To the Beat of the Drum: Painting Pike and Shotte in Warlord's Epic Scale

In this tutorial, I explore how you can get the best results when painting Epic Pike and Shotte’s infantry from the Warlord Games’ range. Contrast paints are an absolute godsend for this type of miniature. These paints will bring out the sculpted detail beautifully with minimal effort.

I have painted the ‘normal’ infantry as Colonel John Talbot’s regiment; There were also several other Royalist and Parliamentarian regiments who wore yellow. The Scots mainIy wore grey; I painted all of the infantry wearing grey jackets and trousers for simplicity, although you could mix up the unit’s uniformity a bit by using CC Basilicanum Grey. I gave this unit standards carried by Lord Balfour of Burleigh’s Regiment. The paints I have used for the Scots will work perfectly for other greycoated regiments; if thinned, they will also work for units wearing white.

PREPARATION AND UNDERCOATING

The miniatures are mostly very clean. If you want a basic tabletop standard, you could go straight to the undercoat stage. White spray primer was used for the first unit in the guide. Note: if you have not used contrast paints before, they will not work over a black or dark grey undercoat.

A NOTE ON PAINTS

I have used quite a few different paints and inks for this tutorial; others can be easily substituted. Vallejo and Army Painter produce similar products in their ranges. These come in dropper bottles and are cheaper than the Citadel equivalent. I refer to Citadel as C and Citadel Contrast as CC throughout. If you have never used contrast paints before, the only ones I would deem to be essential for this article are: Garaghak’s Sewer for all the brown cloth, wood, and leather; and either Iyanden Yellow or Space Wolves Grey for the two main colours of the uniform coats.

COL. JOHN TALBOT’S REGT

Stage one: Basecoat 

The coat was painted in CC Iyanden Yellow. For the trousers I used a combination of CC Iyanden Yellow, space Wolves Grey, Leviadon Blue, Gore Grunta Fur, Garaghak’s Sewer, Fleshtearers, and Blood Angels Red. For the rest, see the general painting table.

Stage two: Washes and 'blacklining' 

I equally mixed SI Yellow and Red and heavily diluted the paint with water and matt medium. I washed this orange onto the coats and applied it so that it pooled specifically in the recesses and not all over the jacket. If you do not have an ‘orange’ ink, you can achieve a similar result by applying the original contrast paint in a more controlled fashion. I used CC Basilicanum Grey and painted it only in the deepest areas of the grey cloth. This colour and LI Burnt Umber were also used to separate the boundaries where two areas of colour meet. The flesh was then washed with C Seraphim Sepia Shade mix. 

Stage three: Highlights

Anything I had painted CC Gore Grunta Fur was highlighted with C Steel Legion Drab. Areas I had painted Garaghak’s sewer — the powder tubes and wood — were highlighted with C Zandri Dust. V Yellow Ochre was used to tidy up the belts and to define them in more detail. V Ivory was used to pick out the cords on the powder tubes and collar lace. CC Wild Rider Red highlighted any red cloth. The final details, like ribbons on the hats and the feathers, were then completed using either CC Blood Angels Red or Space Wolves Grey. The edges of the hats were all highlighted by simply adding some V Ivory into the original basecoat. The flesh was highlighted with a mix of the original base colour and VGC Pale Flesh. The figures were then varnished.

Stage four: Armour and metallics

Paint any metal areas such as buttons and buckles black. The armour, helmets, pike points, sword hilts, metal parts of the musket and rests, and the aforementioned items were then painted with C Leadbelcher. Some of the black was left around all the metal areas, which helps them stand out. The helmets were then either shaded with diluted L Burnt Umber or Carbon Black and then highlighted with the base colour. Extreme highlights were applied sparingly with C Stormhost Silver. This colour was also used on the edges of the pike points. The helmets and armour I had left black were then highlighted with C Administratum Grey.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH’S REGT

Stage one: Undercoat 

Instead of using white, I sprayed the miniatures with grey primer. I then used a zenithal spray of white followed up with a light dry brush using ivory paint on the miniatures. This will then do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. I used a heavier overbrush on the pikes with the same paint. 

Stage two: Basecoat

The coat, trousers, and stockings: Two slightly thinned coats of CC Space Wolves Grey. The bonnets were CC Leviadon Blue. The rest of the miniatures were painted as indicated in the painting table, although I swapped out certain details, replacing CC Nazdreg Yellow with CC Fleshtearers Red on a few figures' hair, for example.

Stage three: Washes

A controlled wash of CC Basilicanum Grey was then carefully applied. This colour was also used to line areas of detail like the stockings and bandoliers and belts.

Stage four: Highlights and details

All the raised areas on the cloth were then highlighted with C Grey Seer. The bonnets were highlighted with the base colour and V Ivory mix. The cockade on the bonnets was picked out with the same colour, as were the ribbons on the stockings. Tartan was painted using a variety of contrast paints, including the previously mentioned homemade green as a base. Thicker horizontal or vertical lines were then painted in a contrasting colour. I then used much finer lines within these on several of the figures, often using a ‘white’ or yellow paint.

CONCLUSION 

Painting miniatures with this amount of detail is extremely time-consuming, but well worth it for your favourite units. You can, of course, with the addition of the pike points painted in silver, call your miniatures complete after stage one with just the base coats applied. I have deliberately written the article in distinct stages so you can pick and choose the level of detail that you wish to achieve. WS&S

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