Evilstu's Historical Tinkering
Tartan Practice Run
Working on a 1745 Jacobite Rebellion force.
Before diving right in and overcommitting on a paint scheme that I would need to replicate on a whole unit (or army…) I thought i’d do a test paint on the piper as I’d never tried painting tartan before. Reasonably happy with the result for my first time around but I’ll have to see if I can find a way to speed up the process for the rank and file. I don’t mind spending 4 hours a mini on the centrepiece models as I do quite enjoy the painting process, but I would like to be able to field a force eventually and I’m realistically going to need a few dozen of these guys minimum for a Sharp Practice force, more if we count the tartan on the Government forces opposing.
In an effort to improve my tutorial game (channeling @amachan here) and to remind myself later, colours used were:
Red tartan: base of VMC 70.957 Flat Red, wash of black ink, repaint VMC 70.957 Flat Red on highlighted areas, mix of VMC 70.957 Flat Red and VMC70.970 Deep Green for the green stripes, pure VMC70.970 Deep Green for the green checks, VMC70.953 Flat Yellow then overbrushed for the yellow stripes.
Green tartan: Base of VMC70.970 Deep Green, black ink followed by VMC70.970 Deep Green highlight, stripes were a mix of VMC70.970 Deep Green and VMC70.918 Ivory, with checks pure VMC70.918 Ivory.
So pretty much this approach:
Cap was VGA72.721 Magic Blue, highlighted with a mix of VGA72.721 Magic Blue and VMC70.841 Andrea Blue.
Skin tone was GW contrast Guilliman Flesh over white primer, shaded down with VMC 70.836 London Grey, highlighted with VMC70.815 Basic Skintone and then given a targeted glaze of GW Reikland Fleshshade.
White was a combination of VMC 70.820 Off White or 70.918 Ivory depending on how white a colour I needed and what I had on the palette at the time.
Silver was AP Gun Metal, pipes were VMC 70.929 Light Brown and VMC 70.821 German Cam Beige WW2, Black was VMC70.950 Black and leather was VGA72.740 Leather Brown. Used my homemade black wash sparingly as required, highlights were a mix of base shade mixed with the ivory or off-white as was on my palette at the time.
So a bit more busy than my usual ‘max 10 block colours for tabletop and then AP dip’ but I’m doing historicals to try and improve my painting techniques a little after just spamming out fantasy forces of late. Am now at the point where anything else I try to do to the mini will probably detract from the mini rather than add to it, so will park it here, give a matt vanish tomorrow then try to up my basing game (which is another area I want to work on this year…)
Great work on the tartan pattern, @evilstu ! Wow!
Why thank you kind sir 🙂