Painting Guide: Bofur

Bofur is the next one of this group of dwarves.  He comes swinging his mattock, showing the plight of many of the dwarves of Erebor since their exile began.  Another character with lots of freehand detail work to be done.      

0.  Bofur started with a black under coat.
1.   Paint the flesh using Tanned Flesh.

1a. Wash the skin with Red Tone to get the ruddier tone of the Dwarfs.

1b. Wash the skin again in Flesh Tone.

1c. Highlight using Barbarian Flesh.

2.   Paint Bofur’s hair, hand guards, pouch, and weapon wrap with Leather Brown.

2a. Highlight with Monster Brown.

3.   Paint his hat, boots, trousers, with Leather Brown.

3a. Highlight the boots and trousers with Fur Brown.

3b. Add a second highlight of a Skeleton Bone and Lava Orange mix in a 3:2 ratio.

4.   Basecoat the overcoat, tunic, and boot fur in Monster Brown.

4a. Add a highlight of Desert Yellow.

4b. Wash with Strong Tone.

5.   Paint Bofur’s mattock shaft and belt in Oak Brown.

6.   Paint his scarf and hat fur in Uniform Grey.

6a. Highlight with Ash Grey.

6b. Wash with Dark Tone.

7.   Add details to the overcoat, tunic, and wrist guards with Oak Brown.

8.   Paint the buckles and mattock head with Gun Metal.

Some last notes:  

A. The eyes were painted between the Flesh Tone Wash and the Barbarian Flesh Highlight.  The eyes are done with a 5/0 brush.  First paint a horizontal white line and then place a black dot in the center.

B. AP Soft Tone is a good wash for flesh and other light colored items.

C. AP Strong Tone is a good general brown wash similar to Citadel's Agrax Earth Shade. 

D. AP Dark Tone is a good black wash similar to Citadel's Nuln Oil.

I based the miniature with coral beach sand for the rocky/sandy caves of Goblin Town and added some Highland Tufts and Meadow Tufts from The Army Painter Battlefields range.  I then painted the edge of the base in Demonic Yellow. 

Next week everyone’s favorite dwarven wreaking ball lands on Bilbo’s door stop, be sure to come on by!

I must thank TALE OF TWO PAINTERS for the inspiration for these tutorials.  Unfortunately, I do not have step by step photos like they do as I found their site after I was a quarter of the way complete.  They painted the miniatures using Citadel paints.  I felt a guide using The Army Painter brand was warranted, especially as there is no readily available conversion chart for Citadel and AP brands like the other major miniature paint brands (Vallejo, P3, Reaper, etc.).  When I painted these miniatures I only had the 42 bottle 2015 Mega Paint Set II, so there was a lot of mixing of paints to get the right color.

Weekly Workbench 13 August 2017

A decent amount of work this week with work getting done across all four domains so that was nice!

Historical:

Today I worked on my Scots Thanes for SAGA, getting the base layers of skin tone, leather work, armor, and their kilts done.  I went with variations of the Cameron tartan for their kilts as I can trace my lineage back to them on my mother's side (my father's side comes from clan MacNab).  I hope to have these guys done tomorrow.

Cameron Thanes - still a long ways to go.

Sci-Fi:

I finally got back to work on my Boromite Gang Fighters for Beyond the Gates of Antares and completed the basic colors on the five remaining members of the squad on Friday.  They definitely need a wash to darken them up and then all seven will need some more work done to their equipment to help it pop a little more.

Boromite Gang Fighters, a long way to go.

Fantasy:

Monday I knocked out my six treasure tokens for Frostgrave, which look nice but I think I am going to change the scepter's rod to ivory to make it more recognizable as a scepter vice a giant key!  I am going to have to find some more treasure tokens as well depending on how many kids are playing at once.

Treasure, coated in dust after being buried for a thousand years.

The bulk of Saturday was spent working on my Enchanter with a little having been done on Tuesday.  I think he came out really well but should have been doing his apprentice at the same time as there was a lot of time lost waiting on paint to dry.

Enchanter

I just need to base him this week and then throw on the protective coating and we will have one wizard done!  Shep wants to have a Chronomancer for his wizard so that will be the next one up.

The highlights on the fur coat show up much better (in the pics) on the back for some reason.

Terrain:

Sort of finished off the wall sections from Stone House Miniatures.  I dry-brushed the washed ones and then everything got a nice protective coat.

Washed - Dry-Brushed

Washed - Before

However, as you can see, the dry-brushing highlights disappeared from the washed ones once the flat lacquer overcoat was applied.  Not sure if this was from some interaction between the wash varnish and the overcoat but looks like I will be doing more dry-brushing this coming week.

(l) No varnish, dry-brushed, overcoat; (r) varnish, dry-brush, overcoat (where did the dry-brush go?)

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out Wednesday's painting guide for Bofur the dwarf of Thorin's Company!

Painting Guide: Bifur

The last group of dwarves arrives and Bifur is the first one to come tumbling through the door.  This older dwarf comes in a goblin ax embedded in his skull (have to tell these 13 dwarves apart somehow).  Lots of browns and greys used throughout this paint job and a lot of detail work.     

