Painted uniforms

I'm progressing slowly on painting up my 54mm napoleonic french artillery figures. I'm putting on the 'base' colours before adding detail. I'd found an excellent uniform guide on the web a couple weeks ago, and then the C drive melted down. So I can't locate that picture again. So, I'm now using the pictures on this handy site to base my uniforms on. Have done flesh and hair so far, am about to start the blue of the uniforms now.

Painting Philosophy

When painting c20th figures, I have avoided getting too specific with the historically correct paintjobs. The reason is simple. I like to choose my figures so that I can play the widest variety of scenarios possible. Thus, I paint my units so that they 'appear' okay, have a certain level of uniformity, and contain information which is useable in different ways in the scenario.

Thus, for my spanish civil war militia, I have painted them in 'sets' of company sized units. Each 'set' of a certain type (eg. forage cap uniform) is distinct from similar sets, and as a group they are distinguishable from other collections of sets (ie I can make up a battalion of companies that are each distinct from each other, yet all the battalion's units areidentifiable as such). I do this through judicious use of colour selection and coding. Thus, B Company will share the chocolate brown colour with other units of the same battalion but will have it only on their trousers while A Company might only have it on their blouses, and C Company on their helmets. If no other battalion uses chocolate brown in its paintscheme beyond the incidental, the colour identifies the battalion, where it is painted identifies the company. Yet I can call them nationalist, basque, communist or italian for any particular game.

The game is the thing.

It takes a bit of forethought but if properly done allows you to have games set in a large variety of scenarios with at least vaguely correct looking units, without having to paint up more than is needed.

Tigers by the Tale

Who hasn't heard of the Tiger tank? Rushed into service in 1942, it saw action on all fronts from the deserts of Africa, the scrub of Tunisia, the snow of the eastern front, the orchards and urbanity of Western Europe. Heavily armoured and equipped with the feared 88mm gun, Tiger tanks could and did shoot it out with whole formations of lighter allied vehicles.

As a kid, when we gamed with 1/72 scale figures and Charles Grant's rules, the Tiger tank always brought a shudder to the opposition on its arrival. Playing 6mm WWII with friends in my twenties, same result. Playing Squad Leader on the board, or East Front II on the computer, same result.

Overly heavy in weight because of its thick armour, overly high profile, underpowered, the vehicle was plagued by breakdown and poor performance in all areas except that which really counted in tactical engagement (firepower and armour protection).

Simon of Iron Mitten wonders what paint job his (presumably Western Europe front) tigers should get. I believe that a basic olive green, with disruptive markings in red brown should do the trick. Late in the war, dark grey also used for disruptive colours. Should it be the same pattern as other vehicles in the collection? A matter of taste in my belief - historically units were painted with what was on issue at the time they got (re)painted. Thus, I'd paint with different but related scheme to (say) the Mk IV company or the Jagdpanzer platoon. Less monotonous to the eye in the long run, allow for easier identification if using a smaller scale.

Hope that helps (another weekend here of 40'C plus)...

I have finally finished (re)painting the bases of my armies! All they need now is a matt varnish and we're off! I put in this photo, because it seems to capture something of the eagerness I expect of my troops ...

This is a bit of less blurry detail...

This is a shot of the most recent and final batch of fully painted troops, which I previously photographed partway through the process (click here). I'll post pictures of the full range shortly.

If you haven't gathered, I'm a wee bit excited at the reaching of the rare milestone of having finished painting all the troops which I started painting so long ago!

Painting - 6mm bases

I have recommenced repainting all my bases a 'uniform' colour, now that the front room has been freed up for my hobby again (thanks Nancy).

Here's a photo of the table at the end of about one and a quarter hour's work. You can see the three metal trays. One (top left) I keep my paints in, another (bottom left) holds figures whose bases still require repainting, and the third (bottom right) holds those who were either finished tonight, or had the first half of the base painted. To do it cleanly, I paint a half of a base at a time, it stops a lot of fiddling around. It's part of the craft that turns conveyor belts into fun...

