The McDeath Project: Julia McEwman's Invasion Force

As regular readers here will know, I am currently embroiled in that end of year teacher thing that involves hot weather, report writing and the imminent end of term. Hobby time (or should that be Oldhammer time?) is in short supply, but I am still determined to get Stage 1 of my McDeath recreation ready for BOYL3. 

And here is that stage. Julia McEwman's clan.

In the original release, Julia's army was pretty much made up of a single miniature. The clansman with the sword raised above his head. I didn't fancy painting twenty odd of the same model so instead chose to use barbarians instead. I think they still have the rugged charm of a highland Scotsman, though. Luckily, I owned quite a fair few Citadel ones and bought up the modern Foundry castings of the ones I didn't have. 

Lets have a look at what I have got painted then. 

This first block contains a couple of female barbarians I had painted for other projects. Can you spot them? Pushed for time, I chose to paint the remaining seven models using my 'speed painting' technique. In the photograph above I don't think you can tell which minis I spent hours and hours on, and those I raced through much.

What helped, me work through the models at a fair old pace was reducing the palette to brown, flesh, yellow. gold, silver and black, with red as a spot colour. I also used the classic wargmer's 'production line' technique and concentrated on one colour across all of the models, only moving on to the next shade when every model was done. This was a little grueling to be honest, but the finished effect was well worth the extra effort. 

Having finished these characters some months ago, its pleasing to finally group them together with the rest of their forces. From left to right we have; Fergus McEwman, Julia McEwman and the fearsome Juggo.

Again, the perceptive among you may notice two barbarians that I had painted before in this unit, but the rest are made up from Foundry castings or original Citadel. Again, I opted for the same palette as with my female troops, but added a green style tartan pattern for the trousers. Not every model has this pattern present, but I think using it helps suggest a little of that 'Scottish' theme that needs to run through McDeath. Again, these were all speed painted. 

I built the banner in my usual way and set myself a single hour in which to finish it. I have access to the original McDeath boxset so it was a simple case of copying the McEwman's design from the handout onto a square of paper. 

I think it works well. 

A large number of the models have shields. I used plastic Citadel circular versions for the female unit and Foundry metal versions for the male. There was no other reason for this choice but supply. As speed is very much the key with this project, I didn't concern myself with fancy shield painting for these but concentrated on simple, colourful geometric designs. 

My two 'rear shots' here will show you how I approached this. 

Okay, I have about twelve miniatures left to paint for this part of the project, so I better get a move on. Hopefully, I can get another model complete before breakfast. 

Orlygg

Chaos Warrior of Khorne Standard Bearer

You may remember some time ago I embarked on an attempt to paint up a Citadelesque '80s banner. My efforts can be seen here, here and here if you are uninitiated. Well, I am happy to say that I have finally finished it and got the banner attached to a painted chaos warrior!

Here it is. There are a few little details that I am not sure of yet. The colour of the text on the banner, more white highlights on the hair of the warrior and a dulling down of the silver on the warrior's amour. Any tips?

Otherwise, I will let the pictures do the talking for once. And yes, this WILL be most definitely leading my forces at Blog-Con!

Orlygg.

Bretonnian Foot Knights

With the paint station metaphorically red hot at the moment I was able to finish off a unit of Bretonnian foot knights yesterday. In truth, they are part of a far larger unit, as I have a second rank of five to complete and a further eight models in the range to purchase. Though you will recognise these as Citadel Feudals, they are in fact modern Foundry castings picked up at Salute in April. For models nearly thirty years old, the quality of the sculpting and casting really stands up well today, though they are obviously much smaller than modern human sized troops produced by Citadel. Not that this actually matters, as people's heights vary in reality so why not in miniature form, and when the models are painted up and on a battlefield you really cannot notice anyway!

