Hobby Roundup. Spring Clean 2024.

Over the course of the challenge I completed the following.

Major revisions on: GW Sigvald, Perry Foot Artillery French gun and crew, Warlord Games Napoleon, a Battle of Fulford vignette using Victrix miniatures and a GW Evesor Assassin.

I painted two Famous By Your Sword miniatures, a Ragged Staff miniatures wars of the Roses vignette, 23 Warlord, Perry or Victrix french Napoleonic infantry, 2 Perry mounted French officers, completed a small unit of Perry french Carabiniers, a regiment of epic ECW Cuirassiers, 5 Warlord Panzer Grenadiers, 130 Warlord epic Hail Caesar Roman infantry, 10 cavalry and a Carthaginian elephant.

I have tried to give a fairly detailed overview of the modelling and painting that I have undertaken over the last three months without making the project unwieldly.

I always enjoy painting the single figure sculpts from Warlord’s epic ranges. I tend to be tempted to spend a little bit more time with them. These are the last figures I will have time to complete before the challenge ends tomorrow. For the wolf pelts I base coated them with Xpress Viking Grey and picked out all the individual hairs with Vallejo Ivory around the face and belly and used GW Grey Seer on the back. I picked the teeth and claws out with Ivory and the paws and noses with black. The pelt wearing troops tunics were painted with Seraph Red. This was highlighted first with GW Evil Sunz Scarlet and Troll Slayer Orange.

The rest of the figures tunics were painted with Xpress Mummy White, Templar White or Military Yellow. The ‘white’ was highlighted with Vallejo Off White and the ‘yellow’ with Vallejo Ice Yellow. The shields were given two coats of Xpress Plasma Red and the spines were then painted GW Wild Rider Red. The shields were then with the side of the brush edge highlighted with GW Troll Slayer Orange.

I had a go at seeing if it was possible to paint eyes and teeth on a couple of the figures. Totally impracticable but I had fun seeing if I could. The metal work, flesh etc was painted as in my previous entries.

I start by painting the puddle bases with Mournfang Brown which helps with the later stage as if anything is not applied properly it will be the correct colour. I then stick the figures to their epic Warlord bases. I use ready mixed filler applied with a cocktail stick to hide the figures bases. I then stick fine sand on to the bases with PVA. The bases are then painted with thinned GW Mournfang Brown and capillary action will help you here. Dry brush with GW Zandri Dust and then Ushbati Bone. The paints I have mentioned here were all made up for me at the paint mixing department at Wilkes. This saves you from using your expensive hobby paints. Small blobs of PVA are then applied and 2mm static grass finishes the effect.

I was not sure about how many figures I should use for each cavalry base. There is enough on the other nations sprues for multiples of 5 horsemen but two Roman sprues will only give you 4 light and 4 heavy cavalry. In the end I decided to add the two officer figures to make up two small units of 5. This will then mean they will match the other cavalry figures units.

Really fun model to assemble and paint. The skin is Xpress Viking Grey dry brushed with GW Grey Seer and details edge highlighted around  the ears with Vallejo Ivory. The Howdah is Xpress Space Grey edge highlighted with GW Blue Horror. The cloth on the elephant is Xpress Legacy Blue highlighted with GW Caledor Sky and then Calgar Blue. The straps are Xpress Military Yellow highlighted with Vallejo Ice Yellow.

The tunics were painted with Xpress Mummy White and highlighted with Vallejo Off White. The shields were done with Xpress Viking Grey and highlighted with GW Grey Seer. The rest of the colours were painted as previously described.

I used the same combination of reds as I used for the officer figures and Xpress Monastic Green for the shields. I highlighted the spines with GW Moot Green. I used the following Xpress colours for all the epic horses I have painted : Templar White, Greasy Black, Lotus Black, Battledress Brown, Mahogany, Muddy Ground and Wasteland Brown. Manes, socks and tails were also picked out with these colours.I then added details with normal paints.

Really enjoyed painting these and as they are character models I added a little more detail to them. Again I used Vallejo Xpress for the base coats. The black horse was painted with Black Lotus and the white with Templar White. I highlighted the black up to GW Grey Seer and the white with Vallejo Off White. The reds on the tunics ,cloaks and crests was either Xpress Seraph Red or Plasma Red. GW reds were used to highlight including Wild Rider and Trollslayer Orange all the way up to Fire dragon Bright. I used the same paints for the bronze that I have previously described but added an extra highlight with GW Auric Armour Gold.

This view gives a clearer view of the cloth on the miniatures. The tunics were painted either Xpress Seraph Red, Mummy White or Templar White. The ‘white’ cloth was then highlighted with Vallejo Off White and the red with GW Wild Rider Red.

I used the same metallic colours for all the Romans. The feathers on the helmets were painted with Xpress Seraph Red and highlighted with GW Wild Rider Red. The shields were painted either Xpress Iceberg Grey or Legacy Blue. Different shades of those two colours were achieved by thinner or stronger application of the paint. More paint was deliberately left at the spines of the shields . The darker blue spines were highlighted with GW Calgar Blue and the lighter with GW Fenrisian Grey.

