In 28 easy steps to a painted Night Goblin

We all need good recipes for paint schemes, either you want to paint your models in the way someone else has, or you at laest want to preserve your own recipe for future use! I regularly look in my small notebook, it’s completely necessary. Because of that, the internet is full of recipes, either written down on blogs, or within a youtube video or somewhere else. And one day Andy Pearson decided that this had to change and created Paintpad.app. It is a really nifty tool, everyone can upload their paint recipes and mark which colors are used (all major brands are already in there), you can select which paints you own so you’ll immediately see which ones you need to get to recreate a certain recipe.

I anyway wanted to make a step-by-step guide for my Night Goblin paint scheme (I am vain like that), so using Paintpad was a natural fit. So either head over to Paintpad for the fully pictured step-by-step tutorial for Rudnik’z Boyz or follow the instructions right here. I still use lots of old Citadel colors, but I have matched them to their current line according to the official Citadel Conversion Chart. At the end you’ll find a table with all the steps and both the color I actually used as well as the respective equivalents in the current Citadel paint range.

Priming & Basecoat

I’ll start with a nice, black primer straight from the spray can. Simple as that.

Next up are the base colors. This is a rather fast step, where you cover all areas of the model in a dark tone of the color you eventually want to have. You don’t need to be too careful at this point, as later stages will more or less automatically fix mistakes you have made. Therefore I’ll pick a rather large brush and paint away. Citadel Base colors are usually a little thicker and contain a little more pigmet, so they cover black quite well.

First step is a drybrush with Boltgun Metal on all the metallics, i.e. the spear blade and the shield rim. I like to get this out of the way fast, as drybrushing tends to be more on the messy side of things. Next up is basecoating the flesh with Dark Angels Green. It’s a nice and dark color and a great basecolor for greenskins. You don’t need to leave black in the recesses, just a tiny bit at the boundry. The haft of the spear, the string around the blade, the rope around the waist and the teeth are basecoated in Scorched Brown. Not all of these areas will end up with the same color, but a dark brown is a versatile basecoat for all kinds of final colors. The base itself gets an undercoat of Graveyard Earth. This will not be covering the black well, but that is not important now as it only serves as an undercoat for the texture paint to be used later. The moon on the shield now gets a basecoat of Stegadon Scale Green and the base gets a thick coat of Agrellan Earth. Once this is dried, I come back with Chaos Black to fix any mistakes but also to quickly paint the robe black, even though it is already black from the priming. Spraypainted color has a different look and feel to it from painted colors, so especially for large pieces of cloth you should go over the spraypaint with regular layer paint. The string on the spear, the rope and the teeth get a layer with Dhaneb Stone. Finally, the flesh gets a layered coat of Snot Green (full disclosure, this is a later step in the paintpad tutorial but logically should be here, because it is before the wash. It has not been applied in the picture below). At this point, all the basecolors are in, and in case of an emergency, this model would be acceptable on the tabletop.

Shading

Now we come to shading, a very important step which instantly gives a great result. I still use a rather large brush for this. First up is the base and the shaft of the spear, washed with Agrax Earthshade. All those Dhaneb Stone areas get a wash with Gryphonne Sepia. I like this subtle hue of red/orange in the sepia wash, but these could probably also be washed with Agrax Earthshade to save some time. Metal bits get a nice coat of Badab Black and the bad moon gets a wash with Coelia Greenshade and the flesh gets a wash with Thraka Green. Moon and Flesh could also probably be washed with the same ink to save time. We have now arrived at the stage which is now referred to as “battle ready” by Games Workshop, meaning a basecoat and a wash on every surface. Games Workshop has now introduced their Contrast range of paints, supposedly giving you this result with a single coat of paint over a primer. I haven’t used them yet (and won’t change my recipe for Night Goblins now), but I will probably give it a go in the future. As you can see, this is definitely ready to play some games with. Boy, what I would give if all my models would be at this stage!

