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The Curtis Corner
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Ptolemaic Phalangite Project:
Phase Three
The Underpinnings
Jeff achieves a very subtle effect in shading and color gradation. Since I
don’t know exactly how he does it (although I could guess), I’m going to rely on
layering and washes. For the first step, I planned to lay a dark color in the
deepest spots: up under the tunic between the legs, and behind the shield. I
don’t really believe Jeff consciously places color in those spots, but relies on
washes to do the work. I’m never really satisfied relying on washes for that; I
tend to get results that aren’t quite consistently dark enough.
So the first thing I did was slop some Vallejo Military Color (VMC) 826 German Camouflage
Medium Brown into those places. It was a thin coat of paint, laid in with a wet
brush. If you must know, it’s a workhorse brush: a Grumbacher Golden Edge
#1. It gets a lot of use for base colors like this. It’s old and worn,
and the tip is starting to curl, which is actually convenient for getting into deep spots.
This photo shows the medium brown in addition to the next step, the flesh
“shadow” color. As you really can’t see up between the figures’
legs, and all you can see is the medium brown behind the shields, there wasn’t much
sense in taking a shot of just that.
You can see that this went on fast, and it didn’t matter if some got slopped onto the
face of the shield, or onto the left arms or the thighs, or even… yes, I managed to
catch the edge of the helmet on the left-hand figure! No worries: it’s all get
covered by other colors, and it even works to add a little bit of a gradation under those
colors. The point of the exercise is to work quickly.
Again, it was a thin coat, which Vallejo provides right out of the bottle when well
shaken, and thinned a little by the wet brush. It reminds me a lot of what
“Uncle” Duke Seifried used to call his “stain painting” technique,
which he’d teach back in the late 1970s as he’d stump about the country peddling
his then-new acrylic range of Heritage Models paint. And it’s also reminiscent
of the effect that Hummel figurine painters achieve by using a thin coat of paint over
matte-glazed porcelain.
During this step, I noticed a few things. One was something I forgot to mention
during the assembly process: the Newline shields that Jeff supplied not only had two
different faces, but had a variety of backs as well. I also noticed some spots that
required a little more removal of mold lines. This is a good time to either file
those again and re-prime, or in a couple of cases, to start planning to conceal the
problem area during the painting process (if removing more metal would actually have a
worse effect). I also apparently noticed something about the straps on the older
generation of models. Unfortunately, at the time, I wrote down just “straps on
older models” in my painting notes, and I’ll be darned if I can remember what
that meant!
At the end of the first step, it was essential to go back and check each figure.
Sure enough, a couple had one aspect uncovered. Always double-check.
The next step proceeded directly after the first; with 35 figures, the first step on the
first figures was be plenty dry by the time the last one was done, even working
quickly. This second step was to cover all the flesh areas with a “shadow”
color. Now many of you will be familiar with the “Foundry” style of
painting, developed by Kevin Dallimore. This involves laying down a coat of a
reddish-brown color and then painting over two sets of flesh and highlights, leaving the
reddish color at the edges, and as lines to mark the boundaries between major muscles,
knuckles, and other joints. I don’t care for it myself: the result always looks
too much like a butcher’s meat-cutting chart to me. And it is completely
incompatible with Jeff’s more subtle style.
So my reddish-brown went go all over, but would probably be only directly visible right at
the edges of the flesh areas, if at all. It was there to make sure that there is a
darker boundary area in those places. It also served a second purpose, which was to
undercoat the flesh with a reddish color. I don’t know for sure that Jeff does
not use a “flesh wash”, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. I often
do, but did not in this case. Because I would be using thin layers of flesh color
over it, this undercoat would provide a subtle reddish tinge from underneath. (Jeff
has given his Egyptians—both native and those officers of possible Macedonian
descent, a fairly light overall skin tone. I may do something darker on my own.)
This flesh “shadow” was Golden (brand) Burnt Sienna. I like Golden
acrylics for their heavy pigmentation. This needed to be thinned a bit out of the
bottle to flow better, matching about the same consistency as unthinned Vallejo.
