{"id":309,"date":"2014-03-16T09:12:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T09:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/?p=309"},"modified":"2014-03-16T09:17:25","modified_gmt":"2014-03-16T09:17:25","slug":"a-little-bit-of-squarebashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/a-little-bit-of-squarebashing\/","title":{"rendered":"A little bit of squarebashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being caught up with all the centenary media (esp 37 Days), I thought that this year would be a good idea to do a little WW1. The remit of this project would that it would be up and running in a few weeks. Concentrating on the very early part of the war I needed to be playing while the period was still \u2018hot\u2019. With that in mind here is my tutorial on how to paint 200 infantry in about 2 weeks.<\/p>\n

The first army will be the small British BEF. My preferred 15mm manufacturer being Peter Pig. The reasons being \u2013 neatly cast (no cleanup) , comprehensive range , quirky looking sculpts (with a reasonable high relief – more on that later)\u2026. And finally \u2018all round good eggs at PP\u2019<\/p>\n

With this in mind I will commit to do the whole of the army in a single \u2018process batch\u2019. Here are the steps \u2013<\/p>\n

\"prep1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Debag the figures<\/strong>.
\nClean up<\/strong> (none), other than a scrape along the bottom to keep the base flat
\nHot glue gun them lolly sticks (the large \u2018tongue depressor\u2019 type). Bagful for a \u00a31 at a craft shop\/works<\/p>\n

\"prep2\"
\n<\/a>
\nPrimer<\/strong>. I picked PSC German Dunkel Gelb for this job. It has a rather pleasing green hue, and it light and bright. As the project would be a \u2018wash\u2019 project then at this stage you can afford to be light and bright. The subsequent washes will bring it down (and I like bright!)<\/p>\n

\"prep3\"
\n<\/a>
\nPrimary Wash<\/strong>. Mix up a big batch of gloopy paint wash. There wasn\u2019t much method to this. It was just a mix of khaki and green (Vallejo Brown violet) until it was an approximation of the colours I was aiming for.<\/p>\n

\"prep4\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Mix to milky consistency, a bit of acrylic flow improver (vital to avoid tide marks). But on a \u2018spray primer\u2019 I find that the surface tension means that you do get a good capillary action. The main worry is that this is too much and the paint pools. Flow improver is good for that. The best I\u2019ve found is GW Lahmian medium (but it is expensive) and for smaller batches I\u2019d recommend. But in this case I just use a cheapo (Windsor and Newton)..<\/p>\n

\"prep5\"<\/a>As you can see at this stage you don\u2019t have to be be too fussy and can really blob it on. When it dries it will shrink back and you are trying to use the paint over the primer to do your shading.
\nAt this point I\u2019m going to block paint all the main areas of colour. So, webbing and pack with a lighter canvas colour, rifle stock brown. Not leave the face at this point. The face is the only thing I\u2019m going to paint. The face is a focal point for the eye, do this well and all else if forgiven<\/p>\n

Shading Wash<\/strong>. Once you this has dried (leave overnight) then comes the varnish wash. This is a red\/brown\/mahogany \"darkoak\"<\/a>that I bought from a \u00a31 shop. Thinned down with turps to a very wet wash and lather it on. All the figure brightness will drop anyway at this point. You can use Army painter dips (which are probably better colour ranges) , but the only thing I find is that they give a waxy finish when dry and its hard to paint any detail over later. I might use AP dip for the Boche later. I like my cheap dip, as it had a Polyurethane finish and acts as a hard coat and can easily be painted over.<\/p>\n

\"prep6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Leave to dry for 2 days. This stuff take a long time to dry, and is really stinky , so is best left outside (or in a shed)<\/p>\n

Then it is really the home run.<\/p>\n

Face painting<\/strong>. A orange brown base coat foe hands and face, then AP tanned flesh and AP barbarian flesh ( I bought a new brush for this, just for a crisp edge). As I said it you do a good face then all else will be overlooked. This triad does give quite a ruddy complexion , but as this was a decision to contrast with uniform (and bring out the greens) .. red and green been complementary on the colour wheel.
\nYou may choice to put in a little paint over the webbing and bring out a strap or two.<\/p>\n

\"fin1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The final stage being the matt varnish<\/strong>. I like a lead chromate based paint (outside job) , 1407 Rail Match Matt Varnish. I have been using this for 20 years and have found no equal (and I tried them all!)<\/p>\n

\"fin2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>There will be more to come on my blog<\/p>\n

www.lurkio.co.uk\/blog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After being caught up with all the centenary media (esp 37 Days), I thought that this year would be a good idea to do a little WW1. The remit of this project would that it would be up and running in a few weeks. Concentrating on the very early part of the war I needed … Continue reading A little bit of squarebashing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-squarebashing","category-ww1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}