“I’ve Been Painting Knightley, And the Odd morning Too!” (Mo’vember)

OK so that is a tenuous title even by my standards, but I have been painting Pirates and one of them is female (though not thankfully the one with the beard!), so hopefully you’ll let it slide this time. Apologies as I am a little late posting, I’ve posted a picture of myself (right) and from it you can of course see that I’m a little behind, this week 😁(sorry), this should have been a relatively easy weeks painting just three figures, but things have conspired against me a bit hence the slight delay. As with the “Scrunts” I painted last week I have delved waaaay back into the history of this blog in order find the last time I put brush to pirate metal, it was in fact back in 2015!

Now the reason this trio never got painted was a) Their number never came up (see below), and b) Irregular didn’t send me enough separate hands, so the bald chap was short a hand/weapon. But with Mo’vember upon us, I decided I’d finally get these three done and that meant fashioning a weapon and hand, now I was happy enough making a hand, but what to use for the blade of his cutlass, the answer was (as so often is these days) a coffee stirrer! So after cutting a piece to shape and sanding it down a little, it was glued onto the “lug” at the end of his arm and then I built up his hand and basket hilt in greenstuff.

As an aside this also means I can cross off another of my “Random Painting Generator” boxes too (remember this Simon?) as these are the last three (yes I know it says four but I only had three left😛) Pirates in that draw on Galahads list*…

Box 23 – (Pirates four of choice)

All three were based onto two pence pieces (my last three), as I didn’t have any actual “doubloons” available at the time, then it was out for a spray coat of matt black that was then touched up with a brush to make sure they were fully covered. Then their guns and sword blades were dry-brushed with chainmail, and we were off, so taking them individually from here on…

Starting with the oriental chap, he was begun with coffee and cream used on his shirt as the base and highlight colours, then chocolate brown was applied to his belt and scabbard, with leather highlighted over this. When it came to his trousers I was inspired by a doll (sorry action figure!!) I had as a child, Captain Hook from the “Fighting Furies” range made by matchbox, who was clad in purple pants (long before Prince made these famous!), so I dug out the plum paint and then highlighted these with fusia. His sash was then painted in orange and after adding a little white this was used for the highlight too. His pistol was also chocolate with Eurasian flesh dry-brushed over to give the wood effect (the lady below had her pistol done the same by the way). For the flesh on this chap I mixed Elf skin tone with some khaki to get the oriental shade I was after and the highlights were the same with a little European flesh mixed in. Now the last time I painted any pirates I painted on the flesh and then after it was dry I realised I hadn’t painted the bare feet on one of the figures, and I’m buggered if I didn’t do the same again with this one! So after mixing up another lot of oriental flesh as above (and trying to match the colours as best I could, I painted and highlighted his feet! Dozy beggar that I am!). That just left a tiny bit of chainmail for his earring, and copper and bright gold layered on his sword hilt and he was done.

My female pirate, was also begun with her shirt/blouse in coffee and cream, then her boots and hat were undercoated in chocolate brown, and highlighted in leather. The somewhat ineffectual sash that is doing such a poor job of holding her blouse shut was undercoated in blue grey then highlighted in porcelain blue. Pants next and I used Eurasian flesh with E.C.W buff for highlights here. Her’s and the pirate below had their flesh done in bronze flesh tone mixed with European flesh, and European flesh on its own was used to highlight the ladies complexion, oh’ and a touch of pink burgundy was used on her lips. Hair was chocolate brown with chestnut dry-brushed across it, and her hilt and the clasp in her hair were copper and bright gold once again.

Finally my bearded pirate was yet again started with coffee and cream on his shirt and socks (perhaps I should have lumped all these into the intro bit at the start, then his trousers were undercoated in dark grey and highlighted in mid grey. His jacket was next and fittingly I undercoated here in navy blue, before adding highlights of royal blue, the facings and cuffs on it were then done in sand with lemon yellow over the top. His flesh which was next was done as the lady above, though with some pale flesh added to the European type, on the highlights. His beard/hair along with the cuff on his hook were then painted chocolate brown, the hair highlighted with saddle and the cuff with Eurasian flesh. His shoes and belts I left black and just highlighted them with some dark grey, and his shoe buckles I did in chainmail. The rest of his “brightwork” I did in copper and bright gold, and the bow in the back of his hair (that you can’t see 🙄) I did in dark red and pink burgundy.

Now I have to admit I’d actually forgotten how nice these figures were, Irregular produce them under license (I think) from Eureka Miniatures, and they are very well sculpted and paint up nicely, but anyway enough of all that, now it was time to “Quickshade” them as usual, so out came the strong tone (as regular readers will know I’m addicted to the “Strong stuff”), and this was followed with my usual basing technique (If you want details of this you can click on literally 90% of my other posts!).

So that’s my second (and possibly last) Mo’vember submission this year, normally I have my next week’s painting at least chosen, but I’m at a bit of a loss at the moment as to what to paint next, but we’ll see what takes my fancy (if anything), before the months end.

So till next time, Cheers Roger.

* Apologies to more recent followers of this blog as this will mean nothing to you!