Painting up a storm

24 February 2017

I have to admit to a touch of panic. I haven’t touched anything larger than a 6mm figure, or group of figures, since 1995. My daughter heralded an age of relative austerity for my wargaming and I moved to 6mm rather than the larger scales. However, now I am spending time working with the collection calculator I have decided to upscale to 15mm.

Could I still paint and base troops properly? And if I could, would it be good enough? On a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon I no longer had any excuses. I steadied my nerves and carefully opened the pot for unbleached wool ...

Velites (Ps - Psiloi)

The Raw materials

These were how the Velites looked when I started painting them. Basic metal figures based using Gorilla glue, cleaned up and ready to be transformed into Roman soldiers.

After a wobbly start and some emergency first aid to cover up accidents caused by a shakey hand, I began to get more confident. The paint flowed on and dry brushing took place with a wash to finish the painting process.

I then painted my bases green, covered that in fine scale sand, then washed the sand in foundation wash, dry brushed a little light green on top of that and added short strand nylon flock for grass by using my Baccus6mm basing kit.

After 22 years out of practice, I have to say I am reasonably happy with the end product. I guess it’s like riding a bike – a skill you never really lose.

Below is the Same pose as the original unpainted troops pictured above

Below is the right side of the bases showing detail

Below is the left side of the bases showing detail

Full wolfskins on show here