A Goblin Army
I don’t know what bug got into me to start this project. It’s been decades since I last played Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I think what took me down this road was mostly nostalgia, supported by my love of the hobby (miniatures painting and gaming), desire to experiment in 15mm and of course the opportunity.
The opportunity that arose from the latest releases of Old Realm Forge. FDM supportless goblins in oldhammer style. Back in the 90’s I was an Orc and Goblins player and had the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 4th edition boxed set which included 32 goblin spearmen and 32 night goblin archers.
I started my project by printing a dozen goblin spearmen by That What Grows from back when I was subscribed to them, and then I subscribed to the Old Realm Forge patreon and within a short period of time I got to work.
I tested print settings, calibrated the printer, tested prints against my existing miniatures to ensure a 60% scale fits well to get my 15mm, and also tried batch printing, single mini printing, print with integrated base or glueing afterwards. The goblin spearmen from That What Grows needed supports as well as the Giggle Shade Goblins from Old Realm Forge. The new models from Old Realm Forge were completely supportless, but they fit nicely with the other figures. I used Brite Minis bases just in case I decided to have a textured base rather than use basing materials like flock (which I did use in the end). It ended up being a lot faster to print the bases separately using a 0.4mm nozzle, and glue the minis to the bases afterwards using UHU Hard Plast. This will be my go-to process for the future.
Overall I printed 84 miniatures. 42 Goblin Spearmen including Command Group (Champion, Standard Bearer and Musician) – 12 of them are That What Grows spearmen, 36 Goblin Archers including Command Group (Champion, Standard Bearer and Musician), Goblin Boss – Big Ears, 5 GiggleShade Goblins with hand weapons and shields.
During the entire process for the paints I used solely Royal Talens Amsterdam Standard series acrylics, and I’ll describe the colour palette I used. I went down the rabbit hole of finding reference pictures to paint the miniatures, as I tried to give it the old vibes. I still have my old warhammer books, so for the spearmen and night goblins I had plenty of details. However finding goblin archers for reference needed some hunting down, as the boxed set included night goblin archers instead, and the Old Real Forge supportless archers are regular goblins. Thankfully squinting a bit into the battle photos of the book, I could see some goblin archers painted. As a history sidenote, goblin archers in plastic were available as part of the Citadel Fantasy Regiments box which was released during Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd edition instead, but the photos made it into the 4th edition books as well.
My original plan was to follow my regular flow: sketch prime, basecoat glaze, wash, varnish. However some things didn’t turn out as I expected, so I had to adapt. Everything was done batchwise. I first finished each step (i.e. Green colour) for the entire set, before switching to the next colour. I worked with 6-7 and sometimes 10 minis at a time before continuing with the next group.
For Sketch Priming I used a makeup sponge instead of a brush, and it was so much better, hiding FDM layer lines instead of accentuating them, that I replaced all my drybrushing with sponge drybrushing instead, and it’s going to be my main techniqe going forward. The downside was that I only had a bigger sponge (my order of smaller sponges hadn’t arrived yet) so it left more spots dark, which will also play a role later on.
For Base Coating, after a lot of research I ended up using the following colours.
– Permanent Green Light for Goblin Skin
– Pyrrole Red for Tunics (Reversed with Hoods in some)
– Payne’s Grey for Hoods (Reversed with Tunics in some)
– Raw Sienna for Leather parts (Belts, Bracers, Boots)
– Gold Yellow followed by Primary Yellow for Shafts (Spears and Bows)
– Gold Yellow followed by Yellow Ochre for Quivers and Arrows.
– Yellow Ochre for Fur in Hats and Drum tops
– Titanium White for Horns, Fangs, Buckles
– Silver for Spears, Sword and Bow edges, parts of Shields, Helmets and Boots
– Bronze for Gongs and Sword Guards
– Metallic Black, Metallic Red for parts of Shields
– Raw Umber for Ground
– Oxide Black for Base Rim
After Base Coating I made my Strong Tone wash, using my DIY recipe which I have done in the past, but also scaled up to double quantities. Somehow the wash turned darker than what I was expecting. I don’t know if it’s the hot weather which caused it to condensate faster or my lack of removing pooling due to batch painting them, if I messed up something in the recipe during scale up, or if the the initial sketch prime was too dark. Perhaps it was a combination of all the above. Whatever the reason, there was only one solution. Old-style painting highlights on top. I had always avoided this in 15mm, but this was a good opportunity to grow as a painter. Still, doing it for 84 figures wasn’t an ideal situation.
For Highlights I did a 3 step highlight. First step was using the same colour as the basecoat. I did the Skins, Tunics, Shafts, Arrows. Then I did second pass for the same, using a lighter colour and smaller area. Vermillon over Pyrrole Red, Yellowish Green over Permanent Green Light. Finally I did a very light sponge drybrush highlight over the entire mini using Permanent Lemon Yellow Light.
Regarding Sealing, I went with Matte Varnishing over the entire miniature, followed by Satin Varnish on metallic parts, before continuing with basing.
For Basing I decided to go mostly with Light Green Flock, and at times, spots of coarse sand (brown or gray), small rocks, and grass tufts.
Overall I absolutely love the end result. I set them up for a photoshoot using some terrain (including an oldhammer tower from Doctor Spork!) woods, and a nice fitting mat. I intend to add some wolf riders and squigs, and find a fitting enemy army to fight against. If I don’t have the numbers, I’ll have to do a similar process. For now I’ll do a points calculation for funs.
Warlord
Giggleshade Goblin Mob
That What Grows Goblin Mob
Goblin Spears Mob
Goblin Archers Mob
498.5 points total
Summary
It was a big task, but I absolutely loved it. I loved the Old Realm Forge sculpts, and it’s great to see another sculptor doing FDM sculpts. Really looking forward to seeing what else Old Realm Forge has in store for the future. I learned a lot from this especially considering sponge drybrush, highlights and colour saturation, and hopefully this will help me improve as a miniatures painter. Looking forward to taking it slow now with regards to my hobby painting, to avoid burning. I expected the little gobbos to give some more points values, but overall it was at about 325, and I had to add magic items to reach 500.
With a target of 500 points, I can now focus on the exact enemy numbers I need to get to field a battle for fun. Should I start printing some Old Realm Forge dwarves? hmm…
Onibaba are discussing. 
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
Onibaba 9:25 am on June 19, 2026 Permalink |
Welcome back! Amazing work as always
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giorgis 6:06 pm on June 19, 2026 Permalink |
Thank you! Glad you like it!
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