The Problem with Platemail

Sir Stefan was determined to win this year's game of statues.

Morning all, if indeed it is morning at all when you are reading this. Today is my birthday and I am 38 years old and so have a little extra leeway today to get some hobby in. So I have used this advantage to write up yesterday's painting which, for me at least, was incredible as I finished four figures in a single sitting, a feat I have never before achieved! 

When I was last at Foundry I bought a few of the ex-Citadel Perry medievals on a whim. I fancied a challenge and eagerly ripped them from their blister pack and set to work. What followed was a 'knightmare' - see what I did there!? 

Painting single figures encased entirely in steel results in, to my eye at least, pretty dull models, even if they can be completed in about thirty minutes. I wasn't happy with the results at all and popped over to see what the examples on the Foundry website looked like. 

Not any better really, as the same problem occurred despite the nice basing tying the models together. So what to do? I tried edge highlighting next but that just looked silly and I abandoned the attempt pretty quickly and realised why painters in the '80s quickly moved to different colours to paint armour. It is much more interesting. 

In the end, I opted for a second shade to contrast against the silver. Inspired by the Nilfgaardians in the Witcher games, I went for black and after a little fiddling around found that just painting the helmets in this shade and ensuring that the scabbards gave some bright contrast the results were much improved. About a week or so ago I had admired the blacks on Jean-Baptiste's Noise Marine and wanted to try something similar, so drybrushed over the jet black with various shades of grey before adding a few edge highlights. 

The assualt on Trumpton was going well.

To break up the black further, on a couple of the models I added a few white additions, either on the helm itself or on a knee. Gold was used for the hilts of the double handers and the sidearms just to contrast against the silver further. Finding the pure silver a little garish still, as a final touch I gave all of the steel (save the sword blades) a couple of blue ink glazes to get the 'cold' look I was after. 

Simon Cowell's 'next big thing' were unsure of their latest makeover.

Having managed to get couple of suitable shots of two of the models, my camera battery gave up the ghost and by the time it had charged the light quality had changed, hence why the group shot is a little bleached out but it gives you a general idea of work so far. I still have the four remaining figures in the set to finish and they are all in various states of completion. I hope to get the unit complete at some point over the Easter weekend. 

One thing I am interested in though is dealing with the 'problem of platemail' a little further. I still feel there is much improvement to make to this particular skill and would like to hear other enthusiasts' methods and colour recipes. I will share mine in detail below so you can understand how I achieved my results in turn. 

1) Base in black. 

2) Drybrush in medium silver.

3) Black ink wash. 

4) Paint plates carefully in medium silver, leaving thin black lines between each piece.

5) Highlight plates in the centre with a bright silver. 

6) Wash over with blue ink glaze. 

Hopefully, I will hear from some of you soon and can apply your advice to the next batch!! 

Orlygg

The Citadel Painting Range circa 1989

With the recent release of some repackaged paint sets from GW, with a rather familiar demon on the cover, and a series of postings on the Oldhammer Community Facebook page I thought I'd share these as Old School paint is rather en vogue at the moment. What we have here is one of those '80s adverts that White Dwarf ran that covered all of the major ranges that GW put out. Warhammer got one, so did Warhammer 40,000 as did WFRP and Bloodbowl. 

Over two pages you can see the five major sets and the associated paints in each. Additionally, the information box above gives quite a lot of detail about what each colour was recommended to do. This is really rather useful for those of you trying to capture the 'Old School Look' of the Citadel painters in the late '80s. 

Gotta love that photograph of Mick McVey too! 

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. 

Acceptable in the '80s: White Dwarf 102

Issue 102 hit newsagents with the sound of a heavily laden renegade class pursuit vehicle colliding with a stainless steel girder. Dark Future, the game of highway warriors, was finally released onto the gaming world. That game, and its associated releases is part of one of my other long term projects, and will, one day, be resurrected. Today, we will be discussing the Warhammer Third Edition releases from this issue, so lets sit back and enjoy a slice of retro Warhammer at its best.

First up, and the major article of the issue, the Fimir. Now, way back when in the early days of this blog I published a link to this excellent article and discussed the nature of the Fimir in the context of Warhammer Third Edition. I see no reason to repeat myself, but the online world has moved on and it is now possible to embed items onto blogs, so I present the article again in this form. 

So what do we get?

Well first off, a little bit of narrative fluff that sets up the premise of the new race well. Mists, horror and hideousness. The article moves on to deliver a Warhammer Armies style armylist and a detailed WFRP adventure. This is a really good article and is well worth a read if you haven't seen it before. The art is also excellent, with some evocative pictures provided by Paul Bonner. 

