Warlord’s gallant leader, John Stallard, demonstrates his painting prowess…
This is a tank. A French Char B1 bis to be precise. Not an ordinary tank, either. No, it’s not magical. It’s certainly an impressive piece of kit, but why are we displaying this here, all alone?
This tank has been painted by John Stallard, who many of you will know as the Big Boss here at Warlord Games (not to be confused with Solid Snake’s father).
John Stallard, as our Big Boss, has a reputation for being an enthusiastic painter (a burden I’m sure many of you are cursed with). Now, I’m sure you’ve made the correct assumption that Mr. Stallard did indeed paint this tank. But there’s another aspect of this that you may find rather surprising.
John Stallard, our Lord and Master, painted this tank in 1 hour 15 minutes.
Yes, you heard that right. Stop gasping at the back, there’ll be time for that later.
First of all, we need to get down to brass tacks here, and ask the most burning question:
HOW?!
“The model was widowed in the studio,” John explains, “They’d made it up as a sample and they were going to throw it away. As we know, throwing model soldiers out is a mortal sin! I managed to snaffle it home and I thought, yeah, this is definitely getting me doing a French army, now.”
How did this lead to the marathon painting session?
“I thought ‘How quickly can I paint this?’” he continues, “I painted it grey as an undercoat and then took 1 hr 15 minutes to finish, which is pretty good going, I think. This included putting the transfers on, a bit of weathering, putting some mud around the tracks and then giving it a light dusting with an off white to get that dusty effect.
“It’s a great camo scheme, it’s really cool. But yeah, 1 hour 15 minutes, it shows what you can really do!”
In 1 hour 15 minutes, did you take any breaks at all?
“I just wait until it dried. I did the sand colour first, then the green and the brown and picked out the details.”
Is this any different from a normal John Stallard painting session (NOTE: John Stallard painting sessions are shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Only one person has attended a John Stallard painting session, and it is said that when he came out, he was not the same man…)?
“This wasn’t any different, really. I usually sit at my kitchen table in the evenings with a day lamp – which helps you get a better appreciation of the detail. Then I normally listen to Radio Four. If I’m lucky, The Archers is on. I find that relaxing,” he laughs.
After completing this tank, John is bristling with encouragement for building a French army.
“I’ve brought some more French Infantry and a French armoured car is next. I just love that camouflage scheme. It looks quite advanced for an early war tank.”
I finish by asking if he has any words of encouragement out there for fellow Warlord painters?
“It’s just the fact that you might say you don’t have the time, but if I can do that in 1 hour 15 minutes, and I think it certainly looks good enough for the table top, then anybody can. I just used paints. I didn’t airbrush. But this is mean and dirty, out by 5:30. Bring on the next tank.”
There you have it, fellow Warlorders. There’s no excuse now! The 1 hour painting challenge starts…
…whenever you’ve got the time, I guess.
No, just kidding. IT STARTS NOW!
Next time it’ll be a French Armoured Car…
Start your own Painting Marathon Session!
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon