“Of Swords and Snakes” (week 46)

With this being my last post before “Forgotten Heroes” starts in earnest I thought I do something fairly quick and easy (this was also because I had another little side project that I needed to finish as well, but more of that later). So it was out with the old “Random painting generator sheets”. Now it’s been a while since I did one of these, so for those not “in the know” I basically toss a coin to determine which sheet of unpainted miniatures I pick from and then roll a D30 to determine which miniatures I paint from that list, so this is what I did, and the result was…

Lancelot’s list (they have silly names, sorry forgot to mention that), and the roll gave me a two, so that equated too…

Box 2 – (4x Lancashire Games Snakemen)

Lord alone knows when I bought these figures (or indeed if, they might have been samples), but I have three of one type and one (the leader?) of another, so after being based up on two pence pieces, it was out for a coat of matt black before the guns were dry-brushed with some chainmail. Next I painted all of the bodies with deep bronze green and the back of their “cobra” like “ruffs” in dark earth. Next I mixed some more deep bronze green with some stone green and used the resultant lighter green to highlight the bodies, then taking my leather brown I stippled “dots” over the earth brown at the back of their ruffs. Looking at them again I decided that they were a bit on the dull side, so taking some light green I re-painted the lower “inside” parts of their “ruffs” along with the prominent scales that ran from the front of their necks down their bellies to the tips of their tails, this was then highlighted with some mustard paint, I honestly don’t know why I did this as it was a right “pain in the bum” to do and I was supposed to be keeping this week’s painting simple! Anyway after this I added their eyes in sand with a black “line” pupil and the mouths on the ones where they were open I painted with dark red highlighted with bright red, and fangs in coffee and cream. The leader figure has a satchel slung across his body and as usual I added this in chocolate brown with leather highlights. Finally I added a couple of copper highlights to the guns to add a little interest there, and after a final touch-up, they were ready for their coat of Quickshade “strongtone”. Basing was of course done in my own inimitable style (ha ha!) and a coat of matt varnish sealed the deal as it were.

The other thing I have been up to this week, was doing a little work on another part of Dennis’s “Game of Thrones” costume, now you may remember from a few weeks back that we had all attended “Liverpool Comic Con” (see link at the bottom of the page), well at that show Dennis had bought a foam “LARP” version of the sword “Long fang?” from the TV series, on the proviso that I could take it’s rather basic and frankly “ropey” finish, and make it look more like the “steel” replica they had hanging beside it, “Oh yes! No problem” I replied, and there I was with more work to do! Anyway, long story short it had been languishing atop our bedroom wardrobe the last few weeks (apart that is when I sneakily got it down to swing about when no one was looking), so I thought I’d better get it done, this was a pretty simple job to be honest, we had decided beforehand that the cross guard would be painted to match the dire wolf on his armour so, after the blade was masked up (this wasn’t getting painted) the hilt was sprayed matt black, then a coat of bronze was painted over the guard, and a dry-brush of copper went over this. the wolfs head was to stay white, but not as bright as the foam original, so starting again from the black spray coat a heavy dry-brush of coffee was applied and then another slightly lighter one of cream went over this, his eyes were then added in pink burgundy before being painted metallic red. I decided these looked a little large so, I lined them in black to reduce their size, both areas were then given a coat of light tone Quickshade, and then were sprayed with satin varnish. I actually think it looks better than the metal replica now, Dennis is going to wrap the grip in leather strapping to finish it off (but that’s his job not mine!).

So that’s it, time to strap myself in for what is the mad month we call “Forgotten heroes”, so till then, Cheers Roger.

https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/liverpool-comic-com-2018/