Goblin Raiding Party

Harking back to yesterday's post, the picture I used of a little band of goblin ne'er-do-wells really got my nostalgic juices flowing; enough to warrant a post of their own (and probably several more to come in the future).

These figures are from a very early Citadel box set - Speciality Set 4 - Goblin Raiding Party. The details for them on the Stuff of Legends website has the names I came to know and, erm, love, but their designation does not match up with my memories - the figures listed in The Stuff of Legends entry for them is here in this linky and in the image below...

Image from the back of the box, words by SoL

When I bought the set, this was how I remember them being labelled (basically all the same except SoL have the Warlord and Lieutenant round the wrong way)...

1. D'glish Sharpcut, Ubar's Lieutenant
2. Urag Legeater attacking with Warpick
3. Discipline Master, Snurd Hideflayer with whip
4. Bulbug Orcleaver with warhammer
5. Warlord Ubar Earbiter - Goblin Chieftain
6. Goblin Champion, Torg Dwarfsmasher
7. Norgus the Flatulent attacking with Spear
8. Shaman Pogo Wildchant
9. Gigblad Childsplatter with Morningstar
10. Zurguch Wartpicker with Sling

Here, again, is the picture I took yesterday of the warband all painted using Humbrol enamel paints and based on artists board, with Tetrion and cheap flock for the bases.

Goblin Raiding Party

Goblin Raiders

More Goblin Raiders

Apologies for the poor photo quality - they looked fine on my phone but they lost a lot of detail when I transferred them to my PC to re-size.

What brought these figures back to the front of my mind was their place in one of my gaming worlds from long ago. I saw them as the ideal faction to face off against my dwarf army (Bugman and his Dwarf Rangers got to be included in this army too), which I also bought around the same time. In addition to these, I also picked up dozens of Night Goblins and various other goblins that seemed to fit with this warband - some even had the same shields!

My thoughts when I was totting up the pile of shame was that I would love to re-do these for my more modern gaming sensibilities. Unfortunately, so many of the figures have been affected by the dreaded lead rot. I will need to look into how to arrest the decay of the remaining miniatures so I can get them painted before they become unrecognisable. I just hope the paint on these ones has preserved them.

Another strange thing I noticed - why is Torg Dwarfsmasher on a round penny base whilst the rest are on those square home-made ones? I really don't know is the answer. I will eventually get them all rebased onto pennies for uniformity and to be able to use them for Midgard and Dragon Rampant (I may need to add one or two more from the collection mentioned above to make up the numbers).

If anyone has any tips on how to arrest the dreaded lead rot, I am all ears. Also, what would be the best method for removing the existing paint jobs? They are enamels, so not sure if there are any special methods or particular brands that are better than others. I will do some searching on t'internet but if anyone can help out in the meantime I would be happy for the input.

Painting Summary - all my 28mm miniatures

I have been buying miniatures for nearly half a century now and I have amassed quite the collection. Unfortunately, like most gamers, I am subject to the "ooh shiny" syndrome, and buy far more than I should do, and rarely get to use or paint them before the next impulse purchase comes along. That said, I have bought relatively few miniatures in the last few years - the vast majority in my collection are well over a decade old!

Goblin Raiding Party

So, over the last few days I have been going through my hoard (or should that be horde? 😉 ) and listing them on a spreadsheet in order to see what I have got, and what does or does not need painting. The numbers have spurred me to get my paint brushes out and begin working on them - I would like to get two sides for each theatre of war, so I can play my sons when they come over or at least have two factions for solo gaming.

Here is a break down of the figures that I have catalogued so far. This is not the full total as I have a few more in bags and packets that I will either sell as they were freebies from gaming shows or magazines, or throw away as they are broken and cannot be cannibalised for parts...

• Romans                          283      (192 of which are painted)
• Britons                           180      (43 painted)
• Roman-British               71        (45 painted)
• Anglo-Saxons                88
• Vikings                          89
• Runequest                      18        (18 painted)
• Undead                          45        (38 painted)
• Frostgrave                     96        (7 painted)
• Other Fantasy                96        (2 painted)
• Old Skool Stuff             569      (357 painted)
• Rohan                            175      (60 painted)
• Isengard                         212
• Gondor                          207
• Harad                             52
• Rhun                              85        (22 painted)
• Dwarfs                           77
• Goblins                          58
• Free People                    119

This gives a grand total of (gulp!) 2520 miniatures, of which 784 are painted – a 31.1% completion rate. That is an OK tally, but I am going to have to pull my finger out to make the total more respectable. I will start by getting paint onto some of my Midgard : Britannia troops as they are still fresh in my mind from the campaign. I know it is a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but it will get me started, and hopefully inspire me to continue onto the Lord of the Rings stuff and so on.

I guess my concern now is ROI (Return on Investment); I would like to get some play out of them all in a fully painted state. As each faction gets completed, it will mean I can play more games in that era/setting and I can then do some whacky cross-over stuff like Romans versus Undead or make up Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadowdeep bands from Lord of the Rings factions etc.

Over the coming months, hopefully, I will get more of the pile of shame reduced and some more games played with my "newly acquired" miniatures. Midgard, Dragon Rampant, Rangers, Frostgrave and 5 Leagues are all calling out to me, as well as some return visits to MESBG and general skirmish fun using very old home brew rules.