Five Freshly Painted Night Goblins

While making the magnetic movement tray for a unit of old Night Goblin archers that I thought was 55 strong, 5 rows of 11. I discovered that it was only 50 strong, well 49 including the hero. It was late at night and I had been cutting 20mm squares of magnetic material into the wee hours, so I decided rather than just borrow one goblin from another unit for the game I was planning to play on Sunday, I’d dig out some new plastic Night Goblin archers I got off eBay and paint them up.

I’m a slow painter, so painting five models, even rank and file Night Goblins in basically one day, which was the task ahead of me, was going to take effort. I would not be able to go at a leisurely pace, nor would I have lots of time for layered washes or trying out new stuff. I began cleaning the models and though I learned later I didn’t do a perfect job, I had them cleaned and on magnetic bases by 1:38 AM.

Despite staying up late the night before I couldn’t sleep and got out of bed at quarter to six. No I didn’t start painting then, but I did update this blog and probably give them there first coat of Chaos Black Spray primer. I had to take care of my daily job search as well as buy groceries, so about 10 AM I had to get serious about painting these models.

I did two blasts of GW Black spray paint, which unlike all my recent Plaguebearers covered pretty well. I did need to put on some more black here and there. After I had a good black it was time to highlight it. I used my top secret black highlighting recipe of Foundry Black Triad number 34. After quickly putting on B & C from the triad I did a wash of Badab Black. Then I did a slight re-highlight of 34C.

That’s it. Bam! On to the purple.

For the purple I used my new dark purple recipe which consists of Liche Purple highlighted with the entire Foundry Royal Purple Triad, number 19 for the numerically superior. That was it, even the flames were free-handed in one go. No washes in this purple recipe. I did take my second break during this phase.

The next phase was the most stressful, painting a face inside the hoods which I’d already highlighted. This was a bit unnerving, but I never had to redo any purple or black highlights. The only time I touched up one dot of purple, was doing one eyeball later on.

I didn’t use the exact green recipe I used on the others. I probably went further than I needed to, but Goblins have characterful faces and getting the green to pop is the key to painting them. I used Vallejo Sick Green, Game Colour 29 as my base. Then I used a less than great pot of GW Goblin Green. Things were looking OK, but I decided to paint GW Thraka Green wash into the darker recesses of the face and pretty much all over the hands and forearms.

I then had to build back up my highlights so I used Vallejo Game Colour Goblin Green. This is only slightly lighter than GW’s Goblin Green if any different at all. Although this was sound blending and colour progression, it wasn’t a big difference maker and was probably a poor choice given my goal of speed. Then I got serious about highlighting the skin, I used a medium aged octagon pot of GW’s Striking Scorpion Green. Finally highlights were with a round pot, that is starting to really show it’s age of, Bilious Green. That pot was one of the first ten or if not ten, twenty I ever bought. It came in I think the Monster Paint Set.

I think I took a break during the greens, I know I took a WIP photo. The model was basically done, the big three of tunic, trim, and flesh were finished. So I decided to ‘stick it to the man’ and not highlight the brown. I quickly put brown over the leather straps, quiver, and arrows and practically ran down the hall to photograph them thinking I was done and it was time for dinner.

I think it was about 5pm. As I was uploading the photos to my computer from my iPhone I remember, “Oi I didn’t paint the eyes!”. Turns out I didn’t paint the mouths either. These are important elements especially for Night Goblins.

This can be a tricky phase as you can ruin or at least damage careful highlights. I dotted the eyes white, then Sunburst Yellow, another epically old pot, but not as old as the one beside it which will remain nameless (Badmoon Yellow from the Ork VS Eldar paint set). That was it for the eyes.

The mouths I did a bit differently than usual. I got out the paint colour I’m making famous, Reaper Master Series Clotted Red and painted the entire interior of the mouth with it. I then got out Vallejo Beige and made sure it was subtle and painted the teeth. The teeth on these models are like a carved pumpkin they go back as little triangles way into the back of the mouth. This is not the norm for GW teeth and I wonder why it was done this way, probably something to do with lasers.

Anyway I think I took a WIP photo and despite being tired and hungry I did one more trick on the mouths. I took a drop of water and some plasma red ink, mixed up a thin wash and filled the mouths with it. I then leaned the models on their backs so it could colour the teeth and dry. You have to wash that your wash doesn’t overflow. If it does, quickly soak it up with a brush.

After laying on the couch listening to some blues, it was time to re-highlight the teeth. It was necessary to touch up a lip here and there during the whole mouth painting process. Highlights were done with Vallejo Beige and boring old Skull White.

Then I took a nap. That’s right no dinner for me I was beat.

Much later I dragged my ass out of bed, photographed the models as best I could, typed up this here blog entry/tutorial and then gave the models a coal of Purity Seal.

Tomorrow I will base 54 Night Goblins and their magnetic movement tray, or die in the attempt. Well maybe things aren’t that dire, it is just a game. Damn mandatory mercenaries week in the Mighty Empires Campaign.