Quick Basing Tutorial.

Below is a post I originally wrote 16th June 2013 so it's not exactly old as such, being under a year old but I think it's a post well worth pulling out and showing off again. Whilst it's been used for 6mm it works well up to 28mm with little or no change beyond larger tufts. Hope you enjoy

I have been asked to give a guide to my er Lee's basing system. This is a really easy and quick way of basing your figures but I think they come out looking really cool. I have used it for 6mm and 15mm but it can be used for 28mm which is how Lee normally works though this version has been dumbed down a little.

Paint your figures by your chosen method but paint the figures base a darkish brown. Then give them a good varnish as the basing stage can be a bit rough on the figures if you don't. You have two choices when you glue the figures down, either base them really close together or leave a large enough gap to get the brush between the rows. Either way it's best to paint the area the figures will be brown so any hard to get to spaces don't show up.

Bitter Chocolate. 

Sandtex Bitter Chocolate Smooth Masonry Paint is the best choice for using as the base coat as it is rather thick. This allows it to pool as you see from above and whilst it's not slow drying it stays wet long enough to move onto the sanding stage without the need to hurry the application stage. 

Awaiting the sand.

I use sharp sand that you can get from any DIY type store and whilst it is cheap it does have a few issues that need resolving. First some of the pebbles are huge no matter what scale you are working with and these need sifting out. The smaller the scale the more sifting you need to do. You do not want kids play sand or aquarium sand as these are too fine and you do want some pebbles and stone chips to get the uneven finish. Secondly it usually is damp. You need to dry it out before use. A nice sunny day helps if you can leave it outside spread out on trays. Also if you can get away with it, putting it in the oven at a low temperature in batches also works.

Deep in the sand.

I find the best way is to just place the base on top of the sharp sand and then pick up the sand mix and drop it down onto the base rather then use the base as a scoop. Once you have the base covered (nice and deep) then turn it upside down tapping the base to get rid of the loose sand and pebbles. Then check the base for any areas missing enough sand or any pebbles that are two big or too clumped together. Remove the excess stones or add a bit more sand as needed and set aside.

Now you see why they need to be varnished first.

On taking out of your sand box the colour will be really light, this should go darker as the paint soaks through the sand. If this does not happen you have either too much sand or not enough paint on the base (you need the paint to be fairly thick). It's a matter of trial and error and your taste will have the final say. If it is to bright you can always paint a dark brown over at this stage but to me that's an extra stage that can be avoided.

Fresh from a dunking.

The sand and Sandtex stage can dry within an hour or so so it's possible to get a long line of bases to this stage and then go back to the start and onto the next stage.

Drying out and ready for the next stage.

When you can see the brown showing through and looking dry it's time to move on. If it's still a little damp you can still move onto the next stage.

Dry brush the darker colour over the base.

You only want to do the dry brushing lightly, get most of the paint off the brush and then as light as you can start to brush over the sand, make sure you do this from all angles so you get a none patterned effect. Make sure the rocks get a heavier coating as they will be standing out. I use Miniature Paints 62 Sand, yes it is kind of ironic.

Light Colour added more sparingly.

Next it's the top coat, Lee uses MP Light Cream whilst I bought MP 71 Pale Flesh which works well. Why MP paints? well they are thicker than Vallejo which suits this task. I tend to tey to be a bit lighter with this stage, except the stones and rocks which get a more solid cover leaving the background colour of sand. This I think looks more natural than leaving the pebbles and chips natural.

Comparing sand against sand and pale flesh stages.

If you are painting troops for the desert then you may wish to change the colours in the various stages. Above left just has the first stage finished.

Flocked and ready for that last coat of varnish.

For flocking, again it comes down to personal preference. Lee advised two parts Autumn Grass and one  part Summer as this gives a good mixed look. When I got my three bags I though he was mad, the Summer grass just glowed! but once mixed in with the much darker grass it looked much better. When it comes to replenishing your stock don't worry about using another supplier, this just adds to the tone and it's well worth getting the replacement when you still have plenty left so as to help create a richer mix.

Just out of the static tub.

How much static grass you add is really a matter of choice though I find less is more. I use good old PVA but be aware that the glue spreads a little (more than you might think) so you add glue to a smaller area than you want it to cover. If you then want to add more you can which is a lot easier than taking the excess off. I break up the clumps of static as it tends to gather when left alone, I then drop the loosened clumps on to the base till it covers the whole base then turn it upside down and tap the base straight after. This gets the excess off and helps make the rest stand up.

Ready to take it to the French!

Before that last coat of varnish I use a large brush to remove all the dust and spare static on the figures. Then it's a coat of varnish for extra protection of the figures and to fix the grass in place. Last up it's flagging the battalions and then it's all done.

