The Land of the Midnight Sun

Sue (my wife) and I have been on our travels again. She found a great last-minute deal on a cruise to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Orkney Islands on P&O's Arcadia ... and booked it. As a result we have been away from home for twelve nights, and I have come back with lots to write blog entries about!

These travel-related blog entires will be appearing over the next week or so, along with the normal sort of blog entries that I write. The latter will include a brief run-down on the latest issue of MINIATURE WARGAMES WITH BATTLEGAMES and a description of the latest issue of WARSHIP annual.

My most important pre-occupation for the next fortnight will be preparing for COW2014 (this year's Conference of Wargamers). It starts on 11th July and ends on 13th July, and at present we expect to cater for over well forty attendees. I have the programme ready to take to the printer tomorrow, and it will be sent out to attendees by the end of the week.

Painting Figures: Another experiment

I decided to have another go at painting a wargames figure ... and this time I chose a 20mm-scale World War 2 one for my experiment.

I used almost exactly the same method as I used for my recently-painted Jacklex figures ... and the result looked like this:

The Nut Brown Indian Ink does add shadowing ... but I think that the darkening effect is too great. As a result I think that I may well miss that stage of the process out when I paint my next figures.

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(Note: Most of the paints I used on this figure were craft acrylic paints bought in a local craft shop. I found them to be just as easy to use as specialist modelling acrylic paints ... but they were a LOT cheaper!)

Painting Jacklex figures: Day 7

The figures were then given a coat of Humbrol Gloss polyurethane varnish. I prefer this finish as it both protects the figures and makes them look like toy soldiers … which is – after all – what they are!

I had not used this painting process for a very long time, and I have re-learnt some useful lessons. Using Nut Brown India Ink is a quick and simple way to shade a figure … but the colours used to paint the figures have to be lighter and the detail more pronounced in order for the full effect not to be lost.

Painting Jacklex figures: Day 6

At this point the figures looked a bit of a mess … and I nearly stopped the process then and there. (My choice of colours had tended to be similar is shade if not in colour, and the ‘inking’ had made the figures look almost monochromatic.) In the end I decided to finish them to see what they would look like.

The base of each figure was then painted. I used Yellow Ochre as I think that it looks better on the tabletop.

Painting Jacklex figures: Day 5

At this point the figures were painted … but lacked any shading or detail. In order to achieve this quickly and easily I painted the whole figure with Windsor & Newton Nut Brown Indian Ink.

The ink was allowed to run into the undercuts etc. on the figures, and any surplus ink was removed using a brush that was regularly wiped clean.

I then let the ink dry overnight. (N.B. This is very important as the ink has to be absolutely dry before the next stage of the painting process can take place.)

Painting Jacklex figures: Day 4

I continued painting on the details. The order I did this in was as follows:

• Brown boots
• Red point on top of the turban
• Red or Green shoulder straps (four figures had red and four had green)

I then let the paint dry overnight.

Painting Jacklex figures: Day 3

Once the undercoat was fully dry, I gave the figures a thin coat of Citadel Zandri Dust matt acrylic paint.

I then put each figure onto a display magnet. (These are sold in packs in large office supply stores and stationers.) I use display magnets because they are easy to get hold of when I am painting … and the figures don’t move around on them thanks to the steel pennies I have based each figure on.

I then began the process of painting on the details. The order I did this in was as follows:

• Brown belts, water bottle, and bayonet scabbard
• White haversack
• Dark brown rifle and sling
• Brown face and hands (in retrospect I realise that I should have used lighter shade of brown for the skin areas)

I then let the paint dry overnight.

Painting Jacklex figures: Day 2

Once the primer was fully dry, I undercoated the figures using Humbrol matt white enamel paint.

Painting Jacklex figures: Day 1

I recently found some old, unpainted Jacklex 20mm-scale figures … and decided that they needed painting!

Now I am no great shakes as a figure painter (my figures often look like they have been painted by a gorilla with a 6-inch brush!), and have not painted any figures from scratch for a very long time. I decided, therefore, to see if I could make a reasonable job of these simple figures using a technique that I used many years ago … and the following blog entries will describe my progress.

The first step was to clean the casting up using emery paper and modelling files. As the bayonets were either badly bent or broken, I removed them. I then washed the figures to clean off any dirt, and once they were dry I superglued them to steel pennies.

I then primed them using a brush and Humbrol matt black enamel paint.

Inside the boxes of Green Army Men

I finally managed to open the two boxes of Green Army Men that I bought in Hawkin's Bazaar ... and this was what was inside:

The boxes contained:

• 5 Officers with binoculars
• 6 Officers/NCOs with Walkie-Talkies
• 3 Officers/NCOs with submachine guns
• 4 Heavy Machine Guns and Gunners
• 7 Anti-tank Gunners with shoulder-held anti-tank weapons
• 7 Engineers with flamethrowers
• 8 Infantrymen throwing grenades (they might also be suitable for conversion to Mortar crewmen or Artillerymen)
• 2 Infantrymen, kneeling, firing
• 5 Infantrymen,standing, firing
• 7 Infantrymen, lunging downwards
• 7 Infantrymen, advancing
• 3 Infantrymen, crawling

I am not quite sure what this force would equate to in LITTLE COLD WARS terms, but I would have thought that it was probably about equivalent to a battalion.

I am going to be quite busy over the next couple of weeks, but I hope to begin painting these figures at the end of June so that they will be ready by the middle of July.