Fimir Armylist, Background and WHFRP Adv by orlygg

Next up is an 'Eavy Metal article deals with that old chestnut, faces. As well as some interesting old school painting advice, there are a great deal of quality miniatures to gawp at, including the famous Dwarf wizard and many other rare models, including an early glimpse at some, then, forthcoming daemonettes. The eye candy ends with a rather wordy discussion about how to get the best out of a miniature's face. 

Then we have these crossbowmen. At first flick through the magazine its easy to miss these little shooty chaps. What we get is a set of sculpts, based on the same dollies, that provide troops for Imperial and Bretonnian armies. Anyone know if these models are now part of Foundry's ever expanded ex-citadel models?

Orlygg

Realm of Chaos Black: Painting Tips and Techniques with Andy Craig

Welcome to the first in a series of 'Eavy Metal style articles by miniature painter extraordinaire Andy Craig. Those of you who frequent the Facebook Oldhammer Community may well have already had the opportunity to pick Andy's brains over different aspects of miniature painting. Many of the paints discussed here are available from arts suppliers, such as The Range or Hobbycraft, though we do refer to quite a few old school Citadel Colours, so you may wish to refresh your memory with this article first.

A few posts back I talked about my view of miniature painting and how 'technique can never be a replacement for soul'. As many of you have said, it seems that the 'winning is everything' ethos that prevails among many players of GW games has seeped into the painting scene too. Whatever happened to the sense of adventure and fun that existed during the early years of the Golden Demon competition, eh? Have a look here, here and here if you are unsure what I mean by this.

The theme for this edition of Realm of Chaos Black (get it?) is the colour recipe. Now I am a simplistic out of the pot man, largely because I have never really felt confident enough to go crazy and start mixing up colours, largely due to the fact that my usual result is a rather muddy finish. Well Andy has been really helpful in offering quite a bit of advice in this regard that should interest those of you who wish to improve your painting. So I'll hand over to him...

Enjoy!

Orlygg.

Red for the Red God!
In my early career, reds were a very difficult colour to get right and I'd avoid using it like the plague. Upon arrival at the 'Eavy Metal studio, I soon found out from the other figure painters that I wasn't alone.

We'll start with the red on the cape in the image below.

First of all make sure your using a good red, e.g. a red that has a very Matt finish - 'cheaper' brands are better for this. I use Anita's acrylic which can be bought in most hobby stores/art suppliers. It really is wonderful stuff, I've used it for years.

For a velvety cloth look, as in the image below, mix red, dark brown and black. Half the amount of black to the red and brown. Thiswill provide you with the base colour. Then start to apply red mixed with small amounts of the base until you are using only red for the first stage of highlights. The red should be pretty prominent by now, so begin to add small amounts of orange to the stand alone red, keep the highlights small to retain the red as larger highlights will just bleach the red. Add a bit of white to the orange and red for the finishing highlights but don't go anywhere near white! I'd say half a tone higher as by this stage the highlights should be very small. 

I hope that this makes sense and you can get good results from the mix.

Bright red.

To achieve a brighter red, I mix any base red with Dealer Rowney 'FW' series acrylic ink, expensive stuff but my God guys this stuff rocks! The reason I add ink to the red is the richness it creates and this technique works the same for any other corresponding colour. So, base colour applied(may take two or three coats to get a flat, even base) just add yellow to the base mix again keeping the highlights small (really important) until you are using yellow, no white.

Weathered red.

Mix red, purple and half the amount of black. The purple will give the red depth. start highlights by adding red to this base mix until you are using using red alone. Highlight using red and orange unitl half the tone of the red, then apply a thin ink wash of dark brown (raw umber is a good choice) red and again half the amount of black just to tone things down.

Blood red. 

This is really simple. Just use black, red and dark blue for your base colour, then half the amount of red to black and blue. Add red to base mix until you using just red to highlight. Once this is dry, use a brighter (not a mix) stock red like if you were using a crimson red to mix the base colour.

Chaos Warrior Bloodbowl Style! Painted by Andy and part of Bryan Ansell's collection.

Yellows and pinks.

Okay, I've lost count of the times that I've been asked 'how do you get such bright yellows and pinks'. It seemed to be a trademark as to how people back in the '80s recognised my work, so here goes....

Yellow

Use a mid tone yellow, such as the old Sunburst Yellow, and there are a couple of ways you could apply this to your model. 

1, mix yellow paint and orange ink, one quarter ink to paint, apply as your base, then add yellow to this for highlights until you're using only yellow. Add white to yellow again keeping highlights small, (as long as you can see at least three tones...your doing good) until you are using an almost white. 

