Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Speed Painting results

Here's a bit of a follow up to an earlier post inspired by the very talented  Monty, who blogs at 'Twin Cities Gamer', on experimenting with priming troops in a useful undercoat shade.

To recap, I'm painting up thorakitai (who I will also use as eastern levied Roman legionaries when needed) and went with a spray-primed brown - rather than my usual gray or white - as the base colour.

First step post priming was to colour the armour with dark iron and dry brush with silver (figures are Old Glory 15s, for reference).


Next I blocked in the base coats for the tunics (cream here) and the helmet plumes (a darkish red). Other figures in the unit use different colours, but I'm showing this one lot for consistency.


Next up was flesh (a mixture of peach and raw umber) and then the greening of the bases.


After this the scabbards and the baldricks were done and the helmets gone over with bronze and a Devlan Mud wash. 


Spear shafts were tidied up, shields drybrushed with both a base and a highlight, and the helmet plumes highlighted. The shields shown here are a muted brown, but others are done in purples, reds, yellows and greens.



It's now time for the finishing touches: spears are tipped with old silver and highlights are applied to tunics.


The lot is given a wash of Klear and Devlan Mud on the shields, tunics and flesh areas.


As a last step the spear support struts are cut off and the figures put onto their bases. A final coat of Klear and matt varnish will follow prior to flocking.


So, how did it go?

Well, I do like the results. I don't know if I saved a huge amount of time with this batch because there was a bit of trial and error - especially with the metallic areas - that I haven't shown in the write up. The key for me (as a very limited painter) is to pick a couple of things to emphasise and try to make them pop with highlights. I chose plumes and tunics for this bunch, and I reckon they came out all right. Another important thing for me is to think about the overall effect. I'm not sure that I got the shields quite right in this respect, but the predominantly white tunics and predominantly red helmet plumes will hopefully do enough to unify the lot as a group.

I was worried over the first wee while that they were looking a bit boring, but once the washes did their job and the highlights were on I was converted; so thoroughly in fact that I quickly sprayed up my next batch of figures in brown before the sun set!

Thanks to Monty for the example, and while I've a fair way to go to match his mastery of the technique I hope to use this method a few more times yet.

16 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Cheers Simon! And we'll done on another successful Salute show with TtS!

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  2. They came out very nicely, Aaron. Nothing like combining speed and great results - as here.

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    1. Thanks Dean - not sure about great results, but they're good enough for me!

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  3. They look great Aaron! I generally prime armored figures in black and dry brush silver over the metal parts first. Unarmored figures can do with brown or gray. I've actually never used brown primer though.

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    1. Cheers John. I usually do a brown wash and then paint in shield backs, boots and spear shafts brown anyway, so it makes sense to do it all in one go with an undercoat!

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    2. I was having a closer look at your figures and it does make some sense to use brown. If you are pretty careful, you knock out shield backs, boots and spear shafts. That's a fair amount of detail that does not need to be painted.

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    3. Yep. It will work better for some eras than others, but I wish I'd started using it a bit earlier on! Still, it's good to take some time to find out what works for you, I guess :)

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  4. Very nice job, they look good!

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  5. Now that you painted the base green and glued them to the green base what is the next step? Just flock?

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    1. His Kris, I've just given them a spray of satin finish today, and then it will only the flocking left to do. Thinking I might wait until I have a bigger batch, but you never know!

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  6. They turned out great! Like John, I tend to do black undercoat and brush the armour. other than that, I tend to follow your speed steps, although I think yours turned out better than mine do! But again, like John, I am attracted to undercoating in brown to save on footwear, shield backs and spears. Thanks for posting.

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    1. Cheers Shaun, I want to try black for some medieval types at some stage, but have a bunch of brown-undercoated Companions / Thessalians to do, so we'll see how they turn out...

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  7. Lovely Thorakitai, Aaron! Your plumes and tunics pop very nicely and red is a great unifying color.

    Catching up on my reading, I see you're logging many hours at the painting table. :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Monty. Have made a start on the lead pile, even if only a modest one at this stage!

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