Modelling Tips & Ideas – Page 7 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

It’s All About the Base……

Bases, Faces and Flags – these are the key areas for ensuring that your war gaming figures look the best on the table top according to top commission painter Dave Woodward. Well, I’m a great believer in the first and last of these but painting faces on my rank and file troops is not really going to happen. I’m afraid that I rely on a quick wash or shade over a basic flesh coat and that is about as far as it goes for the troops. I will spend a bit more time on the officers and characters and add a bit of a highlight to the nose & cheek bones – I’ll even attempt to paint the eyes, although as often as not my figures look as though they should definitely go to spec savers….

Foward with the Colours!

As for the flags, it goes without saying that if you can add these, your unit will certainly stand out on the table. Part of the attraction of painting Napoleonic troops is the flags and with so many good suppliers out there – the Flag Dude and GMB designs, to name but two – it’s a shame not to ensure that your unit has a flag or two!

Sir Stapleton Cotton – a bit of a Dandy!

So for me, it’s all about the bases. And so we enter another realm of controversy or taste… If you are in the Dan Faulconbridge (Wargames Illustrated) school of basing you will like a straight forward non fussy finish. This view is based on the notion that the figures should blend into the table top – it makes for better pictures don’t you know! I tend to prefer a nice bit of vegetation on my bases – I cant resist adding a few clumps of flowers! It does mean that my units have to drag the scenery around the table and my opponents usually ask where the park keeper is, but I like to amuse! There is also the matter of what colour to paint the base sides. Leaving them black used to be the fashion, then the there is the green edge following, whereas I prefer a brown edge to my bases.

The Prussian advance was halted when the Park keeper shouted ‘get off them flowers!’…

Whatever your taste, I think the guiding rule on bases really is to ensure that you stay consistent with your army and that it really is worth a bit of time spent on finishing your bases off with a bit of detail. One last tip, I have spent ages trying to blend figures onto bases and I have ‘discovered’ the product that I find easiest to use is the Vallejo Grey Pumice paste or the coloured textured pastes from the same Company.

Grey Pumice

I’m working my way through a pot of Desert Sand at the moment. It’s really easy to apply and will ensure that your figures blend nicely onto the bases without an obvious ‘edge’ showing. The textured paste will take a coat of paint with out undercoating and a quick dry brush will enhance the detail. I still prefer to add sand or a scatter and just use the paste to blend the figures on to their bases. Here’s my next batch of figures on the work bench. The pikemen just need the bases finishing and they are ready for the table. The Prussian Cavalry need a bit more work!

2015-04-09 11.02.37

Glyptodon and Mammoth clear the work bench!

As we go into the Easter break it seemed appropriate to paint something vaguely egg shaped and as the Glyptodon had been sitting forlornly on the work bench in just an undercoat I decided his time had come!

He is nicknamed the ‘kinder egg’ by the Arcane team due to his rotund shape but there’s plenty of detail in the casting that can be brought to life with a bit of dry brushing. I had hinted that I would use an airbrush to finish him but that will be a project for another day. I have put off buying an airbrush for now. Although I can see that it will be invaluable when painting Tanks and larger subjects like Mr Glypto, I am not quite in the right frame of mind to learn a whole new skill, particularly when I am still learning to paint with a brush! That said, I am of a mind to jump in to this mysterious world and who knows, I might just treat myself for Easter…..

Anyway, I digress, back to painting the Glyptodon. I had a quick look on Google for some inspiration and colour schemes and was pleasantly surprised at how many pictures there were! In the end, I went for a fairly safe option using a variety of browns in various combinations. To be specific, Vallejo light brown 70929, Flat brown 70984, Chocolate brown 70872 and to lighten them, Iraqi Sand 70819.

DeeZee Glyptodon

There was a slight problem when I started to paint. I had failed to follow my own advice and I had not washed the model before priming. The result was that the primer had started to flake off due to the release agent still on the casting. I confess, I was too lazy and impatient to start again, so I re primed the model with Model Mates Light grey primer. I have started to use this brand more often recently in favour of my usual Army Painter primer. It seems to be a much more effective primer and in this case, solved the flaking problem. However, lesson learnt, next time I will wash a resin model before painting! For the sake of 5 minutes, it will save time and heart ache in the long term!

