Category Archives: basing

First proper post of the year – more Poles!

January 7, 2018 Count Belisarius 2 Comments

I had less time over the holidays to work on stuff than planned but this last week has seen a bit of activity as I’ve pushed on with finishing and basing the next batch of Poles for my Cold War forces and finally finishing off some of the engineer/river crossing assets for my Soviets. I will have the two battalions on Polish infantry to do but they are primed ready to go.

So here we are…

First up a unit of T54Ms (I hope!) with HQ

Followed by two battalions of infantry. One lot in BMPs and the other in SKOTs.

The SKOTs (Scotia I think) are a very nice model and paint up really well.

The also needed some AA assets and another SKOT which will carry more engineers.

And on to the Soviet river crossing kit. Bridge layers.

T55s with mine rollers and dozer blades.

And an assortment of river crossing equipment. PTS ferries (of which I have 5 more) and some what I think are BTS? Can’t ID for sure and not sure on make. There’s a nice little article on Soviet river crossing kit on Russel Phillips site: Bridging the Gap.

So there we are. Two battalions of infantry to do, more river crossing kit, two battalions of T-64s (for Sovs) and a 2S1 battalion for the Poles. Lots of other little bits to do as well…

I may have a pause though after the next basing as I want to move onto something bigger for a while. And I still to get a game in!!

Onwards!

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10mm, basing, colonial, sudan, update

A Warm Fuzzy (Wuzzy) Feeling…

July 3, 2017 Count Belisarius 4 Comments

I’m still painting random stuff from my lead pile. With no fixed plan other than Ayton next year (and tradition precludes painting anything for that until at least February!) I’ve been painting what takes my fancy. So having painted some Sudan Brits I thought I needed some opposition. I spent a little time Googling for painting ideas for Fuzzy Wuzzies (Beja) and found this excellent blog post Painting Your Horde which I’ve only just spotted is by Dave Docherty on his One Man and his Brushes blog. It’s a good process for painting up lots of native types quite quickly so I thought I’d adapt it to 10mm! All colours are Vallejo Model Colour unless specified otherwise.

Step 1. Primer. Army Painter. Leather Brown Spray. Missed bits filled in with Flat Earth.Step 2. Hair and spears/swords painted black.Step 3. Paint all the robes a variety of suitable colours. I went for Ivory, Pale Sand, White, Dark Sand and German Camo Pale Brown. And spear shafts Mahogany Brown.Step 4. Wash. Vallejo Sepia Wash thinned with W&N Flow Improver.Step 5. Re-highlight cloth with same colour. Dry brush a few shields with Flat Earth and Khaki for a bit of variety. Dark Grey highlight on hair. Oily steel for metal bits. And Crafters Acrylic Country Maple for the bases.Step 6. Basing. I’m sticking with tablet MDF. The Brits are on 25x20mm but I thought that would be too small for the (hopefully!) lots of native bases I will have so I thought 50x25mm would be better for the bulk of them and then a few 25x25mm for command stands and odd bases.And I’ve tried to create the impression of a tight front rank and then thinning a little towards the back.And finally fine ballast added and painted with the Country Maple, highlighted with Antique White and some static Burnt Grass applied. A couple of rocks were added and a few tufts but not much as I don’t want to make it too grassy!So there we have it. The first batch of Fuzzies! There seemed a lot when I was painting them but when based they don’t looks as many! Here they are on the terrain boards I have and facing some of the Brits I’m quite pleased with them and will adapt Dave’s technique for the Madhists as well. This should give me enough to try out The Men Who Would Be Kings.

I’ve got the next lot of 1806 Prussians primed and ready to go and have started on the RSM Altefritzenburgers. Just need to keep the momentum going!

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10mm, 15mm, acw, basing, sudan

Final Fire and Fury Markers – for now…

February 28, 2017 Count Belisarius 3 Comments

The game approaches! These are the last few markers before I start working on the scenery. First, a couple of Freikorps destroyed gun markers:And a couple of Friekorps casualty figures and some broken bits and pieces from the spare box that I was originally going to throw out:

This will do me now for markers. I have enough disruption and low ammo markers for the game. I ‘might’ paint the two cavalry casualties I have but they are not essential. Fences next…

Unless I get distracted with 10mm Sudan! I’ve applied a wash to the British that Slugbalancer gave me and just painted two officers to go with them. Basing… the eternal dilemma! I had thought of doing these to use with The Men Who Would Be Kings but I think that requires either single basing and sabots or using a single base with multiple figures to represent one TMWWBKs ‘figure’… or something…

Threw some unpainted into some random bases:

The 20mm deep ones are a little too shallow for two ranks. The 30x20mm (left) are maybe a little too wide with a four figure frontage. And three figures (centre) is too spaced. Using four figures to a base may work (maybe a little deeper) but possibly a little fiddly. So we come to this:

These are Fire and Fury bases and six figures sit nicely I think. But what of command? Annoyingly I have 28 rank and file figures (two poses) so would need to paint a couple more to make the bases even. Putting officers in the line still seems wrong to me. I like them separate! Maybe I’ll paint the other two and see…

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15mm, acw, basing, update

More Fire and Fury markers…

February 21, 2017 Count Belisarius

With the ACW game next month rapidly approaching I thought I’d get the last of the markers I need done. So after securing a little painting time over the last few days here is what I managed to get done.

The 16 Disrupted markers for the CSA to go with the Union ones already done.Some gun destroyed and low ammo markers for the artillery for both sides. And some more low ammo markers for the Union……and the Rebs…And the casualty markers again…All figures by Peter Pig. The low ammo markers etc. I tried doing with a base coat and a wash. The ended up being too ‘dirty’ and needing some highlighting. The casualty figures I just undercoated black and applied a single coat, leaving bit of the black showing through. Seems to work OK and is closer in style to the original Minifigs I have.

I learnt two lessons doing these. Firstly, leave your varnish overnight to dry before doing the PVA and ‘sand’ for the bases. I rushed it a little and the varnish was still a little tacky in the nooks and crannies…. Which resulted in lost of my ballast mix getting stuck in there! Bloody nightmare to get out! And secondly, I mounted the casualty figures on the oval to paint them and then used Copydex to stick those to the sticks I use as holders. The Copydex seemed to ‘bond’ with the MDF and it was a pain separating them… and one base had a ‘layer’ of MDF peel off!

I’ve got four more broken gun stands lined up and then I need to make fences!

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15mm, acw, basing, fire and fury