Kobolds Unleashed

Regular readers may recall a few weeks ago I had a rash idea about building a new army, Kobolds in a D&D inspired force.  If nothing else they could expand my available models for putative dungeoneering games.

Well there's no possibility of much progress on these yet is there?

Incorrect:

A full Warband in a Month

 So, Kobolds are pretty small, and don't take much painting it seems! a whole force of fully detailed miniatures in just four weeks.  It's great not having to study!  43 models all told including several larger pieces.  It's really hard to pick favourites from a delightful range of mini's like this, but I was definitely taken with the Bugbears:

Ogre sized fellows

 These represent mercenary offensive heavy infantry for my Warband, when you average soldier stands three feet tall you really need some back up!  The leaders are up next; they provide the finance, tactical sense and a degree of firepower to the force as a whole

Qesik & Nietl 

These are Elite, but Fearful foot with the Wizardling rule added.  They both stand a good foot taller then the rest of their Kobold brethren. 

 

 Some of the finest troops in Neitl's warband are his scouts, armed with crude but effective copies of Dwarven crossbows.

 

 Masters of using stealth and cover, they nonetheless are unwilling to get closely engaged with their foes; preferring to stand off and shoot.  These are the first of several conversions I made to the Reaper models.  The Kobold infantry provide only three basic poses, but the soft polymer material is easy to cut and shape, and super-glue provides an excellent bond.  It was easy to swap arms and diversify the poses to eight, though so far this was the only idea for the thrusting spearman I could find.  The bow itself is a cut down Numidian infantry bow from the old Wargames Factory set.

Living in the dungeons, Kobolds have learnt the art of trapping and herding all manner of subterranean creepy crawlies, and some of their more rash souls will drive these creatures into battle.

All from the Reaper Bones range

 These are Fearful Lesser Warbeasts, known for their irrational behaviour at the best of times.  I had great fun painting these, given it was easy to do them, and there were no rules.  I had a lot of fun with the blue thing in particular!  Note also the Standard bearer, with my treatment of a Kobold banner.

Varied ickyness

 Whilst Nietl may believe he is in charge, the likelihood his chaotic alliance of Kobolds and beasts big and small is down to the influence of the Jabberwocky that marches with them, reasons for this are lost to all save the creature itself, and naught will ever know its' thoughts.  Yet it is oft found in the forests, lurking with, perhaps leading against their will, the Kobold raiding party.

Grrrr, Flurgle

 Finally there are two groups of Fearful Light foot to round out the force.  Nietl has no shortage of enthusiastic, malignant little souls willing to follow him on his raids, though their willingness to get involved in a real fight greatly diminishes when they realise the outside world feature many more open spaces and much larger foes than they are used to.

Team Green

 Again here, there are conversions to move and exchange shield and sword arms, creating a wider range of poses.  Also each unit has a standard bearer and a leader from the larger (and more expensive) Reaper metal miniatures range.

Team Red

A last word on the basing, these are all simply done to match my other 'Roleplaying' models.  The integral Kobold bases featured a paved floor, so after an unsuccessful experiment with Green stuff I decided to use filler the extend this to cover a coin base.  Once applied to all the models, I went back and impressed the paving detail and trimmed the most errant blobs.  Then it was just a simple grey painting finish.

So, a super fast job, and a delightful set of models.  The danger is, I can see the inspiration for any number of little forces for DR off the back of these....

Oh dear!