New Painting: NW Frontier (Empress, Old Glory and Castway Arts models)

[guitarheroandy]

Hi Folks
Here are the first two British infantry for my NW Fontier project (to be gamed using T&T Colonial supplement when it's released, plus my own Legends of the NW Frontier adaption of LoToW). They are Colonel Archibald Higginson and Colour Sergeant Arthur Wilson of the 65th (East Suffolk) Regiment (a fictitious British regiment, named after the county of my birth!!)

The models are Empress miniatures Zulu War Brits with a  Khaki paint job! The Colonel is a conversion (head swap!) The models were painted with Foundry and GW paints. They will have dry grass/scrub added to the bases once varnished.



Also, some Pathans. These are Old Glory and Castaway Arts figures and most have been painted using Army Painter dip on top of Foundry 'light' tone paints, plus some GW colours. The grass/scrub is the same stuff I'll put on the Brits eventually. The dip is a cool way to get lots of natives onto the table quickly!!! All the Pathans (except perhaps the characters) will be done this way and I may well do some of the Brits/Sikhs/Goorkhas the same way..we'll see how long it takes me to paint them the 'proper' way!! The photo below was taken in my 'rockery' at the back of my garden when the weather was nicer!!! Cool NW Frontier terrain! And yes, I still need to paint the Pathan banner!!!



Next up, some rank and file Brits and yet more Pathans...

[odd duck]

Very Nice!  :-*I've been interested in this period for years but it always seems to stay on the far side of my lead mountain

[Keith]

Smashing stuff!

[bc99]

I like what you've done. This is one of the colonial periods most interesting to me, and I always like to see what is being done on "The Grim".

That being said, can you elaborate a little on Army Painter dip?

Thanks!

[Svennn]

Nicely done. Did you just file the gaiters and then paint in the puttees or are modelled on?

[Gluteus Maximus]

Nicely done. Did you just file the gaiters and then paint in the puttees or are modelled on?

They look very effective, however you did them. This makes the Empress figures even more desirable, as even a fool like me could do this conversion and they would blend in well with my existing Darkest Africa stuff 


Great figures, I'm looking forward to the next batch.

Sergeant Wilson indeed! I expect we'll be seeing Corporal Jones and Private Pike etc appearing soon 

[guitarheroandy]

@BC99: Army Painter dip is basically a 'stain' type of liquid used in the same way as an ink wash. You simply paint the model in flat base colours (although I highlight black with a lighter grey and I also ink metals with diluted black ink a little as well) then either brush the dip on, or dip the model in it. Choose lighter base colours than you think you need, as the dip does slightly darken everything. It's not as fluid as ink, so I brush it on. When it dries, it pools into the receses and leaves the raised areas largely clean, so instant shading. It is also fairly high-gloss and is in itself a gloss varnish, so one needs to matt the model down with Testor's Dullcote or similar (Army Painter do their own spray matt varnish...) I use the 'strong' tone (there are three and strong tone is the middle one). Being a brown colour it goes really well over reds, yellows, browns and white, but isn't great over some blues, although I have done a US cavalry test model with it and that turned out surprisingly well given all the blue on the uniform!! I'm not sure where the dip is available from in the USA, but Warlord Games stock it in the UK. I have heard some painters say that they get the same results for less money using woodstain, but I haven't tried that myself!!!!

@Svenn: The gaiters were lightly filed on one side (where the 'join' is) and then I just painted strips of colour to represent the puttees - not perfect, but looks good from a distance...I just couldn't resist the models and as there are so few REALLY good NW frontier/Afghan War Brits out there, I decided these were the chaps!! I do have some Castaway Arts Brits and Sikhs that are quite nice, plus Perry Highlanders, Bengal Lancers, and a Mountain gun and Foundry Sikhs and Goorkhas, so lots to paint! I'll probably do the Perry and Foundry 'properly' and the Castaway Arts with the dip, otherwise I'll be painting for the next 3 years on these, with all the Pathans I have sitting here to do as well (160 at last count!!)

And yes, I couldn't resist the Dad's Army bit with Sergeant Wilson!! 

[mortimer]

these pathans figures are great... !!!!! good work man

[guitarheroandy]

More pics of the Pathans showing the effect of the Army Painter dip in providing the shading - these 30 (ish)  Pathan figures took me about 3 weeks to paint, on and off some evenings whereas the two British models on the original post have taken me 2 weeks, albeit with less time spent per painting session...







A handful of the Pathans were painted 'properly' without the dip about 5 years ago...can you spot them amongst the rest? They don't stand out too much, do they?