Blog – Page 17 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks!

My Christmas present from my wife this year was a two day course at Barwells in Leicester. The topic, ‘How to use an Airbrush’. After over 50 years of modelling and painting, you would have thought that I was familiar with the technique but apart from one failed attempt with a cheap humbrol airbrush and canned air back in the ’80s, I have never been able to get my head around the idea. I have watched others and picked up a bit of knowledge from reading, you tube, and talking to customers and suppliers but the truth is I never use one. It seemed like I didn’t have time to stop using a paint brush and learn a new technique from scratch. I wasn’t entirely sure that it would be of use, now that I have moved from 40K to historical subjects.

To put things into context, I even had bought a complete set up from Expo but it has sat in my garage under the work bench for over two years and the model air colours that I had bought have been used with a standard brush. As an aside – Vallejo model air are very good for brushing!

The opportunity to go on a course and have someone to show me how to use an airbrush seemed to be a good solution. I had seen the Barwells stand at a couple of war games shows and loitered around watching Steve from Barwells demo-ing the products and I mentioned to My wife that perhaps a course would help. As buying Christmas presents for me is difficult, Julie was more than happy with the idea and I was booked in to the ‘Airbrushing for Beginners’ course on the weekend of 24th/25th February.

The course is run by the appropriately named Steve Puffer of Barwells and it is made clear that on day one you don’t need to bring anything but yourself. Everything is supplied, including unlimited coffee and chocolate biscuits, a buffet lunch and of course the Airbrushes and paint!

The set up at Barwells

After a friendly welcome from Steve, the day began with a short informal talk on how an airbush works and it’s component parts. As there are only 6 people on the course, there’s plenty of time for questions and Steve is well able to get around and check how you are doing when it comes to the practical exercises. Steve has spent his career using an airbrush in the car and bike customisation industry, so his knowledge is not only extremely comprehensive but also very practical and down to earth. He quickly dispels the ‘myths and magic’ that sometimes go with this aspect of the hobby and emphasises that the airbrush is just a tool to do a job, not very different to a paint brush and with the same degree of care will give superb results.

With the basic instructions and techniques demonstrated, ( I wont repeat them all here – you will have to go to the course!), we were unleashed with our airbrushes and the practical work started. For me, this was the great benefit of the course. We started by practicing the various ‘airbrush strokes’ on paper. The beauty being that as well as a great set up, we had plenty of time, materials and Steve’s enthusiastic coaching to keep us focused. If I had been at home, I would have lost patience and picked up my paint brush to do some modelling!

Once we were reasonably competent, the next challenge was to paint a Demo piece shown below. We had a picture to follow as a guide, but we were encouraged to use whatever colours we fancied!

Test in progress!

Throughout the day, Steve was on hand to give encouragement as well as share ideas. At the end of the session, we had all produced something that looked a bit like the original but more importantly, we had gained confidence when it came to using the airbrush.

First days work completed – not bad for the first time with an airbrush!

Onto day two, and we had the choice of either bringing our own models to paint or we could use some of the many sample models in the studio to work on. I elected to bring my own as I wanted to see just what I could achieve with an air brush. The day started with a bit more tuition and a fun exercise where we had to see how many colours we could get onto a model in 15 minutes.

Chaos Biker with chaotic colour scheme!

The exercise was of course another clever way of getting us familiar with our new tool and demonstrated just how quickly we could change colours.

It was now down to the serious business of working on the models that we had brought. My main subject was a 1/48th scale Panther made by Blitzkrieg models. I was using the studio colour range but I had help from one of the other course members, Rodger, who knew his German camouflage colours!

I started out with a bit of pre shading, a technique previously covered in one of the ‘coaching sessions’ with Steve.

Pre shading the Panther

The next task was to build the base colour – I perhaps not only underestimated how little I needed to recoat the model but also misjudged how the colour would dry – more patience and experience will sort this!

Base coat on!

The next step was to airbrush on the brown and green camouflage. As you can see, I was perhaps too heavy handed and I should have taken some reference material rather than work from memory!

Camouflage on!

At this point, I would have been reaching for a paint brush to add some detail but Steve wouldn’t allow anyone near a brush! So I went on to paint the rubber road wheels with an airbrush and using another technique that we had learnt, added mud splashes and then ‘dirtied down’ the top areas to represent wear and tear. As usual, I was a bit heavy handed and over enthusiastic but I got the idea. In future less will be more!

Completed Panther

As you can see from the picture above, I also added some basic markings using a mask Supplied by Barwells. As well as painting the Panther, I also had a go at painting a couple of miniatures to see just what could be achieved with an airbrush. The 28mm Prussian Landwehr model was a limited success, the close ups below showing the over spray. That said, for a first attempt, the results show some promise and whilst it would be beyond my skill to complete a figure, it looks as though most of the block painting of the major colours could be achieved.

Close up of Prussian Landwehr

Rear view of airbrushed figure.

The limber horse was also an experiment and I think that there is definitely potential to paint horses using the airbrush as the shading is quite subtle. Once the straps and harness are tidied up, I think the horse will look acceptable.

Airbrushed Horse

Air brushed horse – it looks better on this side!

Finally, the other piece that I took was a Tamiya V-1 rocket that I had quickly put together on the Friday night before I went to Barwells. In this case, I just managed to prime the model but I must comment that using an Airbrush to prime your models is much superior to blasting them with a spray can! The finish was excellent – the only problem was that some of my heavy handed use of the glue showed up!

V-1 primed and ready to paint!

So a busy weekend came to an end and what a productive one it was too! My next challenge is now to re -jig my painting station in the garage to accommodate my new airbrush and to keep using it. There’s no question that it is an ideal way of priming even the smallest of models and of course, spray varnishing them once they are done. Incidentally, using water based paints through an airbrush is quite suitable for indoors work – there were six of us working in the same room without any ill effects and none of the smell that you would get with using a spray can. No more going outside into the garden to prime or varnish my models!

If you are thinking of trying airbrushing for your self, I can heartily recommend that a course at Barwells is well worth the investment. You wont become an expert in two days but you will gain a tremendous amount of experience, and thanks to Steve Puffers enthusiasm and practical knowledge of the subject, I have no doubt that you will become competent enough to start to get the best out of this method of finishing your models.

