Completed WSS infantry
Sadly not at WMMS today, busy with chores and recovering after a nasty fall off a ladder (entirely my own fault). Never mind, I'm making some progress with my Baccus 6mm troops for my Cocked Hex rules. As usual, units consist of three bases, each 40mm across and 20mm deep. First up, four units of Bavarians, pretending to be the bad guys:
Here are two British units to go with the Dutch:
Horse next on the list.
Its quite exciting!
I have finished my two Dutch units from my painting experiment and I am very pleased with the result. In the end, the different painting techniques made little difference in this scale and, probably, increased the amount of time taken to complete them. I'll keep it simple next time!
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| Nice day for a parade |
I have finished them off with gloss varnish and some flags from Warflag. The units represent the Ostfriesland Battalion (front) and the Salisch Battalion (rear). I like the toy soldier type look that the gloss gives. This will fit well with my wooden scenery.
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| Nice sashes guys |
I have also made a lot of progress with my latest hex grid version of the One-Hour Wargames rules by Neil Thomas. This time its a version of his Horse and Musket rules for the Spanish Succession. What is really good about these rules is that they require so few troops, being a slow painter isn't a problem!
Like all of my rules and variants, I regard these as being at play test stage. Doing sums, drawing diagrams, rolling dice and pushing bits of cardboard around is great but its only when other people have a crack that you know whether or not they work. You can find the draft here. if you give them a try, let me know how it went.
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!
