Black Guard Dismounted Painting Tutorial

I am finally getting around to trying to make a step-by-step post about how I paint some of my wooden fellows.  I decided to do the dismounted Black Guard for my planned Conan convention game.  I finished assembling all of them (6) and decided to paint them, taking pictures along the way.

So, here we go ...

Here they are fully assembled without any paint.  I think the guy you have already seen (the test figure) is the one third in from the right side.  The rest are all new construction but I followed the same plan in terms of armor, helmet, etc. for all of them.

I use a number 0 or number 1 brush for everything on these figures except for priming, which is done with probably a #3 or #4 brush.

STEP ONE:  PRIMER & BOOTS
I usually prime my wooden figures with an Americana color called Soft Black, which is essentially a dark umber color.  But I wanted more contrast with these figures and to have their base be darker, so I primed them with black.  I used Americana black paint and a medium sized craft brush.  You can see the mounted guys in the back also primed.  Not painting them yet though.

I usually paint my figures from the ground up, and I started that way with these too, but I did change the order not that it really matters.  Here are the boots painted.  Although forewarning, I ended up not liking this color with the rest of the color scheme for the figures and painted them gray later on.  You'll see that in later pictures.  But for now, they were painted using Dark Brown from Delta Ceramcoat.  It is my favorite brown out there, but it ended up not being right for these figures.  I paint a basic toe with side and top covering and leave some black showing throw to create the illusion of seams and folds.  Don't get too fancy here, less is definitely more.  If it is too busy, the people looking at your figures will stare at the boots, which is not want you want.

STEP TWO:  EYES
One of the figures in the next picture also has his helmet and shoulder pads done as well, but that's just because I forgot to take a picture of them with their eyes done before starting the helmet and shoulder pads.

For the eyes I use Americana Warm White.  I do not paint the pupils.  I just paint white lines leaving a little space in between them to represent the pupil.  Figure out which way your guy is looking and for each eye paint a small dot or line in the direction he is looking for that side of the eye, and then a longer line for the other side.  This will give the illusion that the figure is looking in a particular direction.  For these figures, the leftmost figure and the figure fourth from the left is the easiest to see in terms of what I'm talking about.  The leftmost figure also has his helmet and shoulder pads done but I'll hold off on talking about that until the next step.

Here's a close up:

If I was painting flesh I would do it actually before I painted the eyes.  I just paint the entire face the flesh tone I am using for the figure and then after it dries I make two black lines for the eyes, then go back inside those lines and add the white dots/lines to finish them off.

STEP THREE:  HELMET & SHOULDER PADS
For these figures, the helmet in particular is the focal point, so I am going to put in a lot of painting details for both the helmet and the shoulder pads.

 I also added some teeth for a grimacing look to one of the figures as you can see.  Just more Americana Warm White.  Each helmet is similar but unique just to give each figure some personality and also because I hate painting exactly the same thing over and over again.  I used Americana Graphite and made sure to use lots of dots and small lines leaving plenty of black showing throw.  I wanted a "pebbled" look to the helmets so that it would look more like a snake head.  For the shoulder pads I did a stylized (more so than usual) snake head.  I added red eyes but not until the end, you won't see the red eyes in these photos until you get to the very end with the finished figures and even then I'm not sure you can see the red eyes in the pictures.  For the snake head shoulder pads I painted two "fangs" in the front (so that the snake's head is facing down the figure's arm) then small dots all around the outside of the rest of the shoulder pad piece.  Then I painted the eye sockets which was essentially a rounded letter "M" around and above the fangs.  Then I painted in a solid color behind the eye sockets all the way to the rear of the shoulder pad, but making sure to leave some unpainted black space between the solid piece I was painting and the dots surround the rim of the entire shoulder pad.

Here are some close ups:

STEP FOUR:  BELT
I usually do the belts next.  I decided I wanted them to be a black or very dark color instead of my usual choice of brown.  The belts are painted with Americana Midnight Blue and a space is left in the front for the buckle.  When I do paint the buckle in this case I went with Americana Zinc.  Also it is hard to keep the belt straight and clean, so I always just paint a line for the belt and then go back and touch it up with the primer color (in this case black) to give the belt a nice straight, narrow line.

Here is a close up of some of the figures where you can see the belt well.  You can really see the space I left unpainted so that I can come back and add the buckle later.

STEP FIVE:  PANTS
One of my favorite steps is painting the pants.  I used Americana Raw Umber for all of them.  Here is a shot of all of them.

It is hard to see, though, so here is a close up.