If you would like to attend a course, you can find all of the details at Barwells Web page here:

BARWELLS BODYWORKS

As well as courses, Barwells have an amazing range of Airbrushes, accessories and spares, as well as the Badger recommended range of paints.

We stock a limited range of Airbrush equipment and accessories as well as a good range of primers, cleaners thinners etc here

AIRBRUSH ACCESSORIES

You can see the range of airbrush ready Vallejo paints and primers here:

Vallejo Airbrush Paints

As always, I hope that you enjoy your modelling as much as I do!

Papelotte in progress

I have committed to helping with a Wargames Demonstration at the ‘Bingham Napoleonic Day’ organised by the writer Peter Youds, who lives in Bingham. We ran a similar demo game at last years event – you can read all about it and the event here:

BATTLE FOR THE CROSSROADS

This year the plan was to run a battle loosely based around the action that took place at Papelotte, Waterloo. As I have found, it’s a very under documented part of the battle, probably because it involved mainly the Belgium, Dutch, Nassau, Hanoverian and of course, Prussian contingent from the Allied side and was somewhat overshadowed by events elsewhere on the battlefield. As an aside, if there is anyone out there that can point me in the right direction of a reasonably priced English language account of this part of the battle, I would be very grateful.

British Light Cavalry deploy behind Papelotte

I had been given a ‘test shot’ model of Papelotte by those very generous people ( Steve and AJ) over at Sarissa precision and it seemed a shame not to get it painted and battlefield ready. The picture above shows the Sarissa show model superbly painted by Gary at March Attack. My first thought was to follow Gary’s colour scheme, Terracotta roof and white washed walls with exposed brick work. Here is my first attempt at painting it.

Papelotte Farm – Under construction!

I have used standard household emulsion to paint the walls and roof – no priming is required, just slap the paint on! I also used the terracotta paint on the ‘exposed’ brickwork and then brushed over with the white. However, I wasn’t happy with the effect. Firstly, it didn’t look as good as Gary’s painting! Secondly, I had seen some versions of the Farm with a Grey slate roof and decided that I would go for this as a finish. So it was off to the bargain arts shop to get some more paint and some big brushes. As a Model shop retailer, it might seem strange not to be pushing ‘proper paints’ but if you are undertaking a project like this, it’s silly to use something like Vallejo to cover large areas. I also find the the ‘coarser nature’ of cheap paints helps with the texture, so that when it comes to weathering or dry drying, the cheap paints are better.

Papelotte,divided into it’s components for painting.

So I simply mixed black & white paint to get a nice grey and repainted the roof. As you can see, the Sarissa model easily breaks down into the seperate buildings to make painting more straight forward. It will also help when it comes to storage or transport.

There’s something not quite right…

The picture above shows Papelotte assembled but there was a problem with the Farm house building on the far left. It had been assembled with the walls in the wrong position. Once again, MDF showed it’s versatility, as I was able to carefully split the walls from the building and re assemble it with out too much drama.

Papelotte assembled with damp course and correct facing for the building.

The building is now assembled correctly, the damp course is painted in black and I have used some artistic licence in painting the stone surrounds on the gates in grey, although modern pictures of Papelotte now show this detail. I’ve also used the same artists paints to dry brush the grey roof and the white to blend the exposed bricks on the walls. At this stage I had left the yard ‘whitewashed’ but then decided that it would be muddied up.

Papelotte with muddied yard.

To create a more used look to the yard, I simply used Vallejo textured paste dabbed straight onto the MDF yard and then painted and dry brushed with my gaming board colour ‘Dehli Bazzar’ emulsion with a small amount of Vallejo iraqi Sand to lighten it. I have also painted the doors German Camouflage Black, a nice dark brown colour.

Another view of the yard at Papelotte

I’ve also added a bit of ‘moss’ – green scatter to parts of the roof and detailed the yard with some Gamers grass tufts and some Javis leaves.

Through the door at Papelotte.

So for now that is as far as I have got. I have done some detailed work in some of the open buildings in the courtyard and added some mud/ straw to the interior using textures past and plant liner that I have cut into small bits but I don’t have photos of this. I’ve also added some Javis climbing weeds to the back of the big barn for a bit more detail and artistic licence. I’ll leave it for now as the next project is to get some Nassau painted ready for the battle but I suspect that I will add a bit more in the way of debris to the yard to make it a bit more battle worn.

I’m a great fan of the Sarissa buildings. They are extremely practical to build, paint and use. If you are looking for a reasonable representation of a building to go onto your wargames table at a great price, I think that you will be pleased with them too.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

To see the range of Sarissa buildings for Waterloo, including the ‘big three’ Hougomont, La Haye Sainte and Papelotte, click here:

SARISSA OLD EUROPE

VALLEJO PAINTS AND TEXTURES

JAVIS SCENERY & ACCESSORIES

Pauper Paint Job

Having finished assembling the Pauper archers (see last weeks blog) the next job was to paint them. I had an idea of the colour scheme that I would use and decided to ‘batch paint’ all nine in one go. The deadline was to have them completed by this weekend as I have a big Napoleonic project that I has to be completed by the end of February – more on that in future blogs!

So the first task was to prime them with Army painter matt black spray.

Pauper Archers primed and ready for painting

Senzo was put to one side for now – he will get his own special paint job! Next, using a large brush, I dry brushed them with Vallejo Sea Grey to bring out the detail. With hind sight, I should have given them a heavier dry brush, a lesson for the next batch as it not only highlights the black armour but brings out the detail making it easier to paint the models. It also helps to show any imperfections that I had missed before they were sprayed.

Dry brushed models ready for the next stage

The next stage was to paint the face and hands with Dark Flesh and the straw hats were painted with Flat Earth.

Faces and Hats done

Rather than give all the archers the same uniform, I wanted them all to be slightly different. They are supposed to be a ‘rag tag’ band not a cohesive unit. That said, I still wanted them to look similar so when it came to painting the tunics and trousers, I used five different ‘earthy tones’ and using a trick learnt from painting my Dark Age War Bands, applied these colours randomly across the nine figures.

Tunics and Trousers painted

The next picture shows the bows painted using New Wood, The socks, arrow flights and trim on the bows are off white, and the arrow shafts are painted using Old wood. I’ll list all the colours with their numbers at the end of the blog.

Bows, arrows & socks done

The next picture shows a bit more progress. I’ve dry brushed the hats with buff to lighten them & bring out the texture. The straps on the sandals, Katana hilts and detail on the quivers have been painted using German Camouflage Black Brown, the arrow heads and Katana hilts have been painted in natural steel, The katana scabbards have been painted in burnt red. The idea has been to stay away from using any more black than is necessary (the armour and gloves) and to keep to the earthy colours.

Main colours now blocked in

I also gave the figures a thin coat of Army Painter Strong tone and added texture to the bases. The figure are nearly done but I’m not quite happy with the finish yet.

Reinforcements arrive at Papelotte!

I’ve added a simple pattern to the archers tunic, tidied up the arrow flights and painted the base chocolate brown ready for highlighting. The tuft is just to see how it looks before I finish the basing. I was also having problems with the figures being top heavy. Because they all have metal heads there is a tendency for them to be top heavy and to fall over easily. I fixed this by gluing a penny into the base of each model – this also had the effect of increasing the value of my collection!

Weighting the base makes the figures more stable

You can also see from the picture that I have dry brushed the bases and added some green scatter. I’ve also added the bowstrings using the stretch sprue technique outlined in a previous blog here. One further tip. I attach the bow strings using super glue, applied with a cocktail stick. Don’t put the wrong end of the stick into your mouth when manoeuvring the model. Super gluing a cocktail stick to your lips is not a good move and it hurts when you take it off!

I finished off the base using some of the new Gamers Grass spikey bushes. I think that they look great!

bases complete with spikey grass!

And so another unit is finished. If I’m honest, I’m not as pleased with these as some that I have done. The faces are not good – perhaps an ink wash will hide some of the problems and help to blend some clumsy highlights. In truth, I have rushed them over a week, rather than take my time. That all said they make a nice band and once the bases are tidied up and they are in the triple bases supplied, they will look fine on the table.

Nine Pauper Soldiers ready for action!

I now need to paint the leader,Lord Senzo ‘The Thorn’. However, he might just have to wait as I have Papelotte to finish and about 60 Nassau infantry to paint, ready for the end of the month!

The Commercial Bit

Nearly all of the materials that I use are available from the Arcane scenery shop and at the time of writing are supplied post free to most worldwide locations.

here are some of the links:

ARCANE SCENERY SHOP

SAMURAI SECTION OR CATEGORY

VALLEJO PAINTS AND TEXTURES

GAMERS GRASS AND OTHER BASING PRODUCTS

The paints used were as follows. Face & hands; Dark flesh 70927: Hats; Flat Earth 70983, dry brushed in Buff 70976: Trousers and Tunics; 70923 Japanese uniform, 70877 gold brown, 70977 desert yellow, 70821 german cam. beige, 70914 green ochre: Bows, 311 New wood: Quivers, saddle brown 70940: Socks, bow trims, arrow flights, Off white 70820: Arrow shafts, Old Wood 310: Sandals, sword hilts, quiver ties, Germans Cam. Black Brown 70822: Arrow heads natural steel 70864 ( silver highlight), Dry brush on armour, Sea grey 70870: Sword Scabards & patterns 70870 burnt red. I have used army painter inks & Strong tone as described above.

I hope that helps!

Pauper Soldiers

I am gradually working my way through the Test of Honour boxed sets. Having completed all the figures in the Starter Box, Bandits and Brigands and most recently, the Samurai Cavalry, my next project was the Pauper Soldiers set. I very much like the main metal figure, Lord Senzo ‘The Thorn’ although I have to mention that the couple of occasions that I used him in a game, his accuracy with the bow led me to christen him something else – nothing to do with my dice rolling of course… I digress, back to the modelling!

As well as Lord Senzo, the box contains two sprues of ‘Missile ashigaru’, enough to build ten bowmen and musket men. The cards supplied also enable you to field groups or single models of Bowmen or Musket men. I decided that I wanted to build 9 bowmen to go with Senzo. It seemed logical that as he was armed with a bow, his retainers would follow suit. A sort of Japanese version of Robin Hood and his merry men! The tenth model would be used as a musket man but I have plans for fielding a force of Musket men and if they come to fruition, I will post these in a separate blog article.

Lord Senzo ready for priming.

Lord Senzo himself was pretty straight forward to put together as he is essentially a one piece metal moulding. I made a couple of changes though. By carefully cutting an arrow away from one of the plastic arms on the sprue, I was able to add an arrow to his bow. I also wanted to alter the angle at which he was firing, so by adding a small piece of slate to the base, I super glued Senzo to this. as with the other archers that I have made, I will add a bowstring once painting is complete.

Kneeling Archers

The Pauper Soldiers come with a selection of metal heads – some with hats and some with separate hats. I decided that I would leave the ones without hats bareheaded and hang the hats from the belt. I’m not sure whether this was the idea, but I quite like the effect. Two of the kneeling archers are aiming high. It was a case of finding the bow arms that looked about right for this pose and slightly modifying the arrow arm by adding a sliver of sprue to the shoulder to adjust the angle. Any gaps were filled with Vallejo plastic putty, which is easier and faster to use than green stuff for this small job.

Adjusting the angle of the draw!

You can just about make out the inserts in the picture above – it looks messy but cleans up OK! Incidentally, I’ve cheated as you only get two kneeling figures in the set – I had a spare donated by a friend who didn’t build everything in the starter set.

Standing archers

The standing archers are fairly straight forward to put together but I have made some slight modifications. I’ve used the legs that are have feet at right angle to each other and made sure that they are spread as wide as possible. There is no need to fill the slight gap but I did need to flatten the waist area slightly. The middle figure is holding a second arrow, ready to reload quickly! It’s a pose that I have seen in many pictures of Japanese archers. The spare arrow came by carefully cutting it away from the arm on the sprue. I’ve used that arm, now without an arrow, with the man on the far right. The idea is that the arrow has just been fired and when I fit the bow string this should look more obvious. I’ve also tried to tilt the bow down as though the tension has now gone.

Bowmen Reloading

The two bowmen reloading have been made using the left arm that is designed to be used to hold the musket. By simply glueing it so that it is positioned reaching over the shoulder, it looks convincing enough. Of course the other trick is to glue the quiver in place right under the hand! The bowman on the left has had a bit of surgery on his leg to make it look as though he is supporting his body as he leans back to get an arrow. It’s a small modification to cut off the legs and re-join it at an angle. As before, I have used Vallejo plastic putty to fill the gap. If you are not familiar with this product, it is idea for filling gaps in plastic models, dries quickly and is easily sanded and primed. You use it straight for the bottle or tube with no mixing and the drying time is very fast. The final note is that I have again used a piece of slate on the base of the right hand figure to change the angle of his pose.

Running bowman.

The final figure of the ninth bowman is pretty much a straight build except that I have altered the angle of the bow arm to one side and as a result, the arrow is resting on the ‘wrong’ side of the bow. As I’m not an archer, I’m not sure how realistic this is but it makes the pose more dynamic. The other point to note is that I have given him just one sword. This is true for all of the plastic pauper archers that I have made. I had originally thought to leave the swords off but decided that even paupers would have some sort of sword, so I have either given them one of the ‘extra’ short swords from the samurai sprue or simply cut the small sword away from the double Katana that is supplied.

Pauper soldiers, primed and ready for painting.

Here is the finished group, primed and ready for painting. I’m sorry that the picture doesn’t show the detail but it gives you the idea as to how they will look. I have a colour scheme in mind that will hopefully make them look a bit like pauper soldiers – more of a drab scheme than I have used for my other archers. I’ll update you with my progress in a future blog.

The Commercial bit.

If you would like to have a go at building your own Pauper soldier warband, all of the products that I use are available from the Arcane Scenery shop and with the exception of aerosols are supplied post free to most worldwide locations at the time of writing. Here are some links:

SAMURAI AND TEST OF HONOUR CATEGORY

GLUES AND ADHESIVES

FILLERS, INCLUDING VALLEJO PLASTIC PUTTY

BASING MATERIALS INCLUDING SLATE

Samurai Cavalry

If you have been following the Arcane Scenery Facebook page, you will be aware that I have been working on the Test of Honour Mounted Samurai set. In this picture heavy blog post, I’ve pulled most of the pictures together to give a running commentary on how I finished the band. I haven’t detailed all the paint colours but I use Vallejo model colour throughout combined with the Army painter ink wash range.

Mounted Samurai set assembled

You can see that I have assembled the full set before I started to paint them. I already had an idea as to how they would look. It might sound a bit daft, but when working on a project like this I have a sort of story or narrative in my head as to how the warband should look. You will get the idea as the finished warband appears. Just as an aside, I have made a mistake when assembling the horses tails – I’ll leave the reader to figure out what it is but I decided to leave things as they were…

I modified an GW Elven horse with green stuuf

I modified an GW Elven horse with green stuff

The mounted Samurai set comes with six plastic samurai and their horses plus an extra metal character model, the widow Takeda Naoko, which means that you have a ‘spare’ samurai. I decided to use a spare GW horse and using green stuff, it was a simple job to add some samurai trimming! There were now seven Samurai in the warband.

Onna Bugeisha Takeda Naocko

I started the painting with the Widow Takeda Naoko. It’s worth pointing out now, that my research regarding colours is limited to the warlord web site, my pinterest board ( link below) and googling ‘mounted samurai’, so don’t take any of my colours as ‘accurate’. I save all that malarkey for my Napoleonics and just want to have fun painting these models as the mood takes me. In my mind, I decided that a widow should have black armour and I put her on one of the more sedate horses. Her pose is not as dynamic as some that Warlord produce and it looked to me as she was watching over proceedings as her retinue wreaked vengeance!

Onna Bugeisha Takeda Naoko complete

The next two models that I painted were the widows immediate bodyguard. In my imagination, she would have two faithful retainers who would put an arrow through anyone that came too close! I also wanted a bit of Hollywood, so one of the archers is firing from a rearing horse.

Samurai mounted archers

To contrast against the Widows horse, I decided to paint these two on matching white horses. I am also using my new favourite red, Vallejo burnt red 70814. The archer on the rearing horse just needed a bit of filling at waist level to get him to sit upright in the saddle.

Samurai Archer on rearing horse

The next picture shows the three models together as I had imagined them. The bowstrings on the archers are made using stretched sprue – its an old modelling technique that I have covered in a previous blog – again, the link is below.

Takeda Naoko and bodyguard.

The next model was the ‘lead’ Samurai in another group of three that would make up the retinue. I planned to have these all in Black Armour with gold trim. The lead model is on a rearing horse and I thought that a light brown horse would look good.

The next samurai in the group

This picture also shows my preferred basing method. I use Vallejo dark earth textured paste and add some small rocks as detail. I then paint the whole thing with Vallejo chocolate brown and dry brush with chocolate brown and Iraqi sand mix. For the rocks, I also added some white to get a brighter finish.

Five mounted samurai in the band.

The basing is finished with some woodland scenic scatter, some Noch flowering tufts and my new favourite thing, Gamers grass long tufts. You can see the fifth Samurai on a brown horse, and in the next picture, the sixth on a similar horse.

Now six Samurai in the warband

It’s not clear but I have added the flags on the back of these three Samurai and using decals, added the Takeda mon to show their allegiance. I also used different colours on the horse decoration as what I hoped would be a subtle way of differentiating the different allegiances in the warband.

The final horse in progress.

I wanted the final or ‘bonus Samurai’ to be different again. With a bit of a nod towards the movies, this one would be all red on a dappled grey horse carrying the Takeda Colours into battle. Perhaps he is the Brother or son of the Widow Takeda Naoko charging to avenge the death of his Father/Brother in law?

Takeda Charge!

I was worried that perhaps I had used too much red so decided that the banner would have to be a different colour – a picture on google helped here.

Takeda banner added

The last couple of pictures show the warband complete.

Takeda Naoko’s warband complete

Takeda Naoko’s warband ride out to seek vengegance!

I started the project on 23 December 2017 and finished just this weekend. Painting these models have given me a great deal of pleasure as I have lost myself in the stories that I have imagined as I painted the models. I’m now looking forward to the battles that they will fight!

Below are some useful links, including links to products in the Arcane Scenery Shop. Remember we post free to most countries in the world.

