The legend of Goblin Green: Why gamers love one discontinued Warhammer paint over all others

For a certain vintage of gamer who grew up painting and playing Warhammer at the local mall’s Games Workshop, one color of paint stands out from the rest: Goblin Green.

The color, somewhere between a subtle olive green and a vibrant grassy green, wasn’t only essential for those collecting an army of orcs and goblins.

It could be found on the bases of nearly every miniature in the mid-1990s to early 2000s, whether they were destined for the grassy plains of Warhammer Fantasy Battle or a derelict space station in Warhammer 40,000.

“The majority of the bases that you saw […] were these green bases, square or round, that have Goblin Green painted around the rim of the base, Goblin Green over the texture, which was like PVA glue and sand and maybe some rocks, and then, like, a yellow drybrush over top,” said Adam Abramowicz, marketing executive for the miniature paint company The Army Painter.

“That was the base that we all knew and loved.”

Miniature bases have become more diverse over the years, including muddy fields or crumbled cobblestones with corresponding browns or grays on the rims.

“Now that wargaming has become a bit more gritty and realistic, I think people look back on Goblin Green quite fondly because it is a bit of a lurid color and it is a bit goofy,” said mini-painting YouTuber and former Games Workshop presenter Louise Sugden.

But there’s been a recent rise in interest in the ’90s and early 2000s era of Warhammer, unofficially known as Oldhammer or Middlehammer, thanks in part to videos from gaming or miniature influencers online. Games Workshop has also picked up on this, recently reviving its Fantasy Battle range in the form of Warhammer: The Old World.

One problem, though: Games Workshop’s line of paints, Citadel Colour, has changed significantly over the years, with completely different shades and names since the ’90s. That means you won’t find a brand-new bottle of Goblin Green for sale at a Games Workshop store.

Even though other hobby paint brands have similar greens — some even with the same name — none offer an exact color match, which has only helped build the legend of the fan-favorite shade.

When U.K.-based YouTuber Kevin Barraclough recently returned to the hobby after falling off around the 2000s, he found that his “iconic” Goblin Green was nowhere to be found.

“I bought Citadel’s Warboss [Green] and sort of started painting with that, and it just didn’t look the same,” he told Polygon.

On his YouTube channel, he compared other brands’ Goblin Greens over three videos to see if any were closer to the original than Warboss Green, which leans more on the blueish side.

He found that retro-themed brands like Warcolours and Coat d’Arms came the closest — but still concluded that the original triumphed as his favorite.

Goblin Green’s ubiquity can be traced back to before Warhammer became a household name, as the hobby grew out of U.K. historical gaming circles. Tables lined with green playmats hosted reenactments from the War of the Roses before pitched battles between elves and vampires.

Strictly speaking, there isn’t one single color that can be called Goblin Green.

If you closely examine the bases of miniatures in dioramas of old Warhammer rulebooks or catalogs, you’ll notice that many of them are slightly different shades of green.

In addition to variables like photography, lighting, and inconsistent color printing, it was likely due to irregularities in the paint itself, according Duncan Rhodes, a mini-painting tutorial YouTuber and former presenter for Games Workshop.

If a tin of paint was left to settle or separate slightly longer, or not stirred enough before going out to market, the tone might be slightly off.

“That’s quite possibly why you see when other companies do Goblin Green colors, even if they may have originally attempted to color match it to the original paint, there’s probably going to be subtle differences,” he told Polygon.

Over the years, Games Workshop has also used different companies to produce its paint, each with slightly different colors even if they had the same name.

At least as far back as the mid-1990s, U.K.-based HMG Paints made GW’s paints. In 1998, it reportedly switched to a supplier in France. The French Goblin Green is slightly bluer than HMG’s yellower tone, and closer in hue to the modern Warboss Green.

What exactly goes into the paints remains a mystery. Unlike artist paint lines like Winsor & Newton and Golden, which list individual color pigments in their products, most mini paint lines do not disclose their color formulations.

A representative from HMG declined to comment about its current and past miniature paints, saying its partnerships are protected under nondisclosure agreements.

The difficulty of finding a perfect match to a classic paint might come down to the changing priorities of these paint companies, rather than technical difficulties.

“We could very easily match the original Goblin Green [at The Army Painter]. If somebody had a bottle of it and sent it to us, we could match it 100%,” said Abramowicz.

“Now, nailing it and matching every color with the performance benefits and characteristics that we want? That’s a different story.”

Modern paints tend to prioritize opacity, meaning even a novice painter can get even coverage of any color in one to two thin coats over a neutral undercoat like white, black, or gray.

That often involves adding opaque pigments like titanium white — which also knocks back the paint’s vibrancy, sometimes resulting in a color that’s slightly grayish or pastel.

The ’90s Citadel paints — including Goblin Green — were generally brighter and more vibrant than many modern paints. But they were often nearly transparent, needing several coats to avoid a streaky finish.

If you ask gamers for a Goblin Green paint that’s closest to the original, many will bring up a U.K. brand called Coat d’Arms, with some even claiming it’s the exact same paint with a new label.

The truth is a little more complicated.

According to Mike Lewis, who owned Coat d’Arms from 2006 until his retirement last July, the brand was started by Bill Lucas, who used to work for Games Workshop before starting his own company, Gladiator Games.

Lucas went to HMG to produce a line of historical wargames paints. But it happened to be the ’90s, right after Games Workshop ended its relationship with HMG.

“As I understand it, the guy at HMG said to Bill, ‘We’ve got all this paint that we used to make for Games Workshop. They’re moving away. Do you want it?‘” recalled Lewis in an interview with Polygon.

“So the first 43 colors in the Coat d’Arms fantasy range were based on the colors from the original Games Workshop 1990s fantasy range. And over the years they added extra colors.”

Goblin Green has remained the top-selling Coat d’Arms paint, sometimes by 10 to one compared to other colors, Lewis said.

But despite the shared history, new bottles of Coat d’Arms paint aren’t exactly the same as those from the ’90s. Lewis said the formulas have changed over time, in part because some ingredients have become more scarce over the years, requiring alternatives to be used.

It may be unsatisfying to learn that it may be impossible to perfectly recreate the Goblin Green of a gamer’s 1990s-tinted dreams. But as Lewis recalls, the idea of a consistent color is more fantasy than reality to begin with.

When his predecessor, Bill Lucas, went to HMG for his Second World War range of paints, he learned that the very same company painted the British Army’s tanks during the war.

The catch? The shade of green used for those tanks differed month to month, depending on available materials at the time.

“I always found it amusing because there’s always arguments about what kind of color bronze-green should be. And they worried about whatever they could get ahold of,” he said.

Jonathan Ore is a writer and editor for CBC Radio Digital in Toronto. He regularly covers the video games industry for CBC Radio programs across the country and has also covered arts and entertainment, technology, and the games industry for CBC News. You can read and listen to his radio documentary about Warhammer 40K here.