GRENADIER, Nick Lund Goblins

I mentioned in a post last week that I’m working again on my old school army of goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, ogres, trolls, and giants.  The army is comprised largely of sculpts by Nick LUND and Bob OLLEY for Grenadier, Ral Partha, Olleys Armies, and Reaper. A reader expressed some interest in the project recently, and so I’ve obliged with these two photos.  (It was also a great opportunity for me to test drive my new photo studio, but I’ll save that for a later post.)

I purchased these Grenadier goblins from Mirliton in Italy a few years ago.  To my knowledge, all the goblins featured here were sculpted by Nick Lund.  As sculpts go, they’re soft, ropey, and reminiscent of the rock star sensibilities that This is Spinal Tap parodied so well.  I consider myself something of a miniatures snob with a low tolerance for poor concepts and their weak execution in putty; but for whatever reason, I love these.

I completed most of these during the same week that the Dragon Painting forum held their last weekly challenge (I did not officially participate in the challenge).  Three of them were done (or largely done) well over a year ago, but two needed some attention here and there and weren’t on finished bases, while the center goblin in the photo below was painted for a DP 90-minute speed painting challenge last year.

I spent about an hour total on each model.  The painting level is far from stellar, but the point of this project isn’t for display and I feel the style works best for these sculpts.  I still need to add some vegetation to the bases, and insignias on the banner and shields, but I’ll do that latter once more of the army is done.

The sizes of these goblins are all over the place.  The goblins above are on 25mm bases, the ones below on 20mm.  I’m treating them as greater and lesser goblins, but don’t think they were designed with that in mind.

Here’s an interesting piece of trivia: this project is the subject of my first post for this blog more than three years ago.  I don’t know if I should feel embarrassed by my terrible progress, or proud that the project is still getting my attention.  I’ll let you decide.