Painting Warlord Pike & Shotte Epic Battles

-

Jings and crivens- another bonus post! (This isn't this week's normal Monday post, this week's normal post is scheduled for Wednesday, International Women's Day - could be a mahoosive clue to what it is is about there.) Having seen a number of 'how to paint...' tutorials on YouTube, and having painted just a few Wars of the Three Kingdoms/British Civil Wars/ English Civil War (delete as you see appropriate) I thought I'd have a crack.

Once again, I need to say thank you to Warlord for sending me a preview frame of the new range.

The examples that I have seen all utilise speed/contrast paints, and strange things such as zenithal priming. So here is a different style of painting to consider. Caveat: they look pretty rubbish until they are finished - some would say they still look rubbish even when finished. 

I freely admit not to being a brilliant painter, at best I'm average. My painting style is firmly planted in the following routine:

  • undercoat (if I remember)
  • carefully colour everything in
  • apply some specific washes (armour, flesh, blonde hair)
  • go back and fix all the errors I have noticed, or missed completely
  • heavy Nuln Oil wash
  • occasionally add a highlight
  • varnish
  • base
Proof that I can paint

Works for me, and looks alright I think. I don't claim to be 100% accurate, but I do try to utilise what historical evidence we do have with a bit of I want to create the right sort of feel. If you are wondering why I have picked the colour palette that I have see here.

 I've previously wondered how long it takes to paint a regiment of foot, which if you can't be bothered clicking on the link (and who could blame you)- it works out to just under eleven minutes a man from opening the packet to having a finished based figure ready to play with. Will Epic be faster or slower? I don't really want to paint up a full unit, so will just paint up a strip of musketeers and an armoured pike strip - then work out an average time per figure.


The style of the strips means that the use of a painting handle should make life easier, if not quicker as well. I'm going for a regiment that has had a coat issue, to help speed things up. Individual figures such as commanded shot and cavalry will still benefit from being fixed to tongue depressors.

Unfortunately I have currently run out of spray primer and varnish so brush on will have to suffice, this may add a little bit of time on, as will unfamiliarity with the figures (I can figuratively paint Peter Pig foot in my sleep I've painted so many of them).

Please note drying times not included.

Prep work.                    Time 7.27
Trim from sprue, clean any mould lines, wash and dry (to remove any mould release agent), fix to painting handle caps, prime white.

Flesh                              Time 3:45                                      Total 11:12
I paint all flesh with an old Coat d'Arms (henceforth Cd'A) flesh 213 which has thickened, been thinned, thickened and thinned many times - once dry I wash locally with Citadel Reikland fleshtone. A note on pikemen's hands - pikemen would almost certainly have worn gloves, so I will be painting them as wearing leather gloves.

Armour                           Time 6:15                                     Total 17:27
I am going to give some men blackened armour and some russeted armour - blackened is Foundry blackened barrel 105A (this benefits from heavy black stain - which will come at the end), russeted is Foundry bronze barrel 103A with a seraphim sepia wash. 

Told you that they would look awful didn't I?

As I have started using a number of different colours for the same process I have made my self post-it note codes to help me remember which colour I should be using - saves me having to flip them around to make sure that both sides match. With individual figures it is easier to see which figure is which. Not really needed if you are using one colour for everyone.


Breeches                           Time 6:33                                     Total 24:00
I usually pick three or four colours for breeches, unless we know what colour breeches were issued (e.g. Hertfordshire Trained Band Orange Regiment were issued grey breeches, in which case I might have just two shades). Today I have gone for Cd'A Russian brown 528; Foundry granite 31c, spearshaft 13b and drab 12c.

Coats                                Time 9:57                                     Total 33:57
Settled on a red coated regiment, so picked three shades: C'dA 237 russet red, and Foundry madder red shades 60a and 60b. That's the bulk of the labour intensive stuff out of the way, I expect the process to speed up considerably now.

Block colours                  Time 30:30                                   Total 1:04:27
A quick block of colours now - white; black; shoes (Humbrol 110 natural wood, Cd'A 519 chocolate brown); hair (Cd'A 219 chestnut brown and 233 linen); leather, wood and chargers (Cd'A 218 wood brown); snapsacks (Cd'A 240 unbleached wool); hats (Humbrol 110 natural wood, Cd'A 519 chocolate brown, Foundry granite 31c storm blue 39c and phlegm green 28b); weaponry woodwork (Cd'A 219 chestnut brown).

Tidy & metals                  Time 1:06:15                                    Total 2:10:42
A quick tidy up, and fill in the bits that I have missed, followed by musket and pike metalwork - don't forget to paint langets on your pikes (Foundry 35b metal), hatbands/cuffs and collars in white. I paint sword baskets and musket head rests in Vallejo glorious gold, purely to give a bit of bling (glorious gold is quite a dark gold, a bit more like brass than bright gold).

