Charging on with Oils!

You have heard me talking about the advantages of using oils, mostly in terms of working on very large amounts of figures all at once.  There are also some minor things, such as being able to get paint into very hard to reach areas... even blending it.

This figure brought to mind another way oils can be helpful.  As an old time Confrontation figure made of solid metal, it is very heavy.  By using oils to paint it, I had to "handle" it much less, since the colors are blended right on the surface of the figure.

Had I painted this with acrylics, I would have been working much harder on the skin blends, and even the sword blade.  Doing those blends with oils requires far fewer brush strokes, thus less holding onto the figure.  

Not only was the figure really heavy, it was on one foot!  Again, being able to use larger brushes and blending on the surface was a huge advantage.  To give you an idea of size, the base was at least 50mm.

The Pondering Paladin

Dark Sword figures have been making ideal subject matter for the tutorial videos now for months, and it is pretty obvious why!

There's always plenty of fine detail, especially on the faces.  They also tend to tell a strong story, which makes basing them even more fun!

In this case, I was able to cut the figure away from the original "broccoli base" with a razor saw, and get him on a nice ruins style base!

Other more minor things which make a difference are areas such as the chain mail.  Chain mail tends to be sculpted too roughly, or nasty mould lines running through it.  Certainly not the case here!  It was quite easy to get some nice shading and color tones onto the chain mail, which was a nice treat.

You can find them all at the Dark Sword home page:

https://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/index.php/miniatures/george-r-r-martin-masterworks.html

Color Testing

The latest series of Army Painting tutorials for the Patreon Page is near and dear to my heart, as I replace my old Easterling army which had been sold off over the last few years!

It feels great to be working on them again, but now armed with knowledge that I did not have at the time.  Here are a few snapshots of the second episode of the series, where I paint a color test figure.

I had a few new things to try out as well, including the new Reaper Miniatures Clear Orange prototype!  Anne knows how much I love the clear paints, and she is trying to create some more additions to that line.  In conjunction with the Sepia Liner that she made last year, I was well equipped for painting my Easterlings!

As always, I try to go much deeper into the concepts than the painting alone.  I discuss the use and expenditure of time, which is a valuable currency for all of us!  The point of a color test figure is to see if all the special things you had visualized in your head are actually possible to execute on the figures in a reasonable time.

Each little "extra" costs you more time currency, which includes things like freehand and NMM.  However, doing a color test figure (or two!) can prepare you for the mass painting of the unit.  You can start to figure out a few shortcuts and ways to save some of that time...

I attempted to show simple methods to making your army look more unique and special, but keeping that time expenditure as low as possible!

Each of these Army Painting series is typically 11-13 hours of tutorials which span 4-6 episodes.  These videos are available on the $15 Army Painter pledge level.  By the way, that also lets you view "stand alone" episodes which are filmed each month on other topics, genres and materials.

So far, I have done some Age of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine, a unit of Bolt Action Winter Soviets, and now the Easterlings.  I am adding the Song of Ice and Fire units to this as well!

The second episode of Series 3 is now up for viewing to the patrons!  You can join in on the Army Painting series on the Patreon Page here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

A Mountain that Moves

This massive hunk of resin is from Puppets War.  To give you an idea of scale, the base is the size of a DVD!

He was a good choice for an experiment using the Army Painter Strong Tone, which I had tried out a few months ago as I was helping someone paint a Bolt Action army.

It seemed like it could be useful, especially for my bark and branch bases, which have lots of craggy surfaces similar to this.  While the Reaper Liner and Secret Weapon Weathering paints work well, I thought having the Strong Tone working with them could be an interesting combination.

I was very pleased at how it dried, which was very matte, and it left no water marks!  It was very similar to the Vallejo washes that I loved so much.  

The mushrooms were sculpted out of green stuff... done to match many other bases from the same "faction".

It is a perfect tone of sepia, and it has worked well with historical figures and many other genres as well.  It says 'ink' on the jar, but it is not shiny or runny at all.  The formulation  is quite similar to those Vallejo products that I mentioned. 

Out of the jar, it is actually thicker than you would expect... but it really gets down into crevices!  This is something I will certainly be working into the newest painting videos, so stay tuned...

Ground Attack

As soon as I saw the Song of Ice and Fire game (and how the figures interacted with the movement trays), I knew that it would give me a chance to try my "Bark and Branch" basing method on something completely new!

