A decent set of fantasy wouldn’t be complete without a full greenskin variety.
In addition to the goblin warband, I’ve gotten single 15mm fantasy sculpts that I’ve collected together to increase my skirmish forces.
My pile of shame includes 18 more orcs, and I’ve ordered one big troll to join them.
Here are three Trollbins (lesser trolls) and three orcs from the Demonworld range of Ral Partha Europe.
Here I detail my Lizardmen Blighthaven warband from Ral Partha Europe.
I really enjoyed these sculpts. One thing that was a bit off, is how they were significantly bigger than the rest of my Blighthaven miniatures. Even their bases are different, than the traditional demonworld round bases. To address this I used larger basing materials, otherwise they would look a bit odd.
The archers didn’t have the quivers attached to their backs, so I followed the advice of a fellow warganer and put them on the ground in front of them.
I went with a simple paint scheme. The whole net and trident/fork attire gave me a swamp/fishing culture feel, so I chose my colors to represent this.
I painted their flesh green, again of sketching, but I washed the flesh with a blue-black wash. I wanted that green-blue hue. I painted the shirts and pants in yellow ochre for a ragged look, with a brown-black wash.
This is the Blighthaven Mercenaries Warband, again from Ral Partha Europe. I really liked these sculpts. Went with a blue uniform color and striped black and white shields. My custom wash turned out a bit stronger than I expected, giving a more dirty look, but I enjoyed the final result. These are supposed to be field warriors not ceremonial.
This is the Town Guard Blighthaven warband from Ral Partha. The pack is taken from the Nobles from the Demonworld line, and according to the site description, they are supposed to be better equipped than the Mercenaries warband (coming soon).
What was really evident from this is the difficulty to paint Yellow and less so, Red. Part of the reason, I got me later on a set of acrylic inks.
Also I didn’t know at the time that Lemon Yellow has a green tint. That and Crimson which I used, are not Primary colors, but close. Nevertheless I enjoyed the final result since they make a nice contrast together. I also like the heraldry choice.
So, this is the Southern Death Cult Blighthaven warband drawn from the Demonworld line of Ral Partha miniatures. It contains 7 cloaked figures, and 3 zombies. Actually 2 of the cloaked figures could be zombies as well. They double in their role. For me they fill mostly a role of the broken back cultist servant, since they are cloaked but don’t sport masks as the rest of them.
For colors I went with purple cloaks and metallic masks. For the zombies I put some Crimson Red in their wounds, and used the rust technique from the Skeletons.
What I did different this time was basing. I went with a mix of baking soda and some coffee grinds for a better sand look. Using baking soda as basing material is a well known technique in the miniatures painting circles, especially in a combination with cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) as it creates nice texturing when setting, and it sets quickly. You need to take extra care though, as it’s very easy to travel upwards to the feet of your minis.
Here’s my Skeleton warband from Blighthaven line of Ral Partha Europe miniatures.
For the paint scheme, I didn’t follow my standard black prime + white sketching. Instead I tried to follow as close as possible, the Skeleton painting guide from the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 4th edition core rulebook.
So it was a white primer+white undercoat, followed by a brown/yellow 50/50 wash. Then I drybrushed with yellow ochre, followed by a drybrush of white. I finished it with the classic black/brown wash in the end. To give the rusty look on weapons I drybrushed them with a 50/50 Vermillion/Burnt Sienna. I learned my lesson from the dark brown wood I had painted, and lightened my brown with white and yellow for the bows and spears. My only failure was my attempt at purple cloaks, which turned out to be a gray mauve instead.
Here’s my Blighthaven goblin warband, which includes a dozen different goblins with different poses!
For colors, I went with Viridian green for the skin color. It’s a bluish green. I could have gone with a more traditional green, but it was the only one I had available at the time, and I think it gives a nice distinct tone in comparison to other greenskins.
Since this is a warband, I tried to keep a uniform color and went with Yellow Ochre for the clothing. It gives a ragged look that I really enjoyed. I had a rough time painting it over the black parts of the undercoat, and later on I found that proper thinning of the paint maybe with a slight dab of an ink of the same color helps, but I didn’t know it at the time.
I also discovered that Raw Umber, the brown color I used to paint the wooden parts of the spears and the bows, is very dark. Dark colors aren’t very much suited to 15mm, because it’s hard for the eye to make out the details at table distance.
In the past year, staying inside, I started painting miniatures. After reading this blogpost, I discovered the world of 15mm miniatures. Very affordable, at less than half a buck a piece, and requiring smaller gaming and storage space.
I was really intrigued by the Blighthaven Warbands by Ral Partha Europe, skirmish packs, drawn by their Demonworld 15mm fantasy line. I knew Ral Partha from when I was a teenager playing Dragon Quest, and was curious as to their quality. Shipping was reasonable to where I live, and so I ordered my first pack, a variety of adventurers.
The miniatures arrived back in the start of 2020 and I was quite scared at first trying to paint them, especially considering the 15mm size. So, I waited a few months before I begun.
I didn’t want to spend too much on a hobby I wasn’t sure I would enjoy, or would be good at, so I got my painting tools from a variety of sources. A cheap set of brushes from ebay, and a cheaper one from the dollar store (for drybrushing, priming and varnishes). A set of acrylic paints from the dollar store, and an Amsterdam crafts satin varnish. In the meantime Ral Partha introduced their Miniature Paints, and I got a Black and a White Primer, some metallics and a Matt Varnish.
I read a lot, and taking under consideration various techniques I chose what I believe fits best to my skill base and expectations. My concerns were my unsteady hands which aren’t suited to highlighting techniques and partial color blindness (I can see all colors fine, but fail all Isibara tests) so I wanted to avoid mixing my own shades.
Steps followed:
All in all I really enjoyed the process. I was very happy with the end results. They’re not competition level or anything, but they’re table-ready and they’re done by me!
So, without further ado, I present you my band of adventurers.
You may have seen them here and there in several of my actual play reports. I intend to upload retrospective snaps of all of my painted miniatures in the future, so expect more to come.
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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