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!

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

Bolt Action British Commandos Part 2

The results of my first paint test for this project allowed me to work out which colours I am going to use for my 28mm British figures...

I have some tweaking to do, but I want to try any further tests on an actual 28mm figure instead of another 1/32 plastic soldier. The scale of the brushwork for this sort of painting means it doesn't exactly work on a larger model, I'll only really know if it works when I apply it to a smaller figure.

My next practice figures - a sprue of Warlord's plastic Commandos.

So, I ordered a sprue of the Warlord 28mm plastic Commandos (yes, you can order them by the sprue) to try out this paint method on 'the real thing'. Though, I've actually chosen miniatures made by a company called Artizan Designs for my final 'army'. They are wonderful little figures, superior to Warlords - in my opinion- so I don't want to make a mess of them.

Artizan Designs wonderful and characterful 28mm Lord Lovat's Commandos.
I want to be absolutely sure I know what I'm doing before I put brush to these. 

One of the things you might notice when you compare the above two pictures of Warlord's and Artizan's 28mm figures is both the difference in painting style and colour selection.

Actually, neither set of painted figures is all-together wrong (though I would probably take issue with Warlord's very light coloured webbing) as the real Commandos and British Infantry, in general, changed the colour of their webbing - from Khaki to a pastel Olive Green - in about 1944. But, I have read that both types and colours of webbing co-existed in use until the end of the war.

The painting style is a different matter. Artizan's painted example figures are far more blended in a naturalistic style, as opposed to the higher contrast style of Warlord's example (and, indeed, the guide I worked from). And, while I do not have a tutorial for how they achieved this look I do have Artizan's Painting Guide, which tells me the colours they used, and I have found a rather informative painting tutorial which gives an alternative method of painting these miniatures...

I'll be studying this tutorial before I try out my next painting test and I will try out both methods on the smaller scale in order to compare them. Hopefully, my Warlord 28mm sprue will arrive today.

Ooops, Diversion Ahead (Bolt Action British)

Those 2017 Resolutions didn't last long...I'm back to my old easily distracted ways already!

To be fair, my recent involvement in Bolt Action games probably made it inevitable that I would want a little army of my own to play with at the club (my 1/72 Bolt Action project is for home practising/learning the rules on the kitchen table). But which?

It may sound a bit 'boring', but I fancied good old British. Though I thought I would spice things up by doing commandos. This is probably because I still have fond memories of playing with Airfix's 1/32 plastic commandos in my garden as a kid!

Now, before I start collecting a little hoard of 28mm miniatures, I thought a painting test might be in order...

For my first attempt at painting a 'British Tommy' test figure, I'm using Warlord
Games Painting Guide...It has a good list of the Vallejo paints required.

By sheer coincidence, I happen to have a bag of Airfix's 1/32 British Infantry Support figures (think I bought them for the 1/32 Vickers), so these seem a convenient test figure for checking the British colour scheme...

As usual, with my Bolt Action figures, I mounted the figure on a metal base (a 25mm Repair Washer) and build up the ground with Polyfilla mixed with dome Vallejo German Camo Black Brown. In fact, I tried out Wilko's own 'Polyfilla' and that worked just as well as the real thing (but is cheaper).

Stage One - Priming and Base Coating
Next, I decided to go for a white primer as I want the colour to 'pop'...

I'm going to use Warlord Games British Infantry painting guide (available free on their website), as that is mainly based on the Vallejo Model Color paint system, which suits what I have. Though, I don't have all the paints they suggest I have near equivalents so I will have to do a bit of swapping colours around...

Colour recipe (British Infantry, mid-WW2):

Flesh base: Vallejo 804 - Beige Red
Uniform base: Vallejo 921 - English Uniform
Webbing base: Vallejo Game Color 72.061 Khaki
Helmet base: Vallejo 894 Camo Olive Green
Wood (rifle) base: Vallejo 72.043 Beastly Brown
Boots base: Vallejo Panzer Aces 306 Dark Rubber
Ground base: Vallejo 822 German Camo Black Brown

Stage Two - Applying a Shading Wash
These colours from the base of a triad of a colour system, going from a darker base to a mid-highlight, to a super highlight. However, the above base will be further 'dulled' down by the addition of an overall wash, which is designed to create shadow areas in the creases of clothing and between different material areas (outlining areas).

Warlord game suggests using Army Painter's Strong Tone Wash. Now, I've never used one of these 'quick shades' for figures, but I know lots of wargame figure painters swear by them for getting quick shading results. I looked it up (see above link) and it is rather pricey at £24.99 which I don't want to spend as it seems quite an invasive technique. Apparently, you can get a smaller bottle as an 'ink', for £2.25, which is more like an acrylic wash, so don't get the two confused.

Instead, I am looking at a Citadel product called Agrax Earthshade, which has been suggested to me as an alternative (particularly to the AP Strong Tone Ink, which from looking on YouTube looks almost identical)...

"Citadel Shades are specially formulated to flow over other paints and into the recesses on your miniatures, defining details and accentuating recesses. Once applied, they dry to provide very effective shading for your models."

Fingers crossed - this is why you do paint tests - here we go...(I'm a bit nervous!)

The wash has, indeed, toned down the base colours a shade or two. This is why
you must begin with base colours a shade lighter than what you want to end
up with.

As a first-time wash user, this technique seems to be something of a dark art, as you do get a bit of a fright when you first apply the liquid. The above photo shows the wash when it's still wet and as you can see there is plenty of pooling as the wash settles into any crevices in the model.

You can draw any excess wash out with your brush or a paper towel, and you can move it about a bit to more evenly distribute it across the model. I guessing that experience is needed to understand what is too much wash.

Now the awkward wait for the wash to dry completely and then we shall see how effectively it creates shadow tones in the folds of material...

Now dry, overall, it doesn't look too bad. Though, it definitely needs mid-tones
and highlights to be added as it looks very flat as it is.

It's still a bit jarring, compared to blending shadows. But, I'm determined to see this technique through to the end. Will the addition of the remaining 'triad' colours (two intensities of highlights) pull the whole thing together into a satisfying model? I hope so (but I do have a plan B, just in case).

Note: One final comment I should have added. While these sort of high contrast painting techniques are a bit unsubtle or exaggerated looking on a big 1/32nd figure, I think you have to bear in mind that they are really designed for 28mm (1/56) scale miniatures. And the effects are deliberately exaggerated so as to be seen at tabletop distance.