Thursday, December 31, 2015

Last Painted Figures of 2015

With Jon and me hot for Chain of Command, I have been expanding my 28mm World War II armies a bit.  One of my grail projects is to play a skirmish campaign set in the Battle of the Bulge.  I have never been able to find a good set of rules for WW2 skirmish, though, until Chain of Command.  I love the way the rules reward good tactics, so I am starting this project.  Most of it will have to wait until my big commission is done, but I have snuck in a few figures when I could.

These Artizan Fallschirmjager got their covering of Dullcote this morning.  While the figures are not really meant for cold conditions, I thought that painting their hands as gloves would make them look right.  Their uniforms are bulky enough that they could easily be wearing several layers.





For my 28mm WW2 figures, I just do a block paint job and then use the dip for shading.  It works really well on these drab uniforms, and it is VERY quick.  These eight figures took about two hours.

Before I started my commission, I had painted up these 14 Artizan Americans in overcoats.  Something obviously went wrong with the Dullcote, though.  I am hoping that once they have their snowy bases complete, the fogging from the Dullcote will not look so out of place.  Still, I may strip these and start over.  I love the flat finish that Dullcote gives, but my last few cans have proven maddeningly inconsistent.  This is the first time I have ever had such fogging, but then this was the first time the Dullcote ever came out in a stream instead of a spray.



21 comments:

  1. The German fallschirmjaeger look perfect. Very believable as fighting in winter conditions in the Ardennes in 1944.
    And the Americans look perfect and very authentically icy. The dullcote mishap may have really been a blessing.
    You may already be planning to do this, but I would paint the edges of the bases white to complete the illusion.
    Cool figures!

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    1. Good idea on the base edges. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with groundwork when I started basing these.

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  2. One other suggestion: You might want to give a couple of the Germans white smocks vs. camo, and white helmets.

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    1. I have many more Germans to join this force, so I will mix in some white on the next batch (whenever that may be).

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  3. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Zbu6zjy-VbE/maxresdefault.jpg

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    1. Are those reenactors or the real thing? That's a great photo.

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    2. Re-enactors. They did a pretty good job getting the look just right I thought.

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  4. Good to hear you'll be playing out the Bulge, Scott. Nice touch giving the FJ's gloves. Happy New Year!

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    1. I have always wanted to do it. I have some grand plans!

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  5. Great job! I feel a chill simply looking at your Americans in greatcoats. Minwax works well over the drab greatcoats.

    For your Dullcote frosting, have you tried hitting it with Krylon clear gloss or matte followed by a reapplication of Dullcote after the Krylon dries. This method has worked for me in the past.

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    1. I'll give it a shot in the morning, but these figures have resisted all my usual fixes.

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    2. Well, did your figures recover from their dusting?

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    3. Yes, pretty well. They are not perfect, but they will do.

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  6. Argh, the dreaded fogging! I lost several entire units to that. So very frustrating. It isn't a CRAZY idea that they will look vaguely okay once you base them with snow, but...

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    1. I hopeful that Jon's idea may work. I have the figures in the spray booth now, drying and (hopefully) losing their fog.

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  7. I don't think the problem is the Matt varnish. The problem is the wash. The gw black wash does this when you have water in the wash. They even advise using a totally dry brush when applying. I believe it could also be air bubbles created when your dragging the wash over the mini. Notice the whitening only occurs where the wash would be most intense. Fogging, icing, frosting is usually more evenly covering

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    1. Yes, I had considered that too. This is Minwax Polyurethane, though, so it's probably not the wash. But I did brush them all over with an acrylic flat clear before spraying. I gave it a few hours to dry, but that probably wasn't enough.

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  8. Looking great, Scott! Hope you don't mind a quick question. With these dipped guys, did you use your usual black undercoat or go with a lighter primer colour like white or grey? The dip has worked really well on those drab uniforms.

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    1. I prime white if I'm going to use the dip.

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    2. Thanks, Scott. The finished effect works really well. Keep up the good work!

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