About Me

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London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
A mythical beast - a female wargamer! I got back into wargaming in the summer of 2011 after a very, very long break and haven't looked back since. I must admit that I seem to be more of a painter/collector than a gamer, but do hope to correct that at some point in the near future. My gaming interests span the ages, from the "Biblical" era all the way through to the far future. I enjoy games of all sizes, from a handful of figures up to major battles (see my megalomaniacally sized Choson Korean and Russian Seven Years War armies).

Sunday, 23 June 2019

Sunday Workbench 23 June

I've had a productive few days since my last post, today in particular was rather busy. Some more figures have been prepped and stuck on bases. And some figures that I prepped a while ago have also been stuck on painting sticks or bases and the crew figures have had their brass wires inserted into corks as holders for painting.

Today I decided to start adding basing texture to some of the figures. I knew that I didn't want to use the Vallejo "Dark Earth texture" for the Paras, so I decided to make up a batch of my own homebrew version:


It's quite a simple mix: one 300ml tube of brown acrylic frame sealant (£1 from Poundland), 20 spoons of bird sand (£1 for 1kg from Wilko) and a bit of water. I did some tests on a few bases:

L to R: untouched; drybrushed; drybrushed and washed; drybrushed, washed and drybrushed; washed and drybrushed

When the paste had dried (it took about an hour) I did a few tests - you can see the results above. It gives a good texture, dries quick and hard and above all is incredibly cheap (about £1.20 for nearly 500ml; the Vallejo stuff costs £8 for 200ml). The bird sand is quite large grains - for a texture like the Vallejo paste I'd need to use finer sand. For different colours, I could use the white frame sealant and add paint to get the colour I want.

Once that was made, I cracked on with adding texture to bases. Over the space of about 3 hours I got all of these done:


Strontium Dog figures

Warlord, 1st Corps and Foundry Paras

Artizan (and a couple of Warlord) Paras

I've also got some more stuff on my dining table (the only free space available at the moment).

A bit of a mix

Jeeps with antennae added
I've assembled (and gap-filled) the Aussie Matilda II that I bought at Broadside. Various extra figures for my Aussies have been glued onto bases. I've also added antennae to the two jeeps (plastic bristles from a broom). The stuff on the painting sticks are the Choson Korean rocket artillery.

In addition to that, I've glued a lot of SYW Russians onto painting sticks:


These have been moved up the painting queue as there are seven regiments that are needed for our August Bank Holiday refight of Kunersdorf which I don't currently have in my collection. I've taken the decision to paint all nine regiments that I don't have; there are also a few extra figures which I might paint as dismounted dragoons. This will, of course, mean a delay to beginning to paint the Paras (well, I might squeeze in a test figure or two to try out painting schemes).


I've also been assembling some MDF terrain over the past few evenings. I need to get a couple of bits and bobs to finish tarting up a couple of them, so no pics for now.


The coming week promises to be very busy with getting everything primed.



7 comments:

  1. Good to see you've been busy Tamsin.

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  2. Tamsin,
    With all this stuff to paint... don't you except some holidyas ?
    :-)

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  3. I always try to cut down the stuff I prep at one time, as I tend to be unwilling to face painting such a lot!!
    All power to your painting arm!!

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  4. My gosh you have been productive - I feel very slug-like now!

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  5. You've been a busy lass. Well done! Look forward to seeing your paras.

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  6. Love the thoroughness of your research Tamsin, well done.

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  7. @ Ray - cheers! :)

    @ L'Empereur - as I'm sort-of-early-retired every day is a holiday! :)

    @ Herkybird - different ways of working. I just find it easier to have (almost) everything prepped and primed so that I can just crack on and if I get fed up painting one project, I can quickly grab something from another project to paint as a refresher :)

    @ Miles - thanks! But you've been working on (and finishing) all that terrain, whereas I'm just prepped and primed figures! :)

    @ Curt - cheers! The Paras may be a little while - SYW Russians have to get done first :)

    @ Michael A - thanks! Research? Are you referring to the different washing/drybrushing on the bases? :)

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