28mm Buildings - Part 5

Well, I made it...Or them, rather...

I didn't managed to get any more than the just a basic paint job done (and even then I had cut some corners). But, I guess, they don't look too bad...If you half close your eyes!

It was a useful experience and I learned a lot about these type of models. I still wish I had had more time so I could have weathered the models...Maybe next time.

I think my favourite was the 'cafe' model, especially because we decided to have a bit of fun with it...

The printed signs and posters livened up the vanilla paint job, I downloaded some of these from the Rapid Fire website (they have a variety of WW2 signs and posters): Rapid Fire - Free Downloads. Others I found on the web by searching for WW2 French posters of the occupation.

I was rather pleased with this chalkboard menu image (I'm easily pleased). I also found some period maps and an aircraft recognition poster to make a 'French Resistance' room upstairs in Rene's Cafe!

Little touches like this tickle me, so I thought I'd also like to add some resistance graffiti too. The bombed out cottage seemed to be an ideal canvas for some deviant artwork...

An earlier photo where I was still painting some of the 'rubble'.

Not every house needed these extra embellishments, I thought this little farmhouse would like quite nice au naturel...

And, of course, there was the original test model I did for this project...

That was four down, two to go, but I was starting to run short of time by this stage. And this is where I started to take some short cuts, just to get the job done in time. So I wasn't altogether happy with these last two...

This burned out farmhouse is particularly hokey...I was really pushed for time and only just got this done. I didn't have time for the shading that I applied to the other bomb-ruined house...

I could finish off this - and, indeed, any of the models - later, but, in the meantime, I delivered them as they are to the Scarborough Gaming Society for their demonstration games that they are doing at the Scarborough Science Fiction Festival over the weekend.

Conclusion - What I have learned...
MDF wargame buildings are fun! It's a nice change from 'display modelling' that takes liberties with realism (although I am sure more a 'realistic' job could be done than my hurried examples) and they do have their own challenges which are mainly to do with the way they are designed to be taken apart for play.

In fact, one of the main things to bear in mind when painting and decorating these type of models is that they are designed to be interacted with. Roofs and floors have to be detachable and floor space needs to be clear to allow miniature soldiers to be placed inside. So, there are certain restrictions to what you can do, for example, I couldn't add lots of 'rubble' on the floors of the bomb-ruined houses in case that obstructed play.

Ultimately, unlike display models, these houses are designed to be played with. So too many or too delicately detailed embellishments are perhaps not ideal. (I had to consider that these models are often transported, packed away and unpacked frequently so any ornamentation that could be knocked off probably would be knocked off!)

Painting wise, I learned that MDF is a bit of a paint guzzler! It has been suggested that I may need up to three coats of a primer - or to use a proper MDF sealer - to prevent further paint coats from being soaked up.

But, most of all, I learned that wargaming is a game and is meant to be fun. Obviously, some wargames are intended to be taken a little more seriously, but Bolt Action as a game system isn't necessarily one of them and there is plenty of opportunity for some tongue in cheek adornments.

Finally, the tight schedule for these - totally at odds with my usual tortoise-like work pace - was quite liberating as it took the pressure off me when it came to decisions about when something was finished (and replaced it with a 'that will do' attitude, which was sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing).

I hope to do more of these type of models, in fact, from the client's reaction to these models I am sure there will be more coming my way!

28mm Buildings - Part 4

Satisfied with the work done on my test model, my production line can now swing into action. I am beginning with the floors...

Though, those with eagle eyes will have noticed that I've cracked on with my 'green cafe'. That was simply because I happened to mix up a very nice fawn green which I felt was a bit to waste! I had originally intended to do the cafe - the largest building - a lemon yellow, but I really liked the green when I saw it.

The most challenging buildings - in my opinion - will be the burnt out ones (the two primed with black), as these will demand weathering/effects applying to them no matter how quickly I need this project done.

Again, I feel I need to reiterate, I'm making this all up as I go along. It's one of those sink of swim situations.

Walls and roofs
Having established the pattern of painting with my test model, I simply adjusted the wall colours for variety. I tried to make each room a little different, but - basically - they were all permutations of magnolia, sky blue and a very light sea green. I did have a dark green and a dark blue which I could mix with white, and - of course - I could have any shade of grey I wanted by mixing my white and black...

