A Few More Mythical Earthers

 

Goblin with Spear, Shield and Bow

I added a unit of Goblins to my growing Mythical Earth (ME) army - Miniature Figurines 'not' Middle Earth range from the early 70s. These are the ME56 figure, Goblin with Spear, Shield and Bow. When I collected these as a nipper these were cheerfully dubbed the 'GSSBs'.

I stuck to the same colour palette that I used for the Man Orcs: iron for the metal-work and dark red for shields and straps. As I always do I primed in white, painted the base flesh colour, and then ended up almost repainting the rest of the model black to carry the armour and fill-in behind the shield and arms. Although a little lining with a brush will be done at the end, I mostly rely on the black undercoat for this, cutting in the surrounding colour to leave a neat divide.

ME56 is a funny little figure and you have to wonder whether it originates from the same hand as the rest of the range. The sculpting style is very unusual for Minifigs. The pose is also quite poor from the point of view of moulding and casting - although that is hardly a unique thing with these early Minifigs. The spear is crudely done, a very thick piece of wire which has been flattened and cut into a point without any attempt at shaping the spear-point. 

The armour is modelled to represent either mail or scale, and it's quite hard to tell which. Again, this is not the Minifigs way, which is to engrave the mail as is the case on the Man Orcs and other models in the range as well as all the contemporary ancient and medieval ranges. 

I've been picking these up from ebay and friends have contributed a few too, so it's hardly surprising that there is some variation in the models I have. Although the spear butts are all grounded at the back of the base, some extend over the lip of the base itself, making a longer spear held at a necessarily different angle. Some of my figures have the spear butts clipped - as is the case with this example - which was obviously done by the original owner to neaten them up. 

I have enough usable models to paint up another unit the same size, and a smaller batch of figures that are probably too poorly case to make the effort worthwhile. I think the inferior castings are genuine Minifigs, but I guess it's possible these could be contemporary re-casts - it certainly wouldn't be all that unusual were that the case. The poorer castings have massive fill-in behind the arms and shield where the mould halves haven't properly closed. I can't bring myself to paint those. The good news is that ME 56 has been re-issued as part of the Miniature Figurines Classic Fantasy range. I've not seen the new castings but hopefully they'll be up to scratch. 

The GSSB was a popular model in the day, not least because it was a reasonably potent tabletop proposition with a combination of weapons that offered ranged and close-combat abilities otherwise unavailable to the servants of the Dark Lord. 

I've also painted up a couple of sample figures: the Dunland Spearman ME21 and True Orc with Sword and Shield ME45. 

ME 21 Dunland Spearman

Here we have the Dunland Spearman - a standard hairy barbarian type albeit with a man-bag slung at his waist. This is a very typical Minifigs spear pose - as seen on the PB Hoplite for example. I've painted this in the same colours as the unit of axemen I already have. 

ME 45 True Orc with
Sword and Shield

And here is the True Orc. Not sure I fancy his chances much with that flimsy looking shield and complete lack of armour. Same anatomy as the True Orc Archer I already have as part of the army, and altogether a pleasing little model in the Minifigs style. The trouble with this chap, and also with his stablemate ME24 True Orc Swordsman, is that the combination of weapons and protection was especially poor in terms of the contemporary rules that we all used - effectively condemning him into the realm of 'D class medium infantry'... and we all know what happened to them.