Night Goblins – Musk's Miniatures

Warcry at the Sentry Box

Apparently in addition to yet being able to paint, I still remember how to play miniature wargames as I went undefeated in Warcry at the Sentry Box last weekend…

Apparently in addition to yet being able to paint, I still remember how to play miniature wargames as I went undefeated in Warcry at the Sentry Box last weekend. That was one of the last gaming events in Alberta for a while as we are being strongly encouraged to stay home now due to the Coronavirus. I’ve been working from home since then, no gym, not supposed to go out except if necessary. I did a little painting, but I need my desk for my work laptop. Apparently I am an expert at T-SQL and SSRS now, at least for a few more weeks.

Winning at Warcry

Bill of course will say it was all luck, but the truth is it was not getting distracted by shiny newly painted models and focussing on completing the mission. When playing as goblins you are usually at a disadvantage because your guys are smaller and weaker than than the enemy in almost every case. The traditional goblin equalizer is cheating using wacky warmachines. There are no warmachines in Warcry. So how do goblins or Gloomspite Gitz win?

Are spreadsheets the answer?

Self proclaimed Internet experts seem to build spreadsheets, then film YouTube videos where they distill their wisdom. But how many hits on average you do against toughness three or toughness four doesn’t seem that important to me having actually played Warcry against random opponents. What seems important to me is:

High Movement
Key Initiative Roles
Outnumbering Your Opponent

Lots of Attacks = More Criticals

I played against the Iron Golems and the good guys. They didn’t have a lot of toughness three or even four models. They had a lot of higher toughness models that I often could only wound on a five or a six. Warcry follows GW tradition in that a one always misses and a six always hits, but in Warcry a six is a critical. So rolling more attacks is good and of course doing extra damage on the six is better. Gloomspite Gitz can use a triple to “Stab em Good” they can also use a double to “backstab”. I see no reason they can’t do both if they activate two models carefully positioned.

Killing Isn’t Everything

Even with all those extra attacks you don’t actually need to kill anyone to win, this is where speed or maneuverability comes in. In both missions I played there were objectives, one game had six and one game had just one. In both cases I strategically chose to defend and use my superior numbers to grab objectives quickly. Even coming on late, Squighoppers which move ten whole inches, twenty if they double move are great. They also have more attacks than a Boingrot Bounder which as the biggest toughest model in your gang becomes a giant target, so don’t grab the treasure with him, use him as a decoy or feed him to some combat monster.

Sacrificial Goblins

I played Skaven mostly in Bloodbowl and was famous for my fall down defence. In the original Necromunda and my memories getting hazy but probably Mordheim too, your leader was more valuable than any other ganger and you had to worry about running away. In Warcry, games only last three turns in general and although valuable your leader is as expendable as is any other goblin. Obviously in a campaign your thinking will change as models gain skills but in a one off game, I sacrificed my more expensive models and my netter to try and slow up the bigger enemy models while I used lesser gobbos and my squig to grab the goods.

Ranged Attacks are Useful

Bill says there are Twists that make them less useful and I know two attacks at strength three doesn’t seem like much, but I’d much rather shoot at an Ogre with bows than have to fight him in H2H. The double volley of arrows is more effective and again you need those sixes but if I paint more models and revamp my Gloomspite Gitz Warcry gang I’d have more Squighoppers, more Shootas and more Netters. Netters are only 45 points and although two out of three times I missed the crucial netting roll after spending the double, the fact that a 45 point model can hold up a 200+ point model for a single turn is a valuable skill.

What about Nurgle?

I bought the Maggotkin of Nurgle card pack for Warcry and although Nurglings getting 30 wounds or something ridiculous sounds impressive if you scroll back above I think speed, winning key initiative rolls, and outnumbering your opponent are more valuable than having the biggest toughest model on the board. Luckily some Nurgle daemons fly, so I would definitely buy and paint some of those models. I could use them in 40K too, so I just might. But first I’ll paint more Nurglings, I actually think Gloomspite Gitz is likely a better gang than Nurgle daemons. I’ve played all Nurgle daemons in Warhammer Fantasy Battle before they are slow, have almost no ranged attacks and get outmaneuvered, outshot, outmagiced, and charged. Warcry is of course a different game but one of the uses of lots of models, is making the enemy charge you so you get double attacks back with your activation. Exploiting that and using your flying guys well is likely key for Nurgle in Warcry.