Once again, it went on fast and a bit sloppy.
No, that’s not really the same photo as above, just brightened. It was actually
zoomed in, which will teach me to stop doing that! But you can see again that
neatness didn’t count. Some went onto the armor and in other spots.
It’ll be covered with other colors: and as with the first step, these coats are thin
enough that they will not obscure detail.
I took care to get the flesh shadow into all the necessary spots, including under the
chin, onto the neck in front, and around the greaves on the figures that have them.
I went ahead and did the whole bare legs of the figures without greaves, as I planned to
paint the greaves over them as Jeff had done with his samples of the older generation of
figures.
I started to pay attention to the face at this point, and came to the conclusion that I
would change my plans a bit. I had intended to suggest eyes before the next flesh
step, but looking more carefully now, I could see that this might not be a good
idea. I don’t know who sculpted the first generation figures, but
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Rob Baker, who originally sculpted the 1st Corps
ranges when he started the company. These don’t look like his faces, which are
very identifiable. Their eyes in particular are awkward to paint, with prominent
upper and lower lids, with only a slit in between.
The newer generation of figures are obviously Rob Baker’s, the Curtises having gone
back to him to do the new Successor range. Now on those, I could have a go at
suggesting the eye, but it would be odd to have the rear rank figures more detailed than
the ones in the frant ranks. And looking at Jeff’s samples, I could now see
that he hinted at eyes for the rank and file, although he was more definite with the
command figures (see Part I). So I made a mental note to address the eyes a little
differently, but at a later step.
After laying down the flesh shadow, I went back and checked each figure. Sure
enough: I’d missed a face. Always double-check.
The third “underpinning” step was to lay down the base color for the
tunics. This was VMC 967 Flat Green. This went on again in a thin coat right
out of the bottle, using the same #1 Grumbacher as for the first two steps. I
applied it with a little more care, so as not to slop any over the flesh portions or the
areas of fabric armor. The only place requiring any special care, though, was laying
in a stripe on the upper left arm behind the shield. Here’s the in-progress
shot, now at a better camera angle.
In the photo, which has been brightened a bit, it appears quite light for a shadow color,
and it is. The thin coat self-shades in the recesses, leaving the raised spots
lighter. This is extremely useful, as it shows you right where to highlight in a
later step!
By now you know that I double-checked. No problems, but I touched up a few edges
while checking. Always double-check.
Now it was time for the fourth step, applying the main flesh color over the flesh shadow
color. I used VMC 927 Dark Flesh, still using the trusty #1 Grumbacher, which was
washed thoroughly between colors. Again, the paint was a thin coat, right out of the
bottle. But I did one or two figures, and didn’t like the result. It was
going to turn out too light in the end, and I needed to darken it and make less of a sharp
change from the Golden shadow coat. Well, the solution was right at hand.
There was still thinned Burnt Sienna nice and wet on my wet palette, and a brush-tip of it
mixed with each brush-full of Dark Flesh gave just the right result. I applied the
thin coat liberally, just taking care not to slop any over onto the tunic or armor.
(Yes, I was still practicing taking out-of focus shots!)
I did not worry about letting it flow all over the facial detail or between the fingers
and toes. Remember, I was not using the shadow coat to define the detail in those
areas. A later wash would do that. I just wanted to get a fairly consistent
coverage, and as with the tunic base coat, le the thin flesh coat make its own
highlights. The “Macedonian” troops in linothorax and metal helmet have
sandal straps incised on their feet; I went right over those, planning to pick them out
later.
At some point during this step, I laid down my cleaned Grumbacher #1, and when I went to
pick it up, I picked up a Winsor & Newton University Series 233 #1 instead! I
didn’t notice the difference for a while. It’s a synthetic brush, and just
fine for this sort of work. But I went back to the Grumbacher later, when I noticed
that I had inadvertently switched.
Double-check? Check. No problems. But always double-check.
