Speedy Dwarfs WIP 3

Base coating flesh and sleeves

The dwarfs are plodding forward. This is a particularly boring phase, adding the base colours of the flesh and the sleeves. The latter I have gone with a dull yellow, I thought it would add a natural contrast to the blue of the kilts.  I also washed the bases with a brown and then stippled on the yellow sleeve colour. That's it, sounds like little but it takes a while on the skin.

Bases phase 1

In this step I have done the bulk of the basing work. I picked out the rocks and stones in a khaki colour and then drybrushed them and the base edges with a light grey. Then I tore up some flock and soaked it in diluted pva glue before adding it to the base. When it dries fully it will be rock hard and I can then add some flowers by dabbing paint on the top of the "bushes". Granite boulders and heather shrubs is the look I am aiming for.

Speedy Dwarfs WIP 2

More work in progress updates. I seem to get a real spurt of enthusiasm at this time of year, it feels like the start of the new year, guess it goes back to school days. While I wait for my Dystopian Legions starter set to arrive, I am keeping busy with dwarfs and the orc (one to satisfy my speed painting urge, one to satisfy my aspirational painting urge). So more pictures of brown lumps for the time being I'm afraid.

Cloaks and metals

I painted the cloaks in a very similar fashion to the leathers, by applying a thin coat of paint over the brown underlayer. I used muted greens, browns and chestnut for this stage. Once they were dry, I very gently highlighted the cloak edges and folds by lightly drybrushing with a slightly brighter version of the base colour. This took a good 90 minutes to do, so I decided I was near the end for this day's painting and applied the metal basecoat. I like to allow the metal paint a good overnight drying period before I apply washes.

Kilts

The next day, with the metals well and truly dry, I washed them with a mix of black paint and chestnut ink, my standard way with armour and weapons. If needed, I applied a further wash on a second pass. And then it was time for the most significant step to date, the one that will probably have most impact when they are lined up for gaming - painting the kilts. For this I turned to a scarf I had bought on a recent trip to Scotland, as inspiration for the colours and basic pattern. I started by applying a dark blue base, over the top of this I painted light blue stripes. Then I filled in every other dark blue stripe with chestnut. Then it was on to a finer brush to paint fine yellow lines on the light blue bits. Finally I painted white lines over the chestnut stripes and then horizontally across the whole kilt. The end result is quite bright, I glazed over it with a blue black mix. It still looks a bit bright, but that's because the rest of the palette is so muted. When the flesh and beards and bases are complete, I will review if the kilts need further toning down with a second glaze.

Speedy Dwarfs WIP 1

Another little project I have on the go - speed paint some dwarfs for my Lord of the Rings collection. Having recently picked up some Bolt Action coloured primers, I wanted to try them out on some troops. Brown seems a good fit to dwarfs rangers, they are wearing leather jerkins and boots, if the primer plus wash can take care of those elements, it's a considerable time saving.

Primer and washes

As an experiment to see what could be achieved, I cleaned up 24 rangers and primed them brown. Then I put on a guiding wash, to provide some elementary shading and lining. I split the rangers into 3 batches and tried different washes. The first batch got army painter strong tone diluted with matt varnish, the idea being that it would remove the shine and soften the tone a little. The second batch got pure army painter strong tone, the third got pure army painter soft tone. In retrospect, I should have washed one batch with my usual mix of black and brown paint plus matt varnish, for a control group. Alas, I did not. All three groups were a little disappointing, the wash didn't really adhere as it usually does and pooled a bit more than normal. I don't know if this is due to the primer or the wash, which is where the control group would have been helpful. Anyway, moving on with the experiment, I gave all 24 a second coat of pure strong tone and it seemed to adhere much better, though still with a little more pooling that I am accustomed to.

Leather detailing

I was reasonably happy with the leathers, but felt that a little variation to break up the wall of brown would not go amiss. A very light drybrush with a leather brown colour added a little extra definition on the quivers, belts and jerkins. Again, in retrospect, this maybe should have been done all over the models prior to the wash. Then I mixed up a brown and black wash, with a spot of matt varnish, to pick out the boots and other leather areas. The idea here is to add some variation to the browns. On some models I painted the belts, on others the jerkins, and all the boots got this darker tone. It's a quick step that really pays off in adding some tonal variety, as hopefully the photo illustrates.

The next step is to decide on the colours of the remaining cloth areas - the sleeves, trousers,cloaks and kilts. Yes, kilts. After spending a few days break in Scotland, I was really inspired by the history and colours of highland warriors, so I will be browsing the web for inspiration.

