Pattus Magnus' Fantasy Armies - 15mm Barbarians and Giants

[Pattus Magnus]

Hi Belgian, for the wolf riders, I assembled the models completely before painting because I wanted to use green stuff to fill gaps and I was sticking plastic riders on metal wolves (mostly). In retrospect, it probably would have been simpler to paint the riders and wolves separately and use pins and CA glue to hold them on.

For painting, they were primed white, then I mostly used washes and contrast paints. Initially I used GW Reikland flesh wash inside the mouths and around the lips and on the foot pads (where they are visible). Next, I used GW’s “white” contrast paint on the legs, stomach, lower side of the face. Next, GW skeleton bone contrast, thinned a bit - I put that everywhere the ‘white’ wasn’t, and overlapped it on the white a bit on upper legs, flanks, etc. That was to give the fur that tawny look many wolves have. Finally, I used a few different GW mid-dark browns (one colour per wolf), to put the darker markings on each beast. I thinned the brown a bit and made sure it was darkest on the uppermost fur (top of face, along the spine, top of tail) and faded into the tawny parts. I looked at reference pics, but didn’t worry about trying to get the markings perfect - wolves vary. The main thing was to get lighter colors lower on the body, and leave some lighter colour on the cheeks and muzzle.

After that, I painted the riders, and then picked out some details, like teeth and some yellow or red on the wolves’ eyes.

I hope that’s helpful!

[Belgian]

Hi Belgian, for the wolf riders, I assembled the models completely before painting because I wanted to use green stuff to fill gaps and I was sticking plastic riders on metal wolves (mostly). In retrospect, it probably would have been simpler to paint the riders and wolves separately and use pins and CA glue to hold them on.

For painting, they were primed white, then I mostly used washes and contrast paints. Initially I used GW Reikland flesh wash inside the mouths and around the lips and on the foot pads (where they are visible). Next, I used GW’s “white” contrast paint on the legs, stomach, lower side of the face. Next, GW skeleton bone contrast, thinned a bit - I put that everywhere the ‘white’ wasn’t, and overlapped it on the white a bit on upper legs, flanks, etc. That was to give the fur that tawny look many wolves have. Finally, I used a few different GW mid-dark browns (one colour per wolf), to put the darker markings on each beast. I thinned the brown a bit and made sure it was darkest on the uppermost fur (top of face, along the spine, top of tail) and faded into the tawny parts. I looked at reference pics, but didn’t worry about trying to get the markings perfect - wolves vary. The main thing was to get lighter colors lower on the body, and leave some lighter colour on the cheeks and muzzle.

After that, I painted the riders, and then picked out some details, like teeth and some yellow or red on the wolves’ eyes.

I hope that’s helpful!

Thanks for the information much appreciated and very helpful!

[Pattus Magnus]

It took me a while to recover from my orc painting bender in September and October, but I have finally finished a few more figures. The trolls are nominally 1:72 figures made by Dark Alliance, but they fit pretty well with 28mm figures. I actually like them better size-wise than the GW versions. At 8 to a package, they’re inexpensive but I’m not sure the savings are worth the hassle of carving off soft plastic mould lines, which were severe in places. Reviews I read online said the mould lines were minimal, but both sprues I got were equally bad, so I think the mould must be worn out. I’m honestly not sure I’ll bother painting the other six figures, the prep work is soul eating. At least these two turned out!

[Pattus Magnus]

I also painted a few goblins that I didn’t get to in October. The leader and wizard are Reaper metal figures, alongside an old (Asgard?) sculpt I got in a pack from Alternative Armies. One of the archers is a pure Wargames Atlantic figure and the others are kitbashes using old Mantic goblin bodies with Oathmark heads and Oathmark or Frostgrave arms. These guys will bulk out the goblin archer units in the horde!

[Grumpy Gnome]

I agree with you on the Dark Alliance Trolls, those mould lines are no fun but the price helps… and your brushwork made those look great! Same with the Goblins, excellent work.

[DivisMal]

  Excellent additions! The trolls look spot on with your goblins, but, personally, I found the Peter Jackson trolls way too large, so tuning them down a bit is the absolute right thing.

That horde by now looks really cool and the various models fit together perfectly!

And as a PS, even though I am not Belgian: thanks for the recipe for the wolves! I have something similar in 15mm ahead of me!

[Golgotha]

I do like the way you have done those trolls. Be good to see some pics of them all together as an army.

The goblins look good too.

[Old Hob]

Lovely stuff as always Pattus. I've really been enjoying this thread and I've been using it as a benchmark for where I'd like to get to with my own orcish rabble. I also like how the limited colour palette is tying all these different manufacturers into a unified horde. I suspect that AA orc may have originally been by Rieder Design rather than Asgard, but my Google-fu is weak today so I may well be wrong.

You've also done a belter of a job on those Dark Alliance trolls. Can't really comment on the mould lines being worse than before (I've never handled their models), but as they're based in Ukraine it's a wonder that they're still able manufacture kits at all. Anyway, I think you're right about these scaling well with the 28s and they are a great addition to your army.

[Hobgoblin]

Great work on all of those!

The AA guy was originally a Rieder Design Orc of the Stiff Crow. He looks splendid here. I wonder if AA will ever rerelease the other Rieder Orcs, which are great.

The trolls look good shorn of their horns. For the mouldlines, have you tried using a heated pin? I found the best way to clean up a whole load of Dark Alliance figures was to set up a candle outside (to avoid exposure to the fumes) and then just melt the mouldlines away with a hot pin, using a cork as a handle.

[Pattus Magnus]

Thanks for all of the positive feedback, I appreciate it and I’m always happy to hear it when my figures inspire others!

Old Hob, Hobgoblin, you’re right of course, the AA goblin was originally by Reider Designs, he came out of the same pack that had the ‘crow on a stick’ standard bearer!

And thanks for the advice, Hobgoblin, regarding the mould lines on the trolls, I’ll give that a try when I can work outside again on figures (should be some time around March, it has been -20 or colder here lately and frostbite is a sacrifice I don’t need to make for my art!)

[Belgian]

Awesome as always great work on the trolls and archers. Have been playing with the same idea of mixing Mantic Games Goblins with other companies and wasn't convinced but looks like I was wrong. Might give it a try 

[Pattus Magnus]

Hi Belgian, thanks! Regarding the Mantic goblins, there have been two versions released. The ones I used were the original ones that had soft details, obvious mould lines, and rigid poses. They have been out of production for a few years, since Mantic completely replaced them with newer sculpts. I haven’t seen the newer ones.

I would say, if you already have some of the old Mantic goblins, kitbashing with Oathmark parts is a good way to get some value out of them (the main modification needed is to pare back the weird forward-thrusting neck join on the bodies), but I wouldn’t recommend bothering to track them down.

[Pattus Magnus]

I went on a side-trip into painting 10mm Seven Years War for a few months and real-life work has decreased my output, but I recently finished some more fantasy figures. They’re in a smaller size, though! A pal wanted to try some 15mm fantasy mass battle games and I had these figures in the lead pile for at least 8 years, untouched, so I dug them out.

The Copplestone Castings barbarians were a lot of fun to paint (and wow, they are amazing sculpts) and I have a bunch more to do. I got a lot of inspiration from Captain Blood and Deano’s barbarians, check out their threads if you haven’t already!

First, the drug-addled shaman and the warlord…

[Pattus Magnus]

And the rank-and-file. (Well, barbarians don’t do ranks or files, but you know what I mean!)

[Pattus Magnus]

And a shot of a unit routing off the table… The sculpting on the fur cloaks is just amazing on the figures.