1914 Belgium - UD 18/12 - news re German infantry paint scheme

[Silent Invader]

    To be honest, I didn't show them earlier as I wasn't sure if the approach would work : looking as they did like some sort of twisted, green sea monster before painting and foliage!

[Dr. The Viking]

You are quite the terrain ace!

[Andym]

Thanks very much folks 

A few of the bits (corrugated panels, sign post, planking) are from the 1:72 Airfix outpost kit.  The wardrobe uses the door from a 1/72 Italeri wrecked house kit with some plasticard sheet and stretched sprue legs/feet.  The bottles are also stretched sprue, the idea stolen from Constable Bertrands shanty build. 

Stretched sprue bottles? That's genius! That's another idea that will be shamelessly stolen! !

[Silent Invader]

Thanks chaps

Stretched sprue bottles? That's genius! That's another idea that will be shamelessly stolen! !

When I read about the bottle technique on Matt's thread I thought 'Belgian Beer'! 

[Silent Invader]

Rather than start painting the minis I decided to finish the remaining tiles that will complete the terrain for this phase of the project - so I have six 'country' tiles on the go at the moment.

This will give me the following terrain:





I'll be fighting over this with up to about 25 British and 75 Germans, the narrow front being deliberate so as to discourage sweeping flanking moves etc for a more head-butted-against-head game. I have settled on 20 layouts for these tiles that give a variety of offensive/defensive advantages/disadvantages.

For next year, the current plan is to add 6 more 'town' tiles that will provide a canal and a railway.  They'll add another 17 buildings with another 12 LED units but will provide for another set of scenarios.



With the bigger board, I might add some cavalry to each side (I believe that Mutton Chops have them planned) with dismounted alternates. I also quite fancy some field artillery (a maternal great grandfather was an 'old contemptible' field artilleryman) but that might require a little more length to the table in the form of another row of 'country' tiles.

 

[pocoloco]

Oooh! The future plans sound great!  Now, hurry up and start making that terrain already during this year

[Silent Invader]

 

Here's the final six country tiles of phase 1:



Some more sand, poppies and 4 trees required then it'll be on with the painting

PS: they're not level because the table isn't level 

[Dr DeAth]

Can't wait to see this all together in it's finished state - it's going to be brilliant I'm sure.

[Silent Invader]

Thanks Mark - there should be enough time between now and Blam to paint all the minis 

[Silent Invader]

I was asked for some photos of how I paint the teddy bear fur, so here goes.  

This is the first stage of painting - which is a wet blending - to arrive at the base colours for the grass and earth.  I'll add images of the dry brushing and highlighting stages, for which this stage needs to be dry, in the next few days.

A word of caution: I've no idea if this technique will work on fur that isn't glued to a base board. For example, the absence of the underlying waterproof glue might result in more fur being pulled out during combing.

The tile of fur, sand and plasticard on an mdf  and foam board base:



Undiluted Burnt Umber craft paint (i.e., not Vallejo!), worked hard into the entirity of the fur (earth and grass) using a 3/4" flat brush:



With the fur and sand completely covered, the fur is brushed through to separate and 'stand it up' using a wide tooth plastic comb:



Which ends up looking like this:



The tile is left to stand for a short while (I work on 2 or 3 at a time) to dry a little but not too much, as the next step is to lightly brush on undilute yellow ochre (the emphasis is on lightly brush, for a coating to the top half or so rather than a plastering of everything):



This is then combed into the fur for the wet blended effect (note the colour change):



After combing, the tile again then stands for a short while but must not dry as there is more wet blending to come:



Undilute Sap Green is then applied in the same manner as for the Yellow Ochre:



Which looks quite vivid immediately after application:



It is then also combed through to achieve the wet blend:



I tend to repeat the Sap Green stage to get what I think is the right base colour for the grass:



Dry brushing and highlighting to follow (Edit: before which the grass will need a good combing through as when this base coat of paint dries it leaves it quite stiff, thick and knotty).  

[janner]

Thanks for the walk through 

[Captain Blood]

Looks very effective Steve.

[Eric the Shed]

Brilliant . thankyou

[verd]

Fantastic grass. Thanks for the tip.

[Malamute]

Looks very effective Steve.

It certainly does and a very effective way of producing it.

Good to see you are wearing your white latex gloves. You don't want to be leaving fingerprints...