“Enough to wake the dead!” (Saga’tember)

I have to begin by apologizing for the severe lateness of this post, this has been due to real life (mainly work commitments) getting in the way, and sadly this does not look to be letting up over the next few weeks (well probably till Christmas), so sorry if I haven’t commented, on any of your posts, I am “soooo” behind on, well everything at the moment!, but enough of my whining and on with the figures. Week three (and four) of Saga’tember as predicted by “Dave Stone” last time (he can be so annoyingly right sometimes!), has been skeleton week(s) (well the first one anyway). So along with the four “easier” skeletons I’ve also been having ago at another of the characters from the game “Mortibris” the Necromancer, and again I’ve tried to stay fairly close to the rendition featured on the character card (once again I’ve added the picture from this as a comparison).

Mortibris, I have to admit to not being overly enamored with the colours “Mantic” have chosen for the Necromancer, (I would have gone more purple or black myself), but anyway after all the figures were sprayed matt black I began Mortibris by giving him a good heavy dry-brushing with some navy blue, then another slightly lighter one with royal blue and finally I highlighted this with some bright blue. Next as his sleeves and the bottom his costume is grey, a base of dark grey highlighted with mid grey was applied to these areas (I also added his collar in this, though it’s not on the illustration). The fancy gold piping that runs down the front of his robes came next bronze with shinning gold highlights were used for these, and the same colours were used to add the details to his spell book, after the cover was painted dark red with pink burgundy highlights. Flesh came after this, European flesh highlighted this the same mixed with a lot of pale flesh used here, though the result still looks way to healthy to me, and his hair was cream with while highlights. The skeleton rising through the flooring was painted along with the others as follows…

Skeletons, Now I really wish I could say I did some incredibly clever and artistic technique on the “boney boys” but the truth is it was all pretty simple and basic stuff, I began by blobbing on some chocolate brown here and there, before dry-brushing the whole lot in coffee and then again in cream, I then went round with the matt black, and touched up any areas where the dry-bushing had strayed. Next more chocolate brown was used on the bows, scythe shafts, and belts and bags etc.., these were then highlighted with either leather brown, or butternut dependent on whether they were wood or leather. The scythe blades were then dry-brushed in chainmail, and again in rust (though it seems that you can only see the rust now!), and some details were added to the archers in bronze. The archers also need some rags of clothing, so these were added in deep bronze green, with olive highlights, dark red with pink burgundy highlights, bright blue with bright blue mixed with blue grey, for the highlights or purple with the same mixed with lavender forming the highlights. A little coffee and cream was used at the tips of the bows and on the flights of the arrows and they too were finished.

As always all the figures had their bases dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white to give there flagstones a little colour. Then were given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone, and finally once had the usual spray coat of matt varnish to remove the gloss finish of the Quickshade. More skeletons next I’m afraid, though of a more diminutive and regal caste.

Till next week, cheers Roger.

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“In High Spirit’s” (Saga’tember)

Week two of Saga’tember and I don’t know if it was the constraints put on me by having to match the colours of my figures to the illustrations on the character cards last week or what, but I went a little mad this week!! Now I knew time was going to be tight, so I decided to pull the three “ghostly” figures from my pile of “Dungeon Saga” miniatures. Now one of them “Elshara” the banshee, has a character card herself, and even though the figure itself isn’t that close a rendition of the card illustration, my colours here were going to have to be in the “ball park” at least, whereas the two “Ghost’s”, I had free range to express myself upon!

