After a bout of Norovirus I did the final few touchups and details on my latest batch of monopose Goblin spearmen straight outta the Warhammer 4th Edition boxset. I had previously painted the command complete with the army standard bearer as I truly have been working on this army since 4th Edition. The one goblin with a shield was example for other people to help me basecoat. The second batch has purple booties which does look better but after the front row can you see their boots?
No what you see in these big blocks of infantry is heads and weapons so going forward that is where I will put my effort. I will also have to find the shields. I know I counted out out 63 and put them in a pill bottle. I also know I used some other small round Warhammer shields likely Dark Elves and Skaven maybe even some Dwarven ones. I better not have lost that pill bottle, I’m feeling all paranoid now, but it must be in with my models and paints but I don’t recall seeing it when I went through the boxes at my mom’s house or here when I sorted out things so I could paint, but I wasn’t looking for it.
In the olden days you could have goblins without shields but now I think you get either a shield and a spear or a shield and a hand weapon or a bow plus a knife. I do have some later multi-pose plastic goblins as I was going to do a unit without bows or spears but you get so burnt out painting these models. I just watch two GW instructional videos, they didn’t have those back in 4th Edition, and the painting standard to be “Battle Ready” has gone way down, one coat and a wash or the new Contrast method which is one thick coat. It does seem to work for some colours and models, but it doesn’t look as good.
I’ve long maintained I don’t want to paint better, I want to paint more efficiently. That said I also think skirmish scale games are more realistic for the average tabletop gamer and then you can personalize your models as they are really seen from all sides. In these big blocks of infantry only the front models really are noticed, maybe the second rank, I think when I did the archers I gradually painted less highlights on the models as they got deeper into the unit. I also magnetized the one unit I based which is even more work. I just don’t care enough about playing Warhammer to paint 50+ more goblins plus do all the bases and whatever else I’m missing to play. There is a “Legends” list now so my Doom Divers have a use but I think I need a second catapult, plus some crew for my war machines. I think that is one of the purposes of the box of plastic goblins I bought.
What’s Next?
Realistically I’m not sure. Christmas is coming and although I plan to paint Sundays and Tuesdays and to use the hashtag #MiniatureMonday I am flying to my mother’s house on the 21st. My plan was to paint some Nurglings and whatever else is partially painted when I finally gave up and put my life in storage. The plan beyond that is a couple more goblins likely squig hoppers and whatever the armoured squig hoppers are called plus maybe some regularly squigs. I think my proposed gang had one of each so that is three models.
I also want to do more Nurglings, some using the new contrast paints so I will probably buy some more of those plus the magical basecoat “wraithbone”. In fact an army with 30 Nurgling stands was a long held dream. Bill thinks I’m crazy and anyway I only need 27 under the latest rules. There are 9 stands in my display case, one more that I painted at GW Highgate and then I think there must be six stands on square bases and two more stands still on spures, that’s right most of my Nurglings are metal. The really old ones are glued to a rhino. I wish I had more of those and my Snotlings from that era disappeared none of my old gaming group seems to have volunteered having them, it is a mystery.
I never even wanted to play Warcry I just agreed to do it because I have so many goblins they must be good for something. The game I wanted to play was Killteam so I could use my Nurgle Renegades err Death Guard and CSM. I have almost all the old options painted. My second choice was Necromunda and now miracle of miracles Bill and one more person are apparently “in”. I will play Escher because that is what I played in the olden days. My gang was converted, primed and a tiny bit of black, purple, and green had been applied. That is right the color scheme for my Escher gang is the same as my goblins and every army, even my Skaven Bloodbowl team is purple and green.
I won’t even try to match the purple and green from those days. I’ll probably just go with whatever is in my paint rack today and still flows. I’ll have to test my wet palette soon. Overall, I have my paints pretty well ordered. I still haven’t tested reds or oranges or blues or all the metallics but most of the colours I need for my purple, green, and black models is functioning. My Charcoal Black Triad needs thinning at least the highlight does but honestly the other secret is Badab Black or some other wash. I don’t have GW’s latest black wash but I have their older ones.
That is one good thing about Nurgle colours don’t have to match perfectly in fact I try to paint all my Plaguebearers differently. Now that I’ve got 40+ painted Plaguebearers I have moved on to Nurglings. Eventually I hope to do some of the new models, but the next models I buy will either be bits for my Necromunda Gang once I read the rules and do an inventory of all the bits I have or I will buy more Nurglings and try to do them mostly with contrast paints.
That virus did a number on my abdomen. I think I’m about out of energy for the day. I never said I would blog every week. If I can get in a couple hours of painting a week that is good enough. I still have a lot to do behind the scenes on this blog like clean up the sidebar but if you have thoughts on painting goblins or purple or black or green you can leave them below.
Musk's Miniatures 
Love the 4th ed box set. It’s a good call on putting the effort in on just the areas you’ll see when they are ranked up.
You have to after 20 years of being unpainted and unused almost. Especially if you go 4 plus ranks deep, the back models are just less scrutinized, put your effort into the command and the front rank. Also put highlights on faces and hands, no one can see the knees of the goblins in the second rank etc. But honestly I prefer painting the models to a slightly higher standard which is why I think skirmish games will remain the focus for me, Warcry, Necromunda, Kill Team and now with a new version of 40K that is what I will paint, not WFB from 5 editions ago. These were painted to warm pack up to painting, I did some more goblins for Warcry after this.
You are about 20 years ahead of me on them as mine still remain unpainted and unloved 😂
I’m not sure nested comments can go deeper than three. This is hosted on WordPress.com on self hosted WordPress blogs you can and there are third party commenting systems but I gave up on those in the interest of speed. I think the problem with the monopose plastic goblins is you needed a lot, so if you have a goblin army of that era it looks like all the goblin armies of that era. The newer plastics are posable and the older metal goblin armies are not one pose. So my Chaos army which was started around the same time, slightly later looks better and got painted and used more than the goblins. Also all goblin armies don’t dominate, they require way more painting than an all Plaguebearer army for instance. 40 Plaguebearers is hundreds of points with full command and magic standard, 40 goblins at 2 points a goblin is 80 points.