More Painting...

Introduction

It's been a long time since I put up a post listing recently-painted models.  Here's some that I completed in the last month or so.

The Models

Who doesn't need a skull gateway in their terrain collection?  This one has been in my "undercoated and waiting for paint" pile for many years - but now it's done!  It's part of Scotia Grendel's "Boat of the River Styx" set

Another shot of the gateway.  I'm experimenting with a backdrop; here's the piece with a printout of a picture found by searching the internet for "gates of hell".

Next up: a monocycle from 1st Corps.  The kit comes with a Vickers K gun (light machine gun); I decided not to use that as I didn't want my monowheel to look like a military experiment.

Another view of the monowheel.  I'm sure I'll find a use for it in some 1920's pulp game...

This is the warlord for my SAGA Saracens.  As you can see, he's not especially militant, though I'm sure he'll fight just as well as any other warlord in the game when pressed!
The mounted figure is from Perry Miniatures, whilst the bodyguard/parasol holder/standard bearer is from Eureka Miniatures.

I'm mildly concerned about the weight of the parasol (it's a metal piece!) putting stress on the composition.  Still, I used a steel wire to hold it up - so everything ought to be fairly robust.

Last summer, I took a bunch of plastic sprues on holiday and assembled all of them.  These are the last of that batch to be painted: some Gripping Beast Arab heavy cavalry, intended for my SAGA Saracens.  I'm a bit annoyed that I positioned the shield arm so awkwardly on the front model.

I've had flushes of enthusiasm for SAGA: Age of Magic for some time now.  The simplest way (for me) to create an AoM warband is to add some extra elements to an existing, historical army.  Here's a magician who can be used with my Saracens... 

A back view; I've named this figure "Jafar".  It seemed appropriate...
.  The model is "Araves Sorcerer B" from Shieldwolf Miniatures, though the basing is entirely mine.

Here's something a bit bigger - that's a 50mm base and the model is perhaps 3 times the height of a 28mm man!  This is Talos, from Crooked Dice.  Although sold officially as the masterpiece creation of a (modern) mad scientist, I intend to use him/it for anything from ancient Greek myth through to Lost Civilisation pulp (and perhaps even for 1970s spy-fi as well?). 

Another shot of the big boy.  Is that a mainframe computer with lots of blinking lights in his abdomen?  Perhaps he can be "hacked" or switched off?  Or do you have to use the traditional method of defeating him - by unscrewing a plug in his ankle?

I'd originally intended to finish my witch ducking stool in time for last Halloween's game, but I didn't manage.  At least it will be ready for next Halloween, right?  Model is from Colonel Bills.

Here's a very simple objective marker: a couple of pizza boxes on a base.  The boxes are free printables for a 1/4 scale dollhouse.  They're slightly fiddly to build at this scale, but not too bad if you are used to card modelling.
So, who comes to mind first: turtles, or Shaggy & Scooby?

A while back, I mentioned that our regular group of Pulp Alley players were upgrading their experienced leagues with more skills and/or figures.  Here's a rifleman for Al Masudi's Snake Cult.

Finally, my local club (Helensburgh Alternative Hobby Association, HAHA) is running a SAGA escalation league over the first few months of this year.  I've decided to build a Skraeling force - it's something I've wanted to do for a long time and this is as good a time to get started as any.  Here's the Skraeling war chief from Footsore Miniatures...

I like to give names to my SAGA figures.  In this case it's virtually impossible to find authentic names for Thule culture "indians" (and I suspect that much modern knowledge of their clothing, equipment, warpaint and behaviour is inferred - or made up - as well).
I've chosen instead to give my models "Algonquin" native names.  These are mostly made up by modern Americans as well, but at least such names are widely available; they will suffice for my purposes.  I'm still wondering whether it's OK to call one of my figures "Hiawatha"...

Conclusion

This may seem like a lot of output but before you despair remember this: these models are from at least 1 month of painting (possibly 2 or more, my memory is hazy).  Also, that time period covered a long Christmas/New Year break and many long, dark winter nights when other activities weren't very appealing.  Besides, I've so much more to paint; I'd better crack on with it!

Painting Horses for Wargames

Introduction

What colour is a horse?  It's one of those questions which can be answered by every schoolchild quite easily: usually brown, possibly white or black.  This answer is along the same lines as "trees have brown trunks and green leaves", or "rivers are blue": it's much too simplistic (or even just plain wrong).

As wargamers, unless we're concentrating solely on mid-20th century or later, we often need model horses.  In this article I'll present a recipe for painting the most common horse colours in as simple a manner as possible.

Note that I've used 28mm horses to illustrate my technique, but it can be used equally for smaller models, especially if some of the steps are omitted.  For example, I don't bother to paint hooves on a 6mm horse!

Equine Colours

There are many serious articles about horse colours available on the Internet such as these, for starters:

• Equine coat color (Wikipedia)
• Horse Colours and Patterns (Equine World UK)

However, what it all boils down to is that unless you are modelling an unusual population of horses, then there are 2 very common patterns: chestnut and bay.  These are very similar to each other in technique, so both are covered by this article.  However, if you want blacks, whites (actually called "greys" by horse enthusiasts), Palominos or anything else then you'll need to look elsewhere.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not an expert on horse markings, but I've read a fair few articles on painting them over the years.  This is my simplified scheme for painting model horses to a standard that looks reasonably convincing to those of us who don't have a great deal of contact with the real, live animals.  It works for me, though if I've made any gross mistakes then please feel free to point them out!

Chestnuts and Bays: Base Colour

Step 1: paint most/all of the horse (both bays and chestnuts) in some shade of brown.

Chestnut and bay horses come in quite a variety of shades of browns: yellowish, reddish, pale and dark.  Possibly I've got too much of a range of base colours here (I suspect that within a single herd there would be more animals in the middle range of colours; few would have completely different shades?)

