Storm From the East: A new Tutorial Series

Whenever you begin a new army, there is always that first "color test" figure.  Not only does this give you a better idea of how your color scheme vision plays out, but it can give you a hint of how long it might take to execute that plan.

In this case, the color scheme was established long ago for my beloved Lord of the Rings Easterling army, which is about to be reborn!  Unfortunately, I had to sell off my original army, and with the relaunch of the Lord of the Rings system, it seemed to be just the right time to bring them back to life!

That first army was painted over 6 years ago, and I have learned many things since.  Even the materials I use have changed dramatically.

Now I have plastic minis for the most part, and I use the Reaper Clear and Liner paints, along with the Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering paints.  Even my basing has changed, as the "bark and branch" method came about 3-4 years ago.

Since I am creating the Army Painting video series for the Patreon Page, I thought it might be very useful for people to see the process of re-creating an army first hand.  I have already gathered up images of the old army, and I have prepped a brand new batch of figures!  

As with the first two army painting series, this will start off with basing, and then move to the Shaded Basecoat and Glazing phases.  I will even sneak in some freehand designs as well.

I also try to include conversations about making the figures as 'playable' as possible, and the realities of time constraints.  The "currency" of time is quite valuable, and there's usually only so much of it available for a given army.  My goal is to help you maximize that currency, and make your armies look as good as possible.

Unlike the first two series that focused on infantry, this will be a mix of cavalry and infantry.  Part of this has to do with the nature of the LOTR game system, which is part of that conversation I mentioned earlier.

You can get caught up on those first two series, and be ready for the third installment... with even more interesting goodies yet to come!  I will be recreating my Army of the Dead and Galadhrim elf armies in future series.

The Army Painter pledge is $15, and that is on the Patreon Page here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Striking Gold

While all non metallic metals are very fun to create, I especially like golds.  They allow for many interesting contrasts between lights and darks, muted and saturated colors, as well as warmer vs cooler tones.  

The key to all NMM is in that reflected light, and reflected colors.  This is interesting on regular metal, but with gold,  using warmer tans and sienna against the purples and blues reflected in it.

You can see the differences in the sword blade, where the same colors were reflected.  However, it is less of a temperature contrast.  I normally use a lot of purples and greens in my gold NMM, and this was an ideal candidate!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322526938993?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

When in Rome

Once I saw the mosaic tile texture rollers from Green Stuff World, I knew that I had found just the right basing for this guy!

I had some fun with the gold NMM, mixing in the fluorescent yellow in with the purples and greens to make it as bright and intense as possible.

It's important to have that ultra high contrast when doing gold, and not just light vs dark.  You also need to have plenty of contrast with the color temperatures and intensity.  So, placing the greenish gray in the shadow areas makes the highlights even more noticeable and "shiny".

I did one of my kickstarter painting videos on this subject, since I get asked so many questions about it!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222434890311?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649