Conan - painting up the "Kings pledge" and a lot of expansions 2023-09-15

[Anatoli]

@Ced1106
Part of painting up everything is also to be able to use it to play SAGA Age of Magic using the minis 
...


Thulsa Doom from the Shadow Kingdoms expansion. This is to be honest a horrible sculpt, but I was hell bent on trying to make something interesting out of it rather than just a indistinguishable dark mess as the artwork suggests. I also could not find a lot of painted up references either. I settled for muted pastel colors on the robes/cloth/whatever he is wrapped/dressed in.

Before I even began painting I fought a minor battle removing the miniature from its cast plastic base. Took some work with both a knife and clippers, then lots of trimming with an exacto knife to even out the bottom so that it could be put on a clear base once painted.

I was considering doing an enamel wash to finish off, using AK "Streaking Grime", or perhaps a dark/sepia oil wash - but decided against it, not wanting to risk messing up the paintjob of the many tiny scratches and highlights.

[has.been]

Nice job there.

[Anatoli]

Taramis and Valeria "The warrior" from the Paolo Parente guest box painted up. I really like the Valeria sculpt from the core box of the Conan board game, but this one is a very close second.

[beefcake]

Nice Work.
The Thulsa Doom came out really nicely, the pastel colours worked well for it.

[Anatoli]

King Kull and Brule from the Shadow Kingdoms expansion painted up. Initially not a fan of the sculpts, but painted up I think they are quite decent, Kull more so than Brule.

Listened to the audiobook "The Shadow Kingdom" featuring both Kull and Brule while painting these. Pretty cool story with "classic" Conan mystery/intrigue, and I can see how R.E. Howard easily swapped Kull for Conan later on. The characters are basically identical. I had not read or listened to anything about Kull up to this point, but will have to check if there are more good stories in the Kull series.

[Anatoli]

Black Ones from the story "Pool of the Black Ones". Not particularly interesting miniatures to paint, and the paintjob is not my best but good enough for the tabletop.

Also, to anyone that consider buying acrylic bases from Customeeple - don't. The bases are not laser cut but rather sawed which gives them a very ugly and scratched look from the sides.....  😠 Purchased over 200 bases a few weeks ago, but willI not use them as the end result is not up to standard with all previous models...

[Anatoli]

I highly recommend buying from another source, such as Stuff4Games if you are in Europe. Up to this point I had bought all my acrylic bases from there, but as I was purchasing some overlay for other board games from Customeeple I thought it was convinient to restock on bases from this unfortunate source.

[Anatoli]

Hi guys, small update about the bases I complained about yesterday for those interested.

I ended up emailing customer support of Customeeple with a detailed description of the problem and comparison pictures. I very rarely email complaints to companies, but by the end of the day I started thinking "what if this is a machine error that can be fixed and they don't know about the problem". This morning I got a reply that showed some surprise at the end product that I had received.

They offered to replace my bases, trying to cut new bases to my previous clear and smooth standard that I wanted. Doing so they would check them prior to delivery to see if they looked as I wanted. And if that did not work out, they offered a refund.

I accepted a replacement of the bases, and really hope that they can tool their laser cutter to make a smoother job. Hope to hear from them again in a few days.
Until then unfortunately my projects are on hold.

[Anatoli]

Things are going slowly with the replacement of my acrylic bases from Customeeple. Talked to them over the phone two days ago. They said the issue was that there are two types of acrylic sheets, and one of them is harder/more durable but also ends up with those jagged edges. The problem was that their supplier could never tell them which type of sheets they are being supplied with....

They promised to run tests and give me either a refund or new set of bases next week. That will unfortunately mean at the very least 2 more weeks without bases for my miniatures....

With that in mind, and not wanting to wait any further I finished the Serpentmen from the Shadow Kingdom expansion.

I started by removing them from their bases and trimming them so that they had a flat surface. Then I attached them back to their original bases with a tiny drop of glue, primed and painted them. I saved one "clean" base as a template for the correct footprint/positionining of the miniatures once I get some more bases.

