• Welcome to the Golden Gobbo painting competition. If you'd like to read some of the ancient history you can on the Realm of Chaos 80s blog.

    This competition is held some years and you'll find threads here describing how to enter and when the competition is running (typically after BOYL each year).

    Other than the fame and wonderment of your peers there is often a prize kindly donated and you'll have the wonder of being awarded badges for your profile here.

    2026 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2013, 2012

GG 2026 Kallstrom and the gilded greenskin's colorful competition

This thread is part of the Golden Goblin painting competition 2026. Please see the entry thread for full details.

Kallstrom

Baron
Greetings!

The beacons are lit, and a goblin calls for aid. A competition - the Golden Gobbo painting compeition 2026 - is to be held, and on the 20th day of december all those that answered the call and lifted a brush in defiance will be judged by their peers.

However, everyone that joins the competition and manage to display something before the allocated time is over is a winner in my book, so the judging part is to me mainly a ceremony to highlight and celebrate all those that holds their miniature aloft for others to awe. Nevertheless in the spirit of competition my wish is that everyone that joins in can have some fun with their painting and feel satisfied with their accomplishment. Congratulation to whomever wins!

The purpose of this thread is to document my hobby journey with my chosen miniature. I will record the process of selecting what miniature to paint, the assembly, any light research that I do that guides my process, and hopefully before the end of the competition I will have some sweet pictures of my chosen miniature painted up in all its glory.

I have recently purchased two miniatures, each depicting a single dwarf mounted on a beast, and any of those two would make a cool entry. While I was contemplating which one to pick I stumbled upon a third possibility (also of a mounted dwarf though - what are the odds of that?). I knew I had to get that third option right away since it is sort of the Moby Dick to my collection, the white whale always slightly out of reach of my grasp. Fingers crossed that it now will find its way into my claws now that I have bought it, but while I await the arrival of my newly purchased miniature I will give each of the three possible options some thought regarding which one I want to enter into the competition.

Without further ado, lets welcome our three possible choices for a little introduction!

Option 1 - dwarf riding bear:​
He calls himself Varan the Bear. Angry, smelly, and angry again. It is unclear if Varan the Bear refers to the name of the bear or the dwarf, but any further attempts to clarify this conundrum has been met with loud roars from both the mount and its rider, so it will remain a mystery. He will be mounted on a 50x75mm base. When told that most dwarf armies have no place for such a monstrous cavalry he snorts and rides right off, so it is still unclear whether he has understood his place within the rules. But when any fighting is bound to take place he will shove his way to the front and let the thought of fitting unit entries be damned! What kind of bear will it be? Will the dwarf slide off to the left? Who really is Varan? Lets find out if I pick this option!
option1.png

Option 2 - dwarf riding dragon:​
Only known as Drowgrim Hero on War Dragon he has been stranded from taking off into the skies until his trusty drake has managed to better hold itself together. It is a big ask and a mighty task since even when put together this lizard will find it difficult to make an effortless stance on that 50x100mm base! Dwarfs are more known to slay dragons than to tame them, but this mad lad has somehow managed to squeeze himself on top of that dreadful thing. What color would suit the dragon? Will the dwarf require a nice shield? Will the miniature ever fit on that base? Who knows? We will! If I choose option number 2.
option2.png

Option 3 - dwarf riding shield:​
Pinch my arm and call me Ishmael, but is that not the elusive Moby Dick over yonder? At last, I have caught my white whale. Well, technically I have found it drifting in the sea and harpooned it with my wallet. Since I do not have the physical miniature in my hands just yet this rendition that still manage to capture its marvelous beauty (as seen with my eyes) is all that I can offer right now so that will have to do for now. If it down the line is proven that I have been scammed, and this Moby Dick turned out to be a mirage, I will require crispy and comforting hand shakes from you all to regain my composure. This miniature will go on a 50x50mm base, I think.
mobydick.png

More posts will come, and feel free to try and sway me in any direction regarding the options! Once I have chosen what to paint, I will then have to figure out how to build it (and possibly do some conversions/sculpting), how to paint it (like for example; a fitting bear can be brown, black, or white - but a dragon could be any and all colors!), and then finally I have to figure out how to make a suitable base that fits the miniature in question.

Cheers!
/Kallstrom
 
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his trusty drake
Am I the only one who still associates the word drake with male ducks? Mallards are very colourful.
Dwarfs are more known to slay dragons than to tame them, but this mad lad has somehow managed to squeeze himself on top of that dreadful thing.
Perhaps he does intend to slay it. But later.

All these ideas have merit. The dwarf toppling from the angry bear adds a lot of character. I am struggling to picture the third option.
 
I can only wish that the days contained more hours (or that I had more arms) so I could paint them all for this competition!

The Dwarf Wars range is slightly larger sculpts. They feel more like 32mm-sized dwarf models. I'll attach a picture that has a model from that range in it next to some other dwarfs. He is the big lad in the middle with a ginger beard, and you can see how he dwarfs the rest of the dwarfs that all come from various other ranges.
Hopefully my picture shows the scale comparison a little bit, at least!

I did not know that the word drake was used for male ducks. How interesting! Drake feels familiar to me as a word for dragon as it is the actual spelling of the Swedish word for dragon.

The third option will arrive just like his very namesake actually - ergo completely out of nowhere and right on time when we need him the most! He will be accompanied by two lovely lads that carries a heavy weight on their shoulders. Literally.

I just got a notification that the mysterious entry number 3 has packaged itself up and started its journey through the swedish mail system. That is a very perilous path akin to the great Underway of the Old World, filled with all kinds of dangers. Many a packages has ended up in the hands of the foul things that lurk in that murky and dark depth. I can only hope that this trio of dwarfs will hack and slash their way home to me and overcome the odds!

I have been thinking about creating interesting bases, and I have a hard time coming up with ideas. They need to be suited to the theme and look of my other painted dwarfs (so a frosty theme with snow and ice covering the ground), but I also wish for it to stand out a bit more but without going overboard. Any ideas that can work well for either the bear, the drake, or the mysterious third entry?
 

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I don't think he looks too outsized, and the bagpiper next to him (which I think is also one of the west wind models?) fits really quite nicely too. I quite like a bit of height variation in a unit - not all humans are the same size, so why should dwarfs etc be all the same?

I don't suppose you've got any of the mounted dwarf trooper command by any chance? I'm tempted by getting their dragon and swapping the evil dwarf for a "good" one.
 
I have been thinking about creating interesting bases, and I have a hard time coming up with ideas. They need to be suited to the theme and look of my other painted dwarfs (so a frosty theme with snow and ice covering the ground), but I also wish for it to stand out a bit more but without going overboard. Any ideas that can work well for either the bear, the drake, or the mysterious third entry?
I love your snow and ice bases, I think they look like the army is fighting on a frozen lake.

If you wanted a bit more of a dramatic base but keeping the same theme, my thought would be to go with rocks and snow, like maybe some of the grey ballast type rocks for scree around bigger stones? Possibly with a small dead/leafless tree with snow on it, if the basing allows space?
 
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