Hobgoblins at last!

It took me long enough! The hobgoblin horde that I first mentioned back in October is finally complete. Something about these large groups of monsters that I keep making causes me lately to drag my feet, plus we've been in high newborn mode during much of this time. The various smaller side projects I've been doing were a welcome distraction and good for feeling like I was accomplishing things, but it's good to get these done.

Hobgoblins have basically evolved in D&D as more organized orcs, so that's what I've used. These are Caesar orcs with various modifications. Really, there's no reason these couldn't be used as orcs as well. The goal was to make them a look a little better armed and outfitted than my orcs, though they wound up looking a bit ragtag, as though they thoughtfully scavenged their gear instead of systematically making their own. They wound up with a few basic looks.

The captain and his elites. The armored bodies are Caesar "15th century knights." The spiked shield on the left is also from the orcs, while the green shield on the right is borrowed from the Italeri Barbarians set that I find so useful.

Leather and fur armor. The three guys in the middle are the same pose, with various weapon swaps from other orc figures. Another Barbarian shield can be seen on the left figure.

The artillery. The archers are of course all the same; the set has only two archer poses, and the other is too primitive-looking for my hobgoblin concept. The sorcerer was a standard-bearer; I clipped the banner and replaced it with a skull from the Caesar Undead set.

Comparison with Sven.

By the way, note that nearly everyone is in green or brown, with a little gray. I like my armies to have a limited palette, both to make deciding on colors easier and so they look more like a unit. The exception is the captain, whose color scheme makes him stand out a bit from all the mooks.

I still have a few small projects to complete, but my painting table looks a lot more empty than it did a few weeks ago. I'll need to come up with some new distractions.

Lawful Evil, Chaotic Evil, what does it matter? Don't you see that deep down inside, you guys are all just Evil at heart?

Mod Squad (a squad of mods, that is)

I'm doing a little bit of painting, but it's a little bit tricky with the basement renovation going on. I did have a chance to play around with some mods and conversions, though. Behold my handiwork!

You've already met the demon legionnaire on the left; he's a Caesar Miniatures knight with a CP Models head. To his left is an earlier experiment with the demon legionnaire concept, which involved a head swap with a Caesar goblin. The female demon is a Caesar elf with some bat wings borrowed from a Safari Ltd. "good luck mini": she's also got a tale made from a paperclip, but it's hard to see. Fighting against these diabolical forces is an angelic warrior, made from an Arcane Legions hoplite and a pair of metal bird-wing charms. Less eschatological but no less fantastic is a 1/72 scale warforged, contrived here from a DDM Warforged Scout and the legs of a Caesar knight to give it height.

Dollar-store Thor gets a bit of an upgrade, as his hammer looked a little dinky in this particular sculpt. He got new hands and a sword from a Reaper Miniatures Battleguard Golem. I don't know if the golem figure will get Thor's old hands or something else.

Last are a bunch of hobgoblins. Hobgoblins in D&D are basically socially advanced, more militarized orcs, so I just used the more heavily armored Caesar orcs. Headswaps with Caesar knights allowed for even better armor, and weapon swaps with other orcs, along with some shields borrowed from my Italeri barbarians set, gave them some variety. I primed these guys today, so after I paint the larger minis I'm working on, these guys are probably my next project.