Miniatures Painted This Year (June)

So, in last month’s round-up I mentioned some cheap 1:72 scale trolls that I had bought… i.e. these ones here:

And I have to say that, while I really like the sculpts (and their size)… they were a bit of a pain to work with.

 

(scale comparison with some Reaper orcs)

The mould lines were terrible, and they are made of the kind of cheap plastic that is pretty much impossible to clean up. I almost ruined a couple of them trying… and had to do a weapon swap to make one good model out of two of them (though I had trouble getting the glue and greenstuff to stick).

So, in the end I just painted them as they were… and so long as you don’t look too hard (and ignore the mould lines), they look pretty good I think. Though I do wish I had gone with a slightly greyer blue for their scales, but on the whole, I’m happy I bought them (as I was having some serious doubts at the beginning).

Similarly, last month I also mentioned doing a little painting video with these guys (a kind of beginners guide to painting your first mini’s):

 However, it didn’t really come out very well… so it ended up being a big waste of time. I guess I’ll leave the mini painting videos to the experts :)

So while I did get them painted, they ended up being stripped – so I can’t really count them towards my ‘finished’ totals.

* * *

Mini’s Bought

It’s been another month of buying more than I’ve painted I’m afraid (the very thing I was trying to avoid this year)… and that started off with this Arbite guy (essentially 40k police)… which I have assembled at least:

And the plan for this model is to paint him with white armour so that he can lead the ‘penal legion’ troops that I started painting a while back (for OPR firefight).

And then there were all of these WW2 models (all from Wargames Atlantic)…

 

The first are German sentries (6 infantry and 2 dogs), the second are (another 6) British commando/SAS types, and the third and fourth are (a total of 12) BEF models.

So, including the dogs and the 40k model, that’s another 27 miniatures to add to my pile of shame.

And if I add the 3 trolls to my ‘done’ list, that brings the grand total for the first half of this year to:

78 PAINTED

66 BOUGHT

So, I’m still ‘in credit’ (so to speak)… but it seems that I’ve already started to slide back into my old ways :O

Small Wargaming/RPG Bushes

Following on from my HEDGE and TREE tutorials, here's a quick look at how I've made several small bushes* for use with various wargames & RPGs.

*Note that I've seen something similar done with a ball of wool in the past - but I can't seem to find the website where I saw it - so I'm unable to give them proper credit for my inspiration at this time (however if I do rediscover it, I'll post the link here).

Anyway, on with the tutorial...

* * *

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Top Row (from left to right):

• A wire brush
• An old toothbrush
• Something with a sharp point (I'm using a sculpting tool)
• Cheap acrylic brown paint
• Woodstain (I'm using an inexpensive 'medium oak' colour from my local 'Wilko' store)
• Hairspray (spray-on glue would be better, but anything 'sticky' should suffice)

Bottom Row (from left to right):

• A roll of twine (costs less than a pound)
• A miniatures base (I'm using a 2p coin - but a metal washer or anything roughly 1" in diameter will do).
• Basing material (a mixture of  'javis' flock in this instance)
• Super glue
• A pair of scissors

* * *

STEP 1

The first thing you'll need to do is wrap the twine around two of your fingers, or a ruler, etc. (making roughly ten passes), to produce a small circular coil of twine. Then, simply squash this coil together and tie another piece of twine about the centre to produce something similar to what's pictured below:

* * *

STEP 2

Take a pair of scissors and cut through all of the 'loops' either side of the knotted twine, and spread the pieces apart and into a (roughly) circular shape.

* * * 

STEP 3

Take a wire brush and start 'roughing-up' the twine - so that it looks a little more fluffy/fuzzy (essentially making something that looks like half a 'pom-pom'). Then, once you're reasonably happy with the shape, glue the twine to whatever base you are using ...and give it another once over with the wire brush so that you are left with something that looks similar to this:

Note that now is a good time to trim the bush (with a pair a scissors) to obtain a more desirable shape if you're not entirely happy with the way it looks.

* * *

STEP 4

Once you're happy with the shape of the bush, apply copious amounts of woodstain to the entire piece (i.e. so that is soaks into as much of the twine as possible).

