Zurlauben II

Here's another WIP of Zurlauben, now with the new minis integrated and with the colours fitted. grouting tonight and off for flocking on Friday. Zurlauben was destroyed at Blenheim, where the Comte himself died, leading a cavalry command.

At a rough count I have 40 more mostly-painted battalions to finish and base, around six months work on the infantry, alone. Gulp.

Going full Vauban

 

On a whim, I've bought myself a c.17th fortress. I have slowly been accumulating late c.17th minis and they need a secure base of operations!

This came from Germany, and mostly made from foam, with resin details. It's around 75cm square.

That gate needs some outworks- the whole fort does, really, earthworks and a ditch. It would also be nice to add a house for the governor.

I'm quite taken with it- with a little additional detailing, I think it will look very good on the table.

I particularly like the sentry points. 

The model came from More Terrain in Germany and was very reasonably priced. I'm really not sure how I'll use it- perhaps on the edge of a table at a show, just possibly in a siege.

I did it one piece at a time...

(This article was originally published in issue 69 of the excellent Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine).

“One day I devised myself a plan, that should be the envy of most any a man...”

In the country classic “One Piece at a Time”, Johnny Cash’s character describes how, over a 21 years period, he built a Cadillac, from a mass of ill-fitting parts that he stole from a production line.  I’ve employed a broadly similar (but happily entirely legal) strategy, to assemble the very large armies that I use in my ancient gaming.  My technique involves acquiring masses of painted miniatures from many different sources, and later, retouching and rebasing them so that they work together as an army. 

Firstly, I buy painted miniatures for the ancient armies that most interest me, whenever I can find them at an affordable price.  More often than not, these come from eBay.   I also buy entire armies when I can find them on forums, or trade with friends for their unwanted miniatures.

I only ever buy miniatures from ranges that I really like, as there are few things more frustrating than spending hours painting ugly miniatures.  Luckily, my catholic tastes embrace pretty much anything sculpted by Marc Copplestone, Steve Saleh or the Perry twins, or Aventine’s Adam, amongst others. 

As the precious brown-paper-wrapped boxes of precious minis plunk heavily onto my doormat, I open and check them, and store them, by army, in box files up in my loft.  I track the approximate numbers in each mustering army in a spreadsheet, because it’s so easy to forget what’s up there!   The quality of such purchases can vary from the sublime (superb miniatures painted by Andres at Einar Olafson Painting or Redzed) to the ridiculous (hideous train-wrecks of paint jobs from eBay, fit only for the stripping jar).  I do my very best to avoid poorly painted purchases by looking carefully at the photos on the eBay items, but one sometimes just has to take a punt.

(At the time of writing the author has accumulated some 1800 28mm part-painted ancient or Napoleonic miniatures.  Here are some Perry Romans...)

One day, my interest in a particular army will suddenly be piqued by a film or book, or plans to put on a display game at a show, and I’ll climb the ladder, find the appropriate file box and open it to see what’s in there.  More often than not, I’m pleasantly surprised to find some decent purchases that I’ve long forgotten making.  Next, I sort the minis out into their respective units.  When there are several very distinct styles of painting, then these will go into separate units.

(mustering the cohorts of an Early Imperial Roman army)

When a unit is short of minis, then I “climb the lead mountain” to find the necessary miniatures required to bring it up to strength.   As I (all too) regularly buy unpainted miniatures that look like “bargains” to me, there’s a pretty high chance that I’ll find what I need!  If not, I more often than not find that I can often swap for the required minis with one of my fellow leadaholic mates. 

(figures selected for a test cohort on which to try out basing ideas)

Before painting, every painted miniature will be removed from its base.  I must have cut a thousand or more minis off plastic WAB bases!  Where possible, I like to retain some of the grout and flock around the feet, as this saves time later on, when basing. 

I should remind readers, at this point, that Dante Alighieri reserved a special corner of his Inferno for those gamers who superglue miniatures onto coins or washers.  It is very difficult to remove these safely, and so I try very hard not to buy such figures.  Personally, when I need to stick a figure to a coin I use wood glue, which is quite sufficient and facilitates re-basing. 