What’s Next?

During isolation I probably won’t get much gaming in, though I might play my first video game on my new laptop. I of course must work from home and I will also be taking a selfstudy course for work when the book arrives. I paid extra for the e-Book so lets see if I can download that now should I get ePub or PDF or both? Anyway for the purpose of this blog I primed more models, yet more Nurglings and I bought more paints, even more Contrast paints so that means more Contrast Nurglings are coming. I’m also going to try some Contrast paints out on my OOP Necromunda Escher gang. I need to paint more efficiently and if Contrast paints will help me, why wouldn’t I use them? Alas I just seem to end up using multiple washes and highlights on top of the Contrast Paint anyway.

It appears I will be reading another 325 pages about T-SQL, but I’ll also try to do some painting during the time of the Coronavirus. If you have any thoughts on miniature painting, Warcry, Gloomspite Gitz, Nurgle or Necromunda you can leave them below.

Warcry Gloomspite Gitz Gang is Done

It has taken a while, some of these models I’ve owned since the 1990s. Some of these models were still in blisters from the 90s but now I have a fully painted and even a fully based Night Goblin err Gloomspite Gitz Warcry gang…

It has taken a while, some of these models I’ve owned since the 1990s. Some of these models were still in blisters from the 90s but now I have a fully painted and even a fully based Night Goblin err Gloomspite Gitz Warcry gang and this weekend if the pandemic doesn’t stop us they will descend upon the Sentry Box and the unsuspecting.

If you’ve been following me on Instagram you’d know I’ve been making progress despite my work, gym, and study schedule. I finally painted for seven hours straight last Saturday and another three hours on Sunday to get them to “done”. It is unlikely I will paint that hard again for a long time. Loyal readers will remember me painting until the wee hours and updating this blog before 40K tournaments.

Posting from a New Laptop

Another thing that finally happened this year is I got a new laptop, two new laptops if you count the one work assigned me in case we all have to work from home. I was looking at docks that support Thunderbolt or at least USB-C just today. The reason this was important is it took a long time to transfer all my date to my new MacBook Air and that held up my painting as did reading 100s of pages about Python and Finance. My laptop is nice, but switching form self hosted to WordPress.com is confusing me a bit.

Painting Goblin Skin

The goblin skin may have been completely painted by January 27th. They were largely done the same as the previous two batches. I start with black primer and build up to a paint called “Moth Green” made by Reaper. That is my new recipe and new brightest green. If you want even brighter greenskins you can highlight up to yellow or I guess even white or you can apply several glazes of green. If you like paler greenskins you can use colors similar to GW’s old “Rotting Flesh” or Vallejo makes a color called “Green Grey” which I actually used on the squigs too. I’ve also been given a bunch of Reaper skintones including “Moldy Skin” which is a pale greenish color.

Painting Black Fabric

My black recipe is also not top secret. I use the Foundry Charcoal Black triad. I may need to replace it soon, but it along with a black wash is good enough. You can of course go to a lighter grey and I do that sometimes using Citadel and Vallejo paint to highlight the edges further.

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Not a lot of progress since last #miniaturemonday but I swear I put like seven coats of #paint on the #goblin skin and almost as many on parts of there robes. Next is to do purple not sure if I’ll paint any flames on, I need to get this #Warcry gang done so I can on to #Necromunda and #Nurgle models. But tonight I need to get to the #gym the last seven days have not been the healthiest. Next week maybe I’ll have more to show and a better photo, but for this week #warmongers this is as good as it gets.

A post shared by Andrew McKay (@muskiemckay) on Feb 3, 2020 at 5:55pm PST

Painting Purple

My purple recipe has changed over the years, I use a Foundry Triad for that too, but I also think it benefits a lot from a thin purple wash. I can also go brighter if I feel like it. These models took a long time so I didn’t want to spend more time on their robes than I had to. The Contrast Purple is pretty good and I actually used it for my squig eyes. One thing to remember about the Foundry Triads is you don’t have to go A, B, C. You can start with the midtone then just do a wash, of go midtone then shade or midtone then highlight. I used to have different orders I used for different triads. Going A, B, C is safe to start with but usually you need a second coat of B or C to get the best results after a wash.