So back to painting. The shell was done in the flat brown and then dry brushed with a couple of coats of the flat brown & light brown mixed. The fur was done with light brown, dry brushed with light brown and Iraqi sand. I picked the detail out around the shell with Iraqi sand and then I then gave it all a wash over using a dark tone ink. As with all these things, you have to fiddle around until you get the general effect that you are looking for and even now, I’m not sure whether to go back and add another lighter coat to the shell. The next task was to pick out his eyes, nose using black & claws using ivory and to paint some of the detail on the base. I then mounted him onto a renedra base and blended the model to the base using Vallejo Desert sand paste. If you haven’t tried these pastes from Vallejo, give them a go – they are superb for basing and once dry you can paint straight over the paste as there is sufficient texture. I like to add sand to give even more detail.

Glyptodon painted – working on the base

I finished off the base by adding some detail to the rocks, painted the tree stump and painted the grass and of course the sand. This was all done using virtually the same pallet of Chocolate Brown and Iraqi Sand, with plenty of dry brushing of lighter combinations of these colours – the final dry brush was done with some white added in. To finish off, I added some Static grass and of course a few clumps of flowers! I’m reasonably happy with the result for now – as I said, I may add a final lighter coat to his shell but he’s off to the cabinet.

The finished Glyptodon!

I often find that it’s difficult to know when a model is finished so sometimes it’s best to put it to one side and then have a look after a week or so. If I’m still not happy then I might try a bit of retouching. This was the case with the baby mammoth. I just wasn’t happy with the way he looked, so he has sat on the paint table whilst I decided what to do. In the end it was a case of cutting down his tusks – they were too big even for a baby Mammoth – and giving him another even lighter dry brush to add detail & adding some ink to bring out the shadows. I also gave him a snowy base with some frosted tufts. I’m still not entirely happy but he is looking better for now. Perhaps I’ll have a go at another one – I have a diorama in mind that involves a nasty Sabre tooth……

DeeZee Mammoth Calf

Varnish trouble!

2015-01-29 10.53.07

Having finished my Lion Rampant retinue, I moved onto the next project on the work bench, the 40th Somersetshires. With just the six figures in the command group to finish, I will have another Battalion for my Waterloo army. The photo shows the nearly complete group. I just need to add static grass and some army painter highland tufts to finish them off completely – Oh! and there is the small matter of adding the flags…

All did not go well with this batch of figures though. I had problems with the final stage of varnishing them. Normally, once the figures have been coated with Army Painter Quick Shade and allowed to dry, I give them a quick spray of Anti Shine matt varnish, re-highlight and all is done. However, with the weather so cold and windy, I was unable to spray the models outside ( I’m banned from spraying indoors!), so I thought that the easy solution was to give the figures a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish by hand. I’ve used this varnish before to touch up any excess glossy bits on my models that the spray has missed, so I wasn’t expecting any problems.

I just gave them a quick coat of varnish and waited for this to dry. Arrgh! I was obviously a bit heavy handed with the varnish and when it had dried it had gathered in all the creases, blotting out the shading. Even worse, it had ‘bloomed’ ruining the main black and red areas! Arrgh! again, this isn’t supposed to happen with brushed varnish, only sprays do this don’t they?…Apparently not. So the lesson is only use a very thin coat and paint it on, not slap it on!

I repainted the worst affected areas on the figures and they don’t look too bad, certainly good enough for the gaming table. On the positive side, the brighter finish certainly makes the command group stand out from the rank & file. So another unit takes to the field and I am a little bit more wiser regarding using varnish – even water based brushed on varnish will bloom if you don’t use it carefully!

More tales from the Jungle!

simian

I mentioned that I had been distracted by the new releases from Lucid eye. Here’s one of the reasons! This figure is Simian Alpha. Although he has a passing resemblance to a certain character from a monkey film genre, he is actually the leader of the much feared Simian tribe that inhabit the Savage Core. He is the first of a small range of Simian warriors that will terrorize and hunt down those careless enough to stray into their Jungle territory.

