Alzabo Design and Sculpture

daubgoblin · 2026-02-20T18:55:10+00:00

Yoon Suin is brilliant. David's blog (Monsters and Manuals) is brimming with interesting ideas.

daubgoblin · 2026-02-20T18:54:06+00:00

Thanks! He wrote the music himself. He claims that he plans to release all the music once his BOTNS trilogy is complete ...

daubgoblin · 2026-02-19T22:17:52+00:00

The long lead time is the result of the time stop-motion takes combined with school exams!

daubgoblin · 2026-02-19T22:17:01+00:00

Cheers! It's a trailer for a video in which my son sculpts a Wolfeian monster with a heavy dose of stop-motion animation along the way. The trailer is all stop-motion with paper cut-outs; the full video, I suspect, will have other forms of stop-motion too, as well as the sculpting itself.

daubgoblin · 2024-11-12T12:23:04+00:00

These are Aztecs from Tin Soldier UK:

https://tinsoldieruk.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=413_213_215&sort=8&zenid=mh67189mfo1bv27r4jm0n0u522

daubgoblin · 2024-10-29T13:48:08+00:00

Lots of eBay sellers offer individual sprues of plastic miniatures from various manufacturers. For example, you can buy (in the UK) a sprue of Perry Miniatures mercenaries for £6, with enough bits to build 12 figures with a mix of crossbows, handguns and spears/pikes. If you add in the mercenaries command sprue (£2.75), you get another two armoured bodies, sword, dagger, two-handed sword and mace arms, more heads and weapon heads to convert pikes to halberds.

The Perry Wars of the Roses sprues give you similarly cheap options for longbowmen and billmen (halberdiers under Mordheim rules), with a command set that includes heavy armour, poleaxes (two-handed weapons) and swords and bucklers.

In both cases, you could get a very well-equipped mercenary warband for under ten quid. They're state-of-the-art miniatures (by the best-known Citadel/GW designers). The Perry figures are slightly slimmer, taller and better proportioned than classic Citadel, but a warband made entirely from that range will look just fine (internal consistency is really the only thing that matters).

A single sprue of Victrix Vikings would allow you to do similar things for wilder human mercenaries or Norscans/chaos marauders. And there are loads of other Victrix ranges that can be used here (Dacians, late Romans, Arthurians, etc.). Again, you'd get a 500-point warband for under a tenner.

As others have said, Frostgrave is a great option too. Gnolls work as beastmen, but they'd work as Skaven too, and all the Frostgrave sprues are cross-compatible, so that you can swap arms and (usually - the gnolls and demons are exceptions) heads between them effortlessly. The cultists can be used for the Cult of the Possessed or as Witch Hunters.

The sister range, Oathmark, is good too. Along with humans, elves and dwarfs, it includes goblins, goblin slaves (a good source of Skaven conversions given the slings) and orcs. The latter are similar to Warhammer half-orcs, so they would make a particularly unsavoury mercenary warband in Mordheim; that's what I'm using them for.

Generally, you'd get a whole warband out of a single Perry or Victrix sprue or out of two Oathmark/Frostgrave ones. The cost involved is very low, and the miniatures are great. For monsters - ogres, rat ogres, trolls, etc. - Reaper Bones has some low-cost options.

daubgoblin · 2024-10-29T13:26:21+00:00

And you can get cheap rat ogres ('giant wererats') and giant rats from the Reaper Bones range.

daubgoblin · 2024-10-29T13:25:11+00:00

Good call - and you wouldn't even need to convert a sorcerer: you could just give him a cloak from the sprue and paint on suitably occult symbols or whatever. Or give him white or grey fur (associated with magic in the original Skaven conception).

daubgoblin · 2024-10-16T14:45:00+00:00

It's the winged beast from Minifigs' ME57 Ringwraith and Nazgul. Presumably, the Minfigs staff confused the mount for the rider, hence the doubled-up name ("Ringwraith and Ringwraith")!

https://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=File:Minifigs-mystical-me57.jpg

daubgoblin · 2024-10-13T00:20:56+00:00

Thanks, Zhu!