This is another time to not get too fancy or detailed.  I do a very basic and simple pattern here but it looks pretty good I think.  I paint the groin area almost like the figure is wearing a cod piece, and then paint the pant legs.  I make sure to leave black showing throw to represent the space between the legs, and also a thin line between the "cod piece" and the pant leg.  This creates an illusion of a fold and texture.  But if you paint too many of these lines for folds and such it looks too busy and is distracting in my opinion.

STEP SIX:  ARMOR
Armor is a tough step because there are so may ways you can go here.  I wanted to have these guys not wearing exactly the same thing, but I wanted them all in a black base colored armor.  So I did a mix of studded leather, ring mail, chain mail, padded/quilted coat, etc. to spice things up.

The figure on the left is wearing a padded coat.  I used Delta Ceramcoat dark gray color of some type, the name has worn off the label.  I just tried to paint diamond shapes in the gray color making sure to leave some thin black unpainted between the diamonds of the quilted armor tunic.  It is impossible to be perfect here, just do your best.  The goal is to give the impression of a quilted pattern, it doesn't have to be perfect.  The middle one is studded leather and I just painted on the studs using Americana Zinc as the first dot, and Americana Rain Gray for the "sharp" lighter dot on top of the Zinc dot.  I left the rest of the armor black except for the edges around the bottom.  There I put little dots of Americana Midnight Blue to represent lacing around the edge of the armor.  The far right figure has a new pattern for mail that I decided to try.  The paint color is Zinc again, and there is lacing around the edges of the armor and the neck.  For that I used Americana Russet (which is a REALLY hard color to find but it is perfect for dark leather).  For the Zinc, I just did a zig-zag pattern to create the illusion of small metal bands.  I had not tried this one before and I sort of like it, but it is a little busy.  I think next time I will try and space them out a little more.

The left and right most figure here are both wearing ring mail.  Again I put some edging around the neck and bottom of the armor using either Midnight Blue or Russet.  The rings are just that dark gray Delta Ceramcoat color I can't remember the name of.  To paint the rings, the paint needs to be thinned down with either a medium or water.  It has to flow easily or you will get rings that are not smooth.  As a general rule, smooth painting is very important in all areas for these figures mainly because you are painting on a flat surface.  You have no sculpting texture to "hide" you mistakes.  The figure in the middle is my usual mail pattern of small dots.  It also has an edging of Russet.

STEP SEVEN:  GLOVES OR HANDS
All my guys are wearing leather gloves, and because I like the color so much I stuck with the Americana Russet.

I paint three fingers first, either wrapping them around a spear or on the flat sides of the handle of the sword to give the illusion that the figure is holding the weapon.  I then paint a patch on the back of the handle of the weapon to represent the back of the hand.  Also, with the spear I add in some extra glue to provide and actual "bump" that represents the hand on the weapon.

You can see the hand on the sword on the right-most figure a little better here.

STEP EIGHT:  WEAPONS
Okay, by this point I wasn't liking the brown boots so I painted them black again and painted the boots again using the Delta Ceramcoat dark gray color that I can't remember the name of.  I also use it on the bladed parts of the weapons as a base gray color.  The shaft of the spear is Delta Ceramcoat Dark Brown.  The sharp parts of the blades on the weapons is Delta Ceramcoat Gray Rain.

You can see they are really starting to take shape now.  Just the shields are unpainted at this point.  When I make the swords I always cut an angled slice down the blade to try and create a sharp/narrow side of the blade for visual interest, then I try and follow this line with the Gray Rain paint to give the illusion of a sharp edge.

With the axe I always try and paint it so that the cutting edge is a single color but as the blade gets closer to the shaft I try and leave some space of the dark gray showing throw.  Gives visual interest and sort of matches the way some axe blades look because of their sharpening pattern.  You can also see that on the pommel of some of the swords I paint a golden/brass color just to give some visual interest.  You can't see it in these pictures but I also paint the part of the pommel of the sword that the figure's hand does not cover up at this point as well.  Just some lines to represent the wrapping of the handle of the sword, and be sure to leave some of the black undercoat showing through between the figure's hand and the wrapping of the handle.  Any color is fine, I like maroon, but this time I used a beige color.

STEP NINE:  SHIELD
Obviously the shield is going to vary depending on the figure, but I wanted all but one of these guys to have the same shield; a red one with the snakes facing each other over a moon painted in Warm White.  I don't have individual shots of the shields I just have the following shots of the finished figures, but you can see the shields.  They are painted Maroon from Delta Ceramcoat and then the snake/moon pattern is Americana Warm White.  On the inside I paint some stripes of Delta Ceramcoat Dark Brown to represent the wood, but it's barely visible on these figures.

The figure on the far right has a different shield.  I wanted some variety and decided to do a buckler guy.  I have a few of the small round precut discs that are smaller than when I can find now, but they are perfect for bucklers.

Shots from the rear.

You never know which will be your favorite.  This axe guy really grew on me and turned out to be one of my favorites.

Okay, that's it.  I hope you found this helpful.  I am pretty happy with how these turned out.

I'll probably paint the mounted version of these guys next, but that will be at least a week before I can get to them.  Work schedule is brutal right now.

"Granny Grate" Vehicles

Needlepoint plastic canvas sheets, otherwise known as "Granny Grating", is useful for lots of useful customizations, especially guns. One of the questions I received previously, when working on my WW II troops was when I was going to make a vehicle. As it happens, I generally like infantry more than cavalry, artillery, or vehicles, so I gravitate towards infantry games and those WW II troops were for one. However, I started working on a modern Africa project – something along the lines of the rules AK-47 by Peter Pig/RFCM – and I did intend to have vehicles in those. So what was I going to do about vehicles?

I had thought about it quite a bit in the past. I could see myself taking a block of balsa wood, sketching the outline of a vehicle, and using my Dremel tool to power-carve it out. Another was to do the same thing just for the basic outline, and then adding other elements to flesh out the details. Then one day I was sitting there painting the soldiers and spotted the granny grating...

I knew I wanted the vehicles to look a little "cartoony" because the figures were also. (Let's face it, when the head is bead and the entire body is a bead, the chibi effect is a bit cartoony, so everything else needs to be too.) So I sketched out the shape of a technical (generally  pickup truck with a heavy weapon on the back in the pickup bed) with a black marker.

Here are the pieces, cut out, making it a little easier to see. I seem to have lost the pictures of the truck assembled before I put in filler, but I basically took a hot-glue gun and did my best to make a box, after trimming all of the pieces closely.

Once I had the truck assembled I had to figure out how to fill in the holes. I started with acrylic modeling paste and I can assure you, that is a bad idea. It may look thick and goopy, but it dries thin so it requires a huge number of layers to fill out the holes and smooth out the "bumps". In fact, I still haven't succeeded in the smoothing.

Here is where it is at right now, after filling and sanding a number of times.

The hood of the truck is clearly too small, but it seems like a perfectly chibi-style truck! 😄

So, my next vehicle will still follow the granny grating method – I think it is a great way to beat out a basic shape quickly and easily – but I need to figure out how to fill the holes and get a smoother finish than what I have now. As I am working on a terrain board project right now I am eyeballing that wall spackle as a possible candidate. Another possibility is using wood filler. The latter can still be easily sanded and will take hobby paint very well.

If you have any ideas, please let me know. But I can see that this could be the start of a new series of pieces, as long as I can find a quick and easy way to fill the grating that still looks reasonable and does not resist hobby paint (such as, say, silicone caulk would).

New Project!

Like most of us in the miniature gaming hobby, I am much more productive when I have an actual project to work on.  I do better with goals and things to aspire to where there is a measurable "end" to the project.  I decided that my next game for Barrage in September 2020 will be a Conan skirmish game based on the battle at the end of the classic 1982 movie often called the "Battle of the Mounds."  It's that great skirmish at the end of the movie between Thulsa Doom and his minions and Conan, Subotai, Akiro, and the spirit of Valeria.  As a game, it should please fantasy wargamers, fantasy rpgers, and even military wargamers alike.  Here is a still from the movie towards the end of the battle.  Conan and the large stone markers are clearly visible here.

The board should be fun with the various mounds, funeral pyres, large stone markers, booby traps, etc.  The heroes need to have two of them survive the battle and they have to keep the princess alive until the end (she's chained to a stone but can be killed by anyone, including Thulsa Doom with a snake arrow just like in the movie).  I should be able to do the board no problem.  But what about the figures.

I've done enough games now to know that although I want to start with the heroes, it's best to end with them.  First, doing the other figures gives me even more practice so the heroes are more likely to turn out good.  Second, by doing the less interesting "fodder" figures first, I keep up my motivation for the heroes at the end.  If I do the heroes first, I lose interest in doing the run-of-the-mill fodder troops, so it's best to do them first.

There is already a scenario and map online for the current Conan boardgame that I am using for inspiration.  However, in terms of rules, I will use a variant of the ones I used for my Lord of the Rings games.  They seem to work very well for convention play.

So, what troops do I need?  For the baddies, I need 6 Black Guard troops, 6 Fangs of Set (and for each of these I need mounted and dismounted so that when they get knocked off their horses they can fight on foot if they are not killed).  I also need Lexor and Thorgrim as well as Thulsa Doom himself.  For the heroes, I need Conan, Subotai, Akiro, and Valeria.  Finally, I'll need to do a princess figure chained to a rock.  Not too bad!  I am feeling good about being able to get this project done in time for Barrage in September.

