I have a batch of late medieval figs coming and am wondering how to paint them. My normal period os ww1 and ww2 so I'm venturing into something new. I have peasants, retinue billmen, shire billmen, crossbow, hobalers, and 14th cent. Knights. I want them to look late 13th early 14th cent. Any ideas? And suggestions. And how do you make the armour specially the chainmail look good?
Steel or gunmetal, black wash over the top.
as above.
to go that bit extra dry brush again after the wash and pick out some of the raised detail
you can't really go wrong with chainmail - it does get a bit tedious though (he says looking at rank after rank of Norman knights that need painting :()
I do chain mail the other way round - paint black then dry brush over with a metallic colour. My current favourite is Vallejo Oily Steel - I will occasionally add a very light dry brush of a bright silver.
The dry brushing method is super fast - and you don't even need to be neat if you do it first as the silver will give a bit of a highlight to the other areas of the figure.
I'd never highlight 6mm. I just used a gunmetal mix for mail. I think the key point is NOT to make it bright and shiny. Check out a few mailshirts in a museum; they're not made of mithril in the real world.
Or alternatively, paint the armour black and then gently scrape off with a scalpel, leaving the black embedded in the depressions. Nothing looks more like metal than bare metal! Gloss varnish to make it gleam.
Or...simply wash the bare metal. Only works on fully armoured types with little kit. I did this with men at arms on foot by Peter Pig in 15mm. The straps etc were painted in browns etcm then washed the whole lot. Looked pretty good.
Sean
There's no such thing as chainmail. The only thing I can think you might mean is mail, in which case black base, dry brush metalic.
Quote from: Last Hussar on 09 March 2013, 12:34:09 AM
There's no such thing as chainmail. The only thing I can think you might mean is mail....
Well said, that man!
Quote from: Last Hussar on 09 March 2013, 12:34:09 AM
There's no such thing as chainmail. The only thing I can think you might mean is mail, in which case black base, dry brush metalic.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 09 March 2013, 02:04:15 AM
Well said, that man!
(http://www.tshirtroundup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/grammar-police-fishbiscuit.gif)
:d
Black-mail or well-read mail? :D
Maybe they meant chain letters which wouldn't really be much help in combat
True or false: the US letter deliverer is known as a mailman because the official who first did the job in the 1680s used to wear a mailshirt as protection against archery by aboriginal east coast inhabitants disgruntled that their thanksgiving cards had arrived late.
Replies to: alasdaircook@gmail.com
Quote from: Last Hussar on 09 March 2013, 12:34:09 AM
There's no such thing as chainmail. The only thing I can think you might mean is mail, in which case black base, dry brush metalic.
Whatever the armour worn in medieval times that was made from interlocking rings is called. How do you paint miniatures that are sculpded wearing it?
Thank you to those that have share their methods.
I tend to spray my figures grey . I would paint on natural steel by Vajello then wash in a watered down brown or W&N nut brown ( I also wash this over the entire figure) when painting some C***nmail I might lightly drybrush with the same colour on he shoulders and or coif if needed
Quote from: FierceKitty on 09 March 2013, 12:06:29 PM
True or false: the US letter deliverer is known as a mailman because the official who first did the job in the 1680s used to wear a mailshirt as protection against archery by aboriginal east coast inhabitants disgruntled that their thanksgiving cards had arrived late.
Replies to: alasdaircook@gmail.com
Mail isn't actually a great deal of use against arrows. Too much air between the rings. Works better against blades but not as good against either as plate. They lost more china that way.... :d
I wash the bare metal with brown and near black inks.
Dry Dallimore style surprisingly works well, black undercoat, dark grey, light grey over higher bits and if u want to be finicky a spot of white or 2.
So, what happened to plate mail then. Anyway, enough of oneupmanship I know more than you wargame bores. Here's what I do and it's dead simple. Paint them silver then paint over with Tamiya X-19 Smoke. This dulls the silver down, darkens the hollows and remains shiny. Works well on mail and plate and is really all you need at this scale (unless of course you want to enter them for the painting competition). I prefer to varnish my figures by brush, so I just leave these areas when using matt.
For iron armour I use gun-metal enamel, allow to dry for at least 24hrs, then polish with a soft toothbrush or thumb. Done before painting other items, as it smudges. I haven't tried this on 6mm.
Druzhina
Illustrations of Soldiers (http://warfare.co.nf/index.htm)
An old friend of mine preferred silver with a black wash.
Chad
Quote from: Hertsblue on 09 March 2013, 05:32:47 PM
Mail isn't actually a great deal of use against arrows. Too much air between the rings. Works better against blades but not as good against either as plate. They lost more china that way.... :d
Do remember the frequent Crusader practice of wearing doubled mail, of course.
I use vallejo natural steel with a either a very watered down AP strong tone ink or a watered down W&N nut brown ink
Quote from: FierceKitty on 14 March 2014, 12:26:55 PM
Do remember the frequent Crusader practice of wearing doubled mail, of course.
I take it there's no record of Crusader losses to heat exhaustion? :d
Just a bit sarcastic there Ray.
It's why they adopted the surcoat.
IanS
Anglo saxon method, for the rich
Silk undershirt, leather, mail over the top. The silk helps get the arrows out.
The Mongols used the same trick with silk, as I have heard did duelists to help extract pistol bullets.
As for heatstroke, I recall that the only Hospitaller casualties in the final battle against the Ottomans on Malta were from heatstroke, though those were were plate, not mail, I suppose, and so must have been baked all the more.
Black undercoat, heavy dry brush Vallejo Natural Steel for a more natural finish although Silver also works well because you need bright colours to make 6mm look good. Sometimes going with the 'right' colours means they look drab and dull. It doesn't matter where it goes if you do it first as you can then just block in or dab on the other colours. I am talking about the blocks here rather than the individual figures.