Painting Horses by Mikael “mananarepublic” Astrom

In this tutorial I am going to explain how to paint a few different basic horse types: The Chestnut, the Bay and the Paint. Future tutorials will cover other type of animal mounts and well as fantastic/magical creatures.

Each horse is cleaned assembled and mounted on a piece of cork for easy painting (these are craft corks, which are on the expensive side - but perfect for the task). All three of the horses have pre-drilled holes for the rider and for a sword that is mounted on the back (only visible on the Bay). I recommend leaving the rider off and to paint the rider and the horse separately.

The Chestnut

Note: In the description below you can substitute the Natural Leather/Kalliene Yellow (from Rackham paints) mix with a mix of Rucksack Tan/Bloodstone/Boostrap Leather (from P3 paints).

Start by giving all the skin a base coat of an equal mix of Natural Leather (Rackham) and Kallienne Yellow (Rackham). The armor is given a base coat of Greatcoat gray (P3), the leather parts Gun Corps Brown (P3) and the mane and tail are covered in Hammerfall Khaki (P3) mixed with a dot of Moldy Ocre (P3).

Mix Umbral Umber (P3) with the base coats for both the skin and the mane/tail to shade both areas. When shading the mane first wash the whole area with just a little Umbral Umber in the mix and then progressively add more into the deeper areas of the model. For the darkest areas add a tiny bit of armor wash (this will help with the flow of the paint as well).  The armor is first given a wash of Badab Black (GW) to define all the details and bolts and then shaded with Greatcoat Gray/Thamar Black (P3). Since I want a stark contrast between the light/dark for the NMM the shade is brought down to a pure black. All the leather areas are washed with Devlan Mud (GW) and the hoofs with Ogryn Flesh (GW).

Before you start highlighting pick out any strands of hair that has gotten too dark and reclaim any of the skin that is too dark. Highlight the skin with Menoth White Base (P3), focus on getting the muscles defined, a horse is a powerful animal and that should show. Highlight the mane/tail first with a 50/50 mix of Moldy Ocre/HammerFall Khaki. Mix more and more Menoth White Base into this, finally mix in a little Morrow White (P3) for the parts where the light catches the hair. The armor is highlighted first with Underbelly Blue (P3) then Morrow White. All the leather areas are highlighted with a mix of Rucksack Tan  and Gun Corps Brown, I don’t highlight these too much because I want there to be a clear difference between the different materials on the model and I want the leather to be a little worn.

For the final details the horse is mounted on it’s base, mud is added to the hoofs and in this case I felt like the skin had gotten a little too “pink” for a chestnut so I washed all the skin areas but the face with a really thin mix of the base color and Khador Red Highlight (P3).

Note: To keep continuity I have painted the Leather and Armor areas the same way for all three horses, this helps keeping the unit coherent even thought the horses differ. So for the horses below I am only describing the differing areas of the model.

The Bay

Basecoat all the skin areas with Battlefield Brown (P3) and the mane with a 50/50 mix of Coal Black (P3) and Bastion Gray (P3).

The skin is shaded by progressively adding more and more Armor Wash (P3) to the base coat, mixing a paint with a wash like this thins the paint and helps with both the blending and the flow. When shading like this it is important to do small steps at a time and let each coat dry before adding another - this makes the blending very smooth. The mane is given a wash of Badab Black and then the deepest recesses are filled with pure thinned down Thamar Black (which results in a deeper black than what is achieved with a wash).

The mane/tail is highlighted with Menoth White highlight and the skin is highlighted first with a mix of the base coat and Bastion Gray and then with a little bit of Trollblood Highlight (P3) for the lightest areas.

For the details on the Bay I spent a lot of time cleaning up the mane/tail. The problem with using washes is that even though they dry matte it is hard to make out fine details in intricate shapes such as hair. Once I had brushed on the first layer a varnish a lot of my mistakes became apparent and I had to go back and clean them up before adding the next layer of varnish.