I had a go at a quick conversion to provide a standard bearer. Just a piece of brass rod replacing the old mace weapon. I need something to place on the top of the banner pole but have yet to decide. I though a severed head would do, but these knights look too prim and proper to be carrying around trophies of that nature - so any ideas would be appreciated! The chap in the centre with the droopy moustache is the unit commander, and he is a lovely, lovely model. I had fun exploring the uses of the Old School Citadel ink set with these miniatures, mixing in different amounts of inks with the base colours to create bright, vibrant shades that, to me anyway, seem appropriate to flamboyant knights. The banner was a quick, thirty minute experiment with flags and seemed to work quite well. I had no real plan with what I wanted to achieve, apart from I wanted results quickly. I am quite pleased with the end result, as the flag has shades of stained glass windows about it. 

The centre model this time will be the Unit Champion. A bloke with a large axe is a good depiction of such a character don't you think? As you can see, there are some lovely variations to the figures and I didn't feel the tug of dull monotony as I painted these, as I did with the Nightmare Legion. My particular favourite from the range is on the right of the photograph here. A moody axeman indeed!

The final four models painted so far are another good example of the range of poses available in this series. When it came to colour scheme, I knew it would be easier to paint the entire unit in the same colours, and I was indeed tempted to do this, but I wanted to play around with colour so opted to make each knight different. This was great fun but was time consuming. Background wise, I want these knights to represent a 'free-company' of knights with no actual lord, so they use their own personal heraldry. This way, its simple to ally theme with any good forces narrative wise. They will also then fit in to my Old School Bretonnian army as a nice big unit among the Lords other retainers. 

A Bretonnian army indeed! I remember when I started out this blog in February 2012. I had this idea of painting an army for each of the forces arrayed in Warhammer Armies. This was before the whole Oldhammer Community thing 'happened'. There were about four or five of us really, painting and collecting these old miniatures, and one thing that was fairly obvious back then, was how difficult the human forces of the Empire, Norse, Nipponese and Bretonnia would be to build. The models on eBay were of limited supply and expensive. Now, all four of these armies can be 'bought' off the shelf from Bryan Ansell's Foundry, in the original Citadel form too! 

A couple of years ago this would have been impossible! If you are interested in the Bretonnian (or Baron's Wars) range, its can be found here and bought for £80 odd quid. Which is very, very cheap for an old school Oldhammer army I can tell you. 

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/medieval/barons-wars/early-medieval-knight-collection-bcmed001/

While you are visiting the Foundry, why not have a snoop around the other ranges as there are some fantastic little models that you can find. Just look at these brilliant mushrooms! Wouldn't they be perfect for Nurgle or Goblinoid forces?

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/general-purpose-animals-carts-and-baggage/wildlife-collection-bcgpr003/miscellaneous-manic-mushrooms-gpr041/

Orlygg

Arcane Armorials: Painting an Oldhammer Banner Part Two

Now the last time we spoke I had left you with a banner with a completed face. This time, I aim to take you through what I did to finish off the banner design. To be honest, it ended up a little trial and error at times, remember this is the first time I have tried something like this, but I am happy with the resilts. Like last post I will take you through a short step by step guide of what I did in the hope that others are inspired enough to have a go, no matter their skill level. 

Step Ten: Wait for your paint and ink to dry thoroughly. Then mix up a batch of your background colour and carefully re-apply to the banner, trying to tidy up the detail around the face design.

Step Eleven: Add white to the background mix, and continue to tidy up the banner, being careful not to obscure the edges of the face or the waggles (or wiggles?) that move away from the invisible centre. Don't worry if you make a few errors, some black ink subtly applied can tidy up any slippages. Continue to add white to the mix until you have the desired colour, mine being an off yellow similar to parchment.  

Step Twelve: Using an off white mix (to create this just add a smidgen of your background base to white) start to weather the edges of the banner. I did this with vertical strokes, inspired by the waft (or is it weft?) found in fabrics and concentrated around the edges. Later, once this had dried, I painted on lines in a horizontal fashion to even out the appearance of the shading. Using the same mix, I painted a lighter outline around the face and the waggles to enhance the central design and add coherency to banner. 

