Numbers, Wargames and Arsing About : Paint colours

Showing posts with label Paint colours. Show all posts

Sunday, 26 June 2016

A small detour....

1/72 that is!

With my pocket money the other week I picked up a Zvezda Flak 38 gun and crew. I bought it because I liked it. I have assembled it and painted it for Normandy as I may do a version of "Song of...Bullets and Bombs" in 1/72.

My painting is very poor but I was pleased with how these came out. Just for the record, I have decided to use Vallejo 830 German Uniform for the er... uniforms. This was after trying Russian Uniform as had been suggested somewhere in the interweb. It looked plain wrong. I have also discovered my favourite Dunkelgelb. I used 914 Green Ochre. It looked great especially with a wash of Gryphone Sepia. A really good base colour for 15mm tanks.

By the way, I got some great feedback from Brian Train on the Ramadi game (see the game page and Brian's own blog). Remember, this is THE Brian Train of "A Distant Plain" fame! I'm very encouraged so I'm now off to Fallujah!

Tuesday, 3 February 2015

The results are in....

Painting experiment conclusive, shock!

Yes, I've done my best with my limited painting skills and have come to a number of conclusions, none of them surprising.

The original plan was to test alternative approaches to painting my Baccus 6mm WSS chaps. These guys will be Dutch in grey coats. Here on the left we see one infantry unit undercoated black but with a white dry brush to bring out the highlights. On the right we have a white undercoat with a black wash to produce both some depth and also to generate the overall grey colour.

My initial thoughts are that the black undercoat (Chaos Black spray) was easy, the white dry brushing was extra work and made the figures look untidy to start with. I don't think the white did anything to bring out the later colours and in fact, prevented me from ensuring some nice clean black lines around the block painting. I also had to paint the hats!

The white undercoat was a pig (Rustoleum Acrylic White spray). I had to re-coat in Vallejo white which looked fantastic. The black wash (GW Nuln Oil) produced a nice grey colour but without adding much depth. The effect was very pleasant but, on such small figures, doesn't stand out. I may use this for 20mm Austrians where it may prove more useful. I also had to paint the hats!

So here we are with nearly completed figures, white undercoat on the left and black on the right. They look very similar to me but I prefer the black simply because they have a bit more definition. In fact, my conclusion is that the next lot I do will be a simple black spray undercoat followed by block painting and that will be that. Less bother for same or better result.

So what is with the green? I made a mistake basing my Bavarian by using a too dark green (Dark Angels Green in fact). A great colour but it simply doesn't bring out the best of the figures. Here we have from the right: GW Warboss Green, GW Loren Forest, Crafter's Acrylic Pine Needle, Homebase Sage Leaf and Habitat Leaf. These are: too blue, too dark, too blue, too brown and just right! The Habitat Leaf comes in a 125ml tester and should last for some time (great for £3.50). It covers well and, although a bit thick, is easy to work with. This is for me the right colour of spring grass and will now be used on all of my bases, probably without any extra vegetables.

So, job done? Yes. And what's more, I really enjoyed the painting, so much that I have bought new brushes!

Thursday, 29 January 2015

Something for the weekend Sir?

A painting experiment!

In keeping with this week's WSS theme I'm getting on with a long delayed job of putting together some more Baccus 6mm troops for the new hex grid game. These have been sitting around for years. The good thing is that my chosen scale (24 infantry, 15 cavalry per unit) fits with the pack sizes from Baccus. Mine are just based in a single rank on three 40mm bases instead of two deep on one 60mm for Polemos.

The next two regiments in the nude!

I'm starting off with two additional foot regiments. I'm not jumping in at the deep end with more because I need to decide not only what team they will play for but also how I'm going to paint them. I have been building up a Bavarian army (no surprise there!) but have yet to decide on their opponents.

However, I am vaguely unsatisfied with my normal painting style. A traditional back undercoat, acrylic block painting and a gloss or satin top coat. This produces a serviceable and attractive figure (without loads of effort) but quite dark. Not helped so far by my choice of a dark green base colour, but that an easily be changed.

So, I have been mulling over alternative painting approaches and decided on an experiment:

The first regiment will be spray undercoated with white acrylic, washed with black then block painted and finished in the usual way.
Regiment two will be sprayed with Chaos Black in the normal way but will be dry brushed white before blocking and sealing.

I do not regard myself as a good painter, far from it, but I think I can deliver a reasonable job. I'm most proud recently of some old H&R 6mm chaps for a Jacobite rebellion game (more on this anon). Limited vegetables on the bases and not varnished (for some reason). Very proud of the hand painted flags tho!

The photographer could do better!