This rear view better shows the cloth colours I used. I used the same two reds I mentioned previously and also Xpress Mummy White and Templar White. I highlighted the ‘white’ cloth with Vallejo Off White and the Seraph Red with GW Wild Rider Red and the Plasma Red with GW Fire Dragon Bright. I had used these colours to highlight the shields too. I painted the flesh with Xpress Dwarf Skin and highlighted it with GW Kislev Flesh mixed with Valllejo Pale Flesh. The ringmail was painted with Vallejo Duralininium washed with a diluted Liquitex Carbon Black Ink and highlighted (using the side of the brush) with GW Stormhost Silver.

I undercoated the front of the minis white and the rear black with Halfords rattle cans. I then painted all the areas that were going to be metal black. I did this so that I had a black line between each colour and also I prefer painting metallics over dark colours. Before spraying the figures I used Tamiya masking tape to cover the contact points of each strip. This was to ensure as clean a join as possible when it came to gluing the strips together after painting. I used Vallejo Xpress colours as much as possible. Any areas that I needed to paint white after the undercoat had been applied were obviously done before they were applied. I used two colours for the shields : Seraph Red and Plasma Red for a bit of variety. I did not have a good bronze colour in my collection so I purchased Vallejo Game Colour Bright Bronze. I was absolutely delighted with this colour. I shaded it with Liquitex Burnt Umber on the helmets and added some highlights with the original metal colour.

As I mentioned in a previous post the problem with Spring Clean is that you think you are making progress and then get distracted with the latest new thing. In this case hundreds of Epic Carthaginians and Romans. Cannot wait to paint the elephants!

Here I thought I would explain my more detailed method for skin on figures. I used Army Painter Barbarian Flesh as a basecoat and washed this with an old GW flesh wash that I had mixed with their Seraphim Sepia. I then applied a glaze of GW Screaming Pink around the cheeks, and nose. If teeth are showing I will pick them out with an ivory colour. The bottom lip is painted with GW Tuskgor Fur. The gap between the lips or the inside of the mouth is done with GW Rhinox Hide. Glazes of the original flesh are done to highlight the cheeks,brow, chin,lips  and nose. Further highlights are done with this colour mixed with Vallejo Pale Flesh. For WWII figures especially I like to add stubble. This is achieved with glazes of a 50/50 mix of GW Terradon Turquoise and Space Wolves Grey. Make sure you apply this carefully with not too much paint on your brush.

The rifle was base coated with Vallejo Flat Brown. Highlights were done with GW Zandri Dust and wood grain was applied with Rhinox Hide. The ‘wood’on the rifle was then glazed with Scale 75 Inktense Wood. The metal parts of the rifle were painted black and then rubbed with a soft pencil. Extreme highlights were done with GW Leadbelcher.

SS troops often mixed camouflage and field grey in their uniforms as well as obviously wearing all field grey uniforms. This recipe will suit SS and army uniforms. Start from any field grey paint ( I used Army Painter’s Warpaint version). Wash with GW Agrax and then highlight with the original grey mixed with Vallejo Grey Green. This I think gives a simple but effective finish.

This was done in exactly the same way as described for the Autumn version. Again start with the same base coat I have described and substitute the following colours: Vallejo Yellow Olive , Vallejo Deep Green and Moot Green by GW.

I started from a base coat of a 50/50 mix of GW XV88 and Scale 75 Thar Brown. I then added large irregular shapes of GW Thondia Brown. About 50-70% of the dark brown had irregular shapes of GW Mournfang added within and sometimes to the edge or even overlapping into the pale brown base colour. Smaller ‘dots’ of this were painted on the pale brown too. Dots and small irregular patterns of Vallejo Bright Orange were then placed within the larger brown areas and even within some of the smaller dots. The uniform was then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade. The orange areas had highlights of GW Fire Dragon Bright placed on them and the original pale brown mix was highlighted with a slightly brighter mix which was achieved by adding more of the Thar Brown into it.

I wanted to show a model from the back so I could explain how I painted the equipment that cannot really be seen from the front. The breadbag was painted Zandri Dust by GW then washed with Army Painter Soft Tone and highlighted with the original colour. The lower part of the water bottle, mess tin and hand grenades were painted with GW Death World Forest. The STG 44 ammunition pouches were painted with a mix of GW Zandri Dust and XV88. These were all then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with their original base colour.

What I thought I would do with these is pick individuals from the unit to do separate tutorials on. Each one focusing on a specific aspect of the uniform or the paint process in general. The figures have all been painted with either Spring or Autumn Oakleaf camouflage.

Really enjoyed building these. Long time since I have built a warlord WW2  set of minis. I mounted them on 25mm MDF round bases from Warbases. I added slate bits to the bases at this stage. The models have been undercoated with Halfords White Primer. I drilled holes in the bottom of the figures boots and inserted small bits of paperclip and superglued the figures into pre-drilled holes into the bases. My Wowstick made life easy for me at this stage. I left the figures boots slightly shy of the base so when I add the sand -pva at a later stage they will be on and not in the ‘ground’.

These were one of the few Cuirassier regiments in the ECW. I used a variety of methods to paint the armour on these figures.

High quality amour: Base with any silver and wash with a very thinned black/blue ink mix. Highlight with Vallejo Model Air Chrome.

Munition Standard Armour: Base with GW Leadbelcher. Wash with a more pigment heavy and black mix of the above. Highlight with GW Iron Hands Steel.

Blackened Armour: Base with Vallejo Model Colour Gunmetal Grey and wash with a slightly diluted black ink. Use just a few selective highlights of Leadbelcher.

Russeted Armour: Base with Gunmetal Grey  and shade with Agrax Earthshade. Highlight with Leadbelcher.