I dipped, and almost regretted...

I decided to dip... and I went close to a complete disaster.

First, a quick overview of my dipping technique, which is actually not a real "dip", as I use a brush to apply the Minwax Polyshade finish to my miniatures. I normally use a fairly large, cheap brush, and two types of Polyshade, one called "Antique Walnut", with a more reddish-brownish tint, which usually works great for red-clad miniatures, and the other with a blackish color, called "Tudor Satin", which works great for miniatures painted in gray and white as main color.

So, today I headed to the roof deck, armed with all the necessary to engage in a nice session. First I applied the Tudor Satin to the Spanish grenadiers, a Palatine regiment, and the French Piedmont and Normandie. So far, so good. But I didn't stir the Tudor Satin can much before applying the dip, so it came out as a relative "light" layer. When I moved to work to the Swiss and the Irish/Palatinate units, I made sure to stir more robustly the Antique Walnut, and... gee! It came out thick and dark brown, and covered everything, from bayonets to the white and yellow trim on the hat. I had to sweat quite a bit to thin the dip, and to remove as much of it as possible from the areas whose color I wanted to keep more vivid. And as I was working in this crucial cleaning action... the brush broke off! I was able to fix it on the fly, and to complete the cleaning/finishing strokes -- I just had to be very careful with the brush.

Photos will follow soon. For the time being, let me articulate the lessons of the day:

a. make sure the brush is in good condition; if it is, take a second one with me nonetheless, just in case;
b. use a smaller brush: it will make my work slower, but it will ensure I have better control of the amount of finish I apply to the miniatures;
c. try not to put any dip on the hats and the bayonets;
d. give the dip a few minutes to sit down, or stir more gently at the beginning. Go for a ligher mix. These are War of Spanish Succession figures, not colonial natives, duh!

Bottom line. The Swiss and the Palatinate/Irish came out a little darker than I would have preferred, but they are still nice. Normandie, Piedmont, Palatinate, and Spanish grenadiers look great. The day was saved!

Cheating - a continuing series...

Since, ehm ehm, I decided to spell the beans about a few, despicable wargaming practices I decided to engage in, I will confess another questionable course of action I recently resolved to follow.

The astute reader may have notice, in previous posts about my WSS project, a unresolved tension about the size of the units. I know and I wholeheartedly agree that 24-figure units look much better than 12-figure units. On the other side, all I have is a 4' by 6' table, and I plan on using a few different rulesets, some of which can be played with 12-figure units. Not that I plan on fighting Blenheim, but it would be nice to have the flexibility, depending by the scenario, to play larger scale battles with 12-figure units or enjoy smaller scale engagements with 24-figure battalions in full display. As many wargamers, I also suffer from a certain bulimia in planning for my armies. Seriously: with so many colorful regiments, how do I decided what to paint, and what not.

So, how to reconcile these opposite aspirations? And how to accommodate for 12- and 24-figure battalions, without too much redundancy but enough variety?

Once again, an attentive exploration of online sources came to help (I already pointed to this fabulous and inspiring website.) Let's look to a few examples.




On the left, we have a sample of the uniform of the Regiment Normandie; on the right, the Regiment Piemont. They look almost the same, but for a little detail: the lining on the tricorne is yellow in the former case, white in the latter. Subtle difference, which does not go unnoticed by my anal retentive self: but how noticeable would be on 15mm miniatures from 3ft away? You may have already guess where I am going with this... IF I paint ONE 24-figure units, where half of the miniatures have a yellow lining, and the other half a white one, I can cheat a bit and actually have TWO different 12-figure units when playing larger encounters. Again, cheating is cheating, but functional to an end. The difference is minuscule enough not too be too disturbing when Normandie and Piemont will be bunched together, but fully satisfying when I will play Age of Reason, or Piquet, or GaPa, as written.

If you can tolerate this shortcut, the possibilities to diversify your armies on the cheap become endless. Two more examples.




In this case, the two regiments are Anjou, left, and Berry, right. Here's the difference is in the intensity of the blue. Almost impossible to detect, unless you watch closely and in the right light. And the same difference in the intensity of the blue color on collar, cuffs and waistcoat is what set apart the uniforms of the next two regiments, Stuppa on the left (Suisse unit in French pay) and Dorrington on the right (an Irish battalion also in French pay.)




Bottomline. I understand I have just shocked and outraged the purists. But I believe that I found a decent trick to achieve a few goals: I can afford to have several different units on a 12-figure per unit, and at the same time I can combine these in pair and, with little and tolerable differences, deploy 24-figure units when the fancy strikes. A shortcut to enjoying the best of the two possible worlds!

Cheating

A.k.a. converting figures.

As I noticed in the previous post, uniforms in the early XVIII century seem to share several common traits, so that national differences are mostly ( mostly: not entirely) confined to the color of coats, cuffs, waistcoats, collars. This realization spurred some thinking about one of my persisting, sore issue: what to do with a very large amount of unpainted lead I bought years ago from Old Glory: assorted 15mm Prussian and Austrian for the SYW, a period I decided, after all, to overlook in favor of the earlier war of Spanish Succession. My readers will be familiar with my headaches about these miniatures, as occasionally I return on the sour topic.

Having resolved against a SYW project, the question about what to do with these figures still stand. My last, tentative answer: to attempt some conversion to the early period. After consulting several plates, I realized that, at a 15mm scale (and thinking in terms of painting outcomes at a 3ft distance on the tabletop), WSS and SYW uniforms differ in three respects:

A. SYW coats are shorter and more fitting; WSS coats are longer to the knee;
B. SYW uniforms show elaborate and colorful turnbacks, and several details in terms of pockets, bottoms, etc. WSS are plain and simple;
C. SYW belts tend to be white, whereas WSS belts are mostly buff or brownish.

There is nothing I can do about A., but converting B. and C. from SYW to WSS only require a proper painting job; to some extend, at a 3ft distance view, a proper painting job may also help to artificially make coats longer than they are cast.

Hence my plan: I brought back on my table some Prussian musketeers and Austrian infantry units in tricorne, and I painted the upper section of the pants in the same color of the coat: dark blue for the Prussian, soon-to-be turned into Palatine Leibregiment, obviously white for the Austrian, soon-to-become the French Luxemburg regiment. A heavy layer of paint help in tricking the sight. I will NOT paint most of the details, just leaving to the final dip to highlight some of them. Finally, all the belts will be painted brown. We'll see what the final result will be. And no: do not expect to see any large picture of these miniatures. I know I am cheating!

But it the plan will work, I might finally find a solution for all those neglected and not really loved OG miniatures sitting in the closet! Austrian and Prussian musketeers will become French, Austrian and minor states WSS units; part of Austrian cuirassiers will become the Palatine's Venningen Gendarmes, and the artillery will be liberally distributed on a as-needed basis. I still have a few doubts about Prussian grenadiers and fusiliers, so if you could make recommendations for suitable WSS counterparts I will sincerely appreciated!

Dipping

I just replied to a comment by Steve to the previous post, and I realized that some of this information might be of interest to a broader audience (if you are like me, you probably skip the comments section, or get distracted at the second one...)

Steve guessed, correctly, that the figures shown in the pictures had been "dipped." Correct! If you look through some my old posts in the "Painting" category, you will find more examples about my dipping technique. I use MinWax Polyshade, a product to treat wood,easily available in American hardware stores. Depending by the effect I want to create, I use either the "Tudor Satin" finish, which is basically black (although MinWax has now a new shade which is officially 'Classic Black"), or the "Royal Walnut", which is more brownish-reddish (it works very well for natives in the colonial period; I once tried "Honey Pine" to create a sandy effect on bedouins, though, but it was a complete disappointment.) In the case of my WSS miniatures, it was "Tudor Satin."
Strictly speaking, I actually do not "dip", but I apply the finish with a brush, as I like to control the final effect. In particular, as a matter of personal taste, I like white to remain white, rather then turning "dirty grey" as it may happen in case of too heavy dipping. Occasionally, I leave the figures to drip upside-down on some support of sort to get rid of the excess dip. As a general pattern, results are excellent on miniatures primed in white and painted in bright colors; the effects are barely noticeable on dark colors (check the Palatine infantry, in dark blue, in the previous post.) And on miniatures primed in black, a dark dipping may result in figures excessively dark, at least for my taste -- as documented here.