Primary color, main layer

Now it is time to switch to a slightly smaller brush, as we are going to apply the primary colors / first highlights to all areas (again, the flesh is slightly off since Snot Green basically already is the primary color). First up, the haft of the spear gets some highlights with Scorched Brown. The Agrax Earthshade wash was applied generously and has sufficiently darkened the wood, now we have to bring it back. The sepia washed parts get a layered highlight with Bleached Bone and the bad moon on the shield gets a layer of Sotek Green. The base gets drybrushed with Graveyard Earth for some highlights on the textured parts. With Adeptus Battlegrey, carefully give the robe an edge highlight, while the metal party get a light drybrush with Chainmail. This is not already looking pretty decent, it’s a perfectly acceptable tabletop standard.

Highlights

To make the models really pop, we need a final step of highlighting the most important colors. On this model, these are the robe, the flesh and the blue highlight color, as well as the brown wood. Let’s start here, carefully apply edge highlighting on the wood with Snakebite Leather. I’m not nearly skilled enough to freehand wood grain, but on these models the wood is actually texturized, so I’m just picking that up with a light brown. The base gets a final drybrush with Dhaneb Stone to get it out of the way. Now for the fun part, the flesh gets a layered highlight with Goblin Green. I’m always amazed by the effect of this step, as I already like the darker flesh color before, but this Goblin Green really sells it in my opinion. Same goes for the bad moon, this gets highlighted with Ice Blue. On larger pieces I have tried some kind of gradient from the turqoise primary color, and I will certainly go all in on that with the Squigs, but these smaller details just get a coat of Ice Blue. The highest points on the robe get a final edge highlight with Codex Grey and the eyes get painted with a small dot of Blood Red. I don’t bother with painting the pupil on Night Goblins, I like their large, red eyes. The last step is to fix mistakes on the robe with Chaos Black and paint the rim black.

And here we are, one of Rudnik’z Boyz ready for a little Waaagh! Now I just have to repeat that 97 times.

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Step-by-Step

Step	Color used	Current Citadel paint range
1	Chaos Black Spray	–
2	Boltgun Metal	Leadbelcher
3	Dark Angels Green	Caliban Green
4	Scorched Brown	Rhinox Hide
5	Graveyard Earth	Steel Legion Drab
6	Stegadon Scale Green	–
7	Agrellan Earth	–
8	Chaos Black	Abaddon Black
9	Dhaneb Stone	Rakarth Flesh
10	Snot Green	Warpstone Glow
11	Agrax Earthshade	–
12	Gryphonne Sepia	Seraphim Sepia
13	Badab Black	Nuln Oil
14	Coelia Greenshade	–
15	Thraka Green	Biel-Tan Green
16	Scorched Brown	Rhinox Hide
17	Bleached Bone	Ushabti Bone
18	Sotek Green	–
19	Graveyard Earth	Steel Legion Drab
20	Adeptus Battlegrey	Mechanicus Standard Grey
21	Chainmail	Ironbreaker
22	Snakebite Leather	Balor Brown
23	Dhaneb Stone	Rakarth Flesh
24	Goblin Green	Warboss Green
25	Ice Blue	Lothern Blue
26	Codex Grey	Dawnstone
27	Blood Red	Evil Sunz Scarlet
28	Chaos Black	Abaddon Black

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Mutiny on the Bountharr

Wilham the Plight, disgraced sea captain, entered his master’s forges with grim determination, furiously glaring at any acolyte not shuffling out of his way fast enough. Reputation was everything in Zharr Naggrund, and Wilham had already fallen out of favor with his patron. He would not suffer to be ousted by some upstart of a few hundred winters. He was Wilham the Plight, scourge of the Black Coast and dread of the Imperial Sea. Sorcerer-Prophet Alkanash regarded him with a disdain-written face, as old and unyielding as the rock. “Come nightfall, you will set sail for the Turtle Islands. You will bring back no less than 200 Ashheart Salamanders for a grand ritual in Hashut’s honour.” Alkanash did not ask this of Wilham, he merely stated what would come to pass. Compliance was irrefutable. Wilham gave a curt nod, here was a chance to redeem himself. “The Ashen Crusader is your eternal servant, honoured one. I will send for Grashduk and the rest of my crew at once.” “No, you won’t,” Alkanash corrected him. “You shall not sail with Hashut’s blessing, for the Dark Father is weary of you. Prove yourself worthy captaining the Hobgoblin barque Bountharr, before you ever will command Uzkul-Drath-Zharr again. One of the tribes shall be your crew. Be gone.”

