Painting An Army  

By Anthony Karl Erdelji

Up to the point we've been discussing how to paint individual figures. Now we are going to take a step back and look at how to paint an entire army. When painting a single figure all we have to worry about is that the colors on the figure do not clash with each other and help support the attitude of the piece. When painting an army the focus is on the army as a whole, and they must look cohesive when placed together, not on their own. Think of the army as one big figure, not hundreds of single figures.

What's Your Theme?

Before you begin painting, ask yourself "What do I want to create or show with this army?". Many great looking armies have begun with an simple idea and some paint and putty and turned it into an entire army. Its could be a famous rebel's mercenary party, an army from  certain country, or a sect within that country, or perhaps you want to use the colors from one army in history and use them on a fantasy army. Let your imagination run wild. Just two of the more unusual army themes I have seen over the years is a halfing army based off the goblin rules, complete with hot air balloons and pig draw chariots. Another was a Bretonnian army made up of characters from the movie Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail movie with charging "mounted" knights and their lackeys with coconut halves running behind them. Your theme doesn't have to be a radical as these two. It just shows what a good army theme can do. Having a theme makes it easier to overcome any mental blocks or color decisions that may come up while painting.

Color Selection

The most important decision you'll make is what colors to use thought the army and each unit. To keep the army looking as one group we'll need to keep our color selection small, two colors normally, three colors maximum. Using so few colors does sound like the army as a whole will not be very interesting, or realistic for that matter. I highly doubt that Magnarock, Lord of the Undead makes sure his legions of skeletons and zombies are all wearing matching tunics before charging into battle. However its important to remember that we are painting an army, not a single figure. They will look better as a whole if they are painting basically the same. With your two or three colors you can also add neutral colors such as black, white, or metallics, and you can use a few additional colors in small portions for your characters, but don't' overdo it. I like to keep one or two colors completely "off limits" and won't use these colors on any figure in the army. Again, this helps to keep the army looking cohesive and prevents your army from becoming rainbow colored.

When is comes to historical armies, it be comes necessary to bend or break this rule. Unless you’re painting a Napoleonic or Roman army, most armies in ancient history were made up of mercenary or levy type troops, like the Celts or Arab armies. These armies generally were not issued uniforms and so were dressed in all sorts of different clothes, armor, and many, many colors. Sometimes it becomes necessary to loose visual cohesiveness for the sake of historical accuracy.

The Test Figure

Before you start painting the entire army, begin by painting one figure. This will be your "test" figure to see how well your planned colors will look once on the figure. For armies with radically differently looking troops, such as Dark Elves with their Cold One Knights, Witch elves, and standard warriors, paint one from each unit. Your paint scheme may look good on one figure, but may not work with another troop type from the same army. Play around with your colors and adjust them as you see fit. Many times I'll paint up two or three test figures until I'm finally happy and have decided on my army colors. Once done keep these figures above your work area and refer to them when necessary.

The Clock Is Running

How much time do you want to spend painting your army? If you've painted your test figure you should have a general ideal how many hours it took to paint one figure. Multiply that by the number of figures you have to paint. You must also factor in how well you want your army to look when on the battlefield, and this will add or reduce the number of hours need to paint the army. Some may just want paint of the figure and to finish the army as soon as possible, a basecoat and wash being good enough. Others may want to spend the extra time of each figure and paint them to the best of your ability. It is up to you.

I have painted many, many armies over the past 15 years. Every time I have tried to paint each figure to the best of my ability, time being not an issue. I have come to realized that this is not possible. After painting the same figure over and over monotony sets in and without realizing it I begin to paint faster and faster with no regard to the quality of the paint job just to get the army finished. Perhaps the same thing happens to you. If not, then I salute you! What I have learned is to not attempt to make every single figure perfect, but just to paint them to a level one or two steps lower to what I deem perfect. When painting a single figure I normally use about five highlighting step and two shading steps. When painting any army I try to use only two or three highlighting steps and one shade. When I can look at the figure as say "good enough" I stop and move onto the next figure. While I do not want to rush thru the army, it does become necessary to paint a bit fast than normal just to finish the army before painting it starts to get boring.

Other time saving steps you can use are using color specific primers. Using blue primer on your Warhammer 40k Ultramarines will eliminate the need to basecoat them. Use brown primer on Skaven and you've just basecoated their fur. You can also pre-mix any highlight or shade color you may need, or pre-thin your inks washes and keep them in those extra empty bottles you have lying around. The less time spent mixing your colors means more time for actually painting your army.

Here We Go!

I decide to paint a Dark Elf army for Warhammer Fantasy. My original plan was to paint them as Drow Elves from the Dungeon & Dragons Forgotten Realms setting, but here I hit a brick wall. Drow Elves have black skin and to have this as the theme for my army I would need figures with a lot of skin to paint. No such luck. The Witch Elves have a fair amount of skin, but the rest of the figures from the army have only their faces and hands visible. Figures like the Cold One Knights have even less visible flesh. I could of still painted them as Drow Elves, but it wouldn't be the prominent feature of the army. Stepping back and examining the army as a whole again I figured that the most prominent feature in the army was armor.

Since my army's main feature was going to be armor I decided to make it more interesting than simple steel. My first thought was to paint it a dark gun metal blue, but this color was too far from a neutral gray and took the slot of one my army colors, leaving me with only one other color to use on the rest of the figure. I then figured that since these guys are covered in armor like your typical "shining knights", then I’d paint them as shining knights!

I broke out my Gunze Sanyo Mr. Metal Color paints. Mr. Metal Color paints are lacquer based and are extremely fine. Their Chrome Sliver would be the perfect color for my army. A mixed ink wash of blue and black ink would proved the required shade, and after getting the ratio right I mixed up a bottle of my armor shade and set it aside for the rest of the army. The armor trim will be done with Mr. Metal Color Brass, which I feel looks more "gold" in color than their regular gold paint. My normal shade for gold is chestnut ink, but this didn't look right my with MMC Brass, so I mixed together some yellow and chestnut ink. This gave a softer and more desirable shade. Due to the rapid drying time of the MMC paints, and since I can't get any lighter in color than Chrome Sliver, the highlights would be provided by a coat of semi-gloss lacquer once the figure is finished.

With the armor all planned out, I need to figure out what my two colors to use throughout the army. Purple and dark red were right out since these are the standard color to use on Dark Elves and I wanted something different. I first thought a dark royal blue would go well with my shining knight theme, but I then thought a lighter color would go better with the bright silver armor. A few experiment with different shades of blue, I decided on Aquamarine, a mix of blue and green. The benefit of using this color is that it allows me to dip into green and blue shades on special models without straying too far from my original color. My other color will be orange, blue's complementary color.

For the flesh I  decided not to use my normal flesh colors, or the pale flesh which is considered standard for Dark Elves. Instead I went with Testors Raw Sienna, shaded with Testors Raw Umber with a touch of black, and Coat d'arms Flesh added for highlights. This gave my elves an almost Middle Eastern feel, which with my bright colors adds an exotic element to my elves, and thus, my theme! Desert Elves!