All (well at least some of) the Danes

Up before the family to try and get this started, the final stages need drying time.  The team’s bases all got three coats of Golden Brown (Pro Acryl), it normally takes two but it seems the Halfords black primer and this paint (and/or the weather) need three.  At the same time I did the shields, the backs got Flat Earth (70.983) and all the metal bits got Gun Metal (Army Painter); the fronts got two coats of Silver Grey (AK).

After my first melt down with the transfers I now have more then I might need for the rest of my life (at least at this size).  I can now tell the difference between the two types by looking/touching, the ones with the peal off front cover are smooth and shiny (left of the picture) while the ones that need to be treated as the old Airfix transfers are rough to the touch and do not shine (right ones in the picture).

I cut the holes for the bosses first, a punch would make it better but I have found you do not need to be that neat (as the picture shows), just cut across the space to make lots (well 6) triangles and cut them out. Once holes are cut out, I cut out of the eight shields, peeled off the plastic covering, stuck them to the shield, waited for about 5 minutes and then used a brush to apply a bit of water.  The paper back then pealed off with the help of the point of a scalpel blade.

Then the team’s bases got a coat of Fast Drying Base Glue (Greek Game Scenic), a couple of “boulders” from the Base Ready Scrublands and then then applied just the finer stuff; and left to dry for a few hours. Then a 75/25 mix of Matt Scenic Sealant and isopropyl, left to dry and then a few tufts were added using super glue and pushing them down firmly.

And with that the team are as done as they need to be.

All that is now needed is for me to do the shields for Aleksander and Eyvindr, as well as varnishing them all.  And this is all Thor’s Hammers done.

This is me done, the final stages will be added when I work them out.

31 days of elapsed time, with 5 days “off”, and I am calling it for this part of the project.  I will do some of the rest of the Danes in the future but I will take break from them now.  I have enjoyed my first challenge, I have learnt a lot about how little I know and I now know I need practice… lots of practice. The family have not stopped pointing out I have paint strips on my left thumb nail and the wife has starred checking my hands before I am allowed to leave the house.

I will now look around at my many piles of opportunity and pick on one to do another project with; thanks to the OTT team for kick starting my painting journey (and, perhaps a battle report sometime).

Finally, I noticed that Aud also had a fur pelt, so I mixed one drop of Nazdreg Yellow (Citadel) with two drops of Contrast Medium to give a pleasing yellow/orange effect – I am not sure what animal this might have come from but I liked the effect.

That all took three blocks of 50 minutes, I am happy enough with the results and learnt some stuff along the way (including about this project system…)

I watched a few YouTubers showing how to paint cloaks – looks great fun but I have worked out that they have skill, experience, and knowledge.  They also have “hidden” knowledge, the things they do without realising they are doing it.  Since I am lacking in these, I will overlay practice and try a rough approximation to layering.

All cloaks got a base coat of Medium Blue and then I tried to “paint up” from Ducat Blue, Deep Sky Blue and Sky Blue.  I found that as I watered down the paints beyond 1 part paint to 5 parts water (especially the two Sky Blue ones) they seem to “split” and I got fine white partials.  I tried using acrylic medium rather than water and it was marginally better but still not perfect.  I suspect I can hear some YouTuber taking about “this colour has some white in it so it is desaturated” but I know it will be user error at the end of the day.

Amund is joined today by Aud to demonstrate more practice is needed.

The band members with fur pelts got them base coated in Silver Grey (AK) and then Gulbrand got a coat of Contract Gore-Grunta Fur (Citadel) while Torsten and Tormod got Ruddy Fur (Army Painter).  Somewhere along the line everyone got all their leather straps painted with Flat Earth (70.983) but there is no photographic evidence.

Gulbrand demonstrates that all pouches got Skeleton Bone (Army Painter) and then a wash of Seraphim Sepia (Citadel) which was every insipid and got covered over later (with Strong Tone form Army Painter).

All Greedy Gold and flesh got a coat off Contrast Guilliman Flesh and then some parts of the flesh got a highlight of Flat Flesh (70.955) – as shown by Torleif.

As showed by Vilhelm, anyone with blondish hair for a coat of Golden Brown, as wash of Strong Tone (also used on the pouches) and a highlight of Golden Brown.

Red heads got my new recipe, Base coat Burnt Orange (Pro Acryl), wash Strong Tone (Army Painter), highlight Burnt Orange and then a 50:50 Deep Orange (AK) and Burnt Orange.  Looks good in real life at arm’s length, as Torleif is demonstrating.

