Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs (well "lizardmen")

A surprise project! Ahem, alert fantasy ... on the painting tray. 

An unexpected arrival for 2013. I have acquired a bucketful of "oldish" Games Workshop Lizardmen (see below):

Your classic "tin of goodies" being discarded from the depths of my local wargames club's shelves. Not an army as such but odd bits, mostly plastic but some metals. A selection of figure types are shown below:   

The aim is to let my kiddies paint them with me, put on some bright colours suitable for reptiles and wash them dark with inks, let them settle down and highlight at my leisure, unless the kids steal them as extra "baddies" for their Star Wars Lego adventures. This chap below has shades of "Jabba the Hut", although I do have to find (or make) an "arm" from the pile of discards. All part of the fun of the hobby.

Even the basic GW Lizardman foot soldier has a certain charm (see below):

There are certainly enough of them to tear apart a low level party of adventurers (evil DM laughter fades ...), the smaller ones being ideal substitute for small "Kobolds" (carrying poisonous blow-pipes ... more evil DM laughter).   

Two Gangs of Four and a Ship

The Citadel "wash" experimentation continues:

Note: A run of DIY jobs comes to assist my wargaming modelling, the mixture left over from grouting the tiles in the bathroom comes in handy to texture the bases (a very light/bright alien looking planet rock). The Red Guardian has had its base washed over, its base was also textured with a toothbrush.  

The two back figures (see above: Blue and brown) were base coated in Games Workshop "Sand Yellow" before receiving a couple of coats of wash just to see the effect. Methinks it loses all the subtle advantages of the wash and becomes just a semi opaque paint of little additional value - Golden Rule: One guide wash is enough. The chap to the front left above was base coated in Games Workshop "Dark Angels Green" (in fact the last effective use from this dried up bottle before it was discarded with a third of the paint unused) then washed over in Citadel "Asurmen Blue". The result was a very dark looking affair apart from the helmet's Anita's Acrylic "Cream" turning a shade of medium blue. Again I applied two washes which seems to be an overkill. The Red Guardian was left alone from further experimentation (and oh boy was he glad).

The double washed figures don't look so bad in the bright light of my halogen spot-light (Mr Blue and Mr Brown to the left above). I have also started a rescue attempt on the Dark Green model by using Games Workshop's "Goblin Green" (I seem to have a lot of this colour for some reason) on its body and Games Workshops "Sunburst Yellow" on the helmet. It now reminds me of the Green Goblin from the Spiderman films. The dark blue wash over the dark green base coat equates to a dark black undercoat (Ok for a bit of dark lining) but nothing much has been gained for all the extra work involved (three coats instead of one). Note the red Martian soil underfoot and an igneous flowing feel to the base ;)

Meanwhile ...

More historical plunder lies on the painting tray (see above). My 28mm Redoubt Enterprises Renaissance Light/Medium horse (two little grey's) finally get some attention. In the distance behind them is the 1/1200 KM Prince Eugen slowly getting a lighter shade of grey applied to her superstructure.

The full complement of Renaissance Horse is seen above, complete with their riders, crossbowmen. These would bring a much needed balance to my Renaissance Impetus army,  as in one base of screening missile firing light horse. Hark, the call and lure of the Renaissance is beckoning my brush. I like it when I get started, but the trouble is just getting started in the first place ;)

It all comes out in the Wash

Flicking through the Games Workshop guide of "How to Paint Citadel Miniatures" I came across the concept of a Guide Coat (see page 42 of said tome). The idea being that to get really bright in your face colours a White undercoat brings out the colours much, much more but an unwelcome side-effect is that fine detail becomes harder to pick out. Using a wash to slightly discolour the figure helps by allowing wash to gather in crooks and crannies for better definition of distinct areas and detail.

Seeing as I had a few Citadel Washes lying around I thought this was just the ticket for my Eldar impulse purchases. See below for a Vallejo "Bone White" undercoat with a wash of Citadel "Baal Red", for a "slightly pink" Eldar Guardian:

Another Edlar Guardian gets a 'brown effect' with the same Vallejo "Bone White" undercoat and an "Ogryn Flesh" Citadel Wash (see below):

It certainly made a difference in being able to pick the detail out, and I was fairly impressed. No further forward with the real painting but I could see far more of the model. I continued the painting experiment using what paints I had to hand (see below):

I followed the painting guide theme as per the packet illustration using:

• Anita's Acrylics "Earth Brown" mixed with Anita's Acrylics "Dark Red" for the armour
• Mixing in Games Workshop's "Sunburst Yellow" fpr good highlighting effect with the above
• Anita's Acrylics "Midnight Blue" mixed with Anita's Acrylics "Cream" for the weapon
• Anita's Acrylics "Cream" was also used neat for the helmet
• Anita's Acrylics "Metallic Black" was mixed with Games Workshops "Mithril Silver for some 'exhausty' vent things on the back of the model
• Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black X-18 was used on the visor and arm bracelet, the former flecked with "Midnight Blue + Cream" eye slots
• The breast and arm gems were painted with Games Workshop Goblin Green and a touch of Anita's Acrylic "Cream" added for a highlight

So end'eth the 'painting psalm' of the Eldar Guardian!

Starship Trooper for Hire (see above), suits you sir.

Of the Games Workshop Science Fiction "races" I enjoy painting 'selected' items of the:

• Tau
• Tyranids
• Necrons
  Empire Space Marines
• (and now)Eldar. 

I have "odds and sods figures" from all the above without playing the 40K Game System (something on the list to do before I die). To me they are more Generic Sci-Fi figures to be mixed in and matched with any other Sci-Fi kit and rules I have to hand.