Bestigor completion

I did some shading, a little bit of blending, some more dry brushing and then really worked hard on the champion.

On his right wrist I did some nice work*. I particularly like the black line deep in it. I also worked hard on his various medallions, trying to get them to stand out and be clear from the background.

The real irony in this is nobody but me will ever notice these details. This will not turn out to be a show army, it will look little or no better on the tabletop than any other army I have ever done, and arguably look worse than the oil based armies I have done in the past.

But I will know how much effort I put into the detail. Weirdly, the harder I work on them, the more it matters.

So there is the unit, painted and based, waiting for clear coating. For a while I kept tweaking them until suddenly I thought, hey...there comes a point when you need to just...stop...painting.

Here they are after the clear-coat. And I am happy. They have different shadings. This is something new for me. Always before I tried to get my armies to look uniform. Same skin tones. Same eye color. Uniforms identical. I am deliberately not doing that with the Beastmen.

It started with the Albino champion. It has been developing with each succeeding unit. They are similar...not identical.

I also toyed a bit with how to get them to align so both rows mattered. I think they look "right" as a unit. They are not rigidly lined up in lock step but slightly off center from each other representing the undisciplined Beastmen troops.

I am happy. I think with this unit I did some very nice work.



* When I speak of nice, good, etc. I am meaning in relation to my own painting skills, not those of people who actually do NICE work.

Bestigors continued

 So I did a lot with washes and dry brushes. Part of the problem is I must not wait long enough on the dry brushes...or else my washes are too wet. Case in point: Check out the second model from the left. His right leg (on the left as you look at it) seems to have lost a lot of surface paint. Furthermore, I had a hard time darkening it.

Once more I went ivory on the horns, did a black wash, then dry brushed the ivory again. I think I would like them slightly "brighter" but overall I think it gives them a nice, nuanced look.

I also like the wash on the armor and cloth hoods, particularly on the left two models in the front rank.

Sadly, after this I really got bad about taking pictures. A lot of times the coats were so subtle I could not tell the difference...which is actually what I am supposed to be doing on purpose. So yeah. I guess it works.

Bestigor color swatch

Funny thing is, the above models are apparently already beyond "tabletop standard". They have four colors; base brown, black, red, silver and green.

Thing is...I am just getting started. I am nowhere near happy with how they look either up close, nor from eye-level distance when painting them.

A quick wash to darken them and they look a bit better.

I also note the white does a poor job of covering over the silver. I actually have a couple shades of white, so I might just try to pick that up on a dry-brush type thing to provide some shading. We will see.

I like how they are coming along. The biggest problem I have is with "just" 10 models, they paint up so quickly I am tempted to immediately start the next color instead of letting that one dry.

Batches of 15 - 16 models seem to be about the right size to paint in one go, but that does not really work since my units are typically in increments of five.

This, of course, might point to an issue with my list building. There is little reason to use 5 except it being a prime number and me liking that for a multiple.

We will see if I change my mindset as the project proceeds and I start playing the list a bit more often.

Bestigors Work

I want to stick with the basic color scheme I have developed. Varying shades of browns for their fir and skin, red hues for most clothing, a couple dashes of green for color and off we go.

As normal, I plan to make my champion albino. For some inexplicable reason I did not do this and instead base coated all them in brown.

Having learned from my efforts on the out-of-print Beastmen models (thank you Herdstone for the identification assistance), I elected to put some color on quickly. So next up is a splash of red.

For some bizarre reason my camera stopped flashing, so the pics are not exceptionally good. Actually, they are pretty bad...but they do highlight something I like which is the heavy dose of color the red brings. It really does a nice job in my opinion of meshing with the rather neutral and drab browns.

I am actually starting to like the 'feel" of the look I put together which is very nice since it kind of came about by accident.

I am not big on figuring out exactly what I am going to do on any given model. Generally I just look at it and think, "brown fur, red cloth, white on teeth, etc and dab in silver for weapons and copper on knick-knacks:. Then stuff I did not think about crops up.

Like belts, pouches, hanging tooth-totems, weapon handles, etc. And before I know it I have dripped on...well, I have 25 open bottles of water-based paint. before I started painting the Beastmen I did not even OWN water based paint...so I guess you know how many colors or at least shades of colors I am putting on the models, though in somewhat a haphazard fashion.

Case in point; I am already planning to do a wash/highlight on these figures in multiple shades of both brown and red. I am running I think 5 shades of brown and three of red. 2 of white, Several off-white/yellows.