As you can see, he is beautifully sculpted and was a real pleasure to paint. After undercoating the figure in black. I dry brushed him in various shades of grey for the fur, and used vallejo rose brown for the chest & nose. The face was done with off white, with the marking added in red.

As well as the various tribes that will inhabit the Savage Core, there will be a variety of ‘Lost Explorers’ or Characters. The first of these to be sculpted is ‘Annalisse’, an intrepid female explorer ready to take on the perils of the jungle. This figure couldn’t be further from my current obsessions but sometimes a change is as good as a rest! So I took time out from my Napoleonic army and Lion Rampant retinue to paint her. Analise

Once again, the quality of the sculpt means that it is very straight forward to paint Annalisse. I just went for fairly muted safari colours – off white for the shirt, Green Ochre trousers & leather accessories. She’s based with a few Jungle plants & flowers ready to take her place in the Jungle. I’m not quite sure what I will be doing with these figures yet – at some stage a rules set for the Savage core will be available but in the meantime, I’m dusting off my copy of tooth & claw to see if I can adapt them for some Jungle Action!

With my range of DeeZee jungle beasts, I should have the basis for an interesting game. Of course it will also give me an excuse to keep painting the rest of the Lucid Eye range!

The Lion is Rampant – Again!

I mentioned in my blog earlier that I had signed up for the Wargames Illustrated Magazine’s Lion Rampant day, to be held on 31st January 2015. Although it seems some way off, I thought that I better start putting my retinue together and of course practicing the game. As I am somewhat focused on collecting English Armies (and their Allies!), I thought that I would start with a typical English Warband. In the LR rules this breaks down to: a unit of 6 foot men at arms; a unit of 12 ‘expert’ foot sergeants and two units of 12 ‘expert’ Bowmen; a total of 42 figures to assemble and paint.

I could save a bit of painting time by having two units of 6 foot men at arms but this will make the army quite fragile. However, in the short term it will speed the process of having my own retinue finished. The beauty of the English Retinue is that I think that I will be able to build most of the figures using the Perry’s Wars of The Roses Plastic boxed set, which has 40 figures, a good mix of which are either archers or Bill men (foot sergeants). So for an outlay of £12 for the rules and £20 for the figures, I’m in the game!

For those of you not familiar with Lion Rampant, it is one of the Osprey Wargames mini rules, written by Daniel Mersey. It’s one of those clever rules sets that does what it says, it really is straight forward and simple to learn, easy to play and has enough subtlety to keep players engaged. As I have previously noted, this type of skirmish game is a great way to explore a historical genre before you pile in and build a huge army. Even better, the small war bands allow you to mix & match different troop types. So if my English Army doesn’t work for me or if I fancy a change, it wont take too much effort to produce, say, a Templar war retinue.

The game itself is a bit like Saga Rules, but without the Saga board – all the action takes place on the table and combat is resolved quickly by rolling either 6 or 12 dice. A simple attack & defence mechanic determines how many casualties are inflicted and then it’s down to morale – which unit has the stomach for a fight! The fog of war comes in the order system, you roll a dice to see if a unit will activate or not. If it activates ( Moves , Attacks etc) then you go to the next unit. If not, your opponent gets the turn. This soon opens up opportunities or causes problems, depending on which side of the table that you are on! Of course, the other fun comes from the scissors, rock, paper effect of matching one type of troop to another.