Any unpainted miniatures are assembled, cleaned and primed.  This is also the best time to effect repairs on broken weapons and to replace any missing shields.  I temporarily mount all the miniatures on my trusty wooden Jenga blocks, ready for painting.

“Now the headlight’ was another sight, we had two on the left and one on the right, but when we pulled out the switch all three of ‘em come on”

If one has accumulated a bunch of miniatures from a number of different painters, in a number of different styles, there isn’t a great deal of value in trying to finish them off so that they all look identical.  This would take a great deal of time as many would need to be substantially repainted.  It’s far better to capitalise upon the differences in style by giving the unit an “on-campaign” look, with different coloured tunics or trousers, and a variety of different shield designs.  I find that others paint miniatures in imaginative ways that wouldn’t necessarily have occurred to me, and I try to retain as many of these quirks as possible.

Some paint-jobs will invariably have taken some punishment, either in use on the table, or in the post, so next, I touch up any chips.  Sometimes, I’ll repaint lurid tunics, or over-paint flesh when someone has gone overboard with the black-lining style.  I’ll usually go on to add a single highlight, where none exists.

Stains, such as the sadly defunct Games Workshop Devlan Mud, and Army Painter Strong Tone ink wash, are excellent for bringing out detail on figures that have been simply block-painted, and also cover a multitude of sins.  Moreover, a thin ink wash, delivered in a medium such as Klear floor polish, will very usefully darken the skin tones of lighter-skinned figures, so that they better match other darker-skinned ones from the brush of a different painter.  

(The cohort temporarily based for painting, retouched and stained with Army Painter Strong Tone)

Next, the retouched miniatures will all need to be varnished.  I usually use a Halfords spray gloss lacquer, for protection, flowed by a couple of coats of matt Testors Dullcote spray varnish.  After matt varnishing, I always spend a few minutes highlighting metallics as it really makes the minis “pop”.

“Now, up to now my plan went all right, ‘til we tried to put it all together one night”

The final stage is basing.  Having saved a great deal of time by using ready-painted miniatures, I feel I can afford to lavish time on the basing, which is the part of the process that turns figures I’ve bought into a unit that feels my own.  Moreover, with the miniatures having come from so many different sources, it is critical that the basing is both uniform and of good quality, so that the army works together, as a whole. 

I’ve talked about my basing techniques in a previous article (WSS 65); suffice to say that the key elements are: a large magnetic base; pre-coloured grout; dry-brushing and the use of a great many different varieties of flock and tufts.  I also find that incorporating scenic elements, such as rocks, shields and even small trees, can add a great deal of character.

As an example of this process, over the last few years, I’ve been accumulating odd batches of painted Foundry Perry Early Imperial Romans, when they have come up on eBay at the right price.  Recently, I managed to purchase a small and quite nicely finished army, which gave me the critical mass I needed to push the project on to completion.

I gave a little thought about how to make the army different to several other EIR armies I‘ve collected over the years.  Inspiration struck; why not emulate the look of the extremely grungy Roman army at the start of “Gladiator”?  Re-watching the battle scene at the start of the film, I noticed that Ridley Scott filmed with an extremely subdued colour palette.  The wet, dirty, clothing of his legionaries could easily be simulated by ink washes.  Moreover, their shield designs could barely be made out through mud and water staining (which would helpfully conceal the unevenly-applied transfers on my minis).  I also noticed that the vegetation was sparse, with little grass, and that there was a great deal of sticky-looking mud. 

To add flavour, I decided to make a few strategic purchases including a 1^st Corps “General of the Northern Armies”, complete with hound, and a Gripping Beast “Aged Roman Emperor”.  I also quickly discovered that 1^st Corps also manufacture some handy battlefield debris, which would add interest to the bases.  I also bought some Wargames Foundry horses on eBay to match some Gripping Beast Roman auxiliary cavalry riders, that I had left over from a previous project.

I decided that the large scenic bases used with the Impetus rules, would enable me to use the miniatures to create attractive dioramas.  Before painting the entire army, I thought I’d finish two elements, to check that my approach would work.  The figures I selected (shown in one of the photos above) represented the work of at least half a dozen different painters, of varying degrees of competence. 