I decided I was going to paint all three of them up using my “wet in wet” technique, this is basically a posh way of saying that blocks of colour are painted on and then while wet these are blended together. So after they were given my customary spray coat of matt black, I painted them as follows…

Elshara, when it came to my banshee I decided that I wanted her a) slightly more grey than the illustration and b) to have a bit more variation between her dress and skin. So using the “wet in wet” principle I added a thin line of black above and below her belt, then a thick line of blue grey next to these above and below, and finally the bottom of her “top” skirt in cream, these were then “run” into each other using a No2 paintbrush, adding more of each of these colours along with some dark grey and a blob of water, from a pallet (an old Pringles lid!), thin washes of black were also added in the recesses of her dress at the same time and blended in. You have to work reasonably quickly, and once you are happy..walk away, over working can turn the whole thing into a “muddy mess”. I then repeated this process on the two lower “under” ruffles of her dress, and her long gloves. The rest of her painting followed a much more conventional pattern, so turning next to her flesh it was all painted in light turquoise, and then after her eyes were added in citrus orange with lemon yellow, along with the hole in her cheek and her mouth in black with white teeth, her flesh was highlighted with more light turquoise with some cream added to lighten it. More cream was used as the undercoat for her hair with white highlights added once this was dry. Lastly her belt, necklace, and tiara were painted in chainmail, and I used blue steel to add the pale blue jewels on each of these.

Ghost’s, these are basically the classic disembodied “sheet type” that appear to be tethered to the ground by large balls and chains. So using the same technique as above some black, dark grey, khaki, coffee and cream were blobbed out onto my pallet, along with a drop of water, and then the khaki, coffee and cream were painted in wide stripes around the figures, going darkest to lightest top to bottom. These were then brushed into each other like Elshara above, then taking the dark grey and black these were painted on along with a touch of water into any areas that would be shaded (like a reverse highlight), and the whole lot was worked together, adding more of the other three colours where I felt it was appropriate (like a touch of cream around the edge of the hood, and the edges of the sheet at the front, blended back into the rest of course). Where you can see the inside of the sheet at the bottom of the figure I repeated the process but using black at the top to form the shadow, then grey and finally coffee and cream at the bottom edge. Once this was all fray I painted in the holes and inner hood along with the ball and chains in black, before dry-brushing the “iron appendages” in chainmail and rust.

All three figures then had their flagstone bases dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white. Then were given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone, that once dry had the usual spray coat of matt varnish.

Till next week, cheers Roger.

“Axe & Hammer, Bow & Book” (Saga’tember)

OK so after my little “toe dipping” post of last week (it was not cheating Keith!!!), we are now officially underway with Saga’tember, where Keith of “Dead Dicks Tavern” fame, Simon “Fantorical” Moore (see links at the end of this post) and myself are attempting to complete as many of the figures from the board game “Dungeon Saga”, by “Mantic Games” as possible in the month of September (Saga’tember, cleaver eh? OK suit yourselves!). So if this isn’t really your sort of thing I afraid you are going to be a little disappointed, as expect ghosts, skeletons, necromancers, and ogres over the next few weeks. But I thought I’d start with the stars of the show…the heroes.

Now I thought these were going to be the most labour intensive figures in the set, and looking at the pile of paint pots arrayed in front of me, I think I was right! I have to say that painting to match an illustration is not really one of my strong points, I’m much happier letting my imagination pick the colours I slap on my figures (this is a nice way of saying I make it up as I go along!), but I’ve done my best to be faithful to the originals, and have posted the illustrations on the character cards next to the finished figures so you can see how well I did. Anyway first off the figures all went outside for a coat of matt black (no mucking about having to base these chaps (hooray!), and them the painting proceeded as follows…

Orlaf, so after his matt black was touched up with the brush, I began his painting with a dry-brushing of chainmail, then his belts, boots, axe shaft, the horns on his various skulls etc.. were all undercoated in chocolate brown before being highlighted with either leather, butternut or sand and butternut (on the horns), dependent on what they were. Now he appears to have feathers or something similar hanging down from either side of his belt, so as these are blue, I used navy blue with highlights of navy blue mixed with a little dark grey to add these, and the cloth he has hanging to cover his shame, front and back was done in dark red with highlights of pink burgundy. Onto his flesh next and as he has a much darker complexion than his companions I used my flesh tone seven (dark flesh) for the undercoat here, and the same mixed with a bit of European flesh for the highlights. My old pot of bleached bone came out for the skulls, and after a long wrestling session I finally managed to get then lid off and used this over a coffee undercoat on these. More coffee was used on the feathery things sticking out at his knees (?), this time with cream as the highlight, and his hair was a mix of chocolate brown and black with just chocolate brown for highlights. That just left the three red “slashes/tattoos” by his right shoulder, and I added these in terracotta red, though the “quickshade” appears to have virtually covered these up now!