2. Base coat using just the yellow on its own, again mix yellow and orange ink as before, then apply it as a wash, go for the consistency of milk for your colour wash, you should need only one wash for this. The start your highlights using yellow alone, then add white as desired.

Off yellow.

For a more realistic looking yellow I use Windsor & Newton 'Nut brown', any tone of yellow works for this. apply the same way as above 1 or 2. good idea to experiment with this using different shades of brown, also really good for painting Gold rather than using gold, seen so many painters using this (not my theory, but from what I,ve seen, the same type of thing) to paint gold and it looks awesome. also works well for that battle worn yellow look, just add more brown ink or give a light (watered down) brown wash.

Pink.

Its been years since I've painted anything pink and the only way I achieved this was using Citadel Titillating Pink. Base coat your model with this pink, then mix the pink and half the amount of a bright red ink. Then mix this down to an ink form before washing over the pink. Highlight with Titillating Pink, then pink and white.

One of the greatest colours (along with Bilious Green) to be found in the original Citadel Paint Sets. Now very hard to get of as the Coat d'Arms version, called Shocking Pink, is a different colour.

Here's an example of Titillating Pink in action. A two-tone Tzeentch horror by Andy. Now in the collection of Bryan Ansell. 

Flesh tones.

One thing I've loved doing above all others, is experimenting with colours, and none is more relevant than different skin tone effects. I've been using this recipe for flesh for most of my career, so I hope it is of some use to you guys.

With so many paint manufacturers out there selling their 5 or 6 step flesh tones, save yourselves some money guys and just buy the darkest tone.....and add white to it..

If you want to create your own, use this as your base colour. Mix red, yellow, white, brown (burnt umber) and Windsor & Newton 'Burnt Sienna' (must be w&n Burnt Sienna for this to work). Mix brown, white in the same amounts, then add red and yellow at half the amount, then Burnt Sienna ink as same amount as yellow and red. experiment with this to obtain different skin tones, add more red for a more tanned look or yellow for a more bronzed look. For me, its been a great foundation skin tone, if I feel the base mix is to dark for a particular figure I just add white. 

It would be great hear how you get along with this.

Another two tone horror, again part of Bryan's collection and painted by Andy.

Greens.

I loved painting orks when I was working in the studio, so to start I'll explain the green I used for greenskins.

Any mid earth tone green (such as the old Woodland Green) will do as a base. Use sunburst yellow, white and Windsor & Newton 'apple green' ink, mix the green with half amounts of white and yellow, though you may want to add less white if you like the darker tones. Add a quarter of ink to this then use as base coat. Add white and yellow to base colour for highlights, then give a thin wash of apple green ink once highlights are completed.

Weathered greens

These work well for clothing and look great light or dark. Mix dark brown (raw umber) Woodland Green and black. Use the same amounts of brown and green and a quarter black, then use as base coat. Add Woodland Green to the base mix for highlights then add yellow to woodland green for your final highlighting but stop just as you see the yellow starting to show. Make a thin wash from the base mix then apply as a finishing touch.

Bloodbowl Star Player. Painted by Andy. Owned by Bryan. Photographed by Steve Casey !

Blue.

System 3 Process Cyan by Rowney is the only blue I've used for years and you can achieve some incredible shades just by adding to it. If you want a deep rich shade add a dark purple ink, which seems to work better than just adding paint. Windsor & Newton Ultramarine ink works really well with this blue and gives an incredible mid tone.

Metal

I've seen some amazing metal effects on armour over the years, but let's face it, metallic pigment has never really been that good, which is why you see so many painters going for the option of painting the illusion of metal these days. I'll start by taking you through the rusty looking metal on the image below.

Rust.

For this, you'll need gold, black ink and orange ink. Base coat with gold and make sure it's bone dry or the gold will shift. Mix the same amounts of black and orange ink and half the amount of gold paint. Water this down and apply, but before each application give the mix a good stir. You could even use this mix to target certain areas of metal to give them that starting to rust look. I used this mix many years ago to paint some chaos knights for a friend (around 25 figures) as he wanted them  quickly, so I applied this mix straight onto the bare metal using the same colours, but this time I used enamels thinned with white spirit, they looked great!

Gold.

Base coat with your gold, again making sure that its dry. Then mix yellow ink, a mid tone brown ink and just drop of gold paint. The gold paint will now take the 'shine' off the ink. Oh, before I forget, anyone that has a problem with ink shine add a Matt medium to the ink before hand, Dealer Rowney do a good one. Highlight with gold paint then add silver for the final highlights.

