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Back in 2009, my grandparents bought me the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set for Christmas. I hastily threw together the Night Goblin Army with a fair share of embarrassingly bad conversions and headed to the FLGS for a few games. After about a year, though, I lost interest and returned to my Tau Empire army (which I also later condemned to the depths of my closet). Now, I return to wargaming with the goal of A) finally painting this nasty bunch & B) having a bit of fun on the battlefield.

The Box:


Over the past week, I have repainted a regiment of Night Goblin spearmen - my first time painting in a couple of years. For now, I'm working on cleanliness and technique (yes, boring, I know) before I try to do anything fancy.







[EDIT]: I've posted some slightly higher-resolution photos.

Old Photos:


Next up in the queue is a block of 20 archers. Any tips or recommendations?

The Night Goblins are looking pretty nice, I'd hit up the black clothes with a grey drybrush or some highlighting to make it pop a bit more (but then again, they're supposed to be Night Goblins, so it could be a sensible fashion choice on their part )

Their bases look a bit bare atm, the rocks look good but the grey underground seems a little bland. Maybe put some sand/gravel/something on it and then drybrush that in a lighter grey?

Looking forward to see the rest of the army

I've posted some higher-resolution photos, just to make critique a bit easier.

Thanks for the tips, Tyrius. For the bases, I plan on using fine sand and small rocks, which I'll paint grey and hit with a Nuln Oil wash for detail. I'm interested in doing a highlight on the cloaks, do you have any recommendations for what color of grey to use? I'm fine with any GW or Vallejo paints.

Also, I've got a sneak-peek at a little git that I'm working on on the side: a goblin big boss. He's actually from an old Gnoblar Trappers blister that I found in my old bitz box, but I figure that he looks ominous and sneaky enough to be in charge.



I'm sorry about how dark the photo is, but then again, most of him is painted black right now anyway.

Here's what I've been up to for the past couple of days:





I've tried to mix the Battle for Skull Pass archers with the individual squad goblins, just to break up the monotony in painting. Plus, it's a lot more visually interesting to have more than 1 pose in a 20-git block.

Good idea to mix those squads, they're looking great

As for the grey for the highlights, I think a drybrushing of Eshin Grey with a highlight of a lighter grey could do the trick

Thanks, I'll pick up some Eshin Grey this week and try that out. I'm enjoying painting a lot more now than I did years ago when I was most actively playing. Hopefully, I'll continue to enjoy it enough to paint 60 more of these lil' buggers.

I find that trying new things every once in a while motivates me to go on Even little things like a highlighting test or some new basing method are good to break up the endless rows of soldiers that require painting (my unpainted Space Marines tend to disagree on that though)

Wow, it's been way too long since I've updated this. Don't worry, though, I've been working on my Night Goblins, and have even played my first game!

Here's the force I used:

I used the troll and spear chukka as Doom Divers, but everything else was exactly what it looked like.

I painted up some archers, too. The bases are just temporary solutions, but I'm kind of liking how they came out.



My Warboss is still in the works, but here he is as of now:


What do you guys think? I know that I still need to go in and do the Eshin Grey highlights on the robes, but I'm putting that off until the last minute.

Good to have you back

The bases look great, did you paint the entire pattern by hand? The only thing I would add is some blood or gore perhaps, as if the goblins are busy raiding a small city or something

Also, how did your first game go?

The bases are actually really nice!

Consider that technique stolen!

Thanks, guys. Yes, they are painted by hand. It doesn't take nearly as much time as you'd think once you've got it down. The game was pretty hilarious, as you'd expect from a mob of 90+ goblins. Doom divers are a godsend (even if one of them explodes on turn one). It was fantastic to see my mangler chew through a block of witches and then land on a unit of harpies. My spearmen got spooked at the end, though, so I would have been tabled, if it hadn't ended then. I didn't realize how much I had missed playing. It feels great to be back.

Well, unfortunately, it looks like my painting might be on hold for a little while. At some point in the last week I got a small cut on my pinky, and a couple of nights ago it got pretty badly infected.

I hope your finger gets better! Sorry to hear about that.

As others have said those hand painted bases look GREAT. Your regiments are looking really nice all painted up together, the yellow and red becomes really striking!

Thanks, my finger is a lot better now. The infection is gone, so I'm off of the antibiotics. It's still a bit swollen, but doesn't feel like it's about to give birth anymore. I've taken some more photos of my goblins, including some WIP shots, but I'm having some problems with uploading them. They should be up soon, though.

Here is an overhead view of my spearmen. You should be able to see the bases a little bit better. The photos makes them look almost chalky, but I swear that the paintjob is a lot smoother in-person.







I've got the remaining twenty spearmen on the workbench. Here's a WIP shot. 13 1/2 more to go! (before I do another twenty archers )



I've also got a mob of converted Gnoblar "allies," which I'll be running as regular goblins with hand weapons & shields. They'll have similar primarily-black attire, but with different insignia. I'd like to paint their skin a different color, though. I'm considering a dark maroon. Got any ideas?