Post by PitYak Studios on Mar 17, 2006 10:24:37 GMT 12
I don't like painting horses, and yet I still decide to build a cavalry based army. It was either a case of give up, or come up with a method of producing (fairly) convincing mounts quickly and painlessly. This is what I do...
I'm no equestrian, in fact I hate any animal bigger than myself, so my terminology probably doesn't stack up, but I'm sure you're not too bothered about that.
First decide on your colours. I use a simple method which ensures I will have a visually interesting mix of shades, in what I hope is realistic proportions, but also allowing for the speed painting angle.
I go for roughly 75% bay (red-brown with black mane, tail and lower legs) and chestnut (red brown all over) and the remainder gray (which includes white through mottled gray to black). Most of the remainder will be mottled grey, with perhaps 1 out of 8 black or white.
Slapping the paint on;
Start with a black undercoat. I most cases (certainly for my ACW army) saddlery and tack is black, so you don't have to paint them if you start with a black undercoat.
Bay - Dark Flesh all over bar mane, tail and lower legs, not worrying too much about how neat the divsion between black and brown on the legs is. Light highlights of dark grey on the mane and tail.
Chestnut - Dark flesh all over, but only as highlights on mane and tail.
Grey - stipple with mid grey starting from the middle of the back and working down the sides getting progressively lighter as you move down the beast. Try and keep the stippling fairly even around the animal (ie shoulder should be a similar colour to rump) Depending on how extravagant I feel I may go back and stipple patches of lighter grey / white over this base.
If you want you "gray" white, just use much lighter grey, or go over with white stippling once grey coat is done. Solid white horses don't look too convincing.
For black, just a light highlight of dark grey on the raised areas, slightly more on the hairy bits (Blacks are easy - just don't look too interesting, and I don't think they are so common in real life)
Now I give each horse (except maybe the blacks) at least one white foot (or sock or whatever they're called) picked at random. Generally use Bleached Bone or Commando Khaki, and just slap it on fairly rough, trying to avoid a neat line between the white and base colour. A white foot needs a white hoof, so that gets painted in with the same colour, leaving a fine black line between the hoof and foot.
Each horse (except maybe the black again) gets face markings. About 1/4 to 1/3 get a mealy muzzle, a fleshy unhaired area on the nose. Dwarf Flesh / Bronzed Flesh makes a reasonable good mealy muzzle. Then each one gets a white marking. These have all kinds of techincal names like "long snipe" and such, but basically I do either a short or long stripe, from the top of the head or the nose, or a stripe the whole length of the head, or a white face. White here isn't "white" but bone or khaki again.
Re-touch any tack you've gone over with the base colour (especially with grays as stippling tends to be messy) with black. If you want your tack a different colour (I generally give blacks a chestnut leather set for contrast), do that now.
Blankets, bags, bedrolls or whatever get hit next. I generally use a selection of flat earthy tones, and paint 1 or 2 items on each horse with a colour, move on to the next horse and repeat... then the next colour... until all your horses accesories are finished.
Hit them with ink; bays and chestnuts get chestnut ink all over, grays get black (White greys sometimes get chestnut too). Hit any chestnut leather with chestnut ink, hit any other furniture with black or chestnut, whatever seems appropriate.
All done. Now paint the other three dozen the same way.
I'm no equestrian, in fact I hate any animal bigger than myself, so my terminology probably doesn't stack up, but I'm sure you're not too bothered about that.
First decide on your colours. I use a simple method which ensures I will have a visually interesting mix of shades, in what I hope is realistic proportions, but also allowing for the speed painting angle.
I go for roughly 75% bay (red-brown with black mane, tail and lower legs) and chestnut (red brown all over) and the remainder gray (which includes white through mottled gray to black). Most of the remainder will be mottled grey, with perhaps 1 out of 8 black or white.
Slapping the paint on;
Start with a black undercoat. I most cases (certainly for my ACW army) saddlery and tack is black, so you don't have to paint them if you start with a black undercoat.
Bay - Dark Flesh all over bar mane, tail and lower legs, not worrying too much about how neat the divsion between black and brown on the legs is. Light highlights of dark grey on the mane and tail.
Chestnut - Dark flesh all over, but only as highlights on mane and tail.
Grey - stipple with mid grey starting from the middle of the back and working down the sides getting progressively lighter as you move down the beast. Try and keep the stippling fairly even around the animal (ie shoulder should be a similar colour to rump) Depending on how extravagant I feel I may go back and stipple patches of lighter grey / white over this base.
If you want you "gray" white, just use much lighter grey, or go over with white stippling once grey coat is done. Solid white horses don't look too convincing.
For black, just a light highlight of dark grey on the raised areas, slightly more on the hairy bits (Blacks are easy - just don't look too interesting, and I don't think they are so common in real life)
Now I give each horse (except maybe the blacks) at least one white foot (or sock or whatever they're called) picked at random. Generally use Bleached Bone or Commando Khaki, and just slap it on fairly rough, trying to avoid a neat line between the white and base colour. A white foot needs a white hoof, so that gets painted in with the same colour, leaving a fine black line between the hoof and foot.
Each horse (except maybe the black again) gets face markings. About 1/4 to 1/3 get a mealy muzzle, a fleshy unhaired area on the nose. Dwarf Flesh / Bronzed Flesh makes a reasonable good mealy muzzle. Then each one gets a white marking. These have all kinds of techincal names like "long snipe" and such, but basically I do either a short or long stripe, from the top of the head or the nose, or a stripe the whole length of the head, or a white face. White here isn't "white" but bone or khaki again.
Re-touch any tack you've gone over with the base colour (especially with grays as stippling tends to be messy) with black. If you want your tack a different colour (I generally give blacks a chestnut leather set for contrast), do that now.
Blankets, bags, bedrolls or whatever get hit next. I generally use a selection of flat earthy tones, and paint 1 or 2 items on each horse with a colour, move on to the next horse and repeat... then the next colour... until all your horses accesories are finished.
Hit them with ink; bays and chestnuts get chestnut ink all over, grays get black (White greys sometimes get chestnut too). Hit any chestnut leather with chestnut ink, hit any other furniture with black or chestnut, whatever seems appropriate.
All done. Now paint the other three dozen the same way.
