Hobby Roundup. Spring Clean 2024.

One of the problems I have found with my hobby projects is that I have been painting more or less everything to what I would call a good tabletop or display/competition standard. This is obviously not helping me to get through army projects quickly. What I am going to do with most of the French infantry that I have featured in my previous post is paint them to a nice standard but quickly. I intend to start all of them from a contrast paint base coat. This is the first test model that I have completed and I was pleased with how it came out.

I put together 14 Perry, 4 Warlord French line and 4 Victrix Guard Chasseurs. It has been quite a while since I have assembled these so I made the mistake of adding some of the packs with greatcoats to the ones wearing them and also packs without them to figures not wearing them. While it was relatively easy to swap them over with careful use of a scalpel this was annoying! I assembled them and cleaned them up with a scalpel and tidied up with running Tamiya extra thin cement over areas that I had cleaned up to make the figures smooth and tidy before they were undercoated with a cheap White Primer. A couple of the greatcoat figures were primed with Halford’s Grey. I will explain the difference between my priming choices in a later post. I did two minor conversions. I added epaulets to one of the Warlord figures to make him into a voltigeur and I added a Perry bare head to the standard bearer of the guards unit.

All the gold on the miniature has been done with GW paint. Starting from a brown undercoat I based the metal with Retributor Armour. This was then washed with undiluted Liquitex Burnt Umber Ink. I prefer the reddish hue of this over Raw Umber for gold effects. This was then highlighted with Liberator Gold and Auric Armour Gold before final highlights were added with Vallejo Model Air Chrome.

The silver parts of the helmet were (over a black base)  painted with Vallejo Metal Color Duraluminium. This was then washed with a very dilute mix of Liquitex Carbon Black ink. Final highlights were added with the base colour and finally the aforementioned Chrome.

The pteruges and cloth were based with Vallejo Ivory and the breastplate with Vallejo Off White. The cloth and breastplate were washed with GW Soulblight Grey and the pteruges with Space Wolves Grey. Finer shading was then glazed into the cloth with Grey Seer. The ‘white’ areas of the model were then highlighted with Off White and very selectively pure white.

The red areas of the model were (over a white undercoat) base painted with Flesh Tearers Red. More of this was painted into the deepest recesses of the cloth. This was then highlighted with heavy glaze applications of the following GW reds: Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, and Wild Rider Red. Finally a few dots of Fire Dragon Bright were applied at the highest points or ‘ends’ of the material to make the ‘red’ pop.

The blonde hair is base coayed with GW Zandri Dust and highlighted with GW Ushbati Bone. At this stage it is washed with GW Seraphim Seoia before final highlights are done with GW Flayed One Flesh and finally Vallejo Ivory.

The sun in the middle of the breast plate was base coated with Vallejo Scrofulous Brown and shaded with glazes of GW Doombull Brown and Rhinox Hide. It was then highlighted with the base colour mixed with Vallejo Ice Yellow, pure Ice Yellow, Off White and finally white. The same palette was used for the belt around the model’s waist.

The sword was also painted with an NMM technique. Starting from a base of GW Thunderhawk Blue it was highlighted with GW Administratum Grey, Ulthuan Grey, Off White and finally white. The darker parts of the blade were done with GW Incubi Darkness and a black paint.

Blood and gore effects were done with either Blood For The Blood God or the same technical paint mixed with black ink.

Okay with Salute out of the way I can concentrate on painting completely new minis!

This is quite a large model being over 54mm. The metallics were painted with Vallejo Duraliminium. This was then washed with a blue/black ink mix. Make sure this is very diluted I used a water and matt medium mix for this. I then glazed this more carefully in certain areas and highlighted with glazes of the original colour and Vallejo Chrome was used for more extreme highlights. The eye was done with glazes of GW Warpstone Glow (this was also used for the OSL) with Moot Green in the centre and a touch of pure white in the middle. The socket was then shaded with Liquitex Sap Green Ink.

The skin was painted with Army Painter Glistening Blood. I then washed and glazed Liquitex Burnt Umber ink into the recesses before highlighting with various reds from the GW range. Finally I glazed the entire arm with the Glistening Blood. This was to blend things more smoothly and to unify the finish.

The spear was done with a mix of TMM and NMM. Often people can say you cannot combine the two techniques on the same miniature but I think it can work successfully. I used GW paints for this. For the ‘sharp’ end I used Stormvermin Fur as a base highlighting with Dawnstone, Administratum Grey, Grey Seer,  Ivory ( Vallejo) and then finally pure white. It was shaded ( all of these are glaze applications) with Skavenblight Dinge and black (any black). The metal parts of the shaft is simply Blathasar Gold shaded with Liquitex Burnt Umber ( the red in the ink works better I think than Raw Umber with ‘golds’). This is then highlighted with a Balthasar Gold/silver mix. The wood is painted Mournfang Brown and washed with Raw Umber Ink . This is then highlighted with Zandri Dust. Scale 75 Inktense Wood is then glazed over all of the wood.

