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

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!

Blitzkrieg tanks – What scale do I choose!!

We now carry Blitzkrieg tanks in both 1/48th scale, 1/56th scale and claim that both scales are suitable for 28mm figures so which one do you choose?

The 1/48th scale range was originally designed because although manufacturers claim their figures to be 28mm in size, they are often larger & closer to 30mm. In addition, the sculpting process tends to favour a ‘chunkier’ look to the figures. Add to this, the fact that most wargamers will mount their figures on bases and you finish up with that figures that will look on the large size when placed beside the 1/56th scale tank models. So we introduced the slightly larger 1/48th scale tanks in resin, feeling that they looked more realistic and more imposing on the battlefield. After all, when you put a Tiger tank on the wargames table you want it to look as though it would terrify the troops!

The 1/56th scale range was designed for the wargamer that already had other vehicles of this scale in their collection. We realised that if you already had a PZIII in 1/56th, you wouldn’t want a different variant in a different scale. 1/56th scale is often the standard scale for the new breed of plastic kits, such as Bolt Action and Rubicon and so these Blitzkrieg models are the identical scale and completely compatible. This scale also goes well with some of the ‘smaller’ figure ranges such as the new Perrys miniatures plastics, which are true 28mm or the foundry range which tends to be smaller sculpts than later ranges.

So which range do you choose? Well, if you already have 1/56th scale vehicles , it makes sense to stick with this scale. If you haven’t, my choice would be to go for the larger 1/48th scale as they just look more imposing and realistic when on a gaming table.

To see our range of Blitzkreig 1/48th scale tanks, click here:

1/48th Scale Blitzkrieg tanks

To see the 1/56th range, click here:

1/56th Scale Blitzkrieg tanks

Incidentally we have a comprehensive range of 1/48th scale Tamiya models that look superb on the wargames table. In addition, we have a small range of Hobbyboss items in this scale – links below!

1/48th Tamiya military range

1/48th Hobbyboss range

What ever scale you choose, we hope that you enjoy your modelling!

Bolt Action Tanks!

Tiger in snow camouflage Scheme.

I always like to see other people’s models – you can always learn something new from seeing how other modellers produce their masterpieces. In this case, our guest modeller Darek Wyrozebski, is an expert in weathering down tanks and vehicles to produce some of the most realistic battle worn models I’ve seen!

JagdPanther.

He uses a whole host of techniques to produce the battle worn finish and is a great advocate of the Vallejo weathering pigments. So here is just a small selection from Dareks’ collection:

Hetzer

Opel Blitz

Kubelwagen in Polish Army Service!

M10 Tank Destroyer

Darek uses an airbrush to get the basic paint job done and then uses a variety of filters, washes and even a bit of dry brushing to get the different layers of weathering. Add to that the use of pigments, careful replication of scratches using a fine brush, and he even uses hairspray as a barrier to allow the careful removal of layers of paint to get the worn look on the Hetzer. If it all sounds a bit like alchemy, Darek assures me that once you have a go at using these methods, you soon learn to get the results that he has…..as with all things, practice makes perfect!

News This week!

Some of our regular readers will have noticed the drop in content recently. This is because our Girl Friday, Lotte, has moved on to greater things, leaving a gap in our resources and the office a slightly quieter but less interesting and attractive place…. So it’s back to me writing the blog for the future, which means that we will be dropping the regular history posts and just producing a weekly post.

Rather than try to cover all of the new releases every week, I’ll just pick out the ones that catch my eye or are part of a new range. There really is so much new stuff coming out it’s as much as I can do to keep it listed. But it is all listed! Check out my ebay shop for the latest releases & restocks.

As for modelling articles, I intend to keep you up to date with whatever is on my work bench but as I am a slow painter, this will be about once a fortnight rather than weekly. As you will be aware, I tend to focus on the Napoleonic era at the moment and I’m trying to build a good sized British contingent as well as some of their allies such as the Prussians and later on I have plans for the Portuguese! However, I occassionally get diverted, particularly when a good new rules set comes out so watch out for Muskets & Tomahawks related stuff and of course, with the impending release of Bolt Action, a World War II army.

Whenever possible, we’ll also publish pictures from guest modellers which hopefully will help to inspire you or give you ideas for your own projects. On that note, here is a selection of pictures of some Perry Miniatures Russians painted by Chris using our Expo brushes.

I’m sure that you will agree that the painting is superb, and I particularly like the basing detail. Nice Work Chris!

Chasseurs Ste. Domingue – Carribean part 3!

Well, having finished my first unit of Caribbean figure, the Chasseurs de Irios, I thought that I would carry on and paint the Chasseurs de Ste Domingue, also based in Haiti and of course from Trent miniatures. The uniforms are very similar, except that the coats were red and the headwear more like a traditional shako with a white plume.

Rather than go through the stage by stage painting, I’ll just give you the colours that I used, as the process is very similar. All the paints are vallejo as usual! The flesh is mahogany brown, 846, red, 957 for the coats, equipment & hats were painted in black, 950, muskets were painted with flat brown 984 for the wood, 801 brass for the gun details & belt clasp & steel 864 for the musket barrel & buttons. the facings were painted in green 968, which is probably a bit brighter than it should be but my preference is for the colours on the facings to show! Finally the trousers were finished with off white, 820.

The other difference was that despite my previous comments, I decided to paint over a white under coat and I used the Vallejo matt white spray, which I find gives a perfect base coat to paint over provided you are patient and build the undercoat and not ‘drench’ than models to start with. The reason I usually use a coloured undercoat, is to save on painting when using quick shade. Of course, I am used to painting Redcoats with grey trousers, so it made sense to undercoat in grey. As these figures have white trousers, I’ve reverted back to a white undercoat.

Once the figures were painted, I gave them a coat of Army painter quick shade, the dark tone or black variety, and when this was dry, I sprayed them with matt varnish to get rid of the gloss effect. The quick shade does tend to ‘dirty down’ the white too much for my taste so I have repainted the plumes with a pure white, 950 and used the off white 820 to highlight the trousers.

I also used the base colours listed above with a bit of Off white to give some extra highlights on the muskets, facings & hats & straps. Once again, the basing will follow exactly the same procedure as the previous unit. So here’s a picture of the finished figures just before the final touches on the basing.