Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Mr. White on December 23, 2020, 10:18:07 PM
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After the holidays, I'm planning to begin my journey into the Marches of Oathmark. I'm looking at starting with about two boxes of skeletons which is 60 models (soldiers x20, soldiers x20, spearmen x20).
Up to this point, I've only really played skirmish games and a 16 model Blood Bowl team can feel daunting...so I need folks here to help me get through 60!
Now, these look fantastic and I don't expect to paint 60 models to this standard and maintain steam.
(https://images.beastsofwar.com/2020/10/Skeleton-Warriors-1-Oathmark-1024x768.jpg)
But what I do notice there is that they're really only three colors.
1) bone
2) same brown for the wood, belts, and straps
3) aged metals
I think i can do this, but want a good recipe. It's really the aged metal that I'm unsure how to handle, and again, I don't expect to work mine up to look nearly as good as above.
My initial thought is two approaches. Lemme know which is better or if there's an even faster way. I don't recall paint names, so help me out if you can
Approach One:
prime models white or light grey
1) bone - citadel contrast bone
2) wood, belts and straps - graveyard earth washed in agrax earthshade
3) whatever I need to do for metal....help!
Approach Two:
prime models white or light grey
1) bone - bleached bone wash in agrax earthshade
2) wood, belts and straps - graveyard earth washed in earthshade
3) whatever I need to for metal, but uses a wash with agrax earthshade
The two approaches aren't too different. Approach One has three different wash colors (contrast paint is sort of a wash), and approach two is faster where I just wash the whole model in agrax earthshade.
Anyone have thoughts or suggestions to help motivate me to get through this pile of bones?
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Aged metal isn't super hard. These specific ones probably have a few fancy tricks thrown in, but you can go far with a drak bronze colour and then making a wash from a teal or turqoise colour. Vallejo has verdigris paint if you want something pre-mixed. You can water that one down depending on how heavy you want it.
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Your initial thought on painting is sound. Since you asked for suggestions here you go.
For the bone your earthshade will work but would be better with Seraphim Sepia as a base wash then a thinned wash of null oil. Highlight back up with the bone base again and then if you want to go all out highlight up with a white. This will give you more of a bone colour base that is then toned down with the black from the null oil.
For old bone that is blackened by rotting flesh you can paint the base colour, add a wash of seraphim sepia, a wash of null oil then a wash of Athonian Camoshade. Do not let the second two pool up. No highlights on this one. Gives your bones a good rotten and decayed look.
For the wood and leather you are spot on with the earthshade wash and keeping the colours simple. Null oil would work here too.
To get a quick bronze look like your example paint the metals a dark brown. Then a couple of thin coats of Nihilakh Oxide will add the verdigris.
My two cents so hope that helps.
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Oddly there isn't an article from Northstar yet about how they painted those
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My quick method for skeletons is to prime them with Army Painter Skeleton bone primer. Then give them a wash of Seraphim Sepia and then drybrush with Skeleton Bone snd then Iraqi Sand.
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After the holidays, I'm planning to begin my journey into the Marches of Oathmark. I'm looking at starting with about two boxes of skeletons which is 60 models (soldiers x20, soldiers x20, spearmen x20).
No archers?
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No archers?
They don’t look that strong. Seems swords and spears might be better? Though... they’d be easier to paint!
Maybe I’ll do 15 soldiers, 15 soldiers, 10 spears, 10 archers, 10 archers. If I end up not liking the bowmen I can stick them in the last ranks of the soldier and spear units as ‘counts as’.
Lots of good painting tips here all around. Thanks, folks!
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They don’t look that strong.
They suck individually but in a block of 20 they are fun. The biggest benefit is that they have the Fire Over ability meaning that you can place them behind a unit of warriors and fire over them to soften up your opponent.
You need big blocks though. 10 skeleton archers are ineffective.
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Michael Anderson posted this paint guide on Facebook:
1. Spray black
2. Zenithal highlight with wraithbone spray
3. Build up thin layers of contrast Skeleton hoard ( slow and controlled, not one thick coat!)
3. Wash bone recesses with thinned Agrax earthshade.
4. Highlight with a light dry brush of wraithbone
5. Basilacatum grey contrast on the cloth
6. Wyldwood contrast on the leather straps
7. Snakebite leather contrast on wood followed by wyldwood
8. Warplock bronze on all metal areas
9 thinned nihilakh oxide technical in patches over the whole metal area
10. All recesses in metal area is neat nihilakh
11. Wash whole figure in thinned Athonian camoshade
12. Wash metal areas with mix of waaagh flesh mixed with agrax and thinned.
Now the weird stage...