SAMURAI RANGE

VALLEJO RANGE

ARMY PAINTER INKS

GAMERS GRASS

The joys of Sprue Stretching

MY PINTEREST SAMURAI BOARD

Does Size Matter?

The title, of course, is a cheap shot aimed at getting attention but stems from a serious question from a customer asking if one range of 28mm figures was compatible to another. The answer depends very much on your own standards or personal degree of OCD. I’ll be showing you my thoughts and opinions (never humble – but opinions, nevertheless!) through my own collection of Napoleonic figures. I think the principle will apply to most periods, though.

My collection features at least eight different manufacturers -it’s difficult to see them at this distance.

So first of all, lets establish that we are talking about 28mm figures here. Other sizes are available and again, many of my comments are as relevant to them as 28mm figures, particularly when the ‘scale’ is given in millimetres. So whether 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm or 28mm we are talking about a size of figure NOT a scale. Whatever manufacturers may claim, it is not really sensible to think of scale when it comes to wargames figures. As a side issue, I get a bit twitchy when I am asked what ‘scale’ a model tree is – it is rare that such items are a particular scale but simply a depiction of how a tree might look. But I digress and perhaps I’ll look at scenery in another blog.

What scale is this tree?

Back to wargames figures. They are sculpted and manufactured to a size rather than a scale and for 28mm figures this is supposed to be the height, from feet to eye level of the figure. In theory, this means that all figures will be the same size. Which in scale terms is immediately a nonsense. People come in all shapes and sizes. So where has the idea of scale come from? I think in the main, the issue has grown out of the need to match figures to vehicles and guns, particularly as wargamers moved into the industrial age with their games. In the main, a gun or vehicle would be manufactured to a specific size, so one Sherman tank will be identical in size to another. The ‘hobby’ seems to have fixed on 1/56th scale as the ‘right size’ and there is a growing standardisation in this scale for vehicles. That in turn seems to have fed back into figures and customers seem to be increasingly concerned with a ‘scale’ as opposed to a ‘size’.

Peter Crouch was disappointed that he would not be represented in the Spurs Subbuteo team once again

From my own point of view, so long as the figures are reasonably similar I guess that I am happy to mix and match…up to a point. Different companies use different sculptors for their figures and this leads to both variations in style and size. At the smaller end of the scale Foundry and HaT produce some nice figures in 28mm but Foundry can be smaller – some are closer to 25mm, although not all the range is so…HaT tend to produce plastic figures that look thinner and more to a ‘scale look’ than the ‘chunkier’ metal manufacturers. Sitting nicely in the middle, the main Plastic manufacturers , Perry, Victrix and Warlord are all very similar and certainly compatible with each other to the point that interchanging components is very straight forward when converting. At the top end of the size comes Front Rank and Trent Miniatures. Front Rank and Trent sculpts are simply superb but tend towards 30mm rather than 28mm. So how do they all mix. See for yourself.

I deliberately haven’t captioned this picture but I can tell you that there are Foundry, Perry metals & plastics, Warlord, Victrix, Front Rank and Trent Miniatures all present. If you start to look closely enough you will see differences in style and size but are the differences really that great? They look like a natural line of blokes in uniform…

Line infantry Comparison

This picture shows from right to left, Perry Miniature plastics, Warlord games plastic, Front Rank Metal and Victrix plastic. The most obvious difference is the thicker bayonet on the metal figure.

Light infantry Comparison

I’m actually not sure but I think the models here are Foundry, Front Rank, Trent Miniatures and Perry metal. Yes, there are slight differences but more in style than size and were they not side by side I think that it would be difficult to tell them apart.

Regiment Comparison

Apologies for the poor photograph, but the point here is that if you use the same manufacturer for different units rather than mix them, the difference becomes less obvious, particularly when on the table. This means that I am more than happy to mix and match manufacturers in my collection and army. I tend to produce one unit from a manufacturer rather than do too much mixing within units. That said, when it comes to skirmishers, as they are individually based, I am happy to mix things up and if there is a noticeable height difference, an extra piece of plasticard under the base can level things out.

The Guards line up ready for battle!

The final picture shows figures from at least four different manufacturers on the table. With hind sight, my army would look more cohesive if I had been more consistent with the basing! Unfortunately, I have a tendency to experiment with different products and techniques! The old wargaming adage that ‘faces, bases and flags make a good unit’ is great advice and applies to armies as well. I do have plans, or more accurately, dreams, to standardise all my movement trays and that will go a long way to give a more uniform look to my collection.

So, in the end it is up to you whether you mix things up or stick to just one or two manufacturers. My experience is that the majority of the well known manufacturers produce superb figures that in the main are compatible with each other. I guess that some people have their favourites but I have always been happy to mix and match. Without getting too analytical, I think that different people want different things from their hobby. I know that some collectors and wargamers prefer their figures to be identical and all lined up in the same pose. It’s not for me though. When discussing the subject of all units looking the same in the same pose with my wife, her opinion was that if you had 400 blokes marching down the road together, the chances are that at least one would be scratching his arse or picking his nose….

Happy modelling!

You can see our comprehensive range of 28mm Napoleonic models from many of the manufacturers mentioned above all mixed together here:

28mm NAPOLEONICS

Another year over, A new one has begun

Not quite John Lennon, but a good intro to my first blog of the year. I had intended to do a review of the year but to be honest, I’m not in the mood to look back, I prefer to look forward. If you would like to know what I have been up to, there are over 40 blog entries from last year to peruse! That said, I’m not one for making New Years Resolutions as such. I prefer a 90 day plan. A year is a long time and there will be plenty to distract me. Test of Honour is a great example. I had never planned to model and paint Samurai or come to that anything Japanese. My focus was very much on building a Napoleonic Army with Saga Dark Age warbands as a happy distraction from churning out battalions of Brits.

My latest addition to my Warband

But along came Test of Honour, and I was hooked. I think I know why and bear with me whilst I explain.