Back and white.

There are a number of ways to shade, highlight and colour wash with these two colours. There are many shades of black on the market and many tinted whites, again... don't waste your money when you probably have these colours already. Just follow these simple steps if you're having difficulty or just fancy a new method. 

Black

The first, and most simple method to make your blacks look interesting, is use the dark tones of blue, green or red. This will depend on the figure type, so for instance let's say a LOTR wraith, I'd paint a base coat of black, then for the highlights, mix black with a mid tone blue, now, the trick here is to keep your highlights very small, best not tone all the way up to a light blue, just the blue alone should be enough. If there's three quarter's black still showing your on the right track. Emphasise all the high ridge folds on the wraith's cloak remembering to keep the highlights very small. applying a very thin wash of a dark brown ink, as this just gives that extra bit of depth. Experiment with different colours on different models and see what you can achieve.

White.

Again, depending on the figure type, let's say you wanted to paint the hair on a figure white, apply an ink wash of yellow and burnt sienna mix in equal amounts using the same amount of water (use a Pipette) then highlight using white. This makes for a more interesting tone of white.

Sky blue, light tan, and parchment work well also, as with black, make sure the white is dominant. And there is no harm in giving whites a full colour glaze orwash for an off or dirty looking white.

Cheers,

Andy Craig.

A big thanks to Andy for contributing his time to Realm of Chaos 80s once more. And I am please to announce that Mr Craig will be providing plenty more advice in future articles, including more advanced painting techniques and freehand shield and banner painting, so watch this space.

Feel free to comment about the techniques Andy has described, or email us any miniatures you've painted using his techniques. If you have any further questions, Andy can be contacted through me at this blog or directly on Facebook's Oldhammer Community. 

Right, where's my Titillating Pink and those Tzeentch daemons?

Orlygg.

Arcane Armorials: Painting Skulls... The Old School Way!

Regularly followers of my blog will know about my struggle to paint designs free hand on old '80s Citadel plastic shields. For years, such skill eluded me... But recently, after discovering an ancient guide in an equally ancient White Dwarf I managed to paint a quite convincing Blanche 'Citadelesque' style grinning face and can now pull of variations of these quickly and effectively. The next thing on the list was to be able to paint a convincing skull, especially considering I have been working on some undead miniatures in recent weeks.

Well this blog is going to serve to document this little journey. I've had a few practices and even worked up my first skull onto a shield (though I have tweaked it since by adding more detail) and armed a skelly with it.

First though, I had to do the research and collect together some templates to act as inspiration.

How about these for technical brilliance? The work of Colin Dixon in 1986. What a fantastic range of images to copy and adapt when painting old school shields. I'm no where near this level of painting yet but it is certainly something I aspire to achieve in the future. Below are a few other skulls images culled from the excellent resources found on thecitadelcollector from Bryan Ansell's collection.

Standard Bearer from the Nightmare Legion Regiment of Renown. I'm not sure if that is grey hair or ethereal slime dribbling from the skull's mouth.

A simple conversion here. Note the old tin foil banner (with some damage) but a good use of the skull from Arcane Armorials. I borrowed the single eye idea for one of my skulls.

Three troopers from the Nightmare Legion. Early use of photocopier there! Cut out and stuck on skulls on each of the shields. Simple, but effective. I really, really like this skull design. Fantastic with a taste of horror. 

If you Google skull clip are you get loads of ideas. Most of them are unusable for a 2D painting but there are some real crackers among them. Here are a few I really liked...

Right, let's have a look at what I've managed to produce recently then...

Keen eyed readers may recognise the shield on the right. I've worked it up a bit since you last saw it, with a mystic symbol in the forehead and yellow, staring eyes. The other is more of a flat design, quickly produced with the house of cards symbol on the forehead.

Okay, let's have a look at how you can paint a skull design in a few easy steps...

 First off, prepare your shield. Give it a nice base colour of your choice (here I used Bilious Green) and a darker wash over the top to create a little shading around the rim. 

 Once dry, block out the outline of your skull in a nice dark brown. Don't worry too much about coverage here.

 Using black ink, paint on the details and complete the outline of the skull.

 Highlight up with a lighter brown. Remember to pick out the teeth.

 Do a further highlight with Bleached Bone, remember to keep the paint quite watery and go for a fluid, painterly style in application.

 Final highlight around the edges with white. Again, keep the paint nice and fluid. 

Tidy up the rim, I used stippling to do this, and add the silver rivets. I added a nice red symbol to the forehead too. 

Job done!

Orlygg