First blood

This 54mm figure needs no introduction i think but for those of you there who have been living under a rock for the past thirty years this is John Rambo from the Andrea miniatures range. 


A little interesting note here is that in nowhere in the book ,First Blood, does the author David Morrell ever say that his first name was John. This was something invented by hollywood :). Oh, and anyone who has read the book will know that there could not possibly be a sequel to Rambo, let alone four films.


Anyway back to business. This is another figure that you cannot really let your imagination run wild when painting him and that's because you need to paint him, more or less, how he was in the film. 

First off i painted the base of the figure which in this case depicts a street scene. The street was coated grey and then giving a liberal drybrush with a mix of grey/white to create that worn, used street look. The manhole cover was painted bronze, given a black ink wash and then drybrushed with a mix of bronze/black to create that typical manhole colour that's standard to everywhere in the world i think.


The fire hydrant was given a dark red colour, then washed with brown ink and then drybrushed lightly again with the same red colour. Some parts of the hydrant were nicked with a metallic colour to create that used look where the paint has been worn off.

The jeans were done by covering it in a dark blue first and then drybrushing everything with a mix of that dark blue with some white. Then more white was added to the mix and drybryshed yet again in the areas where he would most likely have wear and tear, i.e thighs, knees, bum etc..


The shirt is done the same but with a dark green followed by a lighter green tone to finish.


The gun and boots were done exactly the same. That is paint it all black first, mix black and flesh tone and then drybrush it all over the area to create that black colour but with depth. 

The figure from the back view. The bullets were done by painting them all gold first and then just painting the tips with bronze.

And that's one Rambo ready to raise hell again :)

Death from above

This is my attempt at a second world war figure that consisted of the famous Fallschirmjager or German Parachute regiment available from Andrea Miniatures. 


This 90mm piece consisted of the metallic figure together with the rubble scenery made out of plastic except for a few bits, like the pipes, made out of metal.


The scenery was painted first. Since this is depicting a bombed area ( supposedly the famous Montecassino monastery) i decided to paint it mostly grey and white. The whole area was given a black coating before drybrushing the whole thing with a light grey colour imitating the rubble powder that you get when a building is destroyed.


This was then drybrushed again with different tones of pure white to white/grey mix. A little brown was also added to the walls to create dirt. In some areas black was used to create the effect of a bomb blast.

As you can see there is lots of dirt including on his trousers and boots. All drybrushed with the grey/white mix.

The camouflage was done by copying it the best i could from the one in the box cover since this was also my first attempt at it. I think it turned out alright.

Seen from the back. Notice how the sack is a bit dirtied to add realism. The water canteen has also been nicked with metallic colour in some areas to appear worn and used. 

The gun was undercoated in black and then lightly brushed with metal colour to provide not only depth and contrast but also a realistic worn look. The bullets were done by drybrushing gold all over the casings and drybrushing bronze on the bullet itself. 

One German paratrooper ready for combat.

Sons of Doom

I love Conan the barbarian. It is one of those films that no matter how many years have passed you will always find it enjoyable. So, when i saw this 75mm Thulsa Doom figure from Pegaso Models i just had to have it.


Normally on some models you can let your imagination run wild when painting them but this is one of those cases when you have to paint it exactly how he was since it was a character in a film, and a popular one at that :).

The face was done using scorched brown as a primer, giving it all a wash with brown/black ink mix, scorched brown again and finally scorched brown with a bit of white for highlights.

Working with a black undercoat the question was how do you get shadows when everything is black?. To do that first you have to mix black with flesh tone, this gives the black a softer tone whilst still maintaining the black colour for the figure. Then i drybrushed all the parts that were black. Different mixture of flesh tone was required to produce the different tones of black to create the main colour and highlight.

The metal was simply drybrushed using chainmail and then a little mithril silver for some highlights. The leather straps at the front are actually a dark green colour along with his gloves. This is to vary a bit from the all black and to accentuate the fact that he is also a thousand year old snake. 

The snow part was done using baking powder believe it or not. Polystyrene is too thick to be realistic but baking powder has the right consistency to look real since snow is, after all, layers of fine powder stacked together. Get ready to make a mess though :).

The completed Thulsa Doom.

The Huns are here

This is my 75mm figure of Attila the Hun. Again it's a figure from the Scale 75 series and one difficult because flesh tones are the most difficult to paint realistically. If you can paint flesh you can paint anything. 

Once again i varied slightly from the original one on the box cover. The red sash was done by doing a red gore undercoat, followed by red/brown ink mixed together, red gore again and then blood red for the final highlight. The boots were done exactly the same way.


