Stormcrow mercenaries - step by step
Just been sent a commission involving several units I hadn't yet been asked to paint amongst which were these Stormcrow mercenaries and some Stormcrow archers. Unusually I remembered to take enough snaps to get a reasonable painting guide unlike my normal trick whereby I start well then get wrapped up in the work and forget to take pics half way through.
Priming was a mix of Stynlrez dark brown and black to give a solid dark brown base as much of the figure is brown.
Next up I started on the padded leather armour using the brown base then highlighting up with burnt umber. The shine is the result of mixing in the flow improver with vallejo model color.
This was successively highlighted with Flat Earth then flat Earth with some Desert Yellow on the highest points. The highlights are overdone as they will be pulled down in a later stage.
Once happy i painted all the cloth parts black and then shaded using the airbrush with Model air Engine Oil grey and topped with the same colour with a smidge of white. As you can see below I also painted any flesh bits with Flat brown
The hands and faces were painted in using my usual stages of flat Brown with Cork Brown, Cork, then Flat Flesh with a bit of Cork. Final highlights of Flat Flesh/Ivory. At this point it was time to Gloss Varnish the whole bunch.
Once dry I thinned some Dark brown wash from Army painter and washed over the armour. The Gloss varnish helps it flow off the flat bits into the crevices as you can see below.
Black was then reinstated on weapons and shields and German Camo Dark Brown painted on to all the straps. The hair was basecoated either with the German dark brown or mixed with either a bit of Flat Brown for a reddish brown base or Flat Earth for a mousier brown. The weapons then received a wash of very dark metallic as a base for the metalling.
Weapons were painted using my usual method of blending down a highlight with a second brush as described here https://www.firstcommissionpainting.co.uk/post/armour-plated . This is relatively quick which is important in keeping cost down to customer but looks really nice as well. Hair was also highlighted at this point with the appropriate colour.
On the box art these guys have what looks like metal trim to their leather armour so this followed the same pattern as swords and shields, Black, metal wash, highlight. The German brown was highlighted with Flat Brown then with the same colour mixed with some Orange Brown
Bronze was the final major colour with a Bronze/Black/Flat Brown mix on first. This looks dreadful so don't be discouraged as the two brush method using Bronze/Silver mix brings it back to life. Individual minis were then tidied up, for example the red mask/cloth guys using Burnt Red/Vermillion. The Flagpole and flag were painted last with the 'white' being painted as described here https://www.firstcommissionpainting.co.uk/post/whiter-than-white .
Basing was done to match up with earlier Dothraki horse painted for the same customer
and done as described here https://www.firstcommissionpainting.co.uk/post/basic-basing .
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