Royal Society for the Protection of Squigs

The breeding season for the Lesser Moorsquig is short, and their habitat is threatened. So when spring arrives, the fanatical Royal Society for the Protection of Squigs leap into action to ensure a future for this most elusive of species.

One of my occasional "I'm still around, honest!" posts. It's been a poor year so far with illness and work stresses, and several things have suffered, including this hobby. I've only managed to get one game in 2023 (which I'll blog about shortly) and only painted 6 miniatures... 3 of which were an obviously rushed effort to get something done for the Odds and Sods Painting Challenge, which this month was themed "fanatical lunatics". So here are mine: goblin fanatics by Aaron Howdle protecting a classic 40k Tall Squig.

Hopefully more to come soon - not least as I'm meant to be getting ready for my trip to Gloucestershire to play The Woods in the Woods in a couple of weeks time, which I'm very much looking forward to.

Update: I was delighted to discover that this ensemble was chosen as the Judge's favourite entry for the Odds and Sods Painting Challenge for the month of May! Many thanks to them for indulging my silliness.

Looking back on Orctober: a goblin playground scene

My review of the year past has almost caught up with the present. I just have one more completed project I thought it would be nice to share here: my contribution to Orctober. Funnily enough I've never managed to paint anything up for Orctober before... and this year was no exception, as it didn't get finished until November.

A couple of rather old Citadel fiend factory miniatures that I inherited, paired with a more recent purchase from the Foundry:

FF65 Goblin Children crying to their FF64 Goblin Mother about having been thrown off the seesaw by Warmonger Orclings! Blue sky and clouds in the background courtesy of a painting by my son James.

I've been chatting with Warlord Paul and we're thinking of having a game (probably next Night of the Living Lead) where goblins are the good guys for a change- or at least the ones we're trying to defend. He writes: "The goblins of Little Albion are having a hard time right now. Their princess has been abducted by Lord Kraust and they are being used and abused by him as he expands his power..." A good opportunity to bring out all the weird and wonderful goblin civilian and character models... but that's for next year!

In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas Day, and I hope Father Christmas brings you lots of presents!

The goblin who wanted to fly

Gimrod had ideas. That was the trouble with Gimrod.

There was the time he'd tried to make a steamtank out of two barrels and a bathtub looted from some fancy-pants Duke's castle. There was his idea that nests of bees might make good siege projectiles, which ended up with half his camp getting stung.

But Gimrod's greatest dream was to fly. To soar like a majestic bird of prey. And today, thanks to his latest idea, he was going to achieve that dream! If only the goose he'd stolen and stuffed into a bag on his back would stop biting him.

A wonderful sculpt by Michał Ziętkowski. The moment I saw this 'flying goblin' on the Oldhammer Sculpting Group I fell in love with the concept and had to get hold of one. A genius idea, and the goblin's look of steely determination is just great. Really enjoyed painting it, and thanks to Michał for sending me a cast. I'm looking forward to seeing Gimrod take flight over the battlefield in the near future!

Ulag!

Quick post today. Been making progress on the Dolgan Raiders, but I don't want to post that project up until it takes shape a bit more. Sadly, Bring Out Your Lead is postponed until October, but at least it gives me a chance to do them justice ahead of the game with Thantsants.

In the meantime, in our household we've been playing Heroquest (more of which soon!), and after some unsteady progress (more of that soon too!) we got to the Lair of the Orc Warlord Quest. So I dug through the leadpile and pulled out this fella to serve as Ulag - an orc from Gremlin Miniatures, circa 1986. (I figured that if he's rolling 5 dice to defend, it made sense that he'd be pretty heavily armoured!) I think I got this from Steve Casey years ago. If I recall correctly, he gave it to me for free because he just didn't like the mini. Cheers Steve! Anyway, I painted him up yesterday for our family evening of Heroquest and have subsequently based him for battle.



Not a particularly distinguished paintjob, but I wanted to put it up here for 3 reasons.

1) Don't see many painted minis from Gremlin Miniatures in the wild, do you?

2) I cut off the plain shield the miniature came with and used a gorgeous SHIELDAID shield from OS minis' campaign to raise funds for Sarcoidosis UK. Go SHIELDAID!

3) After looking at it for a couple of seconds, my wife said, "you do realise you've painted Boris Johnson's head on a spike, don't you". Ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, that was not my intention!