An Orc and a Dwarf

I have finally taken the plunge - the descent into madness. I have crossed the threshold from wargaming into Wargaming: I have painted my first 28mm fantasy figures.
They are the Orc Berserker and Dain Deepaxe from the Reaper Bones line, which I chose mainly because of their cheapness (the average figure on Reaper Mini is about $3, as compared to maybe $10 or more for a small Scibor or GW figure) and their appearance: though plastic, they still have that slightly whimsical trashy-fantasy air about them. And there's plenty of variety, too: everything from dwarves to orcs to elves to ogres to rogues to demons to dragons to werewolves. So you got choices.

Anyway, I'm really happy with them, and would recommend Bones figures to anyone who, like me, is new to 28mm gaming (that's pretty much the purpose of the Bones line - they're for newbs) or for anyone looking for a line of cheap minis that can fill up a wargaming table fast.
Reaper claims that you can paint Bones minis straight out of the box - meaning no washing, primer, or anything - but just to be on the safe side I treated these figures normally and washed them in soapy water and primed them. Also, both figures came with slight deformities - the orc had a bent sword and the dwarf was leaning forward on his base. If you find your Bones minis bent, fear not: there is a simple solution. Boil them.
Bring water to a boil and throw your figure in (I turned the water down to a simmer first, but I don't think you have to) or hold it in with tweezers for about 1 minute, then remove the figure and immediately bend it into the correct position. Then put the mini in some icewater for one or two minutes, and boom. Your crippled figure has miraculously been made whole. (For more details on preparing Bones minis, see this page on the Reaper site).
On to the painting. I did a lot of research on painting 28mm figures, because, of course, you use different painting techniques for larger figures. There are a bunch of different techniques, and after experimenting with a few on these two figures, I think I have my preferred method. Actually, this method consists of several different techniques, used on different parts of the figure. Here's a rough tutorial.

Start with chain mail, if there is any. This is because you're going to drybrush it, and drybrushing is clumsy and can get paint on unwanted areas, so that's why you start with it. Paint the chain mail black and then drybrush in silver or another metallic color. Easy.
Now move onto the skin. On skin, as on certain other areas, I use the three-tone method as described in my earlier post on painting crusaders. You'll use three shades of each color: a shade (or shadow) color, a base color, and a highlight color. Paint the skin in the shade color first; for my dwarf I used a tan/flesh combo, and for my orc I used a dark olive green. Then paint everything but the crevices and recesses in the base color, and finish with a highlight color on just the areas exposed to the most light. This will create a nice smooth blending transition between light and dark, as long as the discrepancy between your three colors is not too great. You will use this three-tone method on all skin, leather, cloth, and certain other items. (A quick tip: do the eyes (if you want to do them at all) after the shade color and before the base color, so if you screw up you can fix it with the base color.)
For my orc's abdominal armor plates I used the NMM (Non-Metallic Metal) method, then cheated by drybrushing in a metallic paint. The NMM method consists of the normal three-tone technique, but sometimes slightly modified to use more colors. For instance, for bright silver metal, you'll use black folloewd by dark grey followed by light gray followed by really light gray followed by white. But for my orc's armor, since it's supposed to be tarnished and rough, I just used black, dark gray, and light gray, followed by a drybrush of metallic gray to give it a more weathered appearance.
The orc's sword was done using a similar method; I gave it a base coat of black, then drybrushed it in dark gray and finallly drybrushed it in metallic silver.
Washes and filters are also very useful, and I used them quite extensively. (BTW, a wash is very diluted paint that brings out shadows; a filter is less diluted paint that is meant to change the overall color of the surface area). You have to kind of use your discretion for these; for instance, for the orc's leather arm thingies I applied a filter of dark brown over the base coat, then highlighted in light brown. One note: for my washes and filters I use Liquitex Matte varnish/thinner as a thinner instead of water; water washes leave dirty-looking rings in the wrong places and doesn't cover as well. My Liquitex works much better, covering evenly and smoothly.
As for basing, I used a 30mm base for the dwarf and a 40mm base for the orc.
So all this might sound time consuming and tedious, but it's actually quicker then you might think. Each of these figures only took me only about two painting sessions.

Some More Crusaders

I finished two more batches of Italeri Crusaders for Lion Rampant.

These are a lot better than my last ones; the earlier ones didn't turn out as I had hoped - something to do with the coat of primer.
Anyway, I experimented with some new techniques on these guys, including the Foundry 3-layer paint system. In this system (a deeper summary can be found here.) This paint system is actually designed for 28mm, but can be used occasionally with 1/72 figures, on areas such as a tunic, cape, or caparisons (horse blanket thingies.) Anyway, I was experimenting with it a little bit because I'm going to try my hand at some Reaper 28mm Fantasy minis soon, and want to practice a little first.

Back to the painting system itself. It involves three shades of the same color of paint: a shade color, a base color, and a highlight color. You paint the shade color all over the desired surface and then paint the base color on everything but the crevices and recesses. Then you paint the highlight color on just the highlights. This three-tone method gives you a smooth, blended look, without the hassle of wet blending. It takes a little practice, but it's easier than it sounds. Again, for 1/72 figures, you'll only want to use this method for large areas, but on 28mm you use it a lot more. 
The figure in the first photo below is an example of the Foundry technique. I painted this guy's cape red, washed it with a dark red glaze to darken the color, then painted the highlights in a reddish-pink. This is actually a two-layer job, not three, but that's because I wanted the highlights to be pronounced so you could see them from a distance.

The lot of 'em

How to paint camo

I thought this subject is important enough to merit its own post, so here it is. I do not claim to have the own workable method for painting camo, but it's worked for me and I like it.

Do your research into the type of camo you are trying to paint. Look at various examples of the camo. Camopedia is invaluable for this. See if you can determine which color is most prevalent - the base color. Paint your uniform in this color. Exactly which color is the background color is debatable. Use your own discretion.

Most camo patterns have at least three different colors in them. After doing the base color, find the next most prevalent color and paint this color on top. Look closely at your reference pictures to see what the pattern is. Is it striped? Horizontally or vertically? Is it spotted? What shapes are the spots? Is it blotched? Are the blotches square, circular, or irregularly shaped? For example, below are three US military camouflage patterns. Left is the "chocolate chip" desert camo pattern, worn in the Gulf War. Note that the background color is buff, with large blotches in two shades of tan/light brown. It is spotted with black and white leopard spots.
Center is the ERDL woodland camo pattern, worn in Grenada and other conflicts. I would use dark green for the background color, followed by irregular, branched blotches of brown, then light green, then thinner branches of black.
Right is the ACU pattern, currently in service today. The pixels in this camo are very small, and tricky to paint. The backround color is dark green, followed by tons of little pixelated dots of gray-green and buff. Alternately, you could do the background color buff, and follow it with the two other colors.
Painting camo is a lot simpler than it might look. The trick is to do it in layers, and cover up some of the previous layers to create an irregular pattern.