Skeletons

[Jhigga15]

Hello everyone,
I painted minis way back in the, nothing special... To relax I got back into and I am painting a army of Skeletons. As of right now I have the GW VC skeletons. I am asking this question about painting wood grain into the spears. How are good techniques. I looked and saw the article on the site, but it seems that the spears are a bit smaller. Help Please!!!

As for the Skeletons...
1. primed white
2. Citadel Found - Tausept Brown
3. Black Wash
4. GameColor - Bone white
5. Brown wash

I will try to post some pics later

 

[freakinacage]

depends what sort of colour you want. are you going for a contrasting warm wood, a bleached wood like drift wood, or a greyish wood?

 

[Jhigga15]

depends what sort of colour you want. are you going for a contrasting warm wood, a bleached wood like drift wood, or a greyish wood?

Thats a really good question, I guess out of habit I jut paint them brown... What do you think would be best for a skeleton army hat has been in the ground for years? My guess is greyish wood...

I am trying to make my army look as real as possible...

 

[BPI]

Is the wood grain sculpted into the spear hafts or are they smooth? I've found that if you apply your base colours quite starkly (very dark base, very light vertical lines painted on, or very light base then a heavy controlled wash into each groove), keep them neat & retouch, then glaze the whole thing to the tone you want. The harshness of the stripes vanishes & gives the impression of wood under an aging coat of varnish/grime, etc. If you want to get fancy & realistic then keep in mind that the areas where the haft is handled will be smoother than the rest, minor amounts of dried blood/gore where the spear head attaches to give a sense of ingrained effluvia from prior battles, mud at the base where the spear has been used as a walking aid. If the skeletons have been stood up in the rain a lot then vertical streaks of rust/verdigris/weathering (rather than neat little horizontal circles in recesses). If they've been laid out in a tomb for centuries before being animated then their fronts may have a layer of grime/dust that is not present on their rears, colours of dyed cloth may have faded at different rates, etc. But I've moved away from woodgrain haven't I?

Cheers, B.

 

[freakinacage]

if you are going for an oooold sort of look, i would paint them a brown, then highlight up to a bleached bone sort of colour. add a brown ink if it's too washed out then shade with a black wash. this will dull it down nicely and keep it dark

 

[Jhigga15]

Thanks for the advice on the skeletons... the shafts are smooth, so getting the wood grain into then should be a good fun.

maybe run some 100 Grit sand paper up the stem to groove in some texture for paint to run into?

 

[freakinacage]

or just use a rough old brush and don't thin your paints as much!