Basing the Spanish guerillas

Much the same story as the 95th, barring some undercoat on the bases and movement trays, and a coat of Iraqi Sand (I think) on the trays and Tamiya sand texture paint (which I am scraping the bottom of the jar for - it took some serious hammer back when my El Cid cavalry and Parthians got based :D) I did, though, buy some more grass tufts ('PECO' Wild Meadow, actually made by WarWorld Scenics).

Ink, drybrush and grass tomorrow.

More basing thoughts

One of the problems with the last batch of bases is the Tamiya Desert Sand textured paint doesn't stick that well to the coins, and the PVA/sand doesn't either to the 'glossy' MDF surface of the movement trays/sabots.

I've just done a batch of bases and trays for the Spanish guerillas Tom painted for me a while ago, so this time, to see if it improves matters, I've started with a coat of Halfords matt black universal spray primer. (Note to self: I am now running out of said primer, so if it works I need to buy some more.)

More when I find time to do the next stages!

Basing the 95th part 3 (and last)

Just the magnets to fit. The Warbases sabot bases/trays come optionally pre-drilled for 3mm magnets, and they also supply the magnets.

I'd have done this yesterday but I was out of superglue, so a quick trip to Hobbycraft for some Gorilla brush on was in order before I could do this.

The trick, I found, is to wiggle the glue-laden brush round inside the holes, put the base down on a bit of paper (making it easier to clean up if it sticks to it), and then feed in a stack of magnets. Make sure the bottom one is secure and flat in the hole, then slide the stack off to the side and repeat. This way, just in case it ever matters, all your magnets are the same way up.

And, just to prove it...

Basing the 95th part 2

I was going to grab some photos of the intermediate stages in this process, but I was having too much fun and I forgot:

Basically the steps were:

• Apply PVA
• Dip in sand, allow to dry
• Wash with AP String Tone
• Overbrush with Vallejo Green Grey
• Drybrush with Vallejo Dark Sand
• Add AP grass tufts
• Paint the edges and the holes in the sabot bases with Vallejo Green Grey

Done. And not so bad, though I say so myself.

As a side note, both the Valejo paints definitely benefitted from the new paint shaker.  I will definitely produce a video of that later   

Basing the 95th part 1

Started basing the 95th I got the other day.

Standard approach for my SP2 forces is going to be 20mm magnetic copper alloy discs (that's post '93 UK pennies to you), onto Warbases sabot bases with a magnet in, and then steel paper on the bottom of Really Useful boxes to hold them.

Stage 2, after supergluing to the coins, is Tamiya Desert Sand textured paint, as much for the bulk as anything else. Sadly this takes a while to dry, so that was it for today. Tomorrow, PVA, sand, another drying phase, I suspect.

(Yes, this is not my normal basing technique - I thought I'd try something different.)

Wanted - old style Flames of War bases

If anyone in the UK has old style, grey, Flames of War bases, I'll be willing to trade them for an equivalent number of the new brown ones with holes. Up to 40 of each of the small and the medium. Must be genuine Flames of War bases with the bevelled edges, though.

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Kickstarter watch - Textured Base Stamps

Ooof. Jet lag sucks. Coherent creative thought's still a toughie :D

Via our club secretary Rob, an interesting Kickstarter for producing textured bases without paying someone the earth for resin casts. Kind of tempting, actually: a little bit annoying that they're designed for 25mm round bases, but they can be coaxed onto other sizes. Styles include graveyard, earth, urban, battlefield (looks kinda Dark Ages), sci-fi, street and dungeon.

Pre WABGT update: basing

Well, it's 11pm again, and I'm just done with this evening's painting. The Parthian cataphracts are done (if I was less tired I'd grab some decent photos of them for Curt's blog), and the horse archers have had all their headgear done, leaving me with leggings, leather, touch-up, ink wash, repainting faces and base decoration.