Top Secret Squig Recipe

The key to getting good flavour out of a squig, I mean color is lots of thin coats. I have three squigs in my Warcry gang. Actually because I’ve never played I tried to get the greatest variety of models in my gang so I have one squig, one squig hopper, and Boingrot Bounder. The paint I used on all three is called Aethermatic Blue. I painted over Wraithbone most of the time. As you may recall I primed my goblins black, this meant the squigs got primed black too, well the ones with riders did. If I had to do it all over again, I’d paint the Boingrot Bounder in pieces, that is what the experts will do.

If you’re not an expert and you’re just trying to get your models “battle ready” you have to decide what is more import, easier black robes or brightly coloured squigs. If you want your cake and to eat it too, you can do what I did and hand paint two coats of Wraithbone then two coats of Aehtermatic Blue then a bunch of thinned washes both blue and green along with the aforementioned strange Vallejo highlight colors including my latest discovery “Light Green Blue” which is darker than “Green Grey”.

Painting Teeth and Bones

Apparently another of my specialties is painting bones. You’re in luck the new Contrast Paint, Skeleton Horde works great over Wraithbone. I used it on skulls and horns and it is fine for goblin teeth. But if you want your squig mouths to be red too, you need to paint the red between the teeth either with paint or a wash or even Contrast Paint. GW seems to think you should use them as a base coat but you can use them as a wash or a glaze, remember GW recommends not thinning them with water so I generally use them at full strength but you can thin them with something else. Although Skeleton Horde is a winner, you can still highlight with a beige or bone color, I have several from GW and Vallejo. You can also do a thin red or even red and black wash if you want a more unique look. Highlighting with pure white was also done especially on teeth for these models.

Metallics and Other Details

I used mostly GW metallic paint, some very old pots, but many of my oldest paints had to be junked out. The era of GW paint with either the flip or twist bolter lids is the worst. Every single pot I had from that era dried out while my paints were in storage whereas some of my Ork VS Eldar paint set still works though I wonder how many pots are left from then, I still see my original Hawk Turquoise paint pot among my current collection but I can’t recall using it since I moved to Calgary. For metallics I recommend a wash, you can use black, brown, sepia, even multiple washes. I still use my “Rust Brown Ink” that is almost as old as my Ork Vs Eldar paint set paints. I think my “Waaargh Green Ink” is older and I definitely used it on the squigs if not the goblins. I need a new leather brown paint and likely a few other midtones they seem to run out first with the lightest colors lasting the longest because I paint a lot of dark evil models. White and black also dry out quickly and need regular replacing.

Remember no matter what you’re painting the same basic principles hold, multiple thin coats and thin washes being better than drowning your model in the latest greatest wonder wash. In fact now on YouTube there are many tutorials where you can see people wet blending and using lots of glazes, these advanced techniques aren’t that hard and I used them plenty on previous models.

Secret Squig Skin Recipe Number Three

Although I used Wraithbone and Aethermatic Blue for two squigs, for the third squig I painted it grey, I think a Foundation grey, those are paints that also dry out easily. I then put highlights on the grey then over the highlights two heavy washes of Contrast Paint. Then I built up the highlights using various grey, blue, green colors and of course thin washes. I think it came out pretty good, but it is not my best work.

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OMG #Warmongers I painted for about seven hours Saturday and then maybe three more hours Sunday that wasn’t healthy. This was all to get my #Warcry gang of #gloomspitegitz but honestly it is mostly #NightGoblins I got the #goblins in the #warhammerfantasybattle 4th Edition boxset and I’ve slowly been painting them since the 90s. If I had to do it all over I wouldn’t have a horde army and of course I’d force myself to lower my #painting standards even further. I bought the box of new #squighoppers as I wanted a Boingrot Bounder in my gang and that was a frustrating #model to assemble and paint. I even did freehand on the mask/helmet. This guy is more #oldschool or #oldhammer he has #freehand #purpleflames on his hat but the star of the show is the #squig face. It isn’t my best work but I spent extra time on it and used likely a unique combination of paints. This model was #primedblack which is fin for the goblin but not for #contrastpaint which I used on all three of my squigs. The color I chose was #aethermaticblue which I used over #wraithbone on the other models but for this model I painted a #grey #foundationpaint on to the black then highlighted the grey using #citedelpaints and #vallejo paints. After 2-3 highlights I put two coats of Aethermatic Blue over the grey. Then I used more green greys to highlight the face and thin blue and green washes to shade and glaze. I also spent time on the teeth, eventually I had to say “Enough” though I ended up highlighting the nose and doing some #blacklining in the mouth. I made the back of this model cooler as well and painted the warts with terracotta, orange and I believe some yellow glaze. All that remains is to base them. #PaintingWarhammer #Wargaming #GamesWorkshop #MiniatureMonday #MiniPainting #GW #eavymetal

