brush strokes 15mm phalanx

8/12/2019 Brush Strokes 15mm Phalanx

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Workshop)

Flesh

Base Colour Tanned Flesh (Games

Workshop)

Highlight Elf Flesh (Games Workshop)

Straps

Base colour Bubonic Brown (Games

Workshop)

Highlight Iraqui Sand (Vallejo Model

Colour)

Shield & Banner Details

Black (Vallejo Model Colour)

STARTING POINT

I cleaned up and assembled the figures, which

in the case of these wonderful Xyston sculpts,

meant as little as drilling the hands out for the

pikes. They are wonderful figures and a joy to

paint. I put the unit together as six 40x40mm

squares with six figures to a base.

This would assemble into a typical Warmaster

unit but still be customisable depending on

our needs. I can work with all the figures

glued to a base but I know quite a few people

prefer to stick the figures down afterwards.

I used Games Workshop black primer as the

undercoat.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE SYSTEM

To get through 36 figures quickly involves

developing a system. I suggest you do not try

and paint all 36 figs in one go. I split them

into two groups and finished one group before

moving onto the other half. I painted all of

one colour on the figures before moving onto

the next colour. I painted all the base colours

before moving onto the highlights. The last

areas I painted on the figures were the pikes

and trousers.

I started by painting the sleeves, skirts and

head-dresses in the Flat Brown and then I

painted the linen armour in Medium Sea Grey.

The skin was painted in Tanned Flesh and the

shields and helmet details in Brazen Brass.

The straps holding the shield and scabbard

were painted in Bubonic Brown.

At this stage if you were so inclined you could

stop and base the figures up and be proud of

a nice clean, if a bit drab, looking unit. Using

the list of colours at the start of the article I

then went over and highlighted all the surfaces

with the corresponding colour.

(Left to right) A 40x40mm base finished and

a base just basecoated.

HIGHLIGHTING

Now for something as simple as a two stage

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The red is added and suddenly the wholefigure becomes much brighter. You can

paint the folds into the cloth that makes

up their skirts and sleeves but it is much

easier to paint a line around the hem of the

cloth whilst leaving a thin stripe of the base

colour around the joins to the armour.

Almost impossible to spot but the metal has

been highlighted. It is now a much richer

bronze colour. The detail work on the helmets

was as simple as a dot of paint on each of the

face guards and a line around the helmet rim.

The shields however were painted entirely

with Dwarf Bronze. The reason I painted the

Brazen Brass first was because the bronze

colour would not cover very well over black.

Finally the flesh and straps have been

highlighted. The straps holding the shield

and scabbard we highlighted with a single

line of the highlight colour, nothing fancy

just one stripe of colour. The flesh was a

little more complicated but when broken

down into shapes, becomes much easier. Forinstance on the face the nose was one dot of

paint, each cheek was another dot and the

top lip, bottom lip and chin were all a single

line of colour each.

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(Left to right) A varnished and unvarnished base of figures, the most obvious difference

is the glare off the shields.

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brush strokes 15mm phalanx

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