I have four shades of brown, an orange-brown, buff, terracotta and a mahogany brown. So, I think I had nine colours in all to play with. BUT, having said that, I did delve into my Vallejo Model Color collection for small detailing jobs, like the window shutters, window and door sills and doors.

The cheap acrylic paints aren't great, but I am glad I went for this 'quantity over quality' option as the MDF - which the buildings are made from - simply drinks paint even after being primed (my brother has suggested that I should try a proper MDF sealant). As an example, the sky-blue needed at least three coats to get fairly opaque coverage, but even then it was still a little streaky in places.

In varying states of completion and various styles, my roofs near completion.
Some I am happy with, others were less successful experiments.

One Frustration...
This will sound really obvious, but one thing became pretty clear early on and that was how much easier my job could have been if I had been able to do the painting *before* the MDF models had been constructed!

Unfortunately, because these were not my models they had already been assembled for use unpainted. This meant that painting ground floor walls became a little tricky, and there were plenty of nooks and crannies that were hard to get too.

(When it comes to painting my own 1/72 MDF buildings, I will do a lot of the base colours by spraying the unassembled walls. This will make things a lot less messy and time-consuming.)

Another building completed...
To meet my deadline I need to knock out a building a day this week, though because I am using a production line method chances are that the majority will be completed together later in the week. But, some of the buildings are more straight forward than others and were more easily finished...

Cafe Rene nears completion (just the roof to finish off).

The cafe model was very straight-forward, and the printed signs helped to decorate the scene!

28mm Buildings - Part 3

Moving along...
My test model proceeding well, the rest of the buildings are primed and ready to follow the same painting process. However, two of the buildings are of a slightly different construction and need some work on their integral bases...

The bases on these models extended beyond the footprint of the buildings themselves, so I decided to add some grit and sand texturing...

This was simply a mixture of fine sand and fish tank gravel and PVA. Hopefully, it will look like rough ground once it's been dry brushed later.

Start at the top...
Well, you have to start somewhere, so I began with the roof components of the models. I've started a bit of a production line and I will work through the models floor by floor, inside and then out, as I did with my test model.

I am varying the colour schemes, and the colours are a little dazzling for a military modeller who is used to working with dull drab earth tones and olive greens. But, it's rather a fun change to be working with pastels, but to keep me right I am doing a lot Googling and referencing photographs.

Amusingly, because of this I have added a selection of paints and colours to my inventory that I probably wouldn't have otherwise thought of buying! (But they will be very handy, as I also have my own 1/72 French WW2 buildings to make...Eventually.)

Production Line
As you can see, I making this up as I go along as I am not a prolific wargame modeller. But, it's pretty obvious that the best way to tackle this project - because of the limited timescale - was to create a little production line, rather than trying to paint one house at a time...

Though, even my newly cleared workbench is struggling a bit with the scale and number of models in this current project. This causes some log-jams, occasionally, as I work through the various buildings with a colour I wish to apply to several of the models (like the floor or wall colours, etc).

Test Model Complete
Meanwhile (there's so much going on at the same time), I have completed the basic painting of my original test model. No weathering has been done on this building as I want to get all the models to this same stage as it is the bare minimum acceptable state of completion that might do for the demo game. IF I manage to get all six buildings to this state by mid-week (at a push), then I will consider doing some basic weathering on them. I could, however, always add more intense weathering effects after the demo game has been completed.

Onwards, ever onwards...

28mm Buildings - Part 2

Before I do anything, I had one important job to do and that was to create some workspace for these larger models. My attic mancave has been out of action for some time, but now I can no longer put off the inevitable...I have to tidy my work bench!

This took a few hours...

First Test Example
As usual, when trying out something new, I begin with a test model. In this case, there is a lot that I am trying out for the first time, so there will be plenty of experimentation on my poor guinea pig!

For starters, because these are pretty big models, I won't be using my normal Vallejo Model Color paints as these won't last two minutes with the amount of paint I will need. So, I am taking a bit of a gamble and buying some very cheap 'acrylics' (as I have to be careful with my budget as the club is paying). And while I was at it, I bought some very cheap and nasty brushes from my local low-cost crafts store...

There are a mixture of cheap acrylic paints here, some from Ryman (£1 each) and then a couple of large tubes from Poundland, and finally, a big tube of white from xxxxx. Honestly, I have no idea if these paints will be any good!

Obviously, spray can acrylics would have been the fastest way to do this, but I am really trying to keep costs down. So, I bought just one can of spray primer (Wilkos grey primer, £3.50) and will colour my buildings with the cheap acrylics.

Because these are wargaming buildings, these models disassemble so that you can place figures on either floor inside the house. This is rather handy for painting purposes...

Priming is very easy, and the Wilko's grey went on beautifully...

I'm also painting some sections of cobblestone road!

Painting with cheap acrylics
For once, I just launched myself into this and started to slap on some of the cheap acrylic paints. I knew I was going for a 'rustic' French rural look, so I wasn't too fussy about nice flat coverage...In this particular case, I thought streaky and patchy would be good...

Straight in! I quickly laid down the inside walls before painting the ground
floor outer wall. Two coats are definitely needed.

This was just as well as the cheap acrylic paints were horrible. I guess they are really made for kids crafts so it's a case of quantity over quality with them. But these cheap paints also have an unpleasant 'oily' sort of texture to them so tend to be a little streaky, and this wasn't helped by the very cheap brushes I was using.

In fact, I found that the best way to treat these paints was as 'poor man's oil paints' and in this way I created some nice textured effects, like this 'wooden' floor...

The knack was to apply a first coat fairly loosely and not to worry about the streak BUT make sure that your brush strokes (and streaks) are in one direction. In the case of my wooden floor, I ran the streaks along the length of the house to create a sort of wood grain effect. And with my ground floor stone floor I applied the paint in blended streaks in a generally circular manner, creating a gradient effect in from the outer edges...

You can also see how patchy I have left the walls, hopefully, this will look intended and 'rustic' and not just like a bad paint job (on my part)!

Perhaps this picture gives you an idea about how gloopy and streaky the cheap paint is...

This 'faux-texture' with thick paint is great when the model doesn't have any surface detail in itself as it adds some interest to plain flat MDF walls and floors. Had the models included surface detail - like floorboards or bricks - I would have been tempted to do a nice flat base coat and then apply a wash over the top of that to bring out the detail.

My test is coming along nicely, and as I'm pushed for time I've decided I am confident enough to begin work on the other buildings. I quite satisfied with the approach that I've taken, so I'm getting a little production line going with the priming coats being applied to all the remaining models.

Sometimes, as in the case of the damaged building in the above picture, I am priming with black where I feel it is appropriate. And, as for my test example, it's on with the detail painting - things like the shutters and doors, etc.

At this stage, I'm feeling a little more happy with the time I have available to me. I'll just have to try very hard not to get bogged down with too much detailed work and adding supperfluous weathering and what not!

Emergency 28mm 'Normandy' Housing Project!

...Hold everything else! I have - rather madly - 'volunteered' myself to paint half a dozen 28mm buildings for my local club. There are holding a demo game - Bolt Action Normandy themed - in a weeks time!

...But that's not the bad news...The bad news is that I have *never* painted a model building before!

OK, I did that Berlin diorama facade, but that was in 1/72 and also I had all the time in the world to work on it. And as you all know by now - I am NOT the fastest modeller/painter in the world!

I didn't even know where to start with these models, but luckily - as usual - there is a YouTube tutorial that covers this sort of thing...

Lots of big brushes and plenty of dry brushing seems to be my only hope...I am really worried I have bitten off more than I can chew this time!

Edit: Here's another video that has some useful techniques for painting buildings fairly quickly. One of the things that has surprised me - and I have started doing some research on French village houses of the period - is the use of some quite bright pastel colours - lemon yellows, sky blues, peach reds, etc. It's not just all grey!

Bolt Action British Commandos Part 8

Finished the initial test figures...
Well, about time I finished something! Because these were my first experiments with 28mm figure painting it took a bit longer than I expected, mainly because I changed my mind about my colours a few times.

Like I said in an earlier post, the colours aren't exactly historically accurate. Rather, I have modified the colour palette used to suit tabletop gaming (so the contrast and lightness is somewhat exaggerated). Having said that, I am quite pleased for my first attempt.

That done, now the real work begins...I shall be starting to put together my first Bolt Action Commando platoon!

Commando Figures - Basing

The whole purpose of doing this blog was supposed to be so I could document techniques and processes so I could come back later and remind myself how I did 'something'. Annoyingly, I didn't do this for my figure basing process so I am having to remind myself - again - how I did it the first time!