At this point your 'bush' will probably have transformed into a messy pile of brown goo - so to make the twine stand upright again, I first use an old toothbrush to coax everything back up into an upright position. I then take a small sculpting tool (though a toothpick or something similar would suffice) and drag it up from the bottom of each piece of twine to separate and/or reposition most of the strands*

All of this is done while everything is still wet - and should leave you with something that resembles a large grassy tuft (as seen in the image below).

*Note that although this sounds like a long winded process, in reality it doesn't take more than a couple of minutes to complete.  Also, be aware that when you pull the sculpting tool (or whatever it is that you are using) through the twine, you'll probably get lots of little undesirable 'wisps' (like those pictured above) - but don't worry too much about that for now.

* * *

STEP 5

Once the woodstain is dry (note that I usually leave it overnight) you can cut off all the undesirable wisps, and give the base (in this instance a 2p coin) a coat of brown paint.

This should leave you with a pretty rigid structure - to which we can apply some foliage.

* * *

STEP 6

To apply the foliage, simply spray the piece with copious amounts of hairspray* (making sure to cover the entire piece), and sprinkle your flock all over it. Then, once you've shaken off the excess foliage, give the piece another quick blast of hairspray to help seal the piece.

*note that it's probably best to buy a tin of you're own if you plan on making a lot of these - rather than 'borrowing' one from the bathroom cupboard ;)

* * *

And that's pretty much it!

However, it's probably worth noting that hairspray isn't a great adhesive (as I was able to rub the flock off the edges of the base with just a wet finger) - so it's likely that these pieces won't stand up to repeated abuse. That being said, if you happen to have a can of clear (spray) varnish in your possession (i.e. the kind of thing you'd spray on your finished miniatures) - then giving these bushes a quick blast of that will certainly help toughen them up!

D.I.Y. Wargaming/RPG Trees

A little while ago I posted a quick tutorial on how to make cheap wargaming/RPG hedges (which you can find HERE) from basic household items - and since then, I've been wondering if I could do something similar to make a bunch of small trees.

Anyway, over the past week or so, I've been experimenting with a few different techniques (some successful, others not so much), and as you can see by the picture below, the style I've settled on doesn't look too bad ...and so I thought I would post another quick tutorial to show how I made them.*

*note that by sheer coincidence a similar tutorial has just been posted over on the Beasts of War website ...so it looks as though my idea is not so original after all :) - though I suppose (like the hedges I made previously) people could have been doing similar things for years, and I've simply not been aware of it :)

Anyway ...on to (my version ;) ) of the tutorial...

* * *

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Top Row (from left to right):
Cheap acrylic paint (yellow, brown, & green)
Woodstain (I'm using an inexpensive 'medium oak' colour from my local 'Wilko' store)
PVA (white) glue
A wire brush
Something with a sharp point (I'm using a sculpting tool)

Bottom Row (from left to right):
A dish scourer (roughly 6" x 4" in size)
A miniatures base (I'm using a 40mm round mdf circle)
A golf tee (I'm using the biggest one I could find - approx 3¼ long)
Basing material (green flock/static grass)
A small glue gun

* * *

STEP 1

The first thing you'll need to do is glue the golf tee to the base, and draw a line (roughly one inch from the base) around the circumference of the tee.

It's also worth noting that you can vary the height of the trees by cutting the golf tee down slightly (thus making it shorter) - but if you do, be sure to keep the part you cut off, as this can be glued to the top of a different golf tee to make it taller (which is exactly what I have done to achieve the three different size trees you can see at the top of this post).

* * *

STEP 2

Run the hot glue gun up & down the tee (up to the line you drew previously), and out along the top of the base to get a basic 'trunk' and 'root' texture.

Note that this doesn't need to be neat and tidy - in fact, the messier it is, the better it tends to look!

* * *

STEP 3

Rip the scourer up into various circular/oval shapes and poke a hole in the centre of each piece (I'm using the sculpting tool for this - but anything sharp and pointy will do the trick). Then rough up these pieces with the wire brush (to make them a little more 'fluffy' looking), and start stacking them on the golf tee*

*note that it's best to dry fit the pieces first (stacking them in a roughly largest to smallest order) so that you can try various configurations and/or orientations before settling on a shape that you like.