The Paint

The darkest areas of the skin are given a base coat of Battlefield Brown. For the lighter color I want a little shine, so I want there to be a cooler base shining through the warmer highlight and shade. To achieve this I base the white areas with Menoth White Highlight (P3) with a little Underbelly Blue in it. When you paint these two areas there is no need to be precise since a few errors can add to the realism of the pattern - you will have plenty of opportunities to clean the areas up in the steps below as well. The mane/tail is given a base of 50/50 Umbral Umber and Idrian Flesh.

The warmth needs to be brought into the lighter areas of the skin so they are shaded with a mix of the base coat and first a drop of Bloodstone (P3) and then with drop of Idrian Flesh (P3). The darkest areas of the skin are shaded in the same way as the skin of the Bay horse. The mane/tail is shaded with a mix of Badab Black/Devlan Mud.

Tip: When mixing any kind of washes/inks out of a pot, use a dropper for more control over the amounts mixed.

Highlight the light areas of the skin with first Menoth White Highlight then pure Morrow White. Highlight the dark areas of the skin by adding Idrian Flesh to the base coat. Pick out the strands of the mane and tail with Idrian Flesh, then highlight by adding first Ember Orange (P3) then Menoth White Highlight to Idrian Flesh.  The muzzle is highlighted first with Idrian Flesh, then with Midlund Flesh (P3) and finally with Ryn Flesh (P3).

Just as with the Bay I had to go back and make sure to fix the mane and tail and also clean up some of the blending on the armor.

Painting the muzzle

The horse’s muzzle (or mouth area) is a lot lighter than the rest of the face and body. Depending on which type of horse it is this area of the body takes on a different range of colors. Generally they are all lighter than the base color of the horse’s skin. When highlighting the muzzle start by blending a lighter shade onto the whole front of the face. Then as you are adding more and more light to the color, focus your highlighting around the nostrils and the lips.

Painting the muscle

Horses are powerful animals so when painting their muscles make sure to accentuate two things - motion and shape. You can achieve motion by adding extra shadows to the muscles working. Shape can be added by making sure that the roundness of the muscle is very well defined.

Painting the mane and tail

The mane and the tail should be  where you have the most fun - hair doesn’t really behave in a straight order. The key is just to try and pick out the different strands of hair and pick where the light hits - hence where the light will catch the hair. A good place to start is to highlight the top of bends and the end of each strand.

Painting horses is fun and if you leave the riders off it is pretty simple since all the main areas are generally easy to reach. Because cavalry units tend to be pretty expensive (both in terms of points and in $$$) I think you should all invest the time in painting yours up!

Guess I need to work on my “hero” pose a little

Converting With Plastics by althai

This article is aimed at someone who has probably not done much converting besides weapon swaps. I assume that you’re familiar with basic techniques such as pinning, but all of these techniques should be doable by beginning modelers.

Tools and materials

Because plastic conversions are relatively easy, I will only be using a few simple tools for this project.

Tools:

• sharp hobby knife
• wire cutters
• pin vice
• drill bits
• sewing needle

Materials:

• superglue
• epoxy modeling putty (”green stuff” and “brown stuff”)
• brass wire/paperclips

Our subjects

For this article we will be converting plastic Space Marines from Games Workshop. They are some of the most common plastic miniatures in the gaming world, are easy to convert, and you will frequently see armies consisting of dozens of plastic marines, all in similar poses, so some conversion work to add variety is very useful. However, these techniques can, in principle, be applied to any plastic miniature, and many of them can be applied to metal miniatures as well (albeit with more work and tools such as saws and dremels).

Reposing miniatures

We are going to start by reposing some of our Space Marines. Every single Space Marine seems to come with the same pose: legs spread, holding the gun across the chest. The main thing you control is the relative facing of the legs, torso, and head. In order to spice things up a bit, we’re going to reject this simple formula, and repose our marines as we see fit.

