I have a lot of hobgoblin slaves… then i scored some sweet minis from '85 in a large score. So no i have a million slaves to paint. I’m more of a gamer than a painter. These guys will be pretty plain. The plan in black spraypaint, green for flesh, bronze for weapons, quick and light stone drybrush then nuln oil wash. The question is: if you had to pick 1 GW green colour for your gobbo skin what would it be? I will be washing it with nuln oil so it will look dark in the end. Also any tips on painting such a massive ammount of slaves? Actual numbers are around 250. I’ve never had to batch paint such a massive ammount of minis so any advice will be greatly appreciated :hat off
Hi, if you wash it with one medium think about dipping.
I remember a tutorial on army painter for an orc army. Perhaps it would work to basecoat them already green or in the clothes colour, depending on what kind of hobgobos these are :-).
Ok, I personally painted 80 Hobgoblins & 30 Chaos Dwarfs in batches of 15-20-30 models. The job is scary but it can be done, and you can achieve fantastic results with (relatively) minimal efforts.
Here are a couple of tips:
-Dip. You can find a lot of tutorials on the web on how to “dip paint” your army and Bjorni’s force is a fine example. It’s cheap, looks absolutely great, and if you gather 2 - 3 friends (bribe them with Pee-tza and Be-ehr) you can get the job done in one day of feverish work. Remember that: 1) If you dip your army, you have to use the lightest shade of the colors you chose. For instance, go silver for dark metals, use yellow mixed with white for yellows, and so on. 2) You can dip the models AND the base at the same time BUT NOT the modeling grass!!! Glue it later. 3) Make a test model. You need to understand how much is the dip going to affect the shades of your colors.
-Spray dip. A little faster, but slightly more expensive. The tutorial posted above is a fine example of an army painted this way, at a great level, in no time. Consider this option as a valid one if you can invest a little bit of cash in spray cans and a dip jar.
-Washes. Definitely more time consuming. In fact, you cannot really compare this method with Dipping or Spray Dipping when it comes down to time saving. But as you practice with this technique you’ll become more precise with your brush and the models will look very cool! I painted my Hobbos this way, and I can tell you that: 1) use a white basecoat. You want your colors to be bright in order to build shades, that’s the whole principle of washing. 2) If you use GW paints than shake the jars properly. I don’t know why but GW washes have a glossy finish which looks evident if you don’t shake your jars… note that this is not valid if you have the old version (Badab Black!!!). 3) You can’t use the same color to shade the whole model. That’s for dip painting. Here you need to shade your greens with dark green, your yellows with an orange/red mix, et cetera. Otherwise your miniatures will simply look messy. 4) Don’t water down your shades. 5) If you don’t achieve much with one wash don’t worry! Give the mini another one. Usually 3-4 are enough. If you want to go the extra mile you can even paint some highlights by layering (check the internet for tutorials). Examples: .Green = Waboss Green shaded with Biel-Tan Green highlighted with Warboss Grenn + Yellow. .Gray = Administratum Gray shaded with Nuln Oil higlighted with Administratum Gray + White. Apply this principle of “Bright - shaded with Dark - highlighted with Brighter” to all the colors you need. Remember that GW clubs have free painting desks where you can try their products! Practice a little bit before spending lots of $ for stuff that you are not confident with!
-Puppet master: If you have the cash hire somebody to paint the miniatures for you! Now, you are not forced to ask a studio (they will rip you off). To keep costs down you can: 1) Target the people at your club with a decently painted army. Talk with them about your problem, befriend them and ask them how much they would want to paint your minis. 2) High school students!!! They need the cash, they will keep the price low, plenty of them play Warhammer, and plenty of them can handle a brush. 3) Ask your friends. 4) Ask the staff of your gaming club because… Well, I for instance wouldn’t snuff some extra income. As a matter of fact I used to paint miniatures for my local club (more than a decade ago). I was charging 3.5 euros per infantry model painted at a decent level… If you have the cash you can pay these prices (obviously not for 250 models, but are you really going to need all this infantry for a Warhammer game? Maybe you can sell the miniatures you don’t need and get some money back).
Hope that was helpful!
EDIT: If your models are the old GW stock Hobgoblins than you can’t spray paint them, as they were cast as a single piece of metal.
I like Vallejo green grey for the ashen slavey look. I’m not sure if gw do anything similar if they do it might have previously been catachan or camo green or similar
Guys you all rock. Thanks heaps for the tips. Seriously thanks heaps, so much good info. Dipping looks like the way i’ll probably go. Here are some pix, they arn’t just hobgobbos they are slave units that have all sorts of greenskins but they will be played that way.
Here’s the first block minus a few extra standard bearers and unit fillers that are ogres:
And here is the old school minis i scored, and i got a few more in bits i need to sort out
Dipping is time-saving, but leaves the models irrevocably glossy. If it wasn’t for speed I’d recommend brown-spraying and then batch painting them, one colour at a time with normal washing and highlighting, if you want a better look. It won’t be as fast as dipping, but would give you a result to be satisfied with for years to come.
Theres another method I used to wash my skaven slaves (130 so far). <br>I painted everything in base colors and then used a wash with a size 3 brush. I used an old coat darms wash “Flesh wash” but I am sure you can do these with modern washes like GW Agrax Earthshade for example, too. It`s not so messy like dipping and gives you more control and it is nearly as fast and one pot of normal wash should be sufficient for the 250 (perhaps 2 pots).
Yes, brownwashing everything will work well and look better than dipping. You can also take your time and highlight stuff before washing (even if it’s only rough drybrushing), since the wash will bind together highlight and base colours well.
It’s been said really, but I can’t see Nuln Oil working well on any kind of green flesh. Best would probably be to use a green wash on the flesh but, if you must cut corner, use a brown (Agrax Earthshade or Seraphim Sepia) all over, not black.
Dipping is time-saving, but leaves the models irrevocably glossy. If it wasn't for speed I'd recommend brown-spraying and then batch painting them, one colour at a time with normal washing and highlighting, if you want a better look. It won't be as fast as dipping, but would give you a result to be satisfied with for years to come.
Admiral
To get rid of the gloss you'd then have to put on a "dullcote" or matte finish. Advice I've been given is to paint the dipping varnish on, don't actually dip them as they get too much on them.
The other problem is that the dip I have is turps based and I do most of my painting in the lounge room. You can get water based ones but I didn't know that
