Painting Supplies: Acrylic Thinner

A few months ago I had been disappointed with the finish on some of my models. I felt, specifically, that this was due to issues I was having with paint consistency. My Vallejo paints just seemed too thick and using water just wasn't working. As a result I felt my vehicles had very rough looking surfaces and my infantry figures looked very 'heavy'.

 

I had just been using water to thin my Vallejo acrylics and it just didn't seem to work. The paint either ended up far to runny/wash like or it just didn't seem to coat the model properly. I had a few people offer suggestions and did a bit of hunting about on my own.

 

The original discussion can be found here.

 

Eventually I settled on this:

Which I picked up online from SnMstuff for £4.95 (plus postage) and have been using for the last few weeks. I have to say I'm really really happy with this compared to just using water. The paint goes to a good consistency with just a drop added. It thins the paint but doesn't turn it into a wash and still coats well. I'm much happier thinning my paint down now and I feel that I'm seeing much smoother and less bitty finishes.

 

I did buy a Vallejo branded thinner (Model Colour 524 - Thinner), but it turned out to be some sort of medium and is a milky white substance. I've not tried it. I also bought brush shampoo and restorer, which I've yet to use.

 

I've not used my airbrush for a while but I'd be willing to try this thinner with a low PSI setting on my compressor (I think that the PSI may have been the reason I was having so many issues previously). I'll let you know if/when I try that out!

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40mm Bofors Anti Aircraft platoon - Finished!

"Huzzah" I hear all regular readers of my rambling blog cheer.

"Thank f*ck those as done" I think to myself!

This unit has been a bit of a slog. Originally picked as I thought it would be a quick platoon to finish I rapidly found myself disliking the sculpts and struggling to make progress against my own apathy. Thankfully some support from the blogging community spurred me on to finish these off.

Now they are done, perversely, I kinda like them. Although I think the bases could be doing with more detail (spend brass, ammo crates, etc). Those may come later. 

Missing at this stage is the final 2 guns of the battery and transport. These guys are representing 40th Light AA Regiment, Royal Artillery - As usual, part of the 51st Highland Division. I am tempted to get the last two guns as the self propelled versions (BR182) - mainly because I like them and it saves me having to work on the Forged in Battle mini's again - as I wouldn't like to mix  the Battlefront ones into this platoon. But it would also give me some different models and would be nice for Battlegroup Overlord.

Guns were painted standard Russian Uniform Green (Vallejo Model Color 70.924). Wheels/tyres were just black with a Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber (306) highlight. Crew were standard Vallejo Model Color English Uniform (70.921) with Vallejo Model Color Khaki webbing  and gaiters (70.988), black boots and well... flesh coloured flesh. Helmets are Russian Uniform Green. Highlights on the crew are mainly shades of English Uniform and Khaki. Khaki was also used to highlight the guns. A coat of Dark tone Army Painter was put on before the highlights, and a matt coat of varnish after the highlights. 

One of the things I am glad I did with these models was to add my own gunsights. The Forged in Battle minis had no gunsight included and I felt the model really needed one. They are very prominent on this gun and the Battlefront model does include them. 

The crew poses are a bit strange - they could have really done with people with binoculars and some different ammo carrying poses. 

Still, as much as i have struggled with these guys they are decent models for the money. Scale wise they fit in well with Flames of War models to the extent I had no worries about mixing them on a command base. It's probably important to note that the Forged in Battle 40mm Bofors guns have no base included and models for command stands. There were a few spare crew mini's, but none that have any real command style.

Once they were based up I was much less focused on the individual models and my annoyance at the one part gun shield/crew sculpt. But I do think the guns are a weak part of the model and I have broken one already. They are also a bugger to keep straight. 

So that's it, another platoon down and time to move on. I'm going to try and pick something I want to paint this time... Certainly NOT the 4.2" Mortar platoon.

PSC M5 Halftracks... teaser

Managed to finally get my half tracks finished, based, etc The only thing remaining is some decals to fix on my previously completed Battlefront M5 to make it fit in with the unit. No time for a full blog tonight, but I was so chuffed I wanted to put some quick pics up before a fuller blog later.

Plastic Soldier Company M5 Halftracks in 15mm

Side view of Plastic Soldier Company M5 Halftracks in 15mm

My conversion of a Plastic Soldier Company M5 Halftrack into a M5 Ambulance - in 15mm

More pics to follow!

Basing

While working on finishing off the models I've been picking away at for the last few months(...), it occurred to me that I hadn't really detailed what I am doing for the basing of my mini's. Maybe I did a while ago, but I took a pic of what my rough process is.

So I start with my standard base - either a FoW one or one from Warbases. I try to keep units all on the same type of base - so for example all the half tracks I have done have Warbases large size bases.

I've mentioned a few times my reasoning behind basing everything. A lot of the FoW models come moulded on bases and I feel that if one thing has a base on it, everything should. It rattles some internal cage of mine seeing Universal Carriers that look out of scale next to Shermans... purely because the UC are on a base.

The base also provided a better transport solution (magnets) and stops the track to track car park look. The one that one of Battlefronts 'rangers' tells me never happens but that I see on battle reports all the time.

Here's the photo:

The 'Dark Earth' is a acrylic resin from Vallejo (26.218) and is basically a dark grey colour. I apply this to a base that has been well scored in a zigzag pattern by a craft knife. Usual (recently) I have just been using a teaspoon to scoop out the amount I need and then roughly flatten it down. The nice thing about the resin is that it can be cut and trimmer as required when it's dry.

Once it's dry and trimmed, I paint it all Vallejo Model Color Flat Earth (70983). If I am spraying matt varnish around this time I will also give it a spray of that just to seal it. A tip I picked up from Paul, Davey and YD was that if you are using wooden bases you should varnish all of them - including the under side. This means if water should ever get into your mini's, the bases don't swell up and become ruined. 

For bases with infantry, I just press the infantry down, then cut out a rough rectangle that they will fit in. Superglue on the hole and then press the mini in.

Then I paint the bases of the infantry flat earth and let that dry. Then cover the top of the base in PVA and using my home made squirty bottle of static grass (a washing up liquid bottle with the stopper removed) I fire the static grass onto the bases with little puffs of air.

For vehicle bases I just PVA and static grass, then superglue the model onto the base.

The last stage is some dabs of PVA and then application of scrub bushes and flowers (currently from MiniNatur). I'm not one for piles of stones or the likes, as my men are fighting in well cultivated Normandy. Similarly I don't like ruins, rubble, etc. Although to be fair it is a bit daft when my tanks sit on a road with their grass bases - but I'm not quite at the madness of interchangeable bases depending on the tabletop terrain.....

Knightly Gaming

Quiet weekend with my girl, so not much gaming.

I did however manage to get along to the opening of a local gaming shop. A couple of the FoW Rangers guys were along and there were some demos of a few other games. Not sure that the shop has a website yet, but info about them can be found here.

They have a good range of Vallejo paints and while I didn't spend a lot of time browsing they did have 40k, Warmachine, Dystopian Wars and a range of roleplay games. There were also KRC cases and a load of other stuff.

They also had 3 tables set up and I think the owner is planning to run gaming and roleplay nights.

Great to see something like this in Lanark, and I wish them every success! Hopefully I'll get a chance to do a bit more gaming through them!