Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Speed painting ancients experiment (1)

I'm trying out a new painting technique espoused rather convincingly by Monty of "Twin Cities Gamer" fame. Basically, the technique involves undercoating the figures in a useful shade that will form a decent proportion of their final colour.

I've done this before, but only for horses; this will be the first time to actually try it out on the men.

Let's see how it goes, but please accept my apologies in advance for the dodgy photos. I'm using the iPad and haven't really worked out how to take decent shots with it yet.

1) I've gone for a desert yellow for these chaps and their mounts. I think a nice mixture of wash shades over these will put the C in camel.


2) Brown for these thorakitai which I am going to paint up in Roman colours so I can use them as eastern recruits for my Roman Civil War project (yes, you've guessed it - I'm about 30 figures short, and I don't really want to put the project off yet again while I wait for more figures to arrive!).


3) Basing up the camels immediately. This has already shaved two steps off my normal method.


It will probably be a few days before I come back to these as I'm doing a big push on the Romans you can see in the background, but I think we've made a reasonable start - three steps in already for the camels, and two for the thorakitai!


16 comments:

  1. Are these 25/28 or 15's? I'll have to see the finished product to be a believer and then maybe give it a go. Let's see what you can do.

    Cheers
    Kevin

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  2. Looking forward to seeing how these come out!

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    1. Me too, Gordon - hope they meet expectations!

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  3. This is exactly how I do it when painting in bulk. After what you just did I just paint the base equipment, skin, etc. colors. I next dip/wash the models (dip is best). I brush dip on btw. Next day I apply a de-shine and mount to bases. done.

    The dip is amazing actually, as it will not only get those spots you missed on the model, but it will also make colors less transparent.

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    Replies
    1. Cheers, Kurtus. I might do a dip on them too. Will see how we go!

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  4. Nice looking minis...so far!

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    1. Hahaha, sounds ominous, Phil! It could all go downhill very rapidly!

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  5. Looking like a useful "production line' method. And coming from Monty, should surely turn out well.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, but Monty is in a different class than I am as far as painting goes, so we'll have to lift our game!

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  6. How easy do you find it to paint "pre-based" miniatures Aaron? I find that it is more difficult to do. The other figures get in the way. This is especially tough for mounts as I use many shades of dry-brushing to make a decently convincing horse. Like you, I normally stick my figures on strips in groups of 3 or 4.

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    1. I would only do if for lights, John. More densely populated bases would be a nightmare!

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  7. I use different primers for different purposes, it can save a lot of time. Unfortunately I've had very poor results some paints (Army Painter in particular), they don't work well on metal.

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    Replies
    1. The spray paints over here seem to be pretty reliable, thankfully!

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  8. I'm so swamped, I'm tardy Pru.

    I used to labor over my 15s but so much of that is lost from 3 feet. The brown primer, block paint, wash and selective highlights is now my mainstay. I do hope you like the results at the finish line. And thanks for the shout out too!

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