Decades of exposure to Games Workshop’s marketing materials has conditioned me not to paint individual figures, but regiments, and then armies.  There was no stopping at just one Gnorman Gnoll.  Gnot on your gnelly.  eBay trawling has turned up two more preslotta gems from 1981–3.

Lord Tisserand with his hawk Antonius, accompanied by two Gnolls.

Lord Tisserand is a simple conversion of the Wargames Foundry ex-Citadel Normans with the arm from a Black Tree command figure holding a hawk swapped in to make him a regimental champion.  I also sculpted on a strap so he could carry a shield while waving around the Bird of Command – but that’s barely worth mentioning as this sentence took longer to type than the strap took to sculpt.

You can see the original figure as it appeared in White Dwarf 92, with the cliché French names variously inspired by Inspector Clouseau, Rémy Martin cognac, Marie Brizard liquer and maybe ‘Allo ‘Allo characters.

And just what is the French for “cliché”?

Why a hawk?  Hawks were a symbol of authority in Norman times.  The Bayeaux Tapestry initially shows Harold holding a hawk, and switches to showing William holding a hawk when his claim to England’s throne becomes legitimate.

I might push this idea of animals symbolising command into the realm of fantasy and model a Norman King on a giant hawk or griffon.  I am enjoying the blend of historical and fantasy in the same project.

Lord Tisserand and the Gnolls against Undead Wights.

All three Gnolls I have painted now are variants of the same figure.  In the above image the right-most Gnoll is the unadulterated miniature.  The one on the left I converted with an arm and sword from a 1980s Citadel Goblin.  The central Gnoll is the resculpted version that appeared in the later C13 range – who has the same body but a new weapon arm and head.  Challenge now is how to convert future Gnolls to provide enough variety for a complete Gnorman regiment.

In the lands of the north, where the black rocks stand guard against the cold sea, in the dark night that is very long, the men of the north lands sit by their great log fires and they tell a tale…

Exploring Citadel Miniatures’ pre-slotta ranges is a real journey of discovery and wonder for me. My knowledge of Games Workshop‘s miniature ranges starts with 1991’s Catalogue 1 – which only goes back as far as 1986 and not right to the beginning of Citadel history (1979) as the name suggests.  There’s a great many pre-1986 miniature ranges I have no awareness of, and so I’d never painted any pre-slotta stuff until I found out about this Gnoll.

Gnollin the Gnoll.

This is no ordinary Gnoll – his nasal helm, kite shield and hafted axe mean he’s Fantasy Tribes FTG14 Gnorman the Gnoll. I picked him while I was trawling the net for 1980s Citadel Normans to reinforce my army.  His giant nose and teeny legs do put me in mind of Noggin the Nog.

“Hello” said Noggin, cheerfully.  “Very pleased to meet you.”

Gnolls in the Warhammer World are described as having ruddy flesh, but I thought that when placed alongside regular Normans he’d work better with green skin to reinforce his inhumanity.  As I found out reading Goblin Lee’s blog on Gnolls, the Fantasy Tribes Gnolls were later rebranded as C12 Great Goblins, so I can claim the green flesh is goblin rather than botched Gnoll.

Gnollin with more Normans I’ve painted since Salute 2017.

I now have fifteen Norman Sergeants, which allows them to rank up pleasingly in a five-by-three regiment.  Though these models have been primarily used in Saga where round bases are king, I do like the 20mm square bases to make them into a neat and imposing regiment.

Lord Weuere happy to let Gnollin in his shieldwall.

Interestingly, Plastefuchs pointed out that Saga does actually have a fan-made supplement that introduces fantasy races to the game.

The Fantastic Saga rules are not done by any of the Saga regulars but a small group from tabletopwelt.de. Depending on what you envision your Gnolls to feel like, maybe the Kobaloi rules could fit well. You can find all of the new rules on http://www.a-fantastic-saga.com/. The sub-forum for AFS is quite active and the developers are there as well, helping out with rules questions.

I really enjoy slipping this little piece of fantasy into my historical force; I want to push that envelope further.  Watch this space!