Sven Forkbeard

and his Viking Warband

- a painting guide by
Jonas Fring

Cloak Grey
SAGA

Basecoat [photo:

Sven Forkbeard painting tutorial

Unbleached
Wool

Now it is time for basic painting using the Warpaints acrylic

colours from The Army Painter and the SAGA Warpaints
we made for Gripping Beast. To speed up things, I only used
the Wargamers: Regiment Brush (roughly a size 1or 2 brush).
Big brushes inevitably make you paint faster. Dont paint the
chain mail leave it Gun Metal spray. Any slip-ups onto the
metal were touched up with the Warpaint Gun Metal acrylic
colour, which happens to be a 100% match to the spray of
the same name.

- by Jonas Faering from

The Army Painter
Gaming with painted figures is a joy for most gamers, but getting
there can sometimes be a rough and bumpy ride. Fortunately there
are some excellent aids for busy folk like me with too many miniatures
that need painting and too many games to play. The Army Painter
product line has been designed with the sole purpose of speeding
up painting, thus allowing you more time for gaming!

Colours used:

In this article Ill take a look at painting the Viking Hero

from Gripping Beast for my SAGA Warband.

SAGA

Tanned Flesh
WP1127

Skin: WP Tanned Flesh, dark leather: WP Oak Brown, belt:

WP Leather Brown, skull: WP Skeleton Bone, scabbard:
WP Desert Yellow, shield and rim: GB-WP Viking Red, hair:
GB-WP Cloak Grey, clothes: GB-WP Unbleached Wool.

The Army Painter Master Tip: Use different size brushes for
each layer of detail, this gives you complete control over even
the most difficult parts of your paint job

Leather
Brown
WP1123

Desert
Yellow
WP1121

Warpaints Quickshade
Inks

Viking Red

In this step I could have chosen to use thepolyurethane

Quickshade, but since I was only doing one model the easier
option is to use acrylic Warpaint Quickshade Inks. Again using
my Wargamer Regiment Brush I painted the
chainmail WP Quickshade Dark Tone, the skin
and trousers WP Quickshade Soft Tone and the
rest WP Quickshade Strong Tone. Use plenty ofink,
but remove excess pools.

Preparation
The first step is to remove any mould lines
using a thin file, then glue the figure together
and to the base. I fill any gaps around joints
with a bit of Green Stuff putty to strengthen
them. Mix the yellow and blue parts of the
putty until it turns green ready for modeling
into place using a sculpting tool.

Colour Primer
Spray
This next step is where you really save precious
time. Instead of traditional black or white
primers, The Army Painter Colour Primers
allow you to prime and colour the miniatures
in one coat. As the Sven miniature was
predominately clad in chainmail I opted for
the Colour Primer: Gun Metal as my starting
point. There is 24 different colour primer
sprays to choose from, so finding a good
starting point for your army v
project is easy.

Even at this stage the model looks great and could

easily make it onto the battlefield. But I want my Sven
Forkbeard Hero to be painted to a higher standard and so
Ill add a few highlights.

Oak Brown
WP1124

Skeleton
Bone
WP1125

The Army Painter Master Tip: Some miniatures may be to fragile to DIP
and SHAKE, like our hero here, in that case simply paint on the
Quickshade for the same fantastic results as dipping - this is also an
excellent technique for large miniatures, like monsters, tanks and other

First Highlight

Second Highlight

Eyes

For the first highlight Im using my smaller

Wargamer: Character Brush (size 0).

The second highlight must be kept small and

neat, this time sticking to a Wargamer: Detail
Brush.

The eyes were painted WP Matt White with WP

Matt Black for the dots using the aptly named
Wargamer: Insane Detail Brush.

Colours used:
skin: WP Barbarian Flesh, dark leather: WP
Leather Brown, belt: WP Monster Brown, skull:
WP Skeleton Bone/Matt White mix, scabbard:
WP Desert Yellow/Skeleton Bone mix, shield
and rim: GB-WP Pure Red, hair: WP Ash Grey
and clothes: WP Matt White.

Colours used: skin: WP Skeleton Bone, skull:

WP Matt White mix, scabbard: WP Skeleton
Bone mix, shield and rim: GB-WP Pure Red/
Lava Orange mix, hair: WP Matt White and
metal with WP Shining Silver.

The Base

Viking Warband
painting tutorial

Finishing off the base is almost as important

as painting the model, but again I want to save
time. Once the base has been painted WP Oak
Brown, I glued on Battlefields: Black Battleground
(which is basically pre-coloured sand, ready for
drybrushing), then highlighted with WP: Monster
Brown and WP: Skeleton Bone. Lastly I glued
on some Battlefields XP: Swamp and Wilderness
Tufts using a spot of super glue.

- by Jonas Faering from

The Army Painter
In the first section of this article I demonstrated how to paint my SAGA Warband
hero Sven Forkbeard, painted and highlighted to a masterclass standard. In this
article I will be showing how to paint a SAGA Warband using the fast The Army
Painter Technique, using different Colour Primer sprays and uickshade
Dipping.
The models in the Warband are all plastics, primarily the Viking
Hirdmen and the Unarmoured Dark Age Warriors from Gripping
Beast with some extras from Warlord Gamess plastic Celtic Warriors..

