Saturday 20 June 2009

Basing

I actually quite enjoy basing and do it quite a lot. Thought Id post my latest method because for the first time Im happy with a process. I used to mess around with superglue and basing gel but found them both a little fiddly and slow.

Sep 1 -Apply the product 'No more Nails' to your bases. Use a decent amount. I like this stuff because it gives some hold straight away, while at the same time giving you about 5 mins to adjust your placing. Its also cheap and the gun makes it easy to apply. One tube like this will last for several armies.



After your happy with your figure placement grab an old brush, dabbed in water to break up the paste. Water doesn't ruin the holding properties for our purposes. It does allow you to build up some area a bit and provide a base for the sand.




Now add some smalls rocks, followed by fine sand. Allow to dry over night. The instructions say 24 hours but we are not too fussy. We are not building shelves here.



Once dry use a steel ruler to rub down the edges a bit. You don't want any texture on the edges of the base so that they line up together. Now add some undercoat. I only really bother with the edges as these are the parts that get abuse. You may choose to be less lazy than me.



Mow apply your top coats. I use the anitas, three shade earth colours as provided by barrule.com.



This was a heavy dry brush. Don't rub too much paint off the brush as there isn't much pigment in cheap paints like these.



Final highlight is very quick, just to bring the detail out. Doesn't look great here due to my camera and lighting.



I now apply tufts and bits of scenics with a tacky glue. PVA doesn't work so well for these bits I find.



Finally I water down some PVA and paint onto the base in patches. Make sure the edges have more "clutter" if you want to make them blend in together.

Hope this helps someone.













Friday 19 June 2009

Bashi-Bazouks

When I make a big order I sometimes get some extras just for painting. I have no real interest in the Perry Sudan range but these really caught my eye. If they ever do see battle it will probably be again french or brittish during the napoloenic wars. I would say they could probably be used from 1700-1870 or so.





Monday 8 June 2009

A complete army

I think its now fair to say that I have an armies worth of Saracens. Its taken about six months and I have enjoyed it ... most of it.

Look out for the cloth flags. I bought some A4 sheets from ebay. You can put through your printer and then just "peel off".. I also added stirings to most of the bows. I used thin fuse wire. Not sure if it was worth it but found it strangely relaxing to do .. ??


































Sunday 7 June 2009

New Cossacks and Old Prussians

Ive just finished painting some AB/eureka cossacks. I decided use some of their Russian SYW bunch for variety and they match up well.

Why am I painting up cossacks? Planning to do the "Battle of Hagelberg", this year I hope, which requires five regiments.

Ive also brought out my old prussians for a wee parade... They looked pretty drab next to my new french so I decided to give them a bit of frech paint. My prussian army is based on Yorcks corps during 1813. I have around two brigades so far and am building up slowly.

What you see here is a fictional brigade made up for a game Im playing on Tuesday.