Merchant from Talisman

This is a Merchant that was produced as part of the Talisman range (if memory serves me correctly). Curiously, I painted it with good old Humbrol enamel paints and like other earlier models I did was 'painted' with lengths of thin wire. These were the days before I worked out that finer paint brushes were available than what one was using on Tamiya King Tiger tanks! The merchant was then coated in a liberal amount of clear gloss wooden floor sealant (a.k.a. polyurethane) which has protected it well enough (apart from a chip on his thumb) considering it has floundered in the bottom of a box and travelled to three countries so far. But then again, that's merchants for you.

Troll with axe

Moving on from bits of wire, this troll (there was another but it's in someone else's collection, me having to forgotten to pick it up) was painted with a brush or two. The main feature of the job was that it was done with a mix of Humbrol enamels and Tamiya acryilics. Not sure that helped to achieve anything special in terms of effects here, though. But I am pleased how the bloodied bandage came up (what colour is troll ichor?). A little brother did get to it one day and started to paint it's axehand with green something. Again, once finished it was liberally coated with gloss polyurethane.

Ogre with feather in his cap

Ogres have come a long way since Citadel/Games Workshop first introduced them, starting out as semi-civilised big 'uns to grubby uncouth big 'uns to the current lot of big ugly oafs. Unfortunately not all like the 'civilised' one here are published in the latest Monsters & Mercenaries Collectors' Guide (nor are the Talisman range or the troll above and many others under Neral's effective control). This ogre, like the troll, was done with a mixed group of paint types. It has come up rather pleasingly as my skill with 000 brushes increased, the skin coming out nice and dark. I especially like the way the metals have come out, like the bronze shield on his thigh and the metal breastplate. Who knows, maybe I'll experiment with enamels again someday...

Empire Artillery Crew

After a hiatus of six or so years, I finally had enough dosh to be able to fork out for pretty much whatever I wanted (as far as GW armies, anyway). First thing I bought was pretty much everything. But the first thing I had a bash at painting was this Empire artillery crew. Proper brushes, proper Citadel paints. Pity about the paint job! I also forgot to stick some bits on the cannon. I perhaps should have waited before overdoing the bronze on the cannon too: this was before I visited Musée de l'Armée in Paris which has an excellent collection of old cannons scattered about the courtyard and outside Les Invalides. Good thing Warhammer is fantasy so you can get away with this. I should have also done something about the join along the axis of the cannon. The paint job is pretty amateur although I was attempting to get the gunpowder look all over the crew by heavily drybrushing black over arms and faces. Still, it's a good thing the picture is taken from a distance.

Bretonnian Archers

This mixed bunch of barely competent ruffians who have the guile to band together as a Bretonnian Archer regiment is my first attempt at a Warhammer core unit. As with many of the plastic miniatures, there are only so many combinations of heads and bodies before things get too regimented. And after all, we are talking Bretonnians! The decision was made to make things, well, regular by having ‘sub units’ of similar configurations who were all told to wear something blue! This represents the different manors that these troops were raised from although they are all part of the same Lord’s manse, hence the blue shields with a label of three points (i.e. this Lord is the first son of an even greater Lord). So the first son brings the stick shooters to the field of battle – a measly contribution given the general distaste Brettonians have towards non-contact weapons – but a necessary one to counter the enemy’s ranged weapons.

In terms of painting the effect that come out quite well are the leather overcoats of some of the figures, such as the friar. Liberal use of brown ink over a darker brown paint secured this effect. Clearly I need to refocus efforts on taking away mould lines and careless paintwork which really show up in some of these photos. They were all given a spray coat of semi-gloss polyurethane which was at first a disappointment because it did not cover up (like gloss can) some slack paint work. But in the end, core Bretonnian ground troops are not going to be very glamorous so a bit of roughness can be accepted.

Damsel on foot

One main challenge with this model of a Bretonnian damsel: her long and copious head of hair! Where it starts and stops became gradually more obvious as the model was painted then it was just a matter of painting it yellow with a very light brown ink wash and then rather obvious white highlighting.

All in all, not a bad model to work on with the cloak allowing for some nice broad highlighting (in fact, the model looks best from the rear!). I coated it with ‘ardcoat, which was a first given I’ve mostly used spray or slopped on polyurethane. 

Questing Knight 3 leadership on display

This chap is the first Bretonnian I've attempted on horseback. While part of the Questing Knight's unit, I’ve put the black label against the azure (or perhaps ‘bleu celeste’) shield as I wanted to develop the colour scheme of part of my Bretonnian force around a family of warrior princes. This chap is therefore the first son of the leader of the force. However, I may have to study heraldry in a bit more depth if I’m to use the right symbols in a technically correct manner!

The horse was undercoated with a water-based white primer. I laid it on too think in one pass so there is some wrinkling of the paint. This was not the desired effect, but it’s not a bad idea to experiment with to add texture in future for some applications. The chainmail for the horse needs work for the future as a brown/chestnut ink wash over the silver doesn’t quite cut it. The backpack of assorted items was the most painful element to paint as it was tough deciding what colours to paint the various components so they would individually show.

All in all, I’m not 100% satisfied with the paint job (hence the Photoshop effort!) but it is a more complex model. I’ll take some lessons and hopefully improve on the next knight.

Doom Divers watch out for that...!

These fun little models are some of the original goblin Doom Divers painted here in 1992. In terms of logical flying physics, the later ones were more sensible: as if the two-wheeled sling pictured could support the tension of the idiot goblin. They were painted using regular Citadel paints and inks back when the paint went on a bit thicker. A high gloss spray-on varnish was used to protect these models which had not seen the light of day for seven years (as good goblins shouldn't, right?!).