How This Task was Done

Colonel Hairy Haggis continues:

Dear Fellow TMP'ers,

I bring you greetings from my paint desk, and to say I have completed the task of painting the Simian Legionnaries. What follows is a short description of how this task was done.

First, though, I would like to thank all the fine fellows who voted for a poor old fat man with failing eyesight. I normally paint historical miniatures, but as of late I have meandered into painting far outside my normal haunts. I love the freedom fantasy miniatures allows a painter. My style - on historicals - is very sedate, and these apes allowed for more punch of contrasts.

So on to how it was done. The first thing I noticed was all the miniatures were the same pose. That would be OK if they were historicals, but I was encouraged to run wild, and so I changed the pose on four of the six miniatures. Not too much, but enough to give the idea there was movement in the unit.

(I hoped to have my digital camera returned in time for step-by-step photos. I waited till the last minute to start on this project. My motto is "If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done!" However, the camera was returned in time only for finished pictures.)

Once I had changed the poses and the putty was dry, I sanded the bases flat and glued them to some electrical box knock-out disks. These are mild steel discs, and will allow the owner to transport them on a magnetic tray. Also they are cheep as dirt, being free to anyone that walks on a new building job site and will stoop over and pick them up. I have hundreds.

Once the glue had dried, I primed them all flat black. I followed this an hour later with a white drybrushing to pick out the highlights. This method allows you to see the detail much easier.

I then used a combination of paints to get the results I wanted. I paint as if I dressing the miniature. So I painted the fur and faces first. I highlighted the black with a drybrushing of Delta Ceramcoat water-base acrylic Charcoal Gray. This was further highlighted with DC's Hammered Iron. The inside of the open mouths was painted DC's Iron Red. The wicked teeth were painted DC's Corn Flower Yellow. Then I used Games Workshop's brown ink, diluted 2-to-1 with denatured alcohol, to make the highlights pop!

Once all the hair and skin were done, I painted the tunic DC's Vintage Wine and highlighted with Deep Lilac. The leather straps and mail backing was painted with Reaper Miniatures acrylic paints Oiled Leather. All the brass metal was first painted GW's Tin Bitz, then highlighted with RM's Dragon Gold, then Bright Gold, with touches here and there of True Silver. The scalemail was painted with DC's Black Steel, with highlights of Gun Metal, then touched with highlights of RM's True Silver.

The bases were painted DC's Golden Brown. Then, this was overcoated with Elmer's white glue and flocked with my blend of brown static grass, Woodland Scenic's green grass and a blend of rock.

That's about it. It took about eight hours from start to finish. I hope you like the results. Please feel free to vote for me again, and encourage your friends and neighbors to do likewise. Thanks.

The Standard Simian Legionnaire

This Little Simian had his sword arm removed at the elbow, then re-attached and puttied over to match the existing fur.

This Simian had some extensive re-modeling. First, his mouth was opened and teeth and tongue were inserted. I made his lip curl in a menacing manner. Then I cut his sword hand off and repositioned it. I was very pleased at how the fur on his arm and hand turned out.

Close-up of my dental work.

Another Basic Simian

With this one, I turned the sword arm some to change the dynamics.

This fellow had his hand cut from the end of his arm and repositioned. "Brown stuff" putty was applied to hide the cut. Again, this simple adjustment makes the dynamics of the miniature change.

As you can tell from this group picture, they seem to be moving. I am very pleased with how they turned out.