A few useful discoveries: as you may have noticed on the one shot from Monday's game, I ran out of Renedra cavalry bases (they're my go-to guys for basing - basically my first batch of Warlord Romans came with a sprue or two of them, and I've stuck with them since), And then you discover you raided your Victrix base sprues AND all your Wargames Factory WSS cavalry for every cavalry base to make your El Cid army...

... and Warbases are on holiday (they're back now, relax)....

... and it's Saturday night when you realise the box of cavalry bases only contains doubles...

... and you need ninety-five 50x25mm cavalry bases, most of which are for individually based skirmish cavalry...

Only one thing for it. I had bought two GW modular movement tray packs from Hobbycraft (who I note have stopped stocking GW at all) in my last ever GW purchase, and the bottom pieces are neatly gridded on one side in 8x8 25mm squares. Out with the cutting board and ruler then: it's actually quite nice plastic - it'll snap rather like a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk if you score it with a scalpel :D

The cataphracts have been based with Tamiya textured sand paint, which scores for being like a light filler with sticky PVA type properties, but is really NOT the colour I wanted (it's a very sickly yellow). However, dunking them in a Javis desert sand mix (essentially treating the textured paint as glue!) and then adding Army Painter dark grass seems to have done the job.

That's me done for tonight: I may yet get to not spend ALL of Friday evening painting.

28mm Op: Squad figures

As I've said before, I don't claim to be the world's best painter. But I'm quite proud of these for "wargame standard"...

Denison smocks are a sod to paint, too!

The science bit:

Wehrmacht (Warlord Games 28mm plastic):

• primer - Army Painter Uniform Grey
• tunics - assorted colours, see earlier post!
• equipment - Citadel Commando Khaki, Bestial Brown, Black
• entrenching tool handle - mix of Snakebite Leather and Commando Khaki
• helmets - Tamiya German Grey

Paras (Warlord Games 28mm metal):

• primer - Army painter fur brown
• trousers - mix of Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather and a touch of Knarloc Green
• Denison Smock - Commando Khaki base, camo colours Knarloc Green and Scorched Brown (actually, I ran out of the latter, so it was a colour mixed to match)
• webbing - Tamiya Field Grey
• beret - Red Gore

Dip was brushed Army Painter Strong Tone (after a false start in which I forgot to shake/stir the new tin!). Base is my usual - Tamiya Dark Earth textured diorama paint, dilute PVA to fix Javis Moorland Scatter, then a few Gale Force rock fragments. Finally, some Javis static grass - I find that this works remarkably well if you grab a pinch in your fingers and sprinkle it - it seems to stand up much like it was dropped from a puffer bottle and is much less mess (more Wife Points).

The final step is a spray of Army Painter matt varnish, and we're done.

Running out, and goop

Made a sizeable dent in the unpainted stash this past couple of weeks - a unit of EIR Auxillae (Warlord), as well as a start on an army of Brigantes tribesmen (and women) (mixed Warlord plastics and metals and Wargames Factory). The latter is for the narrative WAB campaign just starting at the club to replace the original planned Roman Civil War campaign (get well soon, Phil), It should be interesting since my army is a mix of the aforementioned Brigantes led by the much neglected Queen Cartimandua, with assistance from a bunch of Roman Auxillae. Usual last minute painting job - first session is tonight!

In doing this, I found myself running out of assorted stuff right, left and centre - black undercoat spray (horses), white undercoat spray (most other things), dark brown, red, grey, black acrylics, usable brushes, and worst of all the Tamiya dark earth textured paint I use for basing.

Most of this was no problem - Trevor down at the Rift in Peterborough is our Friendly Local Games Shop proprietor, and he usually has a decent stock of most things - but the only local stockist for the Tamiya paint is our other excellent local emporium, Trains4U. "No problem", I thought on Saturday, "won't need it till Sunday, can nip out and grab some after church tomorrow, and win Wife Points by having gardened today..." Imagine my unconfined joy to discover on Sunday lunchtime their Sunday opening is quote "winter months only."

