Through the barricades part 2 - painting

In my last blog, I discussed assembling some medieval barricades to be used in the Barons' War and for other Medieval games. I created several barricades and tried to give them a random look, as if they had been assembled and piled together in a hurry. Now, they need paint!

I first started by spraying the entire model in Trench Brown from Colourforge.

Ideally, I'd like to minimise the amount of work I need to do, so I'm thinking of using block colours followed by a wash to bring out the detail. I will also try and use as much of the original spray brown colour as possible. There's no point painting things twice unless I have to. I also planned to use different types of washes on different parts of the model. 

I started by using a bright metal colour (in this case, Warpaints Plate Mail Metal) on the metallic parts. I'm starting with bright colours as they will be dulled down by the wash. I also painted the vase a terracotta colour (XV-88 as I had that to hand).

Next, I painted the cloth bag, rope and sacks with Vallejo Buff and the tips of the cut wood with a very old pot of Citadel Spearstaff Brown. I plan to use different washes to further differentiate them. This doesn't need to be an exact recipe guide, as we are not dealing with uniforms, so use whatever equivalent colour you wish (such as Vallejo Goldenbrown).

Both the Buff and Spearstaff Brown were very light paints, so they both required a second coat before continuing. Next, I painted the shield white and the grain with Vallejo Yellow Ochre. Both paints were quite thin and thus required second coats before continuing.

I painted the shield red. I did try a fancy pattern, but it didn't work out, so the entire shield was painted a single colour. Now comes the shading! I used an ochre shade (Vallejo Game Color Ochre Wash) for the ground, which gave the soil a nice colour. 

I have a selection of Army Painter shades, which would now come into their own. I used the light tone on the lighter elements, such as the canvas bags, the stakes and the grain sack. Next, I used the AP Mid Brown shade for the barrel and the pot. AP Strong Tone was used for the wooden box and the other side of the shield.

Overall, the barricade could be enhanced with some highlights. The rope could be highlighted, grass tufts added and so on. However, perfection is the enemy of good enough, and there's plenty more terrain that needs painting. While a little rough and ready, it'll do well in tonight's game.