Video clip

I have had a bit of a play with some sequential photos I took of one of the hoplites to see how it turns out. I am fairly pleased with the results - so here it is a video showing the change from priming to finished article!

...slow progress

Well, its been a while since the last post (nearly 6 months!) but I am afraid that life has got in the way of painting for a bit! Here is a pic of one and a half elements of spears complete . Unfortunately that's as far as I have got - that's an average of one figure per month ;). Hopefully, a change in career path will be happening in the next month or so, which will give me some of my free time back. You never know, I might be able to get the army finished before the end of the decade!!

Change of mind

I looked at the pic of the second spearman again, and decided that he was just too colourful for the way I envision the Etruscans. The blue on the shield and plume just seemed too vivid for 300BC, so I repainted him to give a black shield and black/white plume. I am happier with the result.

Second spearman

The second completed spearman. Technique for this one was exactly the same as the last. Now that I have painted one of each type of figure, the rest will be done in batches, and will hopefully be quicker.

Second spearman

So here is a work in progress shot for the second type of spearman, this time with an Etrusco-Corinthian helmet and hoplon shield. The black undercoat/white drybrush stage showed up that he was wearing a scale type cuirass rather than what I thought was a linen or leather one. As a result of this discovery, I drybrushed the whole figure with a bronze colour as it was easier to do at this stage than trying to do it only on the cuirass after the rest of the colours were done. Next was the basic colour blocking-in. The spear armed hoplites will be painted in various colours for variety and visual impact. The pilum armed guys I think will be painted in a consistent, uniform colour. This is for two reasons: firstly, on a whim (!) and secondly, as the figures look so similar, this will be a way to easily distinguish between troop types during the game.

First figure done

The first spearman is now finished. A thinned down brown wash was brushed over the whole figure, adding depth to the recesses, but still reaving the main colours showing through. Once that was dry (which didn't take long when balanced on top of a radiator whilst the heating was on!) thinned dark brown was used to pick out some of the detail missed by the wash - things like muscle definition on the flesh areas, and some folds on the clothing.Gold was used to highlight the bronze areas, belts were painted in, and a light flesh tone used to highlight areas like cheekbones, the nose and the knuckles. I also painted a couple more coats of thinned white paint to the face of the shield. I will be using transfers for the shield designs, but that will come later.

There you have it, one finished Etruscan spearman. He won't win any prizes in a painting competition, but still done to what I like to think is a very acceptable gaming standard.

..and so the paints come out!

...And so to the first figure, one of the converted spearmen, wearing a plumed Montefortino type helmet, a bronze cuirass and carrying a hoplon shield. I usually paint in batches, but the first figure of any type I always paint in it's entirity start to finish to give me a feel for the miniature.

1. The first stage as always is to undercoat the figure, my usual technique, and the one used here is to undercoat in matt black.
2. Once the black undercoat is dry, I then drybrush with white. This picks out the detail, and the lighter colour means that the brightness of the colours painted over the top is retained.
3. Then the main colours are blocked in, leaving some of the black base coat showing at the joins. This first stage usually looks qhite rough, but the later stages will tidy the miniature up.