0.  Bifur started with a black under coat.
1.   Paint the flesh using Tanned Flesh.

1a. Wash the skin with Red Tone to get the ruddier tone of the Dwarfs.

1b. Wash the skin again in Flesh Tone.

1c. Highlight using Barbarian Flesh.

2.   Paint Bifur’s hair in Black.

2a. Highlight-1 with Uniform Grey.

2b. Highlight-2 with Ash Grey.

2c. Add a third highlight to the mustache with Matt White.

3.   Leave the black base coat on the spear shaft.

3a. Highlight the shaft with Ash Grey.

4.   Base coat the overcoat and boots with Oak Brown.

5.   Paint Bifur’s belt with Matt Black.

5a. Highlight the belt with Ash Grey.

6.   Highlight the Belt, overcoat panels, and boots with Leather Brown.

7.   Paint Bifur’s overcoat diagonal stripes, tunic, and fringe with Monster Brown.

7a. Highlight-1 with Desert Yellow.

7b. Wash with Strong Tone.

7c. Add a last highlight with Skeleton Bone.

8.   Paint the buckles, weapon blade & pommel, goblin ax head, sheath end, and sword hilt & pommel with Gun Metal.

8a. Wash all these metal bits with Dark Tone.

Some last notes:  

A. The eyes were painted between the Flesh Tone Wash and the Barbarian Flesh Highlight.  The eyes are done with a 5/0 brush.  First paint a horizontal white line and then place a black dot in the center.

B. AP Soft Tone is a good wash for flesh and other light colored items.

C. AP Strong Tone is a good general brown wash similar to Citadel's Agrax Earth Shade. 

D. AP Dark Tone is a good black wash similar to Citadel's Nuln Oil.

I based the miniature with coral beach sand for the rocky/sandy caves of Goblin Town and added some Highland Tufts and Meadow Tufts from The Army Painter Battlefields range.  I then painted the edge of the base in Demonic Yellow. 

Bofur and his ear-flap hat is the next dwarf to come tumbling through the door next week, be sure to stop by!

I must thank TALE OF TWO PAINTERS for the inspiration for these tutorials.  Unfortunately, I do not have step by step photos like they do as I found their site after I was a quarter of the way complete.  They painted the miniatures using Citadel paints.  I felt a guide using The Army Painter brand was warranted, especially as there is no readily available conversion chart for Citadel and AP brands like the other major miniature paint brands (Vallejo, P3, Reaper, etc.).  When I painted these miniatures I only had the 42 bottle 2015 Mega Paint Set II, so there was a lot of mixing of paints to get the right color.

Weekly Workbench 06 August 2017

My Boromite Worker Gangs are glowering at me from underneath their stony brows, but despite their neglected status I did manage to get a decent amount of work in this week even with losing a couple of days to the youngest spending two days in the hospital.

Boromites demanding to be finished or they start an insurrection!

Historical:

Viking Bondi ready for glory.

Most of the week's work was spent here on my SAGA war bands.  The Vikings had five of their bondi completed from start to finish.

My Scots had their warlord, heathguard, and a couple of warriors cleaned, filed, and primed for painting this coming week.  I have to say I am not a fan of these metal sculpts from Gripping Beast as there is a lot of flash, mold lines, and filled gaps (especially the hands where the weapons are supposed to be attached).  This is somewhat surprising considering how well Gripping Beast's plastics are.

Scots Warlord, Heathguard, and two warriors.

Sci-Fi:

As mentioned above my Boromites are still waiting to get to work but I did manage to finish the Beyond the Gates of Antares anthology Open Signal.  I thought it was a well edited tome with surprisingly almost zero contradictions, which is really surprising for a game universe that is being created by the players as it is by the publishers.

Fantasy:

Winter Wargs on the prowl!

No new models were started this week but I did finish both the Winter Wargs for The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, and the Frost Giant for Frostgrave.  I used Vallejo's 26.215 Grey Sand ground texture as the base for snow before painting and highlighting it (I found out last night in a new video posted by Vallejo they have a snow texture as well!).

My first go at Green Stuff scultping.

For the Frost Giant, I completed my first sculpted base using Green Stuff for both the ground, a fallen pillar, and some snow fall.

 I did learn I should have left the pillar off until after it was all dry as it bent a little pressing it into the base for it to dry attached to the base.

Overall I am happy with the result.

Terrain:

A new segment as I am doing more of it and a lot of the terrain will be interchangeable between the three above segments.  This week I applied the base color to the wall segments from Stone House Miniatures.  This was done with Aniata's Charcoal craft paint.

Top half washed in Strong Tone.

I then washed half of them (mostly the ones with a grey or white primer) with The Army Painter's Strong Tone.  The other half (most of the black primed ones) with Anita's Rainy Day Grey craft paint. I am going to spray these with dull coat at this point and just make some snow drifts and caps from Green Stuff so I can use the wall sections in other games beyond Frostgrave.

Highlighted and ready for the protective coat.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you next week and for my hobbit lovers be sure to stop by on Wednesday night for Bifur's painting guide!  

