Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I finally succumbed and purchased the ‘Escape from Goblin Town’ boxed set. Initially I was reluctant to buy such a large set as I didn’t want to end up with lots of models that I never got round to painting and ‘Escape from Goblin Town’ contains 36 goblins! In the end I resolved to find a quick and easy way to paint the goblins, allowing me plenty of time to devote to each member of Thorin’s company. Although I usually paint each and every model to the best of my ability I knew that if I attempted this with so many similar models I would never get through the lot.
In order to speed up the process I adopted a technique I read in an old White Dwarf and affixed each of the goblins to a long stick using Blu Tack. This allowed me to prime them all at once and apply the initial basecoat to all 36 goblins using an airbrush. This whole process took about an hour (including drying time) and I then when to work washing and drybrushing the models. Below is a rough guide to the process:
1) Basecoat Dheneb Stone using an airbrush.
2) Wash the whole model with a heavy application of Baal Red.
3) Drybrush the goblins Elf Flesh.
4) Give the goblins a lighter drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh.
5) Apply purple, red, sepia and blue washes and glazes over the rotten and diseased parts of the goblins as desired.
6) Paint the details.
This was a very quick process and produced some good results. On the whole I am very pleased with these and, although not my best work, they are painted to a pretty decent tabletop standard.
I hope you like them,
Andy.
