Arcane Legions Painting
Updated: November 23, 2009 ...
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 a spear or sword, which then has to be glued to the arm(s).
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, which then has to be glued to the arm(s).
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 a spear or sword, which then has to be glued to the arm(s).
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.