A post shared by Andrew McKay (@muskiemckay) on Mar 9, 2020 at 11:50am PDT

Basing Goblins

These goblins are based the same way the last 50 plus were. I used a brown called “Terra Cotta” two words made by Delta Ceramcoat and I used two coats. Then I used all kinds of different basing materials that I acquired and thought might work for an Autumnal scheme, which should be fine for Warcry and Gloomspite Gitz they have desserts in the Age of Sigmar somewhere. I liked the “dead grass” that Citadel made but I also used basing material from Galeforce Nine, Woodland Scenics and others.

New Lamp

While painting for hours and hours I decided that although I had three lights on my desk I needed more light. So experts online recommend a natural LED based light so I got one on Amazon and it is soon to be famous if you have a shelve above your desk like me. I haven’t gotten to paint by it yet, it literally just arrived, but I think it will be a winner. It is powered by USB hence why I need a USB hub or dock on my desk real soon now.

What Will I Paint Next?

Nurglings, Bill doesn’t understand it but they are legal in Warcry now and I think they are good models for testing paint combinations. I also have long schemed of a horde of Nurglings, others can have their hordes of cultists or plague zombies, I want a horde of Nurglings obstructing any clever tactic my opponent comes up with. I’ll also be painting one of my original Escher gangers Wraithbone and trying the Contrast Skin color out, they are still primed Smelly Primer from the 90s. I don’t know what I’ll put in my gang, but it will be an Escher gang and have some vintage conversions and of course it’ll be purple and green.

If you have painting advice or questions or you’re an Internet Expert in Warcry or Necromunda you can try to leave a comment below.

Waaagh Musk WFB Target Army List

I finally got my hands on the new Orc and Goblin army book for Warhammer Fantasy battle. All the cool Orc and Goblin players already had it and have been adapting their armies to the newest rules. What I lack in coolness I make up for in stubbornness and weirdness. Here is the 2000 point all Goblin army I’m going to be running some day. I actually have almost every single goblin painted, I just need to do some basing and some shields.

I plan on running the new mega spider with a Shaman on top so I use up almost all of my Lord allowance. The core of my army remains however three big blogs of infantry, three war machines, and a hero to lead each mob. When I totalled it all up, using most of my allotment for magic items, I was just 80 or 90 points short of 2000, enter the Squig Hoppers. I might eventually go higher points and run a second Lord on a Gigantic Spider or even just a Big Boss and a block of spider riders to continue the spider theme. Not sure what I’ll do with all my ork models, maybe I’ll sell them or use some of them for 40K…

Here is a picture of my ‘bigger’ unit of Night Goblins. It is the only unit completely finished, complete with Shaman leader Icky Bob.

Army List

Lord

Goblin Great Shaman, riding Arachnarok Spider, with Catchweb Shrine and Opal Amulet 490 points

Heroes

Night Goblin Shaman with extra level, Ironcurse Icon, and Dispell Scroll 115 points
Goblin Big Boss, Battle Standard Bearer, Mork’s War Banner, Light Armour and Shield 164 points
Night Goblin Big Boss, Light Armor and Short Bow, Enchanted Shield, and Obsidian Loadstone 84 points

Core

54 Night Goblins with Short Bows, full command, three fanatics 267 points
29 Night Goblins with Short Bows, full command, three fanatics, and nets 237 points
65 Goblins with spears, shields, and light armor, full command and three skulkers 320 points

Special

6 Night Goblin Squig Hoppers 72 points

Rare

2 Doom Divers 160 points
1 Stone Thrower 85 points

Philosophy

My theoryhammer, besides just finding a use for all the old plastic goblins I own and have almost gotten painted over the years, is, the goblins do the fighting. So much so I don’t even have a single ork in my army, even though the ten point bully might be worth it. I went with a hero in each squad as the heroes and the upgrades arguably will do more damage than the actual goblins.

