First Look: I've always thought these figures were underwhelming, even back when I first got them in the Warhammer Fantasy box many years ago. There's a single mold for a whole lot of goblins, and I think they almost look more dorky than menacing. They got tossed in a box and forgotten about, and through several moves have managed to stick around. I was never interested in an Orc & Goblin army in Warhammer Fantasy, so I was never moved to do anything with the figures.
However, with Kings of War and the opportunity to make scenic multi-bases, I decided to try my hand with these cheap goblins. I also found a couple of giant spiders from Warhammer Quest, and decided to toss them in with the goblins (at least in Warhammer, goblins and spiders have always had some association).
Once that was decided, the last step was to lay out a general scene. Since the smallest unit of Goblin Spitters (archers) in Kings of War is a Regiment (20 figures), I cut a large base to the appropriate size and started cramming in goblin archers! I also had some old resin columns, and decided to place one in a toppled fashion along with a nearby used campfire. I imagined it as the edge of a forest near a town, and the goblins are emerging for a raid.
Painting: The based was largely painted dark brown (VGC Charred Brown, Coal Black) as a base for later flock and sand. The goblins were painted in black clothing (VGC Coal Black lightened with VGC Bonewhite) and a typical green skintone (VGC Goblin Green, AP Green Tone Ink). I decided to go for a lighter brown for the bows (MSP HD Woodland Brown, AP Soft Tone Ink) with rusty metal endcaps (VGC Tinny Tin, Gunmetal). The quivers were painted a medium brown (MSP Ruddy Brown, AP Strong Tone Ink) with red fletching for the arrows (VGC Gory Red, AP Red Tone Ink).
I decided to use some brighter warm colors for the spiders, since the goblins themselves were rather dark and didn't have any good accessories for colors (I thought about coloring the quivers, but decided against it). The spiders were painted yellow and orange respectively (VGC Gold Yellow, Sun Yellow, AP Soft Tone Ink for the first; VGC Bloody Red, Hot Orange, Red Tone Ink for the second).
Conclusion: I like how this turned out, and I learned from a couple of mistakes in the process (which was the point of using these goblins, rather than better figures). First, I made the mistake of gluing all of the figures down to the base at the start, which made it much more challenging to paint. Since these are goblins (and not even particularly good goblins, at that), I was going for a pretty bare-minimum "tabletop" paint job. However, on better figures (or at least less "horde"-type figures), I would want to add a little more effort and detail. I wound up popping off the two spiders to I could paint them more suitably, and I think they came out much better as a result.
The other mistake I made was using a black dual paint + primer. While it did seem to stick to the plastic figures quite well, it's a little thicker than I care for and the black base made it harder to apply lighter colors (particularly on the goblin skin and the spiders). I've already got another unit of Goblin Spitters in the works (using the rest of the Goblin Archers), but I don't think I'll be using the paint + primer again for miniatures (except terrain).
- M:M
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