Painting Vor's Shard

By Anthony Karl Erdelji

I am always looking for new, yet quick ways for painting up armies of miniatures without resorting to the old standard of  drybrushing. Since the Shard are made up of crystals I thought about the technique I use when painting gemstones; Tamiya clear paint over a metallic basecoat. With some slight changes I thought it would be an interesting and quick way to paint them and get them out onto the battlefield.

I started by removing any flash on the model with a hobby knife and file. It is extremely important that I did this stage very carefully since I won't be primering or painting the model with the standard of opaque paints. Any imperfections left on the mini will show up when finished. Since I had only a few of the Shard models at the time of writing this I decided to add some variety to the army by bending the limbs of each model into unique poses. Most of the models have thin limbs which can easily be bent into new shapes by hand. Any multi-piece models were glued together with super glue. I was careful not to get the glue on the outside of the joints. They were then glued to their bases.

After all of the figures are assembled I washed them down with Formula 409 to remove any oil left on them from my hands or metal shavings. You can use some soap and a brush at this stage, but using a household cleaner such as 409 is easier and assures a clean surface.

Normally at this stage I would primer the models, but I'm  going to skip primering this time. This is why it is so important that the surface of the model be clean and free of any contaminants that would prevent the paint from adhering to the model. This painting method calls for Tamiya paint to be applied to a metallic surface. While I could of primered the minis and then basecoated with steel or a similar color, why bother to waste all that time when painting directly onto the pewter will get the same effect. 

Before I get into the actual painting of the model let me give you some information on Tamiya clear paints. Contrary to the name, they are not actually clear, but transparent. They are acrylic water-soluble paints, but their chemical make up is different from your standard acrylic paints. Along with buying the paint you'll also need to Tamiya thinner to properly clean your brushes. The colors available are  red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and smoke (black) so your color palette is limited to what's available, however you can mix them together to get different shades. The paint is rather thick, slightly thicker than milk. It is best applied with a stippling motion rather than brushing it on. While it takes a while to completely dry, about 20 minutes, it begins to dry and become sticky and difficult to work with about a minute after applying so if you miss an area its best to wait and apply a second coat rather than going over the same area twice while the paint is drying. The paint also has a tendency to eat through your basecoat if its brushed around too much, so don't go over the same area twice until the paint has completely dried.

Let's get on with the painting. I began with a wash of slightly thinned Ral Partha black wash for shade. When that was dry I began stippling on the Tamiya clear paint. I wanted to paint the "tendon" areas a different color so I was careful not to paint these areas. Since these paints are transparent any mistakes would show through no matter how make coats of paint were applies over it. After the first coat dried I painted on a second coat to cover any areas I missed and to increase the illusion of depth. I could of applied additional coats for a deeper effect, but with over forty models to paint time was of the essence and I was satisfied with just two coats.

The tendon areas were painted next with the same method as above. I tried to use a color that would contrast well with the rest of the body. You may wish to paint these areas the standard way with regular acrylic paint if you chose to or if you got too much of the Tamiya paint onto the tendons. If you did the later and still want to paint them with clear paint, touch up your mistakes with some sliver paint and give it a wash of black ink. It won't be an exact match to the original pewter color, but its close enough.

To protect the paint and to give our crystalline buddies some extra shine I brushed on three coats of Future floor wax. Yes, that right, floor wax. It gives a good shine, gives good protection, and at six dollars bottle its a lifetime supply. If it can stand up to repeated foot traffic on your floors, its got to be tough stuff, right? You can use a regular acrylic glosscoat if you wish.

Next are the bases. It occurred to me at this point that it would of been wiser to prime the bases before attaching them to the figures. So much for thinking ahead! I covered the bases with Basetex which is a paint and sand mixture. I then painted them with Vallejo flat earth, washed with Ral Partha brown ink, and drybrush the highlights with Vallejo Yellow Ochre. Two layers of Aeromaster flat coat was then brushed to protect them from wear and tear and to remove the gloss from the ink. When that was dry I attached some static grass with white glue and drybrushed it with yellow ochre. All done!

Well there you have it. A quick way to paint an army without resorting to drybrushing. This method allows for a great amount of painting variations. You can basecoat the miniatures with  metallic colors such as silver, gold, or copper. You can try Tamiya Clears over a non-metallic basecoat. Or you can use a lighter color ink to shade instead of black. A lighter color like yellow should make your guys appear as if they are glowing from within. Transparent paints are fun to work with. Experiment with them and I'm sure you'll come up with something interesting.