Painting Through the Ages

 Here are a small group of Goblins I painted back in 1984. I remember meeting someone from school many years after, we got on to the subject of gaming. He laughed and said "Oh yes, everyone remembers your blue Goblins" however, I think for all the wrong reasons.I always thought blue would be different and cool...

 I think some paint stripper might be in order.

 Here we have an adventure party of Dwarves and Halflings painted again back in the early Eighties. No shading, just straight from the pot, done!

In a way I miss that old carefree approach. I think that's why I have taken to using Army Painter so readily, It's the same process just with a dip at the end. Halfling with stringed bow...nice! No bases though.

 "Give me a row of Orcs necks and an axe..." 1987 now and I've started to play around with shading. Dry brushing was all the rage back in the money making Eighties don't ya know.

I don't think they look too bad, but then I did take much longer to paint one figure back then. I think It was a time before the twenty figure production line approach.

 

 Bases were layered with Poly filler then pricked hundreds of times with a needle to make grass. It took ages, today I just flock and go.

Still stringing those bows...nice! These adventurers are just three in hundreds of painted figures from the Eighties, for me It was the Golden Age of Fantasy. Mind you, I had been brought up on a crash diet of Beast Master, Krull and Conan the Barbarian from an early age. Almost forgot to mention Hawk the Slayer...It that a bad thing?

 Now we find ourselves in 2013 and things have come on a little further. I have read painting books and looked at other painters blogs for tips. The results aren't that much different for 1987, only the colours are brighter and the speed of painting has increased. Nice big easy to move grassy bases now.
I am still dry brushing but use many more techniques like layering and Ink washes. In fact I think I just Ink wash everything these days...

 

 

 

 

Bases have really come into their own now and actually have become as important as the figures themselves. Lots of lovely new inventions like grass tufts are now available to really finish things off.

The Internet has come along and with it a whole world of jazzy accessories.

 Deep down somewhere in me there is still a blue Goblin trying to get out...well a kind of bluey/grey Goblin anyway. You know, for old times sake.

 

Also paint systems have come on in leaps and bounds. Today after spraying on an undercoat I can choose from hundreds of premixed paints to finish a job in breakneck speed. Back in the Eighties I must have had twelve paint pots and half of them would have been dried up.

 

Eighties paints.