(PM03) Ancient Spanish Scutarii - Part 5

Sorry, some of today's photos have turned out a bit blurry. I'm not sure what happened.


Step Thirteen. Painted trim on the tunics and the shield faces dark red.

Step Thirteen: 39 min.
Total: 353 min.






Step Fourteen. Highlighted only the shield faces with the dark red mixed with just a little of bright red. The dark red is transluscent enough that when I painted it over the white tunics, it looked as if it was already highlighted, as the white portions showed through lightening the red in those areas.

Step Fourteen: 10 min.
Total: 363 min.




Step Fifteen. Another highlight on the shield faces. Mostly bright red, mixed with a small amount of the darker red. I did add some highlights to a few spots on the tunic trim.

Step Fifteen: 7 min.
Total: 370 min.



Step Sixteen. Base coat of black patterns on the shields. These are based on some of the ideas I've found in books and on photos of painted figures around the web. I went with large stylized graphics as opposed to smaller details. Also stuck with the red white & black for a bigger visual impact, and less cluttered look than my Gauls, for example. I figured the definitive historical proof is limited enough that I could just go with something that "feels" right & looks good and be happy with that.

Step Sixteen: 16 min.
Total: 387 min.




Step Seventeen. Highlighted the black areas with black mixed with just a small amount of grey

Step Seventeen: 17 min.
Total: 404 min.



Step Eighteen: White borders between the red & black on some of the shields. I went back and gave a quick highlight with titanium white on a few of the shields after this photo, but have added the time into this step for completeness.

Step Eighteen: 13 min.
Total: 417 min.




Step Nineteen. Decided to try a different base color for bronze pieces. This is Privateer Press' Ps "Brass Balls." Yes, really. I understand that its made by the same company that makes Coat d'Arms and the older GW paints. This is the only one I've used. It was a promotional freebie. I'm a bit unimpressed. The paint has serious separation issues, even with extensive shaking and the addition of an agitator bead to the paint. This causes some coverage problems, but even when it does well I'm closing & re-shaking the paint every few figures. Maybe the regular colors are better? I don't know.

Step Nineteen: 40 min.
Total: 457 min.




Step Twenty. Old GW Flesh Wash on the bronze bits. Slightly thinned with a bit of water.

Step Twenty: 13 min.
Total: 470 min.



Step Twentyone. GW Mithril Silver on the spear tips & sword blades.

Step Twentyone: 7 min.
Total: 477 min.





Step Twentytwo. This is actually two steps rolled into one, as I wanted to finish the figures and the photographing takes almost as long as the painting. The crests were painted with the dark red followed by a drybrushing of the light red.

Step Twentytwo: 13 min.
Total: 490 min.


Step Twentythree. Black wash on all the silver parts. I put the intermediate step of the crests between the silver and the wash so that the silver could dry completely. I hate having silver metalic flakes lift off into my brushes & other paints.

Step Twentythree: 3 min.
Total: 493 min.





Step Twentyfour. Sadly I couldn't end it on step 023. For the last step I used a lighter brown to add a lighter grain on all the wood of the spears and the standard.


Step Twentyfour: 8 min.
Total: 501 min.



Finished.

Total time was 501 minutes for 24 figures, giving a rate of 21 minutes per figure (rounded up.) That compares to 17 minutes per figure for the Romans. I thought I would end up with a much larger number, but in the end that's not a bad time. In fact, I feel a bit guilty for cutting a few corners when it started looking like it was taking forever.

After basing these guys up I will post photos at my "regular" blog.

Time to consider what to do for the next project!

(PM03) Ancient Spanish Scutarii - Part 4

Step Ten. Final highlights of the white tunics. Not the best pic, but maybe in subsequent pics the difference between the two shades of white will be more apparent.

Step Ten: 14 min.
Total: 239 min.




Step Eleven. Brown basecoat on assorted leather & wood items. I went back with a second shade of brown and painted a few bits not done in the pic, but just rolled that into this time.

Step Eleven: 54 min.
Total: 293 min.




Step Twelve. Black wash on the brown leathery bits. Wood bits did not get the wash and will be lightlighted a bit with a lighter brown in a later step.

Step Twelve: 21 min.
Total: 314 min.



Still to do... shields, metal bits, helmet crests, and cloaks on five of the figures.

(PM03) Ancient Spanish Scutarii - Part 3

Step Six. Tidying up the mess made from painting the flesh. Again, this step seems like it takes way too long. The black helps give definition, especially against the planned light colored cloth. Maybe I should have skipped this. Or at least only hit a few vital spots.

Step Six: 47 min.
Total: 150 min.





Step Seven. Base coat cloth. I will be doing all the scutarii in light colors. Different shades of white, more or less. But I want some variation, so I will get there through various routes. I have a second group the same size as this one that I will paint later. So I will use two different methods on this group, then some others on the next group, and mix the two sets for more variety.

So for the next few steps, I will have the figures split into a left and right group, with a different color paint used on each.

Step Seven: 38 min.
Total: 188 min.



Step Eight. First highlight on cloth.

Step Eight: 23 min.
Total: 211 min.



Step Nine. Second highlight on cloth. The group on the left was highlighted with the first highlight color lightened further with a bit of white.

Step Nine: 14 min.
Total: 225 min.



The steps still seem to be taking too long and I am quickly approaching the 303 minutes I spent on the Romans. I have noticed that the Old Glory figures seem to take longer. I think the many small folds in the cloth & smaller details slow me down a little. Even then, I'm doing a bit of overbrushing on some of the cloth and it's not turning out as nice looking as my usual layering. The latter definitely works better on the more simplified style of the Crusader, as well as the Foundry and Wargames Factory figures I've done in the first two projects.

(PM03) Ancient Spanish Scutarii - Part 2

Step Three. First flesh highlight.


Step Three: 16 min.
Total: 83 min.



Step Four. Second flesh highlight.

Step Four: 10 min.
Total: 93 min.






Step Five. Flesh wash in eye socket. White on eye, then black.

Step Five: 10 min.
Total: 103 min.



I'm 20 minutes behind where I was with 18 Romans using these same steps. There are 6 more figures in this groups, but I think it's also the simplicity of the Romans that made them easier to paint. Less flesh, so less work at this point, also. I'm curious to see how the timing continues...

(PM03) Ancient Spanish Scutarii - Part 1

I'm taking a momentary break from Romans. With many distracting possibilities available to me, I decided on some Spanish infantry that I can use as allies/auxilia/enemies for the Romans.

The figures are a mix. The back three rows are Old Glory figures. There are three poses (one per row) and all are a bit more heavilly equipped - with a helmet, greaves, shield and throwing spear. The front ranks are some more lightly equipped figures with sword & shield, as well as a few command figures, all from Crusader. 24 figures total.



Step One: Flesh. Took longer than I expected. These first few steps will be familiar to anyone who's read the previous Paint Machine projects. I forgot to include the paint bottles in these first two photos.

Step One: 58 min.
Total: 58 min.



Step Two: Flesh Wash.

Step Two: 19 min.
Total: 77 min.