Paint the whole world with a rainbow
Readers of a certain age will need no reminding about Geoffrey, George, Bungle and of course Zippy but this blog is in fact about painting the rainbow cloaked Warriors Sons. I posted pictures of a box of these guys I painted up for a customer and received loads of requests on how to paint them. When I say 'loads' actually just two but you know that is loads more than i usually get by at least 2. To do the cloaks should you wish, you will need a secret ingredient and be able to remember Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain - or the relevent rainbow mnemonic in your part of the world!
Firstly the usual black primer, most of the model is actually going to need black primer as from the front there is no rainbow and he is wearing a lot of armour which i will return to after the main business. A coat of actual Vmc black also goes on here.
Next up is the secret, really not so secret, ingredient, white primer. This is sprayed on over the area of the cloak which will be receiving the lighter colours of orange, yellow and green. This process will not work well over black. There is some slight shading by depth of application but a pretty solid coat is necessary. As I paint on commission i am working pretty quickly and a bit of overspray is not imprtant as it is quicker to retouch the black than worry about exactitude.
Yellow is painted as per my blog here https://www.firstcommissionpainting.co.uk/single-post/nordland-steamtank-or-how-to-paint-yellow-without-tears using gw averland sunset, VMC Signal Yellow and VMC Ice Yellow. If you are after a super strong yellow a fine spray of any yellow ink will make it really strong. Here a bit of shading was added using a very thinned down VMC Flat Brown. Once the basic yellow is down and looking good you can fiddle with highlights and shading as you wish like any other colour. Getting a solid base is key.
I then went with VMC Orange above the yellow as this colour is also a bit thin like yellow and needs the white/yellow underpainting to show properly. Once established a band of red was sprayde at the top/shoulders of the cloak and Richard Of York was done. After this it was simply a case of adding bands of each of the remaining colours which conveniently get darker than the previous as in the pictures which follow.
Green - went with a lighter green rather than a more emeraldy. Make sure you have it thinned so there is a small fading in/out zone with the previous colour.
Blue - went with a flat blue but I dont know if there is a specific "rainbow blue"
Indigo / Violet - cheated here as just used Vilolet and am calling the intermediate zone Indigo as it seems a darkish bluey purple.... VARNISH NOW!!
And that's it if you just want the rainbow cloak info. You are now free to cut the hedges or clean the grouting or whatever chore awaits. If however you arent keen to rush off then follow on the rest of the step by step.
The inside of the cloaks could be painted in the same manner but as this was the second unit for the same customer I decided to vary things by adding a black lining which was obviously black highlighted with engine oil grey but any mid grey is fine.
To maintain the Lannister connection the front armour and cloth were to be red and the basis for any red I do is VMC burnt red (80814) brushed on quickly.
This was then highlighted with vermillion and scarlet on the upper areas and again there is irrelevant overspray. Key idea here is to give a decent bit of contrast.
The face was then started and gain i have a pretty standard face technique which isn't aiming for a masterpiece but is a method to allow me to get a box done in a day. First i use a flat brown basecoat and then highlight up through mixing in cork brown and sunny flesh. If i lose the shadows its easy to reverse the process. Eyes aren't getting painted in except on characters as the time/amount charged just isn't worth it for the customer on line troops. Also as I have said before a simple experiment outside using a 28 mm figures shows its irrelevant. Take any mini hold at arms length and match its size with any pedestrian outside. Can you see the real persons eyes?
Nope is the answer just dark shadowed highlights.
Below we can see the mini a few stages on. I definitely did not forget to take intermediate photos..... Anyway the missing stages were firstly to reinstate the black across every messy bit. Then the chain mail was very carefully brushed on using a black/aluminium mix. This needs to be done carefully as the metallic flakes are prone to scatter and be detected on other painted surfaces later when its too late to remove them. I always do chain mail at the EARLIEST opportunity to avoid this.
The gold was applied using my new favourite metals from Greenstuffworld, the metal pigments. I first used the antique gold mixed with a bit of black and brown ink to get a darker base then went pure gold over the top. Belt painted dark brown then leather brown.
A group shot of team Rainbow here. To protect the work to date i add another caot of matt varnish to prevent the delicate golds from rubbing off during handling.
The armour is then painted using my two brush armour painting technique described here https://www.firstcommissionpainting.co.uk/single-post/armour-plated
This is a very efficient method using a dark base and highlights dragging the paint into a sort of blend with a dry brush. You can see the trick best on the swords.
Basing is the usual method but matched to the existing Lannister basing for the customer and apart from a final burst of varnish that's the game.
Here are some of the earlier guys with both sides rainbow as a contrast to the initial photo at the top of the blog.
And finally for those who say Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aemoQm4Gxus