Blue Moon Pirates: Part 1 - Base & Shadow Flesh

Today, I finished the first coat of flesh on two packs of Blue Moon 15mm pirates seen below. I use P3 paints for flesh. Since these figures are more detailed and will be individually based, I'm treating them more like 25mm figures than 18mm figures.

The first three photos below show the first coat of paint, which is P3 Khardic Flesh. I apply it rather sloppily to get in all the nooks and crannies. I do this because people notice flesh and faces more than clothing. Later, I will trim away all the excess flesh paint using black and then paint the rest of the figure.


I used P3 Idrian Flesh as the base for the African fellows below. There is only one figure in the pack that looks African, which is a bit disappointing. I would have liked a couple others as well for variety. This guy looks suitably tough!


With all the bare chests and legs in each pack, these figures took a lot longer to paint than I expected! With the Khardic flesh done, I set out to paint in the shadow colors. Using a 00 brush, I painted P3 Idrian Flesh into the muscle shadows such as this fellow's six-pack and biceps. I also paint the eyes, the shadow under the cheek bone, under the nose, and under the chin and neck area. When done, I go back and touch that up with Khardic again to make everything neat. You don't want thick lines of Idrian slapped on the figure!

You can see the finished result below. The figure to the right has the Idrian painted in the shadows. The fellow on the left is just the base Khardic. The difference under normal light a couple feet away is dramatic.


Even though painting the flesh has been been an experiment, I am liking the results so far. It is taking longer than normal 15mm figures and is a bit trickier than painting 25mm figures because these pirates are smaller. But I am not done yet.

Next step will be to highlight the muscles using P3 Midlund Flesh. I am thinking of mixing 50/50 Midlund/Khardic but might go straight Midlund for a more dramatic effect with these smaller figures. Then maybe some extreme highlights here and there using P3 Ryn Flesh if I feel it looks good. I think it will be worth the effort. Then I have to return to my Splintered Light hares, which is turning out to be an eternal project due to the drybrushing method I started. Always something to work on in our hobby!