Leven Miniatures Willey Gallery

Mike over at Leven Miniatures has honoured me with my own gallery. I am rather happy with that turn of events. Given that I have not had the chance to do a building of the week for this week as I need to push through some figures I need to have ready for Thursday I am taking advantage and replacing it with this post instead.

Talking Leven, Mike has released more buildings (that's a surprise) but these are wrecks!! So if you want a ruined house or two in 6mm here they are.

Mike has sent me this house to paint so I will make it one of the next buildings I do, looks perfect for the WWII Europe gamer. I hope to get some painted up before I disappear on Thursday to Blackpool for four days of ASL but no promises.

Viking Test Figure

Wanting to do something totally different I decided to beak open a box of Griping Beast plastic Viking Hirdmen. Not that I had any business doing so with so many other figures needing attention but lets face it, reason is one of the smallest ingredients in this type of cake.

With the plastic's you have a lot of choices for weapons, heads and even purses! This one I went with the dagger attached, though I am fairly sure it could be missed off and not make much difference to the finished model. Indeed if not for the fact that these will probably end up being used for SAGA then I would miss them off.

Clean up and assembly was fairly straight forward, much better than I had feared but I am guessing if I was doing the other 43 as one batch it would be a much different story. Maybe I will do them in batches of five or so?

Being a test figure I have gone fairly basic with the colours and pattern. I think one from each batch may get a far more detailed patterns though I do like the fairly plain look for most of them.

I meant for his hair to be more blond but in the flesh it's not so brown. I love the scabbard as it's suitably long with the hilt of the sword also proportionally long, this figure could never had been cast as one and that's a big bonus that plastics have.

 The base is a good old 2p coin which gives the figure some nice weight and makes up for it being so light. I will be basing all the WWII Winter War figures the same way. Funny thing it's cheaper to base on 2p's than it is to buy the same size bases from Warbases so I am saving money by using the coins.

You won't see more of these though till I have painted up Mats 6mm Zulu's that I would have thought I would have finished by now, oh well they will be on the desk soon competing with my 6mm Naps for time. Did I mention the Winter War stuff? I guess my tables going to be rather full of figures jostling for pole.

54mm Aftermath of the Charge of the Light Brigade

I bought this set of three figures around two years ago off of E-Bay knowing it was just for the fun of painting them. Fast forward too the a few weeks ago and little had been done to get them done, too many other must do projects.

As soon as the bonus round was declared I knew I finally had a great reason to do them. So I pulled together as many pictures of this model and paintings etc so as to have a good stock of ideas to draw from.

This is an old set and as such the detail is a little flat in places but still enough to work with. I did get this part painted when I knocked it and a box of finished models with my elbow. I still have a fair amount of touching up to do to get the finished stuff fully repaired (some I will chuck) and had to reassemble this one and take it back to base coat and start again. That took some of the shine off it for me but at least I had not added the swords as that would have probably caused me to just bin it, oh well it happens to us all....

I wanted the casualty to look like he was suffering so painted the eye area fairly dark but the rest of the face was a few shades paler than the two Lancers carrying him. Overall I was happy with the result. 

The belts that hold the swords in place are all the same size on the trees and needed to be cut to length which was fun given I had no instructions. Same actually for the canteens as these have to be glued in place and straps cut so that they fit to match the sculptured ones.

The braids on the hats also needed to be added, including the one on the floor. Missing was the spurs which I was trying to add with fuse fire but had to accept defeat as they just did not want to stay attached looking anything but spur like.

Close up of the faces, these guys won't win any beauty contests will they? Some of the detail was so thin that I really struggled in working out what each bit should be so it's no perfect finish for sure.

I had big hopes that this would show well in the bonus round but with so many great entries I have been placed rather low, though I will admit I am surprised I have had so few votes (mumble grumble) though I am very happy to report that the six I voted for are all in the lead so I have excellent taste  ;-)

Building of the Week Medieval Post Mill

I have been working on this for a few weeks now off and on, more off than on for sure. I have gone a little over the top on this one as I wanted to build into the base a bit more of a hill which is now in place but it's not that high, oh well.

Another Leven Miniatures model again, this time from the Medieval Range MED01 that surprise surprise has a cost of £2.50 and comes in three logical pieces. The body of the mill, the sails and lastly the steps which I had managed to wash down the sink when cleaning the mould release off the bits, but Mike sent a replacement without charge.

I based the mill on a few of the Warbases squares starting with a 30x30mm and running to 120mm x 120mm with the corners rounded off.

The mill as per normal painted up with ease though the roof of the round stone lower level was a bit more difficult but nothing that could not be dealt with. Overall the base works though it's going to take up a lot more room in storage than I should spare but I think it's worth it.

