Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 8)

Hi all - here are the remainder of my DIY Goblin Captains. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have an issue with the ME: SBG Hero tax which means you are obliged to fork out bundles of cash for no-mark captains which are currently only sold in resin from Forge World.

I'm pleased to note, though, that since I wrote that I've seen a couple of releases from GW for plastic heroes so maybe things are going to change a little soon.

Anyway, in the meantime, here are my remaining Goblin Captains. All are conversions from standard Goblin plastic line troops.

This is my completed Groblog. See below for earlier stages

Groblog - Green-stuff crown and cape. The pillar he's standing on is just a few lengths of sprue

Another angle

Goblin Captain - all I've done here is build up the base a bit

The finished product

The Beastcaller - now I can use my Wargs!

The skull is a bit clumsy, but I'm no sculptor

Skull doesn't look too bad painted

Last but not least - just another built-up base

And this is how he looks painted

More Moria stuff:

More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Wild Wargs)

No end yet in sight to Middle Earth painting! Still enjoying it though.

This time it's a pack of Wild Wargs which can either run with my Moria Goblins (if I include the Beastcaller) or with an Angmar army.

Looking at the photo and with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I'd taken time to tidy up the mould lines a bit. I genuinely just didn't even realise how visible they were until I saw the pics.

More Moria stuff:
More Angmar stuff:
More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 7)

One beef I have with the ME:SBG is the "Hero levy". Each warband (some armies excepted) *must* be led by a hero. The seniority of the hero controls how many models the warband can contain.

When you're looking at an army like these goblins which (based on points cost AND also the way they were portrayed in the fictions, especially the movie) are a classic "Horde army" then you need a lot of heroes. Typically one per 12-or 15- models. So, for 100 goblins you're looking at 6 - 9 hero models, minimum.

And, of course, the heroes are only available from Forge World and therefore will cost (financially) as much as the unit they are leading.

I can't be doing with that.

So I managed to pick one model up from eBay (Durburz) and built the rest from spare plastic goblins.

I think it worked OK.

Durburz

Captain #1 - before

Captain #1 - after

Captain #2 - before

Captain #2 - after

Captain #3 - before

Captain #3 - after

I have a few more Captains to finish and will publish them in a following post.

More Moria stuff:
More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Cave troll)

The goblins of Moria have enlisted some help!

This big guy should help this army have a bit of "wallop" I hope.

More Middle Earth stuff:
More Angmar stuff:

More Moria stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 6)

Yep - more goblins. What can I say - they breed like, well, like goblins!

Actually, now I've got myself thinking... You never see a female goblin.

More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 5)

You know that bit in the "The Fellowship of the ring" movie where there are teeming hordes of goblins chasing the Fellowship through Moria, scurrying up the walls and surging across the ground?

Well, that's kind of the army that I want to recreate for my Moria Goblins.

My recollection of the book is that there are Goblins and there is the Balrog (stay tuned). Peter Jackson added a Cave Troll (stay tuned). Games workshop added a bunch more stuff when they wrote the game that just - as far as I can recall - didn't exist in the movie or the book.

So for my own army I'm planning to - as far as I can - avoid the GW additions and stick to the force are represented in the fiction.

It may well end up not being very playable or competitive. I can always add more later. No biggy.

I will have no choice but to add a bunch of characters that aren't represented in the book/movie as you are obliged to field characters by the army building rules (if playing by points). But aside from that I'm planning to keep it straight for the time being.

Soooo... More goblins:

More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 4)

"More goblins?!? How many goblins have you got?!!?!"

You may well ask.

Pure rank-and file, I have precisely 100. That's a lotta gobboes, in terms of numbers. in terms of points, not so much.

Anyway - here's the latest batch:

More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 3)

The breeding pits of Moria have birthed the final set of goblin spearmen for my growing army. That takes my total spearman count to 40 models. I have 60 goblin models remaining to do to complete the rank-and-file for this army (roughly 30 swords and 30 bows).

I'm finding it very difficult to source affordable goblin hero models, and since this game has a heavy "hero-tax" (you need at least one hero per warband and the max size of a warband is just 18 models) I need to find at least half-a-dozen heroes.

Since those nice folks at GW are charging £45 for 4 heroes and a drum, they can "go whistle" as the expression goes. eBay isn't turning up much either at the moment, so I may need to try to convert something.

Stay tuned.

More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 2)

The forces of evil are multiplying in their dirty breeding pits and have spawn another hateful handful of goblins to prowl the bowels of Moria.

I've broken my workload on goblins into bite-size chunks (not particularly into units - anywhere between 12 & 18 models based entirely on how many of each type of mode I have to paint) and this mob represents the second of three batches of goblin spearmen.

 More Middle Earth stuff:

Middle Earth SBG (Moria Goblins - part 1)

I'm back in Middle Earth for only the second time ever.

I've decided that I'm going to put together a small number of bits & bobs for ME:SBG this year. The setting is a new venture for me but I'm totally sold on it at the moment. On my current list of "things I'd like to do" are:

• Moria army (and this is the first post towards that force. Planning to stay purist here and concentrate on just Goblins and a Balrog),
• Isengard army (I painted Saruman the other week),
• The Fellowship (I have a mate who is planning to be "The Good Guys" but you can't go to ME without painting The Fellowship),
• Moria Scenery (just 'cos it looks fun).

So, I've always fancied a Horde army and Moria Goblins are nothing if not a Horde. I'm taking this as an opportunity to try - for the first time ever - the dipping technique.

And this is my result - a unit of 13 (13?!? That's not much of a Horde! Stay tuned...) Goblin Spearmen.

More Middle Earth stuff: