B is for Βυζαντινή

If you saw the B word and thought, "it's Greek to me," you're correct! It's Greek for Byzantine. Hopefully you'll also see a tight and bright palette here. All Gripping Beast figs and I should mention the warriors have lots of kit on them! 

TOXATOI: These bow-armed warriors come in handy with the SAGA battleboard abilities Massed Archery (fire over friendly units) and Support Archers (shoot into a melee disregarding friendly units in line of sight).  

KONTARATOI:  Spear-armed warriors.  The "prime white & wash with Burnt Umber ink" is back in play.  

PSILOI:  Javelin-armed levies. Even though levy foot are looked down on in Saga, I've seen them pull off amazing feats.  If nothing else, they soak up lots of missile fire and are a chore to destroy in melee!

My PC is still down, awaiting for a new video card and that's slowed me down.  Here's hoping that when it finally arrives, it fixes the problem.  The good thing about being your own IT is saving $.  The bad thing is making an educated guess and discovering you're wrong!  

Verdigris wrapup

I worked the Iwo Jima statuette over one last time to reduce the mottled look and make it predominately green. I do think this last push did the trick.

Nancy's call on the flag was spot on. She was quite happy with these pictures so with this, her keepsake is complete.

For comparison, here's how it started.  

Nancy's dad put his life on hold during the war years.  The end of WW II meant restarting his civilian life. Those postwar years must have been heady times, full of hope and promise.  For Nancy's dad, it meant returning to the US, marrying his sweetheart and settling down to raise a family together. Nancy shared a wonderful engagement picture of her mom and dad. I do think they're the very model of love and optimism!

Verdigris this!

Last month, my friend Chris asked if I'd paint a pewter statuette for his wife, Nancy. Nancy’s father served as a Marine in WW II and she inherited his Iwo Jima statuette. My friend wrote "the monochromeness of the piece made it look like a jumble. In person, the size of the Arlington piece and the dynamism of the poses makes it awe inspiring. For our little piece, I think color would make the marines stand out more and give the whole piece more definition. In my mind's eye, it would be really nice."

I agreed to paint it if I could do it gratis for two dear friends.  I'm honored that they'd trust me with this, honored and a bit nervous. Worse comes to worse, Pine Sol has my back, right? So, here's my Work in Progress.  The piece is fairly large; 5" tall, 5" wide and 8" long.  I suggested the piece could be reworked in verdigris. Nancy and Chris agreed to give it a go.

Prime black.  So far, so good!

Blocking a mix of bronze & brown for a weathered base.

Two heavy washes with GW Agrath Earthshade.  This turns out to be a bit of a misstep.  

I was tempted to stop here because the piece was looking quite nice! But that's not what I offered or what my friends agreed to.  Time to buckle up and move to the verdigris.

I used my brightest Vallejo blue and green, very watered down. The names on the jars are worn off but they're Game Color and quite bright.  I started with a 3-1 ratio of blue to green for the first wash and then in successive washes, I moved to 3-1 ratio of green to blue.  There is lots of flat space on these figures and the washes took me only so far.  For the last coat, I painting vertical highlights onto the figures, trying to mimic the weeping effect of verdigris. I did also try to mix in dark streaks but that didn't work in this scale.  It was looking pretty bright so I flattened it out with a watered Agrath Earthshade wash.     

Then on to the base.  I may need a wash to flatten it out as well.  

The final trick is the flag, and it's freaking huge. I'm thinking verdigris but that's not my call. The Arlington memorial is topped with a real flag and Nancy was thinking color at the start of this project. I'll confirm which way they want to take this-red, white and blue, or verdigris.   

This piece has been a riddle and a challenge. It's not like anything I've painted before but then again, it's good to get out of my comfort zone  I've really enjoyed seeing the piece evolve.  Here's hoping I get it across the finish line in good order!