Gremlins

Well, snotlings technically but I’m not running Warhammer.

41 snotlings and one werewolf

So that’s what I painted this weekend. I had started them all some time ago, and had the base coats on them. This weekend was just all the detailing (clothes, eyes, teeth, weapons, mushrooms, etc.). I also decided to make all the double snotlings use two different colors, so I had more to do on them. They are about 15mm tall, though many stoop, and mostly based on pennies. A few are on plastic 1″ bases.

For my Telengard campaigns, I added ‘gremlins’ to the monster list. Basically ripped off the Ultima games, except that I also decided that they will be ‘color coded’ so that, say, Green gremlins steal food, water, and potions; Red gremlins steal torches and flint and oil; Yellow gremlins steal random equipment from your inventory; Blue gremlins steal anything magical. The Blue gremlins appear innocuous though. They sing happy songs quietly, speak a babyish dialect of Common with a weird shibboleth (snarf) that stands in for almost anything, and imitate the adventurers, and ask for food or water. Let them get too close, or catch you sleeping, and they will grab anything not nailed down. They all also enjoy netting and clubbing unconscious any demi-humans they find. They tend to fear humans.

I love the Citadel snotling minis. I think these are among the first designs for snotlings that were available in the USA, or at least the first I saw at a time when I was pretty into Citadel minis and frequently going to hobby shops like the King’s Crown in eastern Kansas (about 1985 or 1986). This one looks like he’s right out of Labyrinth:

The green gremlins:

Fairly militant — spears and a bow among them, as well as a net and whatever that mushroom does.

The Yellow:

Couple of dudes throwing puff balls (in Warhammer, snotlings use mushrooms and puff balls for poison). I’d have them make an area cloud, while in it you have to hold your breath or make saves. The clouds of spores disperse on a roll of 1 on a d6 (roll every round). Fail one save you’re stunned from coughing. Fail two you pass out (like sleep, but affecting any level). Fail three and you begin to die from fungal infection (1 hp per turn until cured or dead). Humanoids slain by spores become shroommen.

Red:

Lots of spores and nets.

Blue:

These are some of my favorites. The slingshot. The archer on his back to stretch a short bow with arms and legs. Two mini-fanatics, looking like tiny goblin fanatics. The witchdoctor, the sneak, the complacent mushroom farmer in suspenders.

Gremlins of different sorts can cooperate.

The ‘chickenfighters’ were both poorly cast and missing the bottom guy’s right foot and calf. I had to make new ones.

But there is some animosity among clans.

The left foot of one wrestler is missing from both of these models. Need to replace them some time, but sculpting feet for 15mm figures sounds pretty awful. Maybe I can dig up a donor among my 1/72 plastic ancients.

Bonus mini, a werewolf. The MegaMinis recast of a German figure (Metal Magic?). Looks somewhere between Nosferatu and the werewolves from a film from the 1980s.