Sven Forkbeard

and his Viking Warband

- a painting guide by
Jonas Færing

Sven Forkbeard painting tutorial
- 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!
In this article I’ll take a look at painting the Viking Hero
from Gripping Beast for my SAGA Warband.
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.
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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.
The Army Painter Master Tip: Use different size brushes for
Cloak Grey each layer of detail, this gives you complete control over even
SAGA the most difficult parts of your paint job
Basecoat [photo:
Now it is time for basic painting using the Warpaints acrylic
colours from The Army Painter and the SAGA Warpaints
Unbleached
Wool
we made for Gripping Beast. To speed up things, I only used
SAGA
the Wargamers: Regiment Brush (roughly a size 1or 2 brush).
Big brushes inevitably make you paint faster. Don’t 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.
Colours used: Tanned Flesh
Leather
Brown
WP1127
WP1123
Skin: WP Tanned Flesh, dark leather: WP Oak Brown, belt:
WP Leather Brown, skull: WP Skeleton Bone, scabbard:
Desert
WP Desert Yellow, shield and rim: GB-WP Viking Red, hair:
GB-WP Cloak Grey, clothes: GB-WP Unbleached Wool.
Yellow
WP1121
Warpaints Quickshade
Inks Viking Red Oak Brown
WP1124
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 Skeleton
my Wargamer Regiment Brush I painted the Bone
WP1125
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.
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
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
I’ll add a few highlights. 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 I’m using my smaller The second highlight must be kept small and The eyes were painted WP Matt White with WP
Wargamer: Character Brush (size 0). neat, this time sticking to a Wargamer: Detail Matt Black for the dots using the aptly named
Colours used: Brush. Wargamer: Insane Detail Brush.
skin: WP Barbarian Flesh, dark leather: WP Colours used: skin: WP Skeleton Bone, skull:
Leather Brown, belt: WP Monster Brown, skull: WP Matt White mix, scabbard: WP Skeleton
WP Skeleton Bone/Matt White mix, scabbard: Bone mix, shield and rim: GB-WP Pure Red/
WP Desert Yellow/Skeleton Bone mix, shield Lava Orange mix, hair: WP Matt White and
and rim: GB-WP Pure Red, hair: WP Ash Grey metal with WP Shining Silver.
and clothes: WP Matt White.
The Base
Finishing off the base is almost as important
Viking Warband
as painting the model, but again I want to save
time. Once the base has been painted WP Oak
painting tutorial
Brown, I glued on Battlefields: Black Battleground
- by Jonas Faering from
(which is basically pre-coloured sand, ready for
drybrushing), then highlighted with WP: Monster The Army Painter
Brown and WP: Skeleton Bone. Lastly I glued
on some Battlefields XP: Swamp and Wilderness
In the first section of this article I demonstrated how to paint my SAGA Warband
Tufts using a spot of super glue.
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 Games’s plastic Celtic Warriors..

Finished! Preperation Basecoat

Sven Forkbeard ready to lead his The models were clipped from the plastic The next step is where you start painting –
Viking Raiders onto ever more sprues, cleaned for mould lines and glued adding basecoats to your models. By sticking
pillaging and plunder. together using the components from The to a very limited palette matching the Colour
Army Painter Plastic Assembly set; clipper, Primer colours I painted the whole Warband Army Painter Master tip: Every Warpaint is a 100%
Next article I’ll be painting my knife and plastic glue. in a few hours. color match to its namesake Colour Primer - making it
SAGAS Warband using different perfect to cover up mistakes made during basecoating
• skin: WP Barbarian Flesh
Colour Primers – some for my
bondsmen and then different • clothes: WP Desert Yellow / WP Army
sprays for the hirdmen. I’ll also Green / WP Leather Brown
be doing all 20 men in the course • metal: WP Plate Mail Metal
Barbarian
of a few hours using Quickshade • details: WP Skeleton Bone Flesh
dipping. WP1126

• beards and hair: various brownish and

yellow colours
Until then… Jonas
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 Leather
Brown
Colour Primer primed in what colour – however you have let WP1123

the spray do most of the painting for you…

Spray Desert Army Green
Yellow
Any slip-ups onto the primed areas were WP1121
WP1110

This spray step is where you really save touched up with the Warpaint of the same
precious time. The Army Painter Colour name as the Colour Primer, which is a 100%
Primers allow you to prime and colour the match to the spray.
miniatures in one coat. And by chosing the
right spray for the right job, you’re half way Army Painter Master tip: Save
done before you even begin. For my SAGA time and energy by spraying your
Warband I used: miniatures in their primary color
- giving you more time for gaming
• Colour Primer: Plate Mail Metal for all
Plate Mail
chainmail armoured Hirdmen Metal
WP1130
• A mix of Colour Primer: Desert Yellow
/ Army Green / Leather Brown Skeleton
for Bondsmen Bone
WP1125

• Colour Primer:
Barbarian
Flesh for the
half-naked
Berserkers

4 5
Warpaints Quickshade Dip Other miniatures in
The unique formulation of the Quickshade Dip allows you to Svens warband
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. It’s 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
Shield & Base a life-like matt finish - line up an entire regiment and
spray in a continuess motion for efficiency
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!

extra – SHIELDS were dry I coated the whole shield with WP Matt
Varnish to remove the shine from the transfer.
The shields were left in the sprue for easier handling
and sprayed with Colour Primer: Leather Brown Glue on model
in the back and Colour Primer: Matt White on the Glue in place using a spot of Super Glue and you
front. 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

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 For More Tutorials Visit

www.TheArmyPainter.com

www.GRIPPINGBEAST.com