' Forest Goblin Spider Riders kit.

Even before purchasing the kit, I had concerns that the scale of the riders was a bit too small in comparison to my Shieldwolf goblins, but I didn't realize how small the riders were until the kit arrived in the mail.  My first thought was to convert the kneeling Shieldwolf goblins, but after some test fittings and more thought on the matter, I decided against it.

The GW spider riders are some really fun models, so it would be a shame not to use them.  Also, after assembling a model and putting it beside an infantry model, I realized that the difference in scale doesn't look too bad.  I may end up using a bit of greenstuff to do some subtle enlarging of the models features, such as its arms, cranium, and ears.  

The most obvious modification that I will make to the models (as pictured above) is spreading out the spiders' legs. Games Workshop designed these models to be used in units of closely ranked models, as such, the spiders' legs are bunched together to fit nicely on a rectangular base.  

The 'bunching up' of the spiders' legs is a practical solution for the particular problem faced by GW's model designers, but in my opinion, it takes away some of the characteristic creepiness of all those long legs spread out in every direction.  

I use a hobby knife to separate the two inner legs on each side from the two outer legs.  By bending the plastic and doing a bit of pinning, I was able to reposition the legs so that they are spread out some, yet still fit on a 40 mm round base.

[Ish]

Obviously, just like jockeys in real-life, your forest gobbos have chosen the lightest members of the tribe to ride into battle mounted on spiders. 

[Koyote]

5 minutes ago, Ish said:

Obviously, just like jockeys in real-life, your forest gobbos have chosen the lightest members of the tribe to ride into battle mounted on spiders. 

My thoughts, exactly.  Spider jockeys, or in the vernacular of the forest goblins, spider runts. 🙂

 

[Koyote]

Of course, we shouldn't confuse forest goblin spider jockeys with the other variety of spider jockey.

[Ish]

That’s just terrifying.

[Koyote]

I'm glad that I decided to stick with the original riders.  They have so much character and fun little details.

 I still need to to some greenstuff work on them, but they are in good enough shape for play testing the unit.  

In my current build, these mounted Hearthguard will provide me with a seventh SAGA die and give me the speed to tackle objectives.  In games without objectives, they will serve as a mobile reserve.

 

[Koyote]

I want to have several equipment options for my Warlord, so I purchased Shieldwolf Miniatures Goblin Hero with 2 Handed Weapon to serve as my Warlord on foot.  The axe blade is absurdly large, but for me that's part of this model's ridiculous charm.

To accentuate the massive overhead blow this fellow is about to deliver to some hapless foe, I mounted the Warlord on a stump.  

Equipping a Warlord with a heavy weapon is a gamble, as it reduces its melee armor to 4 and prevents the Warlord from Closing Ranks.   With this in mind, I converted a spear from bits found in the GW Spider Rider kit, so that the Warlord can be equipped with a regular hand weapon (i.e. "no equipment).  The plan is to insert small magnets into the wrists and hands so that I can swap out weapons.

The model still needs some greenstuff work to make him look more like a proper forest goblin.

[Koyote]

This giant bat, the Bloodhunter Dire Bat, is another resin 3D printed model from an Etsy seller.  The print turned out quite good.  

I'm going to use it as a Monster (Scourge) or, if I play my goblins as Lords of the Wild, as a flying Beast mount.  As with my mounted Hearthguard, my motivation for adding the bat is to give my forest goblin warband a bit more mobility and speed.

For a Monster, it's a tad small, so I used some greenstuff and a resin log to add another half inch to its height.

The first photo is a size comparison pic.  The other three show the Dire Bat from different angles.  I inserted a magnet into its back to hold a rider in place, and covered the magnet  with greenstuff to conceal it.

 

[Koyote]

Below are some WIP photos of my Dire Bat rider.

I started with a forest goblin from the Shieldwolf kit.  I removed the models legs at the upper thighs and used my hobby knife to carve out the model's groin area.  I used bent pieces of metal rod (leftovers from metal spears) to serve as the skeleton for the model's new legs and to reposition the angle of the feet. I glued a magnet to its butt to keep the model on the bat.

Next, I used greenstuff to sculpt the calves and the outer part of the thigh.  Once the GS had been given a little bit of time to set up, I applied water to the inside of the legs and then sat the model on the bat's back.  This shaped the inside of legs to match the contours of the bat's back.  The combination of letting the GS set up and the water kept the GS from sticking to the bat's back.  

Once the legs were dry, I realized that there was still a big gap between the inner thighs and crotch of the goblin and the bat's back, so I used greenstuff to bulk out the thighs, extend the rectangular belly plate, and add a skirt. The extended belly plate and skirt also hid the magnet.   

Lastly, I gave the little fella a bit of gear by adding a sheathed knife and a small satchel.  Both bits are from the Frostgrave Barbarian plastic kit.  Eventually, the model will be equipped with a shield from the Shielfwolf forest goblin kit.

The last bit of work I need to do is to use greenstuff to fill in the cracks where the shoulders meets the torso, extend the foot wrappings to the bottom of the feet, and to sculpt the bottom of the feet and toes.

 

[Ish]

Nana-nana. Nana-nana. Batgob! (Batgob!)