The Zoidyssey - Adventures with Warriors of Athena

I bought all four sets of Argonauts from Wargames Foundry.  I’ve wanted to paint them for so long and now have a project worthy of the expense and effort.  The inspiration for their design was the Harryhausen “Jason and the Argonauts”.  The Argonauts had a similar costume which looked like this:

I was also very inspired by the diorama “Attack of the Harpies” by Martin Buck in ‘Kevin Dallimore’s Painting and Modelling Guide Master Class’.  Martin uses three of the Foundry Argonauts and he wanted to show the black armour as shining in the sunshine.  To do this he went for a deep navy blue midtone and then navy blue highlight.  Personally I think there is too much blue and it doesn’t look black any more, but each to their own:

On to painting mine then.  Small batches of 6/7 at a time as there is a bit more detail to do than usual for me.   I want an unbleached linen/wool look for the cloaks, chitons and horsehair crests.  I blended Pallid Bone Speedpaint with medium and some Vallejo GameAir White (2/2/1) to give an unbleached material undertone and because it is mostly Speedpaint the darker tone element still falls into the deeper areas and any uneven surfaces to give a look I really liked.  This  was highlighted with a wet blend of Vallejo Game Bonewhite (cream), P3 Menoth White Highlight (ivory), and GameAir White.  I put a dot of each onto the palette and then depending on where on the model I’m working I can blend a great tone or highlight by hand.  I can also work up gradually to a highlight colour which is never plain white so I keep the unbleached look.

Armour was Tyrian Navy Speedpaint with highlights in AP Blanche Masterclass The Darkness (my new favourite paint).  This is less blue than the harpy diorama but still looks like light is reflecting off black.  Shields are black undercoat with Tyrian Navy overcoated and then highlighted with The Darkness before edging with Dark Star Royal Gold.

Skintone was a blend of Speedpaints – Crusader Skin and Warrior Skin with occasional highlights/blending using Vallejo Beige Red.

Metals are a base of either Dark Star Baroque for the steel and Dark Star Royal Gold.  These were highlighted after varnishing with DS Bright Steel and DS Renaissance Gold with edge highlights added using Vallejo Pale Burnt Metal and Gold from the Metallics range.

I had to wait for the sun to come out to try and get some nice pictures that give us a feel of being in Greece.

I also did a Warlord Games sacrificing priest I had lying around.  The Argonauts are forever sacrificing to the gods so this felt appropriate to go with them.