Wilham left, trembling with barely contained anger. To lead a crew of Hobgoblin slaves was an insult! But there was no denying his commands. Alkanash expected him to sail through the Gates of Calith, but Wilham decided to take the shortest passage to the Turtle Islands, leading around southern Lustria under the watchful eyes of the cursed Elgi at the Citadel of Dusk. A perilous route, but he would arrive two moons early with his spoils, retake his rightful place among the higher echelons of Zharr Naggrund and would never have to command a slave ship again!

Wilham whipped the crew on day and night to make haste. By the time he reached the Citadel of Dusk, already 46 were dead of exhaustion; an acceptable number and the reason the crew counted over 200 at the start of the voyage while 20 would be enough to man the ship. But the Hobgoblins feared the flogging only almost as much as they feared the Elgi, and so the Bountharr could not make the passage. A furious Wilham lashed out in unchecked anger but could not prevent their failure to follow through on his commands, and so a much diminished crew started the detour through the Gates of Calith.

Three months later the Bountharr finally arrived at the Turtle Islands. By now the Ashheart Salamanders had started hibernation and so Wilham would lose another two months. The Hobgoblins not yet flogged to death started raiding the coastal villages and enjoyed the easy match the rural island folk presented in combat. Eventually spring arrived, the Salamanders came crawling out of their lairs and after months of waiting, the Bountharr finally left the Turtle Islands. Wilham was eager to make up for the lost time by flogging the crew twice as much.

Not after long, as the Bountharr was just rounding the Lost Isles of Elithis, the Hobgoblins began to think back longingly about their time on the Turtle Islands. Finally one night a group around Fletchakk Khan, second in command on the Bountharr and only marginally more lenient with summary punishment of his crew than Wilham himself, realized that they were far away from Zharr Naggrund, and there was only a single Chaos Dwarf on board. Spurred on by the dubious confidence only rum can bestow, they stormed their captain’s cabin, in hopes to surprise him in his sleep, as is the Hobgoblin way. Wilham however did not survive that long among the brutal society that is Zharr Naggrund, only to be killed in his sleep by drunken slaves. The first two Hobgoblins through the door were soon killed by shots from his double-barreled pistol and dropped dead on the floor within seconds from each other. A tumultuous melee ensued and Wilham would surely have been bested, hadn’t, at the height of the confusion, the treacherous Hobgoblin nature thwarted their plans yet again, as a couple of Hobgoblins decided that a better fate awaited them as the new second-in-command under their saved captain than staying mere slaves under Fletchakk’s uncertain leadership on the Turtle Islands. The mutineers however proved to be more numerous and so the “loyal” Hobgoblins soon started fleeing the ship. They managed to launch the boat and even dragged the still fuming Wilham with them. All in all 18 Hobgoblins and Wilham escaped in the boat, chased by the taunting laughter of the victorious mutineers.

Under their new captain Fletchakk Khan, the Bountharr turned around and once again set sail for the Turtle Islands. Unfortunately for the Khan, the next day he, and four of his closest followers, had a “nasty accident”, according to his successor, with the ship’s boom. Bad luck followed the Bountharr’s voyage from now on, where deadly accidents happened almost daily, curiously most of the times involving the then-acting captain.

Forty days later the people on the Turtle Islands signaled alarm, as they saw the now dreaded sails of the Bountharr approach on the horizon once again. Unbraked ran the Bountharr on the ground and had the villagers running from their imminent doom, but surprisingly no cutlass-wielding Hobgoblin jumped ashore. It took the bravest villager two days, when hundreds of underfed Salamanders gleefully waded from the ship onto the sandy beach, to set foot on the ominously silent ship. All he found was 24 dead Hobgoblins; two of them with hands still wrapped around each other’s throats.

Not much is known about the fate of Wilham and the other Hobgoblins. Some say he killed them all on the first day, before he alone made the long way back to Zharr Naggrund to atone for his failure and join the ranks of the Legion of Azgorh. Others claim that the boat sank south of the Tower of the Sun, brought about by a High Elf fleet. In any case, Wilham the Plight is a threat on the oceans no more.

