Javier Gomez Valero - Painting Wargaming Figures

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Javier Gomez Valero El Mercenario Photographic copyright Javier Gomez Valero El Mercenario, Anastasio Gimnez

ISBN 9781848848221
eISBN 9781473852808

The right of Javier Gomez Valero El Mercenario to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Contents

Dedication

To my Dad, the real artist of the family and light years ahead of me as a painter.

Preface

A malformed lump of highly toxic lead could hardly be called a beautiful miniature, but it was my first and first times are supposed to be something nice to remember. It was back in the late 1980s that I lost my (painters) virginity to that Dungeons & Dragons half-orc, which I stole from my elder brothers collection. I had a great time colouring it with his smelly Humbrol enamels, at least until he caught me and kicked my arse. Anyway, I guess it was worth the effort as I havent stopped painting miniatures since.

I cant say that I was alien to painting as my father was a draftsman and a painter himself, so that seed germinated easily in me. Like most painters who started this hobby as kids, I began with fantasy figures for my role-playing games (yes, everyone has an obscure past, even me!). One thing led to another and I found myself fascinated by the Warhammer world. It helped that my brother opened a local hobby shop (that later became Atlantica Juegos, one of the biggest hobby stores in Europe). However, a good Samaritan (someone desperate and lonely enough to teach a teenager how to play Empire) rescued me from the Dark Side and introduced me to historical wargaming. Napoleonic Empire came first, then Ancient Empire and finally Second World War Command Decision. I always liked to learn the hard way!

By seventeen I was quite an experienced wargamer and I started to paint commissions. A couple of years later I joined with my friend and painting colleague David Gomez (although we were not related at all, besides our common last name, some people started to call us the Gomez Brothers) and founded El Mercenario painting service. I learnt a lot from him. Davids background was painting bigger scale figures and plastic kits, and we incorporated some of his techniques to our painting style. Shortly afterwards, we won some painting prizes at Salute and other shows and started to work for several companies, especially Perry Miniatures. Moreover, we took the reins of the Spanish magazine Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy. I managed the magazine for a couple of years, while David took charge of the painting articles. Later, we swapped roles and I contributed articles and photographs from my own collections. Those were happy days we lived and breathed for the hobby.

Over time David replaced his worn-out rocker leather jacket for a suit and became a respected gentleman with a proper job. Corporate suits were not made for me: aside from a few years working part-time at my brothers store,

I never had a proper boss. So I decided to keep running El Mercenario by myself. These years as a full-time painter were intense very intense painting ten to twelve hours a day, six or seven days a week. I always enjoyed planning new projects, reading about the period to research it and motivate myself properly, looking for the figures, designing the units and then the divisions or the armies and finally painting them. But I never was a collector. Once complete, I sold most of my personal collections. Being a professional painter allowed me to do what I loved and be paid for it! That doesnt mean I stopped doing things for myself, but that is a perilous path for a pro. Like relationships, it would be tempting to cheat on your usual partner and devote more and more time to a new and exciting affair, but hobby affairs dont usually last, and by the end of the month you have to pay your bills!

Four years ago my life changed deeply. Although I still enjoyed the painting, I felt that I needed something else in my life, and I worked with two friends to publish a new military history magazine called Desperta Ferro. The magazine was a complete success; the business expanded very fast but also became more and more demanding. As a day has only twenty-four hours I had to decide between publishing and professional painting, and I chose Desperta Ferro, to which I devote my full time, soul and mind. However, I would never quit painting: for me its much more than a hobby or a job, its a huge part of my life. My poor old eyes still can see, but in the end my brushes will need to be pried from my cold, dead hands.

Introduction

Before getting down to business I would like to say a few things about my painting technique. First of all, we are not painting 90mm figures destined to be neatly placed in a display cabinet; these are wargame figures intended to build armies from and play games with, so in my opinion the goal is to get the best quality/time investment ratio possible. Although there are several wargame figure sizes, from 40mm to 6mm, this book pays special attention to 28mm miniatures. Many wargamers prefer to play with smaller scales but from a painters point of view 28mm, given its size and detail, allows me to show all the techniques needed to paint figures, and its also the size of miniatures I enjoy painting the most. However, the techniques used can be adapted to other scales.

In the past I was accused by purists of doing a rough paint job, with sudden transitions between different highlights and brusque contrasts. Well, sometimes they were right and my painting style has evolved over the years, but my painting goal remains the same: these are not figures (only) to be displayed in a cabinet but to be seen on a wargame table at a certain distance, forming part of bigger units. So, although I always try to paint as realistically as possible, I use strong and vivid colours for my armies.

Regarding my technique, I normally paint a base colour and two highlights (sometimes three for bigger surfaces) over a black-primed figure, a system that became more or less standard in recent years. Ever since Wargames Foundry released their three-shades colour system of paints, where one blister pack contains the base colour, first highlight and second highlight for a certain colour, with no need to mix, many painters made their lives easier and embraced this new concept. I recognize that this has its advantages, especially for painters of huge armies or people with a limited time whose priority is speed, but I still like to mix my own paints. Call me a romantic, but I honestly think that painting is much more than giving accurate brushstrokes. Its all about colours: to choose the proper colours, to mix them to a correct shade, to add different paints to obtain highlight effects. At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I still prefer the old way rather than the faster, standardized new system of three-shade packaging.