Having played once and a while, generally every second edition of the game, I know goblins aren’t very good, but lots of them can look intimidating. The plan with the massive units is to not take panic checks. Every hero has defensive magic items, that boost their squad, I even opted for the most expensive magic banner. I also hope to dominate the magic phase and maybe even the shooting. The war machines can hurt most anything and the big spider should be able to handle itself. My main plan is to advance so I can’t run away in the first turn, release the squigs and just wait. Bombard the enemy with stones and spells and eventually arrows. After they get through all that I release the fanatics and hope to halt the charges. But if all else fails hopefully 60 plus goblins in a horde is a tough nut to crack. The Night Goblin units run away often, but hopefully not before they release their fanatics and get off a volley or two of arrows.

Wish me luck.

Game 2 & 3 of Warhammer 8th Edition

And two more losses. I’m beginning to think I’m the worst army list selector in the world. Night Goblin mercenaries have leadership 4! Of course they were in range of both my general and the battle standard bearer when they panicked and ran in the first game, from Salamander fire. Didn’t know they shot that far and force mandatory panic checks. I don’t know much about the army lists I don’t own, playing something like 5 games since 4th Edition.

Anyway this was week two of the Strategies Mighty Empires campaign and I was tied with two other people for last. It was also mandatory mercenaries week and in my defense I didn’t have any options. I did Nurgle daemons as I own them from my 40K army the Diseased Sons, I just painted more, a movement tray, and ranked them up to give 8th Edition a go. The only other fantasy models I own besides one or two more chaos champions, mostly all on round bases, was my 4th Edition Night Goblin army.

Being unemployed and them being close to table ready, I grabbed one unit, which turned out to be 50 models, threw in a Night Goblin Shaman to help me in the magic phase, as in every game of 8th Edition I’ve played I’ve faced a Level 4 Sorcerer, that’s how I chose the army for this week. It is impossible for Chaos Daemons to have a level 4 magic user in a 1500 point game. If I make and save some gold in the campaign I can add up to another 250 points to my army. But that is going to have to wait two weeks, because I’m going to a cousin’s wedding reception next Sunday. Even the three fanatics I felt a little guilty about taking didn’t really do much, they killed a few Night Goblins and a Plaguebearer or two…

I just realized I forgot my animosity rolls. Oh well I forget lots of rules…

This week I got to choose early, first even of the campaign events and took Building Boom and wanted to challenge Sidhu but he wasn’t there, so I ended up fighting Corey and his Lizardmen. He had a Slann, Temple Guard, regular Sauruses who were the mercenaries, some skinks with blow guns, the big triceratops lizard and three salamanders. Once again we rolled up lots of terrain and lots of it magical. I played the second game on the same terrain approximately we rolled what type of rivers and stuff were on the board. No one ever went in the mysterious forest. I’m beginning to think I should hide behind the scenery, but the Nurgle Daemons don’t even have any ranged attacks and I generally lose during the magic phase, though this week was a bit better.

Anyway I’ve been thinking a lot on what I could do to try to make this army competitive. It is tough at this points level, but I think the long term solution is another unit of line infantry and I’m thinking Daemonettes. Short term the Herald of Tzeentch will be added if for no other reason than defensive magic ability. I also hope to slowly build up some Fiends of Slaneesh, but until then the Beasts of Nurgle will get to come out and play. Nurglings just seems so much worse than other options, even Beasts are no prize. Nurgle appears to have the worst daemons in fantasy, but Plaguebearers are super popular in 40K, getting Feel No Pain and all.

Here is the quick version of the two games, as neither went terribly long. In the first game, my small army in terms of units, finished deploying first and then my scouts didn’t really have any place to go in no man’s land. The mission was a modified version of “Hired Guns” which uses I think mission 4 deployment.