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Those of us who are in the Warhammer hobby long enough will have fond memories of the Chaos Dwarfs, a race of evil Dwarfs, whose sense of honour and stubbornness have been twisted into a merciless desire to subjugate all the lesser races. Chaos Dwarfs were discontinued by Games Workshop after Warhammer 5th edition, but at least they were not retconned out of the fluff but remained part of the lore, albeit a very quiet one. Forgeworld brought them back as a playable faction later, but they never entered the mainstream again.

There are those of us who still collect, paint and play Chaos Dwarfs though, and we gather at Chaos Dwarfs Online. It’s a vibrant community and there are regular contests to build and/or paint models, but also to write background lore for Chaos Dwarfs. This was my entry for the last Scribe’s contest. Entries had to be 400 words max, so I submitted an abridged version, but this is the full-length story.

Theme of the contest was some kind of maritime fiction. I quickly decided to adapt the Mutiny on the Bounty for my story. Chaos Dwarf society heavily depends on slave labor, and chief amongst the enslaved races a Hobgoblins, a notoriously devious subspecies of Goblins. Hobgoblins are known to be the most treacherous kind of greenskin, so a Hobgoblin crew mutinying against their Dwarven captain seemed like a logical choice. I had great fun writing this short story, and basically for the first time really delved into the original Bounty material. It’s really a fascinating piece of history, with consequences echoing through to the present.

Sisyphus is painting an army

The plan was fairly simple: My Night Goblins were the army with the lowest model count, so I would get in there, paint them all and have a painted army by the end of summer. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Since deciding on that plan, I already bought another 40 Stabbaz, three River Trolls (fielding only three trolls? What was I thinking!) and a Snotling Pump Wagon, so yeah, I was basically back to square one. And then of course Games Workshop in their infinite wisdom came barging in all cocky with those fancy new Gloomspite Gitz. The models are nice, really nice, basically irresistable. And they are more or less completely backwards compatible with good old Warhammer Fantasy! What really killed me though was the release of Looncurse, and my gaming buddy plays Wood Elves, guess what happened next. God damnit, will this army ever be finished?

So OK, we got ourselves a copy of Looncurse. That would mean another 10 Squig Hoppers, they are always welcome. Also I would get this uber-gorgeous new Boss on Giant Cave Squig to lead them, that is just ace. I would also get another 10 Squigs and two herders which, although more than welcome, would pose a problem army list wise for WHFB: I need one herder for every three Squigs and I want to max out those Squigs, so I need them in multiples of three. While pondering how to solve this conundrum, I stumbled across Zarbags Gitz from Warhammer Underworlds. This little warband has equally gorgeous models at a very reasonable price. And it contains two Squigs, which means I would end up with 12, great! There would also be a netter, which obviously makes for a good herder model. Then there are three Shootaz in the box, and although they don’t really fit the old 5th edition models aesthetically, they are just the right amount of models to replace one command unit and merge my 2×20 Shootaz to one big 40 model unit. That is just great! What else is part of Zarbags Gitz, well there is a beautiful Fanatic, so now I have 10 of those. Ideally are also multiples of three here, but should I ever decide on getting a box of the new ones, conveniently containing five models, I’d end up with 15 (Incidentally for Age of Sigmar, should I ever decide to play that, you need multiples of five, so 15 is just the perfect number for all game systems). Lastly there is a Boss in (relatively) heavy armour, something I was completely missing so far, and Zarbag himself, and you can never have enough shaman models. So what can I say: Zarbags Gitz were filling holes in my model range as if GW specifically designed them for me! Needless to say I got a box. And two boxes of the Rockgut Troggoths. And a Loonboss. And a Loonshrine. Sisyphus let the boulder roll down the mountain again.

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  I really made progress today!

In light of my previously conceived plans I decided to paint the Shootaz and the Fanatic up first, since they would complement my already painted units, while the Squigs and characters would have to wait until their respective categories were up to paint. Generally I followed the same recipe as before, but had to adjust it for the gnarled wood of the bows. The bows of the older miniatures were not detailed, whereas the new models have real texture on them. Also I was usind an old and pretty dried up batch of Devlan Mud to darken the brown undercoat, but this has now completely dried so I had to switch to fresh Agrax Earthshade. I’m pretty psyched with how it turned out though. I’m also quite happy with the Fanatic’s flask, I think the illusion is passable. I always struggle with simulating light reflections on emeralds/glass, but this time it more or less worked. Maybe I’ll still go over that in the future again, we’ll see.

