Hey whatever happened to...

...that Guard Army you started?

Oi.  That Guard army I had posted about so very long ago.  It was over a year now that I started mustering them together.  I worked hard over time, and even played a few games with them.  Recently they got primed white, and I'm now starting to paint them.

How I paint.

Sometimes I look at GW paints in wonder. I don't know much about them, and they scare me for some reason.   I've owned them, used them for sure.  But I keep falling back on my acrylics.  I tend to "mix my own" with abandon.  My old Ork army even has some watercolors on the Stormboyz (hey Joe, you should probably keep them dry).  Anyways, in the interest in what-the-heck-I'm doing, here's what I'm doing.   If you don't paint your miniatures, you'll probably find this boring, or maybe somewhat of an inspiration to paint.  Either way.

My materials for the first wash.

 I decided I wanted my guardsmen to have a green base of some sort.  I still don't know what final colors they'll turn out to be, but a good, dark wash over the surface of a figure that has been primed white is a step in the right direction.  I grabbed the cut-off end from a seltzer bottle I had lying around (see Big Game 2012 custom terrain for those of you who remember) to use as a dish.  I knew I'd be throwing some water into the paint.  I opened up a beer.   Next, I picked a green tone.  Utrecht Permanent Green is very bright and aggressive.  I toned it down with some Burnt Umber.  This would make a nice earthy tone.  I also dabbed in some Gloss Gel, to give the wash some body when I needed it.  I then filled the bottom of the jar with water, giving the paint a good bath.  Adding water to acrylic paint sometimes makes its binder so loose it separates upon the primer.  A dab of gel will rejoin the pigments together and allow for it to be smoothed back on in a thin coat.  As an added bonus, the gloss will give these shadow colors a nice deep tone in the low areas.  For a brush, I used a round semi-soft bristle that had been left on Lake Drive in Milwaukee for 18 hours and driven over by countless Fox Point commuters.  Note the cracked handle and the dented ferrule. 

Here's what the first wash looks like.

 
The heavy weapon I figure I'll eventually coat with metallic tones, but for now I'm just getting color down.  The wash drips all the way onto the base, and often onto my hands and then who-knows-where.  I think this works to my advantage.

 

 I love these beginning steps.  The details of the figures come out so well, right away.  I started relating to them as I was painting them, getting to know my army better.

Oh the carnage.

The washed pieces were put on a styrofoam board and sometimes got hit by stray wash from above.  Oh well, war isn't pretty.