So, I have painted my first unit, the foot men at arms. It’ a bit of a motley crew -4 of the figures are Perry plastics, and two are spare metal figures that I had lurking in my lead mountain! In fact I think that both were figures given out at past Newark wargames shows, one of which I painted some years ago & just needed rebasing. Painting was fairly straight forward, I spray undercoated the figures in Plate mail, gave them a dry brush with silver, painted the cloth & leather bits ( Scabard & belts etc) blue or red for a bit of colour, and gold for the sword pommels, brown for any wood. Then a good wash of black ink, brought out the detail before re highlighting the armour. Basing is done using Sandy paste to level up the figures on the renedra 20mm plastic bases, then extra sand added & painted in chocolate brown & highlighted & dry bushed with Iraqi Sand. I finished off with a liberal dose of tufts and flowers…. Here’s the first unit :

Whats on the workbench 16th October

2014-10-16 13.13.31
Sometimes it’s difficult to fit painting miniatures around all the other jobs that need doing! The last week has been no exception. However, I have managed to finish the second pack of Neanderthals and I’ve also finished those Jaguars that were undercoated about three weeks ago. I’m happy with the Lucid Eye neanderthals. They are superb sculpts and that always makes it a pleasure to paint miniatures that have so much character. As regards the paint scheme, I used a variety of browns for the furs, from Vallejo of course! The colours were:

822 German Cam. Black brown, 872 chocolate, 984 Flat Brown, 871 Leather brown, 877 Gold Brown, 914 Green Ochre, 819 Iraqui sand, 918 Ivory plus white & off white. I painted the flesh using 804 beige red and flat flesh. I also used a few ink washes of various strengths , both strong tone brown & Vallejo black shade. The basing was straight forward. Just some Vallejo Sandy paste to level things up and then a coat of basing sand painted with Vallejo chocolate brown highlighted with Iraqi sand. To finish, just a few highland tufts!

2014-10-16 13.16.29 The next project was the Jaguars. I’m not sure that I am happy with the finished result. Painting and highlighting black is a devilish business! I’ve tried using blue rather than grey or white and in the end it was a mixture of both but I haven’t got the effect that I was looking for. I also used white to paint on some whiskers & for the teeth but it all looks a bit stark. the standard of photography isn’t too good either!The yellow eyes have just about worked. I think that when they are properly based, with plenty off jungle cover they may look OK. So that’s it for this week. Next up, back to Hanoverians – the officers this time.

Whats on the Workbench 9th October – Neanderthals & Hanoverians!

2014-10-09 09.37.11 A strange mix of subjects on my workbench at the moment! I’ve just about finished painting 18 rank & file Hanoverian Landwehr. As you can see from the picture, they’re all based and ready for the table. There are of course 6 figures missing – the officers, ensigns & sergeants. They are undercoated and ready to paint, so they should keep me busy for the next few painting sessions. I will then have a nice unit of 24 figures representing the Munden Landwehr battalion. As far as finishing the figures went, once I had painted them with Army painter Strong tone, I gave them 24 hours to dry and then sprayed them with Army painter Anti shine. I tend to use a light coat and if the figures are still a bit shiny in places then I use vallejo matt varnish, just brushed on, to finish off.

The next job is to go back over the lighter colours to make them stand out. So I repaint the white straps, yellow hat bands and any metallics. The bayonets get a coat of silver to make them stand out on the battlefield! It sounds like a long process but it doesn’t take too long. The idea is just to highlight these colours, so if you miss a bit then it just looks as though the area has been shaded.

Basing is then completed. Again, I have gone for a quick basing finish. The first task was to mount each 4 figures on a 40mm square renedra base. I then used Vallejo sandy paste to blend the figure bases into the renedra base to get an even surface. When this was dry, I painted this Vallejo chocolate brown to gice a dark base on which to work. I prefer a brown edge to my bases rather than green or black, which are also favoured by painters. Next up, I coated the bases in PVA and covered with a forest brown scatter. This in turn, had patches of Javis green scatter added and then I detailed the bases with smaller patches of Expo flowered field static grass. The final touch was to add some Noch summer grass tufts and of course my ‘trademark’ flowers – in this case, Noch white flower clumps.

In the picture you will also see that I have painted a female admirer waving the Hanoverians off to battle! It’s a bit of a nod to the Warlord box art and she will of course take her place in little Bingham, the town on my war games table. Without getting too commercial, all of the items that I use are available in the Arcane Scenery shop and if anyone out there reading this needs some help, call us and I will be happy to talk through the materials & techniques used.