Madriga, by comparison, her costume was pretty straightforward, begun as the above, she then had her boots, jerkin, and gloves painted in (wait for it…) chocolate brown with leather brown highlights (you didn’t see that coming now did you!), and her trousers were dark grey with mid grey highlights. Her green cape was begun with a coat of German field grey (this is definitely green though), and had a first highlight with the same mixed with some shamrock, and then a final light highlighting with some more shamrock on its own. Her bow was next and this along with the flights of her arrows was done in coffee and cream. Being a “pale and interesting” type of gal’ her flesh was painted with an undercoat of a mix of European flesh mixed with some pale flesh, and the highlights were the same but with the ratio of pale flesh increased. Her blonde hair was then added using light sand highlighted with some lemon yellow. The various gold accoutrement’s about her person were all done in shinning gold with a bit of bright gold for the highlights, and just to add a little variation the grips on her weapons were painted in scenic green (well I wouldn’t be using it on the bases for a change).

Rordin, was also begun in the same way as the above, however after his “all over” dry-brushing with chainmail I decided that this was too different from the illustration, so after a bit of head scratching I decided to mix some black, silver and chocolate brown to try and get the metallic brown of the artwork. Thankfully the result was pretty much spot on, so all of his armour and the inner part of his hammer’s head was painted with this before I added some more light chainmail dry-brushing over this. The details on his helm along with the facings of his hammer I left with the “over black” original dry-brushing. His leather gloves and boots were added next in chocolate brown and leather brown. For his flesh, European flesh was used as the undercoat with the same mixed with some pale flesh being used for the highlight. His quilted skirt was then painted with a mix of dark grey and black, with highlights applied to the “checks” in just dark grey. More dark grey was used as the undercoat for his trousers (you can’t see these from the front), with mid grey used to highlight here. The cloth he has hanging from his belt I undercoated in butternut and then highlighted with some coffee. Chestnut and orange were used as undercoat and highlight on his beard, and more chocolate brown was used on his hammer shaft with a butternut dry-brush finishing it off.

Danor, the magic user was slightly different to all the others as he didn’t need a chainmail dry-brushing as he has no weapons as such, so instead I painted his jacket in dark red, and then highlighted this with some ruby red. Then the top of his jacket and the long cloth hanging between his legs were undercoated with some royal purple before highlights of plum were painted over this. His belt, leggings and staff were then painted chocolate brown before highlights of leather brown with a touch of more chocolate brown were added to the first two, and butternut was dry-brushed over the latter. He has some “feathery things” (Can’t think of a better way to describe them sorry) at his neck and at the rear of his ankles so these were added next in coffee and cream. Like Rordin above his flesh was added in European flesh with the same plus a little pale flesh for the highlights. The crystals atop his staff came next these were painted lilac after which the edges of the stones were added in pale blue (sounds a little odd, and not how I would have done it, but this is how they appear in the illustration). It was at this point that I realized that I hadn’t added his shoes, so a little more ruby red, with highlights of pink burgundy took care of this oversight. I then added the inner part of his belt along with his spell book, in black with dark grey highlights, and the details on said belt along with his shoulder pad were done with a mix of silver and black. That just left the jewel on his belt that was metallic red, and the visible pages of his book that were more coffee and cream.

