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| Weary baggage train guards trudge alongside their wagons. |
One of my current projects is an Empire army loosely based on the “Black Army” of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and some Transylvanian allies. While I intend to use this army as an Empire army in Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition, I want it to do double duty as a historical force for Warhammer Ancient Battles- so I have been pretty rigorous about figure selection and painting. As is my normal approach to these kinds of army projects I have allowed myself a bit of ambiguity to enable me to stretch the usable time period and region as much as possible to get the most use out of the army. So the army has become pretty broadly “Eastern European”, with Hungarian, Wallachian, Bohemian, Polish and Serbian contingents, but I believe this diversity is pretty representative of medieval armies of this time. With a bit of swapping out of units it could be used for conflicts from the Hussite Wars, Vlad the Impaler and the Eastern Frontier, the Ottoman Wars, early Italian Wars, even up to the Muscovite Wars of the early 16th century.
My main inspiration for the tone and feel of the army is “The Battle of Orsha” painting by Hans Krell, as well as the northern renaissance oil paintings of artists like Brueghel, Bosch, van Eyck etc. The style of these paintings really characterizes the 16th Century and I really wanted to try to emulate the antique, chiaroscuro, dusky, deep, dark yet vibrant, rich hues of these artworks. It occurred to me, why not use the very medium that was used to create these beautiful works of art, oil paint, to lend my own efforts a bit of authenticity?
The other consideration of this project is I need to paint it fast. With a young baby to look after, my time is very limited/barely existent. I would have to put aside my usual relatively slow, meticulous painting style and be willing to compromise and experiment with some different approaches to speed things up if I were to have any hope of getting anywhere within a reasonable amount of time.
I had mucked about a bit in the past with oils- weathering military scale model kits, and some terrain, but I never felt like I understood what I was doing or how to best take advantage of the medium. I was aware of the classic wargamer’s trick of wiping off oil paints for horses, and John Blanche and Fraser Gray’s old school figures, and many of the “grim dark” style painters who used oil washes extensively, but I felt a bit weary of jumping in until I saw some of the videos of @totally_not_panicking which had some great practical advice and made the subject feel very accessible.
Oil paints have a depth and richness of colour that acrylics simply can’t replicate. Acrylics often look chalkier and more granular; oils are smoother, creamier, and capable of beautifully subtle transitions. They also have a very long working time, it can take a couple of hours for the paint to start to cure, which allows you to go back to touch things up, blend in colours or thinner on the model, and wipe layers off.
Despite the long drying time, I find it really quick to paint with them, in fact they are a real time saver, this is mainly because I have found that I can get a really satisfactory result by foregoing the layering and highlighting I would traditionally do. When I finish a step on a batch I simply put it aside and work on a new batch, coming back to the first after a few days.
Being used to a particular workflow with acrylics it does require a bit of an adjustment to learn a new method and acquire new skills with cotton buds and make up sponges. However the oil paints are very forgiving and well suited to an expressive, improvised, imprecise approach and “happy little accidents”.
I am very far from an expert, and this article is only a very basic technique that is just scratching the surface of using oils. But I hope you will find some of these ideas a useful addition to add to your toolkit. If you haven’t tried oil paints before, give it a go, it is much easier than it seems and the results may surprise you.
So after a bit of experimentation I came up with the process, which I have detailed below, in a step by step tutorial.
Tools Required:
- Raw Umber and Ivory Black (quality artist oil paints such as Windsor & Newton, Gamblin, Artist Spectrum etc.)
- Odorless Solvent, or Mineral Spirits, or White Spirit, or Gamsol etc. for thinning and cleaning up.
- Cotton buds.
- Makeup sponges.
- Crappy cheap brushes.
- Blue disposable workshop rags.
- Pipette for depositing drops of thinner.
- Baking paper for use as a palette and desk protector.
Step One: Undercoat
I use a white spray primer to undercoat the model. I find zenithal highlighting works against the effect of the shading provided by the oil wash, you want a hardy, solid white undercoat, this is so the base colours are as consistent and bright as possible. 99% of my collection is metal, I rarely use plastics, so I can’t comment on them, but I would say a hand painted or air brushed acrylic undercoat will probably not be durable enough to survive the abrasion of the oil paint wipe off.
Step Two: Base Colours
Next I block in all the base colours. I use contrast paints for this, for 3 reasons.
- They remain very clean and bright over a white undercoat.
- They seem durable enough to resist being worn off during the wipe off stage.
- They flow very nicely.
This third point is something overlooked in many painting guides- economy of movement. Remember our goal here is speed painting hordes of rank and file fodder. A thin, smoothly flowing paint is much faster to apply and requires less brush strokes and hand positioning, which is surprisingly time consuming when multiplied over hundreds of figures. For this reason I also use the largest brush I can- a #4 Raphael 8404, these can be expensive but are really high quality and despite the large size come to a very fine tip. The larger brush holds more paint and covers more area per stroke. I do try to apply the base colours neatly, but don’t get too pedantic about it, going back to fix up minor mistakes will slow you down considerably, better to let things be- it adds to the painterly, impressionistic overall feel, and in most cases will be completely imperceptible after the following steps.
