Welcome back my apprentices of old lore. When last we met, these fantastic miniatures were fully base coated.
Base colours, bare metals, one tone skin and hair. With a black rim to the bases, back in the day these would have been fine to use in a store. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, but they are ‘fully painted’.
It can get disheartening when painting minis, however you view them they don’t look ‘done’, the colour scheme you have chosen doesn’t seem to be coming together, or your figures don’t look like anything that you would see in certain magazines. I’m here to tell you that all of this is fine.
Focus on getting to this stage - fully painted, no undercoat showing, basic bases. Look at them in daylight, look at them on a gaming table, let other people see them, and be proud you got them this far. I have so many miniatures that are still bare metal, you’re ahead of many gamers of old.
Once the worry and anxiety have gone, and you’ve told yourself ‘I’m going to make these better!’ We do to the next stage… washes!
Or perhaps not quite yet. If you look closely, you will see the black armour is highlighted, but not blue or grey, no, that would clash against the other colours. I wanted the effect that the armour is a very deep red, so used a dark red/brown to highlight first, then dark red to do some final highlights, before then washing with a red ink to tie it all together. Sometimes you will find inverting steps like this helps get a certain look.
Metals and helms washed with black, yellows, skin and hair washed with browns. Don’t over complicate your washes. In the above picture, you see the difference, how muted it all became? Not a problem.
Group shot! How much better? Touched up the main colours, staying away from the recesses, a shade up for the highlights on raised bumps and edges (spirit stones didn’t really exist yet). The Shuriken catapults had me concerned, as I wanted them to stand out, not be black weapons against black armour, so decided to follow the catapult line- wooden stocks! Dark brown, wash the recessed parts, highlight a mid brown.
Skin was again, a lighter shade, avoiding the recess, then another lighter shade to the most prominent. The hair was brushed with a lighter shade again!
Then it was picking out very small details and things that I didn’t like the look of. Grenades and eye lenses became green, then I looked at Belgae Strongwill and his missile launcher. It was needing something, but it was close to both a yellow shoulder pad and the red helmet, which one would make it stand out?
Red. A same as before, dark red, wash, edge highlights with a lighter tone, quick and simple. With the bases then washed liberally with a dark blue ink, we ended up with;
12 finished minis! Going by the entry in the main book, that’s 2 squads of 5 and two leaders. A start, but still a long way off the points I’m going to need to play.
Going by the 6 foot rule, they look good (the rule is, if you are using a mini for gaming, can you see any issues with it from across the table/6 feet away? No! Then it’s fine). How do I know that’s working? Well, I’m betting that even with this close up you didn’t notice I haven’t painted the eyes of the bare headed ones.
Now, what are the points for these I hear you cry! Well, next time, we will look at the very sensible and well documented rules for Rogue Trader. No sarcasm here.