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My Bilbo and Gandalf tutorials are proving popular, so I’ve decided to continue the series of Hobbit tutorials, this time concentrating on the evil Goblins. Within the Eascape from Goblin Town boxset there are 38 Goblin Warriors, a Captain, Grinnah, the Scribe on his swing and the monstrous Goblin King. Painting a large horde can be daunting so the aim of this tutorial is to speed things up a bit. Details after the jump. 


This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of how to paint. For the beginners, I will explain some techniques such as washing, drybrushing and stippling as I go along. Each picture below shows four chronological steps. Underneath each picture are the corresponding instructions. Each step shows the paint I used during that step. It’s good to have reference material close to hand to check colours. I used google images for film stills and Games Workshop’s 360º pictures on their website were a great help. 

Paints you will need for this tutorial:

White Primer

Carroburg Crimson (shade)

Eldar Flesh (dry)

Pallid Wych Flesh (layer)

Rhinox Hide (base)

Balor Brown (layer)

Karak Stone (layer)

Gorthor Brown (layer)

Dawnstone (layer)

Administratum Grey (layer)

Skrag Brown (layer)

Jokero Orange (base)

Ironbreaker (layer)

Bloodletter (glaze)

Seraphim Sepia (shade)

Stirland Mud (texture)

XV-88 (base)

1. Undercoat the model white. I used Citadel Skull White spray. I recommend applying double sided tape to the sides of a stick with a square profile and sticking as many models to the stick as possible. You will maximise the use of your spray can by catching models in different angles with the overspray.

2. Using a large brush, load it up with Carroburg Crimson and spread it over the skin of the model. Don’t worry if it goes over details. 

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3. Citadel Dry paints are more pigment then liquid. These paints have the consistency of a Crème Brûlée. In this stage you need to dry brush Eldar Flesh over the skin areas. To dry brush take a large brush with short bristles (splayed out is good) dab the tip of the brush in to the paint pot and then wipe it off onto a tissue until only a little remains on the brush. Then lightly flick across the model with the brush multiple times to see the dry brush layer build up. It’s best to build it up with light layers to get a softer effect then to hit it with a fully loaded brush.

4. Repeat the drybrushing stage above with Pallid Wych Flesh. This isn’t a Citadel Dry paint, so you will need to wipe more off onto a tissue.

5. Paint all the details such as weapons, loin cloths, rags, teeth and eyes with Rhinox hide.

6. Paint the loin cloths, rags and ropes with Balor Brown. You’ll notice I’ve painted Grinnah’s whip with this colour as well. Leave Rhinox Hide showing through creases, folds and overlapping areas. 

7. Highlight the previous stage’s colour with Karak Stone

8. Paint the straggly hair with Gorthor Brown

9. Pick out the raised hair detail with Dawnstone

10. Highlight the hair with Administratum Grey.

11. I wanted to paint my Goblin’s weapons in a really rusty way so I dabbed on a base layer of Skrag Brown.

12. To get that rusty texture to the blades, you need to stipple on Jokearo Orange. Firstly you need to make a stippling brush. Take an old brush, one that will no longer hold a point (called fish tailing) is perfect and use a pair of scissors to cut it down to 3-4mm in length. To stipple, dab the modified brush in the paint and then dab it onto tissue several times, then dab it onto the model. You can see in the close up the kind of effect this creates. 

13. Using a fine detail brush apply tiny dabs of Ironbreaker along the edges of the blades.

14. Paint the eyes with Jokearo Orange (you can do this at stage 12 if you wish). Then using a small brush use Bloodletter Glaze in the creases of the face, the gums and on and around the eyes. This red tone gives a bit of life to the face and I think makes them look more evil. 

15. The Goblins are covered in pus filled spots and they live in the dank and dirty Misty Mountains so we need to make the model a little more grubby. I used Seraphim Sepia to wash over each individual spot/lump. I also used this colour randomly and sparingly on the skin to show dirt. Small clumps of spotting work nicely.

Finally base the model in a way which fits in with your collection. I used Stirland Mud texture paint highlighted with Karak Stone and the base edge was painted with XV-88. Static grass and scrub were glued on in small clumps.

In conclusion,  the washing and drybrushing stages aren’t pretty close up but they really are useful techniques to speed up the painting of such a large quantity of models. Obviously I’ve painted two models at the same time. This is called batch painting, where multiple models are painted at the same time. You can batch paint as many models as you feel comfortable. I will be batch painting the rest of my Goblins in batches of 9 (38 remaining Goblins divided by 9 models at a time = 4 batches).

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