Right. Time to cook up a replacement - basically the Tamiya stuff is a thick earth-brown goop containing sand-like particles. A quick trawl of various blogs suggested everything ranging from coloured Polyfilla to a mix of PVA, acrylic sealant, sawdust, paint and casting plaster, but in the end I plumped for a fairly simple recipe: roughly equal parts sand, PVA and dark earth paint. (The one downside of this is that the only dark earth paint I had to hand is a jar of Citadel Graveyard Earth, which is pretty much now an empty jar of Citadel Graveyard Earth - note to self to buy something suitable in bulk from someone other than Citadel).

And it worked - obviously, it does dry in the mixing pot over time (nothing that a surprisingly small amount of water won't stave off), but if you get the proportions right it's better than the Tamiya in it can be worked with a brush around feet and bases, and has the great advantage of containing enough PVA to allow me to dip straightaway in my favourite Javis Moorland Scatter.

All in all? Happy. And I'm done bar the last coat of Army Painter anti-shine, which I'll spray on when I get home from work and should be dry in time for club. It would be the same without an army smelling of varnish, anyway!

Phew...

Everything's painted, dipped, had the Tamiya Dark Earth and the moorland scatter applied. Just waiting on the first round of dilute PVA drying before I apply static grass and Army Painter Anti-Shine spray, which latter might wait till the morning.

Photos to follow: I should note I don't claim to be a good painter by any stretch of the imagination - not seeing in 3D doesn't help - but they pass the 'massed ranks at 2 feet away' test, which is fine by me.

Next up for this army will probably be a unit of Warlord auxiliary infantry - fortunately, I have a good two weeks for those.

That sense of 'done'.

It's funny how much certain steps of painting a figure bring it alive - hands and face is one for me, for example - I've always found that, even back when I was painting figures in ones and twos for D&D.

But now I've taken to basing figures, the one that for some reason puts that stamp of 'done' on it is the band of brown round the edge of the base: partly because the base is till then usually still mostly black or the primer colour, and it does set off the scatter and static grass.

So - I can happily report that the 20 Rohirrim (5 mounted, 12 plastic spear/sword/axe, and the Gamling, Hama and Eowyn hero metals) are dipped, based, varnished and ready for tonight's go at Pig Wars, along with the 8 bowmen I painted last month.

Basing, and dip redux

Really wasn't totally happy with the Balearics after I'd dipped (well, brushed) them - the dip had pooled in a few places on their tunics that just looked wrong. However, I persevered, cause, frankly, life is too short to repaint everything :D

So - on with the show.

Some priming experiments - I undercoated a bunch more Rohirrim, this time in green to save time on their cloaks, and their horses in black. We'll see how that goes this weekend.

On to basing the Balearics. I think I have a process now, which seems to work. First off, apply a layer of Tamiya dark earth diorama paint. It's a little bit pricy, but a £8 jar claims to cover a B4 sheet (which works out at around 200 or so 20mm square bases. Basically, it has resin particles in it, and can be formed on a base - you apply it with a spatula, or in my case the end of a coffee stirrer liberated from work.

On top of that, once it's dry, I brush on some neat PVA, dip the base in Javis Moorland Scatter and shake off immediately - I don't mind if it doesn't stick everywhere, since the dark earth underneath looks just fine.

Finally, I let that dry, dab on a few blotches more of PVA, and apply some static grass (don't ask me whose, I think it was Hornby!) using a Noch puffer bottle from Gaugemaster. Job done, and now to apply the (Army Painter) matt varnish...

Which was a bit of an eyeopener - the effect wasn't as obvious on the Rohan foot I painted the other week, but it really does soften the look of the dip, kill the in-your-face glossiness, and makes me look a half-decent painter. The moral of the Army Painter system really does seem to be to take your courage in both hands and not give up!

Pictures to follow next time: I'll do a step by step of the next batch of Numidians (probably as archers).