15mm Ancient Britons (horsemen)

 There's something to be said about the subtle pleasures of painting 15mm figures; they're not big enough to have to worry about all the fine details and such, but they're also not too small where you can't have any fun. After painting 28mm figures for the last few months, it did take me a little while to get used to painting in this scale. I'm working on a new army for DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis), a well-known historical wargame. This is one unit of horsemen that will be a part of my Ancient Briton army. In DBA, each army consists of twelve elements, so I've still got eleven more to go. This first unit was more of a test model than anything else. Who knows if I'll ever get to play it? But being able to paint an army for less than $25 bucks is always good in my book. These guys aren't the zenith of my painting ability, but considering that they're merely the size of a U.S. quarter, I'm pretty happy--especially with the horses and freehand shield designs.

Until next time...

I did some research online--and even ordered a few books from Amazon--to make sure I was painting them historically accurate.

More Orks!!!

Look, I've painted a lot of Ork boys--over 120 of them, in fact. Some of them may or may not be just green skin and black clothing. Can you blame me? It's tough to find the time and energy to paint up each boy all fancy schmancy. But I'm slowly trying to resolve that. I got tired of looking at green and black on the battlefield, so I'm doing them in batches of ten and taking my time, painting them up however I see fit. There's no way I'm painting all 100+ the same way, though. There are two good reasons for this: the first is that it is mind-numbingly boring. And the second reason is that my army consists of a bunch of small Ork tribes (yeah, I made some of them up. What's it to ya?!) all united under my warboss, Jack Bloodspilla'. So there ya go. There's no way I have the discipline to paint an army of Space Marines...

 Here's a test model I did today for the current batch of ten. They say you never see an Ork in purple, so I though't I'd go with that. I thought the turquoise and light brown went nicely with the purple and green. WAAAGH!

Reaper Bones Bugbear

 I buckled down this afternoon and finished this guy. I can't really remember all the colors I used (because I used A LOT), but I employed a mix of Vallejo, Citadel, and Reaper paints. I blended colors together on a whim, grabbing whatever was nearby, and experimented until I was happy. He came out looking bright, cartoon-y, and exaggerated--which is what I was going for.

I did write down the skin colors I used. I ended up using more colors than I had originally planned, going back and forth, dulling down highlights with a light wash, and then highlighting again until I was happy. It was pretty time consuming, but I'm quite pleased with the final result. For the sake of remembering in case I paint up a few more of these guys, this is how I did the skin:

1) Basecoat: Vallejo Leather Brown
2) Wash: Citadel Reikland Fleshshade in the recesses
3) Highlight 1: Reaper Master Series Paints (MSP) Oiled Leather on the raised muscles
4) Highlight 2: Reaper MSP Tan Leather
5) Highlight 3: Vallejo Brown Sand
6) Glaze: watered-down Citadel Reikland Fleshshade wash to smooth color transitions
7) Highlight 4: Vallejo Brown Sand again only on raised muscles exposed to sunlight
8) Highlight 5: Vallejo Brown Sand / Citadel White Scare (50:50) on the tips of knuckles, upper lip,
                          ears, shoulders, and other raised muscles exposed to light. (very minimal)

That pink nose cracks me up every time!

It took me a while to decide what colors I would paint the pouch and pants (skirt?!). I think the blue and yellow complement the skin and red fur nicely.

The next project will be a 15mm Ancient Britons (Celtic) army for De Bellis Antiquitatis. I recently met some other historical wargamers at  my local gaming store, so I'm filled with inspiration to get another historical army on the table. (I painted up some 10mm Marian Romans a few years ago but never got to use them in a game.)

Reaper Bones Bugbear WIP

 Just in case you were wondering, I do paint other minis besides Orks. I also realize I've been posting a lot of Ork-related things over the last year (or more!). And that's because putting together a Warhammer 40k Ork army is a loooong commitment.

However, I really needed a break from painting green, so I busted out an old Reaper Bones mini I had sitting in the closet for who knows how long. I haven't completed much, just some skin and fur basecoats, and one skin highlight (planning on at least two more highlights), but I'm inspired and aim on getting him done soon. It was really nice to spend a few hours this afternoon on a miniature I can use in a future D&D game or something.

I still haven't decided what color I want to paint his armor, shield, and bad-ass mace.

The patch of fur on his back will be a gray-ish white, I'm thinking.

A little more work this afternoon. Those are dragon scales on his shoulder! This is one nasty bugbear.

I stopped painting at this point since I'm still not sure what color I want to paint everything else. Thoughts?