"What color shall I paint my Goblins?" Topic

Hi all,

Purchased some Goblin factory Goblins at Cold Wars this past weekend. What color do you paint the Goblin skin? My first thought was to paint them green but then I thought maybe something different. Brown with highlight maybe? Sorts of gray green? Not really sure. Anyone have a different idea?

Thanks,

John

I recently finished painting mine up orange (one of the colors described in the 1st edition D&D Monster Manual.)

I reckon that goblins (and orcs, for that matter) look both more convincing and more disturbing when painted in normal human skin tones.

If you want to go classic old-school, then original Dungeons & Dragons goblins had skin tones which ranged from dark red, through various orange shades, to yellow.

Blueish?

Looking at the figures, perhaps a nutty brown, gray, gray-green or blueish.

Gray or brown looks good with bright clothing.

I tend to go olive green, but really any earthy tone or grey seems good to me.

Doug

I was going to suggest a brownish-orange before I saw the picture above and I'm even more convinced now.

I always think orcs look best either tolkien style (i.e. flesh tones with greys and greens mixed i, maybe browns like uruk hai) or deep red/orange, but that might just be because I always thought GW orks looked completely retarded being bright green (sorry ork players…)

Greenskins should be….. green.

Eric

The Greenskin myth is due to the use of an aloe based sunscreen when above ground.

I am leaning toward either brownish orange or flesh tone. Maybe dark flesh tones.

I have some 6mm goblins/orcs to paint for Mighty Armies at some point, and I think this thread has helped me decide to paint each base a different skin tone to enhance the goblinoid awesomeness factor. I may repeat once I run out of ideas, but certainly a couple of greens, blue, orange-brown, flesh, dark red, yellow, yellow-green, grey-green, brown…

I must say I was a confirmed "greenskin" guy. But seeing those orange and blue guys have really changed my mind. Very nice work gentleman. I'm not sold on flesh tone, but that may be becouse I can't do (I think) a decent flesh tone myself.

I use green but I stay away from the GW style and try to make it look more real.

I have been painting goblins/orcs green since I got my first Minifigs Middle Earth figures in the 1970s.

I obviously misunderstood the word 'sallow' in Lord of the Rings, but I was only young:)

I try not to do them a bright pea green though.

I'm not sold on flesh tone, but that may be becouse I can't do (I think) a decent flesh tone myself.

I wasn't sold on it either but a a few (maybe many!) years back, I did some Flintloque Orcs with a swarthy flesh tone and I have to say, they look great! They are not GW looking Orcs but Goblin factory are not GW style either.

I've followed the traditional green (Dreamcoat "Seminole Green"— who knew that Seminoles were green?). However, those blue guys are impressive. Very Pictish/Wee Free Men-ish.

I also think a pale, been-under-ground-too-long look would be suitably scary, though at smaller scales that might just end up looking skeletal.

I have some Copplestone Half-orcs (Uruk-hai) to paint up; I'd love to do these dark like the films, but I'm afraid at 10mm they'd just end up looking African, which is not the effect I want. Maybe a little towards the red would work.

Parzival He has more over on his blog of the bluish goblins link

Here's some brownish ones

great thread! Nice to see solutions other than GW neon-green orcs & gobbos! Anybody tried yellow skinned goblins?

I look at those brown Goblins and I see brown Elves. They look too fancy to be Goblins. The look is nice and they are painted and based well. They just don't really look like Goblins to me.

great thread! Nice to see solutions other than GW neon-green orcs & gobbos! Anybody tried yellow skinned goblins?

Well everything is primed black. If I go yellow, it shall be bubonic brown (GW) and something else for a highlight. I have to look at the chart to see what that highlight color is.

EDIT: Looks like the color trio should be vomit brown, bubonic brown and desert yellow. I'll give it a try tonight. Over black, it might give the sickly look of LotR Tolkien Gobos.

Here are some old-school yellow goblins (though, they look a touch greenish, at least on my screen):

Brilliant stuff Evilcartoonist! Not sure I can paint to your standards but the "yellow" does look fantastic!

Ooh, Malaki's brown 'uns are Grenadier miniatures 'Marsh Goblins'. (Or was it Swamp Goblins?)

I've got some of them in the lead pile from further back than I can remember!

Secretive, stealthy poison-dart using types, according to Grenadier's canon.

Check out Spooktalker's excellent classic grenadier goblins for inspiration.

TMP link

Why not different colours to represent different clans?

Check out Spooktalker's excellent classic grenadier goblins for inspiration

More brilliant stuff! Not sure if it is more inspirational or demoralizing. Yet another paint job I will try to live up to!

Why not different colours to represent different clans?

I kind of like a more homogeneous look. They are going to be LotR Goblins/Orcs in service of Sauron. I might do Mordor Orcs a different color.

"Why not different colours to represent different clans?"

I did this with an RPG setting years ago to allow anything in the collection (or someone else's) to work.

I painted 6 goblins last night. I started with bubonic brown over black primer. I then washed the figure with vomit brown. I then dry brushed with bubonic brown again. I did a highlight of desert yellow. This was not a strong highlight so I highlighted again with bleached bone. The result was a slightly green looking goblin. Basically "sallow". No pictures yet. I will snap one today or tonight.

John

wow – great looking yellow-skins by evilcartoonist.
It's good to hear everyone else's "recipes" for orc coloring as well –

"a slightly green looking goblin" drybrushed in bubonic brown sounds interesting – show us the pictures!