Trewets journey into Bolt Action German Panzer Grenadier 901st

I have finished painting both my winter squads to a table top standard and based both squads differently,to help differentiate them on the table when setting up and packing away.

Gone through my army list again to make sure everything was spot on and have found out that I could giggle the points around so that the howitzer can have a spotter.

The lieutenant has contacted HQ and they have sent an urgent new addition to the platoon.You May have noticed him front and centre on one of the other photos,he still needs basing.

Based the units heavy howitzer and decided to add a snow effect that I got in one of the Assetdrop subscription boxes a few months ago.

The flock on the base is held down with PVA, the snow effect comes in two parts a liquid element and a “fixed” fine white powder.

All went down great to start with, or so I thought.Some hours later the snow flock started to bleed the colour from the flock and to crack.

I have decided to seal the flock with a layer of varnish then to try the snow effect on top.

Have carried on with my winter army

The troops have been given two coats of varnish,one of gloss first as this tends to be tougher physically and gives a protection layer, then a Matt varnish to give a flat realistic finish.

Not much progress on the project over the last couple of days.

I have been busy continuing the squad paint jobs and brain storming how to base the mountain troops, whether to add rocks and green grass to the base and how many of each and do I then put snow effect on top or just leave it be?

I do want them different to the standard grenadier squad for contrast and so I can see the different squads in the transport box for ease of use.

I will add photos of the bases when I have made a final decision.

next thing to think about is the basing of the artillery piece I want to use in the army.

I have gone to a green grass scatter to begin with but I am not totally sold on this…..more head scratching in my future lol.

Have decided to field the Bolt Action squad as a reinforced Grenadier squad as follows

second lieutenant                              50pts

schutzen squad ten men.                  127pts

veteren grenadier squad ten men.  173pts

Sniper team.                                           65pts

medium artillery.                                  85pts

Total.                   500pts

The ammo boxes that come with the howitzer looked like they would make great objective markers so have based them separately.

The extra crew are also base separately so that casualties can be removed during the game if needed.

Take your desired brown base material,here I am using dried used coffee grounds as I find it gives a rich brown colour when finished.It also smells great.

Mix a 10% concentration of isopropanol in water( 1 part iso to 9 parts water,roughly)

Then take equal parts of wood glue(PVA) and the isopropanol  and mix together into a thin consistency.

If you dont have isopropanol it is fine to use just plain water but the coffee grounds can stick to your brush through the base process due to the surface tension of the mix.

Apply the mix to your base, making sure to get in all the hard to reach areas using an old brush.Add more PVA till the base is covered with the glue mix in an even coat.

Dip or sprinkle the base material until the base is covered( I dip my base into a small container and leave for a few seconds till the glue has had time to pick up and soak into the desired amount of material) this is hit and miss and down to personal preference.

Let this dry….it can take a reasonable time ,quicker when warmer.

The base material may look stuck down but not quite yet,another soaking on the glue mix is required over the top to seal it to the base.Again this may take some time to dry.

The final result will give you a mixed muddy base.Depending on the glue you use it may come out with a satin finish which can be knocked back with a Matt varnish later.Or disguised with other effects like I am going to do(snow).

Have had a few more days holiday this week and have progressed the painting and basing of the squads. The first squad is almost finished and have added a brown base material( info on that in next instalment) the second squad has some base colours blocked in but have to finish all the little bits and bobs before giving the a wash and highlight.

Here I have put a base grey primer down on the figures and then a wash over that to give a low light.

The figure with white smocks are given a dry brush with warm grey colour just above the washed grey…this gives an area to highlight with the pure white that looks more natural than just going in free hand.

The darker grey uniform is based using the army painter uniform grey,washed with a dark wash then highlighted with the uniform grey.

further washes could be used with thinned out washes using Matt medium,as this gives the washes a better “flow” on the model and a thinner transition from dark to light.

As you can see in the last photo I have put a small amount of the medium into a dropper bottle for better control over the larger container.

Next step is to colour the weapons and other bits of kit.

Two grenadier squads

one howitzer

one sniper team and an officer that should come to about 500 pts