My little group of gaming chums and I have planned a visit to Warhammer World. This is mainly motivated by nostalgia as for all three of the adults in our group WH40k/WFB was our route into the hobby. Most of us have been before some years ago but for one of our number this would be their first time.
We were keen to look at the displays and sample the offerings at Bugmans Bar but to really make the most of the day we wanted to actually play a game on one of their fancy tables. But what to play? I haven’t played a GW game for quite a long time and I don’t own any complete (or even half complete) GW armies. GW’s Middle Earth game was suggested as my Son is fan of the source material, one of my friends (and his son) have a large collection of official miniatures (goodies and baddies), and apparently the rules themselves are pretty decent.
I could have used some of my friend’s figures, but being proud I decided I wanted to paint my own, and being stingy I began scouring Facebook Marketplace for a bargain. I came across someone local selling the Goblin Town box set for £50, and while I knew my friend had Thorin’s company he did not have any goblins. That gave me 54 goblin warriors (pleasingly there were more figures than expected in the box – the benefit of acquiring the now discarded former treasures of a young hobbyist from a parent who understandably has little idea about what it is they are selling). I was then told by my friend, that despite being larger than any army I have painted in recent times, my nascent horde was still barely half the points value of Thorin and his men. So I found someone else selling some more assembled but unpainted goblins who was willing to post them to me and expanded my forces further. The guy actually had 144 to sell and I only bought 72 – although judging from her reaction when they arrived in the post I could not help but feel that my wife did not fully appreciate the impressive restraint demonstrated by my decision.
That gave me 7 units each of 18 goblins (plus the Goblin King himself and a few characters) and not much time to paint them in. The goblins live mainly underground and in the film and on the box art are a pale grey colour. This seemed reasonable but also a bit boring so I decided to start with grey and then see if I could make them more colourful in a way that involved as little precise (and therefore time-consuming) brushwork as possible.
I spent a little bit of time converting a few of the goblins to carry different weapons for variety, including one with a pike which could be used to fly the Goblin King’s Royal Standard.
I designed the flag with the aim of it being both colourful and goblin-y. I don’t think the goblins have a system of heraldry, or even an identifying insignia, but I know from the book that they do have songs, so I used lyrics as slogans on the banner.
I have worked on these little fellows in groups and the process has varied slightly from batch to batch, but generally I undercoated them a pale grey then added a wash of purple ink, then slapped on some diluted yellow paint in the shadows then some diluted pink contrast paint on the hands faces and the more obvious sores and swellings (these goblins are variously and gruesomely misshapen). Finally their skin was given a pale grey dry brush. Their ragged clothing and their weapons were painted with a dark brown contrast paint, which was then brush brushed a bone colour (in the case of the clothes) or washed with a diluted orange then dry brushed silver (in the case of the weapons).
For a final dash of colour I gave them all green hair. This is almost certainly non-canonical (apologies @Hobgoblin et al!) and looking at them now they do rather unfortunately remind me of the characters from the film “Trolls” which my children enjoyed a few years ago, but with the deadline approaching it is too late to change it now!
At the time of posting the battle is mere days away and still I need to finish the basing and weapons on the last 4 units as well as the highlights on the Goblin King. I will also pick out their eyes if I have time. I will post more photos once they are done and the battle has been fought...
"No slacking! Get back to work painting goblins!"
June 01, 2022, 08:49:09 AM
