Eureka Amazon Project: The Phalangitrixes

When our fearless  the Editor  asked for help to build the TMP Amazon project, I volunteered immediately. There is something about painting scantily clad and very dangerous females that drew me in! I was to do the "concept" painting, after which a painting service would follow my prototypes, and  the Editor  would base the entire army.

For the first batch, I was to paint a group of six: two leaders, two musicians and two troopers.

The miniatures arrived a few days later, and jolly nice miniatures these are! These would be a joy to paint.

The only miniatures that needed putting together were the troopers, which were cast in two pieces: body, and arms with shield or weapons. One of them came with a long pike, but the other had a very flimsy spear, and the hand had to be drilled. I decided to replace the spear with another pike made of brass. That would be much sturdier.

I was given carte blanche on how to paint them. I was torn between going wild, or keeping it as "historical" as possible. In the end, I compromised; the armour would be bronze, and the clothing dark red (very Spartan), but the flesh would be pale, instead of very suntanned.

In all the excitement, I forgot to take step-by-step pictures, but here's what I did:

I primed the miniatures white, and gave them a basecoat of Reaper MSP Rosy Skin. The shields and cloaks were painted GW Mechrite Red, and the tunics on the musicians GW Bleached Bone. The armour and pike heads were painted Vallejo Bronze. Leather straps were painted Vallejo Saddle Brown, and the pike haft Vallejo Charred Brown.

Once the colours were blocked in, I washed the miniatures with Winsor & Newton Nut Brown ink. Hair was GW Chaos Black. The helm's crest was done in GW Chaos Black and Vallejo White.

Once the ink was dry, I drybrushed a little Vallejo Brass on the metallic parts, and Charadon Granite on the hair and the black part on the helm's crest. I highlighted the skin with Reaper MSP Rosy Skin and Reaper MSP Rosy Highlight.

The shields looked a little bare, so I applied a couple of inverted V's that pass for Greek lambdas. Other units will be differentiated by the designs on the shield.

Finally, I glued them on 20mm square bases and matt-varnished them.

Overall, I am happy with the results. The Phalangitrixes have a simple, clean paint scheme that is easy to replicate, and looks very good. Hopefully, we will see the full army wreaking havoc soon!

The Commanders

The Musicians

Troopers