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Saxon Warrior King with Sutton Hoo helmet


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This is for the "Best of British" display that Britmodeller.com will be doing at this years UK Nationals. Picked it up at the Sutton Coldfield show as a birthday present from my boy - we went to Sutton Hoo earlier this year and he loved it, so he was quite excited to see this.

So far all I have done is clean up the parts and prime it with Halfords Grey Primer. A few little blemishes that will need filling, but there is also a small gap underneath the cloak on the left shoulder that might need some attention.

Really looking forward to painting this - my first proper figure (pilots and tank crews don't count)

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And here is a replica of the famous helmet as worn by my son

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OK, I followed the advice I've read elsewhere "paint in the order you would get dressed" and did the flesh first. Base coat was a 50:50 mixture of Humbrol flesh and Khaki Drill. Then when dry I added a wash of Tamiya Brown in Klear/Future which also adds a glossy sheen to the skin

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Then I did a dry-brush with Humbrol Flesh mixed with Light Stone. I've also started on some of the base colours for other items of clothing

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I've always admired knight figures.....either European of Japanese Warriers. And yours looks like an excellent figure and the painting looks like you've got the tones just right. The fun part is drybrushing the chainmail.

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Thankyou for the encouragement - now I have a question.

What colour do you suggest I paint his tunic? (Cloak is khaki, belt and scabbard will be emerald green)

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Thanks for looking

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What colour do you suggest I paint his tunic? (Cloak is khaki, belt and scabbard will be emerald green)

Good looking so far. Sorry it took so long to respond but I though about it this weekend. You probably already painted the tunic since this was posted days ago, but here is my opinion...

I tend to try to limit the colors and then unify the colors on a figure by having one of those colors act to harmonize the other colors. Since so much of this figure is to be beige then muted colors like brown/tan/beige would be the predominant theme color. I think a deep rich color for the tunic would be appropriate so I tend to favor a green base for this area.I would paint the tunic a mixture between the base beige and a dark green. Adding a slight bit of beige to the green then adjust to create a pleasing color. You could go deep green alone or even a brown also. Using more dark green or dark brown to the mix for the shadows and more beige/off white for the highlights. This should create a green brown. I would also consider painting the belt leather as well as the leg wraps/straps, either with a dark brown base or a brown black base color creating either a brown leather or black leather appearance.

I think the visual focus on this figure will be the sword, helmet, and cloak so the cloak should be somewhat muted.

The belt being a different color will create a little more contrast between the belt and the cloak than if both are greenish.

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Following the advice of someone on Historicus Forma I redid the chainmail - I repainted it in a darker metallic colour (Boltgun Metal from Games Workshop) then a black wash, then dry brushed with GM Chainmail.

For the tunic I decided to use a dark blue, but do I need to dry brush the highlights with a lighter blue do you think?

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I've painted the basics of the helmet and scabbard, but they both need washes and highlights

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The cloak I'm having more problems with - I did the inside first, but I'm really not happy with the look of it after washes/highlights, but i'm not sure what's wrong and how to do it right.

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As ever, all comments, criticism, advice and encouragement welcome - thanks for all those who've replied so far!

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Doesn't look too bad to my eyes.

I'll give you my 2c for what its worth. I've found that dry brushing as a technique becomes less useful the larger the scale of the figure goes.

Its a great technique for picking up surface detail and textures, and in smaller scales its an easy option for general work. As the scale increases, the folds and such become larger and smoother and less optimal for dry brushing. Eventually, I find I end up highlighting the brush strokes from the previous coat

This is probably why a good many 'serious' figure painters tend towards using oils (or paints with a long 'wet' life) and use blending techniques instead.

I've run into the same problem in the past. Techniques that work fine with smaller figures (54mm, 1/48, 1/35) don't always work as well on the larger stuff (120mm) As a result I've stopped even trying to do the larger stuff, as I just couldn't get it to come out looking 'right'.

I've tried working with oils, mostly for faces. When it works right, its stunningly good, even on the smaller scales. But like any new technique it takes some time and practice, and I just never really quite mastered it.

Somewhere in box I have a small book on painting figures using acrylics that had a 'filter' technique that looked like it might work well.

Unlike regular 'wet' blending, the shades are applied as very thin coats on top of the base colour in multiple passes, with very gradual changes in shade.

I'm not sure if this helps any, but I can certainly sympathize.

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Following the advice of someone on Historicus Forma I redid the chainmail - I repainted it in a darker metallic colour (Boltgun Metal from Games Workshop) then a black wash, then dry brushed with GM Chainmail.

I think I would rewash the chainmail again with a dark brown-black wash and then very slightly hit the highlights with the Chainmail. You really want the recesses between the links to be dark and it appears the dry brushing was a little too strong. I usually go very sparing with the highlights and find GW Chainmail to be very bright.

For the tunic I decided to use a dark blue, but do I need to dry brush the highlights with a lighter blue do you think?

Like Matt said, I also don't think dry brushing works well for fabrics and bigger scales. I however, really like acrylics and you can achieve a blended appearance using a layering technique. Sometimes you use three colors such as a base, a shadow and a highlight. But often times I even create more gradations between the colors. I usually apply the base color overall then take the base and add drying retardant then add the highlight about 50:50. I then apply this to the highlights covering the area where the highlight starts completely. Then I either add a little more highlight and then cover a slightly smaller area of the highlight or just go with straight highlight color. As you can see, this gradually adds layers covering progressively smaller portions of the total highlight area.

