Skeleton Horde: Simple Skull Shield Old-School Tutorial

Here is the simple skull shield design in question proudly affixed to my first Skeleton Horde spearman. He looks rather pleased with his flashy new shield doesn't he? Or her...

Afternoon all, and apologies for the quick snap of my latest Skeleton Horde recruit. It was rather bright when I managed to find a few moments to snap the final touch (though first picture) for this old school tutorial post. And I noticed I'd blobbed a bit of white on his right knee somewhere along the way. I'll have to fix that some time in the future. The Samsung camera on my new phone doesn't want to take decent photos of little plastic or metal men for some reasons. Probably my own ineptitude. 

Still, it serves as an example of what today's post is all about: an old school style tutorial. These days social media is awash with videos detailing 'paint like me' techniques. They leave me cold really and I can't get much from them, largely because the style of painting they promote is not the same classic style I want for this blog and my models. I much prefer the older way of doing things (this is a retro blog after all) and I expect a few of you readers will feel the same. 

Lord Caerluel inspired this post. We were discussing my first batch of proper skeleton figures and the hand painted shields I love doing and the suggestion of a guide to painting them arose. Well, what you are reading now is the sequel to that conversation. The audience of this guide is the novice old-school painter who has never tried anything like this before. I was once such a painter and used to look on in envy with those enthusiasts who seem to just knock out great hand-painted designs time and time again, seemingly without trying.

After pouring over many an old White Dwarf mag and a fair few false starts, I started with a John Blanche inspired face many moons ago and never looked back. Learning to paint again over the last few months, I found that freehanding designs for shields came back much faster than all of the figure based stuff such as drybrushing. Perhaps because I was working on a static flat area... who knows...?

So please do persevere if you really want to try this kind of painting out. It is a cliche I know, but if I can do it any one can. 

TIPS AND TRICKS

1) Work fast. I find that the key to painting shield designs is to keep all the brushwork fluid and fast. Don't hang about. A quick stroke looks more natural and 'artistic' than a wobbling bit of freehand. 

2) Use inks if you've got them for line work and water down your paint - this will help with the fluidity I just mentioned. Drying paint doesn't seem to move well on any surface but then I would expect you all to know that already being the grognards that we are. I don't want to teach you to suck eggs. 

From top left - stage 1 - 6

Stage 1: Clean up and undercoat your shield with the desired paint then apply your basecoat. I went for Skull White followed with Blood Red with this example. I fixed the shield to a 20mm base with Blu-Tak for easier handling. 

Stage 2: Dark ink wash over the top to add shade, dirt and age etc. I used Chestnut Ink for this but any shade will do. Use something that matches your base colour. 

Stage 3: Block out a rough shape of a skull using ink. I used Shadow Black but any suitable dark colour works. When creating a skull shape look for some reference material in the style you want. Painting an oval shape and then widening just above the halfway line is also effective. 

Stage 4: Basecoat for the skull, ensure you leave an edge. I used Orc Brown for this but any suitable tone will do. This colour will serve as your mid shade on the finished skull.

Stage 5: Black ink is used to roughly shape out the eye sockets, nose cavity and teeth of the skull. Don't worry if things look sloppy here as you will be painting over most of it later on. 

Stage 6: Bleached Bone highlights. Try and pick out the basic shape of the skull at this stage. Define the eye sockets, nasal area and the upper and lower jaw. Don't worry about the teeth. Leave some of the Orc Brown in a few places for shading. 

From top left - stage 7-12

Stage 7: 50:50 mix of Bleached Bone and Skull White to continue the shading of the skull. Focus on the same three areas as before. Then use a final highlight of pure Skull White around the brow, nasal area and the left hand side of the skull.

Stage 8: Black Ink clean up. Shape the eye sockets, nose and teeth to your liking. Once this is dry, use Skull White to sharpen up any further details. For instance, I added the nasal bone at this point.

Stage 9: Blood Red is used to work up the background to a more vibrant tone. Basecoat the shield edge with your preferred metallic colour (you can also use black, which looks effective -highlight this with Ghoul Grey or an equivalent). I used Mithril Silver here.

Stage 10: Wash over the metallic edge and create a little shading around the edge of the shield interior with Black or Brown Ink.

Stage 11: Highlight the edges of the shield rim with Mithril Silver and carefully dot the bolts around the edge. 

Stage 12: Highlight the edge of the shield in orange (or a lighter shade of your base colour) and blend the tone into your base but be careful not to obscure the shading around the rim edge. 

And voila, you have a shield. It is now just a case of waiting for it to dry and attaching it to your figure of choice. Once you have mastered the basic skull shape (have a few other goes at doing this basic design) you should feel confident enough to experiment. Try painting a skull without the lower jaw, or with vampire teeth or even my personal favourite: a residual eyeball in one of the sockets!

I hope this little tutorial inspires someone somewhere to have a go at freehand painting. Nothing sets a miniature firmly back in our era that a good anarchic hand painted shield design in my opinion. 

So what is stopping you?

Orlygg