In the first game the Nurglings went on my far left flank as I figured they might have a chance at killing Skinks. The Plaguebearers went in front of the end of the river where the fighting would obviously take place. Fantasy is so predictable in terms of where H2H will take place, I even tried to cast a movement spell but it was mainly a failure, I didn’t get to move far enough to get into H2H and it was ruled I had to go through my own fanatics. I thought the Hand of Gork should pick up the unit, then put it down in a new place…

Anyway there is a good picture of deployment. The dreaded Stegadon, that’s what the big dino is called, rampaged towards the Plaguebeares and despite me trying the tricky magic spell charge, got the charge on me. The Plaguebearers of course held, but that thing is tough to wound. So eventually the Temple Guard got to flank charge the Plaguebearers. The reason the Plaguebearers got flanked charged was the mercenary Night Goblin archers got hit by Salamander flames, which can go surprisingly far. These cause auto panic checks and despite getting two tries to roll 8 or less the Night Goblins panicked and ran, never rallied and disappeared off the board leaving Slim and a lone fanatic at the end.

Before all that happened the Skinks advanced to within 8 inches of the Night Goblins so I remember to send out the fanatics, but one of the many rules is they can’t go through terrain. So I had to redo it as at first I sent two towards the Skinks and one towards the Temple Guard. I also peppered the Temple Guard with 35 arrows and some magic. Despite all the crap I threw at them, they still got the flank charge.

Slim and the Nurglings charged the Skinks. I beat them up and pursued and wiped them out, but this left Slim kinda out of it positionally. The Nurglings went on to charge the Sauruses in the side which obviously didn’t go well. Slim turned himself around and flew back to try and rally the Night Goblins and to charge the Temple Guard in the rear.

I can’t remember all the details, but basically Slim needed to make his leadership test on 8 or less as I lost combat by one after the Plaguebearers were weakened further. He failed, twice! This cost him his last wound. This kinda left my battle standard bearer and a few other Plaguebearers and of course one lone fanatic. I was not lucky with them, I think they killed more of my stuff than his.

After Slim died and the Night Goblins fled I conceded. I then had to wait around to try to get a second chance to win my first game. Eventually I did get to play Sidhu.

His army had a big unit of the elite Skaven with Halberds. That unit also had the Grey Seer, a chieftain and the battle standard bearer. I through a tonne of shots and spells at it, but couldn’t halt it in the end. He also had two Doom Wheels which again I hit with piles of arrows, fanatics, Plague Swords, well maybe none of those, but goblin fists, I think Slim had a go at them too. Both survived with one wound and two respectively. Those things are pretty sick, they get shooting attacks, move randomly but fast, so you can’t stand and shoot them, the rats get 2D6 hits, they get Impact hits which as they go before everything are making me think some chariots will get painted for the goblins eventually. I own one or two unpainted ones.

Anyway you can see deployment. He had mercenary Blood Knights as that was his other evil army. They did nothing effectively, though everything charged the Plaguebearers in the end and after they got hit by the Dreaded 13th spell I conceded. Before all that happened I deployed the Nurglings on the right flank and moved the Night Goblins away from the river so the Fanatics would have more room to go crazy. They didn’t do that great, Sidhu kept making saves with the damn Doom Wheels but I’d have to say they did better than game one.

The Night Goblins got off one volley of 35 arrows and managed to hit the Doom Wheel a pile, but did zero wounds. Before that happened and despite setting up fairly far back, both Doom Wheels rolled very high, survived driving over the flaming barricade (the barbed wire) and smashed into the Nurglings wiping them out.

They overran and drew out the fanatics and ultimately made it into H2H with the Night Goblins.

Night Goblins with Short Bows have no armour save at all. So even 50 die pretty quickly when anything hardier than a sneeze kills them. In my real Night Goblin army I’d have more of them, more fanatics too, and would have a Great Shaman leading that unit and my Warboss leading the other unit. Plus I’d have my huge block of spearmen to occupy the centre and take the charge. My goblin army is designed to stand around and shoot, the warmachines and magic do the damage and when the enemy gets frustrated he has to risk fanatics and lots of arrows and spears plus lots of goblin heroes.

