Painting a Night Goblin Horde Step by Step

Up until now, I've only played Fantasy a few times a year, and I think that I've only played about 10 games total since the release of 8th edition. As much as I would love to do a new army for our FLGS's Warhammer Fantasy campaign I simply don't play enough to make the purchases worth it. Instead, I've decided to finish my all Goblin army. Last fall I ordered enough magnets to magnetize all of these little guys to there movement trays. I also made a few custom trays for the war machines so that the crew will have a place to go once they get charged. You'll see more of those as I go along.

Over the next few posts, I'm going to show you how I'm handling painting an army of about 300 models! These models are not going to be Golden Deamon winners but when ranked up on the table top they will look pretty good. I'm going with a winter theme since the little guys mainly live in the mountains. Well, that, and the fact that their fearless leader some how managed to capture the largest longbeard that any Night Goblin has ever seen.
The campaign I'm in is an escalation campaign that started at 1000 points and we'll add 250 points each week. Since this is week two, and I like to play with painted armies when possible, I've got a little catching up to do. By the time you read this, I should have 50 models done, and be at the halfway point with another 75. And that should be all of my spearmen! So, no more time to waste! Let's get painting! Here is a list of paints that I used:

• Rustoleum Black Primer
• Boltgun Metal
• Mechrite Red
• Knarloc Green
• Midnight Blue
• Thraka Green Wash
• Badab Black Wash

So, go grab your paints and your models, and after the jump we'll get started painting the horde!

Step 1

Here's where we are starting from. Our basic Gobbo, cleaned, based, and primed. I use Rustoleum brand primer as the black has a nice color to it.

Step 2

Now that we've got everything primed and ready to go we can start painting. We going to start by painting all of  the metal areas with Boltgun Metal. It doesn't have to be neat as we will fix everything in the end.

Step 3

Next we're going to paint all of the weapon shafts, banner poles, and any thing else that you want red with Mechrite Red.

Step 4

Still with me? Good! Now we're going to start to bring these little guys to life and paint all of the flesh areas with Knarloc Green.

Step 5

This next step will be different depending on what color you want for your detail items. I decided to paint each squad in a different spot color. The first squad I finished was done in a more traditional yellow scheme that we are familiar with when we see Night Goblins. This squad is going to be blue, so I painted the shield, rope, and strapping on the shafts in Midnight Blue.

Step 6

With all of the main colors blocked in, we can start adding a little more depth to the models. It's hard to see, but I have added a heavy wash of Thraka Green to all of the fleshy areas. Don't worry about being messy, just get in on the model.

Step 7

And here is the last step for today. Grab a pot of Badab Black and wash the remaining areas. Up to and including this step you really dont have to be neat at all. In reality, you could stop here and have a model with three colors. Drybrush the base, and he is legal for tournament play! I'm going to take mine a few steps further and show you how easy it will be to make these guys look like you spent a lot of time on them.

Once you get these seven steps done on your models, let them dry overnight. Next time, we'll add our highlights, drybrush the bases, and finish them off with a little flock on the bases.