Wash and varnish            Time 16:10                                   Total 3:26:52 
My figures have all been washed with the old recipe Nuln Oil which stains everything as well as pooling in nooks and crannies, hence why some of my paint shade choices might be considered a bit bright. The odd bit of highlight added (mostly leatherwork). As with the primer, I have run out of spray varnish so that will have taken a bit longer. Final finishing touch is a satin varnish of any armour.


Conclusion
I'm not going to base these figures as I'm not going to be using them. 

I love painting but didn't really enjoy painting these, perhaps if I practised on a few thousand more I'd hopefully be a bit better (and maybe I'd change my mind).

There is a very definite skill to painting Epic strips, which I very clearly don't possess. A completely new painting experience for me, this didn't feel like painting normal, individual 3D figures; this was more akin to painting flats. Which requires a different mindset and approach. 

I can see quite a few errors - which no doubt will look much much worse magnified on a computer screen.  For those of you who have produced hundreds of Napoleonic Epic figures I tip my hat.

The crowded strip certainly speeds things up but I did spend a considerable amount of time trying to work out where things were and what they were, then having to go back and repaint stuff because I had either missed it completely or misidentified it. This is inevitable the first time you paint something new, particularly with smaller sized figures - if I was planning on painting a lot of Epic I'd basecoat one of each strip black then drybrush white; these would become my detail reference points. Of course those of you who get on with optivisors or magnifiers might find this a little easier. 


I don't think it helped by choosing to paint a red coated regiment (red and my choice of brown differentiation can be difficult before adding the black wash). With practice I could get a lot faster. I thought that the armoured figures would benefit from my lighter russet paint recipe - I was wrong, they definitely need the Agrax wash rather than the Seraphim one I gave them.

I know that this comparison is flawed: my un-based metal figures take about 9 minutes 45 seconds each, these work out to about 10 minutes 35 seconds per man. I imagine my first attempt at painting Peter Pig figures would have produced a much slower time than I can achieve now.

Curses! Just noticed the errant brown splodge up the third musketeers leg

For a first attempt they have fulfilled their brief - I now know where the detail is, how the figures work with the paint and washes (for example Peter Pig figures have much higher raised detail which works really well with a wash, these figures have shallower detail and wash results are much more subtle), and how to approach painting these figures.

Hopefully you will see this as something else to think about rather than the very in vogue contrast style paints.


If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.

Popular posts from this blog

Newark's Defences - a town under siege

-
Image
The ECWtravelogue has visited Newark many times. The King, Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Rupert all visited; it is home to the National Civil War Centre ; and is the location of possibly the best preserved Civil War earthwork - The Queen's Sconce . So why does it deserve another blog entry? In a word: Clampe's Plan ( but that's two! ). Clampe drew a plan of the Royalist defences of Newark and the Parliamentarian, and Scots siege lines. There's also another, slightly different, later version of the map: Buck's Map, which is held in the Royal Collection and can be viewed online here . The Queen's Sconce survived, did anything else? Clampe's Plan  I've seen photographs of other earthworks in Newark, but no locations for them. A little sleuthery comparing Nottingham's register of ancient monuments, and Historic England's records has resulted in an extensive list of sites. Unfortunately, the locations are so complex that they don't fit my normal
Read more

Trees

-
Image
It has been said of wargamers that they spend all their time painstakingly painting figures and then ignore the terrain. A trend that I feel is changing for the better with printed game mats and 'teddy bear fur'.   Today's post looks at trees: more specifically, Woodland Scenics deciduous Realistic Tree Kits. 2"-3" trees, light green foliage, PP and SF figures for comparison Warning: great trees, messy process. The trees come in several different sizes. Packaging varies, sample kits consisting of armatures and foliage are available, or alternatively elements can be bought separately. They all 'work' the same regardless of 'version'. 2"-3" on the left, 3"-5" on the right I've gone for the 2"-3" armatures and 3" - 5" armatures. Armatures are tree trunk brown plastic and look very uninspiring when you first encounter them., as they are 2 dimensional. But do not be put off, the 2D branches can be bent and the
Read more

Houses of Interest: West Yorkshire

-
Image
For more Yorkshire 'related stuff' you can find North Yorkshire here ,  South Yorkshire here ,   East Riding here . See also the Rupert Travelogue  entry for Yorkshire, and the entry for Adwalton Moor Oakwell Hall    was the inspiration for Charlotte Brontë's Fieldhead in "Shirley". More recently it has been used a number of times as a film set, including "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". Located close to the M62 and the Leeds branch of purgatory on Earth (aka Ikea), this Tudor manor house is beautifully maintained by Kirklees Borough Council. The hall is presented as a seventeenth century home. I really like this approach, as so often historic houses have different rooms decorated for different eras, so it is really nice to see a house presented from one era in it's entirety. Oakwell was in the ownership of the Batt family, who supported the King; John Batt was a captain and most probably fought at Adwalton Moor. The retreating Parli
Read more