I do the same for the shadows but usually find I don't make as many color gradations. One word of advice for shadows it to avoid the use of black to darken the base color. For the blue, I would use a darker blue but if you don't have one then use a dark green, brown, grey, but try to avoid black. An artist friend of mine said there is no black in shadows (well she said more about color theory, but she said just remember there is no black in nature!). Sometimes you do use black, like for the shadows of dark grey but you will be amazed at the results you get when using other colors for shadows instead of black!

...the cloak I'm having more problems with...

the highlight looks chalky. Try to avoid mixing white to create the highlight since it can create a chalky look as the highlight. For beige, I tend to use ever so little of an off white or pale yellow or light brown and try to make sure the paint isn't too thick. I think beige is hard to get the highlight right but with very thin layers, built up, you can do it. Thin coats give you better control.

Another help with shading the is to use a bright light over the figure to emphasize the shadows and highlights. I find this helps me determine the extend of the shading. Just keep the light at a consistent position. Look at how the light is hitting the cloak in the picture and try to emulate this with your shading.

I think the shadows on the far right crease and the upper part of the second from the left crease on the cloak appear too dark and would guess that you used black to darken the base color. I would try layering with a lighter brown and go darker as needed. The inside will be overall much darker so, again, use the overhead light to show you how to shadow this area.

A good book to help with acrylic painting as well as basic color theory is the new edition of How to Paint Citadel Miniatures. It is pretty cheap but very helpful. You may think it is only for gamers, but a lot of the information is just good basic painting techniques. I got a copy for my son a few months ago and I have just about worn out the binding looking at it so much since then.

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AMAZING!!

Looking every inch a Saxon Warrior King.... the MASK will set the whole figure ...

What if you were to piant some dark and light colors on the cloak to give the impression of fold falling around the King as and when he wears it...

a bit more shades of light ad dark in smaller strokes at ceratin pint on the cloak...to give creases a heightened awarenes to make the cloak appear 3 dimsional rather than "flat"

Dont get MEwrong It looks fne but you asked what you could do so I suggested this..

HOLMES. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

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Wow, who makes a Sutton Hoo cake, and how did you know about it? Anyway

Thankyou for all your advice so far gentlemen 0:-)

I redid the chainmail with another black wash - I would repaint it with a much darker base colour and start again, but I'm afraid of obscuring the detail, so it will have to do for now. Also blocked in the belt and put lighter highlight wash on the tunic, although you can't really make that out.

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I also had another bash at the cloak. Using the Khaki Drill base I added Khaki for the shadows and Israeli Sand for the highlights, thinned them, applied a coat, then tried to blend them in. The effect is quite subtle, but I was afraid of over-egging the pudding.

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I also think I may re-paint the grass in a brighter base colour, bit dark I think. Couple more pics in different lighting

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As always, advice, critcism and encourgement welcome! [:]

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Looking real good! I am not trying to be a know-it-all or hog this thread, but I really like talking about painting and thinking about how colors blend, integrate, and change when mixed. I have an artist friend who I just love to pick her brain about such things and then apply them to my figures and to a much lesser extend my AC models.

I like the flatness of the cloak. Cloth tends to be very flat and you have gotten that well represented on the cloak though the shirt is a little shiny. The color transitions on the cloak look really good. You have a subtle transition on all the convex ridges except the left side of the second ridge on the back part of the cloak. I would make a mix of the base and the highlight and try to hit that area again. So with that said, I would try to smooth out the line between the darker color along the side of the cloak ridge and also try for a little softer transition. It will likely only require a stroke or two along the ridge.

I tend to feel that going from darker to lighter areas is easier since you are usually adding white or a light color to the base and as I mix more colors with extender the colors get more dilute and subtle, making building colors easier, creating opacity, and allowing for more subtle transitions. I use to paint from the lighter areas to darker areas but over time I seem to have transitioned.

Another technique to play with is actually blending the colors. It requires two brushes and it helps if one is a flat brush. You apply the color to either the highlight or shadow and then wipe with the flat brush to blend the color. For example, apply the highlight then wipe with a clean flat brush from the darker color toward the highlight and remove some of the lighter color in the transition area leaving the highest area untouched. I use this on skin a lot. I think this really works well and just takes a little practice.

As you mentioned, subtle details and colors that look good to the naked eye may lose detail on photographs since photography tends to require exaggeration of colors to appear right to the camera.

Please keep the images coming!

Edited by T-bone
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  • 3 weeks later...

Raedwald, King of the East Angles

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Ruling the Saxon kingdom in South East England from 600 to 624 AD, Raedwald is the King most commonly identified with the famous Sutton Hoo helmet. The most powerful monarch of the various kingsoms in England at that time he was also the first Saxon ruler to receive a Christian baptism, possibly at the hands of St Augustine himself.

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The figure is Andrea Miniatures, 54mm and very enjoyable it was too :P Thanks for all the encouragment and advice, it has been appreciated. I know this isn't going to win Euro Militaire, but I am happy how it turned out for a first attempt, and I will be buying another figure at the UK Nats this weekend.

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