Avatars of War Orc WIP 3

Another 90 minute session on the orc, working mainly on shading the skin and adding in a few more base colours so I can get a good idea of the overall composition.

More shading of the skin

Much of the work I did is not visible in the photo, I was working on the areas of the skin that are mostly in the shade. If you imagine the light shining above his head, coming from the direction of the axe, then the skin where less light falls would be his back and the other side of his arm. I also added shading in the underside of his outstretched arm and on areas joining pelts, straps, etc.

The shade colour I mixed by adding two different shades to the mid tone base, which if you remember was Vallejo Camouflage Green. The shade colours were Coat d'arms Rust and Privateer Press Coal Black. The Rust added to the green gave a nice dark green, while the Coal Black added in gave almost a purple shade.

I also picked out the fur skin loincloth in Coat d'arms Beige Brown, then shaded it with Army Painter soft tone wash. This is the first time I have used these washes, this figure is becoming a real testbed of new techniques and materials! Finally in this session I painted the axe head, with a khaki colour, before shading with some of the colours remaining for the skin shading, then highlighting with a light grey.

That's it for this week on the orc, there will be a short break while I take a trip north of the border to Scotland for a few days. I won't be taking my paints, but I will take a few books to read and some plastic sprues to cut, clean and glue. Holidays are better if they include an hour of hobbying each day.

Avatars of War Orc WIP 2

The first area I painted was the skin. The basic principle I had in mind was to keep the paint thin, so that some of the underlying shading provided by the priming stage would show through. I am not sure this really happened, but it did help to have the areas of light and shade sketched in.

Stage 1 : Base Coat

The base colour for the skin, or rather the mid tone, was Vallejo Camouflage Green. I applied this thinly, I wanted the primer to show through slightly.

Stage 2 : First Shade

The next step was to apply the shading more neatly, using a mix of the base colour plus a darker green, Vallejo Flat Green. Again, I was hoping that the thin colours and the underlying primer shading would help here, but by now most of the underlying primer colours had been obscured by the layers of paint.

Stage 3: Second Shade

The third stage was to reinforce the shading. I added a brown colour, Coat d'arms Leather Brown, into the shading mix and applied this thinly in the deeper recesses.

Stage 4: Basic Highlights

The final stage for this session was to add some initial highlights. For this I turned to an excellent video guide by the ultra talented Ben Komets on the Painting Buddha youtube channel - check it out here. I tried to apply the paint using the wet in wet technique, not as expertly as in the video but I thought it worked out quite well for a first try. One of my great painting faults is to keep everything too subtle, so this time I am trying to keep quite sharp contrasts between light and shade. My instinct is that it's too much, muscles do not have sharp highlights like that on the left leg, but I will probably smooth it over with a glaze or two later.

That's all I managed in this session of about 90 minutes painting. The underlying shade and highlight provided by the primer has been useful - not so much in the obvious places where you would naturally put your shade colours, like in the creases of the abdomen, but more in the areas where light transitions to shade at a gradual level - the upper and lower outstretched arm is a good example of this. 

Avatars Of War Orc WIP 1

It's been a while since I painted a display figure, so the Avatars of War painting competition on the WAMP forum is the perfect opportunity to try out some new methods and ideas. I thought I would document it as I went along,  it's nearly always useful to take notes.

Stage 1: Primers

I usually prime white but wanted to try something new. Warlord Games have recently had some Bolt Action primers at half price and I bought a few, primarily for terrain projects, but I thought I might as well give them a try here. I sprayed from under the figure in a brown shade, from above with a yellow/ochre shade. When it was dry, I brushed on some white primer on the lighter bits and bones.

Stage 2a: Guiding Wash

I added a wash using Vallejo Model Air Burnt Umber. This stage is useful because it shows where all the shade areas are - it effectively adds the lines, guiding where the paints should go. It's also useful because it shows any areas of preparation that are lax - any remaining mould lines or poor joins will show up here, allowing you to remedy them before painting begins.

Stage 2b: Guiding Wash dried

This last photo shows the figure when the wash has fully dried. This beats a completely black/white/grey blob don't you think? I can easily see which areas are in shade and which are lighter. I am hoping that when I come to paint it I will be able to apply thin coats of paint over the top of this, thin enough that the underlying light/shade will come through a little. That's the theory, we will have to see if it works out.