So, this experiment will decide the method to be used to complete my Baccus armies for the WSS hex grid game. I have everything I need to get this on the table, including metal, paint and commitment! I also intend to try out some different colours for the bases and see what takes my fancy.

Monday, 21 October 2013

At last, some Sherman action

Rolling off the production line....slowly!

I'm afraid my plan, to mate an M4 A4 hull with an M4 A1 chassis did not pan out as intended. The additional hull length on the M4 A4 sunk me without trace. Thirty years ago I might have had a go with a razor saw but with my eye sight and history of finger accidents I decided to give it a miss. I understand that Pandas have the same problem.

Here is the finished 1/72 PSC Sherman, painted in US colours but sans decals.

I can assure you that it looks fine in daylight. The Autumn darkness and poor camera work aided by one of those Soviet era airbrush artists have spoiled the effect. However, I'm pleased and it looks good alongside the two Armourfast Shermans.

I undercoated the vehicle in khaki (FoW British Armour Italy) and wet brushed Vallejo Brown Violet. This gave a really nice colour, reminiscent of very weathered OD. The undercarriage was dry brushed with GW Sepia wash and some Vallejo smoky ink was added to the pointy bits. I'll try for some photos of the developing US team for PBI2 at the weekend (if it ever stops raining!).

Friday, 16 August 2013

Achtung Spitfire!

Well, two out of three ain't bad...

I set out two weeks ago to ruthlessly pursue some summer wargaming activities. I immediately managed to go into displacement mode when I found a completed Revell Spitfire Ia lurking in the study awaiting a paint job. I then, ahem, painted it.

In fact I have just finished it and I'm quite pleased with the result. I painted my last Spitfire 43 years ago and time has improved my eye even if my hands shake quite a lot and my fingers are the size of bananas!

I didn't put on all of the tiddly decals and I think I made an error painting the prop boss white, at least in photographic terms. For the record, the top surfaces were painted in English Uniform (Vallejo 921) and Catachan Green (GW and now called something completely different) with Pale Blue (Vallejo 906) under surfaces.

So, having completed arsing about, I have applied my mind to some actual wargaming. In fact I have been playing Into Battle by Saxon Games. I haven't had time to play through a full scenario but I have started to play through one of the four that comes with the game (Scenario 3: KG Sivers). This is a Russian front WWII tactical game with squads, individual heavy weapons and individual tanks. This is the package, compete with random event cards, play sheets and turn track.

What I really like about this is that it uses squares (great), has a feel like Squad Leader to play but without the endless complexity and shows a really good understanding of the technicalities of some of the weapons (the ratings of the Panther tank for example chime very well with some of my recent reading about Normandy).

This is a Print and Play game (PnP to the aficionado) and was really nicely designed for easy assembly. Feeling very cocky after nailing the Spit I proceeded to try to chop my thumb off with a sharp knife and a straight edge. Never mind. It has stopped hurting and I'm ready for a full game over the weekend.

Check out the Saxon Games website, Norman Smith has another three games available one of which (Anzio) I have already purchased: http://mistersmith.magix.net/public/

So, why only two out of three? Well it has been too hot for "numbers" type thinking, so this may well be the objective for my Autumn offensive.

Saturday, 27 July 2013

Bavarians for 1809

Not there yet, just prepping

I have purchased some Bavarians for the 1809 campaign. This was a long time ago and I feel the need to get on with painting them. The rules will be Neil Thomas' Napoleonic Wargaming, or such an approximation as I can get together. The troops are from Hat.

First things first, have we got an army list? Well, we do now:

Bavarian 1809
Line infantry	2-4	(Close Order Infantry (Musket), Average)
Light infantry	1-2	(Light Infantry (Musket), Average)
Tyrolean Jaegers	0-1	(Light Infantry (Rifle), Elite)
Dragoons	0-1	(Heavy Cavalry, Elite)
Chevaux Legers	1-2	(Light Cavalry (Carbine), Average)
Artillery	0-1
Notes: 1. Only the elite company of the light infantry had rifles so the whole unit is treated as musket armed. 2. For the Tyrolean Jaegers I plan to use the Hat Austrian infantry in shakos in a suitable paint job. Strictly they are 1807 only but I couldn’t resist them. 3. Dragoons are horse cavalry only, they do not have dismounted ability. 4. I have no special rules for the Bavarians, although I am tempted to build in a Black Forest Gateaux moment as a command and control limit when Bavarians are fighting anyone other than fellow cake eaters, such as the Austrians!