Blood and gore effects are simply Blood For The Blood God applied over either the white undercoat or GW Xereus Purple ( the intestines of the unfortunate victim).

Another of my minis I entered at Hammerhead at the start of March. What I want to do here is highlight the amount of work I have done between then and now on my minis. A before and after if you like. This is for two reasons: one to show the amount of work I have done in visual form and two to show I am not just sticking up images of work that have not been significantly altered over the time period of the challenge. I have also improved a Ney’s Charge vignette and a unit of GW Howling Banshees but not significantly enough I feel to showcase them as part of the Spring Clean.

I have worked on all the metal areas improving especially the highlights on the silver. The leather has all been distressed with GW Steel Legion Drab and Zandri Dust. The skull mask has had all the blends smoothed out with Vallejo Ivory, Off White, White and glazes of Liquitex White Ink. The targeter has been ‘sharpened’, and the edge highlights on the red and black areas have been worked on. It was on the ‘black’ suit that I mainly worked on however. I worked on all the transitions and used Liquitex black ink more to improve the shading. This was then highlighted in this order: GW Dark Reaper, Thunderhawk Blue, Russ Grey, Fenrisian Grey and finally Blue Horror. Then the ‘black’ is glazed with a heavily diluted GW Contrast Terradon Turquoise. Final highlights are then achieved with Vallejo Ivory and any white. I also added more detail to the base and a couple of tiny tufts from Gamers Grass. If anyone is interested the rust effects on the metal part of the base have been done with Dirty Down Rust and Yellow Rust. I also used their Moss on this project which I also used to tint the tiny bit of cotton wool that can be seen oozing from one of the pipes. The toxic waste drip and pools are Vallejo Still Water mixed with Liquitex Green Ink.

The figures are all by Victrix Miniatures. I converted the Saxon floundering in the ditch and the Viking with two axes.

Again I have attempted today to improve on my original piece. I am going to enter this at Salute in the Single Historical Figure category. I painted this for Warlord’s ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ competition and I was a little disappointed that it could not even make commended entry level. However I think the piece is not without merit and features for example 46 bees that I have free handed across the miniature. Improvements I have made include : increasing the directional lighting on the face, smoothing out the blends on the cloak, adding more NMM to the metal parts of the staff and improving the volumes on the carpet.

Postscript : This mini took Silver at Salute in the Historical Single Figure Category.

This would have to fit in the ‘dust off’ category. With Salute’s painting competition now being just round the corner I wanted to enter as many categories as possible. With London being so far away and quite expensive to get there I thought I would have a once in a lifetime trip. Hence my wanting to enter as many categories as possible. I picked something I had already completed and had a go at adding to it. As it turned out this was a great deal more arduous than I thought. I added more shading into the blue uniform with Wargames Foundry French Blue Shade. This I then highlighted with firstly GW Calgar Blue and Fenrisian Grey. For the black overalls I added further highlights with GW Dawnstone then Administratum Grey. The reds were made to pop with further highlights of GW Evil Sunz Scarlet and Wild Rider Red. I then reworked any areas that were clumsily finished and added GW Auric Gold  and Vallejo Chrome ( the latter very selectively) to all the ‘gold’areas including the buttons.

The gun carriage received selective shading with GW Agrax Earthshade and was highlighted with the base colour ( which I think was GW Goblin Green) and then edge highlighted (where possible) with GW Moot Green mixed with Vallejo Ice Yellow. The metal areas were washed with very thinned black ink ( the base being Vallejo Gunmetal). This was then highlighted with GW Iron Hands Silver and very careful spit highlights with Chrome. The barrel was repainted with GW Retributor Armour washed with heavily diluted Burnt Umber Ink. The original colour is then glazed over where the light would reflect off the metal and again tiny highlights were applied with chrome to really make the metal pop!

This rear view shows more clearly how I improved the base. I added some tiny tufts and shrubs from Gamer’s Grass. I also highlighted these and all the original tufts with GW Ushbati bone and added GW Agrax in the recesses and around the rocks on the base. I made wheel tracks with Vallejo thick mud and applied this sparingly also on the wheel rims. The water effect is Vallejo Still Water mixed with a tiny amount of Burnt Umber ink. I used various weathering  powders from Vallejo to add ‘dirt’ to the figures shoes and lower parts of their trousers and to blend the figures into their environment. I also ( not shown in photo) added Liquitex Burnt Umber Ink to the ‘mud’ which made it,I think, look better. I also added some Dirt Down Moss to the rocks on the base.