Argonor's Kings of War plans - Project on stand-by

[Mad Doc Morris]

If time is limited, better take smaller steps. Amassed miniatures can be quite intimidating to look at, in every single stage from preparing to painted battlefield formation. You'll stay motivated much easier by painting up a few for a start and proceed at your own pace. At least in my experience, if you're not used to going for numbers, you easily block yourself.
Up to now your project sounds more like work to be done than a hobby to be enjoyed. Anyway, as a wise man said: 'I'd like to wish you happy painting...'

[Commander Vyper]

Sounds like one of those epic plans my friend.

Best thing to suggest re: staying on target is little and often, get a nice block of minis build and undercoated. Then keep a little modelling space, ONLY with a few units and the paints you need to complete them.

I find I need to do that otherwise I get distract.....

Oh look shiney shiney!!!

(Doesn't always work but there you go! ).

The Commander

[Argonor]

Yeah, but this is a project I can actually work on in small steps and still see some progress - all the while my weekends are totally booked up by the work on the new house/moving stuff - and at the same time it's easy to shove the whole bunch of plastics aside when the table space is needed for other purposes.

I am not going to paint a full unit of 20 in one go, but I always prime batches of about 20 minis, as it reduces waste of spray paint not to have to empty the nozzle quite as many times (and the overall time used for priming). I'll probably start out with one test mini, then do batches of 4-5.

If I weren't doing this, I would be doing nothing at all for the next couple of months, hobby-wise, while being in the process of re-decorating new house, moving and settling in, and fixing the current rented house. And, at the same time it reduces my back-log.

And, btw - trimming models, and painting blocks of minis is always more a chore than a pleasure - I'm really only painting minis to have something to play with, and could never afford to have someone else do it for me. I'm a gamer, not a painter. But I don't like to play with unicoloured lumps of metal or plastic.

Got stuck helping my daughter playing Disney Princess Adventure on PS (had to translate the tasks for her), but got another big pile of bases done.

[Commander Vyper]

Excellent.

[Argonor]

11 spearmen trimmed and glued onto bases. 9 remains - and I have to fill the remaining gaps in the slot on all 20 when I get that far.

Will do a couple more, now....

Edit.: 14 Spearmen ready - will post pic of unit as soon as all 20 are ready.

[Argonor]

19 done.... tomorrow I'll get the last one trimmed, and then fill the gaps in the bases. Pic of 20 grey elves to follow.

If the weather behaves and if I can find my white primer), I'll have them primed Monday evening.

May have to visit the nearest games store after work Monday to get some primer....

Plan is to start trimming the archers, 1 each day while I'm painting the spearmen - that way I'll have a head start on the archer unit instead of starting from nil when the spearmen are finished.

And I just remembered that I have a Teclis and a Prince Imrahil + one more HE mage in blisters somewhere. My classic Dragon Masters set and my Great Imperial Dragon might come in handy as well.... the latter is missing its ears; I may have to sculpt some new ones if they do not turn up 

[Argonor]

Here comes a couple of pics of the full spearman unit (with a couple of skirmishers added):





It's pouring down outside, so I won't be able to prime the unit today. Hopefully soon....


EDIT:
And, before someone asks: Yes, they are on round bases, and no, it's not an error 

[Argonor]

Hmm... it's the first version of Prince Tyrion, I have, not Imrahil... (yes, have him too, but he is a LotR mini...)

The weather finally let me prime the Spearmen unit Thursday evening after rainstorms and gales all week, and I managed to get a few more Archers trimmed while waiting for that to happen..

I shall start painting my Spearman test figure later today. First I have to go look at a replacement stove for the new house, then I have to pull out about a million small nails from the wooden floors, so we gan get them grinded down to a nice surface.

I should be able to post up a picture or two of the test model for comments/suggestions either today or tomorrow.

[Argonor]

Real life prevented me from following my plan for the test mini.

I managed to paint silver on 10 elves, then Asurmen Blue wash on the scale mail and the cloth.

