Ghost of the North

I have another tutorial up on the YouTube channel... this time covering a subject I have been asked to talk about dozens of times. That is, painting white.  So, I thought that Ghost from the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game would be a perfect example!  Here's a link to the video: https://youtu.be/dB4qtag5r9g

There were not a lot of colors used, but mixing those few together created an endless array of options to create subtle transitions...

I even finish things off with another round of Crushed Glass basing from Secret WeaponMiniatures

Here's the final result!

I have 3 other Song of Ice and Fire wolves prepped and ready for more videos.  Those will be available to the patrons on my Patreon Page.

People have a lot of trouble getting interesting tones in white... it tends to be very bland.  With wolves in particular, "white" fur often has a lot of yellow in it.  Also, the blue sky reflecting off the snow can make the fur seem blue, or even purple!

If you join the Patreon Page, you will be able to check out (especially at the Army Painter level), there are close to 100 different videos to see... covering terrain, Oils, Acrylics, NMM, OSL, TMM, you name it!  Here's a link to the page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Forest Rangers

Here's a little preview of terrain that will eventually appear in the Song of Ice and Fire battle reports (and some Lord of the Rings reports as well!).  It was originally created for y Bolt Action games.

The mat itself is from TableWar, and one of several fantastic, durable game mats that I am using for all my battle reports.  While I like to use 4 x 6 mats, they do have 4 x 4 versions of each.

Here's a peek at one of several terrain building articles I created for this terrain:

:  https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/11/forest-mist.html

I am also working on a few different winter terrain boards, which would be more appropriate for Free Folk vs Night's Watch:

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/02/rolling-out-tundra.html

I can't wait to see my own Song of Ice and Fire armies on their movement trays negotiating this type of battlefield.  These were painted as a commission army for someone who is using them for his own system.

It is pretty interesting to see this view with archers instead of an artillery piece or mortar crew!

I have a number of YouTube live tutorials on how these guys were painted:

https://youtu.be/HB-nhuTmNbQ

I was really looking forward to the scene of these wonderfully sculpted horses charging along the bank of the river!

As you know, I really love how the horses are sculpted for this range.  Not only are the muscles and proportions done well, but the movement achieved is amazing!

These horses really do look as if they are running, instead of a merry go round horse stuck to a base.

Imagining these units on this board with the activation banners and other extras that I have planned is definitely inspiring me to work through all the armies that are being worked on at once... the Free Folk, Starks, Lannisters, Boltons and Night's Watch.

My own Night's Watch are in the "official" color scheme, and they are the subject of my Army Painting Series 6.  Here's a look at the basing episode, which is how every series begins:

https://youtu.be/INPfPLCTZcE

I will probably have fewer terrain pieces on the board than I normally do for my Bolt Action games.  That will likely be placed along the edges of the board, but I definitely want to have some slopes, rivers and so on, to create a more realistic setting than tossing out a few cardboard terrain "pieces".  

This central sloping hill is an example.  I think it will be really dramatic to have units heading up to the top of this hill to duke it out in close combat!  In my other games, it tends to be a line of sight blocking piece.  Now it should be the focus of many an objective marker grab.

I have a number of tutorial posts on how the terrain was made, such as this:

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-old-made-new-recycling-old-terrain.html

To get a peek at how the terrain looks in a battle report, check out this Bolt Action report:

https://youtu.be/2LgWEoymVQw

Taking the Green

Last week I did a few YouTube Live painting sessions to demonstrate the use of oils on the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures.  In this case, it was a slightly different "alternate" theme for the Night's Watch.  While the overall color set was still meant to be dark, I also had to incorporate a variety of greens, blue greens and grayish greens onto the cloaks and clothes.

Even the bases were treated differently, using my new home made grass and shrub tufts!

In addition to standard oil paints, I also used the Mig Ammo Oilbrushers.  These are very handy, as the containers cannot be damaged or punctured like regular oil paint tubes!  Makes it easier to store and take on the road with you.

I also spend a lot of time showing how to use white spirits, which are very gentle on brushes, paints, and your sense of smell. That is very important... more than you might think.

Over and over again I emphasize the idea that thinner paint will stick to thicker paint, and in reverse too.  The ideal use of the oil paints is discussed... in particular for army painting.

While they can make that process much faster, the key aspect of oil paints is that they don't dry so rapidly, which gives you so much more time to make incredible wet blends across an entire unit all at once!  This would be impossible with standard acrylics.  You might be able to wet blend one... perhaps 2 at a time, but not a dozen, or 2 dozen!

I did my first few live sessions to get a better handle on how that works on YouTube.  Things constantly change in the way you have to set them up, so I started out by using those oils, where I could relax a bit, and not be as frenzied as the usual acrylic lessons :-)

Here's a link to the first live YouTube Session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC2aPr9s330

This is the follow up session a few days later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB-nhuTmNbQ

Night's watch: Color Test Figure

Here's a peek at the next Army Painting series which will feature the Night's Watch!  This is the "color test" figure which I always try out first when working on a new army.

I can get a sense of not just how it looks, but how long a given effect might take to create... especially when you are talking about an entire army! :-)  

Normally the Color Test figure is the second episode in the series (which is 4-5 episodes long), but I had not painted any Night's Watch figures yet, so I needed to get familiar with the figures themselves.  As I go about painting the rest of the unit, I will be working from these images.  Those are up on the screen, along with the palette camera.

While "black" is the color of the Night's Watch, very seldom is that color truly black.  It tends to be blueish, greenish, and every other color, as even non reflective surfaces such as cloth can still take on the ambient colors of the environment around it.  

Sky colors, ground colors, etc, can really influence the tone.

I try to have a lot of conversations about all this during the painting process.  Showing the "how" is not as important as the "why".  It is the primary reason that the unit painting series are broken down into these separate episodes.  The total running time is usually 10-13 hours.

The basing is the same type of Oxide Paste and tree bark which I have been using on the other units.  This is the next unit being featured on the Patreon Page.  The first episode always starts out with basing, so you will see plenty of it when you join in on the Army Painting pledge level!  Here's a link for you:  www.patreon.com/JamesWappel