So Frustrating!

This is what I always dread with the dip.  The figures turned out HIGHLY glossy.  I painted them with a clear flat acrylic, waited for them to dry, and sprayed them with rattle-can Dullcote.  This is the result.

I know a lot of people like that shiny toy soldier look, but it's not for me.

Next I tried spraying Winsor & Newtown flat lacquer.  The result was no better.

I have quite an arsenal of clear sealants.  I worked my way through them. Nothing was cutting that sheen.

I finally had to try out the Testor's Dullcote in the bottle.  I mixed it with lacquer thinner, donned my hazmat breather, and gave a small group of figures a spray.  Disaster ensued.

I hope I can get rid of this frosting.  If I cannot, I will have to strip the figures and start again.

Day of the Dip!

Here are about 200 20mm WWII Americans with their dip drying.  It always takes me a while to get up the nerve to slop polyurethane all over my neatly painted figures.

I'll have some pictures of the based figures by the end of next week.

28mm Achaemenid Persian Cavalry

The Commands and Colors project continues.  While I have been adding to my Greek army, I thought  I might start adding some Persians for them to fight!  These are all Old Glory figures.

I have a bag of heavy cavalry from Old Glory.  After that, I need to go shopping for more Persians.

28mm Hoplites

These Crusader Miniatures hoplites have been sitting in a box for ten years!  When Jon, Kevin, and I played a game of Commands and Colors with my 28mm ancients miniatures, I thought it would be nice to add a Greek army to the table.  Each unit consists of four bases.  With the 28 figures I already had painted, this will enable me to field nine hoplite units.

The figures are all mounted on 60mm by 30mm bases.  The spears are from North Star.  I cut them longer than you usually see on wargaming miniatures, but the real spears were 9 to 12 feet long, so this is accurate.  Shield transfers are all from Little Big Men Studios, and are brilliant, as usual.

I also painted up three bases of generals using figures from the spares box.  These are all from Wargames Foundry.

I'm starting in on a new round of commission work now, so it may be a while until I add to this army.  Hopefully it won't be another ten years!

20mm WWII Germans

Here are the 206 WWII Germans I painted for Glenn Drover.  Almost all the figures are from AB, but I think I see a few SHQ in there too.  I painted these with Vallejo acrylics rather than my usual craft paints.  Vallejo has quite a few shades of field grey, which I used to get some variety in the colors.  As these are Wehrmacht, all camouflage is either splinter or marsh.  

Light Machine-gun Teams (17 bases)

Rifle Teams (10 bases)

Panzerfaust Rifle Teams (5 bases)

Sniper Teams (2 bases)

Sustained Fire Machine-gun Teams (4 bases)

Medium Mortar Teams (4 bases)

Panzerschreck Teams (4 bases)

Assault Engineer Teams (4 bases)

Company and Battalion Command (4 bases)

Casualty Markers (12 bases)

The Americans will follow soon!  I have them primed and ready.  Once I clear some desk space by shipping these Germans, I can start painting Americans.