We’ll start by reposing the legs. Instead of the static “solid footing” pose most marines have, I want a marine which is upright and walking - of course the same techniques could be used to create other poses. In order to accomplish this, I begin by cutting apart my marine legs. I remove both feet, and then I remove both legs where they join to the pelvis. Then I smooth the areas where I have cut, so that I can reassemble them without rough patches where my knife cuts are visible:

The next step is to begin reattaching them. Before I attach anything else, I want to make sure the legs are positioned how I want them. I drill a hole in the top of each leg, cut a section of paper clip long enough to pass through the pelvis, bend, and enter the top of each leg, and then attach both legs to the paperclip. I have not yet attached the pelvis, because I want the freedom to bend the paperclip as I like to get the legs oriented in a natural gait before attaching the pelvis; the two-body problem is much simpler than the three-body problem.

Now that I have the legs in a reasonable pose, I have a problem: how do you attach the pelvis to the middle of the paperclip, with both legs in place? Simple: you cut a groove. I cut a slit from the base of the pelvis, deep enough so that I can slot the pelvis into place over the paperclip, between the two legs. Later I will cover this slit with modeling putty - I’ll be covering a smooth area on the underside of the miniature, so the replacement will be unnoticeable, even with my lackluster sculpting ability.

The next step is to attach the feet. This is rather simpler than the pelvis; I just need to pin them in place. One of the two feet will be the back foot, and in order to show that the marine is walking forward lifting his heel, I cut it in half, and reattach the halves at an angle, so that the toe will be firmly planted on the ground, and the heel will be raised. Don’t worry about gaps at this time; you can fix them later with modeling putty. Here is my fully assembled leg construction:

The only thing left to do is gap filling. The underside of the pelvis and gaps in the feet are simple to fix: we simply fill them with modeling putty, and smooth them over. The gaps between the legs and pelvis are a bit more complicated: we need to recreate the raised ridges of the articulated joins. This is the most complicated sculpting needed for this project, but it’s still relatively simple: start by filling the gap and creating a smooth surface where the texture will go, then impress grooves with the edge of your modeling knife, rolling it along the curved surface so the grooves have constant depth. The trickiest part is making sure the grooves are evenly spaced.

You can easily apply the same principles to arms, heads, and torsos. Of course with these plastic Space Marines, the torso and head are already separate pieces that can be assembled in many poses, but here is a reposed arm made to be holding a weapon outstretched rather than across the body:

I simply cut above and below the elbow, and then reassembled the pieces, using a pin, in the desired position. Again, the gaps are filled and the articulation is created with modeling putty.

Adding detail

Besides reposing miniatures and doing weapon swaps, the most common other use of conversions is adding or changing details. This can be anything from tabards to beards to elaborate scrollwork on armor. Again, for this article we will be aiming for rather simple results; in this case, I’m going to be converting a marine into a champion of Nurgle.

For this model I decided go for simple modifications, and to add interest with the paint scheme. One thing to keep in mind is that you can make a simple conversion really pop with freehand or other elaborate painting, or showcase a more complicated sculpt with a very simple paint job. Your conversions don’t always have to be tremendously detailed - sometimes simple is best. In order to assist with your sculpting, it’s nice to have a collection of sculpting tools. If you are really into sculpting, you can spend quite a while collecting and modifying your tools, but for this article we will only use a few simple tools: a hobby knife and an ordinary sewing needle. One of my favorite sculpting tools is a simple needle, secured in a pin vice to give it a nice handle. However, if you decide that you enjoy sculpting, one of the first things you will want to do is procure some better tools.

