Dark Goblins by Maraud Miniatures

 

Hey all, I'm quite chuffed to show you these now. A while ago, I was visiting my FLGS like usual when one of the owners took me aside and said he had stuff I might want to see. Now this is the kind of encounter I was taught to avoid but in a hobby store, all rules stay out at the door.

It turns out he was sculpting a new range of fantasy miniatures inspired and flavoured with all the nice references we love.
The models were built on concept art by  my mate Adrien AKA Jean Peinture (follow both his Instagram and amazing blog)

and sculpted by  the most excellent Alexandre Vallet, 2 hobby friends I have a huge fondness and respect for on top of being lovable human beings.

So when asked if I wanted to paint them, my answer was a quick and firm YES !

I first started on 3 of them exploring a colour scheme that would somehow tie them with my other fantasy orcs but what I wanted to happen wasn't happening. It wasn't clicking. It was trying to be both red eraesque and grim but I wasn't getting the balance I wanted so when I got the rest, I just did what I tend to avoid and just stripped them to start anew.

I went for something different, a bit more cartoony but also darker at the same time, I desaturated my skin tones to contrast with the very dark armours and gave some spot colours to liven up everything and I liked that way much more !

I'll give you a look at all of the goblins with the painted and unpainted versions so you can make your mind about how you would have done them, I'm definitely interested in feedback.

The shaman/leader sets the tone right away with his turnop (or at least that's how I decided to paint it), big belly and armour on exclusively non vital parts, I realy love the strong gremlin vibe and mischievous look of him.

The berzerk with 2 hand weapons is also channeling a strong crazyness vibe as well

Like his shaman, the 2 handed weapon berzerk has decided to still display his formidable belly and potato sack shirt (probably to look cool)

Now this one has a strong sword duellist vibe I like a lot and could be very well be the source of extremely unpleasant surprises !

The beakie helmet one is amongst my favourites, something about that helmet shape and very concealed look makes him more sinister than the rest.

What I love about those too is the attention to little details, the elongated neck and single eye, the ogryn face shield and helmet breathers or the twirly hook on the halberd...

I like that half the models are more of a guard type with heavy armours and long weapons

this lasy one is in my top 3 I reckon, the arm resting on the shield and the firm grip on the spear are excellent

I have some more models on that range to show you and different kinds too, those goblins scream Forbidden Psalm to me though, having had to face goblins in Mork Borg, they're definitely models I want to field in those games !

Check their Facebook page HERE and go see on the webstore if you want to pick some of those beauties as preorders HERE 
Next might be some much bigger threat, happy painting y'all !