I went for a darker earth colour than usual on the bases and used satin washes to make them look wet and muddy.  It only took three painting sessions to lick the miniatures into shape, and two further sessions to base them; perhaps 15 hours of work, in total, far faster than I could have painted them from scratch. 

(the two completed test elements, together, form a battle-hardened Roman cohort for Impetus)

“I’m gonna drive everybody wild, ‘cause I’ll have the only one there is around”. 

To sum up, I much prefer working with painted miniatures, compared to virgin metal, as I find that the different approaches adopted by other painters get my creative juices flowing, helping me to produce a uniquely characterful end result. Re-using such “pre-loved” minis, also enables me to get an army on the table far more quickly than if I had painted them from scratch!   

(Since publishing the original article, I've completed another 4 elements of this force using some lovely figures that I bought off Saxon Dog.  I hope to have the army finished by the end of the Spring.)

Legacy of Alexander

WS&S has landed and looks really interesting for an "Ancients" nut, with lots of material from Jeff Jonas.  Relic's Seleucid cataphracts look very good, too, on the cover.  Do please have a gander at my "Last Phalanx" piece on page 42; I'm delighted with how it came out.

It's very nice to see such an ancients focus in a wargames magazine, for a change.

Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy 69

The lovely smell of freshly-printed magazine is wafting across my lounge...  this looks like a great edition, as it has a cover and article by mate Andres Fernandez, 3 (!) pieces by mate Allen Curtis, and another on matrix gaming by mate Mark Backhouse!  Plus there are several other great looking articles, including one on page 66 by this chap called Simon Miller...

Basing with the Bat- Part III

This is the final part of my WS&S article on basing.  The previous parts are here and here.  Enjoy! Please also look out for my new article coming out in WS&S next week; it combines collecting, basing and the lyrics of Johnny Cash!

Advanced Basing

I find that double-depth elements can be very time consuming to base, because it is very hard to get the brush or palette knife into the narrow space between the two ranks of figures. Moreover, sometimes paint or gunk finds its way onto the finished figures, which then need retouching. Yet, as the number of miniatures I own increases, I find that I want to base more and more miniatures this way, because they are quicker to deploy from storage and move around on the table.

Above are some of the splendid Foundry/Black Tree German figures that my friend Nick Speller painted for me. I've done very little to the miniatures, aside from varnishing them, and painting the bases of the miniatures to match the eventual colour of the earth that will surround them.  I've arranged them on six 60 x 30mm magnetic bases of my own manufacture.

In the above close-up, you can see that I like to position some of the figures so that they straddle both bases; this helps to create a “crowd” look, and has practical value at a later stage. Using a variable number of miniatures on bases, as above, also helps to give a more naturalistic appearance to the finished units. 

Next, place the two bases next to each other on a magnetic surface (in this case a 60mm square steel plate), and cover each with your basing compound; then add a little extra gunk along the top of the seam  to disguise it. It will then appear something like the above; the magnetic sheets hold the bases in place whilst the gunk dries to the consistency of concrete.

Once the gunk has fully dried, the two bases can be snapped apart, as above, leaving an irregular line along the break.  The figure protruding from the rear base will ensure that the join between the bases, when re-attached, will be a strong one. I then paint the bases of the two half-elements, separately, which is much easier than trying to reach to the middle of the larger base. Once fully painted and flocked, the two pieces can carefully be re-joined together, along the edge, with superglue. 

Here's the (almost) finished base, after re-assembly. One can just make out the line of the crack between the two halves, but it is pretty effectively disguised, being very much harder to spot than a straight line would be, and will vanish entirely once a few more tufts or some static grass has been applied.

In conclusion...  basing is all too often an afterthought, first considered after the minis have just been painted. A good basing scheme really sets an army off, and this is best achieved by planning the look for the entire army at the outset and using consistent methods and materials across all its units, as it is mustered. I always reckon that figures look twice as good as previously, after they have been based, so am always prepared to invest plenty of time to get it right!

I do hope you enjoyed these pieces!  If you have any questions, please email me at the address above, or leave a comment, and I’ll come back to you.  

