Hobby Blog 08/26/20

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 Been a while since I've written anything; I just want to get a few ideas off a piece of scratch paper and onto a more concrete platform.

Spectre Operations - Modern Miniatures

In the past month or so, I started on Spectre Miniatures' DEVGRU team, following their Multicam recipe loosely, which I think came out really well. I primed my miniatures with Krylon grey like always. I think the Vallejo Medium Grey is actually a better basecoat than the suggested Vallejo Green Grey, as it gives a better sandy/brown color, without having to make the browns more prominant in the pattern.





My Multicam Mix

  • Basecoat Vallejo 70.987 Medium Grey
  • Paint Stripes of Citadel Waaagh Flesh, Straaken Green, Dryad Bark, and Vallejo German Camo Medium Brown
  • Wash with Athonian Camoshade
  • Paint stripes/splotches of Citadel Pallid Wytch Flesh
  • Touch up/cut in some more stripes of various colors to preserve the "stripey-ness"

In Modern kit, the two other prominent colors that came up were Coyote and Ranger Green. For these, I knocked something together out of colors I had sitting around, and I think it works well enough.

Coyote Brown

  • Basecoat Vallejo Panzer Aces Canvas 314
  • Wash with Citadel Seraphim Sepia
  • Highlight with 50/50 Vallejo Canvas and Vallejo Medium Grey
  • Highlight with 80/20 Canvas and Medium Grey

Ranger Green

  • Basecoat Vallejo Russian Green
  • Highlight 50/50 Citadel Straaken Green and Russian Green
  • Wash with Athonian Camoshade
  • Highlight again with 50/50 Straaken Green and Russian Green

I want to show my operators in Afghanistan, which has a mix of valleys, deserts, and snowy mountains, so I did a pair of test bases, using sand painted to look sandy, and Citadel's Armageddon Dunes. I like the Armageddon Dunes a bit better, since its texture is a bit more fine, and I think that's what I'll go with moving forward. I still haven't figured out the vegetation yet though, as Afghanistan has a mix of vibrant green and pale, dead, foliage. 

That will be the end of Spectre miniatures for a bit, at least until I order some OPFOR or I figure out how to paint the dog that comes with the DEVGRU set.

Age of Sigmar

I finally finished up the command team for my Age of Sigmar Skeletons, and I thought I'd just list the recipe here for future reference. The classic vampire counts red is cool, but I wanted a force to be recognizably mine and have a cool spin on it, so I chose an icy blue scheme with a snowy base to match. I think the muddy ground contrasts well with the snow and icy blue, and I quite like it.






Bone

  • Prime White
  • Wash with Citadel Seraphim Sepia
  • Layer Ushabti Bone
  • Fine Highlight Screaming Skull

Metal

  • Basecoat Black (any black is fine)
  • 2 Coats Citadel Leadbelcher
  • 1 layer Citadel Typhus Corrosion
  • Drybrush Citadel Ryza Rust (anywhere from light to heavy, as variation is good)
  • Highlight/Chipping with Leadbelcher

Blue

  • Basecoat Citadel Caledor Sky
  • 2 layers Teclis Blue
  • Layer Temple Guard Blue
  • Wash with Drakenhof Nightshade
  • Optional: Additional Temple Guard Blue layer if needed/on significant unit

All miscellaneous leather details were done with whatever black/grey/brown was on hand.

Bolt Action - Canadian Rifle Platoon

For Bolt Action, I needed another army to face off against my Germans, and since my German force is themed for Normandy around Caen, I figured Brits would be the one. But, since I'm loathe to go with the standard British forces, I decided to model/paint them as Canadians. This mainly means replacing STEN guns with Thompsons, and painting the fatigues a more green shade. I have seen the photos of Canadian uniforms in museums, and they're not as green as some people would have you think, so I chose to use Vallejo 70.887 US Olive Drab as the primary basecoat. The miniatures, as always, were primed Grey. I primed almost all of them in an afternoon with an airbrush. Even usng the cheapest piece of crap, it was a lot easier and quicker than doing it all by hand. I saved myself a lot of time, since I was dreading painting the whole force. The recipe is below...





Uniform

  • Basecoat US Olive Drab
  • Wash with Citadel Athonian Camoshade (gives a good green/brown tone, which works nicely)
  • Re-layer over the uniform with US Olive Drab
Stopping there is about good enough for tabletop standard, especially when I have about 45 of these guys to crank out. For the officer, I think I'll take the highlight one step further with a 50/50 mix of Citadel Straaken Green and US Olive Drab. It implies the green of the canadian uniform without getting too vibrant.

Webbing

  • Basecoat Vallejo 70.821 German Camo Beige WW2
  • Wash with Agrax Earthshade
  • Highlight with more German Camo Beige WW2

I'm given to understand Canadian webbing was a kind of sandy/khaki color, and so that's what I did, of course making it a bit more vibrant for being recognizable from a couple of feet away. 

Other Kit

Boots 
  • Basecoat Vallejo German Camo Medium Brown
  • Wash with Agrax Earthshade 
  • Highlight with more German Camo Medium Brown
Metallics
  • Undercoat with Black
  • Layer with Citadel Leadbelcher
  • Wash with Nuln Oil
  • Layer with Citadel Leadbelcher

Helmet
  • Russian Green
  • Wash with Athonian Camoshade
  • Drybrush Straaken Green
I'm also given to understand that Canadian helmets were a deeper, truer green color, and that's why I've used Russian Green. Helmets with Scrim netting will be painted with a hodgepodge of other greens and browns to give some natural variation.

Infamy, Infamy!

I came across this ruleset watching TabletopCP, and I really like it. More importantly, it's reignited my passion in ancients, and motivated me to put together an army. Realistically, I don't know anyone near me who would play, and with COVID, I can't even play even if I wanted to. HOWEVER, I love the Imperial Roman period, and even if I never play a game with these guys, I want to put them together just for the fun of it. 
    I ordered the Early Imperial Romans Attacking set from Victrix Limited, along with the Little Big Man Studios transfers for the shields, but due to everything going on, they haven't arrived yet, almost a month later. By chance, I popped into a different hobby store on the way home from work, and they had a set of Auxilia, which I promptly snatched. If it were after payday, I probably would have also got the cavalry and the set of Legionaries Advancing, but oh well. The miniatures go together really really easily, with the exception of the shield arm, which is a bit fiddly since the shield is so heavy, so I've left the shields off the miniatures to make for easier painting, and I'll most likely superglue them on later. Hopefully, I'll get to check back in with some guys finished, although I don't know what color tunic/scarves I want to go for. Plain white is most historical, but other colors are cool. Green is a neat Auxilia color, and red obviously works. I'll have a think and figure it out later.




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