My Kingdom For A Horse (1991)

-
Image
Civil War films are, to say the least, thin on the ground. So, forgive me for scraping the bottom of the barrel. My Kingdom For A Horse was a BBC made for TV play written by John Godber. The protagonist, 31 year old, still living with his parents, history teacher Steve is played by Sean Bean.  Steve and his best friend Pud, are pikemen in the Sealed Knot. Unfortunately for Steve, his head of department is also a member of the Sealed Knot, even more unfortunately he's the 'muster master general'. With the backdrop of the Sealed Knot, Airfix 54mm ECW miniatures, and frequent references to Marston Moor, Cromwell, and the New Model Army, the dour Steve plods through life in a dilapidated Yorkshire secondary school. No spoilers, but everyone who has ever taught in a secondary school will do an internal cheer when Steve has a showdown with the school bully. There's some seriously big hair, floppy fringes, brown suits, a school held up by ACRO props (nothing changed there then
Read more

Comments. Again (!)

-
Image
Sorry regular readers, once again comments and the contact form have temporarily been turned off. Why? Someone on Twitter has got their knickers in a twist about an information panel at Newark Castle.  Why has she done that? Because the information board features an image of a man of African descent.  The man pictured is an actor, portraying a man called John Americanus, who fought for the King at Newark. John's role in the defence of Newark is well documented. And yes, John was of African descent. The National Civil War Centre created a Civil War Trail around the town, information panels are located at points of interest. These panels feature QR codes which accessed features on a now defunct smartphone app. Each location also featured an eye witness account - stories from real people who witnessed the events in Newark. Each information panel has a photographic representation of the person whose story was told in the app. The Castle's eyewitness account was John Americanus. Unf
Read more

Houses of Interest: Staffordshire

-
Image
The  ECW Travelogue turns its attention on Staffordshire. For some reason, rather than starting the entry at the bit of Staffs that is 'next door' to  Château KeepYourPowderDry I started with the corner of Staffs that was furthest away. The first entries look at the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. Of course any post about Staffordshire requires, by law, pictures of Staffordshire slipware - this one by Thomas Toft; Potteries Museum, Hanley First up is Moseley Old Hall  on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, and is cared for by the National Trust. Moseley bills itself as "the home that saved a king" - considering the number of close calls that Charles had during his escape, this isn't really the unique selling point that you might expect it to be. I do wonder how many other houses, along the Monarch's Way could also make that claim? Built about 1600, the National Trust have recreated a seventeenth century garden on the estate. A rather s
Read more

Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

-
Image
Continuing my therapeutic blogging (write rather than rant) antidote to incorrect English Civil War coat colour tables for wargamers, I give you the Royalist Regiments of Foot. For all of my coat colour articles see: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Part 4  Dragoons, Horse and the New Model Army coat colours The Trained Bands London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   Same rules apply here, as they did with the Parliamentarian coat colours: Regiments often got renamed when command passed to a new colonel - these regiments are listed under their first name e.g. Jacob Astley's Regiment was originally Richard Fielding's Regiment. Coat colour notes refer to contemporaneous references and some of the deductions made by Reid, Spring,  Peachey and Prince. You will also notice that some regiments have several coat colours listed. Where there is some question around a coat colour I have t
Read more

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Pa
Read more

Lurkio ECW Range

-
Image
Always on the look out for new toys, I spotted Lurkio have started releasing their new ECW range after a bit of a hiatus. Thank you to Lurkio for kindly sending me some figures for review. My favourite figure from the samples I was sent, not quite sure what has happened to his face though I'll be very straight here, these might not be to everybody's taste. Why? They are headless (yay!) and the pikemen are open handed (double yay!). Whilst that makes me very happy, I know that many baulk at the idea of having to assemble teeny bits on figures, and see any assembly on anything smaller than 28mm figures a complete no-no.  The return of the scale-o-matic, horizontal lines are at 5mm spacing For those of you new to this 'sticking things together' game it isn't a problem, in fact it is pretty straightforward*. I find putting a big blob of superglue onto a palette, then use a cocktail stick as a glue spreader, the best way to get superglue into the precise area that you wa
Read more

Pikes

-
Image
I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike".  I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike". Oh damn! Pikemen figures come in two varieties, with cast on pikes, and open handed. Having previously owned 6mm ECW pikemen armed with pikes which quickly turn to overcooked spaghetti, I went the open handed pikemen route.  For those of you who choose this path, open handed pikemen raises two questions: how long should a pike be?, and where can I buy pikes from?  All this gives me an excuse to have a closer look at the 'queen of weapons'. How long should a pike be? You'd think that this question would be fairly easy to answer, it is in fact more than a little problematical. Pikes were between 15' and 18' in length, which should be quite easy to scale down, or so you would think. Sir James Turner  (Pallas Armata p.176) and General Monck (Observations p.26) both stated that the proper length for a pike should be 18'.The 1639 Direction
Read more