Painting Like a Mad Woman
In just three weeks I will play a Rally Round the King (RRtK) game pitting two Amazon armies against one another. It’s an opportune time to add a few units to the two armies. So I’m going to spend a little time painting nothing but Amazons.
What many of you may not know is that once upon a time, the Floozy had one hundred pairs of shoes. With one hundred pairs of shoes, there were one hundred shoe boxes. I no longer keep that many pair of shoes. I think I’m down to about eight or ten pairs of shoes. However, I kept many of the shoe boxes to keep things in. Thirty shoe boxes contain unpainted and partially painted figures. From a few of those shoe boxes I’ve pulled out 275 Amazons to paint in the next three weeks.
The Amazons are in various stages. Some just require a few details to be finished and some of them were still waiting to be assembled. About 240 – 245 of them are Eureka’s Greek Amazons. The rest are from Wargames Foundry, Reaper, Wargame Factory (now owned by Warlord Games), and a couple of other manufacturers I don’t remember off of the top of my head. Will I paint all 275 figures in three weeks? No, but it will be fun to see how many I do get done.
Getting Started
Whenever I start a new project, and sometimes for no reason at all, I clean and organize my work area. My work area is a small corner of my bedroom. It’s basically a bookshelf with one of those shelves that fold out into a desk. I have two desk lamps to give plenty of light. The shelves hold paint, basing materials, and hobby tools. To the right of the “desk” is a wooden TV tray which holds my Reaper and Vallejo paints.
Some of the figures were bare metal and needed some assembly – attaching shields and spears. Some of the figures had to be removed from bases. When I first bought the Amazons many years ago, they were going to be used as a Classical Greek army for Warhammer Ancient Battles, which is a game where figures are individually based. Finally, I have all 275 figures ready for painting.
Painting Rituals
I’m a slow painter, but I do enjoy the time I spend painting. The first step to enjoying a painting session is to select some good ambient music. I have playlists on both my iPad and on YouTube. I select one I’m interested in. Today’s choice is “Film Noir Jazz.”
The next step is equally important, selecting a relaxing beverage. Here’s what we’re drinking today (one of the Floozy’s favorites):
The last few years I’ve been priming figures with gesso. I use LiquidTex Gesso which comes in three colors, white, gray, and black. I primed the bare metal figures with black gesso and left them to dry over night. Gesso shrinks as it dries, so sometimes you have to do a touch up coat where it shrank to expose a small bit of metal.
Next Time
I was ready to start painting skin tones when I realized it was time to write this post. I’m going to continue working on the figures and will post an update next Friday. I usually paint skin first, then hair, then clothing, then belts and accessories. Once everything is painted, I may or may not give the figure a wash before adding final details and highlights.
I do wonder how many will be finished in time for the game. I usually complete twelve to thirty figures a month. I don’t paint every day and my attention span isn’t the greatest. The main thing is that I enjoy the process and not push myself to the point where painting becomes a despised chore. (If I do somehow paint all 275 figures, I will certainly brag about it for months!)
Atomic Floozy Adventures 