goblinpaladin's Gnomes - a May update (309 points)

This project is being kindly sponsored by Old School Miniatures.

Swords! and also sorcery!

a band of brothers (and sisters. and not a band. so a 'of', i guess.)

This is the month for some characters. A couple of friendly gnomish illusionists and some heroic swallow riders, swooping into action.

• Hillcantor, Level 15 Illusionist, on fox. 157 points.
• Heathtinker, Level 5 Illusionist, on fox. 62 points.
• Guildmaster with crossbow, riding giant swallow. 45 points.
• Guildmaster with crossbow, riding giant swallow. 45 points.
• Cantonal standard. FREE
• TOTAL: 309 points!

Due to the decentralised design of the Old School Miniatures gnome army list, technically I shouldn't take any officers without an associated regiment. I think that a couple of swallow-riding fighter-bombers are fun and appropriate, so I'm sure Byron will forgive my liberties.

does she not care to conceal her age? or is she in fact younger and pretends to wisdom?

We'll start with the wizards. These ladies are part of the Return to Gnome kickstarter, designed to offer more female options for the otherwise bearded and hirsute gnomish forces. I cannot get enough ladies in my fantasy armies, so I'm really glad that Old School Miniatures sent me a few.

I decided to paint them as a pair, an older wizard (count as Hillcantor, Level 15), and her Heathinker (Level 5) apprentice.

I vaguely wanted to avoid the natural colours of a druid, as well as the reds and blues you see in classic fantasy art of wizards and mages. I remembered back in 2nd edition AD&D that some settings gave each wizard speciality its own colour for robes, and then got into my head that illusionists had yellow robes.

I can find no reference to this, but if one of you lot can confirm/deny/call me names, that would be great.

rackum-frackum! friggle-fraggle!

The younger apprentice has a slightly different shades to her robes. I was aiming at a more naturalistic colour set, but it would up coming out pretty close to her master's much brighter robes anyway. The fact that she has undyed linen stockings (while the Hillcantor has blue) does provide some visual emphasis to her lower rank.

these fox sculpts are so adorable

This photo shows off the hood and mantle colouring a lot better, which matches her master's robe.

swoop

These friendly fellows are also from the newer end of the range. They are an absolute joy to paint, really - crisp details that really feel like a genuine swallow. The riders are from the crossbow gnomes set.

Of course, being Australian, I can't tell a barn swallow from an actual barn, but I did find this very helpful step-by-step guide from Lizzie Harper. I used contrasts for the reds and blues, and mixed together a brownish-black-tinge-of-blue-that-got-lost for the main colours of the wings. I then used a watered down sepia shade over everything to give it a slightly more grounded feel.

we rise! we soar!

The riders themselves got a very strange colour scheme - a pinkish grey for their tunics and blue hats. The light blue hats because they are the aerial corps - that was an obvious and easy decision.

The tunic colour gave me some trouble - I wanted to avoid boring browns, but most of the fun bright colours I've already used. Reds on hats, deep blue for the Guarden Gnomes, greens for the skirmishers and crossbowgnomes, undyed linen for the cannon crew, purplish for the Order of the Red Fur, and so on.

fly closer so that i can hit them with my &c &c

Then my partner happened to mention that some aircraft used pinkish patterns on their underbellies as a form of camouflage against cloud cover. This sounds a bit strange until you consider that sunset and sunrise colour the world in reds and pastels - plus clouds aren't actually white, of course.

This was a perfect way to get a fun and weird colour into the army, so I used it immediately.

quite pleased with the underbelly feathers - all the work here is the sculpt

Finally for May, we have the Cantonal Standard. This is the focal point for the army, a rallying centre for the republican gnomes to come together:

Army Standard: A gnome army must have a cantonal standard, it acts as the battle standard for the army. This banner is held by the leader of the largest unit of gnomes armed for close combat. Should the leader die, the banner may be held aloft by common troopers in the same manner as a common standard. The Cantonal standard is free.

Unfortunately, I'm still not able to get to a printer and show off an actual standard for the army to rally around. In lieu of that, here's a photo of the cantonal standard among the lads of the Guarden Gnomen. They are led by Esme de Loktibogen, a gnomish heroine painted before the Challenge:

Guarden Gnomen, professional soldiers

Both my partner and I are beginning to return to our offices in the next weeks, so I'm hopeful that I can have all the banners flying strong in time for the July exhibition.

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Next month: Do a barrel roll...