Goblin city watch – first CG miniature from concept to the tabletop.

Chronica Goblinorum was originally ment to be a fantasy gaming setting.The gentelman you can see above, a proud member of the goblin city watch is kind of proof of concept/ technology of bringing it to the tabletop.

His concept was inspired by an ages old drawing depicting a group of goblin city watchmen, that was the first spark from which the whole idea for this setting was born. Unfortunately i have lost the original sketch (pencil on cardboard) due to many life changes and only years later reconstructeed the leader of this group in a way you can see in upper left corner. (this new sketch is in itself fairly old already 🙂 ).

His armaments were based on equipment of XV century infantry from the collection of Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw with shield based on XV century infantry pavise of the City of Wroclaw. His “fantasy” and “goblinoid” factors are both fairly low, so he would actually not stand out much a lot on a historical tabletop battlefield. (Extravagancy is a privilege of the nobles)

Anyway I found it only fitting so this particular guy was the first Chronica Goblinorum miniature to grace physical world.

The image above is an illustration of stages of the whole process, starting from general sketch, through 3d digital sculpt, test print and painted print.

The idea was to make miniatures that would be easy, fast and fun to paint and look good on the table, not necessarily posing a challenge for the painter should he/she not want it. This is why I tried to keep the detail, pronounced and upscaled. I must say that keeping it that way is not easy. When sculpting, it is very tempting to go into minute details ( I must get all the fabric folds by the belt right… oh wait, printed to scale it would be… lets count… 0,1mm???). Keeping the miniature simple yet still interesting is something I need to constantly remind myself, and something I’am still working on.

In the end i think I mostly managed that with this guy. Paintjob you se above is only most basic techniques i.e. zenithal + 2/3 layers of only vallejo inks. The exception of metal parts and obviously the shield, bearing the emblem of the reputable butchers guild, which was painted freehand.

Anyway I hope you like this little guy, as he is only first of many to come. At the moment I’am working on some of his coleagues, and when ready I intend to put them on wargamevault as 3D printable stl’s.

Welcome to Chronica Goblinorum or the tales from the Goblin Empire

On this Site you will find an outlet of my creative pursuits that are centered around the Chronicle of the Goblins or Chronica Goblinorum. A world that I conceptualized some time ago as a series of sketches and loose notes, being tired of grimdark and overblown fantasy elements, prevalent in most games and settings for many years. I wanted something lightharted, both serious and funny at times, but not to the point of caricature, with a little more classical or even old school fantasy feel.

Initially I planned to make it into a fantasy miniatures game, but with little time and resources to make it in one go, nagged by friends who liked the idea, I decided to publish it online, in parts, as a series of standalone stuff.

This site will be an archive of this excercise in worldbuilding, and a collection of sketches, drawings, 3d sculpts and loose notes in an attempt to create a coherent and interesting setting that, who knows, will maybe sometime in the future will result in something more substantial – a game, a book or something similar.

In the meantime I hope you will find it interesing, or amusing.

As a little teaser of what is to come let me invite you to my deviantart page with sketches that gave birth to the Goblin Empire. I hope You will like them, and I’m looking forward to hearing (reading?) from you.

A little copyright note at the end.

Everything I will post here is my own work unless stated otherwise. Please do not use it for commercial purposes, and do not copy, change or distribute without credit. Thanks for understanding.