Trying to learn for yesterday, although I have longer for hobby I set my clock for 50 minutes – with the idea moving around for a few minutes after my allotted time.

Base colours used where:

• Boots – Cork (AK)
• Leggings – Iraqui Sand (70.819)… could not find the Buff I had been using
• Trousers – German Field grey (70.830)
• Under Tunic – Dark Grey Blue (Pro Acryl)
• Under Tunic highlight Grey Blue (70.943)
• Top Tunic, including arms – Bronze Green (70.897)
• Flesh – Flat Flesh (70.955)
• Scabbard – Red Leather (70.818)
• Boots/Leggins/Trousers/Scabbard all washed with Agrax Earth shade

Amund is hiding within the wall of paints as a reference point

Trying to take the group picture resulted in me finding out about Aperture Priority, F10 seems to have done the job (we can even work out The Nut Nuts Nut… as Gerry pointed out some time ago)

Who would have guessed doing twice the number of figures would double the time… almost.

I do not have another set of fancy handles so I went for demijohn wine corks.  These have worked well for plastic and resin figures but I am concerned the added weight of metal could cause them to become top heavy and fall over.  These Hirdmen are a bit squat so fingers crossed.  The figures look very good, much better than the Bondi I have done so far, although I am sure after a fitful paint job I can make then all on par.

All chain mail got a light over brushing of Gun Metal, not a dry brush but more of a light dragging of the paint brush over the texture – just using the water in the brush.  Axes, swords, and most parts of the helms also go this paint.  Any face guards and decoration on the helms got a coat of Greedy Gold.

This took about 50 minutes and that was hobby time for today (not including the multiple attempts to upload this stuff… just another bad day in the office).

Just two packs left for Thor’s Hammer; Hirdmen in Mail with Sword (MBV102) and Hirdmen in Mail with Axe (MBV103).  As I think I have my colours worked out I will do them all at them same time.  The idea is they will be fitted out by their Jarl so there will be little variation in basic clothing.

Once again one of them had lost an arm, just like the one before; and it looked just like the one before… so I take it back and it was not my general miss treating of them but by design (the one at the far right bottom of the picture).

The sword arm was just as small as the last one so very little metal to drill into but I did my best and made sure both surfaces where heavily scored and the pin was “roughed up” to try to maximise the surface area the superglue had to work on.

A single coat of Halfords best Black primer and for the axe men we have: Aud; Torleif; Gulbrand and Vilhelm.

Also in fetching black primer, for the swords men we have: Torsten; Torgeir; Amund and Tormod Broken Arm.

The team had got their bases painted up with Golden Brown (Pro Acryl) yesterday so I put a couple of coats of Vallejo Sepia Ink (72.091) on the spears, I liked the look so retro painted the other spearmen (a first, I can not remember going back to change a model after painting…).

After that it was my normal process of basing, I say normal but it will need changing at some point, and the the team are done.

I will need a plan for the remaining eight but this is the longest I can remember painting for so something must be going right.

Over 2 hours I managed to put all the base colours down, all over wash with Strong Tone (Army Painter), moving some of the wash around to try to stop pooling and then repainting with the base colour as a highlight (tidy up stage).  The last two stages seem to be key for a good look and I have still to get anywhere close to good at them.  The figures tend to come of looking rather dirty and “stained” but not in a good way.  I know the look, as I too have come off the odd Sealed Knot muster looking much the same.  I get what this technique is trying to do but with my level of skill I suspect I should look at either doing individual coloured washes or to paint in the shadows (or paint up from the shadow colour).

The only differences to the other Bondi is Olaf got his fur pelt base coated in Bright Warm Grey (Pro Acryl) followed by Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur and both him and Vidar got Burnt Orange (Pro Acryl) for their hair (I prefer this to the Amarantha Red (70.829) as the wash tones it down better).  Both Suni and Stoick got their hair based coasted in Golden Brown (Pro Acryl) and the wash did a good job on this hair colour.

The spears got Ghost Grey (72.046) ; I have now tried a few  progressively brighter grey for the spears and none of them are working for me.  As a pikeman in the Sealed Knot (a long time ago) I seem to remember the wood was either stained back or is very light in colour.  I will try an ink tomorrow.

I suspect this all took more than the 2 hours as I went back to the painting table after everyone had gone to bed…