JOA Castle Painting – Unfinished Business

When I packed away the project last year I had already done a fair amount of work on the castle walls, the keep and a few  other bits and pieces.

Unfortunately they were not all at the same stage, and without the original paint scheme records, I couldn’t just pick up where I had left off.

The first job was to try and recreate a grey base colour as near to the original and give everything a drybrush to tie it all together.

Once I something that would do the job I just mixed up a big batch.  The paints I am using are some Liquitex, Windsor & Newton and Lidls Craft Paints.  All were bought cheaply over the years as the opportunity arose.

So this first stage didn’t appear to do much to most of the pieces but it meant the future stages all had pretty well the same base colour.

The next job was to bring the un-started turrent roofs along a bit.  I wanted blue shingles but with some underlying colurs and an old established look.  Using the art paints again I randomly dabbed Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, yellow, green and a very small amount of black on to them before dry blending the colours together.

I then repeated the process on all the other roofs on the castle sections.

After attempting to update the post at 4am this morning I managed to loose everything.  So trying again…

This is probably not the best way of painting but for giving a good variation of underlying colours and so a weather-beaten well established look to the pieces it turned out really well.

The next stage was to put a bit more colour on the walls – some green underneath the hoardings and on places on the walls, and some green, yellow and burnt umber around some of the bottom course of stonework to balance them and not look top-heavy.  I also used the same colours on the low wall pieces, the stone bridge and the rock formations that I had previously started last year.

I wanted the window slits lit up with the burning torches of the frantic be-sieged castle inhabitants all doing their bit to keep the castle secure.

I base coated each window with Citadel Averland Sunset and then a 50:50 water to GW Blazing Orange wash in parts of the windows.  I will touch these up again later with a bit of bright yellow and a gloss varnish to make them pop.

Back to the roofs:  I drybrushed several coats of GW Hawk Turquoise upwards onto the shingles on all the roof panels, and on the well that I had begun before.

I made up a few different cream colours and painted in all the daub panels and then washed all the timberwork, out-buildings, walkways and roofs with a very watered down Citadel Nuln Oil (over 50:50 water).

More progress in the next Entry…

Timberwork:  I used Citadel Snakebite Leather Contrast paint neat to pick out the hub, spokes and hatches on the tower floors, the keep floors and all the doors.

So that was the stage I was at 1:30am this morning.  I decided that it might be a good time to take a break!

One last job was to get out some foam terrain board and set it all out to sit back, drink tea and plan the next stages:

More Later…

This morning i put in a couple of hours doing the final (?) drybrush.

I mixed up a big batch a medium grey using Black, White and Yellow art acylics and dry brushed everything.  Mostly with a light coat but used the opportunity to tone down some of the more prominent background colours in places.

All that is left to do now is some detailing and finish off the windows but that can all wait for another day as I have some on-line group board-gaming scheduled shortly.

so here is the progress so far…

Detailing Day – A really slow and tedious process (but I had saved XLBS to listen to while I worked).

Back to the Windows:  I touched up all of the window slits etc. with a dab of yellow and white and after they had dried I coated them with Vallejo Satin Varnish (I was going to use Gloss Varnish but I couldn’t find it anywhere).

The next task was to pick out all the stones around the window slits and doors and do another dry brush of light grey over everything.  This wasn’t a dramatic step but helped give depth.

(The outside ones have been touched up and the inner two have not).

All the little bits – low walls, the bridge, the rock formations and the well were also given a dry brush of light grey.

Finally, with a 50:50 Nuln Oil dribble and a bit of Satin Varnish, the Garderobes were put into action…

So that’s just about it for the Joan of Arc Castle.  I will add a bit of moss and vegitation later, when I have done the town houses, Tavern and Mill etc. but for now I am happy to have done a bit of Spring Cleaning.

One last job… Set it all back up and take some more photos.