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 14 September 2019

Test Paints - WW2 British Paras #3

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts this week. I took a few days to finish reading a couple of books (I generally have two to four on the go at once) and to prep all the figures I purchased at Colours. I have, however, spent the past two days painting (and this morning varnishing) these chaps:



I was trying a couple of different colours for the Denison base and the new scheme, also seeing which wash would be best - Soft Tone or Strong Tone. The experiment has confirmed a few choices and ruled out others.

The left-hand figures had Strong Tone wash over uniforms, webbing and helmets; the right-hand figures got a Soft Tone wash. That was followed by highlighting. Most of the remaining items painted and highlighted without any wash.

For the toggle ropes, the left-hand figures were highlighted before being washed with Soft Tone; the right-hand figures were highlighted afterwards.

Looking at the Denison base colours:

German Cam. Orange Ochre (70.824)



German Camo Beige (70.821)



Middle Stone (70.882)



Stone Grey (70.884)



Dark Yellow (70.978)




I think that the German Cam Orange Ochre and German Cam. Beige are the best colours for the Denison base. The brown patches are spot on; the green patches and helmet scrim are a bit too bright as is the green I've used for the scarf. For the scarf I'll go back to using the same colour as for the cuffs.

The trousers have come out a little bit too yellow-green - I think that might have been due to me dry-brushing too heavily. I'll try a different colour and a lighter dry-brush with the original for the next batch I paint. I might also try a darker base and dry-brush with un-darkened base.

The webbing and water bottle colours are just right. The highlight colour on the berets is good, but the shade colour needs to be a touch darker.

I am tempted to go over the wood of the weapons with a wash/glaze like I did with my Australians.

The dry-brush colour on the base texture isn't right - I'll probably switch that to tan earth.

I'll carry on with this scheme (apart from the trousers) for the rest of the Warlord Games figures, but just using the first two Denison base colours and Soft Tone wash.

Once they are done, I will switch projects for a quick break - I think I'll paint the Choson Korean rocket artillery next, then maybe some Aussies.

5 comments:

  1. Great progression Tamsin, and thanks for sharing all these trials very enlightening

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  2. Lovely. The grenade throwing poses. Imagine both poses with the same head..it would give a "flick book " effect.

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  3. I see your experimentation is coming on great guns, I agree with your comments. Great figures!

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  4. @ Dave Stone - cheers and you're welcome! :)

    @ Paul - nice idea! Looking at the backs of the figures, the webbing is a bit different - it might be easier to do with their plastics :)

    @ Herkybird - thanks! Almost there now :)

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  5. Interesting to follow your trials Tamsin. I'm pretty much settled on my approach to British Paras but am still following with interest.I might pitch the one or other idea ;-)

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