"They Have a Cave Troll...!' Goblin Archers and 3 Trolls

    Latest additions to my orc and goblin horde -- 8 Gripping Beast goblin archers & 3 trolls

I have my Dragon Rampant 2nd Edition rulebook -- woo-hoo! James from Firelands Games dropped it off to me at World at War gaming convention this past weekend. I can't wait to start looking through it and receive more inspiration to work on my orc and goblin army. Speaking of which, I finished a batch of eight 28mm goblin archers from Gripping Beast's Ragnarok line. I also completed my first set of three Ragnarok trolls. I had ordered two of the trolls from Firelands previously, before knowing I would get a bumper crop more of them from Jeff G when I bought my orcs and goblins off of him earlier this year. So, my orcs and goblins don't have "A cave troll...", they have about a dozen of them for me to paint up!

    Ragnarok 'Hill' goblin on left & 'Mountain' on right -- you gotta love those faces & expressions!

The goblins are from three different "packs" of Ragnarok goblins. I'm not sure I buy into their division of them into various tribes or localities, but the figures are nice. Three of the archers have only a loin cloth and are mostly flesh. Ragnarok labels them Mountain goblins. These are the most Tolkien-looking of this batch, in my opinion. One of the figures is from their Hill Goblin line and wears a long robe from neck to feet. The other four are from the Forest Goblin line, and have an large, animal-skin cloak thrown over their shoulders and a loin cloth at their waist. Weirdly (in my opinion), they wear cultist-like hoods with only tiny eye slits. I don't think I have ever envisioned goblins or orcs that way, but it makes them pretty interesting looking!

    'Forest' goblins -- I get the fur cloaks and loin cloths...but cultist-like hoods?? Not sure about them!

I used my normal orc and goblin process for these figures: Liquitex white Gesso primer, then for the skin, a Walnut brown base coat, Raw Sienna dry brush, and Khaki highlight. Their clothes I painted in a variety of darker or paler tones, each with an appropriately colored lighter highlight. For the Forest Goblin fur cloaks, I did two in a gray and the other two in a brown fur. One gray and one brown was lighter toned, while the other was darker. Each received a lighter dry brush to make the detailing on the fur stand out. The inside of the cloak was painted in a leather color. 

    More Mountain goblins -- these are the most "Tolkien" looking of the three types, in my opinion

Once again, I scribed Orc-like writing on the quivers, with my micron pens. The quivers themselves I painted in pale or leather colors. These goblins progressed very quickly as they had little to no equipment -- no pouches, knives, or anything besides their clothes and bow and quiver. To be honest, I did set them aside for a few days last week when I was hyper-focused on getting Vietnam terrain done. Even doing that, I feel like I am making good progress on my orc and goblin army. Once I read through the rules, I'll have a better idea if there are any other troops I need to paint up besides the orcs, goblins, and trolls which I bought back in June.

    I guess you could paint these guys up as generic fantasy evil cultists and the hoods would work great

Speaking of the trolls, these were easier still than the goblin archers. I read up some discussion online on troll skin color. Tolkien describes them as covered in green scales, but these miniatures are obviously inspired more by the Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. So, I decided to go with a gray skin tone for them instead of green. I used a base coat of Charcoal gray and a Rain gray drybrush. I wanted to do a highlight of pale green, just to give a hint of Tolkien to their appearance. First, I used a sage green and it looked okay. Then I went with a light olive drab called Timberline Green, and I liked its look much better. What I didn't count on was the final dark black wash muting that green so it is almost invisible!

    Despite my devotion to Tolkien, I went with the Peter Jackson look for my trolls because of the figs

The troll's loin cloths and weapons were the next thing I had to paint. I used leathery colors for the loin cloths, except for one I painted tan. These received their usual dry brush, of course. The weapons were done in a medium brown for the wood parts, with lighter highlight. The metal portions in Steel, bronze, and pewter, while the stone club and axe I painted dark gray with a lighter highlight. I went back and forth about how to do the shields. I'd chosen three different types from the selection that came with the miniatures. I decided to make one a beaten bronze shield, another leather, and the third a black-painted, iron-bound one. Variety is always good, and with these three figures being almost identical, painting their shields differently will add to the look.

    'Gorka' (as Ragnarok calls him) is my favorite pose of this amazing line of 28mm metal trolls

The next decision was whether to do shield designs or not. Since all the orcs were going to have their individual patterns, it didn't make sense to leave their shields plain. So, I went back to the tribal images I'd downloaded off of Google, and used the designs for inspiration here. Somehow, I did the one on the leather shield off center, and no matter how much more I added to its face, I still think it looks a little off, unfortunately. The iron-bound one with its black face and red design is probably my favorite of the three. The triangle image on the bronze one is hard to see, but it does look pretty cool when you pick it out.

    I love 'Bor' (as he is called), but the pose leans forward too much & I'm afraid he'll tip often...

Since I based these big, clonking heavy metal figures sideways on pill-shaped bases, I added some various sized rocks to the flocking. Otherwise, it is similar to the other figures in this army and my new "standard" miniature base flocking. I was encouraged by one of the readers on Lead Adventure Forum to do a group photo of the horde so far. I've painted 45 orcs and goblins and 3 trolls since starting in mid-August. If I remember correctly, I have about that many more to go, too! I have the next eight primed and ready to go on my painting desk, so hopefully progress will continue to move along.

    My weapons may not match what GB's site shows, but I like Urug's pose a lot, too

What else is on the desk? I continue to work on bamboo stands. However, that's it, besides the eight primed orcs and the five woodland animals I hit "PAUSE" painting a few weeks ago. I'm sure I'll slip them in the queue sooner or later. The next blog post will likely be about my two games of Surviving 'Nam that I'm running this weekend at Hold the Line. I'm gratified to see the Friday event is booked full already, though there are spots available in the Saturday game. Hopefully, they'll go as well as the ones did at World at War!

    My three shields for my trolls -- I'm not as crazy about them as I hoped that I would be...

Scroll down for BONUS PICTURES of my entire orc & goblin horde so far...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 290
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 269

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 67

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 136
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 212

 

    Bonus pics! My horde so far -- 45 orcs & goblins and 3 trolls...it continues to grow!!

    Someone on Lead Adventure Forum thought I should do a "horde so far" pic, so here it is...!