Step Thirteen: I toyed with adding writing (taken from the Dark Tongue section in the Lost and the Damned) but I wasn't satisfied with the finished result. So I painted over my efforts and added some additional waggles (or wiggles?), again edging with of white. I mixed up some pure white, and very finely highlighted the very edges of the banner. And I was done - just the basic painted on the banner pole in the future when I fix this to a miniature. 

And there we have it! The finished banner. What do you, dear followers (and lurkers), think of my efforts? Any comments? Have you had a go at an Oldhammer style banner in the past and can provide a link? I'd love to see, and be inspired by, other slaves to the brush.

Orlygg.

Arcane Armorials: Painting a Citadelesque Banner Part One

If you recall my last post, I described to you how I built myself an old school style banner. Well, now its is time to start the process of painting one. Large banners of this type are going to be THE central focus point of your army, so getting the paint job right is very important. The skills employed are very similar to those used on freehand shields, only on a larger scale. Now, shields don't take me long. Maybe 30 minutes not including drying time. This first part of my banner tutorial reflects about two and a half hours work, including drying time. I am still a long way from finishing, but I hope I can show you how I went about painting the central 'Ogre Face' design. 

So here goes... 

Step One: Prepare your painting surface with several thin layers of sprayed on undercoat. I chose white, though any colour will do. You should have your finished result in the back of your mind when you choose your undercoat, I wanted a light, bright banner so went for white. More dreary colour schemes, like those of the skaven or Nurgle worshippers, may require a darker base.

Step Two: Sketch on your design with a soft pencil. You can try out all your ideas doing this and have some idea what the final product is going to look like. My sketch is shown above, and I quickly established that the Khorne symbol and the chaos star would clutter the banner so I painted over them in white. I also toyed with a chequered boarder, but also considered that this would clutter the banner so that went too!

Stage Three: Base colours and inking. Here I used watered down paint to fill in the base colours. A dirty yellow for the backdrop and red for the face. Once this was dry, I used black ink to pick out the deepest details of the design and filled in the edge. I then added the Blanche style 'wiggles' (anyone know what the correct terms for these are?) also using ink. There were a few white patches here and there, but nothing to worry about this stage. 

Stage Four: Here I built up the underlying highlights using increasing amounts of orange and white added to my base colour of red. Use a medium sized brush for this and keep the paint very fluid with plenty of water. You are really looking for the consistency of milk for this. Be very painterly; use dots, dabs and quick brush strokes. Try and work in the ink lining and start to build depth using the base colour. Don't worry if your face looks too pallid at this stage, your final highlights (switch to a smaller brush to do these) should be almost white. 

Stage Five: Next I used a mix of inks to build up the vibrancy of the colour over the top of my initial highlights. On the advice of Andy Craig, I invested in a set of Windor and Newton inks from a craft shop. What a difference these made to the colour tones I was able to achieve and I am looking forward to experimenting further when I get on to my chaos lord! Mixing in some brown ink, I was able to create a sense of mid tone depth around the crevices on the face.

Stage Six: Then it was a case of highlighting once more, adding increasing amounts of yellow (and later white) to the mix and building up the character of the face. Again, I tried to be as painterly as possible, employing quick strokes (you'll need to keep your water very watery to achieve accurate results), squiggles and stippling. Try and focus your highlighting on the areas around the initial black lines and reduce them down further until they are the thinnest of thin lines. Ensure that your eyes, nose and mouth stand out with bright highlighting around them. 

Stage Seven: Add the white to create the eyeball and teeth. Again, keep you paint fluid so that it is easier to work with. Be careful with the teeth. Paint from the outside in, starting with the big teeth and ending in the centre with the smaller ones.