But I would be better off if I spent a few minutes figuring out what each model SHOULD look like when I am done before I start instead of painting a color, looking at the unit, deciding in almost a random fashion what color to do next and applying it. We will see if I can develop more patience and planning skills.

Prepping the rest of the initial wave of models

One thing every decent to great painter emphasizes time and again is prep work; scrape the mold lines, prime the model.

Generally dark shades (typically black) are suggested for deeper color models, lighter colors...white...if you prefer brighter colors.

My well-known love for brightly covered models indicates I should use white primer. Unfortunately, in reality I seldom prime at all. I think it is part of my painting catch-22. I am not a good painter so I do not do the things good painters do, and because I do not do the thing good painters do I never will become a good painter.

The exception is metal models. They MUST be primed, even with oil paints. So I had a can of primer laying around. Somewhere during my move they got shuffled in with miscellaneous other items and here I do not really have a good place to indiscriminately spray primer, so I took the models and primer to work one morning.

I am NOT a morning person, seldom at my sharpest in the mornings. It was once said of me by a co-worker after watching me walk into work with my bleary-eyed gaze and not-really-awake carriage, "I am surprised you can even function in the morning, much less find a way to drive to work."

The connection? Priming disaster.

I could not find the black or white primer, so grabbed the gray.

Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be grey. I am not sure how well it shows up in the above picture, so I will show you a close-up of another unit.

Shiny gloss silver. I did not notice this in my early am stupor.

Now, I should probably strip the models. Unfortunately, I primed 3 minotaurs, 10 Bestigors, a chariot, 5 heroes, and 4 harpies.


I decided to go ahead and paint over the silver and see what happens. After all, while I AM trying to do a better paint job on this army than I have done on any other army, I am also doing a lot of experimentation. Maybe it will work out. We will see.

Finishing the second unit.

I have mentioned several times that I am an impatient painter. I would always rather be playing Warhammer or a video game, watching basketball, playing poker, playing the guitar, eating, watching a movie...well, you get the point.

But I have committed to doing as good a job as I can on this army. So even closing in on the end I am trying not to skip steps, just call it good enough and finish, or anything like that.

One of the primary reasons to hate painting with water...besides the oft-cited issues I have with it being dull, having poor coverage, etc...is it is so hard to get decent paints in the colors of gold, silver and copper.

I tried it anyway. And as you can see in the picture above, the results are...well...disappointing. I might try a different brand or something because these colors...they look horrible in the bottle, awful on the palette, and gruesome on the model.

I actually considered using oils for those colors. But I did not.

I then went with my horn base color. I still like the ivory look. So I painted them ivory. then, to create the shadows, I did a heavy black wash. This time, however, I did not thin it enough and forgot the glue. It was the epitome of a blown wash.

Then I should have done several light coats of dry brushed ivory. I did about one and called it good.Time to base them.

Once they are based, all that is left is to do the dip, glue on the magnet and slap them on their base.

I think this unit sort of shows a plateau. I think the Gor I did first were a big step forward in painting with water. These guys, if there is improvement, it is strictly marginal.

The legs I think look better, as does the hair. But the horns needed a couple more coats I think. A few places on the legs did as well. I am not happy with bleeding out of the hair. From the table top they will look fine, but up close...not very good.

I also forgot to do their beard hair.

Their fingers, chest and arm muscles, and leg fir all are improved, however, so I guess I am okay with the overall look.

And with the gloss applied, I am satisfied.

Continuing unit 2

I am taking fewer photos. Partially that is because I am doing a bit more with dry brushes and washes trying for a look of individuality without blending.

The Dwarf slayer army is known for having orange hair. I thought it would be funny to steal that idea so decided to slap some orange hair on these guys.

 I really like it for several reasons. First, it is yet another counterpoint to the brown earth-tones. Second, it sets of a different part of the models. I now have color high, a block of brown, then another splash of color so it ties the model together and acts more like highlights than color blocks on their own.

Next I wanted to offset their weapon handles a bit. I painted those, then did a pseudo-wash of the light, almost neon greens to deepen them a bit.

I think the look is really coming together. It was time for another bit of red. Again I splashed some on the weapons as if this group has already been fighting with some success.

I made a random decision the champion should be more successful, so I even gave him a bloody fist with a drop on his hoof as if he was dealing out punishment that led to splatters.

I finished with a wash, then a dry brush on their hair to add some reddish tinge to the orange, to break up the uniform look. I think their loin-cloths are starting to show some definition that will not fool anyone into thinking I am a great painter but is definitely superior to past efforts.

Things are coming together. Almost done with this unit.