Now, first of all, I had been stocking and selling the original Wargames Factory Samurai kits since their release. I had always been a fan of their sets long before they moved across to Warlord Games. I thought that in terms of value for money they were excellent and the sculpts were improving all the time. For those that doubt me here’s a couple of links to earlier blogs written in 2010 and 2011 respectively:

WARGAMES FACTORY DARK AGE MODELS

WELCOME BACK WARGAMES FACTORY

Despite my enthusiasm for Wargames factory, the Samurai kits didn’t really appeal, I was too involved in Napoleonics to consider them as a hobby project. Just to further name drop and show how I missed the early boat, Andrew Chesney, who was working at Warlord at the time, mentioned that he was playing a Samurai game with a couple of other guys from Warlord, a certain Andy Hobday and Graham Davey, did I fancy joining him in a game? At the time, I was again, too wrapped up in my own agenda and politely declined, although I did sell him some nice Japanese buildings that were being produced by Sarissa….

The rather Superb Sarissa Buildings

I nearly got hooked on the Samurai vibe when Zvezda released their 1/72nd range but 1/72nd is really not my preferred scale and although we commissioned some Japanese scenery in this scale, it didn’t take off either as a game or a range. Zvezda seem to lose interest quite early on as well and although some of the sets are still available, as far as I can see the range is not included in their latest catalogue and is disappearing fast.

The release of Ronin by North Star and Osprey books was also tempting. The miniatures are lovely but the rules didn’t quite capture my interest, nor more importantly, that of my gaming buddies, who like me were focusing elsewhere. So, no Samurai for me then…until Test of Honour was released last year.

New from Warlord Games, Test of Honour

I wrote about the initial release in my blog here:

A TEST OF WILL POWER

and my conversion to the game here:

TURNING JAPANESE

It would appear that I am hooked. The appeal for me is the simple game mechanics that expand with each supplement that you buy. This results in the game having collectability as well as allowing you to field all sorts of variations in your warband. Of course, this also means that there is depth to the game. As you build your warband, more tactical options are available. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s not designed to be an accurate historical recreation of Samurai Warfare and this is quite liberating for a Napoleonic Wargamer. It’s simply a game using Samurai figures with just enough flavour to make it feel authentic. You can get through a game in an hour or less. This seems to ensure that nobody takes winning or losing too seriously – you can always have another chance to win if a game goes against you.

My own take on the Widow Takeda – Black seemed appropriate to me.

As you are encouraged to build your own retinue, you can either research a historical clan or simply design your own – again, a very liberating process for a historical wargamer. I guess as my collection grows, so will my very limited knowledge of the period but for now I am happy to focus on the modelling and painting and enjoy the freedom of creating my own collection of both models and scenery.

So no New Years Resolution for me as such. Don’t get me wrong, I do have a list of Projects to get on with but filling a year would be silly. I know what’s coming later in the year and it’s going to be brilliant… and I’m not just talking about Samurai!

So watch this space, or even better, follow us on Facebook. We will let you know what’s coming as soon as we can but for now, just leave a bit of space in your modelling schedule. As for those of you yet to try Test Of Honour, if you have a like minded gaming buddy, give it a go. The boxed set has pretty much everything that you will need for two players to get started for just £35.00 and we ship post free worldwide. But, don’t blame me if you get hooked!

TEST OF HONOUR

SAMURAI CATEGORY IN SHOP FOR OUR RANGE

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!

Merry Christmas!

We would like wish all of our Arcane Scenery Customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you for your valued custom over the last year, we look forward to trading with you again in the New Year.

I hope that you all get the chance to spend some time with your families and perhaps like me, when things quieten down, sneak off and do some more painting and modelling. If not, perhaps dream of all the projects that you intend to complete in the coming years whilst snoozing off the effects of a fabulous Christmas dinner!

Just a note to say that all items purchased up until 2.30pm Friday 22nd will be dispatched by first class post or small packet airmail. We will be back into work on Wednesday 27th to post and pack again and will answer all emails and messages then.

Just in case Santa didn’t quite bring you everything that you were hoping for, Arcane scenery has a small present for you. If you spend more than £25.00 in our shop, enter BADSANTA at checkout and get another 10% off! That should help you top up on any modelling essentials that you need for the New Year! Remember, most of our items will be dispatched post free worldwide.

There are some fantastic new releases coming out in the New Year. The first of which will be ‘Gangs of Rome’. We will be taking preorders – keep an eye on the website for details!

GANGS OF ROME IS COMING!

What! No Blog?

Well, actually there is – you are reading it, but…..It’s been a fraught week, one way and another. No doubt all the minor tribulations that have distracted me from my modelling have been magnified by the approach of Christmas. The so called ‘Season of good will to all men’ seems to running a bit short of the ‘good’ part at the moment. The week started well. Saturday found me down in London at the Wembley Stadium watching the mighty Spurs giving Stoke City a 5 -1 pasting. On Sunday I ventured into Nottingham, despite the snow, and finished off my Christmas shopping. It was quite a pleasant experience as the weather appeared have dissuaded some folks from shopping so the queues were quite bearable. With no Mrs Arcane in tow, I could sneak off for a crafty Greggs sausage roll and spend a couple of hours in Waterstones’ bookshop without any guilty feelings. So far so good.

Christmas Shopping in Nottingham – Coffee break

It was on Sunday evening that things began to unravel. Whilst checking through my paperwork and planning the forthcoming week I found that the MOT on my car was about to run out on Monday. Bugger! Fortunately, although the Arcane Rolls Royce (which is cunningly disguised as a 12 year old Vauxhall Astra) was now unavailable, Mrs Arcanes Ferrari, (again, we disguise it as a aged Vauxhall Corsa) would allow me to get to work. As if this wasn’t enough, a crisis was looming in the Arcane household. After 27 years of loyal service, we had disposed of our trusty dinning room table and two months ago, ordered a brand new one all ready for the big Christmas family gathering. I’d even redecorated the dinning room in preparation. Except the table wasn’t ready… Mrs Arcane was not happy and I must admit that I wasn’t looking forward to eating my Christmas dinner from a tray. So as well as sorting the car, I needed to sort a table supplier out. All of this was distracting me from my modelling!

First two figures from the Bandits and Brigands set

I have been working on the Test of Honour Bandits and Brigands set and had completed the first two models using inks, to shade and highlighting in the usual method. The plan was to complete the other five models over the last two weeks but the afore mentioned distractions were making any sort of protracted painting session difficult. I had also intended to document the models as I painted them so that I could complete a painting guide and review on the blog. Alas, something had to give and in this case, as I was grabbing odd bits of painting time when I could, it was the documentation and pictures for the blog that fell by the wayside.