Stage Eight: Return to your black ink, using it straight from bottle, to edge the teeth, deepen the mouth and complete the eyes as I have shown you above. This is detailed work, and it is important not to flood your painting by loading too much ink on to your brush. Test your brush on a scrap piece of paper first to check that the ink is flowing as you want it to. Take your time at this stage, be confident with your brush strokes, as this will reduce wobble and ensure straighter lines. 

Stage Nine: Mix some blue ink. Keep the first batch quite watery and start to apply it around the mouth and eye sockets. You might want to mix in a little red or orange to create a colour harmony. Once the initial ink application is dry, add more blue and focus your attention around the very edge of the mouth to create the impression of lips. Do the same, only more subtly, around the eyes. Repeat this process with the teeth, using brown ink (and a little black) around the base of each tooth. Wait for this ink to dry before re-highlighting over with white paint. Tidy up the edges of the teeth with your black in and, hey presto, you are finished. 

Well, so far so good. The face is finished but there is still much work to be done on the banner. Attention must now shift to the background of the piece and, of course, the wiggly things that strike out like the rays of some evil sun. Next time we talk about banners, we will look at how to create a background colour that doesn't look too flat and will discuss adding what my dad (a railway modeller) would describe as 'super details'. 

Namely writing in the Dark Tongue itself!

In the meantime, I hope you found this tutorial useful. Again, your feedback is very important to me, so if you have something to add, please do!

Orlygg.

Arcane Armorials: Constructing an Oldhammer Banner

In issue 102 of White Dwarf there is an excellent article about how to get the best out of painting shields and banners. I am sure that it was highly inspirational in its day, and it remains so today. When I first started out painting shields for my Realm of Chaos campaigns several years ago I knew that freehand shields were going to be essential to the old school look I was going to go for with the paint jobs.

Trouble was, I was utterly useless at painting shields, and had been for twenty years. But with a little determination and a little practice I managed to develop the skill. To be honest, I was surprise quite how quickly I was able to master (if that is the correct word) the technique. One thing that really helped me get to grips with painting horrible little faces was the step by step guide to the classic ogre face by Mr John Blanche himself.  

Have a quick read of the article below to see what I mean.

Blanche and McVey hard at it. The famous stage by stage ogre face. Phil Lewis using cut outs from newspapers to create shields.

The article goes on to showcase some of the varied and exciting shield designs that were knocking around the studio circa 1986, including some seminal work by the 'Greatest', Fraser Grey, not to mention Brian George and others. Even the StD chap with the 'Blut' banner (recently rediscovered by Steve Casey among the collection of the Mighty Avenger himself) makes an early appearance to inform the reader about how the rules of shield design can be applied to a banner.

A selection of shields and other designs by Citadel's Old Masters.

As the article continues, we are presented with quite an informed discussion about the ethos of shield designs during the '80s, including a little comment about where Blanche drew his inspiration for the now famous ogre face design. It highlights the importance to search through historical references to pick out ideas that can be adapted, or even whole-heartedly stolen, from history. Almost as an afterthought, the piece ends with a paragraph about transferring the skills discussed onto large scale banners, and also includes an image on how to go about constructing them. 

It was this little nugget that has left me contemplating how easy, or indeed how hard, putting together a old school style banner would be. I've experimented with a couple of things so far, mostly using plasticard, but found the results less than expected. The banners and their poles were often flimsy and unsubstantial, so it was something that I left unexplored as I got on with other things - namely completing my Third Edition Khorne Army. Now as this project is starting to draw to a close, for a while at least, it needs several character pieces to finished it off. Namely, the mounted chaos lord and his bannerman. 

So a banner, painted in a similar style to the shields, would be required. In this post I hope to explain to you how I set about constructing my banner in the hope that it might inspire other Oldhammerers who haven't made flags before to try something new. Well, this is how I did it.

