Learning to paint toy soldiers

My little boy has been asking me to teach him how to paint. So, I gave it some thought and decided to start him on some larger plastic figures.

We took it very slow and went through some basic brush skills like dry brushing.

We put down base coats for all the colours, then applied a black wash. The armour was then given a second coat to tidy up some areas. The trousers, arms and gun were dry brushed before the wash was added.

The result was good for a first go and I think he enjoyed it. There's so much to take in that it can get a bit overwhelming, but he did really well I thought.

Well, he lasted to the end which is a victory in my book.

Many people moan about Tamiya paints but they certainly have their place in figure painting 

 I had bought these large soldiers a while ago, they are great figures and have a Colonial Marines vibe. They have sat in the sandpit all year so it's great to get some colour on them.

Billmen of Lord Hastings

The Billmen of William Hastings form up, bills levelled for action. There are some lovely figures here from Front Rank miniatures.

Bow and Bill.

The officer with his bodyguard orders the formation to advance.

A wall of nasty hooks and points from the medieval meat grinder.

The standard is from Pete's Flags off eBay.

 Update: let's get some mud on them!

The plastic bristles are cut up and stuck into the mud, this time I dipped them in UHU glue first. This should make them a bit tougher on the base.

I also took the opportunity to brush some of the mud onto the legs and clothes of the figures. This just helps to tie them into the base and tell more of a story.

Static grass and mixed herbs were sprinkled on the wet mud and pushed in with a brush.

I also cleared a couple of areas in the mud that I'm going to fill with AK puddle solution. More on this later.

Billmen WIP

Still in my WOTR phase, I ordered some Front Rank Billmen from eBay. I was really impressed when they arrived. The detail is excellent and the scale fits in nicely with the other ranges. The abundance of kettle helms makes me think this unit is formed of old garrison troops from France.

Being from eBay, there were a couple of damaged figures in the bag. These were fun to convert into more Billmen. The guy above was missing his crossbow, now he carries a bill instead and fits right in.

Eight figures done, six in the morning and two more at night. This is one base, so needs the same again to finish the unit. It's always good to create 'cherry's on the cake' to get you through painting the unit. The base above, it was looking forward to converting the broken figures. The second base will contain the officers and standard bearer, these should help get me through the rank and file painting.

This billman had lost his bill in the post, now he sports a large axe in the rear ranks.

Being made up of ex soldiers from France, there is less livery colours than the other units.

For speed, I'm using a lot of ink washes of base coats of paint. This works really well for the jacks and padded armour.
 

I also ordered some Billmen from Alternativeminiatures1 from eBay. These too are lovely figures. They are meant for slightly earlier in history but I think they work for garrison troops. 

When it came to prepping these figures, I went for the xenethol highlight technique. The first layer is a black followed by a grey from an above angle.

The two conversions get ready for some paint.

These Front Rank miniatures are very nice. They help to add even more variety to the WOTR pool.

This quick shading hack works well for Contrast paints and colour washes.

Update: Sunday morning sees the arrival of a few more billman.

Another crossbow converted into a billman.

Here are the army lists in using to create the forces.