Plaguebearers get stuck fighting in a river

So yeah two loses and no game next week for me. Eventually I will earn some gold and can add up to 250 more points more to the army which will allow Slim and my Heralds to buy fancier toys, but more Plaguebearers and Nurglings is not the answer. Maybe the Beasts can be useful, but I think I’d rather have 2 Fiends of Slaneesh than one Beast of Nurgle. Also the long term solution is another unit of line infantry. 10 Daemonettes with Full Command is 150 points which is 1.5 Beasts of Nurgle or basically 4.2 Nurgling stands. The Daemonettes will have more attacks at 21, the rank and standard bonus, and likely fight before the enemy helping to soften them up for the Plaguebearers. Nurglings have lots of wounds, but they are only toughness 3 and basically always lose combat and just disappear with their Leadership of 5, even 8 isn’t a big improvement.

Nope next month maybe after I get a job if I seriously try to turn this army into something that maybe wins a game, I’ll have to do up at least 10 Daemonettes maybe even 15. Here is my army list, the best one I can make with the models I have painted:

Daemon Prince with wings and level 1 magic ability 370pts
Harold of Nurgle, Battle Standard Bearer, Slime Trail and the Banner of Unholy Victory 200pts
Herold of Tzeentch, Flames of Tzeentch, and Spell Breaker 165pts
29 Plaguebearers, Full Command and a magic banner for 403pts
3 Beasts of Nurgle 300pts
With my last 62 points I can buy five more Plaguebearers or if I get it painted, the Fiend of Slaneesh

About the only magic item I can take that might make a difference is switching from Icon of Eternal Virulence to the one that allows me to re-roll failed to wound rolls. I’ll have to think on that some more. he Harold of Tzeentch will get painted, but after that I need to paint my 2010 Astronomi-con Vancouver army, or at least the remaining 5 or 6 models.

Behold my Night Goblin Horde!

That’s right, it only took about 15 years but I sacrificed my shoulder and back, to finish off this unit of 54 Night Goblin Archers led by a Shaman. The last little bit of brown is drying, then I’ll take the celebratory picture. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that compares to these guys. At 55 models, all of which have custom bases and decent highlights on the flesh, with the front two rows being quite spiffy, the magnetic movement tray, the four different types of basing, no five…

First I got guilted into getting help with the base coating of these guys. I’m not sure how much time that really saved me as the quality was well below what I would have done. Even the cleaning of the models often leaves a lot to desire. I highlighted the best dozen or so and did up command and a hero, then they sat for a couple more years. Now with the arrival of Warhammer 8th Edition and being presently unemployed I had no excuse other than just not having the commitment to getting them done.

All week it seems I’ve been working towards this blog post. I built the custom 11 by 5 movement tray. I magnetized all the bases. I created an Autumnal basing scheme. I discovered I was five Night Goblins short of 55, so in one day I painted the missing members of the squad. Then I didn’t think the back 3/5ths were highlighted enough so that was added to the ‘ta do’ list.

Finally I did an epic basing scheme, which I may not completely duplicate on the other squads in this army. First I found the perfect brown, or at least a decent brown. Then after painting the bases,I used UHU glue to put ballast and a little bit of this weird red flock on all the bases.

When that was dry I then did lichen, three different Autumnal colours spread out amongst the unit. When this was completed and dried it was time for the static grass. I had little experience with this material but I had a good set of tweezers which helped. I also learned that static grass absorbs super glue quite a lot and that you need to keep the tweezers about a centimetre from where the glue is, and even then sometimes the glue will flow up the grass cramping your style.

I experimented with different sized clumps, different heights, pushing down to make it messy, applying it on an angle. Not all my experiments were a success but taking the unit as a whole, it looks pretty damn impressive, even with all the one pose 4th Edition Warhammer box set archers.

When the static grass was dry it was time for the little brown leaves I got off of Antenociti’s Workshop. These were applied with white glue (Weldbond brand) as was the lichen. These were given ample time to dry as I was summoned out to celebrate Jeff’s birthday. Then at the end of the evening I had to touch up the Delta Ceramcoat Golden Brown.

Ready for the first set of basing materials

If I had to do it all over, it probably wouldn’t get done. I put a lot of effort into these goblins even spread over 55 models. The basing is over the top and the magnetized movement tray is a total luxury too, especially considering how often I play Warhammer Fantasy Battle. One thing that could be done is to mix up the basing material and apply the mix to save steps. The other thing that should be done is multiple coats of Golden Brown before any other basing material is applied.

Now on to the pictures, I took a lot, one or two after every stage, plus the obligatory final money shot.