Leave No Goblin Behind

They may do nothing - but they cost nothing!

A very long time ago, in the spirit of using every part of the buffalo, I combed through my bitz box of goblin spares to see what I could make of it.

As it turns out, you get a lot of spares with goblins (different weapon arms, various heads, even some legs for wolf riders), and having built over a hundred of them, I had enough to make a whole new regiment. For free!

The only missing piece of the puzzle was torsos, which I manoeuvred around by getting a blob of greenstuff and squidging the heads, limbs and arms onto it. I also added some quivers to cover up the worst of the fingerprints. It makes them look a bit janky - but that's entirely right and proper for goblins (I wouldn't have gotten away with this with High Elves). 

The legs were all bare feet, which was a bonus, as I wanted these goblins to look different to their shod cousins - a cross between forest goblins and hill goblins. As the pose was designed for wolf riders, it gave them all a bandy legged appearance - once again, you could only get away with it with goblins.

I made them archers - not because I have much faith in goblin accuracy, simply because that was what I had to work with (also, I'm getting a bit completionist with my greenskins army). With some foresight, all the goblins in my spear regiment had bald heads, which left me lots of topknot heads for this regiment. It adds to the semi-savage look of them, which I augmented with some plastic tufts and feathers in their hats.

Having built these in 2008, they've been patiently waiting their time - and fortunately Contrast paint was invented in the interim. After drybrushing Ushabti Bone over Steel Legion Drab, I did Cygor Brown for the bodies (dark enough to hide the fact that they don't actually have bodies), Gor-Grunta Fur for the bows, Snakebite Leather for the straps, Garaghak's Sewer for the quivers and Volpus Pink for the mouths.

For the skin, I went with Kabalite Green, with a Goblin Green drybrush - which gives them a healthy glow, rather than those pasty underground Night Goblins.

I also attempted all 40 of them in one session, which may have been a bit excessive, but I was on a two week deadline, so no time for niceties.

Although there's always time for a unit filler. In this case, a couple of goblins carrying bundles of spare arrows and dipping them into a little pot of poisonous goop. I can't remember my thoughts behind this - other than the fact I should represent some extra arrows for these guys (some models are just holding one arrow each), but it turned out to be fortuitous...

... because with the right magic item, the unit can have poison attacks! With a unit this size, it could be potentially dangerous, especially if set against a high-toughness, low-armour model like a monsters. The downside is you'd have to place them within a long spit of a monster, so they wouldn't get many opportunities to shoot.

Either way, with a headpiece borrowed from the Spider Riders, the unit has its standard. Rounding out the command group is the musician and a boss, who is given the rare distinction of both a sword and a severed head (probably not a vanquished enemy - I bet he found it on the ground).

Having spent no money on the unit, I permitted myself to actually purchase some upgrades - a trio of Nasty Skulkers! They're nice models to paint, and I do like their menacing poses and little executioner masks.

These were a late addition to goblin lore (unless you count hobgoblins, who've had Sneaky Gitz forever). It felt like GW was trying to make up for the fact that Night Goblins get to have a trio of wildcard upgrades in the form of Fanatics, and Common Goblins were being short-changed (plus, they get to sell you more models).

In game, they act like mini-assassins (similar to Skaven and Dark Elf - so nothing terribly original), and I'm dubious about their effect. Even with their surprise attacks, they're still goblins, and I don't think anyone would be deterred from charging a mob of goblins because it had some Nasty Skulkers lurking inside.

Still, they might be fun, and they could always spring a surprise by shanking a minor hero (a goblin doing anything useful is always a surprise).

So that wraps up this unit - another long-term project and whacking great number of models to cross off the list!