From BrendonW: 28mm Early Imperial Romans (56 points)

From Brendon:

Another bunch of toys I got completed.

These are 28mm plastic Imperial Roman Veterans from Warlord Games. I have been slowly building an Early Imperial Roman army (at glacial speed) but I was inspired to build and paint some more recently. This was after reading the most recent 'Macro and Cato' novel 'The Blood Crows'. An excellent Christmas present from the family. Still plenty more of these in my Plastic Mountain but these are the first of the Veterans box for me. The bodies are the same as Romans in the regular Legionaries sets but you get different heads, armoured arms (with different positions) and shields that have seen some action and need repairs or thrown away.

I used the Army Painter method. Paint them base colours then splash on some army painter strong tone dip. I painted the dip on rather than dipping them as it gives me more control. No flock on the bases yet as I haven't flocked any of the previous Romans so far either. Saving that until I have them all painted. As my previous Roman unit standard bearers they are positioned so that if you do not wedge them on the base the standard is not as up-right as you imagine how they should look in a traditional war games army. 

I had this bunch in a very, very close to completed way before a short stay in hospital and being well enough to get them over the line and sent to Curt is excellent. Good health everyone.

Great work Brendon. I quite like the grizzled look of these fellows. I also find it interesting that you mention applying Army Painter stain with a brush instead of using the dip approach. I've used the same method and have found I get better control of the shading effect, keeping it away from parts of the figure I want to keep relatively bright or unstained. 

These eleven Legionnaires will give Brendon 56 points to add to his growing total. Well done.

Potential Replacement for 'Devlan Mud': Army Painter Strong Tone Ink

(First, I apologize if this is old news for some of you, but I thought I'd post it just in case others had not run across this product.) Like many other mini painters I'm a big fan of some of the old GW paint range, particularly their washes, and specifically the iconic 'Devlan Mud'.  Cripes,  I should have bought quarts of the stuff when I knew it was being discontinued, but the road to Hell is paved with good intentions (and hopefully those who text in movie theaters).  Anyway, I poked around the web and found that several others have been recommending Army Painter's new line of inks as potential replacements to GW Devlan Mud and Badab Black. 

Well, I dashed out and picked up a bottle of AP Strong Tone in order to give it a whirl. Here is a matte card with a brushed-on sample (left to right) of GW Devlan Mud, AP Strong Tone, and GW Gryphonne Sepia. 

The AP ink is certainly not a perfect match to Devlan Mud, but I think its not too far off the mark. I've used it on several figures now and quite like the effect it gives. If you wish to see another side-to-side example check out this excellent article From the Warp.

The Army Painter Strong Tone mimics their oil-based 'dip' but instead is water-based, quick drying and has a non-glossy finish (three big 'wins', imo). As an added bonus you also get more of the AP ink (18ml vs 12ml) for less money than the GW wash. 

Now, if they could just copy over that nasty-yet-compelling Devlan Mud smell...

From ChristoperS: 28mm ACW 4th Alabama Regiment (100 points)

Christopher sends in this beautiful American Civil War regiment which depicts the 4th Alabama.

The 4th Alabama was part of Laws Brigade in Hood's Division. They saw heavy action in the Eastern theatre throughout the war.

These are 28mm Sash and Saber castings. I've worked with these as well and I agree with Christopher in that they are very characterful and a lot of fun to paint. Speaking of which, Christopher used Army Painter Quickshade with these and then went over them again for the final highlight (with very nice results). Great groundwork as well. Flag by GMB.

This fine unit will give Christopher 100 points to add to his total. Great work!

28mm Perry French Command, Foundry Young Guard Skirmishers and Plowed Field from Architects of War

 

Its been sort of hectic lately, but I managed to get some stuff off the hobby-table this week. I actually started this French command stand at the beginning of the Painting Challenge back in early February. I dunno why, but I found I just wasn't inspired by it, so its been waiting in the wings ever since. Nonetheless this weekend I resolved to put my head down and get it done so here it is.

These are 28mm Perry sculpts from their Waterloo range. The abandoned drum is a plastic extra from a Victrix box. Its funny - I've discovered that most of my command stands are composed of officers who are basically yelling at one another. I guess I always assume that tempers run high during battle so having these guys barking at each other seems sensible.

'Mon Dieu, vous êtes un imbécile! Louis! Did you leave your bloody bicorne back in your tent again?'

