The intrepid band of adventurers pressed on into the depths of the long-lost tomb of Khemon-Pha.
heroes realized that several of the skeletons lying in state were moving ? and were armed.
shattered bones of their undead assailants lay scattered about the crypt. Dess, a mage of great renown,
we have fought strange foes,? he reported. ?See ? the chests of these skeletons
limbs have no joints. Only with powerful magic could they have been made to move at all!?

Huh? What?s this with solid skeletons?
Skeletons are supposed to be skeletal,
right? Aren?t yours? Mine are ? now.

Both as a game master and miniatures
painter, I have always had a special fascination
with the undead. Skeletons have
long been a personal favorite. Dozens of
them prowl my dungeons and workbench.
(On special occasions, I line them up in
front of the TV and show them videotapes
of the great Ray Harryhausen animated
skeletons.) Over the years, I have come up
with a simple and sure-fire technique for
quick and easy paintings of properly skeletal
skeletons, and variations on it to deal
with liches, zombies, ghosts, ghouls, and
other horrors.

Most people, especially beginning painters,
paint a skeleton in a sequence of steps
resembling the following: trim the obvious
flash (little bits of metal from imperfections
in the mold) from the figure; paint it
white; paint little black lines to indicate
gaps between the bones; then, sic it on
innocent adventurers.

The problem with this technique is that
it tends to produce rather coarse-looking
results. Even with a 5/0 brush, it is difficult
to paint even, regular lines between
the bones, especially ribs. At least, I can?t
do it; even trying gives me eyestrain and
cramped hands, and filling in the gaps
with a wash gives only dirty bones. The
technique described in this article works
for me, shaky hands and all, and gives
professional-looking results as well. It
takes a bit more preparation than the
method given earlier, but the actual work
is easier. I can paint six or eight of the little
fellows in under an hour.

Tools of the trade
You will need the following materials
and tools, most of which you probably
already use for miniatures painting and
the rest of which are readily available:

    Hobby knife (X-acto #l or similar);
    Several small files;
    Large file or medium sandpaper;
    White glue;
    Pieces of wood for temporary bases;
    Primer (optional);
    Black spray paint (Testor?s flat black enamel works well);
    Clear flat finish (optional);
    Paints (preferably acrylic): light tan, ivory, white, and black;
    Old battered brush, cut short for drybrushing;
    Small brush (about size 0);
    Very small brush (3/0), or a technical pen, about size 00;
    Paper towels or old rags, and
    Water or solvent, as appropriate, for thinning paint and cleaning brushes

Art supply stores are the best places to
find brushes; they tend to have a much
wider selection and better prices than
hobby shops. White synthetic fiber brushes
are good, but they may be hard to find.
Acrylic paints, unlike the solvent-based
paints, cannot be dissolved and smeared
by freshly applied layers of color once
they have dried. Armory and Polly S acrylics
work well.

Skeletons, bone by bone
To paint skeletons, first select suitable
miniature figures. Some, such as the old
Grenadier "Wizzards & Warriors" line, are
too flat and crudely carved for this technique
to work well. Most recent releases
are adequate, and many of the recent
figures from Grenadier and Ral Partha are
superb. Look for deep sculpting and
raised, clearly defined bones. The hands,
feet, and rib cages are the usual trouble
spots.  I prefer to buy new releases as SOON 
as possible, as the molds used to cast them 
wear out.  After many thousands of figures 
have been produced, this wear produces 
more mold flash and dulled details. 


3 custom-designed spearmen from the Bad Bones Legion, meeting an 
enemy's charge.  Miniature designs and painting by David C. Sutherland III.

2nd, each figure must be prepared 
for painting.  This entails a bit of work 
with a knife and files to clean off the flash, 
mold lines, and other imperfections.  It is 
essential that this be done as thoroughly 
as possible, as the painting technique 
described herein enhances any raised 
area, intended or not.  Be especially thorough 
abou the ribs; mold lines often run 
up the sides of the rib cage, and it pays to 
keep a small knife-edge needle file just to 
clean these up.  Depending on your normal 
procedures, you may also want to chemically 
clean the figures.  If not, a quick wash 
with hot, soapy water will remove many 
of the sorts of grunge which prevent paint 
from sticking properly.  Be sure to rinse 
the soap off thoroughly, and only handle 
the figure by the base after cleaning.  The 
use of primer is optional.  Whether you use 
it or not depends on personal taste and the 
sticking abilities of the black spray paint 
you have.  I myself use Floquil gray spray 
primer, which should be let dry for 24 
hours.

The techniques described in this article apply to all skeletons 
— even to those from Central America and the Orient.

When the figures are ready to paint, the 
1st little trick of this painting technique 
comes into play.  Lay all of the figures flat 
on several sheets of newspaper and spray 
paint them black.  When they are dry, turn 
them over and do the same to the other 
sides.  Be thorough, but avoid overdoing it.  
The skeletons will eventually have 4 
layers of color (5 if you used primer), so 
care must be taken not to make any too 
thick, to avoid chipping when they are 
handled. 