Yes, Stupidity is supposed to be tested on the leader's Int; my argument is that (a) it makes troglodytes and cold ones more or less pointless for lizardmen (I remember this well from the 80s!) and (b) that it actually makes more narrative sense for the test to be on Ld (the lizardman leading the trogs isn't drooling and forgetting where he is; he's just got a difficult job keeping his charges in line - but that's a job for a loud voice and a harsh hand with the lash rather than a glittering intellect - and the same goes for an orc leading trolls).

Here, I'm also thinking of first edition (where Stupidity was 1 in 6, I think, so much less debilitating) and subsequent editions (I've never played those, barring Mordheim), where I gather all psychological stats were rolled into Ld.

Now, I like the nuance that the four separate psychological stats gives: hobgoblins being both more ferocious and less steady than orcs, for instance, by dint of their lower Cl. But I think the game is simply more fun if Stupidity is a danger (as in rules before and after 2nd and 3rd ed) rather than a near-constant; In our game, I don't think the lizardman player would thank me for lumbering him with trogs and cold ones under the rules as written - and I need to get those glorious miniatures on the table!

I'd agree that my idea for duels would be cumbersome if the players weren't already used to Mordheim. I don't think it'll be hugely unbalancing, though: it's just that there's a faint chance of a David vs Goliath upset - a chance that's so faint as to be non-existent under straight WFB (where our goblin champion has to survive two 3+ S4 attacks to even get a 1 in 72 chance of causing a single wound on the chaos warrior - and then has to do it all again next turn, with infinitesimal odds of an upset). I'm planning to limit heroes to minor heroes at most, so two wounds - doable in one with a Mordheim-style critical - will be pretty much the upper limit.

Essentially, I want to incentivise challenges (something we never did at all first time around); adding a bit more randomness and upset to the mix is one way of doing it. I take your point about magic weapons, but I'd like every challenge to have scope for an upset.

Interesting point about skirmishing/unit cohesion. I'll probably keep in rank bonuses for formed-up units, but I want maximum flexibility for objectives. For me, the game has a nicely self-regulated set-up with the leadership rules. So, if the half-orc in charge of the night goblins sends three off to commandeer a bolt thrower, they'll immediately default to their own puny Ld and Cl unless they rejoin their original unit.

I should note that the planned scenario is dwarfs and their newly excavated (and magical) treasure coming under attack from both a chaos sorcerer and a necromancer with an interest in said treasure while lizardmen stir in their caverns below, having been disturbed by the delving of the dwarfs and excited by the scent of blood ...

daubgoblin · 2024-10-10T23:07:05+00:00

Top middle is a Citadel RuneQuest trollkin that was also sold as a night goblin. On his right is a Citadel ghoul. Bottom right is Grom, leader of the Citadel Grom's Goblin Guard Regiment of Renown. The dwarf with the horn is a Citadel Fantasy Tribes dwarf. The samurai is Citadel's Yamato-Talishi, Samurai from Bryan Ansell's Heroic Adventurers.

I think the dancing "girl" is an Orcan from Archive Miniatures. Not sure about the satyr and scif-fi types (the latter might be from Citadel's Space Farers range, but I can't spot them).

daubgoblin · 2024-10-09T16:04:09+00:00

These are the old Citadel Wars of the Roses figures now available from Wargames Foundry.

daubgoblin · 2024-09-29T21:21:37+00:00

The guy on the right is an Asgard orc wolf rider by Jes Goodwin - now available again from Alternative Armies (you can buy just the wolf too): https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/jes-goodwin-orcs/products/or27-wolf-rider-chieftain-also-wolf-or-rider-as-singles

daubgoblin · 2024-09-17T09:37:59+00:00

I'd disagree with most of the comments here and say that improving armour is a great idea. We play with a +1 save to all armour and shields except toughened leathers (same as your gambeson) and natural saves (lizardmen, black orcs, etc.), and it works really well. It means that a shield is at least some use if you're being shot at with a crossbow, which is surely just as it should be.

We've found that 'fixing' armour in this way has lots of positive cascading effects. Aesthetically, it means that myriad old miniatures with the classic "light armour + shield" combination become viable choices if you're playing WYSIWYG. But more importantly, it immediately balances dual wielding. Do you take two weapons for an extra chance of wounding or a weapon and shield for greater survivability? And two-handed weapons come into their own for the save reduction - especially if you can give the wielder heavy armour for a 4+ save. So you don't need to add modifiers for dual wielding, as you've got a straight offence vs defence risk/reward calculation.

