Building a Goblin shaman

December 30, 2007 by Blackhat · Filed Under Modeling & Scenery

Once upon a time, Games Workshop provided a wonderful, diverse range of miniatures for the various armies of its games. There were often dozens of variations for each troop type, and many different character models to choose from.

That’s how it was - the good old days…

Now, because GW is driven more and more by money and efficiency, the ranges have been cut drastically. New lines get perhaps 6 variations of a troop type, and if you are lucky then no more than half of them are just one basic figure with different bits tacked on. For characters, you get one model, if anything…

Thus it is for greenskin shamans. Unless you have all the Citadel catalogues and the inclination to use the Mail Order archive (expensive, involved, and suffering from severe communication problems), you are stuck. There are, in the early printings of the greenskin army book, at least two Night Goblin shaman models. Only one model is available now, and it’s neither of those pictured. So, there could easily be a choice of three models. GW decided otherwise, which is somewhat odd, seeing as how the average Orc and Goblin army will want more than just one of these - a well known tactic involves taking several level one NG shamans, and to hell with ‘Eadbangs

Enough lecturing - what did I do about this regrettable situation? I made my own shaman.

This will involve just three items - one old Goblin spearman sprue, and one new Night Goblin sprue. Greenskin generals can be almost guaranteed to have these. The third item is some putty or similar easily manipulated substance. Two-part epoxy putty is available at hardware stores. Blu-Tac and plasticene might do almost as well.

For your bits box, you end up with a spear and, if you are careful with the cutting, a Goblin face, neatly skinned off the head.

First, take the spear-gobbo. Cut off the right arm and spear, at the shoulder, not the sleeve. Carefully remove the left arm as well (also at the shoulder), taking care to carve out the shape of the rest of the pouch. Finally, off with his head! Slice off the face, and then hack off the bit of the back of the head which is left. You should have a smooth area level with the shoulders on top, and level with the jacket at the front.

Next, model around the legs the folds of a robe. This is simple - put a lump between the legs for a solid centre (this is important), then wrap a bit around the outside. The robe should be a very thin layer over the sides of the legs, but billow out at the front and back. It should fade out into the Goblin body’s shorts. The folds are easy enough to make - just press some lines into the putty, curving to one side.

Once this is done, use a lump of the putty to fill in the back of a Night Goblin head (I used the metal champion’s head because it is more impressive than the standard plastic pieces) and complete the back of the hood - otherwise you will be left with a large hole in the back of the head. If using putty, just press all this into place and smooth the back into place to resemble the rest of the hood. If using anything else, use polystyrene cement or superglue to fix the head in place, then use your filler.

Attach to the right shoulder one of the archer arms, preferably the one with two fingers extended. Have this raised a little, to look like the shaman is in the middle of casting a spell. Another option is to use one of the arms holding an arrow, replacing the arrow with some arcane item - such as a mushroom, particularly appropriate for a Night Goblin shaman.

Attach to the left shoulder one of the straight bow arms. Remove the bow, and replace it with either the knife accessory or a staff of your own construction; I would use one of the spare spears, some plastic skulls, and maybe a head or two - Bretonnian Knights do have some uses… You can also use the wings from some of the Bretonnian heads to good effect. To give the impression of spectacular defensive magic, stick a number of arrows into it - obviously it is powerful enough to catch them before they get anywhere near its owner. Have the left arm raised as well, either for stabbing or for simple impressive posturing to show off the nifty staff

That’s all the important construction done. If you like, add a few more pouches, and prepare some of the mushroom accessories for placing on the base later.

Paint it as a Night Goblin is painted - mostly black. I use a simple and limited range of colours - Snakebite Leather for belts, straps, pouches, boots; Blood Red for eyes, boots, and some pouches; Bubonic Brown, washed with Flesh Wash for parts that I want to look like someone else’s skin; Chainmail for metal parts (although I did use Amethyst Purple to give the knife a somewhat poisonous look); Skull White for claws and bone; and, of course, Goblin Green for skin.

To make it more impressive, add some Bad Moon Yellow flames on the robe - from the bottom hem up, from the front of the cowl back, and from the ends of the sleeves back.

Paint some mushrooms, red with white spots and purple with golden spots works well, flock the base, add the mushrooms, and there you have a scratch built and damned nearly unique Night Goblin Shaman.