Building - A Joan of Arc Castle

Castle Paint by Numbers.

Time of Legends

Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is set amid the tumult of the 100 Years War, when kings and princes struggle for the throne of France. This is the age of knights and squires, where chivalry is often spoken of, but rarely practiced. It is a time of both religion and superstition. Educated clerics fervently believe that angels guard the pious, and demons scourge the wicked, while the simpler folk watch the night for signs of werewolves and dragons. The game assumes that all of these are real.

Joan of Arc is a story-driven board game that uses finely-sculpted miniatures and 3D scenery to set the scene for a game of cunning and skill (and a little luck). The game is a combination of interwoven card play, resource management, and position on the board. You will need to master all three to beat the best opponents. Getting your men into the right position, and heading off your enemy, will be no use if you cannot muster the cards and other resources to make the most of it. Joan of Arc allows a huge amount of freedom in your actions. In every turn, you can choose to spend or save resources, and when you come to activate a unit you can choose between combat, interrogation, search, exploration, prayers, and other actions. So, this turn, should you level up a hero, or spend that resource to buy a re-roll? Take extra actions now, or save them for later? Double-move that cavalry, or question the old woman in the woods? When and how to act are decisions you must make based on your objectives, and the situation on the board. And, what is the best decision one turn may be very different in the next.

Players take the role of the various factions in the war, or of some of the supernatural creatures that have emerged from the shadows. The most famous heroes and heroines of the war are all here: the Black Prince, the Dauphin, Falstaff, and, of course, Joan of Arc herself. Each game is a unique scenario with its own map assembled from the gaming tiles, and a specified set of heroes and followers to achieve the scenario’s objectives. Each scenario has its own victory conditions, often different for each side. In one game you may be an inquisitor, seeking out a werewolf hidden among the peasantry; in another you may be a victorious raiding party, desperately fighting your way through an ambush so you can return to the safety of your castle.

Scenarios range from small affairs with a few models and simplified role-play elements, to full battles with dozens of knights, archers and men-at-arms. All scenarios typically play in under an hour. The game also includes a battle mode, to fight out conflicts between armies of your choosing.

—description from the publisher

Siege

The siege boxed set for Time of Legends - Joan of Arc is absolutely packed full of epic scenery that I just couldn't wait to get painted.  However the game also includes a small mountain of figures that also need to be tackled.  Bearing this in mind I started on the hundreds of infantry, cavalry, artillery and siege equipment before rewarding myself with getting to grips with the impressive castle model.

I was asked to share my recipe for painting my castle, hence how this post has come about.   

I make no claims to being a great painter but I can paint quite quickly.  Normally my methods are just try it and see.

I undercoated the pieces with a grey primer.  I used Games Workshops Mechanicus Grey, purely because its what I had at hand at the time.  I find Grey is a nice colour to work up from.  It is more forgiving than white if you miss an area when painting, and also easier to get brighter colours from than starting with a black base.  

When Painting figures I often use a brown primer for the same reasons, although that's a story for another day.

I gave the undercoated model a quick drybrush with Vallejo Model Colour Iraqui Sand.  I'm not sure why its spelt like that but for some reason it is. Iraqui sand is similar to a bone like colour you may find in other ranges.

When drybrushing I use a cheap 1" paintbrush from the local hardware store.

Next up was a light drybrush with Mummy Robes from The Army Painter Warpaints range.  This is a slightly off white colour. 

I focused this drybrushing more to the tops of the castle walls so that there was a gradual change of colour to the initial darker shade the further down the walls you looked.

You may have to do this several times.  What you are aiming for is a very light almost off white colour.  The model will look very washed out and pale.  This is ok because it will be given that nice darker finish towards the end.  For now though aim for something that looks whitewashed.

I then painted the stone areas with Wargames Foundry Granite mid tone, its the 31B colour.  I really like Wargames Foundry paints as they do a base colour, a mid tone and a highlight colour for each of their range.

The feature bricks were painted with Wargames Foundry Charcoal Black, 34B. 

I also painted the roof tiles on the castle components with this colour along with the decorative strip near the bottom of the walls and around the arrow slits and windows.

Now I know this little bridge doesn't include some features that the castle walls does but here is the time when you'll need to paint the wooden areas and any areas that look more like rendering. 

For the wooden components I used Vallejo Model Colour Desert Yellow.  Its a nice earthy yellow as opposed to a bright yellow.  I have also used this colour on my figures when painting spears, bows etc. 

The rendered areas like the lean-to structures behind the straight walls etc were painted with Wargames Foundry Rawhide Light Shade,  Its colour 11C.

Now I really wasn't careful painting any of these bits and it doesn't matter too much if you miss bits.   I find a rougher finish on terrain adds character and makes the models you place on it stand out better. 

So by now everything has a base colour of some type and its time to give the whole thing a light drybrush of Mummy Robes again.

Its about now that you may start to think that the terrain is starting to look very washed out.  That's exactly the effect you want as the next stage will darken things off and start to draw the colours together again.

When the paint is dry give the whole thing a coating in Army Painter quick shade Strong Tone.  

I am pretty sure that you could use a wood varnish too if you wanted to.  Alternatively you could use Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade, but you would need a lot of it.

 When dry it will look something like this.  You will notice it is very shiny.   The Quickshade works as a shade in the recesses and also gives a hard coating to protect your paintwork.

The next step is to get rid of the gloss finish.  My preferred anti matt varnish is from Army Painter.

The Anti Matt also gets rid of the really smooth finish the model had after receiving a coating in quickshade.  This is important as the next step is another drybrush.   Trying to drybrush before adding the matt varnish will cause you no end of dramas as the paint will struggle to adhere to the raised edges. 

For the final drybrush I go back to my trusted Mummy Robes.  The whole model gets a very light drybrush.  

And that's basically it.

The only other thing to do is apply a black ink wash inside all the windows of the castle.  This just helps them stand out a bit from the shade between the brickwork.  I used Nuln Oil from Games Workshops paint range but any black ink wash would work. 

Any questions please feel free to ask and thanks for taking the time to read this far.

Finally a few more pictures of my Time of Legends - Joan of Arc Castle.