I used Army Painter Quickshade 'Strong Tone' on the mounted figures, matte sprayed them and then went over them again to pick up the highlights. I was concerned that the gray horse would end up being too 'muddy'  but it seemed to turn out alright once the highlight was applied. I'm pretty happy with how the Quickshade works on the whole. It suits my painting method which I liken to Kabuki theater makeup - it looks good at a distance, but as you get closer it becomes increasingly  blocky and frankly kinda ugly (Hmm, reminds me of a few pub experiences I've had...). That being said I find it works well for my purposes as I reason most wargaming stuff is seen at an arm's length away.

Next up is a group of 8 Young Guard skirmishers. These are from Foundry but the sculpts, of course, are Perry. I remember years ago seeing these castings in a colour advertisement in 'Wargames Illustrated'. I've always liked the prone and seated figures. These are on the smallish side of 25mm but they seem in the right spirit for Young Guard.

And finally here is another piece of terrain from my winter Architects of War purchase, a large plowed field with a low stone wall on the edge. Like the Vegetable Garden I pretty much painted this stock from the box and overall I'm pleased with the results.

Again, I just added some scenic tufts and groundwork to give it some extra texture.

The command stand and skirmishers will nudge me twelve points closer to John's score as we go into the final three weeks of the challenge.

Field Test: Army Painter Quickshade

I've always been a bit skeptical of the minwax-type 'dips', especially with 'colourful subjects' like Napoleonic figures, as I find it often muddies the brighter colours and can give a jaundiced look to skintones.  Then a few months ago I came across the blog by Saxon Dog and was very impressed with his painting techniques, especially with Army Painter Quickshade. His approach to 'the dip' is a little different than most as he utilizes it merely as a step in the layering process. He blocks in the main colours, brushes with Quickshade and then goes over the highlights before the final matte spray. His results are quite nice, I think.

So I thought I'd give it a go to see if I could pull off a similar effect as I typically use a layering technique as well (though certainly not as nicely executed as Mr. Dog's). My thinking is if I can even take one step out of the process it might reduce my painting time by almost a third, which is no small feat in of itself as I am a fairly slow painter.

For castings, I chose eight 28mm Foundry Napoleonic Russians in greatcoats as I thought that the muted tones of the overcoats would help mitigate any potential disaster I might have with the Quickshade dip.

 

Here are the eight Russian infantrymen after being primed black and with the main colours blocked-in. I made an effort to spend no more than around five minutes on each figure while blocking-in the colours to see what the results would be like under 'speed painting' conditions (well, speedy for me). I also tried to keep a little blacklining visible in the deeper folds and creases as I was unsure how well (or dark) the dip would penetrate these spots. I found doing this stage really weird as I usually start with a darker basetone and 'lift up' from there. It sort of reminded me of when I first started painting figures as a kid, before I cared about things like shading and highlights. Kinda liberating actually!

I tried to pick base colour tones that were mid to high in brightness as I knew the Army Painter dip would darken them. This way I could use the same colour (or slightly higher) to do the highlights later.

Here they are (above) right after applying the Army Painter Strong Tone with a large brush. My application, for the most part, was fairly light as I was unsure of the results. It worked pretty well, but I think I'd go stronger for the next batch, perhaps even mixing the Strong Tone with a bit of the Dark Tone. Nonetheless, don't go overboard in brushing it on. This is basically varathane so it will build up and soften the casting's detail if you're not careful. Have a jar of thinner on hand to keep the brush supple and to thin out any blotchy areas. Otherwise the whole process moves along pretty quickly (perhaps five minutes application for this batch of eight). I then let the models dry overnight before continuing to the next stage...

The next day I matte sprayed half the figures an kept the others glossy to see how the highlighting would go. Again, I used basically the same colours that I used when blocking-in and I tried to move as fast as possible with the highlighting. I don't think I spent more than seven to ten minutes per figure on the highlighting. The highlighting actually worked pretty well on the glossy finish so I'm thinking I could save a step and only do a matte spray at the end of the process.  Below is a group shot of the batch of eight after the highlighting and with a final light spray of Dull Cote.

And here are separate shots of each figure to give an idea of how they turned out. So, what's your opinion of the results? Hmm, its a little subtle but the whites certainly benefited from the highlighting as otherwise they would look quite dull and muddy. The other colours also get a little more 'punch' from the highlighting. Nonetheless, all-in-all I think that by using the Army Painter dip I shaved approximately 30% off my time as it removed an entire 'stage' in my normal layer-painting routine. That's pretty significant. I'm thinking I'd see even greater benefits when doing cavalry as the horses could be basically done in two stages (basecoat and dip).

I must admit the required 12-hour drying time for the varnish is a little aggravating, as I often like to 'steam along' with my painting without pause, but this isn't really that big of a issue as it just means I will have to be more organized with my time.

I have some KGL Light Dragoons primed and on the table,  ready to go, so I think I'll try the Quickshade with them to see how it works with cavalry...