Reviewing Black Watch

First of all thanks for the kind comments and good wishes. Although breathing is still a bit difficult, my cough seems to get better. Hopefully the antibiotics do their work well.

However I used this afternoon for the last finishing touches on my Black Watch Highlanders. After the poor snapshot which I used last week to prove that painting was finished in 2012, here is a much better one. I hope, you enjoy it:

My interpretation of the I / 42nd (Highland) Reginent of Foot (Black Watch) during the Napoleonic Wars.

Here's a short review:

Tutorial: Black Watch Tartan in 28mm

When I started my British Napoleonic project this spring I decided to muster some English as well as some Scots units. The thing I feared to by most difficult was the kilt. It turned out to be easier than I thought, but before I started to paint, I searched the world wide web for some help. There are only a few tutorials about tartan painting on 28mm miniatures, but John O'Brien's article from 2001 (read it here) was very useful for me.

To make things a bit easier for those who are as much beginner as I am on this domain, I want to present my way of painting the Black Watch tartan step-by-step. Please ignore the other parts of the miniatures since they are highly WIP. I'll post some pictures of the finished ones around Christmas I hope.

1.) Basecoat:

Basecoat of VMC 050 "Dark Pruss. Blue"

The basecoat of the Black Watch Tartan, the so called Gouvernment Set, is a dark blue. After some experiments I decided to use Vallejo Model Colour 050 "Dark Prussian Blue" on white undercoat.

Weekly News 21st October 2012: Foot Artillery based

Time goes by so fast and another week is over.
Unfortunately I didn't win neither Fran's nor Ray's lottery for some Rejects' dice. Congratulations to all lucky winners here and there!

On the workbench there has been some progress. Finally I managed to finish the basing of my first three batteries of Royal Foot Artillery:

The three bases from obove. In the middle there one space left to put another crewman or officer in.

These are the three 9pdr guns which I made from the Victrix plastic set (look here or here). The miniatures are nicely modeled and cleanly cast. As all Victrix plastics they have to be assembled from five to seven parts. The guns can be build as 6pdr guns, 9pdr guns or 5.5" howitzers. I decided to build late Napoleonic 9-pounders and add a howitzer later (I already got the one from the Perrys...).

Here are the three:

If you remember some of the crewmen then you are completely right. I finished some of them in June for the great Kolberg game and presented some bad cellphone-photos then. But I hope you like those pictures better.

Next week will be quiet on Monty's Caravan because I'll go on vacation with my wife and our daughter. Although we plan to visit the German Navy Museum in Wilhelmshaven (look here) I'll probably not be able to present a review before I'm back home.

Tutorial: Stripping Plastics from Acrylic Paints

Finally I decided to strip the wrinkled horses and paint the anew. I searched the WWW for tutorials how to strip plastic miniatures and found various techniques from brake fluid to alcohol. Additionally some of my appreciated readers gave good advice from their experience.

After all I decided to try ethyliv alcohol and it worked rather well.

But please judge the result yourselves:

1. The Victim:

In course of the painting of my Napoleonic 2nd KGL Hussars the horses met a fateful chemical reaction. Somehow the Armypainter Quickshade and the matt varnish seem to have reacted and made the painting beneath it wrinkled and nasty (read the complete post here).

After all attempts of repair failed I decided to strip and repaint the miniatures.

2. The Solvent:

Ethyl alcohol was very easy to get. At least in Germany it is well known for several field of applications. Unfotunately the unatured alcohol is not suitable for internal use, but it widely known as solvent and fuel, disinfectant. In addition it's rather non-hazardous compared to other solvents.
But be careful it might at least irritate skin and eyes. So you should always wear protective gloves and maybe glasses as well. And make shure to work in a well ventilated area since ethyl alcohol evaporates rather heavyly. Fortunately the pollution flies away pretty fast.

3. Soaking:

Then I put the horses into a preserving jar with a sealed top cover. I let the first horses soak for about an hour but meanwhile I discovered that even three hours don't harm the plastic.

4. Swabbing the paint:

Afterwards the paint had dismantled from the miniature. I took and old toothbrush and swabbed the old paint off the horse. From time to time I moistened the toothbrush with alcohol to get the paint in the little corners off.

Finally the horse looked clean more or less. There was a little shade of white remaining and some remains in concealed corners where the toothbrush didn't reach in.

5. Undercoat:

Finally the horse is done. I put on a new undercoat and I'm really happy with the result.

By now I have all twelve horses stripped and didn't experience any problems. Although I'm still peeved about the lost time, I'm rather confident that the horses will look well when they're painted properly at least.

6. Alternatives:
Because everything went well with ethyl alcohol and because it's easy to get here in Germany and because it's cheap, I will remain with it for stripping miniatures.

But some of our fellow bloggers recommended some other solvents and their advice shall not be forgotten:

• Simplegreen: Some kind of household cleaner
• Dettol: A disinfectant
• Aceton: An agressiv solvent for paints
• Household Bleech

I've not tested those things yet and with plastics I would be really careful with acetone. I stripped metal miniatures once in acetone and it disintegrated the bases...

Last but not least a link to Stryker's blog and his cleaning experiences: Here.

So I hope the second try will bring a better result. However this misfortune give me the chance to use modern equipment next time: I'll spray the brown fur colour with my airbrush gun. Last time I didn't use it because I thought of painting some horses darker or lighter brown...

Paint stripping tutorial announced!

Unfortunately none of the well-intentioned advice worked. Gloss varnish and solvent made the wrinkels smoother but they didn't disappear.

Though stripping the paint is the exhausting way to go.

After having searched the WWW for some hints I found that ethyl alcohol should work. It is said that this stuff clears the paint nicely but doesn't harm the plastic of the miniature. To be sure I put a pair of plastic heads into the alcohol for two hours. I chose some spare heads of my Perry British lineinfantry since it should be the same plastic as the hussars are cast of.

Here is the result:

The two heads on the left after three hours in ethyl alcohol. No damage!

Judge the result yourselves.

I'm not able to realise any damage so I'll use this stuff on a first horse today.

 

Within the next days I'll post a step-by-step guide for stripping plastics and show you my results. I hope, you'll like both. I would give some sense to this unpleasant episode of miniature painting...

Trouble with varnish: Crumpled horses

Yesterday evening was one of those time which should better be concealed. My wife was exhausted and kind of bad-tempered, our daughter was sleeping unsettledly and I mucked up my hussars' horses. Probably the it would have been better to go to bed early...

However here's the shocking result of the evening:

Two of the blemished horses.

What really preys on my mind is the question, how this reaction occured.
Actually I did the same as a dozen times before: Painted the horseswith Vallejo paints, covered them with Army Painter Quick Shade, let it dry for a day and then applied a thin layer of matt varnish. But yesterday I tried Army Painter Matt varnish for the first time. Therefore I presume that this varnish and the Quickshade underwent a fatal. reaction. I'm kind of angry and surprised alike since two product of the same producer shouldn't do that...
Did anyone of you make similar or differing experiences?

However I think I'll drop the Armypainter guys a line and ask if it's a known problem or if I've a got a "bad can" accidentally. But it wont bring my horses and the time it took painting them.

But meanwhile I'll try to make the best of this bad job. On one of the horses I'll try to etch the dimpled skin a bit with turpentine. Maybe it works. If not I'll have to paint the highlights disregarding the defects and hope the best.

Thankfully the highlanders which I varnished during the same work step haven't been affected that much. Only some really small wrinkles...

42nd Rgt. of Foot "Black Watch" (1): Test-Highlander painted

After the long posts of last week, there's only a short update today.

Lastly I prepared my next unit: The 42nd Rgt. of Foot "Black Watch".
Because of the good price I bought some Victrix plastic miniatures. To me they look really great. The details are nice and crisp and I like them better than the Royal Foot Artillery by Victrix I recently painted.

Although there are some promising decals by Warflags on the market but I decided to try my luck with painting them myself. On the World Wide Web I found a nice tutorial by John O'Brien (Link). He explains a kind of simplified tartan for toy soldiers and I used the following colours:

• Vallejo Model Colour 050 "Dark Prussian Blue" as base colour
• Citadel "Dark Angels Green" for the check
• Vallejo Model Colour 072 "Deep Green" for the brighter center checks
• Vallejo Black for the thin lines between green and blue

For the rest of the uniform I used the same colours as for the 44th. On the picture below you see one shot of a highlander with the painted kilt only and on the left a nearly finished model with Armypainter Quickshade applied already. Although there are some finishing touches (buttons, highlights) to do I'm really pleased with the result. The kilt turned out better than I expected and you can guess which tartan it shall represent. Nevertheless I'm afraid of the grenadiers and the drummer with an additional thin red check above the usual government tartan...

I hope to ale to proceed with the next highlanders quickly and maybe I'll be ale to post some new pics next weekend.

British Army painting with "Army Painter" - Part 4 - Finished !

Here's are the quick shaded British!
They're might not win a painting competition but the ratio between time and result is really fine I think. The shiny look is unattractive but they wrote that in the instruction of Army Painter Quickshade and I wanted to cover the with matt varnish anyway so I that doesn't trouble me.

The next evening I did the finishing touches and put some highlights on the edges of the helmet etc. Additionally I painted the hessian tape and I hated it.
After varnishing the figures with matt varnish I finished the bases. I used some sand, pebbles and static gras.

Here is the whole gang:

And some close-ups of some of the guys:

The result is fine I think. The Quickshade's effect is far better than everything I got with other inks and washes. 25 EUR ($ 30) is much for a can of paint. But since it should be enough for several infantry regiments it seems rather fair.
Don't forget, that usual ink comes in much smaller bottles. For example: Vallejo Inks are about 2.50 EUR ($ 3) for 17ml. The Quickshade can holds 250ml. In Vallejo bottles that's about 15 bottles which approximates 37,50 EUR ($ 45).

British Army painting with "Army Painter" - Part 3

Meanwhile I have painted the other colours. Especially Vallejo Russian Uniform on the helmets, Vallejo German Dark Beige for the webbing and a mixture of Citadel Tallarn Flesh and Citadel Elf Flesh. Water bottles and rifles were painted in Vallejo Saddle Brown. I tried to keep the colours a bit brighter than usual because I was afraid that the Quickshade might darken it.

The result is acceptable although I was surprised how long it took to paint those ten guys. Three evenings (about ten hours) !
I've known that I never was a speed painter, but I really expected to be a bit faster.

Yesterday evening I finally inked the miniatures. Now they are still drying (takes 24 hrs.). I'll make some photos this evening and post them tomorrow or Sunday.

British Army painting with "Army Painter" - Part 2

Step 2:
Thank god the British wore throusers and jackets of the same colour. That gave me the chance to apply Vallejo British Uniform by airbrush. In less than half an hour the ten soldiers coated and the airbrush was cleaned. Next time I'll use more slender handles. These are nice to grip but too large to spray from below to get the downside of the figures covered.

Next I let the miniatures dry and started to paint the other colours the very next evening.

British Army painting with "Army Painter" - Part 1

A very busy week is winding me. Lot's of work to do at the office, a daughter that starts to parrot everything, especially words she shouldn't learn as the four-letter-word my wife dropped accidently this afternoon. Viktoria loved it. Additionally there are about two dozen British soldiers to be painted until the Saturday after next because my first game in 2012 is on the horizon and I need some more infantry urgently.

Since I read some good feedback about Army Painter Quickshade being used for Flames of War miniatures I decided to give it a try.
I will paint my brave British Tommies with Vallejo Model Colours and try the dark toned dipping stuff on the afterwards. Unfortunately the dip is pretty expensive but if it saves time it might prove priceless for me...
;-)

Step 1:
First I deflashed the miniatures and cleaned them with some dish liquid and warm water. Afterwards I glued them onto coins as bases with UHU Plus Schnellfest an epoxy-based two-adhesive glue (Great stuff! Too messy for tiny parts but uncredibly strong!). When the glue hardened completely I base coated the figures with a white spray from an unknown manufacturer.
Deflashing took a while but cleaning, gluing and base coating the miniatures didn't last longer than 10 minutes (plus drying and harding).

Since I already finished Step 2 I'll keep this topic updated soon. But for now that is enough since yesterday just turned into today which is a clear sign to go to bed for me. The alarm will sound at 05.30a.m. without any mercy...

More Krauts finished / Mehr Wehrmacht (2)

Finally I got the next wave of Wehrmacht-soldiers finished. I varnished them yesterday evening and put static grass and some sand onto the bases this afernoon.
Again I'm rather satisfied but after a closer look on the pictures the collars and the epaulettes look too empty. I might try to put a bit more work on them when I start the next squad. But now some older minis of British Infantry wait to be re-based. I might need them for playing in two weeks...

For the pictures I improved the lightening and I' m rather satisfied with the result. Nonetheless I'll buy a second lamp soon...

A soldier with Panzerfaust, the Unteroffizier with MP-40 and a Rifleman.

The MG-34 team marching...

And another MG-34 team firing. Looking at the pictures I realized that I forgot to paint the cartridge belt...

Krauts finished / Wehrmacht fertig (1)

Endlich habe ich es geschafft, meine ersten Wehrmachtssoldaten zu bemalen!

Die Figuren stammen von Britannia Miniatures aus der Reihe "WW II - Wehrmacht (classic)" und sollen Wehrmachtstruppen zu Beginn des Krieges bzw. für das "Unternehmen Barbarossa" darstellen.

Bemalt habe ich die Figuren mit Farben von Vallejo (Uniformteile) und Citadel (Haut, Base, Wash).

Anschließend habe ich sie mattem Sprühlack aus dem Baumarkt versiegelt.

Die farbliche Kante des Bases (hier schwarz) dient der besseren Unterscheidbarkeit der Gruppen auf dem Spielfeld.
Weitere acht Mann habe ich so gut wie fertig, da folgen in den nächsten Tagen Bilder.

Leider sind die Bilder nicht alle so toll geworden. Ich experimentiere da noch... Vor allem brauche ich wohl mehr Licht.

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Finally I finished my first Krauts !

The miniatures are made Britannia Miniatures and belong to their "WW II - Wehrmacht (classic)" range. They present troops for early war and Operation Barbarossa".

I painted the miniatures with Vallejo (uniform, equipment) and Citadel (flesh, base, ink) paints and sealed them with matt varnish spray from our local hardware store.

Another eight men are nearly finished. I'll post pictures of them soon.

I use to paint the edges of the bases in different colours (here: black). That makes it much easier to distinguish the different squad on the battlefield.

Unfortunately not all of the picture are good. I'm testing it out... Anyway I need more light...