13 edge highlight all sharp raised areas with a white coloured pencil
That’s it!
Sounds a lot of stages but it doesn’t require a huge amount of technical skill. If I’d painted this my normal way it would have been closer to 3 per day but I wanted to demonstrate how quick it can be to paint large units for oathmark (yes, I know they’re not based for OM 😂)
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My quick method for skeletons is to prime them with Army Painter Skeleton bone primer. Then give them a wash of Seraphim Sepia and then drybrush with Skeleton Bone snd then Iraqi Sand.
I did something similar: https://oathgrave.blogspot.com/2020/10/10-painting-skeletons-and-rusty-iron.html
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My quick method for skeletons is to prime them with Army Painter Skeleton bone primer. Then give them a wash of Seraphim Sepia and then drybrush with Skeleton Bone snd then Iraqi Sand.
I did something similar: https://oathgrave.blogspot.com/2020/10/10-painting-skeletons-and-rusty-iron.html
Me too.
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BCFseD4nBvs/X8Pc_PtX4EI/AAAAAAAAHVA/XA5i7bG18s8S7A5JEmWQcKrcr3x5UyfawCLcBGAsYHQ/s500/skeleton-11.png)
Briefly:
The figures (without shields) were undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray followed by Army painter Skeleton Bone.
Armour and weapons were painted with Citadel Abaddon Black.
The axe handle was painted with Citadel Dryad Bark.
Straps and belts were painted with Citadel Steel Legion Drab.
Cloth straps and the skeleton's teeth were painted with Army Painter Stone Golem.
Everything was dry brushed with Citadel Terminatus Stone.
A final wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade showed off the detail.
The shields were painted on the sprue:
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RXzQO6AwE7c/X8PdAshMExI/AAAAAAAAHVY/LKQt2t0FLP0q_Y0gV0ISfSqHdBuMFEp7ACLcBGAsYHQ/s500/skeleton-9.png)
The weapons (and armour) were painted with a mix of Citadel Abaddon Black and Humbrol Dark Green.
A wet mix of Citadel Abaddon Black, Humbrol Dark Green, Humbrol 90 (a light green) and Citadel Lahmian Medium was then painted on to give a verdigris effect.
They were then dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green.
The shields were clipped off the sprue and the damage caused by the clipping tidied up. The shields were glued to the figures hand with superglue.
A final wash of Citadel Camoshade brought up the detail on the shield
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Aged metal isn't super hard. These specific ones probably have a few fancy tricks thrown in, but you can go far with a drak bronze colour and then making a wash from a teal or turqoise colour. Vallejo has verdigris paint if you want something pre-mixed. You can water that one down depending on how heavy you want it.
I started off with a black green (based on some wiki-fu on Bronze Age artefacts).
I mixed my verdigris with Citadel Abaddon Black, Humbrol Dark Green, Humbrol 90 and Citadel Lahmian Medium with a wash of Citadel Camoshade.
I did buy some Coelian Greenshade for the next ones, and then also bought some Citadel Nihilakh Oxide technical paint - probably the same sort of thing as the above but in a jar.
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What is Humbrol 90?
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Michael Anderson posted this paint guide on Facebook:
.........
That is a very long winded and overly complicated way of doing something that is much much simpler than he makes it appear.
Not to mention bloody expensive, that's over £50 worth of paints he says you need there.
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What is Humbrol 90?
The paint is called Beige Green, a bit like Nurgling Green I think.Or Tamiya XF-14 according to a chart somewhere or RAF Sky (?) or duck egg green.
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The paint is called Beige Green, a bit like Nurgling Green I think.Or Tamiya XF-14 according to a chart somewhere or RAF Sky (?) or duck egg green.
Ah. I thought it might be some thinning agent or something along those lines
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Thanks for the tips.
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I've heard good things about GW's Skeleton Horde contrast paint over an off white base, with a drybrushed highlight. Seems to be a really quick way to get good results, especially if the base coat is sprayed. I haven't tried it yet though
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That is a very long winded and overly complicated way of doing something that is much much simpler than he makes it appear.
