Much as the sight of the kompany arrayed before him was pleasing, Skraglik Grizzlebiter could sense that they were nearing the limits of the little patience they possessed. The rune plates of the scrap banner carried by Ghulstikka jangled harshly in the wind as he drew the moment out just a little longer.
Ego finally satisfied, he gestured with his right hand and Dagglat raised a warhorn forged of duardin pig iron to his lips, blowing a long, slightly discordant note that brought the assembled Hobgrots to attention. As the blast of the horn echoed away across the parched earthen plains, Skraglik drew a deep breath: "Right yous lot!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs "These 'Dawn-bringas' don't seem to know wots good fer 'em, do they?!" He paused briefly before continuing "No matter 'ow many times we tells 'em, they keep buildin' these fings" he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at a pallisade of hurriedly cut mirebirch hung with crimson banners adorned with a hammer shaped sigil. "Lucky fer us, they usually 'as some nice shiny trinkets with 'em..." he grinned "...lets go see what this lot 'ave brought shall we?"
Round about the time I finished painting Regulus a couple of weeks back, I picked up one of the new(ish) Hobgrot Slittaboss minis. I can't quite put my finger on why, but the Hobgrots have grown on me since they first emerged from the Thondian swamps alongside the Kruleboyz with the release of Age of Sigmar's third edition.
As I was putting the Slittaboss together, I had a flash of inspiration: if I assembled a Hobgrot Noisemaker and dug out the Scrap Totem banner bearer I'd painted up back in 2023, I'd have a wee 'command group' consisting of the Slittaboss, his herald and his 'colours'.
It also occurred to me that not only could I use this wee project as one of the the Your Choice squares on the New Year, New Challenge bingo card it would be a great opportunity to try following one of my Miniature of the Month Masterclasses to see just how well I could replicate the same finish nearly two years later...
Skraglik Grizzlebiter, Hobgrot Slittaboss
Although his wargear is a bit snazzier, Skraglik has much in common with his command group so most of him is painted in exactly the same way as the other two Hobgrots. The main exception are the grisly trophies on his back, which were each painted up using different fleshtones to suggest that Skraglik has led his kompany to victory against many foes, including Gloomspite Gitz, Deadwalkers and at least one Dawnbringer Crusade.
One other element unique to Skraglik is the venom dripping from his greatsword. I painted the blade up in the same fashion as Ghulstikka and Dagglat's slitta knives, before having a bit of fun sketching in the layers on the strands of venom using Wordbearers Red and Bugman's Glow before finishing up by adding some spot highlights with Cadian Fleshtone.
When painting Skraglik's base, I used the same colours for the tree stump as on the Gnarloaks on the bases of my Wildercorps Hunters - partly because it made sense to use a recipe I knew would work, but mainly because the Wildercorps are tramping around in Ghur as well, so tying the two together through their bases might plant some narrative seeds for another time. I undertook a little tree surgery while assembling Skraglik as I wasn't all that keen on the wee shoots emerging from it being stuck to the haft of his sword.
If you're thinking of picking up a Slittaboss yourself, a sharp scalpel and some careful trimming will work wonders. Curiously, the studio mini that features in the box art is missing one of the shoots, though it's not clear whether it was removed from the physical model or through the digital editing process of creating the packaging.
Dagglat, Hobgrot Herald
Because they're quite similar, there isn't a huge amount to say about Dagglat that wouldn't be repeating what I've already written, but I do want to call attention to the scrap-grenade he has on his belt as his was the first one I painted. I wanted to make sure that the grenades looked like they were made of a different material to the rest of the wargear the Hobgrots are carrying as they're made by Hashut-worshipping duardin rather than the Hobgrots themselves.
To get a different tone of silver metal, I used Leadbelcher as a basecoat before shading all of the metal with Agrax Earth and then Nuln Oil. This felt like a good start, but because the duardian who forge the scrap grenades don't give their best work to the Hobgrots, I thought I'd add a bit of corrosion to them. This would have the added benefit of tying the grenades to the rest of their wargear which is corroded in places as well. To rust up the grenades, I thinned down some Skrag Brown with Lahmian Medium to about the consistency of milk and then painted it around all of the rivets and into all the recesses on the grenades. Once this first layer of rust had dried, I went back and more selectively added more in a few places so that it wouldn't look too uniform. To finish the grenades up, I used Ironbreaker to add rough, uneven highlights over the rust so it would look like the bare, un-oxidised metal was exposed on the hard edges of the casings.
Ghulstikka, Hobgrot Colour-bearer
Ghulstikka was written about at length when I painted him in late 2023, so I won't write much more about him here. Suffice it to say though, he was the 'guinea pig' that enabled me to get Skraglik and Dagglat done so quickly using existing paint recipes - though the extensive notes I took as I painted him were very handy as I couldn't quite recall everything off the top of my head.
With Your Choice now marked off, I'm getting close to a full line on the bingo card now:
and over the last couple of days, I think I've nailed down what I'm going to paint up to paint up to complete that last box too, though I'm not quite ready to share more on that just yet.
That about wraps things up for now then, so until next time, as always, thanks for reading and happy hobbying!
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