So Warfare came and went, unfortunately I missed out , as at the last moment my Mum was taken seriously ill. But here is the the final gallery. They were all finished in time. The overall time spent was about 10 sessions, so about 20-30 hours. I was reasonably pleased. It was hard not to revisit areas and touch up areas that didn’t fit my exacting standards the whole dip principle worked well and I would recommend if you need a speedy result.

I played the first game with it, and scored a win (beating Ottoman Turks)… so pretty good

And here is the list that makes up the army

MMmm … a half term break in York for the week and things look a little tight now. All the figures have had a block paint, but now to basing and a general tidy up. First up is the general. I used to do these last, but now I do them first as the jazziest element, rather the lacklustre finale!  Seems to work better that way.

I have tried to keep that pampas grass , burnt out look. Hopefully complimenting the natural tones of the paintjob.

Its not a top drawer job, but workman like, which was always the brief. After all Its meant to only be a 2 week project.
 

The trouble with big projects, is … its a bit boring. Another 60 infantry on the production line. I thought I’d do a strip to completion… so a zap of ‘Rail Match’ and the job is done.

Out of interest here is a before and after strip to show the difference the dip makes -

 New larger pictures!

The thing to remember with the dip technique is things will get worse before they get better! And here is testimony of this. When you put that dip on you are going to obliterate a lot of detail and get a horrible glossy finish. You’ve got to stick with it!  Things will get better… but it is test of faith.

Painting step (on top of the bone spray)

The flesh triad is –

• Dark                    GW Tuskgor Fur
• Mid                      GW Cadian Fleshtone
• Highlight              GW Kislev Flesh

I’m warming the new GW paints now. There are a few duffers , but these 3 seems pretty good. Averland Sunset being a lovely warm ‘red’ yellow

 So blocking the colours in … Your mantra here should be NEAT NEAT NEAT . Thinking that the dip will cover things up is prone to disaster. If it doesn’t then you will have painful tidy up job. Better to tidy up here.

I’m trying to stick to natural palette of oranges and browns, but I can’t help slipping in a few blues and greens. Remember that you need to be painting everything in a register brighter than normal. The dip will tone it down.

I’m using Army Painter Soft tone , which is OK. Can only really be used for ‘light’ jobs. My tin is thickening a bit, which is annoying at at £18 a tin I’m only about ½ way down.  I’ve never had much success with thinning it down, the Dark tone anyway… lead me to abandoning in at as too expensive. When I thin it  down it always seems to coagulate and the pigment forms ‘bits’ which a really annoying to get rid of. If I use it again I’d probably limit it to a tin an army and dip the lot in one step , to avoid evaporation

Anyway, in a brave move here are blobby stage figures, things do look bad – do not SMASH IT UP at this stage – you need to persevere!

This one is my favourite., you can see the varnish destroying all your hard work! don’t worry it will run get better

Always paint the tip right down over the base. That way at the dip settles it can run down and has less friction to overcome as it runs away. That way you avoid collection around the ankles

In this sitting (3-4 hours) I finished all 48 cavalry and about 40 infantry. At this rate this stage will take about 3-4 days

One thing to learn is that after you’ve gone to all that trouble to de-grease you figures, you must try not to touch them with your fingers again! If you are trying to utilise a very ‘washy’ style then you need to avoid grease spots and water beading on a greasy surface.

So with a brush in hand its starting with blocking in the colour. With prep done so far the surface is ready receptive the the paint, and  you can go quite ‘thin’  The undercoat needs to be flat and no missing bits ( this is important)  You want the paint to do all th shading work in this method. No golden demons here – but practical for putting 300 figures on the table in a month.

Here you can see the shading starting to come out here. It does help if the figures are crisp and well defined … and we have a top drawer product here