Not to mention bloody expensive, that's over £50 worth of paints he says you need there.
Agreed!
No way would I pursue this project if those were the necessary steps.
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I'd worked out a rather workable paint setup for a skeletons a while back, though they were the more heavily armored Mantic ones. Largely using craft paints...
Primed in a grey, base coat the bone areas in a parchment color, leather in a medium brown, metals in either gunmetal or copper, and the cloth parts were in a dark blue (Swap blue for whatever army color you want).
Thinned down some acryllic burnt umber ink as a wash followed by a more focused black wash using thinned ink for the gunmetal areas along with the face. You want a heavier/thicker wash for the bone areas of the burnt umber, and I normally start with that and then thin it out more for the rest. But let it dry between each.
You can normally just go with a lighter drybrush and highlight of the parchment to handle the bone parts, a little bit of white mixed in for the highest ones. The brown can be highlighted with the original, perhaps lighten it with some of the parchment. For the metals, a light drybrush of the original, followed by highlights of silver on the gunmetal and gold over the copper.
Thin out a brick red and terra cotta and stipple them into areas of the gunmetal/silver for rush effects. Use a good blue-green patina color and thin it out more than normal and mix in a couple drops of rubbing alcohol in for the copper/gold areas to have an old coppery bronze look.
Then I take a dark red and a bright pink, the red for the internal of the eye with just a tiny dot in the center to highlight it...end result looks good. (I'd actually use the Reaper Gore Red and Breast Cancer Awareness Pinks for it, only actual mini paints used for these)
For the cloth, I'd actually started with a layer of a blue mixed with black ink to thin the consistency and darken it, then I stippled the areas with first the original blue, and a brighter blue while paying attention to the shading and highlight positions with it.
Hardest figure with skeletal parts for me to paint was the most recent one I finished...Reapers translucent wraith king that was given out for Halloween...and that was more of trying to keep some of the translucency for parts of it and still make it fit in with my other, more recent ones.
Each of the main paints were about $1 for the bottle...the white was about $4 because it was the bigger bottle. The acryllic inks were normally $5, but discount coupons for half price. The two minis paints were freebie colors
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Ah. I thought it might be some thinning agent or something along those lines
No problem (and apologies for the brevity: tech issues meant posting from an awkwardly placed - in time and space - desktop PC).
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Coincidentally, I've been painting up 60 skellies over the last two weeks. Like you, I didn't want to invest heroic effort to complete the task. I used the painting instructions on the Skull and Crown Miniatures blog (since I'm painting minis from them) as a starting point and modified it for the colors I had on hand. The simple step-by-step instructions can be found here. The picture shows the results I've managed for a unit of 20 -- took about a week off and on to do (still have to finish the bases).
http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/2017/06/painting-triumph-of-death-by-numbers.html (http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/2017/06/painting-triumph-of-death-by-numbers.html)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50760490333_18a8c18131_z.jpg)
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Pretty much your first approach.
Primed with Halfords white primer.
1) bone - GW Contrast Skeleton Horde
2) wood, belts and straps - GW Contrast Snakebite Leather, Cygor Brown & Wyldwood
3) Metal - GW Typhus Corrosion & Ryza Rust.
Worked well. Got 40 Skeletons painted up in a week.
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I've been playing undead since 1997 with a 5e WHFB Undead army (pre-split) and kept it up, overhauling the basic skeleton warriors every time GW released a new kit. This is the formula for your basic, bleached white bones that I finally settled on:
1 - Prime white with whatever smooth white primer you use (I use Dupli-Color sandable from AutoZone or other car part stores.)
2 - Airbrush a solid coat of Vallejo Heavy Warm Grey
3 - Give a good coat of Army Painter Strong Tone (the ink wash, not the dip), but down drown it. Just enough to glaze the basecoat a bit while really filling the recesses.
4 - Drybrush with Vallejo Bleached Bone or Army Painter Skeleton Bone, whichever you have.
5 - A very light touch drybrush of pure white anywhere the light might be hitting. Drybrush the domes of any unhelmeted skulls a bit harder, as that makes them pop.
And that's it. Painting the bone part is easy. Having to go back and paint metals and cloth tends to take more time than the bone, as you need to do that after you drybrush the whole thing with bleached bone.
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So many fantastic suggestions in this thread...it's made the decision a little more difficult. ha!
