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).

Saturday 6 July 2019

Para Test Paints

With my workbench finally clear of hedges, I decided today to do a bit of painting.

I started off by painting the commander for my recently painted Matilda II:



He just needs to be varnished and glued into his hatch.

As he was finished quite quickly, I grabbed one of the Warlord Paras to do a test of the painting scheme. I realised quite quickly (mostly before I actually began painting)that some of the colours I'd chosen wouldn't look quite right with the painting style I am intending to use (only using washes for flesh and select items), so I quickly substituted colours that would work.

Here is the first test figure:


I didn't like the ground colour, so I repainted it - much better.
There are a number of things that I'm not happy with, so I've made appropriate changes to my scheme:

* replace Pale Sand with Sand Yellow as addition colour for brown highlights
* webbing colour too dark - replace Reflective Green with German Uniform
* modify Denison colour patches slightly
* add a Sepia wash as final step for toggle rope

The beret colour and flesh came out well though!

However, a lot of the Paras would still be wearing 1st pattern Denison which has a more yellow-brown base colour, rather than the pale olive of the 2nd pattern. I decided to try a couple of different colours to see which came close to the look I wanted:

Tan Yellow; Japanese Uniform; Brown Sand
Each of the colours above was highlighted in two steps by adding Sand Yellow and then Pale Sand. The colour I was aiming for is somewhere between the Japanese Uniform and Brown Sand. I ran a test on another figure, using two additions of Sand Yellow to highlight:

Tan Yellow; Ochre Brown

Japanese Uniform; Ochre Brown

Brown Sand; Ochre Brown

I think I have my scheme pretty much nailed now:




Tomorrow I will be re-blacking the test figures I painted today and adding basing gunk to this lot:


They will get primed on Monday, then I can get the SYW Russians out and start painting them.


7 comments:

  1. Your tank commander looks great Tamsin, and fantastic work on your camo pattern on the paras

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  2. Thanks for reminding me, I need to get some practice with GW Contrast paints!

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  3. Nicely done Tamsin. I found the Denison Smock quite forgiving with a wash, not least because of all the equipment that was covering it.

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  4. Like the Paras just started doing these but in 15mm !

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  5. @ Dave Stone - cheers! :)

    @ Herkybird - no problemo! Have fun with the Contrast paints :)

    @ michael A - thanks! I was hoping to avoid washes on these, but they would give the smocks that lived-in-for several-days-in Oosterbeek look :)

    @ Graham - cheers! Good luck with your 15mm Paras :)

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  6. Looking great Tamsin. One thing you may want to try is using GW's 'Cammoshade' wash it's magical. Just paint a bit bright and the wash will tone it down and tie the colours together. Love the stuff.

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    1. Cheers! I'm trying to avoid washes with these, but I'm starting to think "they're for gaming, not display - go for a quick and easy scheme" so washes might become involved :)

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