We paint minis from all eras and IPs, but we’ve never done anything directly relevant to our history or mythology, as Sri Lankans. This year, we fixed that.
We got hold of some 15mm Classical Indians from Museum Miniatures in the UK. Museum Miniatures is run by an awesome chap named Dave. As far I have been able to tell over the past few years, Dave has been trailblazing 3d design in the generally older, more traditional world of 15mm historical miniatures. Many people aren’t excited about 15mm, historicals in particular, saying that the minis are dated or ugly. Well, you won’t say that after you’ve held one of Dave’s castings in your hand. Their sculpting is as good as the best 28-32mm.
how to paint south asian war ELEPHANTS
Elephants were the centerpieces of ancient South Asian warfare. There is poor data on how they looked in battle, but the clues are all around us in this part of the world. In Sri Lanka, we have elephant parades called peraheras. Here’s one, from last week, where an elephant went on a rampage:
As you can see from the angry megafauna who ought not to stressed out like this, they wear colorful caparisons. Each one has its own colors. It is very reminiscent of the colors of medieval knights. Correlation isn’t evidence, but it does suggest a similar institution. Sri Lankan perahera elephants are usually done in red, blues, and yellows, and so we used those colors for the Sri Lankan elephants.
Picture credit: Quintessentially
Similarly, in India, there are elephant festivals as well. There, however, you see much more use of greens, pinks, and purples, and painting done directly on the elephant’s skin. We used these elements to do the opposing army. For Sri Lankans, Indians have been the OPFOR for much of our history, most recently, in a polite invasion in 1987…
a 650 year old temple
For inspiration for the freehand designs, we went to Embakke, a 650 year old temple. Embakke is interesting for two reasons. One, for centuries after, Singhalese Sri Lankan architecture and design have copied from it. Two, there is no repetition of designs at the temple. Between decorations and imagery, there are 514 unique art pieces there. These art pieces we used for inspiration.
Here are the freehand painted designs. Remember, these guys are about one and a half inches tall.
A 32 square Foot Diorama
Can’t have minis without a board. Can’t just be any board; needs to be fancy if its going to our Comic Con. Here’s what we did:
lanka Comic Con Was Fun
Here are some shots of a few of the painters. A few cosplayed. Aishwarya, the studio’s new Art Director, is the Mandalorian in the photos below. He, of course, made his costume from scratch. While, at the same time, doing most of the work on the diorama.
Paintedfigs is a miniature painting service. You can send us your figurines to paint, and we also have painted miniatures for sale. We paint mainly Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, and so on), Star Wars, Warmachine and Hordes, and pretty much every Kickstarter and board game under the sun.
And we do so at the lowest rates on Earth (we’ve checked).
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