Bod Painting (My Way)

As with all things there´s more than one way to peel an orange and that´s goes for adding colours to Bods.

Over the years I´ve been asked "what paints, what brushes?" do I use,  or seeing Questions like "how does one stop the paint flaking?" so an attempt at answers below.

The painting method Shown below is a fast (ish) one to create numbers of finished bods to fill up a wargames base and stand the "it looks ok from three feet away" test.

Make of Colours used.
I don´t go for having loads of different shades in expensive Little 12ml pots that are specifically marketed at the Hobby.
First time I Held one in my Hand and smelt the Contents ..I said to myself.."aha!, Floor cleaner". I can´t remember the Name but it´s The type that gives the dry Floor a matt Shine.
I Did a test with the paints named below. Added a drop of Floor cleaner into the mix and guess what? The paint seemed to flow a wee bit better but the end result had a matt Shine. Also..the paint could, by Scratching with a finger nail, be peeled off. 

Acrylics naturally but the stuff from Hobby / Craft Shops, in my case Marabu, Kreul or Hobbyline. All give a matt finish unlike some paints I could Name which end up a bit shiny,  which, if a matt finish is wanted,  means paying out for overpriced, in some cases, Health and enviroment damaging, matting agents. IMHO, a waste of time and Money.
Big 50ml pots of the stuff for a couple of euros each. Black, White, Brown, Red, Yellow and Blue. 20ml pots of Gold and  Silver from Plaka or Rico..two more Hobby/Craft shop paint lines. They do have a wide range of Colours so an advantage  for those not familiar with a Colour Wheel or like having the Colour quick to Hand with no mixing. 

Also, ever considered who actually makes the tinsy winsy overpriced pots of paints? Does anyone really imagine they actually have a factory producing paints just for them?  Do some Research, you might be suprised. 

Ah, mixing. I use a pallette..an old CD or the like. Using the tip of the handle of the Paintbrush, I get a bit of paint out of the pot, wipe it on the CD, clean the handle and repeat the process with the next Colour. 

The mixing water..tap water with a drop of washing up liquid added. 

Brushes
Cheap n´cheerfull from Rico. None of this "ooh, I´ve got a Special non slip Turbo brush with LED´s,  some twonk firm Name on the side and instruction manuel in 16 languages" 
None of that helps if you´ve got no idea how to paint. Tinsy winsy brushes that are only visible with a Elektron micropscope   don´t help in getting a fine line. If the tips sharp and loaded with a decent measured amount of paint,  then, as the old saying goes, in this case, slightly turned on it´s head,   "size  doesn´t Count" .

Obviously, the same result won´t be achievable with a 3" wall paint brush but trying to reduce the size of the brush tip to microscopic Levels won´t make the tip any sharper. 

If one thinks it helps to have overpiced Colours and brushes, then fine but I don´t like the idea of feeding an Industry which, IMHO, by adding a brand Name to anything,  rips us off. The bods and vehicles cost enough as it is without chucking away more cash.

Do I wash the bods first? No. The base paint gets added and finish. Never had a Problem with flaking..and I´ve dropped enough to test wether the paint holds. Maybe there´s some sort of plastifier in the Hobby paints or "scrubbing" the paint on has some adhesive effect..TBH, I don´t know. 

OK...Paints and brushes covered. What Comes next is a Basic "how to" on painting. My technique is similar or the same as a lot of painters so basically, if you like the way you paint and the results, stop reading now. 

The Bod used is a Standard pose from the Airfix Waterloo British Infantry set. Cream softish plastic, bought ca. 1975. The head has been Twisted to the left to give a front facing "Ready" pose. 

First base paint. Black, Marabu/Kruel acrylic "scrubbed" on with an brush that was originally for fine painting, then lost it´s fine Point after being abused for dry brushing and ended up Looking a bit like a chimney sweeps brush.

Skin*
First I paint (using marbu acrylic Midbrown) the face and Hands. Arms and legs don´t really Need this stage but Hands and faces do. The midbrwon Acts as a Bridge between the black base and the final Colour.

Now I paint the Areas using a 50/50 mix of the mid Brown and Game colour Pale flesh (yes, I do have one or two "specialist Hobby paints" * :) )

I try to not paint the Areas between the fingers..not always with success.