In order to take a generic chaos marine and turn him into a devotee of Nurgle, I have made two principal modifications (apart from reposing the legs as described in the previous section). First, his belly has been enlarged with modeling putty, as is common for devotees of Nurgle. This was a relatively simple modification, the primary change being to add bulk; the only detail I sculpted was some simple generic battle/corrosion damage. Of course, if you are confident in your sculpting skills, you can add more detail, such as hoses, insignia, and so forth. The second main modification was to his shoulder pad. In order to properly mark him as a devotee of Nurgle, I wanted a Nurgle insignia on one of his shoulders. I drilled three holes in a triangle into his shoulder pad to use as a guide (and also so that the insignia could be partially recessed), and then sculpted the insignia over them.

Putting it all together

This article showed you a few simple techniques that you could use to individualize your miniatures, especially plastic ones, by reposing them and adding details. In order to get the best mileage out of these techniques, remember that they can be combined in various ways to create unique poses. As a pair of final examples, I present two marines: a Templar, and a painted version of the Nurgle champion from above.

The Templar sports three modifications. First, instead of holding his bolter across his chest in the typical marine pose, I wanted him to be pointing it in the opposite direction, so I reposed his right arm. Second, since his left hand was now not needed to hold the bolter, I decided to give him one of the knives that comes with all the plastic marine sets. This was another simple conversion - I simply took one of the open hands designed to hold a bolter grip, and curled the fingers around the knife hilt. Finally, I decided to give him a unique helmet, so I carved down a beaked Space Marine helmet into something with a bit of a Templar feel. Three simple conversions, but together they turn a generic plastic marine into something that stands out.

Packaging

The Citadel Washes are sold as either single bottles or as a set of the eight colors. The colors available are a series of browns: Devlan Mud, Gryphonne Sepia, and Ogryn Flesh; a series of basic colors: Leviathan Purple, Thraka Green, Asurmen Blue, and Baal Red; and Badab Black.

The bottles are 10ml flip top as shown below.

These retail for $3.70 each or $24.75 US for the set.

Properties

Citadel Washes are a viscous substance with a low pigment density. They are easily applied to a model with a standard paint brush and work best with no water added. The term “wash” is a bit of a misnomer. These can be used with traditional wash techniques but tend to behave more like glazes. The thick nature of the Washes allows it to pool easily in recesses and holds its place while it dries; however it tends to stain entire surfaces. The overall effects of the Citadel Washes are not unlike ink-and-Future-Floor-Finish washes. Models coated with the Citadel Washes obtain results similar to traditional dipping methods.

Additionally, the Citadel Washes taste horrible. If you are a brush licker these will make you think twice.

As a point of reference, the Citadel Washes are similar to the clear glazes produced by Tamiya, except that these are water based as opposed to alcohol based.

Citadel Washes in Action

So the most important question is: How do they work out?

The short answer is reasonably well, depending on your expectations. First off, the Citadel Washes are only mediocre when applied in thin layers. They get better results when applied heavily. Refer to dipping. I’ve achieved better-than-table-top quality with them, but the Citadel Washes are a long way from being a competition worthy tool.

This first example is a plastic Chaos Marauder from Games Workshop. The flesh has been painted using P3 Khardic Flesh. I find flesh is a good barometer for washes. Gaining smooth definition over muscle is a time consuming process. Often bodies can end up looking cartoony with sharp lines providing definition and not as organic when time is taken to blend in proper highlights and shades.

The next step is to use the Ogryn Flesh wash over the base color to bring out the details.

This second example is a Cryx Bloodgorger from Privateer Press. Flesh again is my barometer and the blue flesh gives me a chance to use Asurmen Blue. The first photo is a Cryx Bloodgorger with the flesh base coated in P3 Trollblood Base. The next photos are after two layers of the Asurmen Blue wash.

A third example is a plastic Night Goblin from Games Workshop. Again testing with flesh, the Night Goblin got a base coat of Vallejo Game Color (VGC) Goblin Green. The green was washed with Thraka Green.

Metals are one area where washes excel. There are a lot of different ways to shade and highlight metals (actual metal metals). In my opinion, washes are the fastest and most economical way of doing this. There are multiple products available including Vallejo Smoke, Tamiya Smoke, P3 Armor Wash, the BrushThralls Metal Wash, ink-and-Future, etc. Between the viscous consistency and the low pigment density the Citadel Washes work well to supplant its predecessors. Simply apply metallic base coats and then apply a Wash.