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So, that’s part 1 of Zarbags Gitz for you. The models are incredible and I’m really looking forward to the other new models now, I think I will have a blast with them. Now comes a great challenge though, as I have to tackle my Stabbaz horde. With the current pace I should have them finished around christmas. And I can already feel that boulder slipping in my fingers again.

Hobby Improvement

Back in the days of my first hobby incarnation, I was still a teenager living at my parents’ place. I would be talking about the hobby with my pals at school, we’d meet up for games (playing on the floor, obviously) and go to the local Games Workshop to shop and/or just hang out (being kids with a very expensive hobby, it was mostly hanging out…). This, together with a mandatory White Dwarf subscription, were the only sources for new hobby content. The internet was still in its infancies, youtube or instagram didn’t exist. Nobody had a blog and there were no pictures of painted models outside printed magazines. There were no cellphones, you could play hopscotch on the streets and, in summer, an ice-cream truck would stroll down suburbian streets, luring in the neighborhood with that ring-ding-a-ding-ding.

Well, those days are long gone now, and I’d say it’s largely for the better. Especially when it comes to the hobby! There is just so much content out in the interwebs these days, put out both officially by GW and others, but also directly by hobbyists, ranging the whole spectrum from n00bs (is this still a word?) and regulars up to those incredibly talented pro-painters. If you set up your twitters and instagrams correctly, you’ll get a daily dose of fantastic inspiration. And I thoroughly enjoy every last bit of it, especially when people explain how and why they’re doing what they’re doing. I love watching somebody paint up a model as much as the next guy, but I also very much like to get inspiration on how to improve my overall approach to the hobby. In this series of articles (well, at least I hope they eventually turn into a series of posts!) I will describe how I’ve generally improved my hobby work, most likely inspired by all those other wonderful online hobby blogs/channels.

One of those blogs I came across are the Tales from the Aaronorium. It’s four guys around acclaimed author Aaron Dembski-Bowden, whose involvement attracted me there like a moth to the flame. While all four are great hobbyists, one of them – Ross – always had particularly nice pictures of his models. And to my special delight, one time he actually made a blogpost about photographing miniatures! Apparently I was not the only one who liked them. I knew for a while that you should have a proper photobox, or at least a piece of carton with a bend, but I never came around to actually get one. And when I read that he uses the very same phone I also own and basically not much else, I decided it was finally time to invest in my hobbyspace.

So I used to just sit at the dining table with the regular dining table light on and painted and photographed away. And sure thing that kinda works, but I was always unsatisfied with the setup, especially the light, which is, and I don’t think I am spilling any secrets here, key to a good paintjob. Ross suggested pretty simple IKEA lamps with daylight bulbs, and that made immediate sense to me and I went ahead and got those for myself. And what an improvement they are! Just look at the evolution of the pictures of my Shootaz:

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  Just dining table light

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  Daylight bulbs and black screen

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  Adjusting the exposure

Ross doesn’t just have advice on what hardware to get, he also has some nifty tricks on how to make the most out of the pictures themselves. It’s really simple to get great results with that limited setup and it’s exactly the right amount for day-to-day hobby shots. I’m not going to repeat his post here, but if you’re interested in his methods, visit the blog and read up. They update quite often and have great content. A big thankyou to Ross for the tips, they significantly improved my hobby.

*Splat!

The next item on my painting schedule was probably the most iconic Night Goblins unit of them all – the crazed Fanatics! Night Goblin armies are hugely rewarding: The hooded models look great, they can hit surprisingly hard and their haphazard nature make for a completely unpredictable playstyle. And no part of the army embodies that essential Night Gobliness more than those Grots high on Mad Cap Mushroom Brew, swirling around uncontrollably while holding on to a huge iron ball on a chain as tight as possible!

