The Green Tide

This is where it all started for me, with the Warhammer series from Games Workshop. I had began painting Warhammer years ago with the Skeleton army but not only did i not have the know how but i also lacked severely in other areas such as paints, brushes and basically anything else. Needless to say that the outcome of the skeleton warriors left a lot to be desired.


However, that crappiness of a skeleton army did provide the basis for my love of painting fantasy figurines although it would be years before i attempted it again; and i have my wife to thank for that.


The first picture you see is my first attempt after the skeleton army and it is the starter kit for the battle of skull pass. Basically this box brings ten goblin warriors, a paint brush, six paint set and the instructions on how to paint them step by step in the most basic manner possible.


As you can see the results are not wow, in fact they have no depth or highlight. They have been painted in what it is called flat colour. To be fair this is not really designed for you to get all pro on them but to give you a taste of what it takes to do this figures. The pro came a bit later with much practice and effort, not to mention more brushes and a whole range of paints.

This was the second unit of Goblins that i painted ( i decided to stick with the Orc & Goblin army, what the hell), they are the Goblin Wolf Riders. Even now you can clearly see a very dramatic progression from my other Goblin unit. 


This is when i was taught drybushing which i used to very good effect when painting the fur of the wolf mounts. I was amazed at what results i could obtain with this method and it is one that has been the most useful of all even until now.

This is the Wolf rider's boss. With Warhammer armies every unit has a champion, musician and a standard bearer. Of course you don't have to have them but it helps when playing the fantasy battles, something that i still have not done, I'm more in it for the painting aspect of it. 


Not only did i began with the drybrushing of units but now i concentrated more on finer details of painting models, like the eyes, teeth, etc..

The standard bearer picture was done first in pencil and then carefully with black paint. In some areas i used codex grey to define the skull better with depth.


The finished Goblin unit ready to charge the enemy's flank. 

Lords of the Rising Sun

This is my 54mm, 13th century Samurai warrior from Andrea miniatures. This is one that you can really go all out in the Kimono, especially when you see the one in the cover.

The Kimono as you can see was done simply with orange as the main colour, a bit of brown ink for the recess for the shadows, lighter orange for highlights on the raised areas and finally a few stripes to make some sort of pattern.


I wanted to keep it simple, not only because i am not very good at free hand painting but also the fact that not all Japanese Kimonos were intricate in their designs. I think the outcome looks good.

The Armour was done by giving it a black undercoat to start with and then having the whole thing drybrushed with gold. I always thought that black and gold form a very good partnership.


The ribbons behind were drybrushed very carefully with red. Any mistakes like a bit of red going on the gold could be simply covered up with drybrushing that area with gold again.

The Japanese liked to use colour in their Kimonos and that also included their socks so i decided to give him some purple coloured socks with white polka dots to match. The dots were done with a toothpick. Dipping it first in pure white and kind of stamping it once in the desired area.  

The sword scabbard was done with pure red and then glazed with gloss varnish to give it that same shiny look that the Japanese sword masters used to give their swords when finished. 

Since the base was small i simply used PVA glue all over the base and used static grass to finish him off. There you go, one Samurai warrior ready for battle.