Welsh Horsemen

[James Morris]

I know it's not a new technique, but the availability of colour spray primers from Army Painter and a need to get figures painted more quickly have led me to try some experiments using oil paints. I started with some Perry Beja for the Sudan (see separate thread), but also got waylaid by the mountain of unpainted Welsh cavalry in my bits box.

So, here's my first new Welsh cavalry unit:

The warband, riding down from the valleys. I've favoured white shields due to the references in Y Gododdin to 'icy-hued' and 'chalked' shields.

One of the horses, with Leather Brown undercoat followed by a layer of Lamp Black oil paint wiped off with a sponge. It did take 4 days to dry but was a very quick way to get shading on the models.

3 of the horses - I experimented with a range of effects. The left hand horse has a Leather Brown undercoat, the other two Desert Sand. I didn't like the effect on the middle horse so he's waiting for a repaint!

The chieftain...

..and his horse in progress.

Another warrior. All figures are Gripping Beast, by the way.

[Axebreaker]

The results are very nice!

Christopher

[James Morris]

And the rest of the pics...

This figure's sword really is shining - no photoshop here! I scraped off the black undercoat so you can see the metal, and it just reflected the light as I took the photo.

After the oils had dried, I painted in the details like the reins and manes/tails with acrylics.

This chap looks like he's guarding the valleys...

A couple of warriors with a standard. The flag is a photocopied, trimmed and painted design from a Celtic art text book. It's probably not authentic for the 6th/7th century but I like the effect!

The chietain leads his combrogi off to ambush some Saxons. Good luck to him!

I'm fairly pleased with the results, so I've just undercoated another 50 horses and ponies to get my Welsh and Pictish cavalry divisions under way. Next experiment will be trying white and grey primers to see if I can recreate those white horses mentioned in Y Gododdin...

[TWD]

Very nice James, ten down, 290 to go

[Ragnar]

James, I have always liked your painting, but these seem to top it.

[janner]

Goodness, this technique takes me take. It was all the rage in the 80s and certainly is a good representation of horse flesh.

Great stuff

[Axebreaker]

Yet even more nice work!!

Christopher

[Codsticker]

I didn't like the effect on the middle horse so he's waiting for a repaint!

Just give him a flaxen mane and tail and call him a Palomino.

[James Morris]

I didn't like the effect on the middle horse so he's waiting for a repaint!

Just give him a flaxen mane and tail and call him a Palomino.

There ain't no palominos in Y Gododdin, no siree!

Just imagine:
'It was true as Cadfan spoke
Marchlew hurled spears from a leaping palomino.' (shudder)

[Pendraig]

Very nice ... interesting choice in colors

[scrivs]

They look fantastic. Look forwards to getting a game in against them soon.

[GuitarheroAndy]

Aha!!! Once again, Mr Morris, you raise the bar several notches!!! Very nicely done sir!! The horses look really good with your oils technique.
I have a few combrogi models primed and ready to go myself following our discussions at the weekend and hope to tackle them this week.

Hmmm...white horses...difficult at the best of times...

[GeorgeC]

Outstanding, as ever. Like Janner said this is a technique I had used years ago but given up. I always found judging when to do the sponging difficult, especially as oil drying is so dependent on room temperatures etc. I got tired of ending up with a completely wiped horse or one I needed to dip to remove excess paint. Adding Windsor and Newton oil paint medium apparently accelerates the drying process but I never mastered it and the bottle looked pretty solid when I looked last night. However, you have inspired me and I will give it another go having seen your results

[Hendrid]

Very nice looking cavalry, certainly eye catching. Never tried the technique but it looks to be very effective.

[Matt1066]

James,

They're are superb! The oils technique for horses looks very promising indeed. I shall have to dig out my copy of Foundry's Kevin Dallimore book. Was it just lamp black oil paint?

Thanks

Matt

[James Morris]

James,

They're are superb! The oils technique for horses looks very promising indeed. I shall have to dig out my copy of Foundry's Kevin Dallimore book. Was it just lamp black oil paint?

Thanks

Matt

Cheers, Matt. Oil paints used were Lamp Black, Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna. I did some mixing between these to try and get the right effect - the Burnt Sienna was a bit light by itself (see the pic of the horse I didn't like, the 'palomino'). I found these two websites useful, having not used oils for figures before:

http://onemanhisbrushes.blogspot.com/se ... bel/Horses
http://itinerantwargamer.blogspot.com/2 ... orses.html

[bigredbat]

Great horses! Must try the oils again, myself.

Simon

[The Dragon King]

Fanstastic work i think the colours work well i can just see them riding out of the mist hornes blazeing