I then decided to move my workstation to the new house - which might a be a mistake, as after that, I really only have been able to work ½ hour on the test mini last Sunday:

I painted gloves and boots leather, then gave them a Devlan Mud wash, and gave helmet, plate armour, and spear tip a wash with classic Citadel Black Ink, then painted some bits Dwarven Bronze (OOP Citadel colour?) and gave them a chestnut wash.

Given the results so far, I think I'll be better off doing the helmet/plate stuff with a basecoat of Bolt Gun Metal + Black, then build up with chainmail and silver. Won't take much more time, and will give a better result.

Likewise for the 'gold' parts, I think layering will be almost as quick as basecoating-wash-drybrush-highlight... I may even be able to skip a step (basecoat-main-highlight).

We move this upcoming weekend, so I'll probably be able to do some hobbying during next week.

As soon as I have a finished test figure, I'll post pics. Really...

[Argonor]

Hmmm... no pics, yet, as the phone company seems to be stuck in Victorian times.

I ordered the line moved a month ago, and as I did not get any confirmation, yet, I called them up - and after a few failed calls (it's a phone company, go figure...), I finally got the message, that they'll probably not get around to doing before OCTOBER 22ND!!!

I have been painting a bit since last post, and I've come to realize that I have completely forgotten how to paint gold 

So now I've basecoated areas that are to be gold-coloured 6 different ways on 6 different models to check what works best... 

[abhorsen950]

Very nice, I'm following this thread closely, keep it up!!

[Argonor]

Alas, the whole moving business is still not leaving me much space for progress. This evening I have to go get the old dsl-box and my computer at the old place, as the phone company suddenly decided they can move our line tomorrow... between 7:30 and 16:00. I may even get some work done while waiting for the phone-guy... 

[Argonor]

Of course the phone guy arrived early in the morning, and ever since I have only been able to do very little brushwork Friday evening.

Good news is, I am now online from home, too, and as the former owner of our house actually emptied the garage Friday evening, I have now been able to unload some cardboard boxes from the study an onto some steel 'bookshelves' (not really, but I lack a better word) in the back room of the garage, so as to recreate easy access to my painting desk 

We also got the last stuff moved from the old place over the weekend, so we can start painting next Saturday.

I have promised myself to do hobby work at least 1 hour each evening from now on, and this time there shouldn't be anything to prevent it.

I shall also take a pic of my gold experiments so far, and maybe some of my new den, and the garage/workshop/storage room/attic

[Argonor]

So here are two quick shots of the not-very-fantastic progress I've made so far, this row of minis primarily to show my ongoing gold experiment (REMEMBER: I know exactly what I want to do for the next stages, as soon as I have the shading/basecoat nailed - this is not intended to be finished gold):





I think the gold thus far is, in order of appearance:

• Shining Gold with a chestnut(?) wash, then Shining Gold
• Beaten Copper, then Shining Gold
• Dwarf Bronze, then Shining Gold
• Pure Shining Gold - won't work for sure, will try a wash on that....
• A mix of Scorched bown/Dark Flesh, then Shining Gold
• Tin Bitz, then Shining Gold

I tend to think that the darker basecoats (to the right) work better than the lighter ones.

Mrdee, who painted a wonderful succubus here: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=22757.30, uses some washes with the Vallejo equivalent of Tin Bitz to tone down the basecoat of VGC-equivalent to Burnished Gold... might be worth to try skipping the Shining Gold and go straight to Burnished...



What do you guys think on this subject, please?



And this is a WIP shot of my little corner of the world. The old desk is a mess right now - I plan to buy a large bottle rack from Miniaturicum to place in the far left corner of the desk (EDIT: That's the far corner nearest the beholder, actually), and then put little shelves just big enough for paint bottles all over the wall above the desk (been wanting such an arrangement ever since the Prof. showed his painting station in his old home!).

I need to find another way to mount the black lamp, and I also need to repo my 3rd light source that seems to have been pressed into service as nightlight for my oldest daughter  

[Ray Rivers]

My personal technique for painting highlighted gold is to go with bronze first.  Though the copper and gold looks nice as well.

It's a personal thing though, so go with what you like.