Now I dry brush the same mix as stage two but with a tiny bit more pale flesh added. The drybrush goes only onto the raised Areas, nose,  ears, chin, cheeks, backs of Hands, etc

How much more pale flesh is added  depends largely on how well the percentages of the  stage two 50/50 mix worked. 

The Bod has now had his sideburns replaced (painted back)and the Wood parts of the musket painted with a midbrown/mid red** and a tiny bit of black mix (all Marabu or hobbyline acrylics)

Next..Clothes etc.

I like to and try to paint from the "inside out", to dress the Bods as it were, so the jacket is next.

A mid red with a touch of mid Brown (a mix of roughly 80-20% )

I try as far as possible to stay inside the lines, ie; paint ony what will eventually stay red but as will be seen, it isn´t necessary and trying (particually at this scale) is a pain.

Next, just the mid red as a drybrush. This may look a bit dark in the pics as there´s no contrast of the White belts yet, but when they are added it can be better judged as to wether the red is "scarlet" enough or another lighter drybrush Highlight is needed

Adding the "White bits"

Bit more difficult, especially the very thin lines like the ones around the cuffs, collar,  waistband and the hat.

TBH, you don´t Need a tiny brush to paint things like straps etc..a smallish one will do as it´s the tip of the brush that adds the paint, a sharp Point Counts, not the total size of the brush added to which a trick can be used to thin down the lines.

In the top pic the lines around the cuff, waistband, collar and hat are bigger than wanted so:

..in the bottom pic they have been "backpainted" with black as it´s easier to paint up to a line than paint the line.

Also, the Addition of the White has made the red visually brighter so it was, in this case, worth waiting to see if another Highlight was necessary.

I still might still add a Highlight but I´ll wait until I´ve added more Detail and painted a couple more (I usually paint 4 or 5 at a time) so I can see what a group  looks like. 

Cuffs etc added and Barrel/bayonet painted (silver with a bit of black added)

Now the trousers. (Note, Barrel and bayonet got a metal highlight) 
First a mid Grey  over the black base..then..

...a drybrush Highlight with  light Grey.

More or less finished. Buckle and Badge added

I mix all my own colour shades..basically all I Need is the Primary Colours added to  black and White and silver and Gold..although in reality I have a few more colours than that, one being a "european flesh" colour.

All that´s needed, a pallette ( I use old icecream or margarine tub lids - waste not, want not) and a cup of  mixing water with added flow enhancer (a drop or two of Window or floorcleaner)

The black/White mix is an example of how I mixed for the trousers,  the Brown/"flesh" mix for the faces..1 being (roughly) the shade of the second coat over the black base  and 2 the final (roughly) covering by drybrush.
**At this stage I usually "cheat" and add a bit of black to the Brown and paint Things like rifle stocks, spears, shoes and the like. Then add a bit of White and dry brush. Saves time and paint. 

Yellow..The Hobby shop yellows tend to be a bit..?.Meh! So a trick. I start with a mix of 50% mid Brown to 50% yellow and then highlight with 70% yellow to 30% Mid brown, final drybrush with yellow.....or add a bit of white to the last 70/30% mix.
Cold White, start with light Grey and highlight with White.
Warm White, White with a bit of mid Brown added, then a highlight with a lot less Brown and drybrush with White.
Blue? Depends on end effect wanted. Either start with a bit of black added to the blue or a bit of Brown. Either add White to the first mix to highlight, or more blue to the second mix.

Ok, the above aint going to win any prizes and I don´t always follow the above Methods depending on wether I´m painting an individual or the usual Batch of 4-5 at one sitting but it´s quick and for me, with practice, easy and, En masse, they look. IMHO,  ok

* Since creating this post I´ve started experimenting with using a mix of Brown/Yellow/White to create european Skin. Works fine and once you´ve got the hang of it, as quick as using and save having to buy an extra, a pot of "skin colour".

