Orctober 2026 - Electric Boogaloo

 

Last week I showed off the classic 90s era Goblin Fanatics that I painted back in 2021; But I painted more than just these three orcs that month. Among the lot of Greenskins was another trio of Goblin Fanatics. Unlike the ones from last week this group of sculpts were the next evolution of Goblins.  

Released in 1999 these  new Fanatics coincided with the revamped plastic Night Goblins kit which would last all the way until 07/08. This next evolution of the Night Goblin design followed the trend seen in this  trio of Orcs & Goblins characters released in 1998. There Brian Nelson sculpted a Night Goblin Shaman, the classicOrc Shaman which you can still get to this day and lastly an Orc Waaghboss on war pig. All three of these were seemingly inspired/made for the Idol of Gork camapaign box, similar to some Dwarf heroes which were released for the Grudge of Drong. These three new Greenskins showed the hallmarks of the 6th edition design ethos for Greenskins with much bigger and exaggerated facial features. One of these three characters was a Night Goblin shaman whose appearance clearly matches with the later Night Goblins including the new Fanatics: Big jutting jaw, long sharp nose and a much bigger head than his brethren at the time. 

Back to the Goblins at hand. The original release had 4 different poses. OF those I only got three since my seller did not have the fourth one. In the following years I actually managed to get ahold of one after a lot of searching. I assume since these were packaged in groups of 3 that fourth sculpt just did not appear in blisters a lot. In any case since I did not buy him at the time he will sadly remain absent from this post. 

Unlike the trio from last week this one features a lot more dynamic posing with clear signs of struggle and drag from the chains. This does lead to the unfortunate issue of a lot of overhang from the base. Normally that would not be an issue, but since these models are made from metal and their chains are still relatively fragile pieces, you can

probably imagine where the issue lies. The one Fanatic with the worst weight distribution is the one whose been thrust up in the air by his momentum. Since the base is a slotta-base I cannot just simply glue a penny below it. I will probably just have to get some small weights and add them to the base instead; Until I actually play with these models though, I have left that task yet to be done. 

Issues aside I think these Fanatics are some of my favourite designs across their lineage. Something about the sheer chunky details and their huge heads just scratches a specific itch of mine. 

Thinking more on this topic I think it is because they fit so well into this era of sculpts from around 1998 to 2006/7 where miniatures still heavily leaned into heroic scale. The thick detailing makes painting very easy and give you some amazing results. It is also the era of miniatures I grew up with and thus a lot of my feelings on this topic are probably tainted by nostalgia. That is not a bad thing, but I like to stay aware of my biases when I talk about these things. I am sure had I been born 10 years earlier I might have preferred the '92 Fanatics over these.

This time around the size of their heads allowed for a lot more details such as their gums and even nails. And again I painted their soft tissue turquoise. With these new sculpts they remind me a lot more of the Greenskin who inspired me all those years ago. And after whom all my Orcs and Goblins are painted. I feel that their skin turned out a lot smoother than the ones I showed last week. It is far too long ago for me to remember why this is, but if I had to guess it is down to their size. Unlike the Goblins from last week these are much bigger models with a lot more area and the me from 5 years ago probably struggled less with larger surfaces.

This wraps up the second instalment of my look into the past Orctober. Stay tuned for the next and last instalment!

Orctober 2026 - A Glimpse Into The Past

To celebrate Orctober 2026 I wanted to take a trip down memory lane, showing you some of my favorite greenskins I have painted over the years, many of which receiving new studio photos, replacing the ones I took on my phone originally. Today I want to dial back to October 2021. I am maybe half a year into starting my oldhammer collection and have made connections with a seller in my city. Since it is October I am looking for Greenskins of any kind. My eyes halt on a trio of three fanatics, enamoured by their silly charmes. After picking out some more Greenskins(more on them soon) I biked back home and began putting paint on metal. 

This specific trio of Night Goblin Fanatics are part of a group of six released back in 1992 during the first year of Warhammer Fantasy 4th Edition. There were three different bodies, each with its own unique pose. Additionally you would get two different face versions of each pose, so despite looking similar you still had some variety among your fanatics. Unlike later or even earlier iterations, these fanatics had rather small iron balls on their chains making their weapons seem more like Meteor Hammers than the counterweight wrecking balls we are used to. These Fanatics are also distinctly less dynamic in their poses. While yes they seem mid swing, it looks more like they are swinging a weapon rather than being swung by the force of their ball and chain. Previous sculpts showed the goblins being swung around by their weapons making this trio seem a bit less flashy. Still if you compare these sculpts to the rest of the Goblin range at the time, they are considerably more dynamic still. 

At the time I thought these were the oldest Fanatics that existed, I had little knowledge of pre-4th Edition Warhammer and found the catalogues pre-1992 somewhat confusing to navigate. As such I stayed ignorant to a lot of wonderful models, especially from the pre-slotta era. I have since expanded my collection of Goblin Fanatics further back, stumbling upon the ones with puddle bases that have their names on them. Still I come back to these fellas quite often. Something about the Kev Adams range of Goblins is just so uniquely charming. The ranges following this would be bigger and 'smoother', more what we now think of as Night Goblins. Meanwhile the previous models all feel a lot more generic fantasy Goblin. Something straight out of a cartoon or comic. These little guys sit right at the point where the ideas and design language of the Night Goblins solidified, while still being charmingly proto in their design. 

Unrelated to the Fanatics themselves, I want to talk about my colour choices. Specifically the blue tongues. The idea came from White Dwarf Issue 338 in which Kirsten Williams showed how to paint a Mek with Shokk Attack Gun. The tutorial showed the Mek's gums being painted with turquoise paint to contrast the slightly pale green skin. For some reason that little detail stuck with me since and I have tried to give every single one of my Greenskins turquoise gums and tongues. I just find it to be a lovely little detail that seemingly makes people stop and wonder why. Aside from the blue tongues the colour scheme is inverted when compared to the studio paintjobs, with full yellow robes with black detailing. I do not remember why I chose this, but I think it had something to with me practicing painting yellow at the time. These Goblins stand as a lovely memento to my first few years of collecting old miniatures. They also show me how far I have come since, the painting is much rougher to what I am capable of these days and that makes me proud. If you enjoyed this little throwback, then I think you will like what comes next as I have more Greenskins to show from days past. Until next time!

Around this time I started practicing my yellow paintjobs, using Averland Sunset and Balor Brown to build up the necessary Opacity.