Fanatics: New Balls

Liberated from a WoffBoot deadline, I'm back to flitting around my leadpile. At the moment, Night Goblins are getting my attention.

This instance started off as just a repair job on a snapped fanatic, but a few touch-ups became a full repaint job so quickly, I forgot to take my usual 'before' picture. But they looked something like this:

The bases are kept steady with 2p pieces glued to the bottom.
Proof that my collection is worth at least 6p.

The goblins above belong to a different regiment, but aside from the hoods, they are exactly the same colour scheme: a deep green that seems too verdant for my pasty-faced Night Goblins.

Spiky balls.

So these were given a quick makeover, mainly with the revised skin recipe of Elysian Green base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash and Nurgling Green highlights. By being careful, I was able to leave the eyes, teeth and nails as they were. The deeper green even makes a nice undercoat to leave darker recesses.

All these goblins have Red Gore hoods (it's a theme with their whole unit), but I wanted to darken that down too. A wash of trusty Agrax Earthshade seems to do the trick.

Smooth balls.

This was the miniature that started it: he's supposed to be leaning sideways, but I already had one of those, so I stood him on his tippytoes to make it seem as if he's swinging the ball overhead. This made the model insecure on the base, and he was often coming loose.

He's now securely glued down, and his Red Gore hood was given a Chestnut Ink wash (I'm varying it with Agrax Earthshade, so the hoods look similar, but not too uniform). I should probably tone down the brass bell, but I quite like it.

Decorative balls.

And the finishing touch to make the ball and chains less shiny and new: Typhus Corrosion wash, Reza Rush highlights. I like this effect so much, all the goblins are getting it (right down to the rank and file).

I also tried flicking some Blood for the Blood God onto the balls - I may have been too conservative with the application, but it's probably better than drenching them in gore.

Although the above model does have an orkish face carved into his ball and chain - with great restraint, I decided not to pick out the face in blood.

Wilson!

So that's three of the old army repainted - I'll admit I haven't had the nerve to attempt repainting the main regiments yet, but this little test case has fired my enthusiasm for it, because I think the improvement is dramatic.

Swinging balls.