Shock As Sheffield Man Paints One Of His Own Collection

 It is by now a well known fact, which causes the more sensitive type of gamer to shake their head in disbelief, that not only do I not insist on my own figures being meticulously painted and shaded , but that I generally don't paint my own collection, because the last thing I wish to do at weekends is what I do all week.

So, you may - and here I ask the more sensitive fellows to sit down - be shocked to hear that inbetween coats of paint on the day's work yesterday, I messed around with a Laserburn figure I have sitting on my desk. 

I had decided that as part of my determined drive to remain all 80s and pure of heart, I would endeavour to paint the Laserburn project myself.

I really want to get a proper old school feel, adn the one thing which you saw a lot of in the early days, was the use of metallic paints. Enamels were pretty good in this respect and you could get some vibrant finishes. Of course, post-Star Wars armour started being portrayed as white on sci-fi figures, but metallic blues and greens combined with some cheeky uses of yellow, white and flourescent hues were all the rage.

Mid grey and fluo' orange always caught the eye, back then.

So, I have decided that for the most part, I will paint the forces of the Red Redemption in metallic red, with officers and nobles having a slightly more 'brazen' finish.

With this in mind, I started on a squad leader. I firstly undercoated the model with a Humbrol brass spray and then added a light coat of clear red from AK 3rd ed which gave a really warm reddish copper tone and defined the crteases in the figure. I then blacked in all of the non armoured areas, painting the cloak in a nice emerald green shade, and the tabard was highlighted with darl Prussian blue. 

The laser rifle metalwork was painted in a dark steel as was the sword hilt, the bitt of the rifle and scabbard painted as white 'armoplas'. Finally, I painted the grilles of the face mask, the helmet badge and cloak fastenings with AK 3rd ed metallic green, before the obligatory high gloss and matte varnishes.

The end result is a figure which is pretty much a dead ringer for the type of models I used to see in the collection of the senior service of gamers or on display games in the very early 80s. This bodes well for the project.

The Imperial forces, I have decided will be painted 'as per the rules' and not the usual red or white. The colour of all Imperial uniforms is sand, according to the rules, so, I've decided that's the way I shall go.

Stay tuned for more updates as the project unfolds.

TTFN