And what colour do we paint them? Lets look up the book (Osprey 106 Napoleon's German Allies (4): Bavaria):

Bavarian Paint Chart 1	Infantry	Light infantry	Artillery
Coat	Light blue	Dark green	Dark blue
Facings (Collar, Cuffs, Lapels)	Red, yellow, poppy, green	Black piped red	Scarlet collar and cuffs, black lapels
Turnbacks	Red	Red	Scarlet
Bandoliers	White	White	White
Trousers	Grey	Grey	Dark blue
Gaiters	Black	Black	Black/yellow buttons
Musket sling	Red	Red	Red
Cartridge box	Black	Black	Black

Bavarian Paint Chart 2	Tyrolean Jaegers	Dragoons (1^st “Minucci”	Chevaux Legers (2^nd “Koenig”
Coat	Dark grey	White	Dark green
Facings (Collar, Cuffs, Lapels)	Light blue	Red collar; cuffs and lapels red.	Red
Turnbacks	Red	White piped red	Red
Bandoliers	Black	White	White
Trousers	Grey	Dark grey	White
Gaiters	Black	NA	NA
Musket sling	Red	Red	NA
Cartridge box	Black	Back	Black
Saddle furniture		Red , white/blue border	Grey, white edging
Sash		Red	Grey

And what colour is Bavarian blue? Some say it is a dark blue, some say the dark blue faded to a cornflower or grey blue, others say that the blue turned purple from the soldiers perspiration. Well, one guy says use Vallejo Andrea blue (841 (65)), another says do something different. hey ho, nobody knows! I'll have a look at Deep Sky Blue (844 (66)) and Sky Blue (961 (67)) as well.

Wednesday, 10 April 2013

More Zvezda airforce

What colours to use for the Luftwaffe?

The next steps in the unplanned airforce expansion are two Stukas and one Bf109, all mysteriously acquired and sitting in the study ready for assembly.

Having spent some time looking at the illustrations on the front of the boxes and rummaging through my library I am pretty much at a loss as to how to paint them. Given that I already have IL-2s, I plan to continue with the Russian Front theme. So, time for some research....

Luftwaffe colours: I found the IPMSS site in Sweden which gives good detail on the colours used. Their website is great: http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_germany.htm.

For the Stukas I plan to use the standard ground attack scheme RLM 71+70/65. This is Dunkelgrun and Schwartzgrun over a Hellblau undersides.

For the 109 I'll use the 1941-44 day fighter scheme RLM 74+75/76. This is Dunkelgrun and Grauviolett over Lichtblau undersides.

That sounds as though I know what I'm talking about but in reality this stuff might as well be in Chinese. I haven't got the remotest idea what these colours actually are.

Colour matching: Luckily, Vallejo have a colour equivalencies chart which means I can match RLM colours to Vallejo Model Colours. The equivalencies chart is really helpful: http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/es_ES/media/5b001b2cd9766dd8ca5eb1d045ba8c75.cms/vallejo-equivalence-2012.pdf. Also, their colour chart means I can look these colours up and get an idea what they look like http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/model-color/family/15.

Choosing paint: This is more about selecting the best match between the paints I have and the recommended RLM matches. For the Stukas I'll use the following:

RLM 71 Dunkelgrun: The match is 888 (92) Olive grey but I have 887 (93) Brown violet and will use this instead.
RLM 70 Schwartzgrun: This matches to 897 (102) Bronze green which is great because I have this.
RLM 65 Hellblau: This is 906 (64) Pale blue which I don't have. My best bet is GW Ice Blue.

For the day fighter scheme the conversions are:

RLM 74 Dunkelgrun: This is 867 (164) Dark blue grey. I don't have this one either but I have GW Shadow grey which looks similar.
RLM Grauviolett: This is 869 (162) Basalt grey. My nearest is GW Codex grey.
RLM 76 Lichtblau: The Vallejo match is 907 (153) Pale grey blue. My nearest is GW Fortress grey.

Funnily enough I have only three greys in my collection and the quickest way of selecting the colours would just have been to use the three colours to hand. Never mind, I think they will look quite good.

By the way, the numbers in () are the Vallejo position numbers, if you have ever tried to find a colour on their racks you will need this (or new glasses!).

Next time, some finished examples....hopefully.

Monday, 8 April 2013

Zvezda airforce!

Soundly in the arsing about category, yet another project

Now I can't remember why I have two IL-2s in my study. I certainly haven't been planning on building any sort of airforce for anything. However. I have built them and painted them up and I am very pleased with how they have turned out.

As I have a problem with colour blindness I always spend time trying to get a good colour match, even if I'm not always successful. For these planes I used Vallejo 924 Russian Green, GW Desert Yellow and GW Ice Blue. In researching the colours I came across some really interesting existing examples of the IL-2 on the internet. They are certainly big compared to other single seaters and dwarf the fighters that have also snuck into the study. More on these later.