Goblin bows

Another batch of greasy skinned Goblins gets a brush with Army Painter Dark tone.

 I found my can had set solid and I had to dig around with a screw driver to reach the good stuff. It was still very thick so I added some terps to it and it seemed to brush on fine. I quickly packed it away before my wife caught drift of the smell.

I don't mind using the stain on these orcs as it helps to darken them all down and make them look very drab.

These are part of an Orc attack column which are armed with spears. After a bit of thought I wanted some missile troops to sprinkle in amongst them.

I find that this Dark tone drys in half the time as the others, so these could be up and running tomorrow.

 I felt good about making up these extra archers because most of them are made from the unused spider rider torsos and legs. I simply stuck the legs on a piece of plastic and there you go, you have another foot soldier. These plastic Goblins are from the Wargames Atlantic box set with green stuff details added. 

I hate seeing bits go to waste so these archers helped me squeeze the most out of the box set.

Restoring Army Painter Dip

Lately my dip has become troublesome, I had tried putting paint thinner in a tin a while ago, but this was a mistake. So with past results going awry I was hesitant to try another substance. 

However, I had this Turpentine from my wars with the lead rust on my Dark elves. On reading the label it said it was good for thinning varnishes. Well, the Dip is based on wood stain which is a kind of varnish, so I gave it a blast. I’m very happy to report it worked a treat and has given a lot more life to my old tins. A good result in my books, recommended!

 

Orcs

The latest batch of orcs gets a dip in Dark tone. I tried this

 technique first on the Wolf riders a little while ago. Although there maybe a little loss of detail the effect is still good. I was a little shocked to find my Dark tone was a congealed mass and wasn’t really flowing. However, I broke through the thick skin of the dip and painted on the thickened stain. Although thicker, I think it still worked. A little disappointed that the stuff doesn’t last longer but I have managed to paint a lot with it so far, so I suppose it’s not all bad.

Very quick paint jobs again with a lot of use from my new best friends…the contrast paints.

These orcs were inspired by the release of Wargames Atlantic’s goblin box coming out. I even managed to paint up a few conversations I had from a while ago using Kings of war goblins. Now with too many for my two bases, I will need to paint another eight to create a full unit of twenty four. These orcs can multiply quickly once you start painting them.

 The old Dip still seems to be working okay even if I did have to use a screw driver to reach it. 

Update; here are the remaining orcs to finish the unit. Ironically, I think using this Dark tone actually produces brighter painted models. I think it’s because I leave a lot of base colours untouched and just let the dip do the work.

I like the effect the dip has on the armour.

Up to my sleeves in Dip.

The second sleeve of shotte is finished and queues up for the brown stuff. 

I almost forgot the courier in my haste to base up with the mud. Something I tried that worked quite well is to brush some of the mud onto the horse’s legs when wet. This of course will give the perfect look to a mud splattered horse.

Colonel Harry Geal takes to the field.

My Soft tone Army shade must be over ten years old now. A thick ‘skin’ has formed over the surface after the last few times using it. This has to be pierced by a stirring stick to get to the sticky goodness underneath. The solution is still going strong though after all this time. It’s quite rewarding to still be using it, although I did have to throw my Strong tone away last week. It had become quite thick and gooey. I added some paint thinner to it but this made it worse. It was never the same so I switched to my old Soft tone instead. I find it better to shade the model with washes to bring out certain details, then use the Soft tone to lock it all in and make it bomb proof.

Citadel colour paints are very handy for changing colours, this guy used to have brown trousers. A quick once over with a green Colour paint and now he looks a lot smarter.

Match-cord...bloody match-cord! Well there’s always one.

 The tar pit is open for business, bring your Mammoths, Dire wolves and Ground sloths to the party. 

Going for a late night dip!

The boys in blue get down and dirty.

 

Union Artillery

This trial worked out well, I used a 0.5mm permanent marker to draw checks on this shirt. Once coated with Dip should look okay.

For years I’ve been trying to paint up some Federal guns, but I never make it. I get locked into painting infantry and the canons seem not to hold the same allure. Well, finally with the help of the dip I’ve managed to break the habit.

 A Federal battery made up of canons from 1st corps and crews from Steve Barber and 1st corps.

Sash and Sabre Union troops

 Yesterday I continued the Federal push forward by painting some more troops, this time from Sash and Sabre. These are lovely figures that seem to parcel up everything civil war. They have loads of character and each figure is a different pose in a unit of thirty, which is pretty unbeatable. I have always heard good things about them and a chance eBay purchase allowed me to take a look at some close up.

  Here they are compared to some other makes; Crusader, Steve Barber, Redoubt and Sash and Sabre. I think they all work together nicely.

 Although very detailed, these figures were quite easy to paint. First I sprayed them black then dry brushed all the leather with a dark brown. The other colours were then blocked in around the black leather areas. So the top half of the figure is basically all leather strapping with the back pack and equipment straps. So it proved a nice simple job just spotting in the small areas of blue. As usual I used Foundry paints for the Union blue. The trousers I just used one colour. It’s a balance trying to include detail but also trying to make the Paint job efficient yet effective.

 I tried out a new technique while painting these guys, just one bright flesh colour, this will be retouched after the dip is dry.

 My strong tone had become quite thick and viscus and wasn’t really doing a good job any more, However, after adding a little brush cleaner it appears a lot better. Saved me buying another can anyway.

The Irish brigade are now dry and should be matt varnished soon, the Federal war machine must keep rolling forward.

 I tried my technique of painting the top half with strong tone for the darker colours and soft tone for the trousers. In the end I dropped this idea and went with strong tone all over. This half and half technique would work very well for figures with white trousers, like AWI etc.