Newest Heroes and a Goblin!

The latest batch of figures I finished is a new goblin construction, and some further attempts to use paper in more creative ways.  Also, I am happy to say, I have finally hit upon a construction for female figures that I like.

So, here is a Goblin Town goblin from the Hobbit (which is a slightly different construction than my Moria goblins), with three figures all from the artwork of my favorite version of D&D, Moldvay's Basic game from 1980 (or maybe it's 1981, I can never remember).  The female magic-user in red is from the cover art, the female fighter in green is based on a female elf character from the first page of the book, as is the human male archer (also from that first page). 

I'll start with the goblin.  He is constructed slightly differently than the Moria ones I just finished, plus I put a paper loin cloth on him rather than painting his clothing on him.  His head and arms and feet are the same more or less as the Moria goblins, but his body is a bead tapered at each end, with his shoulders made from the same type of bead but split in half lengthways.  You can see it a little better in the pictures below.

He ends up being about the same height as the other goblins, but he's not as "stout" and given that he is supposed to be unarmored, this is a better construction for these types of goblins.  I'm not thrilled with the paint job, but this was really just a test figure to see if the new construction could work, and I think for future figures, including non-goblins, it might work out pretty well.

I am pretty pleased with these new PC figures.  I have never liked the way I have done female figures in the past because a) the general "form" of the milk bottle is ... let's just say ... narrow in places where it should be wide, and wide in places where it should be narrow, and b) with the volumes of hair that these fantasy figures often have, just painting the hair flat onto the figure just doesn't work that well.  So I decided to use a different collection of wooden pieces to create the body, and to see if I could create hair for female figures using paper.  I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

Both female figures are made with a shaker peg with the peg part cut off the bottom.  This creates the body from the ankles to the neck.  Then I glued a small round bead on top of the rounded part of the shaker peg, creating the head.  The feet are just tile spacers like I have done for all the human figures I've been doing of late, as are the arms.  The hair is just strips of paper cut to shape and glued onto the head.  I like the shape of these figures for female figures much better than the milk bottle construction.  As you can see, I didn't put either of these figures in a "chainmail bikini," but I do think that the shaker peg gives a better basic female form than does the milk bottle construction.  It is pretty obvious I think in looking at them that they are females, and at the same time the figures are not too small compared to the milk bottle construction.

I'm a bit more pleased with the fighter in the green than the magic-user in red (I made her right arm a little too long, but oh well), but they all came out pretty good I think, and I am very pleased with the basic construction, paper hair, and paper cloaks and coats.  The magic ball is nothing more than a very small wooden ball glued to the tile spacer arm and painted white first, then I used florescent green paint to match what is on the cover of Moldvay's Basic D&D book as best as I could.

For those of you who are interested, here are the drawings from which these figures were inspired.

And now, for the all-important action shot!