Progress worthy of the subject

I have to observe that I haven’t enjoyed painting horses this much before. A combination of lovely, spirited mouldings, and varied coats for the animals, has proven involving.

I did a bit of research about pinto markings, including a fruitful enquiry over at The Miniatures Page (here).The tricky part was finding references for both sides of the animal.

As I mentioned below, I base coated the riders’ skin with matt ochre, hoping that it would give the right tone when washed with flesh. I’m pleased with the appearance so far; shading with The Army Painter strong tone ink, followed by a couple of coats of Duillcote laquer should finish them off nicely.
 

Work in progress: Victrix Numidian cavalry mounts.

Work in progress: Victrix Numidian cavalry riders.

Work in progress: Liquitex gesso primed shields.

On the ‘bench’ …

With the completion of the Balaeres and the pack mules my work ‘bench’ is quite sparsely populated. I plan to finish this unit before beginning any others.

However … a delivery from Warlord Games has me keen to begin a couple of sculpting projects: pack camels based on a couple of EBob miniatures (which, you may remember, match Warlord Games’ dromedary sculpts … indeed, they were probably the basis for Warlord’s miniatures); and cloaks for my Praetorian guardsmen.

I am looking forward to seeing what I can achieve with these.

Work in progress: Titus Antonius Secundus’ centuria have the polystyrene workbench all to themselves.

Pleasantly surprised

I am always surprised at how the shading and varnishing improves the quality of the finish beyond my expectations.

I tend to be permanently disappointed by my painting – which I imagine to be an average gaming standard – so it can be a bit of a trial. Take my latest centuria: for ages these figures languished and every time I looked at them I didn’t feel like doing anything further … but here they are, shaded with The Army Painter’s Strong Tone ink and varnished with the amazing Testors Dullcote … suddenly they begin to look the part. And it is always so …

Work in progress: Quintus Flavius Cerialis’centuria based and ready for finishing. These fellows are the first to be clad in red tunicae. I armed them entirely with pila. The centurio and optio are Wargames Foundry figures. I have a small stock of these (no two the same) which gives each centuria a slightly different character.

Let’s hear it for Testors Dullcote … the finish is flatter than a very flat flat thing …

Three pieces near completion

Firstly, I have to say how much I like The Army Painter’s Strong Tone ink. With the demise of Citadel’s Devlan Mud I was worrying about a substitute which would give an effortless match to the shading I had done so far.

One of the things I loved about Devlan Mud was the way it ‘bronzed’ my gunmetal with aluminium dry brush armour. I had read that the Strong Tone dip worked well with bright colours – toning them down. I have to report that I found the application of Strong Tone ink to be easier than Devlan Mud – I just brushed it on quite liberally, and it seemed to pool perfectly. I am delighted with the finish: dark enough, tones down the colours nicely, and bronzes the armour just how I like it.

Let’s hear it for The Army Painter’s Strong Tone ink.

Work in progress: Another centuria nears completion … the first to be shaded with Strong Tone ink … all I had to do was touch up the flesh here and there (I tend not to do highlighting).

Work in progress: Auxilia command and ox cart. The ox cart is now laden. The base needs a little more attention (around the rear wheels), dry brushing (okay, so I do highlight my bases) and application of a few tufts. Then I will wrap the scale rope and varnish the cart.