Basing with the Bat - Part II

This is the second part (of three) of my article that was originally published in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Issue 64, regarding my approach to basing miniatures.   The first part is here.  All pictures are clickable.

Preparation

Before basing, it is really beneficial to paint the bases of the figures to match the eventual colour of the base; this is much quicker and easier than trying to paint around the feet of the figure in the middle of a clump of miniatures mounted on the base.  At this point, put the magnetic bases on your metal baking tray. The magnetic sheet holds the base flat and will prevent it from warping, as the various layers of basing gunk, paint and glue and are applied. 

Before reaching for the glue, do please take all the time you need to arrange the miniatures on the bases in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Ideally, the layout of the miniatures should tell a story, especially in the case of command stands. Think carefully before positioning items so that they protrude over the edge of the base, such as spears; if these stick out too far, it can be very difficult to rank up the bases, and they will take up more storage space.

I strongly recommend fixing miniatures to their bases with wood glue, rather than superglue, as this makes it relatively easy to re-base at a later date. Wood glue also dries relatively slowly and gives me plenty of time to move the miniatures around to find the most attractive arrangement. However, it is best to leave wood glue to dry for 4 hours or so before going on to the next stage, so if you are in a hurry, it’s not for you!

It’s gunking time!

With the miniatures firmly fixed onto the bases, mix up a batch of basing gunk on a disposable surface (plastic lids from cream or yoghurt pots are handy for this). The gunk mixture will consist of approximately 2 parts dry basing gunk, to one part wood glue, and one part water (or more if needed).  Only make up as much as you need, you can always add a bit more, later, if you run out.  Stir it thoroughly with the palette knife, until it is wet, but not so wet that it will slip off the palette knife, and then start to apply to the base. 

I find it easiest to start in the middle of the base and work outwards, towards the edges.  Build the compound up to the level of the top of the bases on the miniatures. Use the small palette knife to get into tight corners.

At this stage, remember it is essential to let the bases dry, slowly, on a magnetic surface.  For this, I use an old steel baking tray. Make sure that the surface and the underside of the base are smooth and clean, because if the contact isn’t good, it will very likely warp. If desperate, you can speed the drying process by putting it on a radiator or under a lamp, but this can make the compound crack.

Painting the bases

It is very desirable to have a standard colour scheme for all your units across different armies, especially when contingents work in different forces (such as my Greek psiloi, who serve across a number of different armies). To maintain consistency across my collection, I only ever use Games Workshop Steel Legion Drab, Windsor and Newton Buff Titanium and a little peaty brown ink, such as Agrax Earthshade, for shading. Your chosen colours will likely be different ones, but do make a note of what paint range you are using, and keep it consistent!

I roughly dry-brush the Steel Legion Drab base coat over the brown of the base, and then add a highlight with the same paint diluted with 50% Buff Titanium, and finally apply a top highlight consisting of around 25% Drab and 75% Titanium.

After this I seal the base with a wash of Testors Dullcote, into which I mix a tiny bit of brown oil paint.  Sometimes I use a matt acrylic medium, with a very small amount of brown ink mixed in (believe me, less is more, with the ink!). This coat helps to tie the colours of the base together, give it depth, protect against damage, and above all make it matt.  Glossy bases don’t look great!

Once the varnish is dry, the next stage is to apply the Silflor tufts. These come ready made and one can quickly stick them into place I use tweezers to pull them from the plastic sheet and to fit them into place with a small dab of wood glue. I personally find that foliage looks best when I use a variety of different shades and types of tuft, including the weeds and flowers. It is well worth spending some time on this stage; I like to have at least 8 different types of “vegetation” on each base, and have been known to spend a whole evening doing the tufting for a couple of units. I sometimes also apply static grass to the bases, again using wood glue and my trusty Noch puffer bottle. This is also a good time to add twigs, small trees or battlefield debris to the bases.

A worthwhile final stage is to lightly dry-brush the tufts, first with Yellow Ochre and then (optionally) with a thin topcoat of Buff Titanium. This latter gives the bases a dusty appearance that particularly suits an army fighting in a drier climate, and all my Romans and Greeks get this treatment.  

