After a long hiatus, I am proud to announce that I have completed the nine BTD Nightlings I have bought for the purpose of creating another unit of squig herders, which will serve as Maw Beasts under the Kings of War rules.
I really love the facial expressions and the animation in these figures, as well as the little details like earrings and bangles the goblins are wearing.
As you can see in the picture above, a similar colour scheme allows them to blend in with the GW figures. The Maw Beasts are supposed to be on cavalry-sized bases, but in KOW, it is only the unit footprint that is important, so I am using a 6 x 5 20mm figures, which have the same footprint.
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| The GW goblins have different skin tones because they came from different lots I bought on ebay. But we don't discriminate in this army. |
In this picture you can see the dice holders which I have added to the movement tray, as well as the green dice I bought especially for this army, which will be used as casualty trackers.
Next on the painting list are 12 War Haggises followed by a unit of 21 BTD dwarf warriors.
Fabulous looking goblinkindreds.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a fine job with three colour schemes that I find most difficult.
* Black Cloaks.
* Goblin green faces.
* Contrast of teeth and mouths against the rest of the face.
I've read somewhere that the human eye perceives more variations of green than any other colour. This is probably related to evolving on a green planet where some plants are food, some are deadly poison, and some are camouflage for enemies.
This makes painting in green rather difficult, small changes in tone get noticed, and it's harder to mix batches to match existing paints, or to do the fancy 3 colour tricks..
This does feed through to a "How green should your goblins be".
Some will never deviate form GW goblin green - something I find a little pale, others mix it to their own tastes.
I've devised a little logic to explain the range of greens across my forces.
2 factors are at work, both observed with humans.
Some tribes are just naturally different tones to others - I've imposed no further logic upon this, so it can apply to any world map you choose.
The colour darkens with sun exposure - my subterranean goblins tend to be paler, while the orc pirates have a much darker skin due to long days working the ropes on deck.
The range of greens in your unit might reflect a body of grizzled veterans with an intake of young "just out of the burrows" recruits.
I think I have arrived at a rather effective scheme for painting Night Goblins.
ReplyDelete1. Spray prime black.
2. A layer of matte black paint to ensure an even surface and all the nooks and crannies are covered.
3.Paint the face and exposed skin a dull dark green (I use Folk Art Thicket).
4. Paint the eyes, mouth, bone, wood, leather and yellow-metal equipment with red brown (I use Vallejo primer).
5. Paint the teeth and bone bits white
6. Paint the skin your shade of goblin green (I use Game Color Sick Green), leaving the dark green showing in skin folds.
7. Touch up with black, and also paint over white-metal equipment as needed.
8. Paint white-metal with silver.
9. Dry brush or highlight the black with a dark grey (I use Vallejo Model German Grey).
10. Allow model to dry thoroughly.
11. Wash the white-metal bits with a black wash.
12. Wash the rest of the model (including the skin!) with a brown wash.
The trick is actually washing the skin with a brown wash, which makes the green skin warmer and thus more "natural".