Thaumaturge Warband (Man-at-Arms - Quickshade Soft Tone)

[Philhelm]

I agree with the other posters, that sunburst punch was a brilliant idea!  I don't always like the way dip figures turn out, but yours looks really nice!  Did you actually "dip" it in the can, or did you brush it on?  From what I've seen, the second method seems to generally give better results but whatever you are doing is certainly working.   

Thanks (to everyone) for the praise regarding the sun symbol.  I was really hell-bent on sticking with what we know of the Frostgrave setting, and the blurb about Thaumaturges stated that they usually use a sun or triangle symbol.  I've always liked Pelor and Lathander in D&D, so sun it was.  I had looked for decals, or even metallic sun confetti (plenty of moons and stars...), but to no avail.  Even sun craft punches seemed rare, and I couldn't find one in Hobby Lobby or Michaels.  I finally found the above-referenced craft punch in the right size; some of them don't always show the actual size which makes searching difficult.

Regarding the "dip," I used Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone (medium/dark brown), and painted it on the figure directly.  Sometimes I will dip the top third of the figure and then brush it around, but I have never used the literal "dip method."  The problem is that you need to work quickly; while the dip will flow well at first, it quickly becomes gummy, so I apply a liberal dose of dip to the model.  I will also use the brush to dab at areas that have too much dip (especially at the ankles, where it tends to pool), or to wipe away from the flat surfaces of certain colors, like white and yellow.  Tonight I will post a picture of another test model in which I used the Quickshade Dark Tone (black).

[jp1885]

The punch is a great idea - nice paintwork too!

[skip]

with the dip method you can use thinners or methalated spirits to thin down the paint to have more control if it becomes too thick or pool too much

brian

[Philhelm]

with the dip method you can use thinners or methalated spirits to thin down the paint to have more control if it becomes too thick or pool too much

brian

I have some (I forget what it's called - mineral spirits?), but was concerned that applying it directly to the model would simply mess up the dip.  Can I just brush it onto the figure and spread the thinned dip around?

[skip]

hi, what i do is brush on the army painter all over the model and then dip the brush(or you can use a seperate brush) in the spirit, we call it white spirit in Ireland, this will thin the paint, you can also use the seperate brush with thinner on it to dab away pooled areas of army painter, hope this helps
this will give you more control on where the dip should be, when matt varnished after you can highlight areas where it
is too drab looking if you like

brian

[tyrionhalfman]

Nicely painted, and good find with the craft punch. Thanks for sharing

[Philhelm]

Unfortunately no updates, although I have painted a few more test models with the dip method.  I wasn't quite satisfied and considered going back to painting them regularly especially after seeing Koyote's thread with his bold, clean brushwork.  The problem is that there just isn't enough time in the world; my wife works late, I have two young children, and a puppy.  At some point I just have to concede defeat and get some models on the table.

Perhaps a compromise would work.  I have now considered block painting the models like before, but with black lining.  I think that would make the individual parts of the model stand out better after the dip has been applied (which tends to "blend" colors).  Has anyone tried that method?

[Jockjay]

Cool stuff mate!

[Old Mr. Scratch]

I love the colors you have chosen for your warband. I can't wait to see the guy with the sun shield painted up. Thanks for sharing about all the punch symbols on ebay.

[Hammers]

It took a lot of searching, but I managed to find and order a sun-shaped craft punch (the difficulty was finding one with an appropriate size), which I used on a piece of thin styrene and glued it to the man-at-arm's shield.  This is the symbol I will use for the other soldiers' shields.

Excellent for making GoT House Karstark shields.

[Philhelm]

I love the colors you have chosen for your warband. I can't wait to see the guy with the sun shield painted up. Thanks for sharing about all the punch symbols on ebay.

Thanks for the encouragements.  I'm starting to feel pressured to not go with the dip method.  Oh, cruel Time, how you elude me so!

Eventually, the shield will be white and the sunburst yellow, although I was pondering a halved gray and white design for the shield (maybe just for the knights?).

[area23]

Very nice. I got a snow-flake craft punch last christmas, same size I think and for  the same reason. I was planning to use it for both shields and decoration on ruins. Not sure were to find thin styrene though. Probably looks much better than card.

[Philhelm]

Very nice. I got a snow-flake craft punch last christmas, same size I think and for  the same reason. I was planning to use it for both shields and decoration on ruins. Not sure were to find thin styrene though. Probably looks much better than card.

I got the thin styrene at a train/hobby shop.  They had all kinds, of varying thicknesses.  I was worried that maybe the craft punch wouldn't deliver a clean cut, but it worked perfectly.  It would probably dull after awhile, but I don't need that many suns to begin with.

[Philhelm]

This is thread thaumaturgy, as I haven't provided any updates in quite some time.  This one is a combination of black lining and quickshade.  Since the quickshade stains the miniature all with one color, some of the color variance gets subdued, so I think that black lining will help with that.





I previously painted the one below, minus the black lining and using the darkest quickshade.  I'm thinking that the blue-gray might be better to provide a bit more color to the models (I'd probably use the medium quickshade instead though, as with the others).  Thoughts?

[Smith]

Excellent for making GoT House Karstark shields.

That was my first thought as well. Great approach to shield emblems!