SAGA: Ages of Ages
Speedpainting Spartans part 3
On to basing. Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted that I started this before the final paint step. Mixed Woodland Scenics fine turf scatter to form a patch of grass on between a third and half of the base. My Mediterranean basing scheme wants the base to look quite dry and therefore I leave a ptach of sand/stones with just the earth colours on in the final finish.
Then some static grass tufts. Mixed lengths and colours. This scheme is based around Gamers Grass Dry Steppe set. I do put mixed sets together myself but it is easier to use one of these commercial mixtures. A couple of tufts on each base genrally, two different colours. Sometimes only 1 especially if it is large or quite long, sometimes 3 if they are quite small.
A coat of matt varnish. I have an airbrush but prefer rattle cans for speed and consistency and because varnish gums up my airbrush every time (I do use fine needles). As Testors isn’t around anymore this is the current favourite Mr Hobby Flat Matt TopCoat. Pretty good even over high gloss when I’ve dipped them – no dip for these though as I didn’t want to dull the colours which are spot on to what I wanted.
Final finishing touch is some shine back onto the pointy bit. These Vallejo Metal Colors are intended for the airbrush but work beautifully as bright highlights applied with a brush. Just the blade gets picked out.
So there we go all done. He can join his mates in an 8 Warrior 1 point unit.
A small suggestion if I may: I think the embossed parts of the shields could go with a bit of a highlight. Maybe even paint in white or red? I don’t know how time accurate that would be but I would be tempted to at least make them stand out a bit more.
You are probably right – I um-ed and ah-ed about it for ages and then settled for the easier option, mostly on the basis that Spartans were boring ‘basic bitches’ and wouldn’t want anything so fancy as a painted Lambda when a plain one was available. Too late now – they are on eBay now so I’m not redoing them. Maybe if I do Spartans again I could change it.