All four figures then had their flagstone bases dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white. Then the whole lot were given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone, and once dry they had a final spray coat of matt varnish. Right well that’s a start made then, I think time is going to be short next week, so three figures that I hope will be quicker and easier to paint next.

Till next week, cheers Roger.

Keith’s blog,  http://angrypiper.com/

Simon’s blog,  http://fantorical.blogspot.com/

“When it’s Ajar” (Saga’tember prelude)

As some of you may already know myself and a couple of other “Bloggers” (Simon and Keith) have decided that September will be “Dungeon Saga” month, in as much as we will be seeing how many of the figures from the “Mantic Games” board game of the same name we can get painted in the thirty days before October (or “Zomtober” but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here). Now I have heaped slightly more pressure on myself, as these are not actually my figures as such, but are the property of my eldest son, Myles, and I have promised him that they will all be finished by Christmas (sounds easy but I have other projects to do before then as well). To this end I have formulated a plan of action, and divided the figures up into bite-sized groups, that I hope to paint up one each week. However on reviewing my prospective timetable I noticed that there was no way I was going to be able to fit in all the pieces of furniture and set-dressing items that are included in the box, these consist of…

2x Bookcases

2x Tables

1x Lectern

4x Barrels

4x Chests

1x Dwarven throne

1x Weapons rack

1x Tomb/ alter

1x Well

10x Doors of various size/ design

So as these are not technically figures I thought I would bend the rules a little and see if I could get these done before the official start of the challenge. Now though there is not an awful lot of awkward detail work on these pieces there are quite a lot of them, so I had to put in a “bit of a shift” to get then finished. Anyway here comes the boring bit where I detail the colours I used, so in no particular order (well a bit of order) I started by spraying everything black, then dry-brushed anything that looked like it would be made of stone with successive, ever less heavy coats of dark grey, mid grey and a final light dry-brush “dusting” of white. Then everything that looked like it was made of wood was given a coat of chocolate brown, before being dry-brushed with leather brown (I know I usually use butternut here, but thought the leather looked better on such large areas). I then added the detail “scroll work”, locks and hinges on the doors with some chainmail, this was also used on the tables, chests and barrels though only as a highlight after I had re-painted in the banding in black. The Dwarven throne, I added some details to, with some bronze, highlighted with shinning god. This was also used to add some details to the weapons rack, along with some heraldic splashed of colour to the faces of the shields.

The well had the rope attached to its bucket done in coffee with cream highlights, and then the water was added by applying a really thick layer of deep turquoise to the area in question, and then while this was still wet, getting a blob of aquamarine on the tip of a small brush and “dragging” it in a spiral through this. I also added some moss green and stone green highlights up the inner stonework and inner top edge of the well.

The lectern proved a bit of a pain as the soft plastic it is made of kept “curling” at the bottom so it wouldn’t sit flat properly, so in the end I glued it to a mantic 20mm square base (upside down, so the circular indentation was underneath), and then painted it to match how I plan to do the stone work on the figures bases. Turning to the bookcases I added the books in either dark red, pink burgundy, deep bronze green, navy blue or royal blue, and painted the pages at the edges that could be seen with some cream. There are some small bottles on the one bookcase so these were added in deep turquoise with “Tamiya” green (sorry not a particularly descriptive name I’m afraid, it’s a bottle green if that helps) highlights. Some bronze tops finished these off. There is also an open (spell?)book, so the pages in this were painted coffee then highlighted with cream and the cover was done in dark red with pink burgundy highlights, and the little details in the corners of the cover were added in more bronze. I then added some “squiggly” lines and a pentacle to the pages to represent text, and that was that. Everything was then given a coat of Quickshade (this worked particularly well on the stonework), and then a spray over with some matt varnish sealed the deal as it were. So that’s the easy bit done (ha ha), now onto the figures themselves….

Now just before I go, a few people have asked if I could post up a group shot of all my “Wasteland” figures, and never one to disappoint (except on the Batrep front of course), here you are….

 So till next week, cheers Roger.