A few blogs ago I painted up some sample modern figures from Irregular Miniatures. I was quite impressed with them at the time and decided to order some more. I am currently painting up my second order with a third on its way.
I happen to say to Ian Kay, the Irregular Miniatures guru, that the range lacked a few support weapons which he agreed with and gave me permission to “nag” him every week until he had them in production. Well it didn’t even get to the end of the first week before I received an Email saying that they would be up on his website the next day.
Great service again Ian.
I can’t wait to paint these new figures when the third batch arrives.
The samples painted up well so it was with anticipation that I started on the next lot. Now, I don’t purport to be the world’s best figure painter but I have developed some simple techniques that give a good wargames tabletop standard which I will share with you.
Step One:
There is very little flashing on Irregular Miniatures figures with just a little to assist with mould runs and the very occasional piece on the bottom of the bases. After removing this I either blue-tack the figures to painting sticks (about ten to a stick about twelve inches long) or in this case because they are going to be used for skirmish games on 25mm round bases.
In order to distinguish the leaders and sub-leaders I base these on 40mm round bases. The Supremo having two figures to the base and the sub-leaders just the one. Basing them like this helps to distinguish them on the tabletop and gives you more base space to provide a mini diorama befitting someone of such rank.
The figures are glued on with water based wood glue like “aquadhere”. The reason I am now using this is that if for whatever reason I want to change the basing down the track just soaking the figure with its feet in warm water allows for easy removal.
The figure bases are all of the sabot-inserts from the back2base-ix conversion movement trays.
http://www.back2base-ix.com/conversion-movement-trays.html
Step two:
I then undercoat the figures using a variety of spray cans. I use three different colours of undercoat depending on the figure. I use matt white for figures that need to be bright like landsknechts, matt black if the figures have lots of metal bits or chainmail armour and Tamiya TS3 desert brown for everything else.
Step three:
The flesh is then painted on all of the figures. I generally paint all of the figures with the same pose one after another as you become used to how to paint the figure quicker.
Most of the figures in the Irregular Miniatures modern range come with bare feet and you can just make out the individual toes on each foot. I am making up two opposing forces so have decided to paint one with shoes and the other with bare feet. In reality I find that most of the shoes/feet are covered with the base flocking so whatever you choose has little impact on the aesthetics of the completed figure.
Step four:
The figures are clothed in civvies and so are going to be painted up in a variety of colours. I always paint one colour on all of the figures at the same time. This is straight forward with uniformed figures but in this case I would paint the hat on one figure, the trousers on another and the shirt/jacket on another. This speeds up the painting but also gives that “irregular look” (pun intended) that I was after. As I was painting about forty figures this meant about six to eight colours before all of the ”tops and bottoms” were painted. You need to alternate the painting so that there is only one figure with the same combinations of colours.
Step five:
Paint all of the shoes if required which was not the case with this lot. I always use the same colour for simplicity. Remember I am only painting to a wargames tabletop standard and want to get them ready for using as quickly as possible. You can choose to have a variety of coloured shoes if you wish. I just cannot be bothered.
At this stage I also paint the hair using 5 colours – grey, orange brown, straw, black and brown. With the black I mix a little red to make it less harsh. Make sure you do not add add to much red as you will end up with a red/brown rather than black.
Step six:
Paint the hair. I use black with a dash of red, grey, a bone and an orange brown which I alternate in the same way as with the clothing. More black if that is more ethnically predominant, more blonde if painting Germanic types.
Step seven:
I then paint the weapons. These are painted in a stylised manner. First all of those with wooden stocks etc. are painted. Secondly I paint the “metal bits” with a gun metal. Again for simplicity I paint pistols all metal. Support weapons like mortars and machine guns I paint a dark green with a black wash.
Step eight:
The figures are now basically finished but have a very flat look. So I wash and dry brush to give them depth.
Wash all of the figures with a dark brown ink or wash. This provides depth and shadow to the figure. I try to wash last thing at night so they are dry enough for working on the next day.
Step nine:
When the wash has dried, dry brush all of the figures all over with a light white dry brush to provide a very quick and simple highlight. Remember less is more with this stage.
Step ten:
Paint the base edge of the figure a dark brown to provide a “picture frame” effect. I find this just helps to complete the figure and make it stand out that little bit extra on the tabletop. For “snow” based figures I will use a light grey.
Step eleven:
Using the same wood glue as in step one add any large pieces of scenery such as grass tufts, twigs to represent tree branches, stones from the garden, lichen or any other larger pieces of scenery that you wish to use.
Step twelve:
Once the larger pieces of scenery have dried to the base I add whatever mixture of scatter by first painting the base with wood glue and just sprinkling the various scatter on top. I now use the same scheme on all of my figures no matter the size, period or geography. The “scatter” I use is a mixture of very fine sand (I use sand from the local beach), green static grass, green and brown fine scatter and fine white “kitty litter” for small rocks. Not all is used on each base but when the bases are close to each other it still gives a uniformed effect without being rigid like the bright green paint on old toy soldiers.
Step thirteen:
Once the flocking has dried I spray all of the figures and the base with matt varnish. This protects the figure and helps “fix” the flocking. I use “dullcote” for the final varnish. With vulnerable figures like 20mm plastics I spray the figures with a gloss varnish first and when this dries add the matt varnish on top. I find this helps provide extra protection to bayonets, swords etc.
The last thing to do is to place the figures in the inserts from the back2base-ix conversion movement trays of the appropriate size for that unit.
The movement trays aid in both the removal of the figures from the shelves and in tabletop movement.
Although this seems a lot of steps many of them are very quick and when you get used to it you can paint about forty figures in a week spending about an hour a night just doing one or two steps.
Another tip is that when you have paint on the brush to also paint any other projects you may have on the go at the time with that colour. I always have at least one unit set aside for this purpose. What then tends to happen is by the time you have finished one or two projects of the size mentioned above you also have another “bonus” unit painted. At the moment this is a twelve figure 2nd Afghan Wars unit that is almost completed.
I am now about to finish the heavy supports with a machine gun and mortar to add that extra fire power and two more squads on the go
I hope this is informative and helps you get figures on the table.