This is a wider angle shot taken before I had started the session. You'll notice some of my books in the shelf at the right, I try and keep my military and gaming books together here. The grey object at top left (sort of) is the castle that me and my stepdaughter put together for her school project.

The yellow/orange and red objects on the table are hard pencil cases with trays inside within which I store and transport my miniatures. They are nearly full. I should fit in all the troops visible on the table once they are done, but I'll need to sort out how to store the (presently unpainted) reinforcements that are moving along the conveyor belt...

Possible rules changes and painting update.

I am thinking of some rule modifications (after a hiatus of over a month from thinking of such things) for my 6mm SCW rules. Firstly, simplify written text - to something I won't feel a need to explain when it gets put up on the web for the public to access. Secondly, alter a few of the mechanics, and their limitations, to more reflect what I want to draw out of the SCW.

Examples of the later include, adding limitations to who can combine with who into a fire group. For example, small arms can't support MGs, though MGs can support small arms, similarly with armoured vehicles and ordinance, and these weapons able to support any number of attacks - the point of this being to make support weapons be used more as such. Similarly, I am thinking of making it a bit difficult for units from different formations, nationalities and troop types to combine into groups - reflecting command and control difficulties of the war.

Related to this last, I am thinking of a way that will enable a bit more continuity of command mobility without removing entirely the quandaries my present system of command points imposes upon play.

I also want to make artillery a bit more of an area affect weapon, with barrages in a boxed area rather than the present blast radius (circular).

Finally, I also want to look at the interaction between my Unit sizes and the limit on the number of supporting fire elements that can increase an element's attack percentages.

I did think of changing the single dice theory of rolling to a standard 'two dice' roll, but on reflection I think I like the straight line probability of the later as opposed to the bell curve of the former. It makes dice modifiers a bit easier to quantify.

In terms of painting, I am painting my Condor units up - 5 Pz Is, 1 Pz II, 1 T 26, 2 light trucks, kubelwagen up in a 'panzer grey' (with 'dark brown' camo striping on the AFVs). I have done all of the grey and brown, it is now down to doing the detail (tracks, tyres, canvas, guns, people).

Forces to be painted

The forces I undercoated are composed as follows. All are from the Irregular Miniature range, available from Eureka Models in Melbourne. (I seem to have lost my artilery tractor!)

2 x Bf109 planes

2 x Light trucks
2 x Hvy trucks

3 x Hvy Artillery pieces (WWI German and British Field Guns)

1 x Bus (Double Decker)
1 x Horse and Cart

1 x Kubelwagen
3 x Pz I
1 x Pz II (I remember reading of a sighting of one in late in the war)
2 x BT5
2 x T26
2 x Pulnitov Aroured Cars (with 2 turrets each!)

3 Battalions of Helmeted troops, each composed of 12 stands
2 Battalions of capped troops, each composed of 12 stands
6 Flag stands (Battalion HQs)
13 Single Figure stands (Co HQs)

4 x 'Maqui' (WWII) stands (envision as becoming Carlist fanatics)
10 x HMGs (will use generic figures and paint to provide alternate crews for helmeted/capped formations, depending which side they are fighting for)

A can of Tamiya undercoat

I haven't posted all through March! That's a bit of a surprise. Anyway...

Today I was finally able to get a spraycan of primer. I have a significant number of miniatures waiting to be painted, for which they require undercoat. It conincided with my wife moving all her stuff out of 'my' gaming room - she had borrowed it to finalise her paperwork at the end of her PhD. So, I was able to use the last hour of light after work (daylight saving ended yesterday) to spray all my unpainted figures. Not that I intend to paint them all in one big marathon, but it is good to have all of them done so that I will be able to paint when the whim takes me over the coming season.

The Tamiya undercoat was all that was available, it seems that Modelmaster don't get stocked anywhere any more. So, it's a bit of a gamble because I didn't have very good experience with Tamiya the last time I used it. Still, it gave a good even coat this time. The question will be how much the can clogs by the time I next use it.