The first example is traditional silver metals. This Games Workshop Chaos Warrior was painted using GW Chainmail. The metallic areas were washed with Badab Black, and then again with Devlan Mud. One warning: let each layer of Wash dry thoroughly.

Yellow/Gold metals can also be worked using Citadel Washes. The Gryphonne Sepia has a nice red tint to it that really makes gold pop. This Games Workshop Chaos Warrior was painted using P3 Rhulic Gold and washed using Gryphonne Sepia.

Overall Experience

The strength of the Citadel Washes is really in adding quick shades, and due to the color selection available and the low pigment density of the medium it is difficult to use those over any base color not “light” in nature. VGC Goblin Green versus VGC Snot Green, for example.

The basic colors like Asurmen Blue, Baal Red, Leviathan Purple, and Thraka Green are novel to use, but their use to me is very situational. They tend to stain surfaces more than the browns and are a lot more finicky to work with. The browns: Gryphonne Sepia, Ogryn Flesh, and Devlan Mud, have good color density and are useful for a variety of applications ranging from flesh to leathers to armor. Badab Black is, well, black. Take it or leave it in a crowded market of black washes/glazes.

The Citadel Washes work well for providing quick lining between parts and establishing definition between hard edges. That’s a plus in my book.

The truth is everything the Citadel Washes do can be done with other tricks. They are interesting, but not revolutionary. If you live in an area where items like Future Floor Finish or Tamiya products are not available, or you are like me where picking up a bottle off the shelf of the game store is easier than mixing anything or mail order, then the Citadel Washes become a useful tool. The caveat to this is that it is a more basic skill to use washes, and by the nature of the techniques and the Citadel Washes themselves you are not going to be achieving competition worthy and award winning results. If putting good looking models on the table with less effort is your goal, then the Citadel Washes are definitely a good thing for your paint table.

One more note: Using these strictly with Citadel Colour and Foundation Paint ranges is not necessary. I personally use the Citadel Washes extensively with the P3 range. In fact, P3 Rucksack Tan and Gryphonne Sepia is a favorite combination for light colored leather.

Overall BrushThralls.com Rating: B-

Thanks to James Russell (Winter of Discontent) for hooking me up with my first batch of these.

Blending by Jens

Part 1: Miniature Preparation

The first part of this tutorial deals with the preparation of the miniature before actually painting it. When trying to achieve smooth blending it is important to create an appropriate surface – we want  an evenly smooth surface.

The reasoning is fairly simple. If the surfaces have a visible texture the paint will naturally collect in the recesses and hence affect the smoothness of our blendings. This becomes particularly evident when working with non-opaque thin layers of paint. Even worse if the roughness changes along the miniature.

The roughness of the miniature surface tends to vary a lot depending on brand and size of the parts – larger tin parts tend to feature a bigger surface roughness. Some miniatures will require close to no work, while others might require many hours of preparation.

Acolyte (Privateer Press - Hordes) – Missionaire (Asmodée – Hell Dorado)

Close-Ups:

The Acolyte model has a fairly rough surface

The Missionaire model has a very smooth surface

Solutions:

1.    Sanding paper / Steel wool

The most common way to smooth surfaces will be using sanding paper and steel wool. This doesn’t work very well if the surfaces are hard to reach or feature many small ornamental details as we might damage them.

2.    Milliput / Matt Vanish

Applying a very thin film of matt vanish or heavily watered Miliput can help in particular on highly detailed areas or areas you cannot properly reach with sanding     paper or steel wool – they will collect in the fine recesses and close them. The advantage of Miliput is that you can finish the surface with steel wool or sanding paper later. This doesn’t work too well when using matt varnish, however, this is easier to use and will dry quicker. Be careful not to ruin any details of the sculpt.

