I finally settled for doing one row of chain links first, letting that set, then doing the interlinked ones, perpendicular to the first. This seemed to work best for me.
Still, the overall effect on the chains didn't really turn out well, they are too big, not refined enough… on the other hand I am happy I even got this result, so I will stick with it. Took me long enough already.
All the fellas got lolling tongues, shroom induced behaviour. I didn't want all the balls to look the same, after all goblins don't do industrial production lines. That is why I started out with differently sized balls. To two I added toothpick tips, by drilling holes in the balls and gluing the tips in.
Last step was to cover the balls in a thin layer green stuff and impress some kind of structure in them, trying to represent manufacturing marks. To two balls I added metal banding with green stuff for even further variety.
Fanatics done.