More Paras....

Well, I do have four platoons of 3 sections to do by OML8, so I figure if I can get half a dozen done every couple of days, that'll stand me in good stead.

So, yesterday, I did another half dozen :D these are actually from the now-deleted Flames of War Easy Company pack, so they're mostly not in full drop kit, but they're very characterful sculpts (and I still haven't sorted my macro lens, or the lighting on my workbench).

Currently trying to figure out what the big bag of FoW metals I bought off 'American Dale' at our club a few years ago - I think they're FoW metal US Paras, but I'm not sure and I can't find a record. 

Hybrid painting US Paras...

Being relatively happy with the stuff I did the other day, and feeling in the mood to paint again, I boosted my lone paratrooper in M1942 (i.e. D-Day) uniform to a full section. Also, Per found an interesting link to someone who'd really gone the whole hog on painting WW2 with contrast paints, which has a few interesting insights but... hrm. Some of the end results are a bit off.

In summary, then, after some more experimentation - this is basically a hybrid Contrast/ordinary paint scheme, a bit tweaked from last time:

• undercoat:
• Halfords Ultra Matt Khaki Camouflage paint (note to self, need more)
• paint the Contrast paints first, because it's much easier to overpaint Contrast paints with normal acrylics if you mess up, than the other way round:
• Jump boots - Gore Grunta Fur
• M1942 kit - Aggaros Dunes
• Gloves - Nazdreg Yellow
• Now on to the normal Vallejo AP colours:
• Webbing, pouches, pack etc - Vallejo Khaki + AP Military Shader [EDIT: or Vallejo Green Grey + AP Soft Tone]
• Helmet, grenades, elbow and knee patches - Vallejo Brown Violet/Olive Drab
• Face - AP Tanned Flesh + AP Soft Tone
• Weapons, entrenching tool handles - Vallejo Chocolate Brown + Warlord Dark Gunmetal [EDIT: or CC Snakebite Leather in the previous phase]
• Shoulder patches (I still can't believe I even thought about doing these!) - AP Deep Blue, Pure Red, Matt White, a very fine brush and a magnifier

And there you have it. One was based earlier - PVA, War World Gaming Army Coarse Sand (which is brilliant stuff), then a heavy wash of Vallejo Sepia wash, and some static grass from the three pots of sweepings from Bloody Omaha :D (For drier earth, I'd have drybrushed with something like Vallejo Grey Green before the grass.)

I'm relatively proud of these, given my rubbish eyesight - normally my 15mms are very much a sketch - they pass the 2' test but I really wouldn't recommend looking at the Omaha figures too closely (fortunately, in all the times it's been shown at shows, no-one seems to!). These still aren't exhibition standard, but they're much much better than my usual. Total time for the six figures I remembered to time, about 100 mins. I would get better photos but my macro lens doesn't want to talk to my newer Canon, and the older one's battery's flat :D

Lazy US Paras in M1942 uniform

As I have noted in the past, US M1942 uniform is a sod to paint, because no-one makes the colour out-of-the-bottle, no two painters agree on how to mix it, and I'm not entirely sure everyone agrees on what colour it actually is!

With a view to a project for next year, I've had a couple more ideas... Several tests, with both Halfords ultra matt Khaki camouflage primer and Citadel's Wraith Bone, and then trying various things....

Citadel's Wraith Bone undercoat:

• AP Monster Brown (fail even when mixed with AP Strong Tone)
• Citadel Contrast Aggaros Dunes (too sandy, but...)

Halfords ultra matt Khaki undercoat:

• AP Strong Tone/Military Shader in a 50/50 mix (not brown enough)
• CC Aggaros Dunes - ahah! (thanks to Rob Avery!)

Ok. We might have something here. It's not 100% perfect, but it's really preeeeetty close.

Onwards with that then:

• Webbing, pouches, pack etc - Vallejo Grey-Green + Strong Tone
• Helmet, grenade, elbow and knee patches - Vallejo Brown Violet (now renamed Olive Drab) + Strong Tone
• Jump Boots - Vallejo Red Leather + Strong Tone, although CC Gore Grunta Fur is probably better (will try that next time!)
• Gloves - CC Nazdreg Yellow
• Face - CC Guilliman Flesh is too dark on the Halfords primer, so I over brushed with AP Barbarian Flesh and a bit of Strong Tone
• Rifle - AP Werewolf Fur + Warlord Dark Gunmetal
• Shoulder Patches - AP Deep Blue, Pure Red, Matt White and a lot of prayer

Here we are. I should point out that this is a 15mm Battlefront plastic figure from the Open Fire box (not a 28!), and it took me all my lunch break with the aid of a daylight lamp and magnifier :D I shall have a crack on a metal sculpt sometime if I can find one. I may also see if I can get a better photo with my DSLR...

Ok, that's not what I expected to run out of...

Finished painting the SdKhz 251. Decided I probably need a paint shaker, since the newer AP colours and some of the Vallejo's seem very prone to separate. As a side effect of this, the Vallejo camo brown dried surprisingly glossy, so after a ink wash (in itself semi-gloss) I figured it could stand a coat of AP Anti-shine....

Picks up first can. Very empty sounding rattle.

Picks up second can. Even more empty sounding rattle.

Hrm.

Let history record there was just enough to do the half-track, with several vigorous re-shakes.

I wonder if Reuben still has any in left-over stock?

(And yes, I do know I was out of Balkankreuz decals, but that's another issue :D)

Warbases' stag

The stag I used in the Dux Brit scenario on Monday was from Warbases - actually the second, picked up at Hammerhead to replace the first that lost an antler when our postman shoved it through the letterbox - as ever, thanks to Martin and Diane for excellent customer support.

Nice easy paint job: I decided to go for a slightly dappled grey/white, rather than full on mythic snow-white/albino. Black Army Painter spray undercoat, followed by a second coat, this time of Uniform Grey, sprayed relatively lightly from about a foot away, and then a third of white from even further away.

Army Painter soft tone wash, allow to dry, fairly heavy dry brush with white. Antlers are Uniform Grey with Skeleton Bone tips.

Base is Tamiya dark earth texture paint, and some Javis grass and Army Painter tufts. 

Painting M1942 US Para uniform 2

As you may recall, I picked up some Halfords 'Camouflage Khaki' spray as a match for US M1942 uniform colour. Finally got to test it this afternoon...

Well. It covers well, and doesn't run or clump - leaves detail clearly visible on these Battlefront 15mm 'Easy Company' figures.

The colour in the photo is a bit washed out from what it actually looks like, as I'm holding that fairly close to a small fluorescent strip. However, it is quite a bit paler than I'd like.

For my next trick, therefore, a very generous wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink (much earlier in the painting process than I usually would). If I was actually wanting to preserve the colour of the paint, I'd be using Soft Tone, given how pale it is. But I'm not - I actively want to darken the colour - so...

I'm actually quite surprised how well that worked!

New Army Painter colours

I wouldn't normally bother registering the fact that Army Painter have added a couple more colours, but I couldn't fail to be amused when I noticed that the two latest additions to their Warpaints range are...

Chaotic Red and Hydra Turquoise.

Or, to put it another way, murrey and blue. If you were paying attention in the Heraldry series of posts, you'd know why I'm amused. If not? They're very popular Wars of the Roses livery colours, and I have four boxes of Perry's to paint sometime after June :D

Usefully, they also do the red as a primer.

Painting videos from WSS

I seem to have missed these when they first came out, but they are extremely inspirational and useful, even if, like me, you can't paint for toffee.

Christy Beall from WSS Magazine has been doing a series of painting tutorials using the Foundry three-colour system, as beloved by folks who are good enough not to need Army Painter :D There are some really nice ones in there - I've just watched the War of the Roses archer one, and (were they not about fourth in the queue behind stuff with Real Deadlines) I'd be painting some of my stash this evening!

The YouTube channel link is here, and just for your entertainment, here's the WotR one:

More Home Guard WIP

Painting a bit later than expected tonight due to a long power cut!

Here we have another batch of the lovely Foundry Home Guard, including Private 'We're all doomed, sir" Frazer and a Lewis gunner. In addition we have what we can only assume are three old Royal Artillery types (ex-colleagues of Sgt Wilson?), veterans of the First World War, with their Leach trench catapult (all made by Great War Miniatures). Usual routine - PSC English Khaki spray, Vallejo and Army Painter acrylics, AP Strong Tone ink, basing is PVA and a 50/50 mix of Javis Moorland Scatter and Woodland Scenics coarse grass flock.

WIP - Home Guard

Finally (after a week of being too knackered after work to concentrate on painting), I got to lay brush to primed metal this evening and make a start on my Foundry Home Guard.

These aren't done - they need some touch-up, Strong Tone ink wash, a little highlighting on the faces and basing - but they're getting there. I must say, the Foundry sculpts are gorgeous if a little flashy.

Still not sure how I'm going to paint Capt. Mainwaring and Corporal Jones' glasses.

Painting - a correspondent asks...

RogerBW (who also gets full marks for commenting using OpenID) asks:

any recommendations for "painting for absolute beginners" guides that refer to brands of stuff available in the UK? Or indeed a quick checklist from you? I haven't painted a mini for at least ten years...

I think anyone who's read this blog for any length of time can predict my answer to this, although looking back, I haven't actually summarised my approach in a single post, more captured it in a few 'here's how I painted this' piece. Anyway - here goes:

If I was starting afresh, which I pretty much did when I ditched my reliance on Citadel paints, I'd pick up the Army Painter starter set, a can of black primer and a can of Anti-Shine varnish. You should be able to get these from most reputable UK wargames vendors, and there's a list in the links section top right. If you need any other colours, AP do a wide range, and the Vallejo range is compatible, even more comprehensive (US Army M1943 uniform shirt colour? no problem, sir!) and readily available.

The advantage of the current AP starter set is it contains (as well as the paints) a bottle of their Strong Tone ink, which I now prefer to using their dip as I can be a bit more precise with it. It also, I believe, comes with their how-to guide, which can be downloaded from their site anyway.

From here on, it's simple enough even a klutz like me can do it. Undercoat, leave to dry. Paint the model in block colours, nice and bright, allow to dry. (The ink will darken things, which is why you start off with good, bright colours.) Don't do anything clever with highlights yet.

You can stop here, and you're at the point I got to painting figures for D&D in the '80s.

Now for the good bit. Wash with the Strong Tone ink - let it run into all the shadows, try and work it away from the highlights and carefully coax it out of the places where it's determined to puddle. Once you're happy, leave to dry.

[You can use their dip if you prefer instead of the ink: while it's messier, it does have a slight advantage that it shrinks a little into the shadow detail when drying. Of the two processes AP recommend, I go with slopping it on with a brush rather than the all-out dip method. On the downside, it's messy, your first reaction will be 'oh my God, I've ruined it' and it isn't water based, so brushes take a bit of cleaning.]

You can stop here, and you'll have something that (once you've applied the Anti-Shine) actually looks pretty decent from 2' away. If you want to tart it up a bit further, you can lightly drybrush highlights with the original colour over the ink, before you varnish. This is particularly useful for faces, as the ink does tend to darken those quite a bit. Andy Hawes uses this approach, but he actually uses dip, not ink - even so, the results are stunning.

And there you have it - add basing materials, varnish, and you have figures to wargames standard in really not very long.

There are a couple of tweaks:

• if you're lazy, like me, pick a primer colour other than black, as that'll save you some of the block work. If you're really clever, you can spray stuff on the sprue (see my Fireforge Sergeants): it doesn't matter if you miss odd bits, as the Army Painter range includes exact matches for each spray for touchup. 
• get the Soft and Dark inks as well - the Soft works better on whites/yellows/light shades, and the Dark better on really dark shades, and you can wash different parts of the model in different inks - again, see my Sergeants. This is something you really can't do with the dip.

As an aside - I get nothing from Army Painter for this. Just a very happy ordinary wargamer who isn't the best painter in the world, but gets to churn out things I'm mostly not embarrassed to put on a table, with the aid of their excellent stuff.

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[News flash, for those doing this with WW2 - Plastic Solider Company have just announced a set of Army-Painter-like spray paints for WW2 stuff - I SHALL be buying loads.]

Army Painter - Fireforge Mounted Sergeants

So as my last entry for Curt's contest on Tuesday, I thought I'd see just how good a job i could do going all out on the Army Painter way. You may have already seen this on Curt's blog - if not, enjoy!

Takeways from this:

• the fact that AP now do paints that are 100% matches for their sprays makes the 'spray on the sprue' trick a major win
• being able to use two different shades of ink (rather than dip) made this look much better
• I still can't paint for toffee, but Army Painter lets me bluff well :D

4:30pm: start assembling the horses from a box of Fireforge mounted Sergeants (I already used three as command in my El Cid army, so there were 9 left)
5.05pm: Horse done. Blutak to painting stick, spray undercoat in AP Matt Black, leave to dry.
5.10pm: assemble first four riders
5.30 pm: pause to consider cloaks, realise I've put the heads on too soon. Swear, remove heads before glue sets. Stop assembling riders. Remove rest of bits of riders *except* cloaks from sprue. Spray cloaks AP Dragon Red *on the sprue*.
5.40 pm: Dad's Taxi Service to take son to tennis
6.10 pm: return from dropping James at tennis, assemble rest of riders sans heads
6.30 pm: blutac to painting stick, spray undercoat AP Daemonic Yellow - two coats about 2 mins apart.
6.40 pm: find spare kite shields without arms from left over Conquest Games Normans, satisfy myself I have nine between these and the non-heater shields in the Fireforge box. Spray backs AP Leather Brown, leave to dry while finding wife's pin box, spray fronts of shield AP Daemonic Yellow, again on the sprue.
6.50 pm: Paint shield designs with AP Dragon Red
7.05 pm: try sticking pins in heads. Discover they won't go in. Heat pin on gas ring, NOW they do. Arrange line of heads on pins on painting stick. Feel like a very angry Sheriff of Nottingham making an example of some miscreants. Wish I'd photographed it.
7.15 pm: Discover I'm out of AP Plate Mail spray. Swear. Spray heads with AP Human Flesh instead (and the can ONLY just lasts).
7.20 pm: brief moment of panic as I can't find glasses to drive to fetch James. Find them upstairs by dressmaking box. Pass wife (on way back from work) on garden path on way out to be Dad's Taxi again, whistle innocently (what me? steal pins?)
7.50pm: Return with son. Greet wife properly. Hide evidence. Supper.
8.20pm: Start painting horses. Three black, four bays of various shades (mixes of AP Oak Brown and GW Dark Flesh), one chestnut (GW Dark Flesh/AP Monster Brown mix, Vallejo Khaki mane and tail), one grey (AP Ash Grey using an AP stippling brush). A couple get white markings with AP Matt White and a touch of Vallejo Khaki on white-socked hooves)
8.50 pm: Start on horse blankets (AP Dragon Red, saddles/tack (Vallejo Red Leather - I pick this because I *never* use it as a horse colour, so my tack always stands out).
9.10 pm: brief pause to say goodnight to son.
9.30 pm: finish horse tack. Glue riders in saddles, start painting mail, axe head, swords, spearpoints on riders, mail coifs/helmets (AP Plate Mail). Re-glue the riders that don't stick first time.
9:55pm: start on spear hafts, axe handle, standard (Vallejo US Field Drab)
10.15pm: Start assembling cloaks/heads/shields. Retouch cloaks where needed with AP Dragon Red
10.30pm: Start basing: Tamiya Desert Sand textured paint and straight into a tub of Javis Desert Sand mix, knock excess off on sides of tub.
10.45pm: realise I forgot to do stirrup leathers and sword scabbards: Out with the Vallejo Red Leather again, being careful how I handle the bases!
10.55pm: Deep breath. Ink washes. AP Strong Tone first, on the mail, claks, standards and shields (just to back off the brightness of the yellow a bit). Then AP Soft Tone on the yellow surcoat.
11.15pm: mix 50/50 AP Matt White/AP Barbarian Flesh, try and retouch highlights on faces a bit.
11:20pm: AP Dark Tone ink wash on horses (except for the grey which gets AP Strong Tone.
11:27pm: poke head outside back door, realise it's close to zero outside. Decide varnishing is probably a bad idea :D
11:30pm: photograph, upload, start typing ... :D

So, that's nine figures to passable wargaming standard in 5 1/2 hours (ignoring two trips to the tennis club and a break for food). Setting aside the time for assembling (about 90 mins) that's four hours of painting, actually made easier by the fact they were plastic figures.