It’s important not to forget to clean the miniature with some water and soap before continuing to remove any fine dust or mold release agents. You can avoid many troubles later on.

Priming

At this stage we hopefully have a miniature with a nice evenly smooth surface. Some might be tempted to directly apply paint,  however,  there is good reason for using a primer. Thinned paint would roll off the polished metallic surface – it needs a very slight roughness and this is provided by the fairly large pigments we’ll find in paints suited for priming.

The most common type are spray primers as they are very convenient to use. However,  you can apply some primers with brush or an airbrush – for tight and angled areas you might have no choice other than using the brush to apply the primer.

A typical mistake when using a spray primer is not to shake the can sufficiently long or over do it. When applying too much primer it tends to dry as a very smooth surface and as a result the paint has nothing to stick to and will start to roll off. It’s no problem if the primer doesn’t cover the surface with a opaque layer – the main reason for priming is to provide that slight roughness of the surface for the paint to avoid any pooling.

Part 2:  Visualize highlights and shadows

Simply highlighting all edges and shadowing the recesses won’t result in a natural painted lighting of the miniature,  although it helps to give it some extra depth. When trying to paint the miniature as if lit by a virtual light we’ll obtain a much more convenient result. This will take some experience but there are quite a few simple ways to help us visualize where shadows and highlights should be placed.  I’ll explain two possible solutions:

1.    Using a color spray or an airbrush.

A spraying can or airbrush can be used to simulate a lightsource. Many painters will use a black primer for their miniature and use a white spray primer to simulate the light source. Now you have all your highlights and shadows painted on the miniature. Personally I don’t like this technique that much, since you’ll see usually small spots from the brighter primer, unless you use an airbrush,  and it will take many layers of color if you want to get rid of them. However,  this technique is very fast if you don’t mind that spotted texture all you have to do is to color the miniature with thin glazes later on and the result is much better compared to dipping techniques.

2.    Using a light and a camera

The most obvious way to create a reference for our highlights later on is using a light and taking pictures of the miniature from different angles. It’s easiest to take the pictures at night with your desk lamp. With some post processing of the images you can easily exaggerate the shadows and highlights.

Part 3 – Painting the miniature

Finally we’re ready to start painting the miniature. There are numerous ways to create the blendings. I’ll present the technique that works best for me.

General Tips: It helps adding a bit of soap to your painting water as it helps to soften the water and reduce the surface tension of water.

1.    Base Color

The first stage to apply the base color and it’s best to apply it in many thin layers of paint. Ensure that the color is perfectly even along the surface.

I needed around 5 layers of paint until it covered the surface evenly. The color used is a mix of VMC: Hull Red and Schmincke PrimAcyrl: Burnt Sienna.

2.    Painting the first highlights and shadows

Using fairly thinned paint (ratio 1 color : 3 water – and a drop of VMC: Matte Medium) I started painting,  building up the highlights and shadows. I try avoiding using pure white and black and used VMC: Deck Tan in the mix for the highlights and Schmincke PrimAcryl: Payne’s Grey in the mix for the shadows. The payne’s grey is a very rich grey with a slightly blueish hint while the Deck Tan is a slightly yellowish grey. The color contrast of warm and cold colors helps enhance the depth of the shadows.

3.    Smoothing

Although I tried my best,  a close-up shows that the color transitions aren’t smoothly blended. If this happens all you have to do is soften the blending. This is done by using a mix of your base and shadow color and applying a very thin glaze along the complete surface. It is important to use thinned paint (1 color : 5 water) and remove all excess paint from the brush. This step will reduce the contrast of your highlights and shadows and hence reduce the visibility of the edges in your blending. Now you’ll have to to build up the highlights again. Rinse and Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you’re happy with your result. It’s a matter of patience really.

Several hours later the miniature is finished:

Cleaning and Repairing Old or Second Hand Models by Mikael “mananarepublic” Astrom