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Saturday 7 September 2024

Pump My Ride...

So on with the Snotlings! This week it's the more mobile and deranged wing of the "army" - the Pump Wagons!


Somehow I've managed to collect enough bits over the years to build three pump wagons, with enough left over to add another deck to one of them. I was almost tempted to combine the three to make a Snotling juggernaut but managed to restrain myself!


These wagons fill the role of the various Space Ork vehicles that could be rolled up on the army table in the orginal Glazer's Creek scenario - and let's face it, you can't have Snotlings wihout Pump Wagons!

For those who are may be unfamiliar with this igenious Snotling invention, it works basically like one of those old railway carts that are moved by two men pumping the drive mechanism. The spiked roller on the front is also driven by the Snotlings' exertions on the pump and it spins whever the wheels are moving, creating, in the words of the rulebook, "a formidable battle-mower"!

I also happened to have a spare mortar from the old Goblin Leadbelcher kit so it obviously had to get stuck on the roof to make the double-decker a bit more of a centre-piece. Happily I also had various Snorklings (Foundry's version of Snotlings, and also sculpted by Kev Adams), who made pretty good crew for the gun, including a bombardier of sorts, busy consulting his instruction book on how to fire the thing! I was hoping to paint the book's cover upside down to show he had it the wrong way up but sadly ran out of time for that.


The other two wagons were more regular affairs, if such a term could be used in connection with Snotlings or Pump Wagons. I may stick more snotlings on them at a later date to make them look even more chaotic. Ironically it looks like buying them from Games Workshop is going to work out cheaper than trawling ebay - a very novel experience! 


Four bases of re-released Snotlings (28 Snotlings in all, which actually is a reduction fom the original 9 Snotlings you used to get per base back in the day!) cost £31.50 from GW at the moment and should give me enough that I can convert in to riders for the Foundry foxes I mentioned in my last post - with hopefully enough to spare to add a few more to my Pump wagon crews.

I didn't quite have enough of the original Citadel crew members for the pumps but luckily there was the odd Snorkling who could step in to that role and another little Citadel chap (I presume but I'm not sure if he's a Goblin or ftom the 40K range?) who looks very confused and upset. I slightly converted him so he's holding part of the handle that's snapped off in his hand to give him a reason to look confused/upset! I'm not sure about his attire though - not sure if it shows in the photo below, but he's locked in to a little set of plare armour with a padlock - very odd!


The roof top crew are great fun - loads of diminutive hooligans hurling posionous fungal puff balls, firing Dennis the Menace style catapults, flicking the V's and displaying all sorts of other boisterous behavious.


They didn't achieve much on the battlefield in the game I played at BOYL - other than attracting a lot of missile fire, which in itself is not always a bad thing for the rank and file who're left alone. However, that's kind of what these contraptions are for - loads of randomly determined hilarity. Sometimes they can be terribly destructive and other times just a good laugh, which for me has always been the appeal for playing Goblinoid armies.

Next week I think I'll feature the other big hitters in the army, which might give me time enough to get finished the few Snotlings I didn't have time to paint before BOYL...

16 comments:

  1. Beautiful! I love these so much!

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    1. Cheers Mouse - they were a lot of fun, if a little fiddly, to do!

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  2. The Snotling wagon is easily one of my favourites of all times. I read all your post with a huge smile, I love how you made them all work, how crowded yet elegant (if that's the word!) they look. Truly amazing!!

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    1. Cheers Suber - glad I made you smile with these - they do have that effect! I get what you mean and hopefully I can maintain the "elegance" should I get round to crowding the decks a bit more!

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  3. A fantastic force for a fantastic army! lots of fun.
    Wonderfully painted as well.
    Maybe the three decker can be known as the Red Baron. 😁

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  4. Much like these diminutive little rotters, your publishing schedule is on a roll!

    They look grand, wonderfully chaotic. For my own armies I made up the gaps in snotling ranks using the mantic "orclings" that come on their orc warrior sprue (the only bit on the sprue that interested me lol)

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    1. Haha - I like it - yeah having loads painted and queued up for posting on here certainly helps things keep on rolling!
      Somehow I'v never seen those Orclings before - I may have to investigate...

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  5. Those look really cool. ramshackle and dangerous.
    nice job with them. 😁

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    1. Thanks Stew - best bit of an Orc and Goblin army is the Snotlings and their daft machines!

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