More Figures From The Painting Table

As I said in my last post, I have been making a stab at lowering the concentration on my painting table, so more recently painted, or finished, figures.

This was a pre-painted snow leopard with about 6 spots per side.  Also grey.  Not acceptable, so I repainted him.

We have been playing a bit of Zombiecide: Black Plague, and Theresa has claimed Ann as her own.  However, the miniature provided is a bit on the anorexic side, and Theresa is definitely not.  So I did a simple Reaper Bones conversion.

I got this Viking figure in a group that I bought on the Miniatures Page. I don't know the manufacturer, but its quite a nice figure that sat unfinished for 6 months.

I picked up the Frostgrave rules and realized I didn't have any imps! So I bought some from Reaper. What's that? Finish what's on the table?

This elf archer is probably an old Sandra Garrity Grenadier figure.  She was sitting half-finished on the paint table, and now she's off.

Two Black Tree Design evil elf religious figures.  Come on, how much would it have taken to finish them when started? 

Another Reaper mini, a bit on the small side for today's minis.  Another Sandra Garitty, I'm sure. Perhaps she'll fit in a barbarian horde.

This is a very old resin figure, possibly Scotia.  They came in a bag of multiples with slight differences in the figure, i.e.: helmet, armor, face. Another barbarian.

Wizkids pre-primed boars. I really like them! Dark ages, post-apocalypse.

Children.  I haven't checked the makers, but I'm sure the one on the right is Rebel Minis. Whoops, have to paint the eyes on the little girl in the center!

A resin Amazon, possibly from Brother Vinnie. As I do more resin figures, I am becoming less fond of them for table figures.  They are too delicate, and swords, etc, tend to be a bit wiggly.

This is another Wizkids pre-primed figure.  Transparent Tamiya paint on the clear flame. The figures are ok, but, as you can see, the faces are definitely rudimentary.

The other one that came in the pack with the one above.

I've had this figure for a very long time, as identified by being atop a penny, atop a washer.  It's a nice figure, yet another Scandinavian blond to traipse about Sherwood!  Grenadier?

"There are those who call me...Tim!" I've reworked the eyes, but I'm still not satisfied. It's a recent figure, but I can't remember who made it.

This is not newly constructed, but newly returned.  The first edition on THW's "NUTS!" had a learning game using a building of this layout, so I built this from black foamcore, and ran games at conventions.

British paras, Varangian guard, Saxons, and Welsh!

The first part of this post is about letting greed get ahead of your good sense.  A friend had a squad of British paras, command, and heavy weapons for sale for $1.00 apiece.  I snapped them us.  They are from Warlord Games.  So I ordered 2 more squads to fill out a platoon.  Then I realized that I had to paint the d$#@%^d things.

I hate painting camouflage.  Really, really!  It doesn't let the sculpture of the figure show through.  But I "endeavoured to persevere.", and finished what I had originally purchased. Now a word about Warlord Games metal figures. I have both ECW and, now, paras.  When figures are cast, there is the sprue where the metal enters the mold.  Each figure has to have tiny air passages cut from the parts which protrude the most on the figure to the outer edge of the mold.  This is a standard practice.  It is also standard practice for the caster to remove them.  Not so with Warlord.  So you open the package to find hedgehogs bristling with air sprues to prick your fingers.  You clean them in bare metal, and then find more when you prime, and still a few when you paint.  They tend to wrap around the figure in such a way that they aren't visible.

Here is a photo of 3 of the paras.

And how I paint them.  After cleaning them up, I superglue them to, in this case, 7/8" washers.  Then I use Elmer's Woodworker Putty to blend the base and the washer together.  I prime them with the cheapest grey primer that Wal-Mart has.  Then I paint the skin tone. And here is my painting diary for the paras, in the order I apply the paints.

Pants: P3 Gun Corps Brown

Denison smock: base Americana Pebble, swatchs of P3 Gnarl's Green & Deca Ceramcoat (hereafter DC) Cinnamon, Cuff DC English Yew, snaps Reaper Uniform Brown.