Whilst it's a Medieval windmill it's still of use for plenty of other periods as some still exist today and I can see this on a ECW table as well as a Napoleonic.I now have two windmills that can either be used in the same game or just pulled at random though I think I still need one for Spain.

Here is a shot of the whole set against a 60x60mm stand of Baccus 6mm French Old Guard, as you can see it's a space hungry beast. Not sure if this model will make it onto the table for Waterloo but it will get some play in the coming months.

Chatter Behind The Bike Sheds - Home Taping Is Killing Music!

Remember this? Then it's very likely you bought music in the 90's and funny enough it did not actually manage it, but the same thing is being said about file sharing but that's not what this post is about.

No, instead I am banging on about non-historical wargaming or to be more exact near historical. I bought an issue of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy (good by the way) for my Frankfurt trip so as to have some light reading. Out of 84 pages only four pages are given over to none-historical figure gaming, double that of board gaming. 

BUT the adverts tell a different story. nearly 33% of the adverts are for near historical or altered history. I would now say that at no time  before has such a large part of the none Gamesworkshop wargaming been none historical. A Very British Civil War I believe led the way and whilst it might not hold the biggest slice of the pie possibly has the strongest attachment to a possible history whilst Osprey of all the people has embraced this trend the most via In Her Majesty's Name/A Fist Full of Kung Fu style of rules. Lets face it, if it did not sell it would not be supported. It is then obvious that there is a market for such themes and more besides. However the question "Is it good for the hobby?" is far more tricky to answer and before I do, cards on the table I do not play any of those games, or do I?

It would be a fair argument that Cowboy games often have as much to do with reality as many an alternative history game, especially those that try to mirror reality rather than morph (or twist!) reality. Something about Fantasy and alternative reality seems to turn the average frugal gamer into someone who is willing to double his spend on a single figure. I think it's fair to say that alternative history, fantasy and si-fi attract the more artistic painters and though it's a sweeping generalisation with plenty of contradictions I stand by the point in principle.

But is the sudden wide variety of alternatives to the norm actually a bad thing? Working on the principle that each gamer has a set amount to spend and other than at times of starting new projects tends to live within a fairly constant year by year budget I would say that diverting into such projects as Her Majesty's Name will actually reduce the amount of Lead/Resin bought whilst probably increasing the spend of the gamer. Given the amount the average gamer has in store I find that hard to see as a disadvantage.

Too many companies are jumping into the various off shoots for the interest to be a minor subgroup. Now if your waiting for someone to do that 28mm WWII French Colonial infantry platoon only to see the supplier doing a Victorian steam powered walker then yes your going to be disappointed. However, just how many unmade figures are their left to do? Certainly most of the core figures have multiple choices of suppliers so it's possible only pet periods or specialist figures are being hurt by the lack of availability of these.

Indeed it's just possible that such strange new quasi periods are actually bringing more money into the hobby, but for that either I have to be wrong and much more money is being spent by the existing followers of all thinks off centre OR it's bringing in a lot of new blood. The former is more likely than the latter but beyond the bloom of a new period I have my doubts that the increased spend results in continued increased spend.

Taking Saga though as an example (cowboys with swords and braids?) I don't see that doing any harm and has indeed increased the focus on all things from that period though of course that period is real and real historical wargamers have benefited from the extra attention.

Actually I blame Saga for all this alternative history stuff, this is not based on any idea if it's right or wrong and everything to do with wanting it to be there fault. After all what are all these games got in common if not that they tend to be skirmish (or small unit) driven and are a distraction to the big game player? 

Thinking about it, would that ultimately mean the cowboy game is the real problem er maybe time to move along........

I think the time to worry is when the alternative stuff starts to gain a lot more column inches in the magazines just like that Fantasy rot did at one point, I remember how that caused all sorts of rashes etc.

Scissors Cut Paper

After doing Hitler for the Villains round I know I needed to make amends so here we have Churchill doing his stuff. He is a Black Scorpion casting and has a lot of the feel of the great man though on painting him I realised he looked rather boring, too boring for the Hero Round given the standards that have been displayed in the preceding rounds so he ended up being a general entry.

Desperate for something to liven up the base and make the double base less obvious I was really pleased when Cath suggested covering the base with the Union Flag. Actually she suggested painting it to start with though I had more realistic views of my skills in that department!

This was my second attempt at Pin Stripes though the first one gave me a better canvas to work with as the figure was more animated and as such had lovely folds to take the stripes into. These being just the trousers were a little less fun to work with.

So here I stand, hoping that Churchill's scissors makes up for Hitler's Paper. Both figures are destined for pastures new as an ASL player in France want's them, hopefully they will bring him good luck in future games.