Above: One of my current (1/56) figures next to one of the (1/72) Germans that
I completed last year. I like the way I did the base, but I forgot to document just
how I did it!

After some examination of figures I had previously done I think I have a rough idea of the 'recipe'...

[Bear in mind that I don't create the base in isolation, I work on it as I paint the figure itself. It's not done in one go, but over a period of time finishing after the painting of the figure is completed.]

1. Base: The foundation of the 28mm base is a 25mm diameter disc, though - as I mentioned in a previous post - I like to base my Bolt Action figures on metal discs (in this case, 25mm steel repair washers).

2. Ground Effect: Next I build up the 'ground' with a rough application of quick drying PollyFilla. This I either mix with some dark brown paint or with Vallejo's 'Black Lava' compound so that the PolyFilla plaster is no longer white.

3. Base Colour: Once dry, I slap on some Vallejo Black Brown as my earth base layer.

4. Wash: Then I apply a black wash to pick out the nooks and crannies.

5. Rocks and stones: I'm not too fond of the fake 'flowers' that seem to be in fashion as base ornamentation at the moment. I prefer to keep things simple, just some 'moss' (or grass) and some random 'rocks'. I super glue some tiny pebbles I find in the back yard onto the bases. [Note: I may do this stage while laying down the Pollyfilla/Lava material so that the stones stick in the 'ground' instead of being glued on top of it.]

6. First High-Lights: I then start my highlight dry-brushing, with - first - a medium brown (Burnt Umber mixed with Khaki) and then I dry-brush a very light highlight on top of Khaki.

7. Grass: I don't bother with fancy static grass, just plain old flock from my local railway model shop (the cheapest mid-green colour).  I like a bit of 'earth' showing through...

8. Finishing Highlighting: As it is the grassy base is still a little flat and bland, so I then go in and do some extra highlighting and colouring just to pick it up a little. I did some gentle dry-brushing with Vallejo's Stone Grey and then added some spots of Citadel's Agrax Earthshade wash here and there for some extra depth or where I thought my 'ground' was becoming too light (the idea is to create contrast).

I also very lightly dabbed some spots of Vallejo Stone Grey onto the flock 'grass' to add some areas of bleached grass. Just for some variety in colour.

9. Glossing: Although this stage is actually to provide the paintwork with some protection and prepare the model for the addition of decals, a coat of varnish also helps to stick down that pesky flocking (which has a tendency to moult if you aren't fastidious with your glueing)!

And, there we go. The figure is now ready to have the shoulder patch decals applied and then fixed in place with a final coat of matt varnish. This will also take the shine off the model.

Conclusion...
I did notice that while this worked perfectly well for my smaller 1/72 war game figures, I think I need to add a little more texture to the larger 28mm scale disc base. In retrospect, this is probably why many modellers add 'flowers' and tall grass clumps to their bases.

I am still a bit adverse to flowers but will experiment with other texture additions in future figures.

Bolt Action British Commandos Part 6

Just some minor progress as I continue to experiment with my 28mm test figures. I'm slowly feeling my way with the 'Bolt Action' style of painting - which has been described to me as 'heroic' (in the vein of 28mm fantasy figures) - and I think I'm getting somewhere...

My four 'guinea pigs', brands from left to right - Artizan, Warlord, Black Tree & Dixons.

It's slow progress as I have repainted certain parts a couple of times as I adjust and refine my colours. And I have finally come up with a palette that I am happy with. Ironically, it's not entirely historically authentic.

Drab World War 2 Uniforms being what they were (with good reason), the earthy tones tended to blend at a distance. This is not necessarily so attractive for a tabletop game where it's nice for your army to be easily identifiable and distinct from your opponent. So I have exaggerated contrasting colours a bit to make these figures something of a caricature of WW2 British Commandos.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised and pleased with my progress. 28mm is turning out to be a very nice compromise between the 1/72 and 1/32 scale figures that I have worked on before, a nice amount of detail but not too big a 'canvas' (1/32 does take quite a bit of paint)!

Things left to do:

• Finish base terrain (add grass and some 'rocks')
• Maybe add some highlights to faces and berets
• Gloss figures and apply shoulder decal badges
• Apply light matt varnish coat to flatten gloss coat