I had three old metal Fanatics from 5th edition and six plastic ones from 7th. Unlike their core troop counterpart these models fit together quite well though. But it doesn’t even matter since you anyway always just use three together. To emphasize the mushroom-theme of Fanatics, everyone got one kind on their base. I used a mix of mushrooms from my bitsbox, but most of them are from Kromlech. Kromlech has just recently released new bits which are more fitting to Night Goblins, so I picked some up to add to the older mushrooms I already had. And now they even released giant ones, which I will definitely be using for some future terrain!

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I was quite pleased with how the paintscheme came out on my Shootaz, so I painted the Fanatics accordingly. I tried to do a little more work on the bases and painted all the mushrooms in the signature turquoise. I painted the tongues similarly turquoise, since I am sure the intoxicating broth made from the mushrooms will have quite a sting to it. The rest was pretty much straight forward, I painted the snails on the mushrooms green, because I did not want them to stand out too much, but I used a darker recipe than for the Grots to differentiate them. I think it worked quite well. Fanatics are great models with lots of character and I was eagerly awaiting to paint them.

Overall I’m very happy with the results! I really like how the green and turquoise turned out, they have a kind of pastel-like hue to it which I think looks great. At some point I will probably (well, who am I kidding, definitely) pick up a box of the new Loonsmasha Fanatics to add to my unit, the new models are just too good to pass on! Damn you GW, damn you to hell.

Stick ’em wiv arrers!

This is it – the first hobby blog post with actual progress!

As I mentioned in the inaugural post for the ambitiously named Summer of Hobbying 2019, I want to get back into painting with my Night Goblin army. Some models were already built, but a good chunk of them were even still (and remain to this day) in the sprues. Standing before a mountain of work is always the hardest, when there is stuff to be done left and right. In my previous incarnation as a hobbyist, I used to immediately go after characters, without having established a firm ground to stand on, with no real paint scheme and without first getting into the groove of it (only two models in my entire Night Goblins army were painted: Skarsnik & Gobbla and a shaman, which actually was one of the last models I painted before my hiatus and was therefore among my best work so far). I vowed to not repeat that mistake!

I started the Night Goblin army back in 5th edition when the then new troops were released – I just couldn’t resist! I got two boxes, assembled one with Bows and one with Spears, plus three metal fanatics, five metal Squighoppers and the two mentioned characters. It’s was a cute little force, but not even remotely resembling an army. I’m not even sure I ever played with them before I left the hobby for a bit. After my triumphant return to the hobby, I quickly decided that my Night Goblins needed to be extended to a proper army – not the least because of the gorgeous models released in the meantime! I still considered them to be a fluffpiece though, so I decided to do some mathhammer – basically make one army list, get the models necessary and be done with it.

While the whole of the Orcs & Goblins army list surely is among the most diverse in all of Warhammer, my plan for a fluffy Night Goblins army meant that I would be quite limited in the available units. My whole core units would just be multiples of Night Goblin mobs, while I had more variety in the special and rare slots. Eligible units would be Night Goblins, Squigs obviously, anything Snotling (they are just everywhere) and all kinds of Trolls. I also got a Forgeworld Squig Gobba, but since forgeworld rules are always somehow regarded as beta rules, I decided to field it as a Night Goblinized version of a Doom Diver catapult. I think the rules fit quite well, I imagine the ‘glide and guide’ being a Squig bouncing off the ground, gaping maw and eyes locked on his unsuspecting victims. Technically I would also allow a Giant in the army list, provided I’d find a suitably cave-y model.

I knew I wanted a large horde with 100 Night Goblins, this would be the centerpiece of the army! Originally I did not want to paint (and buy!) 100 Night Goblins, so I bought another 60 to complement the 20 and some super-large 100x60cm bases to make scenic unit bases. The problem is, those exceptionally nice new unibody-models from 7th edition are considerably shorter than the older two-piece-body models from 5th edition, and the unit just didn’t look good when mixed. So I did what I had to do, broke the old models apart, reassembled them as archers (20 weren’t enough anyway…) and got another box of the new models to assemble them with spears. At this point I also discovered that, while making for some nice scenes, my multi-bases where quite annoying in battle, since they span three ranks. Additionally I finally opted to magnetize my whole army, rendering those multi-bases and their ease of use quite redundant. So of course I did what I did and got yet another box, finally ending up with 100 genuine Night Goblin Stabbaz. It was the 40 Shootaz however, who got painted first.

