From Steven:
It’s been a while since I sent you any pictures
of figures. I took these before you gave me a lightbox for Christmas (thank
you), so I hope future photos will be better.
I’m part
way through a platoon of Panzer IVs but made a diversion to add three 2.8cm
antitank guns to my Panzergrenadier company. Since you asked to see how I do
the basing, I took photos during that process. Here’s the end result:
If you look closely, you’ll see there is
chipping and rust on the guns themselves. You may also spot that every single
crewman is a different figure. No repeats! The crew of the middle gun is
Battlefront, the rest are from Old Glory’s Command Decision range.
Old Glory are an odd one for me. The figures
are varied and include some interesting poses, such as the one bending over
clutching his ears. However, they are noticeably smaller than some other
manufacturer’s so mixing is difficult. I have a pile of tank commanders and LMG
gunners I can’t really use. The antitank gunners are an exception (maybe it is
less obvious because most of them are kneeling?) so I could use them here. I
like mixing compatible manufacturers, for variety and to support a wider range
of businesses.
The Battlefront crew are actually Afrika Korps
because 2.8cm guns are apparently really obscure and difficult to find individually,
and DAK were the only ones I could find. That’s OK; with an appropriate paint
job and strategic use of Green Stuff, they make decent SS. The Old Glory
figures are normal Wehrmacht.
 |
| Figure
1 Glue figures to base |
 |
| Figure
2 Add textured paint |
 |
| Figure
3 Drybrush the textured paint |
 |
| Figure
4 Add clumps of vegetation such as grass tufts
and flowers. Add stones and gravel and paint them. |
 |
| Figure
5 Add lichen to represent bushes. I often put it
around and between rocks |
 |
| Figure
6 Add static grass and flock |
1.
As
well as the figures themselves, I also painted some boxes/crates from Baueda
and glued them on at this stage. I also added small ammo crates made from spare
Green Stuff left over after converting the gunners to be SS (waste not, want
not). I find it easiest to work with Green Stuff in situ (on the base,
on the tank etc).
2.
Textured
paint is particularly useful here to obscure the way the figures are stuck onto
the bases rather than fitting into plugs. The lighter textured paint is
Agrellan Badland, which cracks when it dries to represent dried mud. It needs
to be layered on thickly to work well.
3.
A
quick drybrush brings out the details of the texture. This stage is also when I
make the two textured paints the same colour. Since so much of it will be
covered by static grass etc, I don’t go nuts with this stage.
4.
A
mix of different types of grass tufts and flowers adds variety to the bases. I
drybrush light khaki over the grass tufts to enhance the contrast. The boulder
is a piece of aquarium gravel, with much finer gravel scattered around it. The
boulder is superglued in place, then superglue spread over parts of the base
and fine gravel sprinkled on top. The gravel/boulder is then painted and
highlighted up with grey.
5.
I
usually add lichen in close association with boulders to represent small shrubs
growing up alongside or through the cracks. I dab superglue where I want the
shrub to go, cut up lichen and push it into the superglue. At this scale, it is
surprising how little is needed, and I often trim excess away with small
scissors. I sometimes mix up different colour lichens (although I only used
green lichen here). The lichen by itself looks a bit one-dimensional, so I dab
some thinned-down dark brown paint into the recesses and along the larger branches,
then highlight the tips with a light khaki colour. It doesn’t take long and
improves the look considerably. This photo also shows more clearly a Green
Stuff ammo case which the crew have placed on a spare zeltbahn. It is
triangular because that’s the shape they were. As with SS uniforms, zeltbahns
were reversible with a summer/spring and autumn pattern on each side. You can
see the side facing up is the summer pattern but where the edges have curled
over to reveal the reverse, I have painted those in the autumn pattern. I hope
it is a nice little detail.
6.
Finally,
add static grass and flock. Water-down PVA glue (approx. 50/50), spread it over
the base and push the flock down onto it, then knock off the excess. I usually
go quite heavy with the static grass, but it obviously depends on what terrain
you want the figures to be on – I imagine these guys are on the Russian steppe
which is pretty grassy. I have four static grass colours which I mix. In order
of most to least, they are: mid-bright green, yellow hay, an almost black green
and a green midway between the other two. I have two colours of flock – green
and brown/red which I mix up and sprinkle in smaller quantities, particularly
around and between gravelly areas. This close-up photo also shows the rust
effects on the gun shield.
