At GenCon this last year (2012) I was one of the lucky people be awarded a very special prize. During Paizo’s Pathfinder Society Special called Race for the Runecarved Key 30 players who ranked top in their game tier received the We Be Goblins boon. This allowed for players to legally play the Goblin race in Pathfinder Society games.

I was one of those very lucky people. Which means I am your Pathfinder Society Goblin mistress. All your dogmeat are belong to me!

I have an addiction. A small problem really…I like miniatures. I have hundreds of them and enjoy assembling them more than anything. However, some assembly is required for my current project. Due to this boon I went on the search for “the one goblin to rule them all” so to speak. Sadly, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. The fate of my husband’s mini, who received the boon as well, was also in my hands.

This meant I needed to open my oodles of mini boxes to find the poor minis I would need to mutilate in order to build my Frankenstein monster. There were options in my box, but I still went online to seek some fresh materials. Don’t tell my husband, but in all honesty it was an excuse to go shopping. ::que giddy shopping dance::

What I already owned:

Pathfinder Miniatures: Goblin Warriors (4)

Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard

What I picked up:

Professor L.T. Froschmeister, Scientist

Gremlins

I really loved the look of the Gremlin minis and thought the heads would be perfect. However, Reaper, and most mini websites don’t usually list the size of the mini. Unless they are unusually large minis online shops don’t usually list height and assume that they are within the threshold of 28mm. Granted, most hobbyists are aware that Gremlins are small sized creatures. We don’t know how small they are represented in the minis, but not all minis are created equal (I have some very large “small races” that shouldn’t really be that large).

The Pathfinder Goblins, although meant to be a small race, are still rather bulky and closer to medium in execution. Goblin design in Pathfinder also varies in terms of their head to body size and shape depending on the artist used in renders. I was hoping that the gremlin heads would be big enough to lop-off and stick on new bodies. I also felt gnome bodies would be a good size for the heads. Being that gnome minis tend to be more “slim” than halfing minis, I decided it would be easier to get a feeling of the oversized goblin heads.

Unfortunately, the gremlin heads were too gosh darned small (size matters apparently!), perfect in appearance, but too small. I briefly considered modding them with green stuff to add hoods, accessories, hair and the right weapons for our Ranger and Alchemist…but I am not that much of a glutton for punishment. Modding a 28mm standard mini is much less of a pain than a 10-12mm one. I’m not a pro yet.

I ended up cutting off heads of the first and fourth Goblin minis shown above. And also removing the bow arm from the first mini and the fisted arm from the second mini. I was very happy with the size and appearance of the Professor L.T. Froschmeister mini and only needed to cut off baldy’s head. However, I removed the head and both arm below the chain mail of the Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard mini.

The alchemist goblin was by far the easiest to mod. I sculpted his base as a stone floor, but it didn’t come out quite the way I wanted. This was my own error in that the green stuff had more yellow than blue. I usually use for yellow than blue for a softer puddy while I fill in hole on minis. I am still getting over a cold, so I attribute my laziness in squishing up a new batch of green stuff to the copious amount of Nyquil keeping me going. Good layering of paint and terrain can fix it right up.

With a simple cutting of heads, a .50 pin, and a little glue, the Goblin Alchemist was essentially pieced together.

The only tweaks I plan on making is adding a Mohawk and possibly some goggles with green stuff before I paint him. I also realized in my cold-stupor that I didn’t green stuff the slight gap in his neck. This will be remedied.

The Goblin Ranger was a little more difficult. I didn’t make a clean cut with the arms and the possible sanding of the clipped ends would remove some precious length. I pinned the arms with a .25 pin. I am going to go over the arm joints with a little green stuff when I go back in to sculpt a hood and a ponytail. I am not 100% content with the arm positions, as I would have liked a more “battle ready” pose. But this cheering pose works well too, and I think at least gives off the impression of Goblin energy (or ADD-ness if you will).

I also based a few Ral Partha wardogs I got from a “bits and pieces” bin at a con, as well as gave some additional pinning and green stuff joint support to some elemental miniatures of mine.

Next on the list, some more green stuff molding and painting!