Materials Required

• A tin tube of food paste - tomato or garlic puree being the best.
• Heavy duty scissors
• Large spoon
• Flexible florist's or gardener's wire on reel
• 5mm wire in strands
• Superglue or epoxy resin glue 
• White paint/Spray undercoat.
• Wet sandpaper or needle file

To start I emptied the tin tube of its contents, squeezing it out in the sink and washing away the remains to keep the wife happy, and brought the crushed tube to the table. Using my heavy duty scissors I carefully cut off the the top and the bottom of the tube, before cutting along one side. Unfolding the tube takes a little care, as the edges of the cut tin can be sharp. Once open and reasonably flat, I washed out the remaining puree in soapy water and left the metal to dry for a few minutes. 

Then I used the spoon to smooth out the tin. This took a while and revealed just how important it is to squeeze out the contents of the tube in a systematic way. Use quite a bit of pressure and move the spoon in the same up and down motion until its is a flat as you can possibly make it. Don't worry about the odd wrinkle here and there as this makes little difference when the banner is painted. When the tin is as flat and smooth as you can make it, its time to start cutting the metal once more. 

Even out the shape of the metal with the scissors, a good rectangular shape will be best. I did this by eye, as I am quite practiced at cutting shapes out my hand (years of being a teacher of young children) though you may want to measure this and score the shape on the tin with a soft pencil. Once happy, trim your sheet to the desired shape and add any additional shape that you may require, I chose two flaps at the top to attach to the bannerpole, though you could easily choose any number of these, or include battle damage or more. You could even bend the banner into a shape to suggest wind blowing through the material. It really is up to you and the sky is the limit here. I went for something simple for my first banner, you may well want to do the same. I added a plastic '80s shield for scale purposes so you can see just how big the banner is. 

Your next job is to source your wine. A reel of soft wire (such as that the florist's or garden centre sell) and a slightly more sturdy straight wire. Cut your wire to the appropriate size and put to one side. 

Use the flaps that you cut into the metal to attach the banner as I have shown above. Use this as an opportunity to get the shape of your banner correct and do not think about gluing anything down at this stage. Bend the flaps (you should find this very easy with the tin) over so that it grips the wire quite tightly. You should then be able to slide the wire free and move on to the next stage. 

Get hold of your softer wire and coil it around the two wires that represent the bannerpole. This may be fiddly to start with but you should eventually end up with a nice tight join. Then carefully wind more wire over the top of your knot to create the impression of rope bindings. Snip off any unwanted wire as soon as you are happy with the result. 

Then slide the bannerpole back into the banner itself, using the flaps you constructed early. Stick these down now with super glue or epoxy resin and wait to dry. While the glue is drying, cut a thin strip of tin from your remaining supply and stick this over the top of the pole that runs vertically down the back of the banner. This will create strength and stop your banner flopping around later on when it helps lead your old school Citadel to victory in glorious Third Edition battle.

Once the glue has dried, flip the banner over and clip off the wire that you do not want. I used my heavy duty scissors again to do this, though you could use clippers or a knife if you were that way inclined. You may well want to tidy up any rough or sharp edges at this point (use wet sand paper or a needle file) before washing the banner in warm soapy water and setting it aside to dry. 

Once the banner is dry, its a simple case of undercoating it. I used a spray paint as I found it hard to get the initial layers of paint to adhere satisfactorily. Do a couple of coats, waiting for each one to dry first, before finishing. I noticed that the paint took slightly longer to dry than it would on a metal miniature so be careful not to get any fingerprints in the paint while you are doing this. 

And so ends this little tutorial. If you have followed my instructions you should now be the proud owner of a sturdy banner. The beauty of this method is that it can be applied to any scale and any type of model, so you can easily transfer what you have to your historical or science fiction models. 

Feedback is really important to me when I do a tutorial. Was I clear enough in my instructions? Are the photographs informative enough? Please contact me if you have any suggestions, or indeed, advice in the business of banner building. 

I will be following up this article shortly with a guide to how to paint a design (the ogre face of course!) on to the banner as well as how to add those little extra details. 

Until then, getting snipping.

Orlygg.