Wargames Foundry Apaches

 Yes, that's right. Apaches.  Not my usual sort of painting at all, but I was given these (thanks Bodvoc) so I'd have something to use in games of Fistful of Lead, the original Western version.

These are Wargames Foundry and at one time I had quite a collection of their Old West range.  Back in the 80s Bodvoc and I played a few games of Foundry's The Rules With No Name (still available for free on their website).  I had quite a respectable posse of gunfighters, some Mexicans and several townsfolk.  

I got rid of most of these when my interests shifted, but came back to the genre with the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West game.  This time we tried 20mm plastics, of which I have quite a few left.

I have stated before that I am no longer playing historical wargames, well I'm prepared to stretch this a little bit, by including some small scale skirmish games that I feel are more about story telling, and certainly have very little to do with actual history.  For Western games, Willey Games' Fistful of Lead Reloaded should give a very cinematic rather than historic feel.  Certainly our experience with the Galactic Heroes version suggests a lot of fun. 

I'm not sure how many games of FfoLR I'll actually get to play, so I opted for a quick paint job, and that suggested Citadel Contrast paints.  I've seen some very good results with these (T'Other One has some excellent Contrast paint jobs over on his blog).  A good opportunity to practice with an unfamiliar paint.

The minis were prepped in the usual way.  The bases were removed and wire pegs inserted as they will be based on clear acrylic discs.  I had forgotten what a chore this is with metal minis.  The minis were then primed with Vallejo White Surface Primer to which I added a small amount of VGC Khaki and a couple of drops of Vallejo Silk Varnish.

Primed and with skin tones painted

Once the primer had cured I got on with the Contrast painting.  The flesh was painted with Citadel Contrast Guilliman Flesh.  Buff items, such as the buckskin boots were CC Skeleton Horde.  White cloth was CC Apothecary White and I used CC Flesh Tearers Red, Dark Angels Green, Iyanden Yellow,  Leviadon Blue and Space Wolf Grey for other cloth items.  Leather was variously Cygor Brown and Gore-Grunta Fur.

The Apaches with the Contrast paint done

Once all the Contrast paint was dry I went in and added details such as metal work and jewellery using standard Vallejo Game Colors.  I also highlighted some of the areas painted in Contrast paint where I felt they needed a boost, notably all the white areas, the dark blue jacket and the brown leather jacket.

Finally the minis were varnished and based, ready for action.

The results show what I can achieve with Contrast Paints.  I'm generally happy with them, some more than others.  Using the Contrast paint was a learning experience, and they are a fun group of minis to have finished.  I suppose I need some opposition for them now.  I have some Mexican bandits and a few cowboys somewhere, but this is something I'm doing to play in other peoples games, rather than putting on games myself.  I lack any western scenery for one thing*, and I think they'd look odd in Tatooine.

Finally a note about the Contrast Paints themselves.  I've used a selection before, and had bought a few when they came out with the intention of using them on my Trident Realm army (must get back to that).

This is perhaps the first time I've really used them with any great variety though.  I wanted to get a good result from just one coat, though I knew I'd be using more traditional methods to add details such as the various beads and feathers.  Some of the paints were very good, CC Guilliman Flesh and CC Iyanden Yellow, in particular, gave very good results.  Some of the paints looked little different from normal paint, Cygor Brown, Flesh Tearers Red and Leviadon Blue were bad for this.  Adding some extra highlights means the result is fine, but the point was to avoid having to do this.  Some of the paints did what they were supposed to, but the end result wasn't what I wanted.  This may well have been down to my choice of primer.  Perhaps a more grey primer might have been better?

I'll certainly use Contrast paints again, they have their uses.  For large numbers of minis, or when speed is important they may become my 'go to'.  I'll still use my traditional techniques form most of my minis though.

* Well, I could make do.  The dwarven shack might work as a prospector's shack, that is pretty much what it is anyway.  I also have a couple of sets of Whitewash City, PDFs of Western town buildings.  These might make a fun project, techniques pretty much the same as the Townscape buildings we have been doing.  But I neither need nor want a new project at this time, so that would be a long time in the future.