Trying Out Grass Tufts for the First Time

I picked up some of the KHG Gamer's Grass tufts from Harold over at ClearHorizon Miniatures and I am very glad I did.

I am not the sort to invest in a lot of special hobby products. I haven't even learned how to use static grass. These little gems, however, may get me to rethink my approach to hobby stuff.

These miniatures were painted and based without the Gamer's Grass but the simple addition of these little tufts to most of the bases lends so much more warmth and depth to the miniatures.

Death is the Jungle

Painting and Modelling a Loud Ninja Games Chuhuac Sniper
By Eli

I got around to painting one of my Loud Ninja Games Chuhuac minis. This one is a personal favorite, the sniper from RAP005 Chuhuac Special Ops (HERE). This commando figure is poised with his powerful, long-range accelerator gun used for anti-personal as well as anti-material missions.

Because I wanted to do a more subdued scheme than the catalog Chuhuac, I started with a brown base coat and a bit base. The large base is to accommodate scenic effects. 

I started with a base coat of a sort of pale green, almost like a green-tinted white. This shows up a little bluish in the pictures, but it's a shade of green. I covered all of the parts that should be concealed by the commando's stealth suit. for the base flesh tones, I used an actual human shade of flesh. I left the plumage, weapon, and cloaking pack brown.

The next step was to paint the plumage red and the backpack and gun a dark olive drab.  I highlighted the gun and pack with a bit of the OD and the suit color blended together. I then washed the entire figure in Army Painter Strong Tone wash. I went back and picked out some details with the highlighting color again and smoothed out some of the blotchy parts with some of the base color with just a touch of OD.

Basing was quick and dirty and took all of 5-10 minutes (wasn't counting). I started by simply painting darker brown splotches over the base coat lighter brown. Then, a few dabs of superglue here and then as a run through the grit bin. After this, I glued down the major scenic features (bare branch, leafy shrub, log and rock.

With the arrangement to my liking, I then applied more glue to the ground, this time covering most of it and a few dabs on the bare branch (actually a grape stem). A sprinkle of my special "leaf litter" blend of tea leaves. These are unused tea leaves pulled from their packets and mixed in a container to the right color blend.

After the leaf litter was applied, I went and picked away any bits that were sticking in places they shouldn't and then dabbed a bit of glue on the log and rock. A sprinkle of blended modelling flock gives a nice mossy effect.

The end result is a nice, concealed Chuhuac commando. A deadly threat on its own, giving a raptor an accelerator cannon just seems like overkill!

-Eli

Basing with Washes

My faux pas yesterday on the left (Ogryn Flesh) and what I was aiming for on the right (Gryphone Sepia). Figures are Rebel Minis' Earth Force Marines originally from Master Chef's collection.

Both are how they look after I applied the wash. No other drybrushing etc has been done at this point. The bases are 40mm round (2mm deep) MDF from Warbases.co.uk.

We use these larger bases for both Future War Commander and ASQL2. If you like the ground effect (even if not the colours),you can create it simply yourself.

I will either mix 1: PVA to 2: Multi-purpose (ready mixed) Polyfilla (spackle in the US) or slap on the PVA and apply the Polyfilla over the top, allowing it to mix togrther. I apply the Polyfilla with a stirring stick from Costa's. Starbucks have thinner cofee stirrers that are thinner and better for making wooden structures, fences etc.

In normal NE Scotland temperatures and humidity I give it a couple of minutes to start setting and then use a cocktail stick to 'flick' up the Polyfilla into peaks. Creating a very 'other worldly' effect.

The darker 'pools' of wash you see are going to be turned into yellow or green acid pools using layers of OOP GW inks. Once again, just to make these a little more different than grass and rocks.

Cheers
Mark

ArtCrime Productions 15mm Infantry Base Inserts

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Following on from my review of the ArtCrime Production 15mm Sci Fi Nationalist Infantry, I thought I'd write seperately about the metal base inserts that accompany the pack.

As you can see in the photo above, the Infantry packs are accompanied by 'slotta' plastic bases and a sprue of metal base inserts whihc feature various terrain items.

At first sight these are a cool concept and certainly make the ArtCrime infantry packs stand out from the rest of what's available on the market. I think the idea has merit, especially for signals, camp, street tech or objective markers of  alien terrain or discarded/HQ equipment.