Step 2: Paint the points of the bays (mane, tail, legs up to the knee) in black 

In my simple recipe, the only difference between a bay and a chestnut is this step.  The bays have their legs, mane and tail painted black.  The chestnuts just skip this step.

Step 3: drybrush the mane and tail with a paler colour

Some chestnuts (?) have manes and tails that are darker than their coats, but in this production line method I always use a paler colour.  If you're feeling really fancy then you could use 2 or 3 successively lighter shades for drybrushing; I only used one in this example.

Adding Details

Step 4: paint 1, 2 or 3 white socks on each horse

Almost all horses (?) have white socks on some, but not all of their legs.  As with human socks, these can be just around the ankle, almost up to the knee or pretty much anywhere in between.  I don't think that I'd mix different lengths on the same creature, though.

Step 5: paint the hooves in grey.  I use a "lichen grey" that is slightly green-tinged.

Technically, a horse's hoof colour can vary depending on whether the leg is pale or dark.  However I don't think that most gamers would notice such a detail.  For simplicity, I just use a single colour for all hooves.

Step 6: paint muzzles with either (Caucasian) flesh or dark grey/black

Most/all horses have some different colouration around the muzzle.  This can be either a pinkish flesh or a black and it can cover anything from just the tip of the nose & lips to half the face or more.

Step 7: paint a white flash, blaze or star on the forehead

As with the socks, most/all horses have a white mark on the forehead.  This can be anything from a small spot to a considerable vertical stripe or mask and there is a large set of technical terms for the various shapes and sizes of such markings.  For simplicity, I'll just say that I put a white "splodge" on my horses' heads.

Step 8: paint the eyes and nostrils with black

The last detail that I add is to spot the eyes and nostrils with black paint.  Of course, if the horse has its mouth open then the mouth and teeth will have to be painted as well, but that's very simple.  Also, if this is a draft or cavalry horse then it probably has some form of harness; that'll need to be painted at this stage too.  I'll leave it to your imagination, then...

Finishing Off

Finally, use a black wash to bring out the contours

Lastly, I paint the model all over with a thin, black wash.  This will darken the colours slightly, but more importantly it adds definition to muscles, hair and other textures.

Based and ready for action!  Note that there are a couple of "paint" horses in with the bays and chestnuts

The painted horses can then be based as you see fit.  This lot are a herd that I may use in Old West games, either in a corral or as wild animals.  They could be the target for rustlers, a dangerous stampede or just movable cover for gunmen!

Tartan Paint?

Introduction

The "Black Watch" Tartan

Earlier today, I read the latest update from fellow blogger Clint: Another "Paint Monkey" Day .  One of the things he mentioned was his trepidation at attempting to paint tartan.  Since I was due to write an article of my own today, I thought that I'd share my experiences of attempting to represent such patterns on 28mm models.

What is "Tartan"?

At its simplest, "tartan" is the name for a pattern of coloured horizontal and vertical stripes.  It's commonly associated with Scotland and especially with Highland clothing such as kilts, though the patterns can occur on almost anything (taxis, rugs, tins of shortbread...).  North Americans often call tartan "plaid", though in fact that's really the name of a particular type of Scottish cloak rather than the pattern on the cloth.

There's a considerable amount of folklore around Scottish tartans (such as "4 colours for commoners, 5 for lords and 6 for royalty"), but the reality is that most of this is a modern invention.  Whilst patterned cloths have been used in Scotland and elsewhere for a very long time, the modern notion of tartan and the association of each pattern with a particular clan probably only dates back a couple of hundred years or so.

As I expect that a large number of my readers will be wargamers, tartan is important mainly when it is part of a military uniform.  Typically (but not always) that will be for a Scottish regiment, probably some time between the Napoleonic wars and the end of the Victorian/colonial period.

Painting Tartan

Some of my Dark Age Scots, wearing imaginary "tartan" patterned tunics or plaids

There are several problems with trying to paint a full tartan on a 28mm model.  The pattern will be very fine and would require an immensely steady hand and fine brush, plus a large number of different colours (in tartan cloth, the shade changes where a horizontal and a vertical stripe of the same colour meet).  This would try the patience of a saint and in any case the effect would probably not be visible.

Instead, I have a simple 4-stage recipe that gives an approximation of tartan.  It's good enough for me, anyhow; see what you think...

Step 1

Block fill the area with the predominant colour of the pattern.  For the Black Watch tartan that is illustrated above, that's a dark blue shade.

Step 2

Paint horizontal and vertical lines of the pattern's secondary colour.  These shouldn't be the finest lines you can manage (those are reserved for step 4!), but the tartan will look more realistic if they are reasonably narrow.

Step 3

Paint the intersections of the lines with a different shade of the same colour.  Depending on the tartan, this might be lighter (as shown here), or it might be darker.  If you can paint these intersections as squares then so much the better, though roundish blobs will still work.

Step 4

Paint lines of a highlight colour both horizontally and vertically in the gaps between the earlier, slightly broader lines.  Note that for my "not Black Watch" tartan I have omitted the red highlight altogether and have only shown a single white line instead of a double one.  It's all about giving the impression of the pattern rather than being a perfect reproduction!

Conclusion

Another "tartan" with quite a coarse pattern.  I'm not as good at fine lines as I might wish!

All the normal rules of painting miniatures still apply when attempting tartan, of course.  A thin wash is good for adding some shadows, for example.  Obviously you can attempt a much more complex scheme than my recipe if you feel capable of it, but the 4-step method works for me.

There's just one thing that I can't help you with.  Painting tartan, or indeed any pattern, is straightforward when done onto a flat surface.  However you'll just have to figure out how to cope with the folds and creases in the model's costume for yourself!