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  Stick ’em wiv arrers!

Since my Night Goblin army has a fluffy theme, I also wanted to have a very unified look for them. That meant I had to come up with a good paint scheme, i.e. a limited color palette. I wanted to go for classic black hoods (also for ease and speed of painting, to be honest), a nice green skin color and basically only one real contrast color for highlights and everything else, but also to paint the squigs in. And I didn’t want to use the run-of-the-mill yellow moon. After a quick foray into color theory I decided on a turquoise-blue, which, as an analogous color to green, I expected to work quite well with the green. I can only recomment to spend so time with color theory when deciding on a paint scheme. The Adobe Color Wheel is a very nice tool to do just that. To convert my scheme into the actual colors, I used a combination of the Citadel Paint-App and the Paint Picker app by Aaron Tunney, I can only recommend them! I still had quite some paints from the days of yore, so I swapped colors with ones I had whenever possible. Most colors were already dried up, but with water, an old chopstick and some patience it is quite possible to revive them.

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  Standard Bearer

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  Musician

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  Grot

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  Boss

I tested my paint scheme on a couple of models and played around with the best order of how to apply it, but it basically worked to my expectations right from the start. I’m really happy with how the Shootaz turned out! I really want to perfect the turquoise-blue, especially on larger pieces, before I move to the Squigs, therefore I will start with painting all Night Goblins from the troop compartments, then move to the Squigs and finally the characters, as it should be.

I’m not 100% satisfied with the bases yet. I mean the look reasonably good as a whole unit, but individually I think I’m not quite there yet. On the other hand, I think it’s the overall look which is most important for this army. And maybe my technique will improve enough until I reach my characters to give them the better bases. I’d be fine with that. I also opted for black rims on the bases, something I’d never done in the past, but I instantly loved it. I feel it makes the mini pop a little more, it also meant I could use movement trays straight out of black plasticard for any model, regardless of how the base is painted.

That was it, my first finished models in years, the start of a newly painted army. It took me a little longer than I’d hoped, but there are still over 20 actual colors on the models and I am just not quick enough yet. But on the other hand I had a lot of fun painting again, now I just have to keep it up. Fingers crossed.

Summer of hobbying 2019

I’m in the Warhammer-hobby now for well over 20 years (including a hiatus of several years, though. But I am back more immersed than ever). For the most part, I’ve played with unpainted armies. I was always quicker with buying new stuff than with painting – in some cases even assembling! – existing stuff. And well over 90% of my painted models has been painted, well, almost those 20 years ago, when my approach to “painting” models was slapping one uber-thick layer of the base-color on the models. But this year this will all change! (not the least because I have started yet another project and just cannot take it anymore) And damnit, modeling and painting are super fun! So, I decided to get it started. First project are my Night Goblins. They are my smallest army and have a very straightforward color scheme. To avoid tunnel-vision and hobby-boredness I will intersperse assembly of my upcoming future project, which is also sneak-peaked as the first item.

• Xxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx-Xxxxxxx on Xxxxxxx
  • greenstuff the backplate etc
  • pin Xxxxxxx on saddle
• Snotling Pump Wagon
  • glue / greenstuff with converted outrigga
  • build without crew
• Fanatics
  • greenstuff slots on slottabases
  • painting
• Night Goblin Stabbas
  • build remaining 20 Night Goblins
  • painting
• Night Goblin Crews & Miscellaneous
  • Herders, Gobba Crew etc.
  • painting
• Night Goblin Characters
  • on foot
  • painting
• Fungus Trolls
  • assemble three remaining River Trolls (basic)
• Squig Hoppers
  • glue / greenstuff
  • painting
• Squig Herd
  • glue / greenstuff
  • painting
• Mangler Squigs and Squig Gobba
  • glue / greenstuff
  • painting
• Night Goblin Boss on Great Cave Squig
  • glue / greenstuff
  • painting
• Skarsnik
  • painting
• Fungus Trolls
  • greenstuff / convert with Fungi
  • painting
• Snotling Pump Wagon
  • pin crew
  • painting