Elouchard Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 I got on a roll painting some old Grenadier and Heritage sets a couple of months ago. They are challenging to paint in my usual wash style, since that style depends on letting the sculpt detail "shine" through the paint and do most of the work. The figures are a bit rough in terms of detail, although charming in their own way, but do not really help the painting task. Still, with rough details comes a chance to improvise. The Grenadier figures are hit an miss with details, but they still turned out well, and were very fun to do. Most took between about 45 minutes each to finish. They were all primed using black first, then desert yellow (sand color) next as a mid-zenith prime coming down from above and to about 45 degrees. The last priming spray was white from directly above and down to about and 60 degrees at most. Painting was done with lots of inks and glazes, then opaque Reaper paint for highlights. Here is how a set of the primed figures look. First up is a group of Grenadier Fighting Men from the boxed set Then some Grenadier Hirelings Crew, including my favorite, the two guys carrying the chest. Then finally a set of Heritage figures from the dawn of time, as a commission. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixminis Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Wow on the Heritage! I say this because I own a few of those and the copies I have are a bit "unspecific". That is, you did good paintjobs that improve them beyond their sculpting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuaslater Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Those take me back!!! frothy paintwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Excellent paintwork on this set! They really make an impact all together like that, and your work really brings out their old school charm. I especially like the dude with the torch, the lady caster, and the hobbit. This is really fantastic!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inarah Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 beautifully done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Bedlam Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Splendidly done! I had quite a few of these figures, back in the day, including the halfling torch bearer. Found one at Reapercon on the metal adoption table; he's on my priming bench now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elouchard Posted June 29, 2011 Author Share Posted June 29, 2011 I still have more of these guys to paint. Here is a halfling box set all primed and ready. I just need to decide if that is the next thing to paint or to finish something else. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72moonglum Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 I'm voting for halflings! This box was the first set of miniatures I ever bought (or more correctly should say my parents bought for me in the eighties when I was but a whippersnapper). I love what you've done with all these Heritage and Grenadier figures. I saw the hirelings and fighters on coolmini.com and was abolutely blown away, and I'm very glad you put them out on the Reaper site so I can get a better look at them in a larger photo. So with your technique are you priming it then dark to light and then just putting a light, semi-transparent coat of color over them in addition to highlights? When you said each miniature took only about 45 minutes I was shocked, amazed and impressed, as they have come out so well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Bedlam Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 I'd cheerfully shoot someone to have the old boxed sets of my youth back. I had two of those minis -- the halfling with dagger, and the two stacked halflings. Still have the stacked ones. Stripped and repainted time and time again over the years... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez5767 Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 It's like seeing my childhood on the web. VERY COOL. I had 4-5 of these boxes that moved around with me for years. Sadly, they ended up in a dumpster about 10 years ago. Aw, the memories. Can't wait to see more, PLEASE keep posting! -Pez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimL Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Awesome given time spent and beautiful results. Could you give more detail on your process? Do the halflings next, I still have this set or most of it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 These are AWESOME!!!!Fantastic work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruunwald Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Yay! Halflings! That box was what got me started playing D&D. Somebody gave it to my parents, and I quickly adopted it. For some reason, it had an early Ral Partha barbarian in it, too. Amazing job painting these. The color is rich and gorgeous. It's so nice seeing real paint on those old Grenadiers. I have boxes and boxes of them unpainted. I painted a few figs when I was a kid, rather poorly. In recent years, I have primed only a small few, but not got around to painting them yet. Your stuff is just fantastic and quite inspiring. Burns a fire under the butt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elouchard Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 Awesome given time spent and beautiful results. Could you give more detail on your process? Do the halflings next, I still have this set or most of it anyway. Here is the rundown of general steps They were primed with the triad of black, desert yellow (from Army Painter) and then white, with the light colors sprayed from higher angles. Here are the shots of how they look after priming. One thing to note is that the yellow produces a subtle midtone but is blended in with the the white. The black becomes gray in most recesses, except under steep overhangs. The idea was not to make the figures yellow but to give a bit of warmth to the midtone. One could just use black and then white but the result is more of a cool gray in the midtone. It works well for cool colors though, but I plan on using more browns, warm greens, reds and yellows. Once these dry, they were glued to plastic bases to paint, then add the base sand and rocks. The first base coats are on here, mostly thin layers of different shades of brown, khaki, olive, sienna and such. The idea is to keep the paint light so the shading from the zenith priming shows through. My 6 year old assistant Kylie did a great job on the skin and some of the bronze on the chests. The next step is glazes and washes of inks and transparent paints. Okay, here they are after glazes and washes. This is probably the ugliest stage, before any highlights and final glazes. There is no special trick here, other than mixing Liquitex matte medium in with the inks and washes. The skin is GW ogryn flesh wash. Greenish clothing gets black+olive, while the browns get various umber and sienna mixes. I try to vary the colors of the washes as much as possible on the different sections. Highlights were added in this stage, using opaque paints. Contrast is the key here, and painting edges. There is no time spent blacklining, so edge highlights are critical to delineating different areas. For the bases, my assistant liked adding dirt to the bases once I put glue on them, so those were a team effort. The bases got painted and had some flock added and then were done. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepibom Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Great job on those minis and thanks for the step by step. 45 minutes...in dog years...let's see...about 4 hours each...ok that'll work for me. When you say edge highlights do you mean a lack of transition between the highlight and underlying color? Any final washes over the highlights? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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