Let the black paint dry overnight.  It pays 
to be PARANOID about the coat of paint at 
the bottom of any painting job.  If it does 
not dry properly, you figures could go 
horribly bald at some inopportune 
moment and will certainly not wear as 
well as their properly dried brethren.  I 
generally spray a batch of figures before I 
go to bed, glue them to temporary bases 
for easier handling when I get up (that's 
what the bits of wood and the white glue 
are for), and paint them after I get home 
from work or after lunch on weekends.  In 
between, I have time to touch up the 
specks where the spray did not cover, 
such as behind shields, under arms, etc.  A 
black wash can sometimes help here.  

Much of the subsequent paint on each 
skeleton is applied by drybrushing, which 
is one of the most important methods of 
producing highlighting and special effects.  
You will need an old and fairly wide brush 
that you do not care about damaging.  
Drybrushing shreds brushes, so it is a 
good way to use those old brushes you 
have lying around waiting to be thrown 
away.  Dip the brush in paint and wipe 
most of the paint off on a rag or paper 
towerl.  Dab, wipe, or scrub the brush 
across the figure, depending on the 
amount of paint on the brush, the texture 
of the surface, and the coverage desired.  
The only way to get a feel for proper 
drybrushing is practice. 

The 1st color to be applied by dry 
brushing is the light tan.  You should apply 
the tan fairly heavily, but be careful not to 
get it into the grooves between the bones.  
This is the foundation of the entire technique: 
It is much easier to paint something 
that protrudes than to dodge 2 protrusions 
and paint the depression between them.  
By such simple tricks are great 
undead made.  The tan, if applied in a 
properly thin coat, will be fuzzy at the 
edges and allow some black to show 
through.  That's fine; the tan is only important 
along the edges of the bones,  where it 
portrays the bone curving into the dark 
interior of the skeletal body. 

The 2nd color used is ivory, the primary 
color for these skeletons.  This will 
be applied 2 ways.  1st, drybrush it on, 
in slightly less amounts than the tan.  This 
serves to indicate which areas should be 
painted.  Then, with the 0 and 3/0 brushes, 
carefully paint each bone.  Since you are 
only working on the raised areas and have 
the drybrushing to guide you, this is quick 
and easy.  The backbone, for instance, can 
be done as a series of dots.  Be careful to 
keep the paint out of the black regions.  
Remember, it's always easier to put a little 
more paint on than to take it off again. 

After the ivory comes white. Like the 
tan, this is drybrushed on.  However, it is 
applied lightly, as a highlight.  The only 
place you might need to actually paint it 
on is the back of the skull.  Do not overdo 
the white; the primary color of the skeleton 
is ivory, with tan shadows and white highlights. 

You will probably need to a few 
touch-ups here and there, especially 
around the skull's face.  This is where a 
fine-point Rapidograph or other tech pen 
comes in handy.  It is easier to control than 
a brush and, while I have not tested it on 
oil-based paints, its permanent ink hold 
nicely to acrylics.  A fine brush and a 
steady hand can fake it quite nicely, too. 

Finally, you can paint armor, equipment, 
and whatever shreds of clothing are still 
hanging on each skeleton.  Paint colors for 
these details were not included in the 
materials list, because they vary depending 
on what the particular figures you are 
painting happen to carry and wear.  Armor 
is best done with heavily drybrushed dark 
silver, followed by a very light highlight of 
normal silver in a few spots.  Weaopns 
should be painted dark silver, sometimes 
highlighted with drybrushed silver or 
platinum.  A little rust paing goes a long 
way -- don't overdo it.  Dark bronze followed 
by bronze or gold handles most 
gold-colored things.  Remember that gold 
does not tarnish; it does, however, get 
dirty, and it has shadows like anything 
else. For leather, heavily drybrush or
lightly paint dark brown, with a very light
highlighting of a lighter brown. When
Polly S did official AD&DTM paints, it had a
color called "Otyugh Brown" that was
perfect for leather surfaces. This same
technique works very nicely for painting
wooden parts on shields. The hafts of
weapons such as axes and pole arms
should be slightly lighter in color than
other woods. The bases of undead figures
can be painted charcoal gray. 

The matter of shreds of clothing on
skeletons brings us to a category of
undead figures which I call the robed
undead, as these figures are generally
rather well clothed. Robed undead include
liches, zombies, and various other horrors.
Their skins, where applicable, are fairly
easy to paint. If you can?t get properly
rotten-looking greenish-gray paint, it is
easy to mix it yourself. The cloth areas are
another matter entirely.

Look at an old piece of cloth. The color
is dull, often worn in places. All of the
colors look dusty and vaguely alike in
some hard-to-define way. If the cloth has
been attacked by mold, these effects are
more pronounced.

To paint such old, worn, rotting clothing,
start with a color quite a bit darker than
the intended result, followed up by the
primary color of the clothing, then by a
lighter shade for highlights. One of the
neat things about this is that the naturally
irregular finish left by drybrushing is
perfect for simulating cloth! Shades of tan
nicely simulate a sort of unbleached muslin
color, but dull red and dark green also
work well. Ghosts and other wispy undead
should use the same tan-ivory-white
sequence of painting as skeleton bones.

Try out these techniques on your next
undead. You will be amazed by how well
they look when you start by painting them
black. Incidentally, this dark-priming technique
works well on other sorts of figures
as well. It is nice for giving a dark tone to
just about anything. Among the figures I
have used it on are an anti-paladin, a brother
and sister team of thieves, a small red
dragon, two bandits, and some drow.



OCTOBER 1988