As basic rocks and the odd fallen tree, I'm not so sure. The terrain is at the end of the day linear as you can see in the photo above, and I found, limits the placement of the infantry figures themselves. 

It does mean that the gamer doesnt have to fish around for terrain items in the garden/spares box or pop down/order tallus etc from a model shop. You open the packet and off you go.

Again, an interesting idea with a lot of potential but worth it for the additional cost to the miniature packs? As an old hand with my own basing conceits where I'll be discarding the plastic bases anyway - the answer has to be, no. I can however see that it offers kids, newbies and those who just want a simple and effective solution, something instant and different.

Cheers

Mark

Rebasing 15mm New Israelis

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Rebased my original 'desert' scheme 15mm GZG New Israelis. This time I thought I'd go for a generic desolate base that would also compliment their camo scheme. I have a lot of 'desert' themed troops who came onboard after these guys and just wanted something different.

Close up the newly based minis look great, but on the table at normal viewing distances they merge far too successfully with their bases. So, do I go all 'artistic' and super highlight the bases or I add some 'yellow' Silfur grass clumps to bring in a bit of colour and depth but lose the desolation?

Cheers

Mark

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Basing Continues.... Warbases.co.uk

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We've recieved a new stack of 2mm round bases from ebay seller MMurray6670 a GREAT bloke to do business with. Check out Martin's website Warbases.co.uk for details of his square, round, hex and polygon bases, movement trays et al......


We usually use 40mm bases for teams of 3-4 figures. Here are some of the Chef's GZG 15mm 'classic' New Israelis with a Critical Mass Games' Merc3 Recon Drone - which will be available on the 21st December! The Drone will get another coat of ink and have the details picked out in colour in time for the ground cover - Vallejo Black Lava paste - to arrive from Maelstrom Games.

Cheers
Mark
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Spartan Assault Troops

These are my 'Spartan' elite Assault Troops for FWC - a work in progress. Still have to paint the weapons - possibly an ochre-sand colour to look like plastic/composite camo'd casings; and maybe some flashy insignia on the shoulder plates.

My Spartan Elite
15mm GZG New Israelis

The 'rocks' you see on the base are an aquarium product called Roman Sand. You can buy it quite cheaply from most pet stores in lots of different colours including deep red and flame orange. I chose the black as it looked like bleak volcanic rock. As an experiment, I've mixed PVA glue with a cheap dark ochre acrylic paint from the Royal Langnickel 'Essential' Acrylics range, dropped the 'rocks' on and voila! Instant basing!

It's worth looking out for the 'Essential' Acrylics range, which is superb for terrain and general art projects. The local art shop sells these in 59ml bottles (2 fl oz, in old money) for just £1. Yes, £1. Checking the forums, some guys swear by them for their miniatures too and I'm not surprised when Citadel pots are around £2.25 for 12ml.

The base isn't finished as the volcanic effect of the rocks gave me the idea of trying to paint rivulets of lava flowing between the rocks similar to the picture on the right. See also Gavin Thorne's work on the DakkaDakka forum (Click here). Will it be too fussy for 15mm? Dunno, but I'm willing to give it a go. It may mean having to repaint the visors red to match the terrain.....oh bugger! A lazy painters' work is never done!

Cheers
Mark

Spug Week: Variations on a Theme

I'm annoyed with myself that I haven't finished my Spugs. One batch are complete and have even been in action, but as a potential FWC 'army' they're just not inspiring me. Mind you, they've had plenty of competition this week from both Jon's new NAC Marines and some new equally excellent Sci Fi figures due to be released by another miniatures company.

Meanwhile, I thought you'd like to see some photos of Spug test pieces I began painting. First up is Mr Green. White undercoat and two coats of Citadel Thakka Green wash. Not bad. Quite vibrant - great for temperate or jungle battelfields. I'm sure a yellow undercoat under the green wash would have been better still.

I may drybrush the weapon in Tau Sept Yellow or a light green so it has more of an organic look to it. Then again maybe not and go for something a bit more garish to highlight the alieness of Spugs.

Next are 'Martian Spugs'. An undercoat of Citadel Tau Sept Yellow basecoat which dries less yellow than in the pot to a darker ochre/dark sand, straight onto the bare metal. This was followed by two coats of Citadel Baal Red wash. I hated the finish at this point.

So I popped a quick brush of Citadel 'chestnut' ink into the crannies, around the eyes etc, then took a brush laden with heavily watered Miniature Paints' Red and dragged it across areas including the shin guards and top of the head. Left for 48 hours (only 'cause I was out on the merry), I came back to miniatures I really like the look of and am looking forward to finishing off.

I've decided to buy some small 2 and 3 figure FOW style urban bases from The Scene to try with the Spugs. Whilst my initial thinking revolved around Mars, I now think that the urban look of these bases will give the Spugs a more dramatic and edgy 'fall of man' feel to them. I also deliberately want the small bases to emphasise expendable hordes of Spugs. The fact that I could then readily use them as proxies for games with a Gears of War background hasn't escaped me.

Small 2 figure FOW style bases from The Scene

I'll post pics of all the finished Spug variants next week and again once I have the bases and they're based.

Cheers
Mark

Basing Dilemmas

I was out with the girls from the office last night. It was one of those "thanks and goodbye" events. I had a great evening and not too merry by the time I got home, even though my body seemed to be suffering varying gravitational effects every time I stood up.

Today, whilst I gave my hangover a chance to clear I thought I'd take a look at the options available for basing my new figures. I should say from the start off that basing 15mm figures singly - other than principal leader figures, heroic or powerful types such as SPARTANS - is anathema to me. I simply don't want to push 80-100 miniatures 3-4" across the table every move, no matter how nice the figures look.

Rather than go for cheap and plentiful 30mm or 40mm square generic bases I prefer the FOW style of wargame base. Not only are they more pleasing to the eye but I personally find they work particularly well where the base is to represent a larger unit, 2-4 figures being a squad or platoon or even company.

I've tried round bases. Hearther prefers these and thinks they are better for Sci Fi but I feel they take up too much overall space. I know some of you use coins. Having worked with handling money over many years, I now find the idea of basing my own miniatures on coinage repulsive. So let's take a look at the options I personally prefer:

2 Figs per small FOW base

2 of these 2 figure small FOW bases can make a fireteam or 3-4 bases together can create squad. In platoon level skirmish types games where 1 figure represents 1 man, this gives the tabletop squad tactical flexibility, allows for support weapons or specialist troops within the squad to be represented individually and for casualties to be removed. This gives the game a more graphic and dare I say, 'heroic' quality as you can visibly see the squad absorbing damage as bases are removed.

For me there are two issues with the two figure base. Firstly, I still have 40-50 bases to push round instead of 80-100 individual figures. Secondly, I have difficulty visualising it as anything other than two blokes. And a big measure of the enjoyment that comes from any miniatures based game is the suspension of disbelief.

3 Figs per medium FOW base

3 figures on a medium FOW base? The medium base is great for representing elements that are squads, platoons or above. 3 figures don't clutter a base, any merchandiser will wax lyrical about the 'power of three' and if you like a dioramic base, there's plenty of space to go to town. Put two-three of these bases togher as a larger unit on the tabletop and they look great.

4 figs per medium FOW base

4 figs? This looks like a 'unit'. It's a fireteam, it's a squad, a platoon, in fact if you want, a whole gorram army! But something nags at me as they are so closely packed that a single breath from a Kothian 'Stinkmeister' will wipe out every man, and it also smacks of the Hollywood 'column of mob' portrayal of units in action. In fact whilst it looks good on it's own, I found that if you put three bases together they look somewhat Napoleonic and not at all the effect we are looking for.

Now, it's traditional to mount miniatures along the wide axis of the base as per above pictures. But what if we mount them differently, along the short axis? This gives the element depth and some greater practicality in street fighting, room clearing and space corridor guncrawls!

2 figs on a small FOW base
facing the short edge

4 figs on a medium FOW base
facing the short edge

This works quite well for me. Especially the 2 figure small base. Some food for thought and as the sun has passed the yard arm and then some, I'm off for a Magners. Cheers!

All miniatures are the forthcoming 15mm resculpted NAC Marines from GZG.

Mark