Arcane Legions
Painting
Last
Updated: November 23, 2009:
- Added Egyptian Infantry and Han
Cavalry
In October of 2009, a new game was introduced
called 'Arcane Legions'. It has three armies of 1" high (1/72 scale) figures. In
the Starter box, and the six Army Boxes, they come unpainted. So someone
commissioned me to paint his armies for him. On this page I show the stages of
this painting, starting with the original "tree" of soldiers; to the prep work
to that tree before priming and painting; to the final painted figures. The
smaller figures were left on the trees because that made it easier to paint
them, and also I could send them back as a whole tree, without having to worry
about protecting each individual figure.
Egyptian Infantry
Note - I forgot to take
a photo of the original tree before I prepped it as below. That photo would have
shown at the lower left, 10 gold Greek shields, and 5 blue Roman shields.
Prepped Tree - removed sprues to make for easier
access for painting. Also, the factory-painted shields were cut-away from the sprues, but not installed
yet to prevent being sprayed with primer, and to make it easier to paint the
figures bodies. Note that before priming, I had to put a dab of removable
silicone on the nubs where the shields are to be glued later. It's easier to
remove the dab of silicone than to scrape off primer / paint.
Completed Tree - Of the five Army Packs that I painted, this one
was probably the one taking the longest time because there are FOUR types of
warriors ... Egyptian zombies, Egyptian archers, Roman Legionaires, and Greek
Hoplites. You can't tell from the photo but the cloth parts of the zombies are
painted to be "more faded" than those of the living archers.
The photo above was taken after they were coated with Krylon
Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating, which gives the figures a bit of a "sheen". A
different overcoat like Testor's Dull-cote may be prferred for a "flatter"
finish.
Egyptian
Cavalry
I have not painted the
Egyptian Cavalry Army Box yet so I don't have any info on those figures.
Han Infantry
Original Tree - note that some figures required
arm(s) holding spear or sword has to be glued to them.
Prepped Tree - removed sprues to make for easier
access for painting and adding swords and spears. The arms holding spear or sword has been
attached.
Completed Tree - There are basically two types of troops ...
Terra Cotta warriors and human warriors.
Han Cavalry
Original Tree - note that some figures required arm(s) holding spear or sword has to be
glued to them.
Prepped Tree - removed sprues to make for easier
access for painting and adding swords and spears. The arms holding spear or sword has been attached.
The factory-painted flags were not
installed yet to prevent being sprayed with primer. Note that before priming, I
had to put a dab of removable silicone in the slots where the flags are to be
glued later. It's easier to remove the dab of silicone than to scrape off primer
/ paint.
Completed Tree - There are basically two
types of horsemen ... Mythical Knights with the fancy-attired horses, and human
horsemen. Note: I wish I had removed one of the Mythical Knights from the tree,
and taken a close-up of it because they are pretty cool looking !! 
Roman Infantry
Original Tree - note that some figures required
arm(s) holding spear or sword has to be glued to them.
Prepped Tree - removed sprues to make it for easier
access for painting and adding swords, spears and shields. The factory-painted
shields were not installed yet to prevent being sprayed with primer, and to make
it easier to paint the figures bodies. Note that before priming, I had to put a
dab of removable silicone on the nubs where the shields are to be glued later.
It's easier to remove the dab of silicone than to scrape off primer / paint.
Completed Tree - all of the silver armor is Silver 'Rub-n'-Buff'
which gives a much better shine then regular silver paint. When coating with
Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating, I covered the Heavy
Legionaires so they wouldn't be coated. The Krylon Coating
dulls the silver 'Rub-n'-Buff'' making it look like ordinary
silver paint. The 'Rub-n'-Buff' is very durable so it won't
wear-off with normal handling. I wanted the Heavy
Legionaires to be as shiny as possible since they are so cool looking
Roman Cavalry
Original Tree - note that the bear-riding figure
required the arm holding a sword to be glued to the body. The Bear is so wide
that the base comes separately. So I assembed the bear figures off of the tree.
Also, for 5 of the cavalry pieces, the rider had to be glued to the horse. I
show this example of an original tree because it shows all three different
cavalry figures.
Prepped Tree - removed sprues to make it for easier
access for painting and adding swords, spears and shields. The
factory-painted shields were not installed yet to prevent being sprayed with
primer, and to make it easier to paint the figures bodies. Note that before
priming, I had to put a dab of removable silicone on the nubs where the shields
are to be glued later. It's easier to remove the dab of silicone than to scrape
off primer / paint. Also, at the lower left, you can see a completed bear
figure. In this case I installed the shield but masked it off.
Completed Tree - "before and after" close-up's of the
bear-rider (Heavy Legionaire on a Cataphract) is shown below.
