WHF Empire Pistoliers. Army painter speed painting method

With the half term I have managed to knock out another four miniatures to complete my unit of Empire Pistoliers.

As part of my 'Tale of four gamers' Empire Army I have decided to give them a back story.

Their Leader is called 'Bullet tooth Antonious' who has false teeth make from the musket balls which are regularly dug from his flesh and armour.

Unfortunately the lead poisoning is making him slowly unhinged and therefore even more suited to his role as mentor of the 'Flashes'

This is due to Custorias' disdain for the spoilt brats of the Empire that ensures they are normally given the most 'noble' (i.e. suicidal!) part of his battle plan, riding out and gunning down Generals and other solos before being massacred.

The Pistoliers call themselves "The Noble Flashes" due to their lightening strikes. The Red caps dryly comment that they normally disappear in a incandescent flash and have nick named them "the 20 minuters".

I have decided to trial a new speed painting technique. It seems to give decent results given the crudeness of the technique.

The horses are spray painted brown.

The armour is sprayed steel and the sleeves red.

The capes are painted black.

Here are the bits all sprayed up.

Once the bits are dry I simply stuck them all together.

"Pro painted!!!!"

They look better then some of the 'Pro painted' stuff I have seen on Ebay! 

I then gave the bits like flesh, tack etc the relevent paint coat and most of the stuff got the relevant ink wash . 

Once again I used the Foundry Chestnut paint set. I find it faster to paint with then ink washes as you do not have to wait as long for it to dry and the transistions between the coats is really nice if you paint one coat over the other.

The cap feathers are just painted white and then given a wash of Gulliman blue.

With Antonious the leader, the helmet was painted Copper, washed with brown Ink, highlighted with Gold and then the inserts were given a couple of red ink washes.

The Pistoliers and Horses were given basic eyes as there were only five of them.

Close up of feathers and basic eyes.

I could have bought the Army painter dip and to be honest I have been impressed with the results it gives for the simplicity of the technique. I am not sure it is faster then just ink washing as you have to wait for the dip to fully dry and then give it a coat of anti shine varnish.

One thing I do know is using washes is cheaper as a tin of dip will cost close to £20 and then you still have to buy the antishine.

For the moment I will stick with a £3 pot of Agax Earthshade!

The armour was given a dry brush highlight after a wash of Nuln oil.

As I was finding the going quite quick I decided to paint the tack black leather. If I was really going for speed I would have left it rucksack tan.

Simple and effective a bit like my battle plans (without the effective bit!)

For the crudeness of the technique I am quite pleased with the results and they are more then sufficent for a mass WHF army.

I have also managed to move on eight more Skorne via ebay

Lets look at the numbers
Miniatures painted / sold this year = 89

Miniatures bought this year = 18
339 miniatures to go.