Happy Christmas/Saturnalia/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah/Solstice/Yule/Festivus

 Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying this most festive of days, in whatever way brings you the most seasonal joyfulness! In celebration of the season, I'd like to present the Red Gobbo, the special edition Christmas miniature from 2019. I decided to paint this jolly fellow at the last minute (last weekend, in fact) and rummaged in my boxes of miniatures to try and find it. I'd actually started assembling and priming it back when it first came out* and, after much rummaging, I managed to find all of it, except for the head. I put out an appeal for one on Facebook and (although I had a couple of leads) I knew there was no way I would get one in time to paint him for a Christmas blog post.

Then, a Christmas miracle!

Whilst rummaging through an entirely different box a couple of days later, looking for something else altogether, I found the head!** Huzzah! Unfortunately this meant I had very limited time remaining to get him painted, especially factoring in commission work, care home shifts and a streaming winter cold. Undaunted, I went for it...

And here he is, all finished! I will admit he's a bit rough and ready, but my primary concern was to get him finished, rather than to go for anything of a Golden Demon standard. And he doesn't look too bad, all things considered. I probably spent half as long on him as I would have normally done, so I'm happy with the result. (Also, quick question: what do you think of using the sepia background?*** Better than pure white?)

And, while we're showing off Red Gobbos, I can take the opportunity to show off this old relic, painted over 25 years ago. When Warhammer Community showed the 2021 Christmas miniature (another Red Gobbo model which is in my pile of shame...) they showed this fine fellow, the original Red gobbo, which I painted when it was originally released for Gorkamorka. It's one of my all-time favourite sculpts (a Brian Nelson classic) and also one of my favourite of my own paint jobs, so I was dead chuffed to see it feature so prominently in the WarCom article. 

So, that's it from me for 2022. My next post will be in the new year. I hope you all enjoy the rest of the festive season and that santa has brought you plenty of new toy soldiers to paint and play with. With any luck, by the time you are reading this, I'll have finished my Christmas Day shift in the care home and I'll be settling in to a well-deserved wee drinkie with The Better Half.

Thanks for reading, and HAPPY WHATEVERYOUCELEBRATE!!!

-Stu

p.s. if you like what I'm doing here, a click on the link below and the donation of the price of a pot of paint would be a wonderful gesture. I'm thinking of adding special stuff to the Ko-fi, like competitions and prize draws, so it'd be a good idea to at least have a look there now and then 😁 

*Meaning that this miniature has gone from assembly to paint in just three years! Something of a record in personal projects of mine...

**Mind you, it meant I completely forgot the other thing I was looking for. I still don't know what it was...

***I got it from here.