Webbing: P3 Khaki, water bottle Plaid Nutmeg, gas mask bag, Reaper Yellow Olive with strap of P3 Bootstrap Brown. Entrenching tool handle GW Scorched Brown with Black metal parts.

Helmet: base color DC Black Green, net Reaper Troll Green, tabs DC Boston Fern & DC Spice Brown, chinstrap, Reaper Troll Green.

Boots: Black, gaiters Tan

Gun stock: GW Scorched Brown, metal Black.

Scarf: Reaper Troll Green. (Yes, I know it is also camo, but too little shows to bother.)

Grenades: DC Gamel Green.

I then give the whole thing a brown wash, and because I wasn't satisfied with definition, a thin black wash.

Once that is dry, I paint the eyes DC Ivory, and the irises whatever.

Sten metal parts & Bren muzzle: P3 Pig Iron.

The bases were painted Am. Pebble, and while still wet, dipped in flock.

Then the figures are dull-coated.  Arms in WWII had as little shine as possible, so I do the metal before dull coating.The white area behind the Sten gunner on the left is a tag put on every base to identify the figure.

You will note that I do no shading or highlighting. I block paint and rely on my brown wash.

And here are some more of my Corvus Miniatures that were traded to me in a bag of 108 figures.

First off, Varangian archers who I chose to paint in cloth padded gambesons.

And now, Saxon archers (bit of a grab bag in archers)

And, finally, Welsh archers.

  The bows are strung with a model railroading product intended for stringing telephone poles.  It's called EZ Line, and is a very thin elastic.  I was seduced into using it by Mike Bobe of Bobe's Hobby House in Pensacola, Florida.

http://bobeshobbyhouse.com/ 

 It comes in 2 thicknesses.  Mike suggests the thinner for 15mm and the thicker for larger figures.  It is glued to one end of the bow.  When that end is dry, gently stretch it to the other end and hold it while it dries.  It is extremely fiddly to use, but the end result is great.  The reason the Varangian archers are not strung is because their skirts were in the way of a smooth bow line.

Hasslefree & Reaper

In the usual gamer's ADHD, I've been painting 28's instead of 15mm modern Africa.  These are all Hasslefree with the exception of one Reaper.

First up are fem-Asterix (Rennie) and fem-Obelix (Tilda).  Nice figures who only resemble the originals in clothing.  In this case, I'm glad that Kev added a top to Tilda.  I know, betraying my dirty old man mojo, but the figure is more useable. Hmmm, fem-Asterix eyes didn't come out quite level, did they?

Here are two of Hasslefree's modern figures.  I chose Morgan with a small pistol (held up behind her hair) because I grow tired of enormous pistols.  This is definitely an Impact 1 auto-pistol.  The other is Dionne, who appears to be several months pregnant.  I'm also very tired of painting people in black, so she got brightened up.  Morgan's base is by Bobe's Hobby House and has a Mauser Auto-pistol and another auto-pistol molded into it.  The base is a tiled floor.  The purse is from Wargames Factory's Zombie Vixens.  Hey, at least she HAS a purse!

This is the topless Hayden from Hasslefree and feral dwarf from Reaper.  I didn't realize just how muscular the feral dwarf was until I had her primed.  There is a difficult to remove mold line down the left side of her face, so I painted it as a scar.  Hayden might want to cover up around her. (Oooh, non-pc!)
                                            
I tried something new on Hayden.  I had read Matt Parkes Paints in issue 299 of Wargames Illustrated and he showed a method of painting Tudor gold engraved armor.  So I tried it in kind of reverse with a disposable .005 drafting pen.  Obviously, I need to improve my technique, but I thought it was more interesting than just solid tattoos.  I'd also like to get a dark blue drafting pen, if available.

I bravely show my first attempt.  By the by, the ink is non-water soluble, but is shiny, so a matte coat is needed afterwards, not a problem for me, since all my figures get a matte coat after everything but the metallics are painted.

I tilted the figure up slightly so the neck tattoo would show better.

And this one shows her facial tattoo better.

That's all for now, but there's lots more on the painting table, mostly Black Orc.  Having started painting figures in the '70's, I have some partiality to children of a lesser sculpture.