The fifth step (or as it turned out, a series of steps) was to put down a base coat for
the fabric armor, both the (most likely) linen of the linothorax and pteruges, and the
cotton of the native quilted corselets and helmets. I thought about using just a
pure white and relying on the subsequent wash to tint it as well as defining the
detail. But then upon examining Jeff’s figures some more, I thought I would
give the base coat just a little more depth. So I took VMC 820 White and added just
enough VMC 977 Desert Yellow to make it just not quite blindingly white.
What made this more complicated than a single step was the fact that the new generation of
figures had a fringe of long hair peeping out from under the cotton helmet. This
meant that for those sixteen figures, I would need to do the body armor, then break to do
the hair in black, and then do the helmet. I did the hair with VMC 862 Black Grey,
thin enough that it self-highlighted.
Upon double-checking, I noticed that on four figures, I had managed to skip over the
pteruges on the left hip under the shield. So I did those quickly to finish the
step. Always double-check!
The sixth step involved the large metallic bits: the shields, the greaves on the new
generation of figures, and the helmets on the “Macedonian” figures. The
greaves for the old generation of figures would be painted on later, and the grips of the
swords and the chapes of the scabbards would also be last-minute detail work.
I made this step far more complicated than it really needed to be, but I wanted it to work
out the way it did! The first thing to do—and you’re going to be thinking
now that I should be committed to an institution, was to cover all those areas with a coat
of khaki: specifically VMC 988 Khaki. A crazy color choice? Maybe. But I
wanted to accomplish two specific things with it. First, I wanted it to be very
visible, so that I would be sure to cover over it in the following sub-steps and get good
coverage. Second, this particular Vallejo paint goes on with excellent opacity, and
makes a very smooth finish: just the thing to make a new starting point for the
metal—almost a second primer.
After the khaki dried, I went over it with the VMC 145 medium brown that I had used
previously for the deep shadows. It does not cover as well as the khaki, and
required two thin coats to get both good coverage and a smooth finish; using the khaki
underneath made a good indicator to make sure the darker color covered.
Then I went over the metal area with VMC 998 Bronze. It also does not cover well or
go on smooth, so required two coats. More importantly, it is nothing like the
reddish-coppery metal that Jeff painted his figures. That would be tough to
match. The VMC bronze is brassy and greenish. But it adds depth underneath
another metal color.
The final metal “undercoat” was VMC 801 Brass, but not by itself. It is
quite yellowish, but nowhere near as red as what Jeff had used. Indeed, I have
nothing like what Jeff used! The closest I could come was to add my favorite
metallic powder that I use when painting Bronze: Venus Bronze Powder No. 98.
It’s redder than the VMC Brass. When I use it on its own, I mix it into Delta
7011 Artists Gel as a carrier. In this case, I just added it to the Vallejo acrylic;
this made it slightly redder, but still not a good match for Jeff’s samples. In
the final detail phase, you’ll find out the secret of how I matched them.
Now Jeff did use a “brassier” or gold tone on the front part of the
“Macedonian” helmet, and then filed it in with black. I left that part the
brassy Vallejo bronze, and did not go over it with the redder brass color at this
point. We’ll see if that is close enough in the final steps. Here are the
unshielded sides of the three types of figures.
And here are the shielded sides:
Again, a double-check showed no missed spots, but it provided a good opportunity to go
over several shields with a thin coat of the final color just to even things out.
Always double-check.
The seventh step was quick and simple: just going over the straps from which the aspis
shields are suspended, using a darker color than the final highlight. One again, I
used the Vallejo medium brown. I did the sword scabbards at the same time, with the
same color. Here are the unshielded sides (on the “Macedonian” figure,
note the groove running diagonally across the torso and across the belt caused by drilling
the hands and ensuring they lined up to hold a pike; it’s not a flaw in the figure):
And here are the shielded sides.
A double-check showed nothing missed, but you know the rule by now!
Those are a lot of steps, but they took relatively little time. Working quickly with
thin coats, and working from inwards out, you automatically correct most errors as you go.
Now I was ready for the final detailing steps. But first, a wash would be needed to
pop out the detail. But since this section has gone on quite enough already,
I’ll cover the wash in Phase 4.