Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!
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This weeks miniature is from the Footsore Baron’s War range. I thought this was my last foot Knight that I had left to paint but I have a horrible feeling I have one or two banner men tucked away somewhere still to do. If I have then they will have to wait that’s for sure.
As for this little chap he was a straight forward except for his shield which was a freehand paint job.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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Painting Rules
A recent exchange of comments between Wudugast and my good self found us touching on the subject of self imposed painting rules. We didn’t get into specifics but it made me consider what rules I apply when I set out to paint figures. Now I say rules, it could probably be argued that these are simply habits, either way I never deviate from them. To my surprise I only have three which are cast in stone.
- I only ever prime using Humbrol white matt enamel paint thinned with white spirit and applied with a brush;
- I always paint the face first;
- I stay true to colours of historical and true life pieces as much as possible.
With the exception of IRO who has only the one rule (follow no rules) feel free to confess your own idiosyncrasies.
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Give Me Five
Now I am not an avid reader despite the number of headaches that She Who Must Be Obeyed has. My reasoning is simple, I will have plenty of time to read when I can no longer paint. Never the less here are my top 5 books.
- Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
- I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
- Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
- The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
- Jaws by Peter Benchley
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Rock and Roll” by Led Zeppelin. One of the worlds biggest ever bands and a classic track.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“A Good Women is Hard to Find”. I hadn’t heard of this film and had no idea what it was about or when it started where it was going. Turned about to be well worth a watch if you don’t mind violence.
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Remember …
If it says “Don’t try this at home” pop round to someone else’s place and give it a go.
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TIM
The Imperfect Modeller 
Good stuff mate, that shield is a nice touch. Painting rules is an interesting one – I think of them as habits really, as I’m happy to mix it up a bit. That said, I always shade before highlighting, I always paint faces last, and I always at least attempt to paint the eyes.
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Cheers Alex, yes habits is probably more fitting. Funny how we are at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to painting faces. 🙂
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yeah, weird! I remember reading that ‘bases & faces’ are what defines a mini, and that what goes on in between is neither here nor there in terms of impact on the gaming table… Since then I’ve always seen the face as the finishing move 🙂
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Never heard that before but 100% agree with it. For me the face is key. If I get that right then I feel confident the rest will follow. If I don’t then I can’t be bothered with the rest of it and the figure gets discarded. I have quite a pile of those! 🤣
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Excellent work on the shield, the line work is perfect. As for painting rules don’t really have any, just paint in the way I’m happy with, although I do always try to paint my Star Wars stuff to the correct colours.
Funny joke and great track to listen to.
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Thanks Dave. Whether it’s real life characters or screen ones authentic miniatures is the name of the game for me too.
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Very nice, and that shield really looks great. I was on a Zeppelin kick for awhile, such an amazing band.
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Yea, Led Zepwere quite soemthing in the day.
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Very nice- rather taken with that shield.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete.
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Love the shield Davey. Haha yep no rules are my favourite kind of rules. Top five books: The Dark (James Herbert). 48 (James Herbert) Ice Station (Matthew Riley) Tuesday’s with Morrie (Mitch Albon) The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
Looooove the Zeps and was listening to D’yer Maker today. Did you know that when they first released that song it wasn’t well received as the hard rockers of the time said it was too reggae haha.
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Some new book titles for me there, will have to take a look at them. Used to read a lot of James Herbert many years ago and enjoyed the Rats trilogy the best. Interesting fact about Led Zep.
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Loooove the Rats and that’s I got hooked on Herbert. Fluke was my first her by book though. All of his work was great. Tuesday’s with Morrie changed my life.
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Tuesdays with Morrie is a film too so might try and find it.
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Guarantee the book is better
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I find they usually are.
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Do like that knight! 🙂 Thirty years ago (cripes) I’d have agreed with all three of your painting rules, but I now tend to undercoat in a colour closest to the predominant shading colour on a figure (face first and historical colour rules still apply though)!
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Cheers John but surely 30 years ago you would have been but a babe in arms? 😉
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Haha, thanks Dave, but 30 years ago I was a young git, whereas now . . . 😉
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great model once again dave, yes indeed that shield is really good. I also tend to paint the face last, unlike you i paint a lot of the same coloured uniform and it can get tedious, so i tend to wap on the biggest coloured area first, them work my way around the body with boots, hats, sword scabbards then kit bags, then go round and round until the final highlight, then finish off the face.
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Sounds like a good way to go about it. 🙂
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I have one rule, set in stone.
