The results are in....

Painting experiment conclusive, shock!

Yes, I've done my best with my limited painting skills and have come to a number of conclusions, none of them surprising.

The original plan was to test alternative approaches to painting my Baccus 6mm WSS chaps. These guys will be Dutch in grey coats. Here on the left we see one infantry unit undercoated black but with a white dry brush to bring out the highlights. On the right we have a white undercoat with a black wash to produce both some depth and also to generate the overall grey colour.

My initial thoughts are that the black undercoat (Chaos Black spray) was easy, the white dry brushing was extra work and made the figures look untidy to start with. I don't think the white did anything to bring out the later colours and in fact, prevented me from ensuring some nice clean black lines around the block painting. I also had to paint the hats!

The white undercoat was a pig (Rustoleum Acrylic White spray). I had to re-coat in Vallejo white which looked fantastic. The black wash (GW Nuln Oil) produced a nice grey colour but without adding much depth. The effect was very pleasant but, on such small figures, doesn't stand out. I may use this for 20mm Austrians where it may prove more useful. I also had to paint the hats!

So here we are with nearly completed figures, white undercoat on the left and black on the right. They look very similar to me but I prefer the black simply because they have a bit more definition. In fact, my conclusion is that the next lot I do will be a simple black spray undercoat followed by block painting and that will be that. Less bother for same or better result.

So what is with the green? I made a mistake basing my Bavarian by using a too dark green (Dark Angels Green in fact). A great colour but it simply doesn't bring out the best of the figures. Here we have from the right: GW Warboss Green, GW Loren Forest, Crafter's Acrylic Pine Needle, Homebase Sage Leaf and Habitat Leaf. These are: too blue, too dark, too blue, too brown and just right! The Habitat Leaf comes in a 125ml tester and should last for some time (great for £3.50). It covers well and, although a bit thick, is easy to work with. This is for me the right colour of spring grass and will now be used on all of my bases, probably without any extra vegetables.

So, job done? Yes. And what's more, I really enjoyed the painting, so much that I have bought new brushes!