In the past I have either multi based units for Kings of War, or made decorative square bases for Warhammer armies that fit side by side on a tray.  This would be very unique, as I would have to match individual round bases to fit in an overall tray.  An added challenge is to make it possible to 'drop in' the heroes or banners as well.

I started out with some of those characters here...

Once I knew I wanted to have that look, it was time for the unit itself.  I positioned the figures into the tray, and started to get pieces of tree bark ready.

Just as I did for the special characters, I sliced off a few figures from their round bases with a razor saw.  I always use a rubber Jeweler's block to make that process easier and safer.

A hole is drilled in the foot, and a pin in place.  The oxide paste is used as mortar, like usual, and a drop of super glue as well to press the flat tree bark in place.

A bit of glue and oxide paste is placed on top of the bark so that I can add a few pieces of gravel and some fine sand.

The pin holds the figure in place on the base, and he is set back into the tray.  I few more figures are also taken off their bases, but not too many.  First, this will save some time, but it also gives each figure a slightly different height, instead of each one finding a convenient rocky outcrop to stand on!

To get the different levels, I used just the Oxide paste and some glue to place smaller bits of bark (usually what was broken away from the larger pieces) into that mortar.

I worked my way around the tray, sometimes putting almost no tree bark on a given base.  The idea was to make it seem like there is a pattern to the rocks, instead of those perfectly even spaces out crops!

With all the figure bases complete, the next challenge begins, and that is matching the tray to the bases.  It can be very easy to "lock" your figures in place, so you will need to be very careful as you apply your glue and paste.

As the paste can start to set up quickly, I mix a bit of white glue with it, and that extends the work time of the material slightly.  You also don't want to get too much glue, gravel and bark into the slots, etc.

Where there are base that have a figure standing on a piece of bark, I try to arrange some bark around that surrounding area.  Also, as the special characters tend to be standing on out crops, I try to have more pieces of bark on the front row of the tray.

You can see that I am working my way through the unit, until the entire tray is covered.  There are some areas that have very little bark or even gravel.  This is where I can either add snow or some kind of flock.

The completed tray!!  I will be doing many more of these as I get the figures ready for playing.  Tutorial videos will be created of this process as part of the Army Painter pledge level on the Patreon Page.  In fact, next month's video series (about 12-14 hours of lessons!) will feature an Ice and Fire unit.

Each series begins with basing, as you see here.  I will then take you through the process of creating color test figure, and then the rest of the unit.

My goal is to show you several ways of painting your figures, some in NMM and others using Metal Medium to create a TMM effect.  Then I will paint other units in oils!

That is all available on the Patreon Page at the $15 level:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Lord of Slaughter

Another new series of videos are about to be added to the list of tutorials... Creature Caster!

These large beasties are highly detailed and that makes them perfect for creating how to videos.

Here's an example of a test video that was done in a Facebook Live session:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10213076676925683/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Since the parts are very interchangeable, it allows me to paint these in smaller sections, so I can still get them on camera despite their overall size.

This is one of several that are under way right now.  In this instance, I am working with acrylic paints.  I have a few others in progress that focus on oil painting.

Obviously I made good use of my Vallejo Fluorescent paints, injecting them into each color that was added, which enhances the saturation by quite a bit.

There will be a few different levels for the Creature Caster pledges, including one for the miniature itself!  You will be able to see those here on the Patreon Page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Law of the Jungle

Next up from Victoria Miniatures we have the Arcadian Guard.  As usual, they are available in both male and female squads:

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/regiments-of-the-galaxys-finest/products/arcadian-guard-universal-5-woman-squad

There are plenty of spare bits to go along with every squad, so you can make unique individual figures.  You see fewer and fewer of the "build your own" multi piece figures these days, where you can mix and match torsos, heads, arms, etc.

When I created my Highland guard army, I was utilizing pieces from several different squad types.  There are even sets of kneeling and sitting legs, which were wonderful to create tank commanders and tank riders.

I especially enjoy the command and NCO options.  Lots of personality and character!

Let's see what they look like as a whole unit...

And as a massive horde! :-)  I have two more forces of this size under way.  They will be painted with oils, as these figures were.  I will be making some painting videos of the process.

There are also plenty of videos showing how to approach painting and army on the Patreon Page.  Some of the Victoria Miniatures armies will be shown in tutorials available here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel