At Havoc I picked up a package of Renedra tents in 15mm from the Hobby Bunker stall. They’re perfect for my Seaward March, one day American Civil War, campaign that I am running on the 31st. Cort owns a lot of 15mm ACW figures and terrain. But, it’d be nice to have some tents in the event that they’re needed.
Below are pictures of the tents as they got painted.
Host Jonathan J. Reinhart releases the inaugural Wargaming Recon episode.
Dispatches from HQ (or should I say Despatches from HQ) kicks off the show. Henry Hyde’s forthcoming book The Wargaming Compendium (searching Barnes & Nobles website will know show the book, please use the link I provide) is discussed. Pre-order troubles with both Amazon and Barnes & Noble are highlighted.
Basing materials, spackle and wood filler, are reviewed and discussed. Examples of their use with Flames of War infantry bases are given. The Art of War book by Battlefront is cited as a good reference source. Modelling discussions continue with a review of Army Painter Quick Shade. Jonathan used a Perry Miniatures American War of Independence mounted infantry officer as a test for this product. Please see Army Painter Quick Shade and Army Painter Quick Shade 2 – Infantry for pictures and a detailed review.
The Total Con Contest is announced. Winners can receive FREE passes to TotalCon 26. One winner will get 1 FREE weekend pass. Three lucky winners will each get 1 FREE day pass.
The Mail Bag opened to reveal e-mails from Harry Peless who listens to the show while raking leaves. Finally, Black Powder is again mentioned. Jonathan, Cort N., and Adrian B. will be running Daybreak at Hangman’s Creek, a 15mm ACW scenario, at Total Con. More play-testing will be held on November 5th at 2pm, at Battleground Games & Hobbies in Abington. Please see our Facebook event for further information.
As always we conclude with a message from our sponsor, 12-7-Games.com, contest sponsor Battlegames Magazine, our Creative Commons license and contact information (find us on Facebook and Twitter).
We hope you enjoy this episode of Wargaming Recon and are eager for your feedback (both positive remarks and constructive criticism). Send it all to cwfgamecast at wargamingforums dot com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, or Xbox Live with gamertag cwfgamecast.
Our intro song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. Please give his other music a listen at www.matthewebel.com.
Knowing that practice makes perfect I set to work on another piece to dip in the Army Painter Quick Shade Strong tone that I bought at The Whiz, Rte 9 East in Westborough, recently. I grabbed a Perry Miniatures Mounted Infantry Officer in hunting shirt and painted him. He might be my army general and he will ride the horse I dipped in Army Painter Quick Shade.
He was basecoated as such:
Citadel Khemri Brown – hunting shirt, stirrups
Citadel Knarloc Green – Pants, sash/belt
Citadel Tallarn Flesh – Skin
Citadel Boltgun Metal – Sword
Citadel Dark Flesh – Hair
Citadel Chaos Black – Boots and hat
After everything was covered with the appropriate color the model sat while the paint dried. As soon as it was dry I opened the can of Quick Shade, again with a regular screwdriver, inverted the model and dipped. All of these models are affixed to a piece of cork for easy painting. That gave me something to hang onto while dipping. If you don’t have anything like this then please use pliers as suggested on the can.
Several strong shakes removed most of the excess. A few passes with my Ultrabrush took care of the rest. Below are pictures taken after drybrushing and immediately after dipping. More pictures will be taken tomorrow at 20 hours after dipping.
A trip to The Whiz, Rte 9 East in Westborough, resulted in a special order for Army Painter Quick Shade Strong Tone for $29.99. Chris Walsh, co-owner with wife Lynne, used this to paint an entire 2,000 point Flames of War French army in record time. That is all I needed to hear before wanting to know how to use this wonder product.
A 28mm Perry Miniatures horse is the guinea pig for my Quick Shade test. If all goes according to plan, then my horses and dragoons for my AWI American Militia will be painted the same way.
Chris expressed the importance of using a lighter shade for the base coat than the desired finished color. He explained that the Quick Shade will darken colors. When using the Quick Shade be sure to do so in a well ventilated room. The product has a strong turpentine smell.
I primed the horse with Citadel Chaos Black spray. Once dry I applied a base coat of Vallejo Model Color 135 Beige Brown to the horse and Citadel Dessert Yellow to the saddle and bridle. A touch up of Citadel Chaos Black to the eyes followed. A light application of Citadel Dark Flesh was applied to the tail and mane for added distinction. After this dries we can dip.
All of my models are temporarily glued onto cork bases, with a small dab of superglue but Blu-Tack also works, so I didn’t need pliers or any other tool to hold onto the model while dipping. The can of Quick Shade needs to be opened, as you would a can of house paint, with a regular screwdriver. Gripping the cork I inverted the model into the Quick Shade. After a few moments I removed the model and shook off excess Quick Shade.
The horse has several areas where the Quick Shade might pool and form an inpenetrable, and ugly, mass. Between the tail and rear legs, between each leg, and between the head and the reins are the spots to look at. Chris suggested an Ultrabrush from Microbrush International as a great way to remove the excess from those spots. A pack of ten brushes costs $2.59. I inserted the brush into the necessary aperture and the Quick Shade attached to the brush.
Although the instructions say to give 18-24 hours for drying to complete that may not be necessary. Chris said he only gave 24 hours for drying and was happy with the result. I took pictures of the horse after the base coat, 18 hours of drying and again after 36 hours.
There is strong debate whether you should dip your models or paint on the Quick Shade. Gordon, owner of Adler Hobby, prefers to paint the Quick Shade onto the models. He’s talked about this on his Black Powder New England Yahoo Group. At first I thought I’d want to paint the Quick Shade onto my model but dipping is quick, easy, and accessible. A word of caution before you attempt this. Wear gloves (latex or latex-free if you’re allergic) like they do at the dentist/doctor is strongly recommended. The Quick Shade got on my hands and the only way I could get it off was by scrubbing my hands with a Lysol wipe. Save yourself the trouble and wear gloves. You can get them at just about any local pharmacy, Walmart, Target, etc.
In order to apply paint onto the molten (or plastic) toy soldiers one must use a paint brush. But, what type of brush should you use? This depends on the type of paint being used.
Most of my brushes are purchased from the local craft shop, A.C. Moore in my case, where there’s many to choose. Brushes with small and thin points are a necessity. Comfort grips on the handles eases the burden on the hand. Believe me that makes painting unit after unit almost painless.
Cost is also a factor. Do you buy the high end Kolinsky sable brush or a more affordable economy brush? There’s no right or wrong answer because it is a matter of taste. A trip to The Whiz in Westborough resulted in my purchasing an economy Testors brush for the first time.
No matter what I do my brushes quickly wear out. Most reliable sources will tell you to avoid getting paint in the ferrule (the part where the handle meets the bristles). That will cause the brush to lose its point. Brushes should also be stored with the bristles up.
What brushes do you buy and what do you use them for? Do you have any brush care tips? We’d love to hear them.
As a teenager I had a space and table dedicated to assembling and painting models. Back then I hated that aspect of playing miniatures games like 40k and Warhammer Fantasy. The table eventually went away but the desire for a painting table returned after my wedding. Moving into the new condo I knew that not only did I want a dedicated painting table but that the space existed for it.
My wife was onboard and preliminary thoughts were to put it in the bedroom. That proved impossible once furniture was set up. An even better space became apparent in the living room across from the computer. The previous residents used the spot for a tall breakfast table and I turned it into my painting nook.
The table is an old Ikea computer desk my wife had in her first apartment. Yankee ingenuity kept it from the trash heap. It is a sturdy platform to paint on. Measuring 30 1/2 inches wide, 19 1/2 inches deep, and 29 1/2 inches high it would do the job nicely. An Ottlite with daylight bulb provides the best lighting conditions for painting. A taller lamp, from Walmart, provides a gentle background glow.
The Whiz, on Rte 9 East in Westborough, is moving two miles closer to Rte 495. To lessen their move burden they are discounting everything in store from 15-50%. My friend Murf and I went to the store to see what we could buy. I purchased a lot of Dystopian Wars products including the Prussian Empire Battle Group.
Wasting no time I began to paint one Reiver Class Cruiser and one Arminius Class Frigate. Since it was late at night and with the recent craziness it wasn’t possible for me to spray prime the models (it won’t be possible for a few weeks). This resulted in an aggravating problem.
Applying Chaos Black onto the resin models, by hand, saw the models drinking the paint like a dehydrated man coming out of the Sahara. I simply could not believe my eyes. After awhile, their thirst quenched, the paint went on more or less normally. Perhaps spray priming will solve the problem. But, maybe someone has a suggestion?
At last it was time for my reward. I painted another group of six militia (article coming soon) finishing off my first militia regiment (excluding command). Now my 6pdr cannon would be given to its crew. The four crew members are Perry Miniatures AW101 Continental Artillery firing 6 pounder as is the 6pdr from the Artillery Barrage at the Ready article.
The artillerymen are the first non-militia models I painted for my army. Painting Continental soldiers require a different tact than the militia. For starters they have a uniform. Using Tarleton’s Quarter as inspiration I devised a plan. Cohesiveness is very important to make the army look like it belongs together. Joining the disparate militia and regular soldiers in a unified appearance was made easy with a standard color palette. Blue, Brown, and Green are the primary three colors that appear on all of the figures. Some models have blue coats and green pants. Others have Brown coats and blue pants. But all of them have blue, brown, and green on each model.
The Continental soldiers would have a modified uniform. Their coats, shirts, etc would be blue. The trousers are brown and accessories will be green unless another color is more accurate. For example, obviously wooden accessories will be painted in brown instead of green. My standard base coat, ink wash, and drybrush hi light method was also used. All paints are GW.
Brown
Khemri Brown-Gryphonne Sepia-Graveyard Earth
-Used on Pants
Calthan Brown-Gryphonne Sepia-Dessert Yellow
-Used on wooden pole to swab the gun
Blue
Mordian Blue-Asurmen Blue-Ice Blue
-Used on Coat/Shirt
Green
Knarloc Green-Thraka Green-Goblin Green
-Used on all accessories
Flesh
Tallarn Flesh-Ogryn Flesh-Elf FLesh
-Hands and faces
White
Skull White-Badab Black-Skull White
-Used on chest straps
Grey
Codex Grey
-Drybrushed onto hats and boots to provide shading.
The models were finally protected with a coat of gloss varnish followed by Testor’s Dullcote. You can see pictures below of the pre-varnished models followed by the completed battery. My apologies for the poor quality.
For a change of pace I painted my Panzergrenadier Platoon for Flames of War. I’ve had Flames of War models since the game first came out back in 2002. But, I’m now finally finishing my first army. Other projects caused this to be pushed back. A gaming buddy, John, is helping me out by assembling the remaining few items I own, which I will then paint.
I am playing with a Panzerkompanie intended for Mid-War. Back in the day the list was out of the Ostfront book. Now, it is from the Eastern Front book and is a Mittlere Panzerkompanie. Comprised mainly of tanks, which I assembled and painted from 2002-2009, the remaining units are a Panzergrenadier Platoon in trucks (no points for halftracks), a Scout Platoon using BMW bikes, and a Famo recovery vehicle. John cleaned up and glued all of my infantry onto their bases. This past Tuesday he gave them to me and I gave him half of the BMW bikes and the Famo.
Having never painted 15mm infantry posed a challenge. That was further complicated with the change of time period from 18th to 20th century. Exactly how would I paint the Wermacht troops? The Flames of War website shows the helpful Evan’s German Army Painting Guide Infantry 1939-43. That provided a lot of inspiration for what I do and do not want to do. Maybe it is unfair to say but I don’t care as much how my FoW models look. Whereas I greatly care how my American Revolution models look.
A few rules were set.
Everything else was up for grabs. I completed, excluding matte varnishing and basing, the 12 bases of Panzergrenadiers in a single evening. At most I spent 3 hours painting them.
Everything was primed with the German Armor Mid/Late spray. Almost all of the paints used were Vallejo (the German Infantry Paint set was used) with inks coming from Games Workshop. They were then basecoated with German Fieldgrey (830). Once dry I used Badab Black as a wash. This creates a nice shadow effect as it gets into the dark recesses. Using Green Grey (886) I drybrushed the entire model. This covered 80% of each model.
I like to work my way from the largest area and the darkest color to the lightest color. This way any mistakes I make are easier to fix. Every gun and metallic device, like explosives, were next on my agenda. Boltgun Metal followed by Badab Black got the job done. I could have also used Chainmail for a highlight color but doing so would have made me crazy.
That last thing I wanted to paint was skin. Faces and hands, to be exact, needed distinction. Tallarn Flesh, thank you GW foundation paints, served as the basecoat. An ink of Ogryn Flesh made the skin more realistic. Finally, a quick drybrush of Elf Flesh finished the job.
Everything was sealed with GW’s ‘Ardcoat and will be sealed with Testor’s Dullcote. I could have done a lot more with these models. But, as I mentioned earlier, I want to get them done and on the table. The goal is for me to play casually, learn the rules, and have fun. Flames of War will be my secondary historical game, Black Powder being the first. All that remains is to base the models. I’m thinking of using sand, painting it green, and adding some tufts of static grass or lichen and twigs.
Pictures of the post gloss varnished/pre matte varnished models are below. What do you think? Don’t forget to check out my First Flames of War Game (yes, those are my panzers) and also Spotlight on Flames of War Fuel Dump Objective Marker.
The 6pdr’s lure was too much for me. The intention was for me to finish the first Militia unit chronicled in numerous Painting articles. I would paint the remaining militia for the first unit, including the unit leader with his accompanying musician and standard bearer, and then reward myself by painting the artillery battery. That plan didn’t last very long.
The problem resulted from laying out the militia and the artillery battery side by side. Everything was primed with Chaos Black and then I picked up the cannon. Examining each detail was as transforming as holding the One Ring. I knew that the evening would not end without my painting the cannon. Still, I had a plan to follow so I struck a compromise. I would paint the cannon but not its crew. That seemed fair.
Looking back at the comments on Painting AWI American Militia Update provided a partial paint scheme. Cort N and Henry Hyde suggested a historically accurate look produced by using Shining Gold as a basecoat, Devlan Mud as a wash, and Burnished Gold as a highlight. That covered the barrel but didn’t do anything for the carriage.
Luckily, I found two great examples from Giles Allison (see his blog Tarleton’s Quarter and in particular American artillery (6)) and Tilman’s Conquering the Lead Mountain (in particular Royal Artillery 6pdr (2nd ed)). Giles should be familiar because his models have been depicted in Warlord Games’ Black Powder rulebook.
Both Giles and Tilman adopt a historically accurate paint scheme. Instead of travelling that road I decided to go my own way but keep it historically plausible. A very important thing to note is that the entire cannon was painted before assembly. There are too many parts of the model that will be obscured and difficult to paint after assembly. Do yourself a favor and paint this before you put it together.
The carriage, wheels and all, would be brown. GW’s Foundation Paints are a joy for all basecoating. Calthan Brown did the job nicely. An ink of Devlan Mud, keeping things uniform, followed. The carriage was finished with Desert Yellow, with my thanks to Adrian for mentioning it the other night. This covered the wooden portions but there remained some metal areas. Bracers, rivets, bands, etc needed to be covered. All of the non-barrel metallic areas were basecoated with Boltgun Metal, inked with Devlan Mud, and then drybrushed with Chainmail.
Two coats of ‘Ardcoat and then one coat of Testor’s Dullcote finishes the model. This is perhaps my favorite piece I’ve painted, but the FoW Fuel Dump objective marker is a close second, and I’m very happy that I rewarded myself in this manner. Now I can finish the Militia necessary to finish the first regiment. They’re already primed and have all of their trousers basecoated.
Adhering to my rule of not buying anything new until I’ve painted models already in my possession is working out nicely. In fact, Neil Catapano received an order from me for 1 blister of Southern Militia firing line in shirt sleeves and bayonets (AW134), 1 Southern Militia marching in shirt sleeves and bayonets (AW136), and 1 blister of Continental Mounted Infantry (AW037) to serve as my army general. Those models are on the way and I anticipate finishing my existing militia sometime this week.
I hope you enjoy the below pictures, some are not of great quality, of the 6pdr cannon. They were taken before it was varnished. All paints used were Citadel Paints.