So far I have done one mounted and dismounted version of both a Fang of Set and a Black Guard figure as a test.  Here is a movie image of a Fang of Set speaking with Conan who is disguised as a priest.  I just love the armor and the helmet as well as the face guard.

And here are my dismounted and mounted first try figures for a Fang of Set trooper.

The construction is a bit involved, but I think they look pretty darned cool!  I got the helmet and the armor, the most distinctive features, to come out pretty well I think, and I can't wait to slap some paint on these guys to see if I can get them to look good.  I added a "lower jaw" to the horse head.  I hope it looks good when it is painted.  I also added "hooves" to the horse which is nothing but a split small plug glued flat-side down to the base.  This gives the horse more height, which it needed, and also makes it look more like it has hooves than my old way of just gluing the split egg directly to the base.

The Black Guard are a mish-mash of guys in the movie, but I want some consistency in my figures so I'm going for only one helmet and armor look.  I'm going for the helmet in the following picture for these figures.

I am going to also give them larger shoulder pads that are painted sort of like a snake head.  Here is the mounted and dismounted first try for the Black Guard.

Can't wait to get some paint on these guys too!

So far so good, I'll post some painted pics when I get these guys done.

More Pulp

Did a few more pulp/superhero figures a while ago but am just now getting around to posting pictures of them.  First up, I did a female version of the Grenadier.  Here she is on the right standing next to the male version.

Decided to give her some action and have her throw a grenade.  The only major difference is the use of the peg for her body that I have been using for female bodies for a while now, and her helmet/head is smaller in size.  It's much more proportional obviously.  I like the way she turned out.  I left the bottom of the plug that tapers down on the body to serve as the top of her boots.  Makes her tall, lean, and athletic looking I think.

Next up is a priest, a pulp or superhero "brick" character, and a street thug with a crowbar.

I have always been partial to the supervillain from Marvel comics called the Juggernaut.  I decided a similar type of helmet as his would make a great pulp figure, or even a low-powered superhero or villain.  The priest is a standard construction, nothing new.  Same for the thug.  It's all paint with those figures that makes them look different.

The thug's crowbar is a trimmed tile spacer.  The hero's helmet is a very large bead split in half.

Pulp Anyone?

Okay, the title is a little misleading.  These two guys could be in most pulp games, but honestly I'm doing them for different reasons.

The first is a Cthulhu Adventurer that looks a lot like a particularly famous archeologist.  I have a gaming buddy who wants me to take a stab at making some classic Cthulhu investigators (adventurer, priest, professor, journalist, etc.) and this guy was my first attempt just because he is so iconic looking I thought he would be the easiest to start with.

His construction is a little new and a little old.  The body is an upside down wooden craft milk bottle (7/8" tall) with the normal tile spacer feet that I always use.  His head is a 3/8" bead I split in half.  I made the head/hat grouping by gluing the flat side of the bead to a piece of paper, and then glued a 3/8" tapered plug, larger side down, on the paper on the opposite side of the bead.  After it dried it was easy to cut the paper to make the proper brim shape for the head and then just shape it with my fingers.  Arms are also tile spacers as is the gun, holster (on his right hip) and satchel (on his left hip).

His jacket is paper.  I put strips down the front to his waist and then put a larger piece on his back.  After it dried I cut a semi-circle and cut it to fit to make the collar of the jacket.

One thing I may try and do in the future is to sand down the top of the milk bottle in front of his head to make more of the right "chest tapered shape," but I might be getting a little too crazy.  Probably best to leave it as is.

The next guy is going to probably be a superhero in the new minis game I'm working on for low-powered supers like Batman, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Black Widow, most of the characters in the Watchman, etc.  I call this guy "Grenadier" and his big thing is he is a hand-to-hand combat expert and he has all these different gadget grenades (smoke, flash, tear gas, explosion, goo entanglement, etc.).  He also wears some light body armor and a gas mask to protect him from his own grenades.  I modelled the outfit after a WWI French Grenadier.  At the same time, this guy would be just as at home in a pulp game as an ally or enemy of the archaeologist above.

He sort of shows how different looking of a figure you can get using add-ons like belt pouches and goggles and gas mask.  He really is nothing different construction wise than the Dark Ages guys I've been doing except for the two pieces of tile spacers that make his goggles, the one that makes his breathing apparatus just below the goggles, and the various pouches he has on his belt.  His cloak and hood are just paper.  In every other way, he's just like a Dark Ages guy I've made before.

I like the red pants (early WWI French) and the gray light body armor.  His helmet is a dark blue and his cloak is a brighter blue similar to the color used by the French early in WWI.

I've got a few more of these on my construction table right now and I'll try to show the pieces separate from the figure as I'm building them so that you get a better sense for how the figures are constructed.