2014-10-09 09.46.44 The other project that has leap-frogged up the painting queue is pack two of the Lucid Eye Neanderthals. Arcane Scenery are now stocking the Lucid Eye Range and of course the Neanderthals go really well with some of the Ice Age DeeZee miniatures that we produce. The Mammoths, Cave Bears & Smilodons for starters! So I’m working on getting a little band of Neanderthals ready for a Hunting party. One is just about finished, except the basing, the other two are just awaiting the fur pelts to be highlighted & the detail picked out. The techinique that I have used for these is slightly different from my usual style. Rather than using ‘dip’ to shade, I am shading and highlighting using inks, dry brushing and mixing lighter & lighter shades of the base colours. It’s a bit more time consuming for me but gives a nice result, particularly when the figures are so well sculpted. Here’s the progress so far. I’ll spend a bit more time in my next blog detailing the colours used.

2014-10-09 09.40.09

If You Go Down To The Woods…..

Once again, I find that my modelling and painting activities are taking a back seat and I have had very limited time to get to paint anything. I have managed to get the to Bear Cubs finished though. As I mentioned before, we will be adding these to the DeeZee range – I hope to have production started on these in the next fortnight, subject to the production moulds being completed.

The Bear cubs are a bit on the large size, even for giant Ice Age bears and to be fair, are more like juveniles than cubs. They look cute enough, though, and make an interesting addition to the range. The paint scheme was quick and easy enough, just a base coat of chocolate brown and then a number of dry brush highlights using increasing amounts of light brown. The noses, claws & eyes were picked out in black and then the eyes given a coat of gloss varnish. I’ve added a few flowers onto the base to represent the bears in spring time (not that I need an excuse to add flowers – most of my bases feature these, much to the amusement of my gaming buddies!) So the Bears are done. Onto the next batch of neanderthals!

Batch Painting Prussians – Part Two of Two

In the last entry I had just finished block painting 22 Prussian line infantry. The next stage in completing them is to apply Army painter quick shade, or as it is known, dip. Quick shade has a mixed reputation. To some painters it is the Devils brew, a cheat, and should be avoided at all costs. To others it is a magic product that has revolutionized painting wargames figures. My view is somewhere in between. If you are painting large numbers of figures for the wargames table it is probably the best way to go. If you are entering a painting competition, dont go near it! I do not dip my figures in the tin & flick the excess down the garden as the instructions recommend – this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if I was involved – I’m sure that my figure would end up at the bottom of the garden and the quick shade would inevitably end up on something that it shouldn’t! 2014-03-30 15.02.29

I prefer to liberally brush it on my figures and leave it to dry for about 24 hours. This helps me to control how much ‘dip’ is being used and where it is going! The point is that once applied it not only shades your figure but also protects it with a coat of varnish. There is one other issue with tins of Quick shade. It has a tendency to form a skin on the product as time passes. So long as you carefully remove this skin and give it a good stir, you can continue to use the dip. I also add a bit of white spirit to the tin before use and I am meticulous in wiping the top of the tin to try and get the best seal after use. That said, for an expensive product, I think that the tin could be of better design and quality. As you can see from the picture, the quick shade does what it says on the tin & shades the creases and gives definition to the figure. Dont be put off by the high gloss finish. The next stage in the process is to spray the figures with a good Matt varnish or anti shine. I stick with Army painter for this job. It’s not necessarily the best Matt spray available but it is designed to work with the quick shade & I get good results with it most of the time. Matt varnish can be temperamental so ALWAYS shake the can well, and spray in light coats from about 18 inches. Also if you can, spray in a well ventilated area with consistent temperature. It all helps to get a good finish. 2014-03-31 17.47.00

The next picture shows the figures once they have been coated with matt varnish. There is one other quick trick that will help bring your figures to life and that is to repaint some of the lighter colours to add highlights & clarify them. I usually redo some of the white ( particularly the webbing), the yellow facings and I also retouch the steel bayonets with silver and the brass items with gold. it doesn’t take too long but it does add something the the figures. The figures are now based on 40mm renedra bases in fours and the bases painted Vallejo Chocolate brown 872.