Finished!

Preperation

Basecoat

Sven Forkbeard ready to lead his

Viking Raiders onto ever more
pillaging and plunder.

The models were clipped from the plastic

sprues, cleaned for mould lines and glued
together using the components from The
Army Painter Plastic Assembly set; clipper,
knife and plastic glue.

The next step is where you start painting

adding basecoats to your models. By sticking
to a very limited palette matching the Colour
Primer colours I painted the whole Warband
in a few hours.

Next article Ill be painting my

SAGAS Warband using different
Colour Primers some for my
bondsmen and then different
sprays for the hirdmen. Ill also
be doing all 20 men in the course
of a few hours using Quickshade
dipping.

skin: WP Barbarian Flesh

clothes: WP Desert Yellow / WP Army

Green / WP Leather Brown

metal: WP Plate Mail Metal

details: WP Skeleton Bone

beards and hair: various brownish and

yellow colours

Until then Jonas

Colour Primer
Spray
This spray step is where you really save
precious time. The Army Painter Colour
Primers allow you to prime and colour the
miniatures in one coat. And by chosing the
right spray for the right job, youre half way
done before you even begin. For my SAGA
Warband I used:

Colour Primer: Plate Mail Metal for all

chainmail armoured Hirdmen

A mix of Colour Primer: Desert Yellow

/ Army Green / Leather Brown
for Bondsmen

Army Painter Master tip: Every Warpaint is a 100%

color match to its namesake Colour Primer - making it
perfect to cover up mistakes made during basecoating

Barbarian
Flesh
WP1126

Notice how sticking to using only the same

few different colours blend the models
together giving a coherent feel. For instance,
with the Viking Bondsmen unit, once
basecoated it is hard to tell what model were
primed in what colour however you have let
the spray do most of the painting for you

Leather
Brown
WP1123

Desert
Yellow

Any slip-ups onto the primed areas were

touched up with the Warpaint of the same
name as the Colour Primer, which is a 100%
match to the spray.

WP1121

Army Painter Master tip: Save

time and energy by spraying your
miniatures in their primary color
- giving you more time for gaming
Plate Mail
Metal
WP1130

Skeleton
Bone
WP1125

Colour Primer:
Barbarian
Flesh for the
half-naked
Berserkers

Army Green
WP1110

Other miniatures in
Svens warband

Warpaints Quickshade Dip

The unique formulation of the Quickshade Dip allows you to
add instant shading to the whole of the model in just a few
seconds. Using a pair of pliers, dip the whole of the model
into the Quickshade can and remove the excess Quickshade
by flicking the model a few times. Its messy business, so do
it outside!
The Quickshade is in effect pigmented varnish, so not only
will it add instant shading, it also coats your models in a hard
protective layer of varnish.

Anti-Shine Matt Varnish

Once the Quickdshade has dried and hardened for 24-48
hours, you can remove the gloss shine with a few very thin
coats of Anit-Shine Matt spray. The objective is only to remove
the shine, so just give your models a very thin coat or two.

Army Painter Master tip: Finish your dipped

miniatures with an Anti-Shine Varnish which alleviates
the shine of the Quickshader and gives your miniatures
a life-like matt finish - line up an entire regiment and
spray in a continuess motion for efficiency

Shield & Base

I finished off the models by completing the bases in the same
manner as for my Warband Leader it is imperative that the
bases look the same throughout the Warband. I glued in
Battlefields: Brown Battleground (which is basically
pre-coloured sand, ready for drybrushing),
highlighted with WP: Monster Brown
and WP: Skeleton Bone.
And lastly I glued in
some Battlefields XP:
Swamp and Wilderness Tufts using a spot
of super glue.
The shields (done separately) with the
fantastic transfers from Little Big
Men Studios were glued in place and
the Norse Warband was ready to take
on any Saxon weaklings on the
gaming table.
All in all I spent an evening
spraying, basecoating and dipping
the models and a few hours the next
day finishing the bases and doing the shields. A fast way to get
your SAGA Warband done and spend more time gaming!

were dry I coated the whole shield with WP Matt

Varnish to remove the shine from the transfer.

extra SHIELDS
The shields were left in the sprue for easier handling
and sprayed with Colour Primer: Leather Brown
in the back and Colour Primer: Matt White on the
front.

Glue on model
Glue in place using a spot of Super Glue and you
are done!

Adding transfers
Following the instructions from LBM I added the
transfers to the shields. Super quick!

Details and matt

varnish
Next I painted the rim in the matching WP Leather
Brown, the boss with WP Plate Mail Metal and
shaded the whole thing with the acrylic WP
Quickshade Strong Tone Ink. When the Warpaints

For More Tutorials Visit

www.TheArmyPainter.com
www.GRIPPINGBEAST.com