Having just left her job at Warhammer TV, Louise Sugden – an artist and mini painter with seven years experience in several Games Workshop creative teams – is enjoying her newfound freedom at the helm of her Patreon-funded YouTube channel Rogue Hobbies. That freedom includes the ability to produce new miniature goblins with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “incredibly flat, high-up butt cracks”.
“I’ve always drawn goblins”, Sugden says, “now we’re starting to produce them into a miniature range”. Backers who support the Rogue Hobbies Patreon at a sufficiently high tier will receive STLs of Sugden’s goblins, as well as original music. “I’ve tried to make them in a really accessible style and size, so that the eyes are really easy to paint”, she adds.
“My friend Tom Wallis does the sculpting”, Sugden says, “I do the illustrations and then he basically makes it up from there, which means he has to sculpt the back, which means he has to design all the butts of my miniatures”. Which is where Lennon’s butt comes in. “If you ever want to Google John Lennon’s butt or Yoko Ono’s [butt], that was kind of the inspiration for this guy”.
This isn’t the only disturbing miniature butt to feature in our conversation. When asked what her favourite ‘little guy’ is, Sugden says: “I think it has to be the Sassy Nurgling. He’s everything, he’s inspirational, right? Because he’s just a little guy. He’s put on that helmet. He’s walked up to the top of the hill and he’s like: I’m a little guy, but I’m the boss… Sassy Nurgling represents that ability that we all have to put on that little helmet, get our butt cheeks out, and walk to the top of that hill”.
While her former painting presenter role on Warhammer TV was quite tightly focused on making tutorials for models Games Workshop could sell, Sugden says her new role will let her go deep into her obsessions. That includes the plethora of DnD miniatures available for 3D printers: “ I already have a little collection of mushroom men from like eight different companies and I’m planning on doing a video” – and retro Warhammer.
Sugden reveals that her planned Golden Daemon entry for next year is a first edition Warhammer beastman, “the world’s worst Warhammer miniature… Ostrichman, all the worst part of a man and an ostrich together at last”.
Sugden has a distinctively vibrant style of painting miniatures. She attributes this, in part, to being taught painting by someone “who learned from the old army books, so it was a lot of recess shading and very bold highlighting” – another connection to the retro glory days when models were painted in primary colours with thousands of layers of glazing. She adds: “I think there’s something wrong with my eyes that I see everything a bit more desaturated”.
This is the first snippet from Wargamer’s interview with Sugden. Check back soon for more information about her experiences at Games Workshop and her plans for the Rogue Hobbies YouTube and Patreon now she’s left the firm. If you’re a fan of goblins in search of a fix, check out our guide to the Gloomspite Gitz, the Age of Sigmar army Sugden is most associated with.