Miniature Showcase

Ballista

Here are more of my speed paint miniatures. I am able to move through my pile of unpainted miniatures much faster now. These two ballista are perfect for preparing an army, town or city for battle. They were also super easy to paint, taking no more than an hour total to paint both.

These miniatures are simple but are great set pieces to set a scene for your tabletop. The above photo is the pre-primed, unpainted set first. I love that these miniatures come primed so I don’t have to take that extra step. It can be tedious, especially in the winter months because the primer needs heat to dry properly. I am going to be investing in a curing box so that won’t be an issue and I can move through unprimed miniatures much faster.

I used a the Dark Wood Speed Paint for the wooden parts of the ballista, which is most of the miniature. Then I used the Gravelord Gray Speed Paint to paint the base for the metallic portions of the miniature. The result up to this point is pretty good so far. If you aren’t too picky about your details, you can stop at this point and use them as is. I took an extra step to make the metal part stand out a bit more for these miniature. I really love how the paint fills the shadows in the wood and makes it look very realistic with very little effort.

After applying the main coat of Speed Paint I moved on to some detail work. I used some white to paint the feathering on the end of the bolt loaded onto the ballista and I used the Hardened Leather Speed Paint to paint the string that will propel the bolt upon firing. Small details like this can add a lot of realism to your miniatures which increases the immersion of the people at the table. You could also stop at this point and call it done. Still, I wanted a bit more detail in the miniatures.

For my final details, I used a Gunmetal Silver to add some accent to the metal parts of the ballista set. I covered all the lighter areas of the gray Speed Paint in the metallic color. This gave it the look of a sheen, similar to what the super details painters that blend matte colors to create the illusion of metal. It does not compare to the work of those amazing artists, but it does a create a simpler version of that effect. I painted all the bolts in the metallic color and added small lines of it to give it a sheen effect.

The end result was exactly what I wanted without too much effort on my part for simple set pieces. I got the effect I was going for and now I have some pretty cool ballista to use in our next campaign. I am really enjoying the use of my new Speed Paints and I’m glad I bought them. Just like my fluorescent paints, I can’t stop raving about them!