New Colors

Next up in the series of old time Chaos Knights painted with oils!  As I have mentioned on other figures from this set, a key strategy in color placement was to have some purples and greens in the 'metal' areas.

The idea is to give the metal an additional 'sparkle' by having a few colors that might be considered 'outside' the range you would expect, such as the greens.  Also, purple and green when mixed together can make some wonderful grays!  

This is another reason why the eye 'mixes' those colors together and makes the viewer perceive the overall color as gray.

I think I first realized that many years ago when I was still using the GW washes.  It seemed like I always ran out of the black wash and even the blue/brown washes (which I had also been using to make gray).  When those started to tun out, I turned to mixing green and purple, which were in abundance by comparison!

After making that realization. I started mixing pink and light seafoam green to start making gray.  Doing so ensures that you will have a far more interesting gray, as opposed to the 'dead' flat grey that you often find when you get them as jars of paint!

Super Soldiers

I do not know who made these guys, but they have been an interesting addition to all the other projects going on.

In this case, all of these are being painted with regular acrylic paints.  As usual, I try to "mesh" together various projects that use similar colors.  I have a few others that utilize many of the same greens and browns (in acrylics), so that is one reason why oils are not being used.

For instance, even the logos and numbers were being done on many other figures while I was doing these... you will see those soon as well!

More individual and group pictures are on the way from this set of figures, so stay tuned!

Somua Strike

This was the first AFV that I painted for my original French Flames of War army, and then once again for my Bolt Action version.  It led to a lot of research, which continues to this day years later!

There were a number of very interesting Camo schemes for these vehicles, and I could not resist trying out this one. Here's a link to the first Facebook live session where it was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209905678852713/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Here is a link to the follow up episode:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209914909323469/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I have a lot of fun with the French vehicle color schemes, since the later war Allied vehicles are essentially one color.  While utilizing various weathering techniques to make those have more depth is also very interesting, the challenge of making something like this work is quite a test!

Many more tutorials are on the way, covering every era and theatre of the war.  You will be seeing many more videos on how I am approaching my Winter Soviets, so stay tuned!

You can see this tank in action in my Bolt Action battle report "Blood At Arras":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njN4D64zH1k

Gladiators of Rome

Now it is time to see the entire collection of Gladiators!  

I don't have the identification or wound markers included with the bases, so that's why you see those little gaps in the mosaic tile.

Each one can be assembled with a few different weapon options for each arm.  There was a shield, a bow, a sling, and a variety of swords/daggers.

I have not played the game myself, so I don't know what the significance of any stats are, or the mechanics.  These were painted up for a Warlord Games convention a few months ago in Oklahoma.

The majority of the painting was done using oils, as I was working on large numbers of figures all at once.  It was very handy to be able to blend those skin tones even a few hours after the original layers were applied!

In case you have not already seen it, here is a step by step article that I created to show how I approach the mosaic tile bases:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/05/mosaic-tile-basing.html

The final post in the series will show the group shots of all the mobs together!  Stay tuned...

Shaman

We have some more images of the old style Chaos Warrior knights which were painted primarily in oils.  

As I have mentioned before, when I am working in oils I try very hard to gather together as many figures as possible which will be using "common colors" in order to maximize the effectiveness of those oil paints.  In this case, I had a number of Bolt Action figures which needed a variety of tans and brown shades.

These figures meshed very well with the darker browns of the cloaks and fur, while the tans of the bone surfaces were similar enough to the tans of the Soviet bases and quilted uniforms to work there too.

I also had a few other figures whose bases were just right for that series of brown tones, and the deep skin colors of the inside of the cloaks meant that I could utilize some of the skin tones from those Soviet figures also.

Since the oils have a drying time of at least several hours, it is much easier to bounce back and forth between what might seem to be very disparate projects!

It is also a way to "keep things fresh", as I am not endlessly painting more fur cloaks or quilted uniforms for hours on end.  I could break up that by painting the metal surfaces, which would still need a fair amount of those brownish colors to be reflected in it.

A New Matilda! Part 2

The new Matilda tank from Victoria Miniatures comes with all sorts of weapon options.  These can be for the turret, hull mounts, sponsons, etc.

Here's a link to the website showing you this particular "Fury Assault" variant:

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/vehicles-and-bits-1/products/matilds-fury-assault-tank

I had a lot of fun with the Secret Weapon Heat paints, especially since they work quite well with metallics.  I also got a chance to explore the Vallejo metal medium, which you can mix into any color to turn it into a metallic.

This has been used on a few other projects, but this is the first time I have ever painted this many weapons with it!

I took the same kind of approach that I normally do with the historical vehicles, although the proportions for this are much different.  It is still quite ironic that in trying to make a semi-historical marking for the vehicle, it ended up having that 'V' right in the middle of it. :-)

The side sponsons can be removed if you don't want the weapons there.  A section of standard track guard takes its place.

The views from above indicate how massive this beast is!

One more look with yet another weapon option.  Check out the website for some amazing kits!

Sneaky Snakes

I have to say, these snake men/ Ophidians from Mierce Miniatures have to be my favorites from the entire line!

They are quite interesting, as each one is a different "character".  Instead of slightly different poses or slightly different weapons, they are entirely unique poses/shapes.  For instance, one of the 5 figures in the set is clearly a shaman, etc.

That is the other aspect which I find so interesting.  Monstrous infantry really is the specialty of Mierce.  If you check out some of my previous Mierce focused posts, you will see a variety of these huge creatures in unit form.  This is the case with the Walrus men (yes, you heard that right) and even Octopus.

I especially enjoyed painting the weapon on this.  Since this was done, I have had a number of discussions on how to approach NMM.  Lately I have been emphasizing the use of colors that you see on the figure or the "environment" around it.  This is very important, as metal is reflective!  

When I was asked about NMM paint sets, this really brought the idea to the forefront of the discussion.  I don't have go to colors to any kind of NMM these days.  I simply use variations of already existing colors, which enhances that 'reflectivity'

There are more of these on the way, so you will be able to get an idea of what I mean about these large creature "units".  In effect, you have the standard infantry sized versions which are sets of 10 (full command, etc.), then the monstrous infantry, and then a colossal beast from the same type of creature.

So stay tuned!!!