Shtim's Dutch Colonial Adventure - Japanese Forces, KNIL, & A Book Shop (21/04)

[Tom Dulski]

On those civilians, is that the black primer and then an overspray of white technique?  I think it has an actual name but I'm not sure what it is.  Once painted these figures should make a nice addition to your collection.

Looking lovely as always.

 I was wondering about that primer job too.

[Shtim]

Thanks all!

I was wondering about that primer job too.

On those civilians, is that the black primer and then an overspray of white technique?

Yes indeed - a zenithal highlight. Although I will say that 1) my highlights are usually quite rough as I use a spray can rather than an airbrush and 2) it has little effect as I don’t use very watered down paints!

[FifteensAway]

I'm not sure I buy into the zenithal (the word I couldn't remember - thanks!) technique using opaque paints but I do believe it can help when using a black primer to give a little better definition and help lighter colors like whites, yellows, and oranges look better with less work (lighter rather than opaque in the sense I am using).  Of course, I've abandoned white and black primer pretty much - just use a 'red' primer that is really a reddish brown, gets the forgiveness of black primer, doesn't absorb those lighter colors quite so bad, details still easier to see, and - at least for me - just seems to work better.  Then again, I am perfectly happy with a 'good enough' paint job rather than the artwork many a LAFer shows off here.

[Shtim]

Hello All!

It's been a while since I last posted, so I thought I would update you on my latest projects.

With my Dutch KNIL forces continuing to expand, I finally finished off these two gents from Empress Miniatures.
I'll be using them as officers within my army - whilst they are a tad smaller than the Brigade Games Germans I use for the rest of my collection, they fit in quite nicely.



I have now finally also gotten the green uniform down to a repeatable recipe. I recently took part in the KNIL Kickstarter by May '40 miniatures, so hope to be receiving lots more KNIL troops to practice on!

I've recently been playing more BoltAction with a few friends. A KNIL force naturally requires... some Japanese opponents.
As such, I have started painting up some Japanese adversaries for my KNIL troops to battle against. These figures are from the Assault Group - I am very happy with the sculpts, plus they were delivered two (!) days after ordering them online.

Quick paintjob, but lots of fun:







Finally, for Christmas I bought myself a 3d printer. I already had a resin printer which I have occasionally used for details on my other projects (i.e. the Egyptian statues on the cinema), but was curious to see whether I could use a traditional 3d printer to produce entire buildings.

Whilst the layer lines will never truly disappear, I am quite pleased with the result (although, I am not sure it's any faster than my usual method involving foamboard).
I added the roof detailing, including wooden accents and shingles, myself. The signs were printed on my resin printer.

The corrugated awning was done using some thin MDF sheeting covered in corrugated paper.

For this build I really tried to go for a more grimy feel - more rust, dirt, and dust. I feel like this approach has added a lot more life to the build.
I feel like I have historically been very cautious when adding weathering to my buildings, as it is easier to add than it is to remove. As a result, I sometimes feel like the town feels quite... sterile? Seeing as I am rather pleased with the result, I will probably go back to my previous builds and add just a little more weathering.

All in all it was great to put my christmas present to the test, although I am not a full 3d printer convert yet.
I expect I will continue to both scratch build and 3d print builds going forward





As always, thanks for reading!
Shtim

[marianas_gamer]

I always look forward to your latest offerings    Nice painting on both the KNIL and the Japanese. Although I very much like your new "grimy" style of painting buildings I never thought that the earlier buildings were sterile in any way. I think that the "depth" and warmth of painting you had previously achieved kept that from happening. Living in the tropics myself I can appreciate that you want to depict the mold and staing that is inevitable.

[Shtim]

Thank you for your thoughts, Marianas! Glad to hear that our man in the tropics approves! 

[OSHIROmodels]

Nicely done 

[Malamute]

Lovely work.

[Tom Dulski]

 Man those Japanese forces look fantastic.

[Shtim]

Thank you gents! You are all very kind

[marco55]

Love your buildings. Really nice work.
Mark

[.:Gunslinger:.]

Absolutely brilliant! It's always a joy seeing a new update here and discovering a new addition to this great project! The painting on the figures looks really good, it seems you indeed found a nice recipe for those uniforms.

The new building is also very cool - I must say that I am a fervent enthusiast for traditional building over 3D printing, but the additions you made with other materials as well as the painting make it look like the rest around them. I also never found your terrain too sterile, I think this very neat way of doing thigs is a style of it's own. It's great to have some buildings more and some less weathered to give the impression of maybe more rundwon or posher parts of town, or more or less shady traders setting up in your city