* * *

STEP 4

Once you're happy with the shape of the foliage, glue each piece into place with a blob of white glue*

*at this stage I remove all the foliage and lay them out on the table in the order/orientation I'm going to stack them, and then glue them in place one at a time.

* * *

STEP 5

Once the glue is dry, paint the base and the trunk with the brown acrylic paint, and give all of the foliage a heavy coat of the woodstain (so that it soaks into as much of the scourer as possible). Then leave it to dry overnight.

Note that the purpose of the woodstain is to seal the piece (making the whole thing a lot more solid) and to take away some of the bluish tone of the scourer itself (though you can, of course, leave it as it is if you prefer).

* * *

STEP 6

Once the woodstain is dry (and the scourer has hardened nicely) give the foliage a heavy drybrush of green paint, followed by a regular drybrush of 1 part green & 2 parts yellow, and then a final (very light) drybrush of yellow.

For the trunk I have applied a drybrush of 1 part brown & 1 part yellow - followed by a light drybrush of 1 part brown & 3 parts yellow.

Once that's dry, apply your flock to the base - and that's it!

* * *

As you can (hopefully) see, the trees are very easy to make - and if you've already made some of the hedges from my previous tutorial, there's a good chance you've already got most of what's needed to produce them (but if not, then the most expensive thing you'll need to buy is a small glue gun - but even these can be had for as little as £5 on ebay.).

A final picture showing a 1:72 scale figure on the left

and a regular size (28mm) wargame figure on the right.

So, there you have it, another quick tutorial to help spice up the game table without breaking the bank :)

1:72 scale miniatures ...a viable alternative?

I've been getting into painting/collecting 1:72 miniatures recently - especially since a few manufacturers are now producing fantasy figures at this scale.

If you haven't seen them yet, take a look at Caesar Miniatures for example, as they currently do a very nice range of figures including orcs, goblins, elves, dwarves, undead, and 'adventurers' - though their elves do have large anime style ears that need trimming down/off in my opinion, and the cartoony nature of their orc and goblin miniatures may not be for everyone (note that a closer look at what's in each box can be found at the Plastic Soldier Review website).

Well, as I say, I've been painting a few of these figures recently (with the aim of using them in a future AoS campaign) and they have proved to be really nice figures to paint:

A Caesar adventurer, dwarf, and elf (based on a UK penny)

Unlike lots of regular sized (28-32mm) figures they are not overburdened with too many odds and ends (so that's less fiddly things to mess around with for a start), and they don't (for the most part) suffer from some of the wacky armour and oversized weapon designs that some larger figures do.

But you don't have to limit yourself to these 'fantasy' figures as there are tons of historic medieval/dark-age miniatures out there at the same scale which work just as well.

A 1/72 scale Zvezda viking pictured next to a Caesar dwarf and elf

And, if like me, you're not a fan of the 'warhammery' look of the Caesar orcs then there is an alternative in the form of Orion/Dark Alliance orcs (additional pics of some of the orcs can be found on the Plastic General blog).

A Caesar skeleton and wraith/spirit pictured next to a Dark Alliance orc

I've also found that in some instances, figures from other scales can be perfectly suitable too ...for example pictured below is a 15mm minotaur (from Magister Militum), an old GamesWorkshop skink, and a 'Zahranian Verman' from Black Tree Design.

Another problem I sometimes face with 'regular' sized miniatures is that I often find the prospect of painting larger monsters a little daunting (I don't know why - I just don't like painting them very much). But at this scale a 28/32mm orc model is the perfect size for a troll ...as shown below:

An Italeri barbarian next to a Ral Partha 'Gargantua' orc (based on a 2p)

But obviously, not all monsters are humanoid, and since I'm looking to (eventually) cover all the monsters in the AoS book I've also found the following miniatures that are suitable for wolves/direwolves and giant spiders.

A 15mm wolf (minus its rider), and a 10mm giant warwolf (both from Pendraken Miniatures)

An old GamesWorkshop plastic spider, and a smaller spider from Black Tree Design's 'swarm'

So to sum things up I think that gaming in 1:72 scale is perfectly doable - so long as you're willing to work with a limited monster palette (or are prepared to search through a lot of miniatures websites). It's probably also worth pointing out that most of the plastic 1:72 box sets contain around 30 miniatures for less money than what you would pay for a single metal figure in a high-street wargames store.