Classical Indian General

A while back, frustrated by an ever growing mountain of lead, I set myself the fairly modest goal of painting a single element worth of miniatures every day. The idea behind this was that if I stuck to this and steered clear of any distractions I could complete a 12 element DBA army in a little under 2 weeks. A great idea I thought and so far I've managed to stick more of less to painting an element a day - I think I've missed maybe 4 days due to illness and heavier than normal work schedules. What I haven't managed to do however, is stay focused on one army long enough to complete it in 2 weeks. I'll paint an element of this, an element of that - whatever takes my fancy really. The good thing is that stuff is getting painted, and the mountain of lead's growth has been slowed if not entirely halted!! So far I've managed to finish an all options Ming Chinese army (14 elements in total), half completed 2 other armies, and have about 20 or so elements painted for about 5 or 6 other armies.
Last night I painted up a Classical Indian general mounted on an elephant. The models are 15mm scale from Essex Miniatures. I think I must have bought him singly at some point, because he didn't appear to be part of any DBA army pack that I have at the moment.Given that the DBA rules, and army lists, are currently being revised & re-written I'm in no real hurry to buy the miniatures to make up the rest of this army as its composition may well change, although I'm sure the General will still be elephant mounted.

The whole model was undercoated black and the elephant hide was given a heavy drybrush of Games Workshop's Charandon Granite - a nice grey brown colour which I think works really well for elephant hide. The other areas of the model were given a pale grey drybrush (makes detail easier to see and helps create highlights) then blocked in with their base colours (I use a variety of GW, Foundry and Vallejo colours) and then the whole model was washed with a mix of Klear Acrylic Floor Polish, Winsor & Newton Peat Brown ink and Water to provide the shading. Once this was dry the elephant was given a light drybrush of Charandon Granite lightened with a little Buff Titanium (a bone-coloured artists acrylic). The raised areas on the rest of the model were re-painted with their original colour, although the general's beard did get a further highlight - I'd read that Classical Indian generals & kings often dyed their beards so I painted the general's beard with GW's Dark Angel Green, followed by a Green/Buff Titanium highlight (I use Buff Titanium to lighten most colours...). Finally, to break up the grey/brown expanse of the elephant and add a bit of interest I painted areas of de-pigmentation on the elephant's trunk, ears and around the eyes using a flesh colour, which was then highlighted. A quick look at images of Indian elephants online will show that most have some areas of de-pigmentation - this is easy to do, and adds a bit of individualtity to your elephants. Once it was dry I gave it a coat of Army Painter anti-shine varnish.  

The base hasn't been painted yet (I find it's easier to do a week worth of element bases in one sitting). I covered it in diluted PVA glue and sprinkled on some small pieces of cat litter before dipping it into a box of sand. This was actually done before I undercoated the model.

Right, that's it for now.

Thanks for reading and take care

Bob Mcleish