Accept nothing less than your best effort.
As for the knight, your usual superb work. And for Led Zep, it’s funny to read IRO commenting on that when we remember that album being released! Ah youth. And for the drain, no comment, I want to live happily.
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That’s a bloody good rule. As for Led Zep and music generally I do think we grew up in one of the best eras ever.
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The knight looks great and I always enjoy seeing you paint stuff from the Crusades 🙂
I always paint the face first as well. It is too frustrating to save that for later in the painting process because the face is generally a make or break part of the mini. My second rule would probably be to always strive for realism and conveying a sense of the source material in whatever I paint. I generally want my Lord of the Rings minis to look like they’re from the movies for example.
In terms of books, I was a Literature/Creative Writing major in college and grad school so I have read hundreds so I can’t really make a top 5 list but one I would recommend to you, if you haven’t already read it, is Farewell to Arms by Hemingway. It is fiction but based on his experiences as a medic in WWI and I find it to be a riveting and sad read that captures the folly of war exceptionally well.
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I agree with your rules, my thoughts exactly. Never read anything by Hemingway, ignorance being the main reason I would say but will check out your recommendation. 🙂
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I’d be curious to hear your thoughts when you get around to reading it. I’d be surprised if you don’t enjoy Farewell to Arms 🙂
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I really like these knights, you’ve been doing a fantastic job with them.
Let’s see, painting rules I always stick to. I’m not sure I have that many myself but I’ve been puzzling over it for the last few days and this is what I’ve come up with.
1 – adhere to the background/story/historical material. I think this is what we were originally talking about that sparked this. I’d say it covers much the same territory as your point about staying true to historical references as much as possible but I’d treat fantasy and sci-fi in the same way as I would historical models. It doesn’t matter if the information comes from historical records or the background section in an armybook or codex, if it says this is how things are then I’ll be considerate of that when I paint them. I will deviate from it, but I like to have given it some thought first and only do so in a considered way, not just because I feel like it. I always ask myself why I’m deviating from the established background and what I’m trying to say by doing so – if I can answer those questions to my satisfaction then I’m good to go.
2 – always paint over black. I’ve seen people do incredible things using white, or even other colours like grey or brown, as an undercoat and I think “Stop being so old fashioned and set in your ways, embrace the new, things must have changed since the last time you tried it – give it another shot!” I always, always regret it…
3 – not using iconic bits. This is really about converting although it does have a painting aspect to it, which I’ll come to. Certain visual elements are deeply associated with certain models/concepts/factions. To give an example, Games Workshop’s Space Marines have helmets and shoulderpads with a really unique and iconic look to them. What’s more the company has poured time, effort and money into making them synonymous with Space Marines and instantly recognisable as such for the last 30-odd years. Therefore if I stick them onto something else they will look out of place and the results will be visually jarring and there’s no way around that (IRO has pulled it off, breaking yet another rule and somehow getting away with it. It’s the only time I’ve seen it done successfully – for God’s sake don’t tell him, he’ll get big headed). Another example is sticking cowboy hats on things that aren’t cowboys. An entire lifetime of film and TV have taught me that those hats = cowboys. If the model isn’t a cowboy why is it wearing it? Were they heading to a fancy dress party when the space war broke out and they didn’t have time to change?
As I say this also applies to painting – if I paint my space marines in blue and gold for example then they’re going to look like Ultramarines. I’d either use the Ultramarine’s colour scheme and say I was painting Ultramarines, or I’d come up with something of my own – I might borrow elements from another colour scheme to make my own (there’s only so many ways of combining colours after all) but I wouldn’t rip something off wholesale and then claim it was something other than what it was (and that’s despite the fact that there are allowances made for doing exactly that in the background section of many games, see point 1 and feel free to label me a hypocrite!)
Oh and I paint the face whenever I get around to it, sometimes first, sometimes last, mostly as I go. 🙂
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The knights have been fun and made for a change but time to move on for now at least.
Very much with you on point one. I don’t have back ground narrative to bother me in terms of fantasy figures but being true to historical periods and book and screen adaptations is a must everytime. I can also relate to your second point but in reverse. Each time I have primed in black it has been a disaster. I don’t know if it is my eyesight but I just cannot pick out the detail in black in the way that I can with white. It’s a funny old world!
As for point 3 it doesn’t affect me much but I really understand where you are coming from. Somethings have become iconic and cannot be easily messed with. Of course you can but rather like a the sequel to a blockbuster movie the odds of success are slim. Love your random approach to face painting! 🙂
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