Eureka Turtle Tank and Indiana Jones Marathon

Nothing beats a Sunday with Indiana Jones.  I can't help it if I'm 32 and I think Harrison Ford is hot; he just is.  Aside from sighing over my whip toting archaeologist-hero I'm painting up a Turtle Tank from Eureka. 

Starting out.  This was Sunday's job; turtle tank from Eureka and Weasel Fusiliers and Mongoose Legionnaires from On The Lamb Games.

The turtle which I figure is actually a tortoise.  I modeled it after a Texas tortoise; remember, I like to make my figures somewhat accurate.

Obviously, my tortoise is not exactly like this one, I punched up the color a bit and gave it yellow eyes.

Since he is a tank he has a carrying apparatus for the other turtles to ride him.  This was painted in Wood Gray (CV) / Grayed Orange Yellow (CV) dry-brush highlight.  The metal bits are Boltgun metal (GW) with a wash of Ogryn Flesh.

The flag is Dark Green (CV) / Green (CV) highlight dry-brush and Yellow Green (CV) dry-brush.  The symbol is a Japanese character for Earth done in Gray 5 (CV) and White (CV).

 I've done these turtles as well as the frogs from Eureka a million times.  In this case the order was for an existing army of U.S. turtles.  Yep, you guessed it.  I have two different styles to my frog/turtle armies; one is U.S. species and the other are "tropical" species such as poison dart frogs.  The green flag is for Earth.  I typically make my U.S. species turtle army the earth army. 

Starting the turtles.  They are primed in dark brown and their skin is painted in SunFlesh (CV).

Their shells are dry-brushed heavily in Burnt Umber (CV) and then lightly in Brown (CV).

Here's a top view of the Eastern Woodland turtle shell.  Yep, it's rather boring.  It's the underneath that is the best.

Next, I wash their skin with Devlan Mud wash.

Their bellies are painted Ocher (CV).

Belly shells are dry-brushed with Ocher 11 (CV) and spots are added in Black.

You may also notice that I took Orange (CV) and lightly highlighted the skin of the turtles to brighten them up.

Here's a photo of an Eastern Woodland turtle.  This is what I modeled my turtles after.  I just love his yellow belly, it really adds punch to a boring top shell.

Black is added to their eye sockets.  Their bamboo spears are painted Grayed Orange Yellow (CV) very lightly dry-brushed with Olive Drab (CV) and the bamboo joints are washed with Gryphonne Sepia wash.  The spear tips are Boltgun metal.

Here we are.  Finished!

The captain's plume is painted Red (CV) and washed in Leviathan Purple wash, trimmed in gold.

See how the carriage sits on the tortoise with those two brackets?

 Bob and I are contemplating using hemp twine and attaching it to those brackets that allow the carriage to sit on the tortoise to make it appear as if the whole apparatus is lashed/tied onto the tortoise.  We'll see after we get every thing glued into place.

This turtle tank also comes with cannons.  Fire away!

Eventually this whole thing will be based and flocked.  We've decided to glue in the turtles to make sure that they don't fall out.  It would have been nice if they could have been individually based and then placed into the tortoise carriage, but they don't fit that way.  The eyes of all the turtles and the tortoise will be glossed to give it that added realism.

Isle of Blood High Elves All Done!!!

The last of the High Elves.  Worked all morning today on just the mages.  I'm sure after Bob gets them flocked he will post final pictures of the entire lot of them in all their glory.  Figures always look better flocked.

Here's the beginnings of the Sea Guard, simply sloppy base coats.  There is some highlighting in my usual pseudo-Dallimore method.  :-)

Again, the beginnings of the Warriors of Hoeth.

Mages.  Bob and I decided to leave their cloaks separate because getting behind them would be a pain in the butt.

Close-up of the mid-stages of painting.  Still pretty basic, some highlighting and a still a lot of sloppiness.

Here we are, done.

Voila!

Same mage, different color scheme.  Funny how a little paint makes them look so different and gives them a different feel.

I decided not to do anything fancy with the backs of their cloaks.  I was going to put the little stars on them but decided against it.

A little close-up.

 Sorry, no real time to add all the details about how I painted them, too many papers to grade.  Perhaps I can go back when I have the time and post color choices.  Hope you enjoy!

Field of Glory Dark Ages Armies Finished

We just finished up a commission of these two dark ages armies for Field of Glory. The first is a Norman army and the second in an Anglo-Danish army. All figures are Old Glory 15's.

There is a previous post on the blog of these figures before flocking. It's amazing how much the flocking changes the final appearance of the figures. As I said in the other post, I hate taking pics of the figures before they are based and finished; They just don't seem right.

 The first army is a Norman army. Composed of a core of knights it has some foot to round it out. Here is an overview of the Norman spearmen and archers:

An overview of the Norman knights:

Overview of the Norman dismounted knights and command stands:

The Norman knights:

The Norman command stands:

The Norman spearmen. We went with somewhat more darker, murkier colors as these are the regular infantry:

The dismounted Norman knights:

The Norman archers:

The second army is the Anglo-Danish army. Lots of foot make up this force. Here's a view of the whole Anglo-Danish army:

An overview of the Anglo-Danish command stands, slingers, and javeliners:

An overview of the greater fyrd and huscarls:

An overview of the lesser, or poor quality, fyrd:

The lesser fyrd arranged in a line as a shield wall:

The block of lesser fyrd. These are the lower class warriors so we again made the colors a bit darker and murkier, with plain one-color shields. There are 128 figures in this block:

The Anglo-Danish command stands:

The greater fyrd. These would be greater land owners and lesser nobles so we went with brighter colors and fancier shields:

The huscarls:

The slingers and javeliners:

Some more views along the lesser fyrd's shield wall: