Finally at it again!

Well, it's been a long time.The family moved across country again and I started a new job. With all that going on I've only just now dug my hobby box out of the garage and gotten back to painting my poor neglected band of wee Scotsmen.

One of my motivations was that now that I'm back in Los Angeles, I've found some SAGA gamers much closer to me. The shop is only bout 15 minutes away - as opposed to the 2.5 hour drive I had back in Florida.

So I decided to take another crack at getting my 4 point Scot's warband completed. Since I'm still new to this hobby, I do fancy a bit of an experiment now and again. For my next batch of three figures, I decided to try the painting method described in Saxon Dog's Painting Guide (available as a .pdf if you ask him nicely).

I'll summarize the approach for those not curious enough to request the doc:

1. Prime with white spray paint
2. Wash the figure with black wash 
3. Paint your base color
4. Apply a highlight
5. Wash with brown wash
6. Re-highlight (with the same color as the first highlight)

I guess I'd consider this a Hybrid method. Not as point and shoot as the Army Painter dip method. Not quite as elaborate as the Three Colour method. Somewhere in between.

The idea is that you can get the "black line" look without it being as hard to see the details with a black-primed figure. But I found the black lining to be inconsistent. In some spots it wasn't very dark at all. In some spots the wash dried almost white.

Unlike Saxon Dog who used GW washes, I used the Army Painter inks. Lots of blogs have tested the various washes and inks. Like this one here.

The results:

Yes, I still need to do the bases and the javelins.

What I learned:

I really don't like washes. They always makes things look to dirty or muddy for my taste. I think the washes were helpful on the hair though and might use them again for that.

Keep paint thin (but not too thin). Initially I was too lazy to clean and use my wet palette. I found my paints got goopy on me while I painted (slowly). The wet palette really is your friend.

I really like the da Vinci Restauro 3/0 brush I got. I may have to get more of them.

So, I guess it's back to the Three Colour Method for me. Unless I decide to dabble with VeronaKid’s Shaded Undercoats Tutorial.

Head-to-Head

My three color method test levy is finally finished and based so I could take some head-to-head shots with my Army Painter dipped levy. I chose to use the two that had the same color tunic. Hard to believe they are the same color. That dip really muddies things up!

If you ask me there is no comparison. Well, perhaps the three color method spear looks too much like zebrawood. But other than that the difference is night and day. I guess the question now is, do I have the patience to paint the other forty guys this way...

Spears!

Finally got the weapons added to my test levy:

I painted the spears and then used the Army Painter Dark Tone Ink Wash to shade them. I could have brushed on the Quickshade varnish, but I only have the Testor's Dullcote spray and didn't want to have to spray down the whole miniature again just for the spears. I guess I should get some brush-on matte finish, but this seemed to work fine.

Since I had already painted the hands I used an X-acto to scrape off the paint inside the hand and a bit of the spear to get a good metal-to-metal bond. I followed advice I'd read somewhere that suggested a drop of green stuff (I used the GW liquid greenstuff) along with a drop of super glue to set the spears. Seems to have worked a charm. I haven't really man-handled them yet, but they seem plenty sturdy.

As I had to go back and touch up the hands with my trusty Barbarian Flesh, I figured why not try a little dry brush highlight on the faces? So I did a bit very gingerly on the face of one of the levy. It looks pretty good. I have to say, it really livens the little guy up after that bath in grey grunge. I'm still not entirely confident in my ability not to screw the figures up at this stage so I don't want to go too crazy with highlights, but I can certainly see the benefits of it.