Kings of War, Kingdoms of Men - Speedpainting Oathmark Humans 5 - Bowmen

I've just finished the next unit in my 500 point Speedpainted Kingdoms of Men army, a regiment of bowmen.  You can see the Spear Phalanx here, the Mounted Scouts here, and the Hero here.

Preparation

I prepped these minis some while ago, and it's clear I missed some mould lines.  Still, its the overall effect I'm going for.  The Bowmen are lightly armoured, so I tried to remove the various metal studs from their leather armour.  These seems to have worked well, and gives a different look to the unit.  I also tried to remove the plates on some of the minis.  I chose bare heads or hooded heads apart from the leader to further differentiate them from the Spear Phalanx.  I found assembly with the need to get both arms in the right place while the glue dried to be tricky.  I made this point when building the Mounted Scouts, it wasn't much easier on these.  At least the next unit will be spears and shields again.

Priming

I used Vallejo Surface Primers with my airbrush.  First a black basecoat, then light grey from the sides and finally white to give a zenithal highlight.  I mentioned last time that I might just prime white, but I want all these units to match.

Speedpainting

After the Priming I painted in any metals with Vallejo Game Color Chainmail Silver.  Then I used Speedpaints in the same way as the earlier units.  

Learning from the Mounted Scouts, I painted the bags for the arrows in APS Pallid Bone, and I used APS Runic Grey for the hoods and cowls.  I gave the leader's red cloak a drybrush of VGC Fiery Orange as an extra highlight.

Varnishing and Basing

I gave the finished minis a quick spray of Humbrol Matt Varnish (because it was to hand) then on with basing.  I tried several positions for the bowmen, but the minis are really designed for 25mm bases, and, being archers, tend to be sticking arms and bows out.  I did find a layout that seemed to work, so, as with the Spear Phalanx, I glued the back row on, textured with a mix of paint, sand and PVA glue, then moved forwards.  In hindsight I might have been better starting with the front rank and working backwards, but I'm OK with how they turned out.

A quick drybrush of VGC Earth, then Bonewhite to make the small 'rocks' stand out, then I added flock and a few tufts.  

So that's another unit done, only another Spear Phalanx to do and the army is complete.  I'll get them started soon as I want to finish off projects ready for next year.