Every once and awhile, a figure-painting project just really comes together. I recently took advantage of a good sale at Armies in Plastic and in rather record setting time painted up a 54mm German Empire "army" of 36 infantry, 3 officers, a gun and 4 crew. They are wearing the greenish version of "feldgrau" and pickelhaubs with tan covers which roughly corresponds to an early WW1 scheme.
The infantry all use only five colors: flesh, the "feldgrau" green, dark brown, tan, and bright green for the bases. The figures were soaked in batches in a mason jar of SimpleGreen, then in a jar of white vinegar, then primed with white gesso. After they were block painted, I did a "magic wash" of 3 parts water + 3 parts matte medium + one part light brown. This gave the figures a little shading, especially around the face and hands. I then sealed with the figures by brushing on clear gloss polyurethane.
The infantry all use only five colors: flesh, the "feldgrau" green, dark brown, tan, and bright green for the bases. The figures were soaked in batches in a mason jar of SimpleGreen, then in a jar of white vinegar, then primed with white gesso. After they were block painted, I did a "magic wash" of 3 parts water + 3 parts matte medium + one part light brown. This gave the figures a little shading, especially around the face and hands. I then sealed with the figures by brushing on clear gloss polyurethane.
I am extremely satisfied with the end result. The magic wash had darked the green of the unifoms a bit but the gloss coat lightened them back up again, I feel.
The gun crew were originally colonial British with pith helmets, but with the ol' exacto-knife, a few pins, and krazy glue I swapped the heads.
Since I had three boxes of infantry (60 figs) I was able to avoid using poses I wasn't very fond of (so no kneeling-shooting guys, and all the grenade throwing guys became head-swap donors for the artillery crew). I also cut off all the bayonets since (a) they are the most bendy part of the figure and paint always chips/flakes there first, and (b) I think the figures look a little more "The Business" with out the bayonets than with. Final count is 12 figs advancing at a walk, another 12 advancing at a run, and 12 standing/shooting.
Next up is a mirror opposing force of British with pre-1910 uniforms and pith helmets (khaki uniforms - no red tunics). Envision using the Charge! rules and/or All the King's Men for mechanics but with a healthy dose of Wells' Little Wars for set-up and scenario design. Also trying to decide if I want to deal with hassle of adding cavalry or not...
Excellent work and good conversions...they look very effective.I was very tempted to get some of these guys to use as 1864 Prussians, and some ACW figures to use as Danes for the Second Schleswig-Holstein war.
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