Step-by-Step: Idrian Skirmishers

OK, back in the saddle...

A while back, I started up a unit of Menoth Idrian Skirmishers. No excuse really, other than I was running out of things to paint for my Menoth forces. I played them in one game when they were just primed. Misused them and got them all killed by Gators. Well, they're probably OK if you can keep them out of melee.

Anyway, I took some photos of the unit as I was going through the various steps of painting them. As usual, the project started with cleaning, mounting, basing, priming white and inking. Pretty standard stuff. Most of the figures are single casts, which moves the project along nicely.

I started on the skin. I used Foundry's North African skin shades, and this seemed to work out quite nice for the theme of the unit.

Next, I moved on to the turbans and white pants. I used P3's Menoth White shades here, and also washed the areas with a very thinned down P3 Gun Corps Brown. In this pic, you can see a base-coated turban on the left, and a highlighted version on the right.

Next I moved on to the brown leathers. I used P3 Beast Hide and a darker brown wash to get the base color down, and then highlighted with a khaki.

Next I started into the metals. This included some bronze armor on the leader, swords and skirt metal plates. I also began working on the guns at this point.

Then it was time to do the rest of the cloth. I had a good experience with Foundry's Base Sand colors when I was doing my Saxon Orrik model, and just went ahead and used the same paint progression here. It creates a subtle shade that's different from the Menoth White cloth, and also transitions well into the leather brown I used. Like it, Centurion, like it.

After this, it was all about the details. Finishing faces, getting some Sanguine Red into several of the models, finishing the guns, the hair and all those damn straps and leather fittings. For a crappy unit that can fly off the board...there sure is a lot of detail to paint into each figure.

Fortunately, the project was interesting to paint. Among the unit's 12 pieces, there's a variety of poses, clothing and so on. I like 'em.

Flat coat and a little static grass, and Bob's your uncle. A unit of Idrian Skirmishers. I think I would only play them with Testament of Menoth...but that does happen once in a blue moon, so I suppose these guys will see the game table at some point in the future.

In the mean time, it's "into the bag" with you guys!

'Til next time!