3 Citadel Tribesmen (improving my verdaccio technique)

To continue my Barbarian warband, I bought these three oop Citadel Tribesmen on ebay for £1 each plus packaging, a proper bargain in these days of higher prices for nostalgia. I see these three as initiates for the warband, not yet fully blown Barbarians, mostly because they wear trousers and also because the scale of these 80's sculpts is slightly less heroic than the other miniatures I have already painted. I also decided to go for some black hair, as this is much more in the Frank Frazetta style and looked good having all three (brothers?) looking similar as the sculpts seemed to dictate this. There's a bit of Frank Zappa about the left guy too.

I went for my usual slightly rusting metal look and decided to have some exploration of how to work mostly with browns for their clothing, including a range of different leather appearances on the hide shield to the left. 

Here's the crew all posing their best pose for the photoshoot:

I again experimented with the verdaccio style of under-painting skin tones green, thinking I could refine it and speed it up from my previous attempts on Thrud. Which I think I managed, but make your own mind up; the process:

1. Over a white undercoat I liberally applied some Camoshade with a touch of washing up liquid to help it flow. (no photo here) 

2. I then built up a series of lighter highlights, adding white to the Camoshade in the raised areas

3. Then over the highlighted green I applied a very dilute glaze of a Citadel Contrast flesh tone. This was made up of some of the paint, some additional water, medium and a touch of washing up liquid. Here you can see it halfway through application. 

4. I then highlighted up with some very thin applications of a very pale flesh tone (Elf Flesh and a lot of white, thinned) 

5. I then reapplied a few glazes of warmer reds over the nose, lips, ears and cheeks, elbows and knuckles. Basically those areas that looked too pale and needed warming up. 

6. A small, very dilute purple wash in the eye sockets and then I could work on all the details.

And there we go! I have five more models to go for the warband - I would like to do a Frazetta inspired conversion of a Barbarian leader on a sabre toothed tiger and I already have a couple more old Citadel sculpts and a converted shaman ready to paint next, so until next time...