I am using a very limited colour palette, a pseudo zorn palette- essentially just red, beige, ochre, brown, and black. Not only does this evoke the “Brueghel” feel, it is also a time saving measure, as it removes much of the agonizing over what colour to paint certain features.
Step Three: Oil Wash
This is the key step that sets the tone of the figure. This type of oil washing requires a bit more concentration than acrylic washes, but it pays off.
In this guide I use just Raw Umber and Lamp Black, of course there is no reason to restrict yourself to these colours, they are just what I found works best for me in this project. Raw umber is an extremely useful colour, and I reckon is responsible for most of the real magic of oil washing. It is a beautiful, rich, dark, earthy brown that creates very natural shadows and that old Northern Renaissance master look!
Any quality artist oil paint should do ie Windsor and Newton, Gamblin, Art Spectrum are made in Australia, high quality, and available in a lot of art shops here locally.
The process can be a little messy, so I use a separate bench to the one I normally paint on and spread out a sheet of baking paper.
Squeeze a small dab of Raw Umber and Lamp Black next to each other, and a few drops of thinner onto the paper, this will be your palette.
Take a crappy brush dedicated to oils (they will ruin your good brushes) dab it into the Raw Umber, then dab it into the thinner, give it a bit of a swirl, then slap it onto the figure. There is no science to this, sometimes you want a heavier application, sometimes thinner. If it seems too thick dab on more thinner and mix it in on the model, if too thin dab on more paint and mix it on the model. I like a pretty heavy wash, a bit like the consistency of cream. Cover the figure with Raw Umber wash.
Now wipe off the brush (no need to clean), dab some lamp black in the thinner and with slightly more control blend some of the black into the lower half of the legs, the darkest regions and the underside of overhanging features. Don’t try to be neat about it, and don’t over think it, just dab it on where it feels appropriate and blend it in, adding more thinner and mixing it in on the model itself.
Step Four: Wipe Off Oils
Now we want to wipe off the oil wash from the high spots of the model, leaving the wash in the recesses, which will create natural looking tonal gradients, highlights, and shadows.
The four most useful tools for this are a blue disposable shop rag, cotton buds, make up sponges, and a paintbrush. All of which have slightly different result and uses. I normally use all of them on a figure, with a brush held in my mouth, going back and forth between them until I’m satisfied.
I normally start with a blue rag. It is the coarsest, least controllable tool, but it does the most work. First I sort of wrap the figure blotting up the largest pools of wash, then fold it on itself a few times, grab a corner and start lightly wiping in a downwards direction.
You must be careful with the sponge- it can create very contrasting, clean highlights, but it is very easy to be too heavy handed and mop away too much wash, a gentle caress is all that is needed on the very top surfaces.
Cotton buds are good for getting into the tighter hard to reach areas that you want to expose and remove wash from which the rag has missed. Sometimes first dabbing in a bit of thinner helps, other times leaving it dry works better.
A brush is the most precise wiping tool, it is for feathering and blending areas, or adding a little oil if too much was removed.
You can always go back, apply more wash and start again for several hours, it is hard to go wrong. I try not to spend more than 5 minutes on Step 3 and 4 for a 28mm rank and file figure.
Step 5: Seal the Oil Wash
Once I’m happy with the look of the figure, I put it aside to dry for a couple of days. The shiny oils will have become dead matt and everything will appear beautifully shaded. But before the finishing step we need to seal the figure, as I find there can be a bit of a persistent residue which repels water based paint and can make painting on top of the oils difficult. This gives the added benefit of a protective layer. For this purpose I use Tamiya Matt Clear spray.
Step 6: Finishing Details
Now is the time to go back and touch up any glaring errors, or accentuate details that may have gotten lost. I normally add a highlight to the flesh, as well as a bit of colour to the cheeks, nose, knuckles, elbows, knees and toes with a spot of red glaze, and a trace of purple wash in the eye sockets and bottom lip. Add some patterns to the clothing, and finally paint the eyes and apply a spot of gloss varnish. I love how a figure comes alive once the eyes are painted!
The final step is to base in the method of your choosing. For this project I am using a layer of Vallejo European mud, then sprinkling a pinch of a custom basing mix consisting of static grass, dirt, and small rocks.
This oil-wash method is straightforward, expressive, fast, and immensely satisfying. Oils deliver depth and warmth that acrylics struggle to match, and once you embrace their flexibility, they become a powerful tool for creating rich, Renaissance-inspired miniatures.
There’s no strict science behind it—just experimentation, intuition, and a willingness to enjoy the medium.
Give it a try. You might be surprised at how quickly your figures come to life.
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