A third bandit joins the gang.

So, all I can say is that I had decided to follow the colour scheme used on the Warlord website and when it came to model number three, shown above I defaulted to using Army Painter quick shade rather than ink to speed things up. To be fair, I did do some highlighting before the quickshade was painted on and once varnished I also used my tried and trusted method of adding in some extra highlights or repainting some of the lighter colours. However, as these are Bandits, I decided that the ‘dirty’ look wasn’t such a bad idea. I was onto my last figure and had decided to do a step by step guide to him when to add to the troubles at home, the web site went down following a routine upgrade to the security certificate! This photo is as far as I got in terms of step by step.

Top Bandit under way.

So by Wednesday, with no car, no Table for Christmas and no website, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. The irony being that in order to take a break from the stress, I took myself off to the garage, despite the cold, and just got on with my hobby! Result being that the Bandits are now complete!

My Bandit Gang for Test of Honour

The good news is that week has finished well. The car is MOT’d and back on the road. We have a loan table for Christmas, so no more worries about where we put the family or the Christmas dinner and the web site upgrade has now been sorted, so we are back in business. I have also had a reminder as to why my hobby is so important to me. When the minor speed bumps of life are threatening, the best remedy is to lose myself in some painting and it will all get sorted out, one way or another. So no Blog as such but I have finished my Bandits!

Bandits and Brigands Boxed set done!

If you would like a set of Test of Honour Bandits and Brigands. they are available from our shop, post free at the time of writing, here:

SAMURAI

Exciting times at Lucid eye!

Arcane Scenery have been associated with Lucid Eye since the very first sculpts were released. I have always been a great fan of the style and standard of Steve Saleh’s sculpting and thought that the Neanderthals and Cromagnon were the best interpretation of ‘Cavemen’ figures that I had seen. The fact that they were a natural fit for our DeeZee range helped!

As with many sculptors in the trade, Steve was often frustrated by the necessity to follow a brief to complete a range rather than follow his own imagination and sculpt figures that excited him. The Lucid Eye brand was an opportunity for Steve to do just exactly that. There was no commercial pressure to model figures in a particular way or follow a style or the latest trend. That said, there was always a plan for the range and a new partnership has launched the Lucid Eye brand with renewed vigour. The partnership is with Steve’s son, Joe. It was initially launched when Steve and Joe worked together on the creation of the Savage Core rules. Joes’ background, fresh from University and an avid Art/Comic book fan enabled them to produce a set of rules from the Savage Core range that is a different take on the standard skirmish game. As is often the case, the partnership is greater than the sum of it’s parts and the energy and enthusiasm generated has resulted in an explosion of the range.

So with Steve focusing on the sculpting and Joe ‘doing everything else’ (his words not his Dad’s!), Lucid Eye is growing into an exciting range of figures that will have both Gaming and Collectors appeal. Joe’s keen eye for design, together with his understanding of how new technology and media allows them to reach out to customers, has allowed Steve to give free reign to his imagination and talent to produce a unique range of figures. Steve and Joe have deliberately adopted a policy of releasing the miniatures as soon as they are ready. They are just as keen to see how gamers will use their figures as provide a structure for them. But make no mistake, there is a structure to what is coming.

So what is in the pipeline? Well, The Savage core range will continue to expand, albeit in slightly new formats. The new Age of Ice range has allowed the reinterpretation of some of the figures as well as adding a new twist to the range. There are plans for an ‘Age of Darkness’ that will further extend this foray into the ‘Pulp world’ of the Savage core. Of course, these new figures will be supported by rules extensions to Savage core, available through PDF’s. In addition to this range, there are a further four completely separate ranges in progress. As Joe says (with a smile), they are doing a bit of a ‘Kubrik’ and taking on each gaming genre, but giving it their own twist.

The ‘Plot Device’ is the first of those genres. Described as ‘Extra Dimensional Sci Fi, Future history or just Weird’, the range is already populated with Nazi’s , Goth Cowboys, Teen gangs and Psychedelic Investigators. A rule set will follow, perhaps in the style of Savage Core but for now, the priority is to populate the range.

‘Treasures from the Cosmic Vault’ is Steve’s project with a rules set that is a game set in a gladiatorial conflict on Titan. There will be a limited range of figures for this game, allowing Steve to really express himself in producing some high quality sculpts and the plan will be to eventually produce a boxed set which will allow players to collect all the figures together along with a rules set – essentially a game in a box format.

‘The Beast of Birchwood’ is Joe’s project. Described as a ‘Victorian Horror Dreamscape’, the figures will act as playing pieces that will allow players to act out a game in a mapped environment. A slightly different take on a miniatures game with RPG elements to immerse the players into this strange world.

I’ve saved perhaps the most exciting news for last. The final project (for now) is the ‘Red Book of the Elf King’. A fantasy skirmish game (Players will need 25 to 30 figures) based on the fall of the Elves and the Elves Civil war, with the figures being ‘Heroic 28mm size’ that’s at least 32mm. The rules are being written by none other than the rules Meister himself, Mr Rick Priestly. With Rick writing the rules and Steve sculpting the figures, I am confident that we will see a game that is both exceptionally playable and easy on the eye! I will bring you more news as I have it. In the meantime, I’ve included the links to the various Facebook groups and web sites below.

Steve Saleh at work

I hope that you are excited about Lucid Eye as I am and I am sure that Steve and Joe will continue to produce some of the most innovative rules and collectable figures on the market. As you can see, there is plenty more on the work bench!

The Links!

To see the Lucid Eye Range at the Arcane Scenery shop, click here:

LUCID EYE

To see the DeeZee range, click here:

DeeZee Range

To see the Lucid eye Web store & the latest PDF’s, click here:

LUCID EYE PUBLICATIONS

The various facebook groups are here:

SAVAGE CORE

THE PLOT DEVICE

TREASURES FROM THE COSMIC VAULT

THE BEAST OF BIRCHWOOD

THE RED BOOK OF THE ELF KING

Fit to Paint.

