Jolly Japes and How I Paint Old School Goblinoid Skin

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

One question that I have been asked a great deal over the years is how I paint goblinoid skin. Or more precisely, how can you paint goblinoid skin to look like the classic orcs and gobbos of the 1980s. My answer was always the same 'I really don't know' as all of my previous attempts to capture that slightly radioactive tone have fallen short. Usually, my orc or goblin skin looks too pale, at least to my eyes. Have a look here to see what I mean. 

As well as being a common snotling, this chap was also part of an amusing set. have a look here to find out more. 

I quite liked my darker skinned orcs I produced recently for McDeath (look here) but they were a deliberate departure from the light green stereotype. In my heart of hearts, I still wanted to find a satisfactory method of achieving the '80s look until today, I just couldn't quite reach the desired result. 

According to Kev Adams, this model originally had a finely sculpted turd hanging from his bumhole. The sight of the offending faeces was allegedly too much for one Studio Manager and the helmet was added to cover up the naughty nugget!

As you can see, that all changed with Jolly Japes. I was feeling inspired by my little trip to Salute and with the wife and kids laid up with a tummy upset, I spent this afternoon tinkering with my paint station. I had Jolly Japes based up since I found him in a small Car Boot lot last summer. Whim took me, and I started painting him up using whatever paints I had to hand. It was with the addition of Bilious Green to the mix that I knew that I was on to something and over the next twenty minutes or so it took to finish highlighting the tiny model up I knew that I was closer than ever to achieving the classic 'look'. 

Warhammer's equivalent to that scene in 'Every Which Way But Loose!' Right turn, snot!

As promised so many times, if I ever found a simple way of creating that '80s goblinoid look I would put together a little tutorial and share my method. So here we are! As always, you will be needing a short shopping list of bits and pieces to get started. Have a look at the paints I used: 

From the left we have Citadel Colour Khorne Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Foundry's Yellow 2B, Bright Green 25B, Citadel Colour's Bilious Green (1985), Rich Butternut 115B, Boneyard 9A and 9C and last but not least, Citadel Green Ink (1985).

All these paints are very easy to get your hands on, save Bilious Green and the Green Ink, both of which turn out to be key colours in my little recipe. Not that they are impossible to collect - scouring eBay for a couple of weeks will result in several opportunities to get your hands on a pot. There are a number of modern similar equivalents but there is nothing to my knowledge out there that is a perfect match. I am sure that many of your will have a pot or two hidden away somewhere. Go on a hunt! 

Step One: Undercoat your model in a single layer of white acrylic paint. A spray coating or brush on will be fine. As you can see, I brushed on - proper old school that! 

Step Two: Basecoat with Foundry's Bright Green 25B. Ensure that there are no bubbles clinging to the model before setting it aside to dry. 

Step Three: Dot the eyes with Khorne Red and paint the loincloth with Rich Butternut 115B. Once dry, wash over the entire model with green ink. 

Step Four: Repaint all the raised areas of skin with Bright Green, try and leave a suggestion of the darker ink shade in the deepest recesses. 

Step Five: Add a little Bilious Green to your Bright Green paint on the palette and mix it in. Your new shade should be fairly brighter but don't over do things. Try a ratio of 4:2 Bright Green and Bilious Green.

Step Six: Final highlight of the skin with a 4:3 mix of Bright Green and Bilious Green. I toyed with adding a final mini highlight to the face and hands using just Bilious Green but decided the effect was too stark in the end. There is nothing stopping you trying it out, of course!

Step Seven: Paint the eyes using Khorne Red as your base, followed by the Evil Sunz Scarlet while the previous paint is still wet. Use a tiny dot of yellow to create a pupil in the centre of each eye. 

Step Eight: Use Rich Butternut 115B, Boneyard 9A and 9C to highlight up the lion cloth, though in truth you could do with with any colour you devise. I just think that mouldy browns and oranges look best on a gobbo. 

And here is my little snotling snapped on my photography set up. A little blurry I know but the light was going by the time I took the picture. He blends in well to his surroundings and more importantly doesn't look too pale or washed out. You may be wondering why he is just plonked there on an undecorated base? Well, you will have to wait and see where he ends up as I am also working on an other project involving snotlings - quite a lot of them actually. 

Hopefully, someone somewhere will find this little tutorial useful. Before you go, can you do me a favour? If you have a nifty little recipe for orc/goblin skin that you regularly use could you share it below in the comments? I wouldn't mind trying out a few more techniques in future and who knows, yours might be the perfect tone for some grizzly old orc I have lurking around in the leadpile!!

Thanks for reading.

Orlygg