Oldhammer Goblin Unit & Boss (for KoW)

Today’s update shows off an “Oldhammer” Warhammer Goblin Unit made up of 2nd-3rd Edition models, almost entirely sculpted by Kev Adams back in the day and based on Rounds and turned into a KoW regiment by virtue of some blu-tac and a movement tray. These figures have been painted over quite a few years, with many painted 5-10+ years ago, a couple last year, and the last stragglers done in the last few weeks as part of my “finish those bloody things” drive. I’ll show them off in threes to start with.

Oldhammer Goblin Command Group

The command group of the unit (not that these things matter in the new edition of KoW, but I digress). The leader is “Kleaver” from the Goblin Battle Chariots box set with the addition of a Marauder Goblin Shield. The rest of the crew also found their way into this regiment. I think I started painting them to add to the chariots, which I never got painted and slowly faded into the depths of time. I’ll have to do something about those sometime soonish. Perhaps they can have some plastic crewmen?

Rear View of the Goblin Command group.

The other two are simply command figures from the late 1980’s, probably painted sometime in the 1990’s. I didn’t feel a need for a flag or pennant. Not all standards are giant flags, after all. I gave the musician a Nine Inch Nails back tattoo, since as a gobbo musician he’s clearly really into his industrial music. The leader got a red hood to make him really pop, especially given his chainmail coat and plate boots take away a lot of the opportunity to add colour and interest.

Oldhammer Goblins

Rear View of the second trio of Oldhammer Goblins

The next three feature two more from the 80’s command figures – the mod-posed figures are a Champion, a Leader and their cohort is a regular goblin from ’91. Though I think he looks like the sort to be a unit champion with his cute little glaive.

Three more Oldhammer Goblins. Two were originally Chariot Crew

Two of these three also came off the chariot sets mentioned earlier. The centre spear and hammer. Clearly the “red” spear is a close relation to the Hammer, and no doubt that helped me decide to paint the pair of them at the same time. All three of these were originally painted in the 1990’s…

Updated Scale Mail and Shield

 

…and then the two on the outer were “re-finished” this year. The copper and Bronze scale mail were originally red, and purple. Hideous, you might say? Yes. The shield was originally absent entirely – just a shield boss sticking out of the back of the figure, painted black – so I decided to add a shield. I went for a leering goblin face design. I’m not entirely happy with it, but it falls under “good enough” for me. I could spend time trying to figure out why I’m not satisfied with it, or I could just move on and do a better job on the next freehand shield. So I’ve chosen the latter.

A variety of Oldhammer Goblins – Perry, Olley and Adams.

These three are a little more interesting. The first goblin, with the hammer and net is an early slottabase figure, from the C13 Small Goblins range, circa 1985-ish. I haven’t managed to find this specific figure in the catalogues, but it looks to be the same style as figures like “Spear Thruster“, so possibly/probably sculpted by the Perrys. This one was entirely painted recently, and while I’m not super happy with how his musculature came out, the head is fine, and the mohawk was a fun old-school touch.

The other two figures were also painted years ago. The middle figure is one of Bob Olley’s Iron Claw Goblins from 1988. It’s from the same range that the recent Fanatics I shared came from, and he was probably even purchased in the same blister that they came in. I went for something entirely different on his shield, trimming off the edging and painting it in a kind of pseudo-3D goblin moon-face style. Why is the moon red rather than yellow? Probably so it’d stand out more against the green of the goblin’s hide. Dunno. It was an experiment, after all. That’s what the more individual metal models did for me back in the day, before mass plastics were the norm. I liked to experiment with a lot more of my models’ paint jobs, even if it meant that they lacked a unified unit look. The final figure, another of the late-’80’s “champions” also had a shield experiment.

Old, Oldhammer Goblins.

The narrative to that figure, if you will – is that he painted his shield himself. I always wondered how brutal creatures like Orcs and Goblins, who had brutal and crude weapons and armour always had such fine, delicate and artistic designs on their shields, banners and gear. I decided to paint this guy’s shield as though he’d painted it himself. [See boxout above] Recently. The skull is crude and simple. The blue (and red) paint is messy and spattered everywhere (including on his clothing) and the paint had also pooled at the base of his shield, leading to a mess on the metal where it was leaning on the ground in a pool of paint. Cast yourselves back to your Primary/Elementary School Art Room, and you’ll feel the inspiration for this guy.

On the backside of these three, both the Iron Claw goblin and the art-school candidate had their clothing repainted. Iron Claw boy lost his garish purple and yellow 1990’s tunic and skirt while The Artist’s blue scale mail was repainted in a bright copper.

Heartbreaker Goblin Leader.

Are Heartbreaker miniatures “Oldhammer”? Technically probably not since they were sculpted after Kev Adams left GW’s employ, but then again their aesthetic follows the 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy look and feel quite closely. This guy is still available today from Ral Partha Europe/RPE as part of their range of Kev Adams Goblins. I should buy some more of them sometime, but at 2 quid a figure by 12 or 24, that comes to £24/48 or a little shy of AU$50-100 for one unit, which is a bit hard for me to justify to myself right now. I just wish they had discounted unit prices for sets of 10 or 20. Basically, they’re super-cheap for heroes and unit leaders but it adds up quickly if you want to build whole units. (Though they’re probably still cheaper than whatever GW is charging for plastics these days!) Still, this guy is a great figure and for only 2 quid, an easy and easily-justified purchase.

Heartbreaker Goblin showing why *HE* is Da Boss.

I thought a size comparison would be apt to show how much of a meat axe this guy is compared to the other Warhammer Goblins. And now, The Unit Shots!

Oldhammer Goblin Regiment for Kings of War – Front.

Figure Placement within the regiment is important. I wanted to show off the red shield by not hiding it in the midst of the unit.

This side shows off “The Artist’s” shield, and the very old mid-80’s goblin.

Rear views are usually the least important in many ways, but back-mounted shields make sense from a thematic standpoint as well as an aesthetic one.