... and Black Lining the Easy Way
I like my Spencer Smith figures to have an 'old-school', 'toy soldier' look, this has the added advantage of making them quicker to paint as I am normally a very slow painter and still using enamel paints.
My system simply consists of a white undercoat overpainted with crude blocks of colour, followed by black outlining and then a good coating with lashings of gloss varnish. This technique seems to deliver effective looking figures reasonably quickly but you can judge for yourself from the photos below showing the last three stages in this ‘painting’ process. I will at this point come clean and own up to an additional ‘touching up’ phase after the black lining to cover up any slips and add some quick grey highlights on black areas and horse manes and tails.
I used to outline with black paint but found that the most fiddly and time-consuming part. To find a better way I tried using pens but the ink tended to run when varnished. Persevering I hit upon Edding 1800 Profipens (I use the 0.1mm variety) that do not seem to run as much, although I still use a thin spray of varnish which I let dry to seal the figure before brushing on a thick layer of enamel gloss varnish.
I do not use the pens when delineating between two white areas as IMO the black lines look too harsh. For this I use a pencil which creates a nice grey line and the metallic graphite sheen disappears when varnished – I strongly advise a light spray of varnish to seal pencil before varnishing by brush.
Nice little tutorial on how you paint them, I have struggled with Spencer Smiths in the past, never been too happy with my work on them, your look grand and the gloss varnish really lifts them.
ReplyDeleteThanks, but most of the credit really has to go to the gloss varnish, as you say, it really lifts them and makes them look like a professionally finished product.
DeleteYou get a nice finish to your miniatures.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I have become a bit addicted to glossy figures lately but still do some more 'normal' painting.
DeleteI pretty much gloss all my models now. I just like the look and glossy models suit my painting style which has become simplified over recent years.
DeleteSorry Peter, the penny didn't immediately drop on seeing your name. This coming year I am determined to finally get around to trying some of your rules - I particularly like your Ancient set with fewer larger units that grind each other down - no "flash bang you're dead" results in sight.
Delete