The trousers were first done in a black undercoat followed by a mixture of black and flesh tone mixed together. This achieves a soft black compared to grey if you mixed black with white.

The fur was obtained by having the whole thing painted black. Then drybrushing the cloak with a mix of grey, white and brown to create the hides of various animals that would no doubt have made up the fur coat.

Attila from side view showing the mix of white, yellow and brown used for the inside of the cloak. Also the grey stubble of the shaven head.

The finished Attila on his wooden base.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

This another fantastic 75mm figure from Scale 75. This was my second attempt at painting outside of Warhammer. This model looks like he is been chased by the enemy in some remote forest so, like the one on the box, i decided to bloody him a bit. 


Colour wise he was easy to do. The chainmail was done by drybrushing the metallic colour (chainmail it's called from the Citadel range) over a black undercoat. 


The leather straps were painted individually with a dark brown and the other metallic bits were done by painting bronze, then wash with brown ink and then drybrushed lightly with bronze again. 

The cloak was done in the same way as the crusader. Brown was drybrushed in successive stages over black undercoat, then white added to the brown for the highlights ( i.e. the raised areas). Once that was done the dirty, worn look on the bottom part of the cloak was drybrushed with bleached bone colour. 

Here is the wound on his head. done with a bit of black mixed with red gore ( red alone doesn't look realistic). For a wet effect a bit of gloss varnish did the trick.

The forest ground was done with paper mache. Brown was painted allover, then washed with brown ink, then given another pass with brown paint. For raised areas a little light brown was added to the original dark brown. Some static grass randomly scattered and finally some maple leaves to finish it off. Khaki was then drybrushed on the trousers, especially the knees, to create the effect of him having knelt whilst hiding plus for that realistic worn look.

Here is the figure finished and on his base.

Going Medieval

I love history, especially the medieval era, and this 75mm figure just caught my eye immediately. I loved the different contrasts of the chain mail together with the white tabard of the Templar Knights. This figure is from the Scale 75 range.

In the box cover the artists had painted the cloak in black but to me this did not seem very realistic since these men were supposed to be the poor knights of the temple. I chose the typical cloth looking colour for the cloak.


This was achieved by simply using brown dry brushed on a black undercoat. Several coats were needed to get the uniform main colour. Then  a bit of white was added to the main brown for the raised areas.

Since this figure is supposed to be in combat i put a bit of blood on the axe to further emphasize this. Note the blood spatter on the tabard done with a bit of red on a toothbrush and then "splashed" on very carefully. 

The box cover model also had one other thing that i did not think it was accurate for the Templar knights and that was the red cross. The artist had done a cross that, although looked very nice, it resembled the emblem of the knights of St.John. I decided to make it more realistic and go for the simple cross. 


This was done with pencil first and then carefully going over it with red paint.

The base i found was perfect for this figure. The oval wooden base fits the model just right. For the scenery i made the "rocky" part using paper mache, sculpted it and then let it dry. Then painted it brown, gave it an ink wash and then re-painted it again. Then a few bits of sand and grass here and there completed the desert sort of look i was going for. 

Voila, one crusader ready for battle.

My first attempt: Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great  (from Art Girona) is the first of the military figures i did right after having polished my painting skills a bit with the Warhammer series (more of this later). 


I choose to use acrylic paint from Games Workshop to paint the 54mm metallic figure because they were easily accessible to me at that time.

I have to say that at this stage my knowledge of painting flesh tones and/or cloth was still in it's infancy. Also it is due to note that i also had a very limited range of paints and brushes that is why i painted his tunic yellow instead of the more royal purple that probably would have suited him better. 

The tunic was done using yellow as a main colour, then mixing the yellow with a tiny amount of brown for the depth in the cresses and finally white for the highlight on the raised areas.

The bronze is simply done with bronze as the main colour, washed with brown ink and then given a light dry brush of the same bronze. A bit of silver is used to create the light reflecting on the metal. 

The main body armour was very simple to achieve. A grey colour was dry brushed on it to capture the raised areas. It really was a delight to paint that bit. 

Note that at this stage the figure is done except for the base which as you can see below, benefited from a simple addition of sand and scorched grass. All available from the Warhammer series. 

The transformation is great with only a little sand and glue.

The red cloak was done in several steps. Red gore was done for the darker, shadow areas. Blood red for the main highlight/raised areas and to even further accentuate the shadows i used a bit of brown ink in the recess. 

The figure in it's wooden pedestal giving him an even more regal stature that i think Alexander deserves.