PAINTING THE OATHMARK PLASTIC ELVES. PART 2.

THE BLACK BITS Belts, scabbards and other bits and pieces, colours as follows: 1.

Matt Black plus Skeleton Bone

2.

plus Skeleton Bone 3.

plus more Skeleton Bone

4.

plus more Skeleton Bone

THE SHIELDS & TRANSFERS This is where things are a bit different. The LBMS shield

Transfers are superb designs and fit the elf shields perfectly

well, but need a bit of careful preparation to get right (there are

also transfers for quivers and banners). However if you follow

the correct procedure they will reward you with stunning

shields with consistent and beautiful designs that are ideal for

the models. The first thing to say is they are not waterside transfers in the

traditional sense, in that you don’t throw then in some warm

water and watch them float away from the backing paper. Think

of them more as a kind of sticker and you won’t go very far

wrong. What you see when you look at the designs on the sheet of

LMB transfers is the surface that actually sticks down to the

shield or whatever, so it is in fact, a reverse of the final image

(this become more obvious if there is any writing on the

design). And so that final image is able to be seen through the

transfer as they are translucent, and this means you must to

apply them on a white or light surface otherwise you won’t see

the design at all clearly, (the printed transfers has no white in it

as it is printed on a RGB printer). All clear so far?

Well it’s not a complicated as I made it sound, as follows. 1.

Paint the shield Uniform Grey then Matt White as a

ground to the transfer. 2.

Then while that is drying thoroughly, cut out the design

you want to match the shield. Remembering the design you see

on the sheet is in reverse. I used my best pair of scissors to cut

Painting Elves

Above. The painted Elves.

out the main shape and a very sharp new bladed scalpel to trim

out the small cut-outs in the design. 3.

Peal off the shiny plastic film from the transfer as you

look at the design, now you have a sticky transfer waiting to be

applied to the prepared surface of the shield. Now the bit I

found most tricky, align your transfer and pop him in place on

the shield. Ouch. Now, all is not lost, if you don’t quite get it

right as you can peal him off and have another go but not to

many times. Best to have a few practice runs, not on the

models, to get the feel of it.

4.

Once you are happy with the positioning of the transfer

you moisten the white backing paper, which is now all you can

see, and it comes away with ease and quite a bit of satisfaction. 5.

To make sure the transfer is firmly down I burnished

over it with the round shiny end of one of my old sculpting

tools, if you see any trapped air pockets you can pop them with

a pin and rub it down. 6.

The last stage is to disguise the fact that you have used

transfers by painting the bits that show round the edges of the

shield. Sometimes, as I did, you may not get an exact fit of the transfer

and it leaves a bit of the white ground showing without any

design on it. Not only does this untidy but it completely gives

away the fact you have used transfers! I disguised this as

follows.

For the top blue bit I used Crystal Blue mixed with Matt White

to match the blue of the transfer, and then carried this over to

the edge of the shield too. I highlighted this mix by adding Matt

White. For the bottom halve of the design I used Drake Tooth mixed

with Filthy Cape, again carried this over the edge of the shield

as well, and then highlighted that mix by adding Matt White. Now that looks okay, but now to really sell the illusion, I

carried the sword cut-marks across the edges and sides of the

shields. Again highlighting these cut-marks with the appropriate colours highlight really finishes it off.

THE WOODWORK The backs of the shields, bows and arrows, and the spear, I have tried to paint a wood grain effect, sometimes you regret putting

the shield in a certain place and making it awkward for yourself

to paint the back of the damn thing! Colours as follows:

2. Trim out the small cut-outs in the design.

3. Align your transfer and pop him in place.

4. The moistened backing paper comes away.

5. Burnish over the transfer to get it down firmly.

1.

Dirt Splatter

2.

plus Desert Yellow 3.

plus more Desert Yellow

4.

plus Matt White

THE BRONZE I wanted a nice deep bronze to set off the light steel armour so I

used the colours as follows. 1.

Rough Iron 2.

Rough Iron plus True Copper 3.

True Copper 4.

Weapon Bronze

VARNISH Make sure all the paint on the model is thoroughly dry before

commencing varnishing. Gloss The models were then given a coat of Humbrol polyurethane

gloss varnish and set aside for 24 hours to dry completely. Be

careful not to let the varnish pool, especially under the horse

and on the feet. You don't need a very thick coat of varnish.

The woodwork.

Matt Varnish Then they were given two coats of Anti-Shine Matt Varnish. Be even more careful when painting on the matt varnish. When

applying the matt, brush it out well from any nooks and

crannies where it is likely to collect and pool.

BASING The bases are 25mm square plastic. I used superglue to stick the models in place, blowing over them to prevent the glue

whitening off on the models. When positioning the models I

made sure they ranked up okay with each other.

I then filled in between the models bases and square base with

household filler and then left that overnight to go hard. I then

glued on some sharp sand with PVA glue. When the sand was dried hard I painted the whole base with 1.

Leather Brown

2.

I then dry-brushed on Desert Yellow 3.

then I dry-brushed on lightly, Skeleton Bone I then added some flora. Lots of different Gamers Grass flock

tufts and then Gale force nine: Meadow Blend Flock, and they

are ready for battle!

ANOTHER ELF Elf Champion, Shield transfer by Little Big Men Studios. His

shield is actually the banner decal cut down to fit and amended

with painted on sword cuts. The proper shield decals don't fit

his larger, slightly different shape shield and I wanted him to

match the plastic elves from the box set. The scratches are very

much inspired (copied from) the LBMS decals. The figure will

never be available to buy, but he came free during the elf offers,

which is nice.