I have noticed the number of times that I have moaned about not having enough time to do all the painting and modelling that I have lined up. It’s somewhat of a thread that runs through my blog. I guess that most in the hobby that have full time jobs and a family are under similar time pressures. Now that I have clocked up my ‘three score years’ and have started to move into the ‘ten’, time seems to be just a bit more precious than the carefree days of youth. The other factor, of course, is health. I am fortunate enough to enjoy generally good health and apart from the usual colds and coughs that go around and self induced indigestion, I fair pretty well. However, over the last couple over years I noticed that my BMI has moved from being healthily overweight into obese territory. Even with all of my scepticism for the ‘nanny’s of this world who insist that they know what’s best for us, I had to admit that something must be done.

Having given up on trying to grow taller, it seems that my only option to bring my BMI down is to lose some weight. Matters were brought into focus by the approach of the festive season and I noticed that I was already over my last Christmas peak weight. My excuse is that I missed out on a holiday this year, so didn’t bother with my usual attempt to get beach fit. In my case, this means losing just enough weight to avoid attracting the attention of Japanese whaling ships whilst out swimming or being dragged off the beach back into the water by green activists! It’s fair to say that I model myself on the guy in the Southern Comfort Ad, except, of course, for the moustache…

The up shot is that I have been spending some of my hobby time out walking in the evening. Just a couple of miles at a steady pace – my jogging days are long gone- and very gradually, the weight is coming off. At this rate, I will be back down to just being over weight and ready to take on the Turkey, Christmas pud and all that Christmas brings. I guess that if helps avoid Type 2 Diabetes and some of the other issues that come with carrying a bit extra, then I’m hopeful that the time spent exercising will buy a few more years in which I can finish my Napoloeonic Army…

Perry’s British Ammunition Wagon

Talking of which, as you can see from the above picture, I have now finished the Perry’s British Ammunition wagon. Once I had cleaned up the casting, painting it was relatively quick to do. The next job is of course to paint the horses and crew and of course base it, which I suspect will be a bit of a longer task. It doesn’t help that I am also distracted by the new releases from the Test of Honour range. The new Bandits and Brigands set is also on the work bench and I have just about finished the first model.

First Bandit on the work bench

I decided to copy the painted example on the Warlord web site, using predominantly Vallejo Buff to paint his clothes ( Kimono? Pyjamas?). Here he is all based up.

First Bandit based

As you can see from the work bench, the rest of his gang are now primed and ready to paint. And yes, that’s a DeeZee giraffe in the background also underway.

You’re having a giraffe!

What with DeeZee models, Test of Honour, Napoleonics, my Caribbean project and my Dark ages warbands, I guess that I need all the time that I can get. I’ll keep walking, I need to be fit to paint!

Remember, If you are looking for anything to help with your hobby, visit my shop:

ARCANE SCENERY AND MODELS

Most of the items that we sell are available post free to most worldwide locations at the time of writing.

Brontotherium!

It seems at the moment, I am easily distracted. I have been giving the DeeZee range a bit of an overhaul with a view to perhaps extending it in the New Year. Whilst going through the display models I noticed that the Brontotherium was looking a bit tired and that we didn’t even have a painted example on the web site so I thought that painting a new display model would be a nice little project.

For those that don’t know, a Brontotherium (‘thunder beast’) is an extinct genus of prehistoric odd-toed ungulate mammal of the family Brontotheriidae, an extinct group of rhinoceros-like browsers related to horses. The genus was found in North America during the Late Eocene. Many Brontotherium remains have been found in South Dakota and Nebraska. In the past, specimens exposed by severe rainstorms were found by Native Americans of the Sioux tribe. The Sioux believed these creatures produced thunderstorms when running over the clouds, and called them “thunder horses”. Many of the skeletons found by the Sioux belonged to herds which were killed by volcanic eruptions of the Rocky Mountains, which were volcanically active at the time.

DeeZee Brontotherium Basic paint job!

I decided to paint my Bronto in brown rather than as some references, that show them as grey. I had also decide to use a limited pallet of just three colours, Vallejo Light Brown 70929, Cork Brown 70843 and Iraqi sand 70819. I took the same approach as if I was painting a horse. Once cleaned up and primed with Army Painter Leather brown, I first used a large brush to roughly coat the Bronto with the light brown. To give a bit of definition, I then liberally applied a wash of Army Painter strong tone ink. When the ink was dry, it was just a case of using a large brush to dry brush a succession of coats using lighter shades of the three colours mentioned above. I picked the eyes out in Black and painted the hooves and tail in a dark black brown (70822). It was all done in about 30 minutes!

Brontotherium on base

The next job was to base Bronto. As usual, I attached the model to an MDF base using Vallejo Dark earth textured paste. I also set some rocks into the paste and pressed in some coarse sand for additional texture.

Base Detailed

I then painted the base using my favourite basing paint, Dulux ‘Dehli Bazzaar’. I have mentioned before that I think that it makes sense to use Emulsion paints for basing rather than the more expensive paints that we use to paint the actual models. I had actually got out of the habit and was going through Vallejo Chocolate brown bottles rather quickly until I remembered my own advice!

A tin of emulsion goes a long way!

I am happy to mix Vallejo paints with the emulsion but obviously in small quantities. I this case, I used Iraqi Sand to provide highlights and simply dry brushed over the base coat.

The next job was to detail the base by adding some grass. I wanted some long grass for the Brontotherium to be charging out off. Woodlands scenic make packs of long grass and this seemed ideal.

Field Grass from Woodlands Scenics – Natural Straw.

It was the first time that I had used this type of grass but it worked very well. There is a surprising amount of material in the packet and a little goes a long way! I Just took small clumps, cut them to size and then fixed them to the base using a hot glue gun. PVA would have worked but would have taken longer to dry. I have since found this video from the terrain tutor on you tube which shows an alternative method of producing long grass clumps – I’ve tried it and it works well! I now have a batch ready for another project:

I also used some Woodland Scenics yellow coarse foliage to hide any glue around the base of the long grass and added some Beige coloured Gamers grass tufts.

Brontotherium on finished base

The whole project was surprisingly quick and simple to complete and I now have a new display model for my DeeZee range. If you would like to see the rest of the range, the links, as usual are to be found below the final photo.

Most of the products used in my Blog ( except the Dulux paint!) are available post free to most worldwide locations ( at the time of writing) and can be found here:

We would like wish all of our Arcane Scenery Customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you for your valued custom over the last year, we look forward to trading with you again in the New Year.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Help