The final stage is the basing. I use a range of finishes on my figures but for the Prussians I have gone for a very quick & simple solution. Using watered down PVA, I coat the bases & then cover with a forest brown scatter. Once this has dried, I put on random patches of ‘grass’ using Javis fine scatter – again stuck with PVA. To finish and to add detail, I then use tufts of grass from either the Army Painter range or the Gaugemaster/Noch variety. I prefer the latter as they come in distinct clumps and are easier to use. The final detail is to add some flowers! In this case, yellow really contrasts against the dark prussian blue and adds the final touch! Hey presto, 22 Prussians ready for battle. 2014-03-31 20.55.02

Batch Painting Prussians! Part one of two

The entry is a bit of a backwards step…. To be honest I had part written it sometime ago but not had time to finish it before I actually had finished my Prussian brigade. However, I haven’t done a great deal of painting over the last week so I thought that I would add this back in to the blog to show in detail the process I used to speed the painting of my Prussian contingent.

I usually paint my models in batches of about 6 figures at a time. It seems to take a long time to finish a battalion of troops this way but at least I had the reassurance of watching the battalion grow in numbers. However, I decided to have a go at a much bigger batch to see if I could speed up the process. I’ve heard a lot about speed painting but it’s not something that I’d ever tried. Besides, painting is supposed to be a relaxing pursuit, so I didn’t want the pressure of painting against the clock. Of course, if I could be disciplined to have a go at a full battalion in one go, it might help to grow my collection and if course reduce my painting back log.

2014-02-22 09.57.00

So here’s how I got on. I hope that the following will contain some useful ideas for other modellers. I ‘ve also tried to take pictures at nearly every stage so you can see my progress. Before I start any painting project, I usually spend a bit of time researching the subject. I’ll cover this as a general topic in a future blog entry as I think it might be useful and thought provoking. I have found that often, the references can give different colour schemes, particularly when it comes to the detail. The most consistent source that I use, and the best that I have found for a painting reference is the mont st jean site. Here is the link:

http://centjours.mont-saint-jean.com/liens.php

2014-02-22 11.06.09

Before starting to paint a batch of figures it makes sense to paint at least one test figure, if nothing else to establish what paints that you will use and the best sequence for painting. As I had already painted a battalion of Prussians, I was already prepared and I knew exactly which colours I would use. To help me through the process, I lined the colours up in sequence on my work station. This keeps things organised and helps to mark my progress as I work through the colours. You can see the paints used in the first picture. Picture two shows the figures assembled and undercoated and with the first colour, vallejo 815 Flesh painted on for hands & faces. I tend to stick exclusively to Vallejo paints. I find them to be about the best around for painting miniatures so all the references to paint numbers are for Vallejo. The next picture shows the figures with 950 black applied to the hats, boots and cartridge cases.

2014-02-22 18.36.10

I’ve also shown the brush that I am using an Expo sable sized 1 brush. I find this ideal for block painting figures of this size and only use a smaller brush when it comes to painting the fine details.

Picture three shows the troops with their jackets painted Dark Prussian Blue, Vallejo 70899. So far, painting has been fairly quick as I am painting reasonably large areas on the figures. Now comes the first of the fiddly bits, painting the Muskets, hair and leather straps on the blankets. I tend to do these all together as I use Flat brown (984)for the musket stocks, Leather Brown for the strapping (871) and both these and a variety of browns for the hair – Light brown (929), yellow Ochre(913) & Chocolate brown (872). You could use the different browns to paint a wood grain effect on the musket stocks if you wish, but it’s not a style that I like – plain brown is just fine! The detail on the muskets is finished with 864 steel for the barrels & bayonets & 801

2014-03-04 20.04.09 , brass for the bands on the barrel, stock, sword handle, scabbard end & badge on the cartridge box. Next up, I carefully paint in the webbing, Bread sack and detail on the back pack, as well as the sword knot. You could use Vallejo white 951 but I prefer to use the off white 820. At this stage the figures are nearly fully painted. So far, it has taken me about 8 hours of painting, or to be more realistic 4 evening sessions of two hours. Any longer & my back seizes up!

