The everything miniatures wargaming thread

[Jacob]

Awh man... I've been eyeing the Victrix stuff for a while but with my painting speed... and they're typically 60! in a box.

I'm interested in the Saxon/ Norman/ Vikings (as usual). I also want some of the various Celts (mostly for fantasy purposes). I'm also pretty infatuated with the Carthaginian Elephants and Celtic Chariots as well, even though I have no specific gaming use for them.

But right now I've been buying a fair bit of Oathmark minis (which come in a more reasonable 30 minis a box) and that's probably already too much. And there are other great manufacturers also. It's a really great time to be into minis, that's for sure.

[The Brain]

While waiting for my Anglo-Saxon shield transfers to arrive I painted this Anglo-Saxon bard. He likes his broadsword and his cross of gold. It is said that his song can inspire the eagles in the sky.

Obviously this is not from the Victrix plastics. It's a model by Stronghold Terrain.

[The Brain]

I got my shield transfers!

So this is the heart of a Saxon warband. There are no archers on the sprues (which makes sense), so I have ordered some metal Saxon archers from Warlord. Shield transfers and banner are by Little Big Men, they make the best transfers IMHO. I used them for my Wars of the Roses army. Their transfers look good, are easy to apply, and are not super delicate like many transfers.

I've kept the colors of the clothes fairly uniform and muted, partly to keep the painting process as simple as possible, and partly to let the shields provide color and detail.









While waiting for the transfers I also painted some metal Norman archers from Warlord. They are simple figures with no unnecessary detail, which makes them great for "extras" like archers. They are also generic enough that they could count as Saxon or Viking in a pinch until I have those archers done. Like I mentioned above I have ordered Saxon archers, and I have also ordered Viking archers. These will be roughly similar to the Norman ones but with facial hair and some variations in headgear.

[Syt]

[The Brain]

Special Feature

In case anyone is interested I took some pics while painting, and I thought I'd post a step by step of how I paint. NB this is not best practice, this is just my way of painting that I think gives decent results and that I'm comfortable with.

General principles: A) I paint from the outside in, ie begin with outer layers/equipment and "paint my way in". This is not an ironclad rule, I deviate from it when it's convenient for some reason, and of course the same item can be both over and under other stuff on the figure. When painting several figures I always try to do one paint step for all figs at the same time, even if there are slight differences in preferred painting order between the figures. The reason I paint outside in is that I find it easier to get a nice clean result this way, even if it can get fiddly trying to put paint in between already painted surfaces. B) I use washes on pretty much everything. Washes are basically diluted paint that settles in recesses and give a sense of depth and shadow, and also hide imperfections at the places differenty painted surfaces meet. C) I often, but not always, drybrush or highlight an area after having used a wash. To make details pop more. This highlight may be quite subtle though and doesn't always photograph well.

Most of the paints I use are Vallejo. Unless otherwise indicated all my paints are from Vallejo.



1. After assembling the plastic figure I prime the whole thing using Matt Surface Primer Grey (from Green Stuff World). Then I paint all leather items Beastly Brown. As you can see I don't worry at all about avoiding getting paint on other surfaces that will be painted later (if anything I want to avoid the primer ever showing through between colors). I only care about this if I'm painting a dark color near a surface that I know will be very light (getting good coverage of the lighter color can get harder if the surface is dark), but this is not the rule.

2. Next I paint the wooden inside of the shield Leather Brown, and give it a wash of Agrax Earthshade (from Games Workshop). I do this now because it's hard to paint this later when other surfaces are already done without getting paint on them.

3. Paint all metal objects except the blade of the sword Gunmetal. Note: I missed two objects on the belt, and corrected this in step 10 below.

4. Wash the leather and metal parts with Nuln Oil (GW).




5. Paint clothes German Camouflage Beige WW2.

6. Paint "puttees" Khaki.

7. Wash clothes and puttees with Agrax Earthshade (GW).

8. Paint skin Pale Flesh.





9. Wash skin with Ogryn Flesh (GW).

10. Paint swordblade Chainmail Silver (I was temporarily out so in reality a 50/50 mix of Gunmetal and Silver). Note: I don't use a wash on the blade, to keep a clean look. Paint moustache Flat Brown. At this point I also drybrush/highlight the different areas, clothes with the same color I painted them with (the wash will have darkened the areas a bit), metal parts with Chainmail Silver (ersatz version, see above), leather parts with Parasite Brown, skin with Off-White.

11. Paint the part of the shield that will be covered by transfer white using Matt Surface Primer White (GSW). Apply the transfer according to instructions. You can't really see in the pic but I try to align the transfer so up is up on the shield. What is up can only be determined by looking at the back of the shield how the hand is holding it. The model itself is now done, all that is left is basing and varnishing.






12. Apply PVA glue to the base, sprinkle rougher grains on some places, then dip in fine sand.

13: After the glue has dried I fix the sand using diluted PVA glue. Let that dry, and then paint the base Bonewhite. Give it a heavy wash of Agrax Earthshade.

14. Drybrush base with Ivory. Paint the side of the base Flat Earth ( ). Varnish the entire figure with Matt Varnish. Glue some tufts of grass from Gamer's Grass to the base using PVA glue. Done!

[Jacob]

Do you use any products for the transfers? I've used transfers a bit, but they stand out a bit too much from certain angles that I'm not keen on using them regularly....

[crazy canuck]

That is really good Brain

[Sophie Scholl]

Awesome information! Thank you!

[grumbler]

Look at the brain on that... er.. Brain!

[The Brain]

Thank you everyone!

@Jacob: I don't use any products when applying the transfers. Little Big Men transfers are a bit different from standard transfers, and are applied a bit differently. After application though the transfers get a layer of Matt Varnish with the rest of the figure, this takes away the shininess (well almost all of it, the shields are still flat surfaces, you get some light reflection at certain angles...).

[celedhring]

Thanks a lot for this! I've been toying with painting a few tabletop minis myself, but it always felt a bit daunting. You made it look a bit more approachable for a newb.

[The Brain]

Finished Normans from the command sprue. Just like the Saxons you can make 12 guys from the two command sprues, for the Normans I made 10.

[Jacob]

Looking nice... tempting me to take the plunge for some of the Victrix minis but really i should paint what I have.....

[The Brain]

Paint and tell.

[Iormlund]

Very nice work Brain!

I played my first Age of Sigmar game last Monday. Really, really tempted to collect and paint a small army. Those fancy new high elves perhaps ...