“Spy Hard’ly”

OK so I thought I’d up the stakes a little this week and paint three figures! (I know the madness never ends!). Now I’ve fancied putting a little pigment on these ladies for a while as they have always struck me as perfect secret agent proxies. All three are by the great “Mark Copplestone” and are from his “Babes with Guns” pack, the downside of this is I have now been trawling the internet looking for more “Spies” and have got my eye on a few candidates (but not the Manchurian kind), for possible purchase in the new year. But anyway sticking the ones I’ve got for now…

All three were based up on two pence pieces, with a card “spacer” to add a little height, their bases were then built up with a little “Tetrion” filler and cat litter “rocks”. After a coat of matt black all three had their guns dry-brushed with chainmail, and they all had their legs undercoated in pale flesh, then their painting diversified so I’ll take them individually from here…

Dee’ Dee “Night Night” Knightly: Going back to before I undercoated her for a moment I decided “Dee’ Dee” would make the perfect “sixties, swinging babe” style agent as appeared in the “Matt Helm” movies, now her clothing was just about spot on but in a nod to “Freya Carlson” from “The Wrecking Crew” I thought I add an oversized cap to her, so after sanding away a chunk of her head at a suitably “jaunty” angle I added one with a little greenstuff. OK so back to the painting, and next I added the first coat of orange to her boots, cap, top and mini-skirt, this was followed by painting her legs with a cream wash, that once dry was dry-brushed with white. Coffee, cream and white were also used as the base and highlights on all of her accessories too. All three ladies had their flesh base coated in European flesh, with the same mixed with a little pale flesh for the highlights, but “Dee Dee” had some porcelain blue popped into her eye sockets before I added her eyes in white and black, and a touch of pink burgundy for hers and “Olga’s” lips. Next it was time to highlight her boots and costume, so a little white was mixed into some orange and that took care of that. Chocolate brown was used as the base for her hair with more of the same lighted with a touch of white for the highlights, and more chainmail was used on her belt buckle, and bag clasp.

Ivana “Red Chaffinch” Toppov: A black wash followed by a black dry-brush was used on Ivana’s legs, then her skirt and jacket were undercoated in royal purple and highlighted in plum. More plum was used this time mixed with lilac and used as the basecoat on her shoes and exposed underwear, more lilac formed the highlights here. Her flesh was done the same as the others but her and “Olga” below both had plum dotted in their eyes before the eyes themselves were added and, “Ivana” had dark red on the lips. Her hair I painted citrus orange, then dry-brushed this with some (light) sand. Lastly a dot of copper was added to her jacket button.

Olga “Iron Draws” Stropp: The much more no-nonsense look of “Olga” meant I decided to go with a chocolate brown wash on her legs, this time dry-brushed with a little saddle, Her suit was then base coated with dark grey, and then I added “dots” of two types of mid grey (one lighter than the other) and finally more dots of black, I was hoping for a “woolen” look that I don’t think I achieved but I do quite like the final effect, looks a little like “fashion camo”. I’ve already detailed her flesh and feature above so I won’t linger on them, so next her shoes, belt, pistol grip and fur collar were undercoated in chocolate brown, the first three highlighted in leather and the last in Eurasian flesh. Her hair next with chestnut along with orange highlights taking care of this.

All three figures were then given a coat of “Quickshade” light tone as I thought the “Strong tone would be too dark, and once this was dry their bases were painted in the usual manner with chocolate brown, that was then given successive dry-brushes of khaki and coffee on top of this. Then areas were picked out with some scenic green and then these same areas were flocked using “Javis” Summer Mix static hairy grass. A final spray coat of matt varnish sealed everything and took away the shine of the “Quickshade”.

I’ve really enjoyed painting these three ladies, it feel like ages since I paint any figures, actually it doesn’t feel like I’ve painted many figures this year at all to be honest (sorry Simon, not much choice top ten wise). Not sure what I’ll paint this week yet, I’ve a couple of possibilities’ but I’ll see what grabs me, so till next time..

Cheers Roger.