Bod Converting - Body swops

Basically what´s shown here is a Torso and legs swop.
Obviously, swopping arms are bit more complicated but it also(in the majority of cases)  involves pinning and the method is similar to here.
Tools/Things needed
A sharp Hobby knife,
A razor blade (cut to a Point. This allows removing Flash etc from Corners)
Some normal Dress Pins (the pin in the pic has been used already for a conversion and cut but then resharpend..waste not want not
A pair of side cutters (to cut the Pins)
A toothpick (or use one of the Pins) for applying glue
A pair of thin nosed pliers (for pushing the Pins)
Glue. I use Pattex 100 gel
Two figures that will be converted.

Cut the figs in half, remembering to leave a bit of excess plastic on the parts wanted for the conversion.
Hold the two parts  together. The legs have a bit of  excess plastic left from the first cut and  Using the razorblade, thin slices are removed, matching the two parts each time until a decent looking fit is achieved.

The pin pushed through with the tip coming out roughly in the centre of the waist area. From the pic it can be seen where the pin was first pushed in , just behind the neck. This works well with all the figs from this set but sometimes it´s necessary to start the pin from the top of the head, which means more care in applying pressure to push the pin in,  as the neck can suddenly bend to one side and you might get a sore finger with a pin hole in it...happens to me often. Holding the pin with Thin nosed pliers helps or using those type of Pins with a coloured bobble type head. 

It´s sticking out a bit too far in the pic below so will now be withdrawn a bit and cut off so when it´s pushed back flush with the head (hat) or in this case, top of the pack, no part of the pin will be showing.

Position the Torso over the legs in the required Position and Holding both parts firmly in place between finger and thumb, press the pin through (Holding the pin with the pliers)
Cut off the pin as Close to the Point of entry (in this case just behing the neck)  and press flush (here using a flat edge on the sidecutters) The remains of the pin is now too short to resharpen but the head is usefull for rivets or such,  so it goes in a bits box.again..waste not want not

The two halves may have gone out of line a bit (swivelled) during the process so they can now be realigned. The plastic left over from where the elbow rested on the leg is  removed with the razorblade, then fill any gaps with glue and leave to dry. In the pic it appears that there´s a bit of overhang from the Torso to the legs but that´s because the glue is clear.

Cutting so that you end up with excess plastic on the halves wanted means, unfortunately, that the other halves can end up as useless for using in creating whole Body conversions, but they don´t get thrown away..there´s always bits and pieces that can be re-used...again, waste not, want not.

I´ve covered "headswops" in a previous post HERE. 

Second battalion of the 2nd Nassau Usingen - Grenadiers

"Old School" style.
Using bods I converted 35 plus years ago,  bodies from the Waterloo British Infantry and the heads from the Waterloo British Cavalry (Hussars) 
The officer is a combination from, legs = British inf, head = the hussars  and Body from the mounted officer in the Waterloo Highland Infantry set
The uniform accuracy won´t  please the rivet Counters, no swords etc but this is "old School" fun as it was when I first started..no figures to cover the unit wanted so you had to make do. Also,  back then, without the luxury of the web to check up on colours, equipment etc, all one had, if you were lucky enough to have a decent library nearby, was books and they were often not that accurate either.


The uniform colours etc, I took from Alexis excellent site "Les Uniformes pendant la Campagne des Cent jours-Belgique 1815"
The Flag is from Warflag
I wasn´t too sure about a Grenadier Company having a flag but after much (and sometimes confusing) Research I gave up.  I liked   the idea of using a flag and  it is "old School",  ...so the  Grenadiers got one.

The whole allied army so far

Note; I still haven´t got around to sorting the flags out...they are still the wrong way around!!

Airfix Waterloo RHA (re-based)

Another bit of my Airfix napoleonic excursion. This time the 40 year (plus) old R.H.A set
Originally painted as part of the "paint every pose of every figure set airfix has released" quest and made up as a dio as seen HERE, all I´ve  done is rebase them.

The bod Holding the cannonball is likely to lose a couple of toes when the gun recoils

The whole lot, British, highlanders and artillery support

I think that is enough Napoleonics for  now.

Airfix Waterloo Highland Infantry (Mk2)

Still carrying on with the Napoleonic theme and as part of the Airfix Tribute Forum Waterloo GB I´ve added another stand of infantry, another centre Company but this time a centre company of the 42 Regiment,  Royal Highland - Black Watch.
As with the Airfix Waterloo British Infantry they are  100% Airfix, but this time I used bits from the British infantry set.
I´ve painted the set before (HERE) using the Airfix Boxart as a reference. Back then (2 years ago) I used more  "false" blacklining than nowadays...but I still like the look of the Blacklined ones.