Sadly the red bases makes it hard to fully appreciate the paintjob. But I removed one of the miniatures and placed it temporarily one the last good 30 mm acrylic base I have left so you can get an idea of what the paintjob actually looks like.

The miniatures are paitned with a "cut corners" method of airbrushing the base colors on the robes, base coating the skin, followed by oil washes. This was then sealed with matt varnish and followed up with regular acrylics before being sealed again with a final layer of matt varnish. I'm pretty pleased with the red color on the robes. Especially considering how little time and effort  was put into these minis that were the last unpainted Conan miniatures in my collection.

I will post again as soon as they are all based on acrylic bases.

[Rhydderch]

Hey! Mostly a lurker here but thought I'd chime in that I've been enjoying seeing all your paintjobs! Fantastic work!

Also, the red bases for the serpentmen don't look bad - they have a red marble look to them! Perhaps you could gloss them up and then repurpose them as bases for some sort of terrain?

[Anatoli]

Hey! Mostly a lurker here but thought I'd chime in that I've been enjoying seeing all your paintjobs! Fantastic work!

Also, the red bases for the serpentmen don't look bad - they have a red marble look to them! Perhaps you could gloss them up and then repurpose them as bases for some sort of terrain?

Thanks!

No, as soon  as I get acrylic bases these minaituers will be based just like the rest of my collection. The reason why I removed the miniatures from the bases initially and re-attached them with a tiny bit of glue was that the miniatures were case as one piece with the base. The large footprint required a lot of effort to remove them, and  doing that after the paintjob was complete would have ruined the painting. As it is now, I can easily snap them free and attach them to acrylic bases.

[Arthadan]

I salute you, Sir!

Your work is amazing and inspiring. I know you have shared some of the paints you use in previous posts, but I'm most intrigued about the use of oil washes.

Which ones do you use?

[snitcythedog]

This whole thread is inspiring. 

The bases are not laser cut but rather sawed which gives them a very ugly and scratched look from the sides..... 

You might be able to salvage them using the old model aircraft clear canopy trick.  If you are in the states the product is Future Floor Polish.  If in the UK it is pledge multi surface wax.  You just paint it on and let it set.  It will make rough areas on clear acrylics and plastics clear again even if sanded.  Might be worth a go if you run into it in future.   

[Anatoli]

I salute you, Sir!

Your work is amazing and inspiring. I know you have shared some of the paints you use in previous posts, but I'm most intrigued about the use of oil washes.

Which ones do you use?

Thank you very much for the kind words. I make my own from oil washes from oil paint thinned with white spirit/thinner. The oil paint brand I use is called "Van Gogh". They are 40ml metal tubes that will most likely last a lifetime each. I bought about 6 base colors that can be mixed to create new colors as well as a pure black one. Depending on what I'm painting they can be used as a heavy wash and then gently cleaned off using a "reduction methid" leaving paint in recesses and folds. Sometimes I use them as very thinned down filters, but that takes a lot more care and patience. A good hairdrier and a proper ratio of thinner-to-oil paint is important if you want it to dry and be able to continue to paint during the same painting session.

It took me a couple of attempts to figure out how oils work and how to mix them. My advide is to try out different techniques and methods of mixing the washes on some throwaway miniatures before you do "live" paint on your actual models.

[Anatoli]

This whole thread is inspiring.  You might be able to salvage them using the old model aircraft clear canopy trick.  If you are in the states the product is Future Floor Polish.  If in the UK it is pledge multi surface wax.  You just paint it on and let it set.  It will make rough areas on clear acrylics and plastics clear again even if sanded.  Might be worth a go if you run into it in future.   

Great tip, thanks! Will check and see if we have similar products here in Sweden. I did not throw away the faulty bases as I figured they could perhaps by used for something else than bases (tokens/markers perhaps?) in the future.