The rotting, decayed skeletons sound interesting, but then again so do so many of the others. Do folks happen to have links or photos of their skellies?
This can sorta turn into a skeleton showcase thread...
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I like a some variety in colors on my skeletons, and I use a lot of cheap craft store acrylics so I don't have a simple formula, but the process is simple and not far from what you and others have described. This assumes more bone than armour or tattered clothing is exposed and I'm working in batches.
Prime grey. Or white last week since the last can of grey primer I bought seems to have a bad nozzle.
Paint bone, some with a pale creme color, others with antique white (slightly darker.)
Wash all bone. My favorite is Sepharim Sepia, but I also use Reikland Flesh and Agrax Earthshade. Sometimes I'll even mix two washes, either before applying to the figure, or right on the figure.in the case of the latter I'll brush one color on some parts, then the other areas with a different one and let them run & blend into each other.
I like a dark base for the rest, so I brush thinned out black on all the leather, wood, and metal bits.
I then paint the wood weapon shafts one color brown, the leather another color, and silver on all the steel. If there are brass or bronze bits (buckles, etc) I paint those now too.
Then I wash all of those areas just painted with Nuln Oil.
At this point, they're probably good enough, but I usually add a little detail/extra steps.
Double check that the eye sockets are dark enough. Sometimes they need a little extra wash for my tastes.
I like to paint rust on the steel. i did a step-by-step of the "full" rust process, but sometimes I do just the orange part where there's just a small area of surface rust. https://www.zerotwentythree.com/2017/02/rust-tutorial.html
Sometimes I do a little highlighting on the leather or wood bits.
If you want to see how they turn out: https://www.zerotwentythree.com/search/label/Skeletons
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Pretty much your first approach.
Primed with Halfords white primer.
1) bone - GW Contrast Skeleton Horde
2) wood, belts and straps - GW Contrast Snakebite Leather, Cygor Brown & Wyldwood
3) Metal - GW Typhus Corrosion & Ryza Rust.
Worked well. Got 40 Skeletons painted up in a week.
Best picture I can rustle up at the moment.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FrgbKDrJZmE/X5qPN8PEHtI/AAAAAAAACUw/sBA743ZHu68z7GXN1GBCxNazD4VVyeQJQCNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/1603964727917428-9.png)
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For my Mortal Gods skeletons I use the following method:
Prime with Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray.
Wash with GW Seraphim Sepia.
Highlight with Army Painter Skeleton Bone.
Light highlight with ivory.
Spear shafts:
Foundry Spearshaft trilogy.
Shields:
Foundry Bronze Barrel Shade.
Wash with GW Seraphim Sepia.
Highlight with Foundry Bronze Barrel Light.
Spray with hairspray and spinkle on salt.
Foundry Charcoal Black Shade.
Clean off salt with a wet toothbrush (this will take off bits of the black paint).
Paint on Vallejo verdigris and whilst still wet dab some off with a paper towel.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50233297248_36b9ed0f38_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jwWMaS)Denizens of Hades (https://flic.kr/p/2jwWMaS) by PTB Photography (https://www.flickr.com/photos/10903634@N05/), on Flickr
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Spear shafts:
Foundry Spearshaft trilogy.
Is that an actual thing?!?!
Spray with hairspray and spinkle on salt.
Regular salt or kosher salt?
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Definitely another vote for the "spray with Bone coloured primer" and then paint the details and use a wash/dip.
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SeAILbdDEzg/XHBD6YbJzEI/AAAAAAAAE1U/ii9OQ0bEU_4H9k6OmwzBKhczCXxqDg8LACLcBGAs/s1600/Skeletons.JPG)
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rqUtltE9Jtw/XOxB2PdC4JI/AAAAAAAAE-I/gCcnZ8yIxwMhGDhvTo8RDoNGYYyjYV5igCLcBGAs/s1600/ExtraSkeletons3.JPG)
It won't win you any awards...but if you're doing an army, it'll be fine. Mine are all painted to my "minion" standard.
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Is that an actual thing?!?!
Regular salt or kosher salt?
Foundry do triologies for their paints...shade, base and highlight. Try them...then mess around and mix them up to get different tones.
Regular Table salt works fine on mine, but I'm non-denominational, so use kosher if that is your persuasion...
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Regular Table salt works fine on mine, but I'm non-denominational, so use kosher if that is your persuasion...
its mostly a size thing. Kosher salt has larger particles