There´s 23 bods on the stand, only 2 less than the Waterloo British Infantry stand with 25 but it still Looks a  bit empty in comparison.

The conversions (I didn´t take pics before painting)

This Waterloo Diorama from the 1970´s  is worth a look..virtually all 1/72nd Airfix !!

Airfix Waterloo British Infantry

As part of the Airfix 2015 Waterloo 1815 GB (Group Build) over at the  Airfix Tribute Forum
Rules;
"Any and all Airfix Napoleonic, no matter what scale, 1/76, 54mm or 1/12. They can be displayed as vignette, diorama or singly. In diorama; a depiction of Quatre Bras is permitted too. Conversions are welcome too, as long as the result is still at least 51% Airfix plastic."

My part of the GB with all the stages, from removing the paint to the final stand can be found HERE

Without going over the top and creating buildings or an exact historic Scene from the battle, I  decided to make a line of british infantry in Action and Keep  to using 100% Airfix  and using parts from within the set itself for conversions.

Instead of a set up of strict lines, firing, loading etc I´ve gone for a more fluid look, no strictly defined firing , reloading  lines.  They were going to be based as part of a small dio but I eventually based them as a unit for  wargaming. It was a Change painting napoleonic bods, so maybe I´ll add one or two stands when I get the urge to paint something different from my usual themes...

The set is pretty generous with the number of poses but I don´t really like painting the same pose over and over to get enough bods to create a decent enough grouping and, as it´s said, Variety is the spice of life,  so some knife work was called for.

Conversions.

After painting and basing I came up with another 4 conversions but adding them would have overloaded the base, making it too crowded for my liking. 

The Flags. They  Come from the Nap Flag site, a site set up by Alan Pendlebury who very generously has made loads of napoleonic flags he´s created available for free download. Please observe his conditions of use.

The flags (as does thier uniforms as far as possible) represent those carried by the centre Company from the 1st Battalion 1st Foot Guards Regiment, but as Alan notes on his site;
"I have been unable to discover which of the 24 possible Regimental colours was carried by the 1st Battalion 1st Guards at Waterloo. I have opted for that of the 2nd company which had the red and white Tudor rose as a central device."

If anyone is looking for a decent resource site for uniform plates for the 1815 campaign;
Les uniformes pendant la Campagne des Cent Jours - Belgique 1815
In French but it has (as far as I can see) every Regiment represented with line, Grenadier etc companies

Croebern - Möckern

On Saturday the 12th there was a preview of the Exhibition of the Croebern and Möckern dios at the Schmucker Jäger Hotel in Hann-Munden but due to work, I´ve only just got around to  setting up this post.

The Pictures really don´t do the dios justice, they cover a massive area and are impressive not only due to the size but the Detail. Truly awe inspiring!!! I took quite a lot of pics, too many to put up here, so here´s a selection.

This pic, compared to the above photo, (bottom right Hand Corner) gives some idea of how big the dios are.

A couple of Detail pics. 

 

What´s this...??? Another dio!!? :-D The pic in the Background is a clue ;-D 

The town is pretty amazing as well. Parts of the town walls are still Standing and virtually all of it is old timber framed houses, dating back to the 15th Cent. Unfortunately we didn´t have enough time to properly  look around  (didn´t get any pics of the  town hall) but here´s a couple of pics anyway.

Up on the hill, overlooking Munden is the Tillyschanze, an observation tower built from 1881 to 1885 by citizens of the town to remember the siege of the town by Count Tilly in 1626.

 

The timber framing !!!! Sagged a bit eh?

A lot of the buildings are over 600 years old!!! (this sign says the building was built around 1400 and renovated in 1590)

 The Rathaus (Town hall) Pic from Wikipedia.

Worth another visit I think :-D
For anyone interested in seeing the dio and town, here´s a link to the Hotel where the  dio will be exhibited. Schmucker Jäger Hotel. Info for the date of the official opening of the dio can be found HERE