Brumbaer / 3D Printing / Goblins T9A
 

March 2017. New game system - old favourite army.

I played Warhammer for a long time and stopped playing sometimes during 7th ed.

About 5 weeks ago I let myself been talked into playing T9A.I choose Gobbos, because I usually play Gobbos. So we did two games and I decided to play at a local tournament.

I have seven painted Warhammer armies and none of them is really T9A ready.

My Gobbos are old as in from before year 2k. So instead of ruining them by converting, I decided to do a new Gobbo army. Since I have a 3D printer, I do not buy miniatures any more, I design and print them.

It had to be a 4500 points Goblin army for 9th age. The army was finished just in time for a tournament (1 day to spare). I designed printed and painted it in three weeks. Three weeks as in 21 days, 12-14 hours a day plus additional printing overnight.

I designed the models from scratch as usual using Cinema 4D.

The models were printed on my B9Creators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The army

I like Goblins - the underdog syndrome I assume - especially the Night Goblins and Squiggs have found a place in my heart.

Roses are red, Goblins are green and Night Goblins wear black. The rules of T9A are quite close to Warhammer, but they renamed all the units. So Night Goblins are Cave Goblins and Squiggs are Gnashers now. So no more Night Goblins, so no more black robes. I decided to go for white robes. But why would they wear white robes ? The only sensible reason would be the climate - living in a snow clad area, would explain (dirty) white clothes on a Goblin.

Alas those Gobbos come in from the cold. So they wear warm clothes and their skin colour would be pale. So how to represent warm clothes ? Traditionally Cave Goblins (read Night Goblins) wear hooded robes. That is close enough to a cloak. To make it more suited to cold climate their would be some fur trimmings. 

In addition to the hood the head would be protected by bobble cap, ear warmers or a scarf.

The units would be equipped with bow or hand weapon and shield. The hand weapon and shield units being the backbone of the army. There is no equipment besides the weapons because if I had to design and paint it, I wouldn't have finished the army in time - admittedly, I don't miss it and being one who doesn't like to paint, I'm quite happy that I didn't have to paint it :)

The goal was to give the unit a unified, but ragged look - if that is possible. To get that, there would be multiple poses, heads, head gears, weapons and shields. I ended with 15 different rank and file Goblins. Three of them being a bit more special, so there would be only one per unit.

 

The archers would be equipped with identical bow and quivers and would get the same pose to underline the ability for volley fire. For that reason there is not as much variation. Only 6 different archer models are used to make up the ranks. 

 

No line regiment without  Command group. I planned 3 regiments, so there are 3 different Command groups. The champions are about 10% bigger than ordinary Goblins. That makes them stand out a bit more.

 

Where there is a command group characters are not far away. in line the Characters. Basically because they are based on the troopers. Originally I planned only a king as army general and a battle standard bearer, but added two witch doctors shortly after the tournament. All units could be equipped with nets. there are only three different models with nets, but I planned only to have 5 or so models showing nets per unit.

The king got a crown a fancy shield and a breastplate, because he is the only one wearing a heavy armour. Just having said that, makes it wrong. The battle standard bearer got some magic armour which is also rated as heavy armour. It's not depicted anyway, because I didn't plan to give him heavy armour. His standard is basically a bough. In Germany the battle standard bearer is traditionally called AST, which is the abbreviation for Armeestandarte and also the German word for bough.

Night Goblins need Fanativs or in new-speak Cave Goblins need Mad Gits. I concentrated on the Mad aspect and that what I came up with:

 

A guy believing he's a dog, a ballerina, Al Gobbone, the kings Godfather, a mad scientist, Alfred E. Neugobbo and who the last one thinks he is, none of the other Gobbos knows.

Staying with Goblins there is a small unit of Goblin raiders equipped with bow and shield. They do not ride wolves, but some Husky like creature. I like the poses of the riders. The poses remind me a bit of Samurai shooting from horseback.

The Huskys have different poses as well and the position and kind of shields add to the variety. The raiders are common Goblins and as such will not wear a robe. So I dressed them in pullovers and gave them a leather jerkin for protection.

 

The choice of a sleigh to represent a chariot was quite obvious given the theme of the army. The form is that of an traditional Husky drawn sled. A bit wider and only two Huskys and them side by side instead of in a goose line, but what the heck.

On this one I added some bits of equipment, mainly, because I had it available from other models. One of the crew faces whatever peril may occur with his trusty spear, while his comrade is a bit more relaxed trying to see what's lying ahead and the last one easing the sled along.

The step from sleigh to bob is not a big one, so a bob is used as a stand in for the scrap wagon. A scrap wagon is crewed by 5 Snotlings which fit nicely into a bob. The poses of the crew in the first bob are what you would expect. With the second bob I took a bit more liberty and had the last Snotling toasting to those left behind and two others are playing cards, while the bob speeds along.

 

Warmachines a missed opportunity. I did some rather conservative designs, because I was pressed for time, so Splatterer and Git Launcher differ only in payload. Some of the crews have nice poses creating scenes a bit like a mini diorama. The crews all wear leather jackets or cloaks against the cold. The payload is dressed a bit lighter, with a spike on the head - that makes a slim head and is quite the rage in fashionable circles.

 

  The deadliest force in that army are the Gnashers formerly known as Squiggs. GW's Squiggs set the frame for what a Squigg should look like. But just copying Squiggs would be boring. The Killer-Bunny-Rabbit is a well known concept and would as an arctic(snow) hare fit nicely into the army. But a fluffy bunny doesn't resemble a Squigg at all, so I decided to do a cross between bunny and Squigg and that is what came out of it. I did 10 different poses or was it 12 ?

 

Squiggs are brightly coloured and often in different loud colours. This wouldn't fit in well, so I decided to call in evolution and let the Squiggs of the cold be paled coloured. That makes sense, because the pale colours would provide better camouflage in the frozen steppes.

 The Gnashers-Dashers (can it get more silly nameswise ?) are just Squiggs with riders. It was a bit fiddly to place the rider on top and still looking convincing.

 

Noticeably especially at the Gnashers (ex-Squiggs). Usually I would paint them in bright colours, but somehow that wouldn't fit a snow-hare, arctic-bunny, killer-thingie. So they are pale, but still colourful.

I hoped a Giant Spider would give the army some punch, but in the end it is not stronger than Gnashers only tougher.

Anyway I did one. I settled for a mechanical spider, because I thought it would be quicker to design. After the tournament I toyed around a bit and I'm convinced now that a live-spider wouldn't have been more complex.

The model consists of three parts in addition to the payload. The crew has different hats and caps and the coats are more wrinkled to set them appart from the other Goblins.

 

Basically that is it:

 

 

The army looks quite uniform. Still I used a lot of different colors.

 

The front row is used on Cave Goblins, the second row are colors used for the other goblins and machines and the third row are the Gnsher skin colours.