This week I finished off the first of the artillery bases for the British. I do like the uniforms for the British artillery crew - very smart looking (and hopefully no glaring painting errors on my part...)
I was tempted to go with the a light grey for the timbers, or even the light blue-grey that you often see people use, but settled on a mid grey in the end, with just a hint of blue to it. For the guns themselves I used Foundry's 'Bronze Barrel' B and C, with a watered down wash in between of Nuln Oil. Those metallics are now my favourite for painting cannons.
I'll add more foot artillery in time, and I have some horse artillery waiting in the painting queue, but I think I'll switch over to painting more infantry next. And of course I need to get a game in at some point!
always a delight to see your brushwork. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm!
DeleteGosh, they are lovely! Always good to see you work:).
ReplyDeleteCheers Steve - thanks for the kind words.
DeleteVery nice- the combination of blue, yellow, red, white and grey always looks good.
ReplyDeleteUsing an original recipe, Dr Summerfield made a modern equivalent of the paint used for British Napoleonic gun carriages and matched it to Humbrol 106. That’s a mid grey and pretty close to yours.
Thanks. I remember reading an excellent blog post by someone who talked about some of that work by Summerfield. It's good to know my choice of grey is a good match!
DeleteLovely work very smart, artillery units always look impressive!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony. Even though they're fairly straightforward to do, artillery units are often my least favourite to paint - or at least I don't especially enjoy painting cannons for some reason. This lot was more enjoyable than usual though!
DeleteSuperb painting. Any chance you could give us some insight into how you paint your Newline figures?
ReplyDeleteThanks very much, Alex. I’ve been meaning to do a post about it for quite some time, so this gives me a nudge. I’m working on a unit of Highland light infantry at the moment, so I’ll use one of those figures as the demo. I’ll put together the stages in a post soon. But to summarise, here’s are the main steps:
Delete1. Undercoat. For a long time I used a black undercoat but now I use a light colour, either some sort of off-white or a buff, light brown etc. The exact colour doesn’t matter so long as it’s fairly light.
2. Ink wash. Over the basecoat I put a wash of black ink (eg.the one by Vallejo). Recently, I’ve been using Citadel’s black contrast paint, which also works quite well. When the black wash dries, the details on the figure nicely defined, which also helps me see what to paint!
3. Base coats. This is usually the most time-consuming step. I work through all the base colours carefully applying them to each area. I try to leave the black edge of the undercoat between most of the different colours. The base colours are normally a darker version of what the final colour will look like.
4. Washes. I use washes on certain areas of the figures. For example, the face and hands will get a wash of Citadel ‘Reikland Fleshshade’, or I might use a watered down wash of Citadel’s ‘Nuln Oil’ over any dark blue uniforms. Not all areas need a wash.
5. Layered highlights. At this point the figure usually looks pretty dull, but the next two stages will bring it to life. First I work on layered highlights, which is basically just using a lighter version of each of base colours. For British line infantry trousers, for example, I’ll paint a mid grey over the dark grey basecoat. I often just stop at one layered highlight, but for command figures or elite units - or if I'm in the mood to spend longer on the unit - I might add a second highlight. British line infantry often get a second highlight over the red areas to help bring up the colour brightness.
6. White and off-white uniform parts. I usually leave any white belts, plumes, equipment etc until after the base coats and layered highlights are done, but sometimes I’ll do them before the layered highlights. It doesn’t really matter either way. I quite often just use one layer of white or off-white, without any highlights, but if I feel like spending more time on the figures I’ll use a light grey followed by white or off-white, just to give that extra bit of depth.
7. Details. At this point I’ll work on any uniform details like piping, dicing etc.
8. Metallic areas. Lastly I’ll paint any metal areas of the model: shako badges, bayonets, buttons and so on. Most will just get one application of the relevant metallic paint, but some will get a highlight layer like the bayonets.
And that’s usually about it! Nothing terribly original probably, but it's what generally works for me. The whole process can sometimes vary a bit from unit to unit, and my technique has evolved over time, and will probably continue to evolve, but I hope that quick summary helps. As I say I will do a couple of posts about it, with some step-by-step photos if that might be of interest to folks.
Cheers, Kevin
Thanks for that guide. I have gone to lighter primers as well.
ReplyDelete