Painting 1/72 prints.

I missed painting 1/72 scaleso ordered some printed US troops, but I made a mistake and ordered marines instead. In the end I painted them as standard army troops.

They are Join or Die 28mm sculpts downscaled to 1/72.

Here is a comparative shot with some Italeri soft plastic 1/72 US troops. As you can see, the marines are slight smaller and thicker, and they also have bigger rifles and heads but they look better on the table because of this.

You can appreciate two different ways of painting, one with diluted painting (faster) and another with strong wash and lights. Which one do you think is better?

And here a German grenadier section that I needed to complet a squad. I tried SS greenleaf camo on the two rifles on the right, and panzer grenadier camo on the MG team and officer, but It did't turn out very accurate.

Trolls in 1/72

I also had two old school Trolls printed as I did with the Ogres and I am very happy with them. I think I will try to print some more downscaled models for my skirmishes in the future.

A comparative shot with two 1/72 soft plastic miniatures. An Orc from Dark Alliance and a Dwarf from Caesar miniatures.

Ogres in 1/72

I had the two first Ogres Jes Goodwin did long ago printed. I think they are the best Ogres around ever and now I have them in 1/72 for my skirmish games.

They are smaller than the original ones and less sharp as well, but I am very happy with how they have turned out. I must say they look better in the flesh.

 

I tried to paint them as when they were released except for the Hrothyogg's scabbard (see below). My Skrag's axe is also green but it cannot be appreciated in my pictures.

 

 

Image from Stuff of legends

 

And here there is a comparison of them next to a 1/72 Caesar's adventurer and a Dark Alliance Ranger.

20 mm Witch Hunter

I have this Witch Hunter printed for my 1/72 skirmishes.  I am going to use it for Rangers of the Shallow Deep as it is quite similar to the one in the cover of the rulebook. I also have a Witch Hunter's mastiff printed to walk with my hero on his adventures.

 I will also have printed all creatures I'll need for RotSD that I won't be able get on soft plastic 1/72 miniature ranges.

I love this model since it is got released long ago as it is such a classic one.

Here you have a comparative shot with one Ranger from Dark Alliance and you can see how out of proportion is the Witch Hunter, especially in head and hands, but this is something you can only notice when you put a proportionated 1/72 figure next to it.

 

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African huts

I made three huts for my 1/72 skirmshes in Africa. I used three small can of Pringles, a brown paper folder that I "borrowed" from my job, some palm tree branches from the garden where I work and some toilet paper to give texture to the walls of the huts.

I made the roofs and doors with the folder and start glueing little branches from the palm tree.

Then I realised I should have painted the roofs first :(

This is how they turned out. I could have painted some white symbols on the walls and maybe add green, red or blue on the doors as well, but I went for the easiest and fastest way and I think they are OK. After all they are just huts.

 

Prepping 1/72 soft plastic figures for painting

From time to time there is always somebody who asks what is the best method to prepare soft plastic figures to prevent chipping. I remember my first times painting these bendy figures without any information, and how frustrating it was to see how the paint flakes off the miniatures after a while, so I decided to publish the way it works for me after much experimenting. I hope someone may find it helpful.

First of all, rinse with dish soap and warm water and the help of an old toothbrush.

Once dry, use a primer with a brush. I am using Vallejo acrylic-polyutrethane Surface Primer for aerograph, but with just a brush and the same results. Many spray primers have chemicals that do not go well with soft plastics. This method of priming with a brush was recommended by Reaper miniatures to use on his Bones soft plastic range and it really works.

Optionally, you can reinforce bendy parts like a spear with PVA or white glue.

It is a good idea to give several coats of diluted acrilyc paints to the figures. Acrylic is more flexible than oil paints, and several diluted coats are more elastic and resistant than one thick coat of paint. Speaking of which, new contrast or Xpress paints work really well with soft plastic as they are thin and very flexible. I'm attaching a video I made for you to see how flexible are the new paints (the spears were painted with Vallejo Xpress). Also, at the back you can see the primer I'm using. It is sold in white, grey and black colour.

 

I'm giving two coats of varnish to all my miniatures, be soft or hard plastic or even metal. Glossy is harder than matte, so I give first a gloss coat and then a second matte coat at the next day as I don't like my miniatures to be bright.

Done.

Brainnnns

These zombies are from the Caesar's Undead Camp Zombies box, one of each pose except one crawling. The woman with the sword carried two swords but I thought it needed too much co-ordination for a zombie so I cut out one of them. Actually, I cut off the other hand's sword with another model and then I got two different zombies.

They are painted with basic paint coat and wash, and they are going to be the last 1/72 minis I paint for a while as I'm getting again into 28mm. I'm ordering several boxes from Perry's to play Death in the Dark Continent and Bolt Action.

The figures are a bit crude and rather soft and bendy but they will do for zombies.

UN troops

I've painted some UN troops to game in Africa with the same box of figures I used for my mercs, the Esci NATO troops.

They are painted like previous ones with just block paint and wash, but I think this time they are a little less dirty and with some extra lights that I did by wiping excess of wash with a clean wet brush. I think their uniforms are good, and although the blue on helmets and berets should be lighter, I'm happy how they turned out in the end.

Happy New Year fellow wargamers!

Taking advantage of Xmas holidays I've hastily painted one pose of each Ranger from this Dark Alliance box. I've painted them as latest ones, just block paint and wash except the wolf fur on the captain. The white parts you can see is from paint off by me grazing the miniatures with my fingers.

Happy New Year!

More Mercs

Here it is the final batch of mercs. I painted these ones exclusively giving them a base colour coat and then a wash with no lights at all except for the soil of the base and the metallic shine in the guns.

They would be better with some lights on berets and helmets as well as on flesh, but I wanted them just after the wash and varnish to compare them with highlighted ones.

I think they turned out quite good but I fell I can still improve results as I was trying right proportions in the mixture. Rougly, I used 3/5 parts of Mercadona floor wax and 2/5 of acrylic Betumen of Judea. I also used lighter colours on the figures to prevent too much darkening from the wash. 

I used to wash directly with Mercadona wax and ink, but the mixture got to watery and run so fast on the figure that some details weren't properly covered by the wash. However, now the Betumen of Judea is so thick that allows the wash to work similarly to the oil versions, and it gets a better coverage and result.

I am still struggling with the right proportion and you can see below the difference in the top left and right figures with the two ones in the middle who are lighter or cleaner.

This picture is to show you the difference between wash and no lights at all (left) and wash and lights (right). The details in the figure are so thin and small that I cannot highlight them properly so they get better without lights IMHO, and get done in half the time! Plus the miniature gets a hard protective cover from the wax, so it is a win win situation.

If you observe the webbing in both figures below, you will understand what I am saying.

Here is another example.

This technique is fast and it gets good results, but I suspect it works better for WWII than for Fantasy or Sci-Fi if you want brighter colours.

First Mercs

These four are the first mercs I paint and they are supposed to be the first to start a campaign in Africa as well. My idea is to start playing like in the computer game Jagged Alliance 3. That is, with low status and basic weapons and equipment. They are armed with a pistol, a SMG, a shotgun and a rifle.

Also, this time I only gave them basic colour and brown wash, and only highlighted skin and hats, so I could paint them very quick and almost with same results as full highlighting. I am pleased how they turned out overall and I think I am going to explore a little more this way of painting.

African wars

I wanted to start a project in 1/72 with African wars, using Insurgency Wars, AK-47 or FUBAR rules, but I couldn't find any 1/72 soft plastic miniatures to represent them. Then I saw somebody who used the Esci's North Vietnamese soldiers and Vietcong and some Esci's US Elite Forces as African regular troopers and I stole his great idea.

I also bought Esci's NATO troops that I'll use for, well NATO troops, but also to make some soldiers of fortune with them. Finally, I ordered 20 militia 20mm metal figures from S&S model, together with some civilians and a technical.

I want to have a group of regular militar African soldiers, a group of militia, a group of NATO troops and one last group of mercenaries.

Here is the first group, the African soldiers. They were painted in a bit of a rush and also the pictures are not very good as the day is cloudy and the light poor.

The whole lot, 22 figures. Maybe I'll paint some more later.

Close ups. The first RPG on the left has his head swapped, and the next his Asian hat removed with a knife and hair sculpted with same knife.

The first guy on the left has got the same hair cut, and the one in the middle his head swapped.

 

Evil Champion and Sorcerer

These two figures are 20mm metal ones from Elhiem miniatures. A generous friend from the hobby gave them to me already painted, but I repainted them at my own taste.

They are good to have more characters in any game, but their detail is not as good as some 1/72 soft plastic ones.

 

 

More ratties.

I painted a second set of "Skavens" but this time with the dipping technique. As you can see below, there is not much difference in result when compared to the ones I have painted before, but there is a huge difference in time:

The model on the left has been primed in white and then painted with basic colours and finally dipped in varnish stained, whereas the one on the left has been primed in black and then retouched it with a brush to cover those holes where the spray doesn't reach. After that, it's been drybrushed it in pale grey and then in white, and finally painted with contrast paints. I'd say that each figure on the right took me six more times to finish it than the one on the left!

I also have to say that I made some mistakes painting the latest set and that next time they will turn out better.

In a nutshell, varnish stain dipped figures are faster and cheaper to paint and a much harder finish, but none of this methods convince me. I'm sure it would be different if I used Mixwax but it is impossible to get it in Spain, sigh!