Painting Guide: Gloin

Two thirds of the way through Thorin’s company and Gloin comes to visit the uncle of his son’s future companion.  He was the last dwarf I painted and has a much more complex paint scheme than most of the others.     

0.  Gloin started with a black under coat.
1.   Paint the flesh using Tanned Flesh.

1a. Wash the skin with Red Tone to get the ruddier tone of the Dwarfs.

1b. Wash the skin again in Flesh Tone.

1c. Highlight using Barbarian Flesh.

2.   Paint Gloin’s hair in Fur Brown.

2a. Highlight with a 1:1 mix of Lava Orange and Demonic Yellow.

2b. Wash with Strong Tone.

3.   Paint Gloin’s axe shafts, pouches, tunic armor, and forearm guards in Oak Brown (this is to help overcome the black base color).

4.   Paint the armor panels, tunic arms, armor trim, and axe shafts with a 2:3:2 mix of Oak Brown, Chaotic Red, and Leather Brown.

5.   Paint Gloin’s tunic with a thin coat of Dragon Red.

5a. Detail work (Cross hatch on the tunic) is done in with Matt Black.

6.   Paint the belt, pouches, and wrist guards in Leather Brown.

6a. Highlight the same with Monster Brown.

7.   Paint Gloin’s trousers with Green Skin.

7a. Wash the trousers with Green Tone.

7b. Highlight the folds of the trousers with Army Green.

8.   The boots remain the black base color and are highlighted in Uniform Grey.

9.   Paint the axe heads, beard beads, and buckles in Gun Metal.

10. Paint the axe pommels in Greedy Gold.

11. Paint the armor in Weapon Bronze.

Some last notes:  

A. The eyes were painted between the Flesh Tone Wash and the Barbarian Flesh Highlight.  The eyes are done with a 5/0 brush.  First paint a horizontal white line and then place a black dot in the center.

B. AP Soft Tone is a good wash for flesh and other light colored items.

C. AP Strong Tone is a good general brown wash similar to Citadel's Agrax Earth Shade. 

D. AP Dark Tone is a good black wash similar to Citadel's Nuln Oil.

I based the miniature with coral beach sand for the rocky/sandy caves of Goblin Town and added some Highland Tufts and Meadow Tufts from The Army Painter Battlefields range.  I then painted the edge of the base in Matt White. 

The last group of Dwarves arrives for the meeting next week and Bifur with his goblin axe head are the first to land on Bilbo’s threshold!

I must thank TALE OF TWO PAINTERS for the inspiration for these tutorials.  Unfortunately, I do not have step by step photos like they do as I found their site after I was a quarter of the way complete.  They painted the miniatures using Citadel paints.  I felt a guide using The Army Painter brand was warranted, especially as there is no readily available conversion chart for Citadel and AP brands like the other major miniature paint brands (Vallejo, P3, Reaper, etc.).  When I painted these miniatures I only had the 42 bottle 2015 Mega Paint Set II, so there was a lot of mixing of paints to get the right color.

Weekly Workbench 30 July 2017

Here we are for another Weekly Workbench update.  Lots of time building a terrain piece this week as seen below and knocking out a couple of miniatures.  Let us jump right into it and be sure to click on the pictures for a larger view!

Historical:

This is were the bulk of my time was spent this week, knocking out 4Ground's Norse Trader's Shop for my SAGA gaming.  This was my first time constructing a complete MDF building, I have only done MDF ruins before.  There were some very delicate pieces and I may have a broken door frame that had to be repaired.  Over all I enjoyed the build and look forward to expanding my Viking village and maybe building a Saxon one as well.

Sci-Fi:

Nothing in Sci-Fi this week, though I do have my Boromites staring me in the face begging to be finished, so maybe I will get a squad completed this coming week.

Fantasy:

Here is where all the miniature painting came.  Saturday I painted up Nick Eyre's North Star Military Figures' Frost Giant for Osprey Games' Frostgrave.  He just needs to be based and then he will be ready to crush some aspiring wizard and use the body for his next meal.  Or perhaps, my SAGA vikings will be confronted with a Jotunn that has stumbled into Midgard...  I will have a detailed painting tutorial for him after I finish the Escape from Goblin Town tutorials I am currently posting each Wednesday.

Speaking of Games Workshop's The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, I re-primed two Fell Wargs with Army Painter's Uniform Grey and painted them up as Winter Wargs so I can share them between SBG and Frostgrave.

Last week's debacle of an attempt at Winter Wargs

This week's much better attempt at Winter Wargs

Here is a quick painting guide for those that are interested, all paints are The Army Painter brand:

Fur - Uniform Grey primer - (HL1) Stone Golem - (HL2) Brain-matter Beige 

Mouth - Abomination Gore

Teeth - Drake Tooth

Nose & Lips - Necromancer Cloak

Scar - Crusted Sore

Claws - Hardened Carapace

Eyes - Royal Cloak & Matt Black

Now just to base them as well.

I managed to get to Hobby Lobby and pick up some craft paints so I will probably work on dry brushing a bunch of walls this week for terrain for both games.  See you all next week and be sure to stop by Wednesday night for Gloin's painting tutorial!