Two Henchmen & a Chest

Here’s a piece that’s been in the paint queue for several years. But as you can guess, I need it in an upcoming WHAT encounter. It’s the two henchmen from Reaper Miniatures Dark Heaven Legends range – 02548 Merchant & Henchmen. Though I painted the merchant some time ago, the two henchmen sat around partially painted for what seems like forever.

There wasn’t much paint on the model, so I decided to paint over the existing colors instead of stripping the model to bare metal. For me, the decision to strip a miniature boils down to whether adding new paint will obscure any details.

Wanting to continue learning how to use the Golden High Flow acrylic paints, I decided to use them on the clothing of the figures and dedicated miniature paints on the rest of the piece.

The Painting Process

• Priming
  • Primer: Liquitex Acrylic Colored Gesso – Neutral Gray Value 5
• Base Coats
  • Front Henchman
    • Face & hands: Reaper Master Series Tanned Skin
    • Coat: Golden High Flow Acrylic Phthalo Green
    • Pants: Golden High Flow Acrylic Transparent Brown Iron Oxide
    • Collar: Golden High Flow Acrylic Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium (2 coats)
    • Helmet leather: Reaper Master Series Ruddy Leather
    • Sword hilt: Reaper Master Series Ruddy Leather
    • Sword scabbard, belts, pouches: Reaper Maser Series Leather Brown
    • Beard & hair: Reaper Master Series Shield Brown
    • Metal bits: Vallejo Model Color Oily Steel
    • Boots: Reaper Master Series Coal Black
  • Rear Henchman
    • Face & hands: Reaper Master Series Tanned Skin
    • Coat: Golden High Flow Acrylic Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold
    • Pants: Golden High Flow Acrylic Transparent Brown Iron Oxide
    • Vest: Golden High Flow Acrylic Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium (2 coats)
    • Shield leather: Golden High Flow Acrylic Transparent Brown Oxide
    • Sword hilt: Reaper Master Series Ruddy Leather
    • Sword scabbard, belts, pouches, vambraces, boots: Reaper Master Series Leather Brown
    • Metal bits: Vallejo Model Color Oily Steel
  • Chest
    • Wooden slats: Reaper Master Series HD Woodland Brown (OOP)
    • Metal bits: Vallejo Model Color Gunmetal Grey
  • Base
    • Minature base: Vallejo Model Color Brown Sand
• Washes
  • Both Henchmen
    • Leather & metal bits: Vallejo Game Color Umber Wash
    • Skin: Warcolours Flesh 4 dilluted 8 to 1, water to paint
  • Chest
    • Wood & metal bits: Vallejo Game Color Umber Wash
• Highlights & Shading
  • Yellow Cloth: Golden High Flow Acrylic Shading Gray – Golden High Flow Acrylic Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium – Reaper Master Series White Sand applied as a gradient from shadows to highlight with White Sand as final highlight
  • Green Cloth: Vallejo Model Color Luftwaffe Cam. Green – Golden High Flow Acrylic Phthalo Green – Reaper Master Series White Sand applied as a gradient from shadows to highlight
  • Brown Cloth: Golden High Flow Acrylic Transparent Brown Iron Oxide – Reaper Master Series White Sand applied as a gradient from shadows to highlight
  • Red Cloth: Golden High Flow Acrylic Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold – Golden High Flow Acrylic Transparent Naphtol Red Light – Reaper Master Series White Sand applied as a gradient from shadows to highlight
• Sealant
  • Liquitex Professional Matte Varnish

Final Thoughts

You could highlight for several more hours, but this is a game piece, not a display piece. It is more than just fine, in fact, for most of us, just applying base colors & a wash would have been enough. Anyway, it is in a place I like, it will photograph well for my next game.

I’m really liking the Golden High Flow Acrylic paints. They have good coverage & don’t need a lot of thinning. Will they replace my miniature paints? Not all of them. Many of the Vallejo Model Color paints are mixed to match historical uniform colors & the Reaper Master Series flesh tones & leather colors are definitely top tier. But I think adding the High Flow Acrylic paints will inspire me to better painting.

What are your thoughts about miniature painting & paints? Let me know in a comment!

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