For southern Mediterranean bases, I use more Buff Titanium, drier-looking tufts and leave more of the base exposed.

Since I wrote this, I've introduced one final step; I now paint matt varnish over the tufts and static grass, and any shiny patches of glue on the base.  This is a surprisingly worthwhile additional step; it makes the grass look much more realistic!  Part III, advanced basing, follows tomorrow.

Basing with the Bat - Part I

This is an article that was originally published in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Issue 64, which explains my approach to basing miniatures, and which I've reprinted here with their kind approval. It is an extended version of a very old post on this blog.

When I started gaming back in the early ‘70s, wargaming was generally conducted with un-based miniatures, and the few bases one came across were rudely cut from a cornflake packet, and painted with lime-green gloss enamel. In these more complicated times, bases are precision cut from a wide range of different materials, often magnetic for storage reasons, and are textured and covered in more foliage than you’d see at the Chelsea Flower Show!

So why do we base, today?  I believe that the principle reason is that, as armies have got larger, bases (and recently bigger Impetus bases) have been required in order to deploy our regiments quickly from storage and onto the table. Other reasons include the usefulness of basing in supporting rules systems, so that strangers can game equally against each other, the need to protect miniatures both in handling and in transport/storage and, finally, the fact that good basing makes great miniatures look twice as nice!

In comparison with most gamers, I’m unusually fussy about my bases. They must all be exactly the right size, standard colour and finish, flocked and highlighted, matt varnished, magnetic and without any hint of warping. Nothing else is acceptable! In this article I’ll describe the tools, materials and techniques that I use with my system.

Some of the tools and materials you’ll need for great basing:-

• Prepared bases, with magnetic strip underneath
• A palette knife
• A small Palette knife or old brush
• A steel baking tray
• A good wood glue
• A tub of pre-mixed dry basing “gunk” (a mix of plaster, sand, grit and possibly pigment)
• A small tub of Static grass and a puffer bottle
• Lots of tufts of different sizes and colours, including weeds and flowers
• A pair of tweezers; these will get glue on them, so best not use the wife’s!
• A pot of medium earth-shade acrylic paint, such as Games Workshop Steel Legion drab
• A pot of Buff Titanium acrylic paint
• A bottle of Testors Dullcote and a tube of Raw Umber oil paint, or alternatively a matt acrylic varnish, such as Windsor and Newton Galeria
• A peaty-coloured ink, such as Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade or Windsor and Newton Peat

I make my own bases from card and magnetic sheet, in big batches. They are magnetic underneath, and sealed with spray paint on the top and sides, which helps to avoid my deadly foe, warping. I also often use laser cut ply and MDF bases, especially the circular ones, and sometimes the excellent Renedra plastic bases.

It is particularly important to invest in a decent palette knife, with a springy tip that comes to a fairly fine point, than can get right between the feet of the miniature. Do please clean it carefully after use, and don’t leave it in water, or it will rust! Ideally you’ll also have a smaller palette knife or old paintbrush to work the basing gunk into difficult-to-reach corners. A spare, clean brush comes in handy in case you need to wipe away any gunk that gets onto a miniature, rather than onto the base.

I keep a large pre-mixed tub of what I call “BigRedBatGunk”, which is a mix of plaster and sand/small grit/railway ballast, with added pigment, of my own devising. This provides an instant base coat which saves a good deal of time later on, at the painting stage.  

I also own a tub of static grass, a trusty Noch puffer bottle applicator, and a dozen or so different sizes and colours of Silflor-like tufts and also the weeds and flowers which I find add a lot of interest to the bases.

To be continued...

A little Impetus army

A WIP shot of some used minis I'm restoring to form an Impetus army, that will hopefully appear in a future Wargames, Soldeirs and Strategy.

In the front, on the traditional Jenga painting blocks, are some pieces of Roman battlefield debris from 1stCorps, which has bags of character and which I'd heartily recommend for collectors of smaller 28mm minis, such as Foundry, Gripping Beast and Warlord.  A nice company, 1stCorps.

Note to self: basing colour was a mix of SLD and brown umber as the base coat, with a wash of dark brown ink in Klear wash, then SLD as the highlight.