The next picture shows the figures with the facings painted Yellow 953, the shoulder straps & sword knot red, 957, and the buttons picked out in steel. The yellow facings are to represent the Silesian regiment and the colour of the shoulder straps & sword knot indicates the battalion & company respectively. The purists out there will want to paint different colours on the starps & knots but I am too lazy and the red gives a nice contrast to the yellow facings! The final bit of painting before using Army Painter dip is to use Neutral grey, 992 to touch up the trousers and Blanket rolls and to correct any obvious errors. At this stage they dont look too bad but the block painting leaves the figures looking a bit flat. I could go back

2014-03-29 17.52.29

& shade and highlight the figures but this is an exercise in getting a batch of figures ready for battle, not a painting competition!

In the next article, I’ll show you how the Army painter quick shade helps to bring the figures to life and my quick basing technique.

What’s on the Work Bench 26th June 2014

Landwehr With Muskets at trail

A couple of projects are moving towards completion. First of all the Prussian Brigade is slowly getting there. I have been painting another 10 Prussian Landwehr to complete the second Landwehr Battalion. These are Warlord Games metal Prussians running with Muskets at the trail. It means that I have a bit of variety with my troops and I hope that when these are mixed with the casualty figures already painted, there will be a bit of a story being told, with the officer ordering the advance in the face of enemy fire. I know that some wargamers like to have their models in similar poses and certainly for the sake of quickness, this helps when painting. I prefer some of my models to look a bit different, so I’m quite happy to mix it up a bit!

Landwehr Advance!

So, although I have painted 94 Prussian Infantry & Landwehr figures, the brigade is still not quite there! I have sent for a separate Prussian Infantry command sprue from the Perry’s – this will allow me to complete the 2nd battalion of the infantry. I also have a couple of Prussian Generals from Foundry to paint to make up the Brigade command. At this point, the Brigade will be ready to take to the wargames table but of course there is always more to add but at least I have the main rank & file done!

Sarissa Dark Age Church

As a break from painting figures, I thought that I would make a start on a church for ‘Little Bingham’, the fictious village that occupies my wargames table when it is not in use! I have a test piece from Sarissa, the Dark Age Church, and I thought that this would make a nice addition if painted up. So, to start, I just sprayed the walls of the Church with a Textured spray bought from B&Q. I first masked off the door, but otherwise just carefully sprayed over the MDF. I was quite pleased to see that despite the thickness of the spray, some of the MDF etching & detail still was visible even the fine detail around the windows.

Church window detail

I then just painted the roof tiles with a dark grey Vallejo paint. Again, the detail of the tiles are still visible. So the next step is to weather the the walls & roof with a quick dry brush & add some Ivy & moss. Hopefully, it will be finished for the next workbench!

What’s on the Workbench 14th June 2014

Napoleonic Gun Boat!

Somewhat encouraged by the news that Northstar Games, in conjunction with Osprey, will be releasing a new rules set for Pirates – ‘On the Seven Seas’ I cracked on with my gun boat project and here is the finished result.

All the crew painted and facing the right way!

Gunboat from the Bow

I painted the crew in dark Prussian Blue Jackets with off white trousers. Although there wasn’t a formal uniform as such, most sailors were kitted out this way. The head gear would have varied and of course the shirts & neck ties could all have been different. I have gone for a fairly straight forward colour scheme with a few red & light blue neck ties to brighten things up. The Marines were of course in uniform. I have used an Osprey reference guide and painted them with the standard red coats, Black ( Navy Blue in reality I think!) facings, off white trousers and white lace. All colours are from the vallejo model colour range. So for the time being, this model will sit in my cabinet to await the Osprey rules set. I suspect that I wont be able to use the boat but it will provide a nice bit of scenery. Although the rules are set in the 1600’s when pirates were in the ascendancy, I’m sure there will be a chance to modify the rules to incorporate these more ‘modern’ chaps! I plan to expand my naval force with a detachment of Marines, supplemented with some sailors to make a good sized shore party.

So, it’s back to the Napoleonic Army again, and of course on with my Prussians!

1 … 5 6 7 8 9 10

Category Archives: Modelling Tips & Ideas