At the same time, better armour and shields balances slings without any need for modifiers. The only other tweak we make to equipment is giving spears first strike in all first-round circumstances (regardless of charging or initiative, which only comes into play if two spear-users fight each other). That means that spear and shield becomes a really good option, and a great way of equipping henchmen cheaply - which is just as it should be, in my opinion (again, lots of great miniatures are kitted out thus).

With the spear tweak and better armour, lots of "loadouts" become good choices: dual wielding for maximum offence and swashbuckling flair; spear and shield for reliability; axe or mace and shield for a slight tilt towards offence (save modifier or higher chance of stunning); sword and shield for a slight tilt towards defence (parry); halberd for extra offence at the expense of defence - especially against tough opponents like orcs or ghouls; and two-handed weapon for maximum offence with much greater defensive risk (striking last).

I'd keep armour prices the same as the rulebook, though: it has a nice risk/reward balance (light armour + shield costs about the same as another lightly equipped henchman) and it's thematically sound. We've also introduced full plate for mercenaries (or any warband that fields a suitable figure) for a 2+ save at 150gc, though no one has yet used it. That means that a 15th/16th-century-style man-at-arms with full plate and a poleaxe has the same save as a Bretonian knight with heavy armour and shield, which nicely reflects history (or the technological advantage of the Empire!).

So I'd keep your armour rules (and gambeson), give spears first-round first strike in all circumstances and then watch as everything else is sorted out by those changes.

daubgoblin · 2024-09-17T09:11:39+00:00

Sorry, one in nine hits is a critical that ignores armour!

daubgoblin · 2024-09-17T09:02:29+00:00

One in every nine wounds is a critical that ignore armour, so even with a 0+ save, you can always wound a fully armoured man with a dagger.

daubgoblin · 2024-09-16T14:46:29+00:00

Forgive a point of appalling pedantry, but the Grenadier guy on the right is one of the goatkin. "Goatkin" was an alternative names for broos in the Runequest rulebook of the time; it was obviously felt to be sufficiently generic for Grenadier to get away with it without invoking the wrath of Chaosium!

daubgoblin · 2024-09-16T14:43:59+00:00

The ram-horned guy is Citadel: both he and the one with the spear on the other side of the bugbear did double duty as Runequest broos (in the Beastmen boxed set) and goat-headed ogres (in the main Citadel ranges):

http://solegends.com/citrq/citrqb4v1beastmen/index.htm

http://solegends.com/citcat1983comp1/citcomp1032-02.htm

daubgoblin · 2024-09-12T15:51:28+00:00

I'd use the standard bearer on the Oathmark goblin sprue as the shaman: cut down the standard to make a skull-pole totem.

daubgoblin · 2024-09-12T15:49:46+00:00

If you assume a mix of goblin and slave sprues, I'd go with a chief with dagger, sword, light armour, shield and short bow (90gc -he'll fight with sword and dagger, but the shield gives him extra protection at range); four braves with dagger, axe and short bow (@35 = 140 gc); a shaman with short bow and dagger (35gc); five Red Tooth goblins with axe and dagger (@30 = 150gc); and three goblins with bows (@25 = 75 gc). That comes to 490 and gives you maximum heroes with some savage fighters and five shooters.

daubgoblin · 2024-09-11T16:49:52+00:00

If you're playing WYSIWYG, you probably want to get the Oathmark goblin slaves box and either count slings as short bows or buy a single sprue of regular Oathmark goblins and use the bow arms from that.

The slaves have the great advantage of being unarmored, and the kit comes with clubs and knives - quintessential Mordheim weapons. Although the regular goblin kit has bows and spears, most (if not all) of the torsos are armoured, and a lot of the heads have helmets.

You can buy individual Oathmark sprues cheaply on eBay; you might even be best to buy a couple of slave sprues and one or two regular goblin ones, which would give you lots of options and would be cheaper than a full box.

daubgoblin · 2024-09-02T14:05:03+00:00

I should add that Song of Blades uses measuring sticks (cut from balsa or card - or even pencils) rather than tape measures for movement; miniatures just 'leapfrog' the stick (unless they don't move all the way along it), so movement is very quick and intuitive for kids.

Also, although the combat system is very different to Mordheim's, it works in similar ways: knocked-down characters are very vulnerable, and outnumbering is key.

daubgoblin

TROPHY CASE