goblinpaladin's Gnomes - a Conclusion

This project is being kindly sponsored by Old School Miniatures.

2020 has been a harder challenge than the Old World Army Challenge, but we did it! We're all here, at the end of all things this one challenge. We made it, friends, and we all have new armies!

Goblin C Paladin

I want to thank Old School Miniatures again for sponsoring me for OWAC III. Byron has been so supportive, offering praise and support all along the way. The sculpts are so much fun to paint and ridiculously easy to prepare for painting; I really do recommend them.

For the challenge, OSM provided me with the following.

CHARACTERS

Guildmaster, level-5 hero with light armour and a shield: 33 points
Hillcantor (level 15 illusionist) on fox: 157 points

Heathinker (level 5 illusionist) on fox: 62 points
Guildmaster with crossbow on giant swallow: 45 points.

Guildmaster with crossbow on giant swallow: 45 points.

RANK AND FILE

19 x Guarden Gnomen with light armour + standard bearer and musicians, carrying the Cantonal Standard: 252 points
8 x Burgher Gnomen with light armour and shields + standard bearer and musicians: 90 points
10 x Ambrust Gnomen: 80 points

10 x Ambrust Gnomen: 80 points
5 x Gnome-an-Armen + standard bearer and musician: 77 points

3 more Fuschsschütze: 45 points

Artillery

Kleinekanone: 45 points
Orgelkanone: 75 points

Orgelkanone: 75 points

RANK AND FILE

Camp followers and villagers.

POINTS TOTAL: 1,161

I already owned a few gnomes - some other characters and light fox cavalry - so I thought I would take some photos of the whole army. This looks much better and shows off Byron's lovely sculpts a lot better. After the photoshoot, I'll talk about what's next. Enjoy!

As I mentioned last month, I do have some small additions to this project - although even as I write that, I feel the guilt of a thousand unfinished projects loom over my shoulder - which will probably come once the lockdowns ease in the United Kingdom. Once Old School Miniatures are able to return to work, I'll order the rest of the gnomes I want to do and get crackin'.

hmm, which devilish illusion shall the heathtinker conjure?

ah, yes! of course! ahahaha...

OWAC IV

Next year sees big changes afoot in the land of the Old World Army Challenge. Many challengers shall actually be going off world, to the science fantasy setting of Rogue Trader and early Warhammer 40,000. I will be one of them, taking advantage of the OWAC deadlines to get some more bearded abhumans painted. I look forward to seeing everyone again in six months!

For now, thank you to all my fellow Challengers. As ever, your work is incredible - inspiring and astonishing in equal measure.

© Matt Smith, 2015. Used without permission.
http://matt-illustration.squarespace.com/

auf Wiedersehen

goblinpaladin's Gnomes - a June update (70 points)

This project is being kindly sponsored by Old School Miniatures.

We're at the end! Even the gnomes are celebrating!

hmm, weird glitch there. what could that be

• 3 Fuschsschütze. 45 points.
• A Gift. 25 points.
• Camp followers and labourers. FREE
• TOTAL: 70 points!

This is my 'mulligan' month, but as I'm across the 1000-points threshold, I think we're fine. I've also completely run out of gnomes!

Old School Miniatures, who has kindly sponsored this project, sent me five foxes and five gnome crossbow-wielding riders. I used two foxes for last month's illusionists, while their riders were given over to the swallows.

This was because I already had five Fuschsschütze, and I didn't want to re-use the leader miniature in the squadron. Plus, I am obsessed with making regiments divisible by five (I like '20' or '25' for ranked infantry; 10 for cavalry), so making this squadron eight strong makes them feel more like the irregulars they are.

before anyone starts, round bases for civilians and objective markers

One of my favourite features of the third edition of Warhammer is the baggage train. When OSM released their gnome range, they made sure to include a whole swathe of civilian models for baggage trains as well as terrain sets. I've been wanting them since I saw them. 

BWAAAAAAAAAAWM

These three are obviously having a bit of fun. The partying group have been painted as some soldiers carousing - one is in the uniform of the Guarden Gnomen, the other the undyed wool of the Burgher Gnomen raised from the Guild of Wool Manufacturers and Merchants.

The rest have been painted mostly in earthen tones and undyed linen, except the hammerer who got a vaguely 'maybe he works in the armoury' look in black, and the fellow with the sack who got a red coat. I want you all to appreciate that I decided at the last moment not to paint him like a famous man with a sack, but the red remained.

The group also has a watchman in the colours of the Guarden Gnomen. Baggage trains need guards and sentries, otherwise you get halflings.

behold the CUBE

I've prepared an offering for the Overlord. As is traditional,* the Gift must remain beyond mortal sight until the Overlord Himself gazes upon it.

© David Petersen, 2017.
Used without permission.
http://www.mouseguard.net/

So what's next for the gnomes? I do need to expand the Wool Manufacturers militia to a full regiment of twenty. At the same time, I'm going to buy some carts and more villagers from OSM's second kickstarter, once they've got those in the regular store. I'll also get a Tazelworm. Hopefully some Gnomish heroine to ride it, depending on what the new range has to offer. At that point, I think I'll be fairly happy with this army. It has a core of decent infantry, some skirmishing cavalry, some artillery, some wacky nonsense, and a coterie of officers.

But I would like a little gnome village for them to defend, and Bad Squiddo Games has been previewing some little gnome houses...

*This isn't at all a thing, but ZeroTwentythree does it and it seems fun.

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.

Advertisement for beer, c.1898.
Copyright expired. For more information, see here.

Next month: Do a barrel roll...

goblinpaladin's Gnomes - an April update (195 points)

This project is being kindly sponsored by Old School Miniatures.

I couldn't wait to get to these, so I jumped right in!

big badda boom

An artillery battery, complete with handsome mantlets!

• Orgelkanone. 75 points.
• Orgelkanone. 75 points.
• kleineKanone. 45 points.
• TOTAL: 195 points!

I really love these sculpts. More than any other part of the range, I think that it was these guys that made me want to take on the project. In the end, I spent longer agonising over their colour scheme than it actually took to paint them. They have so much silly character!

I knew I wanted one in a weird colour, so I went with Screamer Pink. He was highlighted by adding some cream to the pink and then some more cream. The chevrons on the carriage came from the those painted far better by Realms of Chaos; I wanted to avoid the boring 'brown wood + metal' of regular artillery.

While Googling for ideas on how to paint the crew, I found these Swiss chaps at Bleaseworld, with their looted Burgundian cannon's frame painted blue. While these gnomes haven't got any Burgundians to steal from, it's a good idea. So I stole it.

While the colours of the other two mantlets are based, as ever, on Swiss cantons, I struggled with how to do the crew. I wanted to avoid the 'black for artillery' that you get with the Empire, especially with one regiment of gnomes already quite drab. I also wanted to avoid too uniform a look, such as by painting the crew the same colours as the mantlets. I wanted the impression to be that they'd painted the mantlets in their favourite colours, rather than them being 'assigned'.

I even considered doing bright orange or yellow caps, but figured that would be too much like modern safetywear. That could have been an amusing joke, but not quite amusing enough.

In the end, I went with simple undyed linens for both their smocks and caps. No point in wearing your finest red-dyed cap if it's going to get covered in soot anyway, right? I actually think they came out quite smart in the end, and it lets the focus stay on the bright mantlets.

'Quena, a Gnome Druid', © Josemi993, 2018

I don't gnome about you, but I'm also excited for what's coming in May...