In general, I am a fan of dipping. While it does not shorten my painting time, as I tend to detail my miniatures quite a bit anyway, it really add that special shading that, to my eyes, turns a painting job from B- (here) into an A- (here).
But again, as we say in Italy, "ogni scarrafone e' bello a mamma sua": every cockroach is beautiful to his mommy's eye, thus I tend to have a weak spot in grading my own figures...

Freezing temperatures...

... make for a perfect painting afternoon! And I am glad to report some further progress in my Marlburian project. I am currently working on a few units from the Army of Electoral Palatine I bought at last Historicon from Editions Brokaw, plus one French infantry from Minifigs, plus one unit of Brandenburg grenadiers. Here's a few pics, taken before I realized a major mistake: belts and bandoliers should not be white, they should be buff or leather! Since then, I promptly corrected the error with some appropriate retouches -- unfortunately, no picture to document the final result.

Dried-up acrylic paints

In a few weeks I will visit my family, and I will face again one issue I confronted during my last visit. I found in a closet a box with several acrylic paints, forgotten for a long time and, by now, completely dried up. Question: is that any chance I may "resuscitate" them? They are water-based acrylic paints, so, I wonder, maybe I could add some solvent (or just plain water?) and bring the pigments back to life. is it possible?
Clearly, DestoFante does not understand much about the chemistry of acrylic paint, but still hopes...

Another quiet night of painting...

This is becoming a recurring theme for this fall. I am able to squeeze in a little bit of painting, let say 90 minutes to a couple of hours. Not much to register any major breakthrough, but still a very enjoyable session, actually relaxing and not too tiring on my eyes. I usually work on a batch of figures: 24 marlburian miniatures (a battalion), or 24 Napoleonic ones as I did today. This is a rather rewarding strategy: I work on a small group of figures so that I can do some actual progress, and I do not get bored as I did when working on the boots of 60 miniatures in one sitting. The downside is that progress is slow, but hopefully there will be soon a good number of figures ready for basing - and then, you can count on some good picture!

A night of peaceful painting

... and the nice feeling that progress is happening in my "age of reason" project! I spent a couple of hours adding a few but fun details - the cuffs, the tricorne lace, the belts...
Here's, in no particular order, some of the work for the night. The first two shots are Minifigs WSS French; the third, the infamous Old Glory SYW Austrians; the last, the Edition Brokaw WSS Palatine. On this final line: the sculpt is somewhat rough and "old style", but I have to say these miniatures are easy to paint, and very fun to work on. Despite the tentative details, they have a shot of becoming favorite of mine along the Minifigs range!

New brushes

I haven't bought brushes in quite some time. Actually, a long time - it must be more than a few years. Probably I got by because I take good care of them, but they were beginning to show signs of wear. Points weren't as fine as they should, and I was beginning to have hard time in catching some of the tiny details. Time to go shopping for some new tools!
Fortunately, in the Chicago suburbs we have a very nice hobby store - Game Plus in Mount Prospect. I headed in that direction for some shopping yesterday, and here's what I took home.


Four spanking new brushes, three in a nice set by Reaper. Size 5/0, 0, 1, and 2 flat. This addition should provide some mileage to my current painting projects - Lopongo, WSS/Saxe-Pape-Cyssor, etc. This purchase will also give me some leeway to transfer the old brushes to some heavy-duty task, like dry brushing camo or horses.
To tell the truth, I have done some more painting today wild those old tools, which served me so well over the years. Maybe they could have kept going for a while. But it is nice to have something new!

In search of a primer

I ran out of white primer. It happened while I was working on the Abyssinians/Hadendowa figures, and I had to switch to the black primer. Not a big deal, but I tend to prefer the white one, at least to prevent the darkening issues I experienced with the "miracle dipping" as I previously reported.
Now I have the issue of getting a new white primer. Which is more problematic than you think. First of all, I need to select one. The can I just finished was spray from Armory, and it was mostly OK, but had a few cons. First of all, I thought it was relatively pricey. When something is labeled as special for "model hobby", the price gets steep - and I do not believe there is anything actually special about it. I went on TMP, did some search on the boards, and I think my intuition is largely confirmed. Second, I also suspect my Armory spray primer exhausted the propellant before it exhausted the actual paint, because I shake the can and I feel it is far from depleted despite the fact that, no matter how hard I shake, nothing is coming out of it.
So, the hunt is on for a new primer. Again, reading through the TMP posts, I collected a few recommendations that all seem equally good. I have four products on my list:

• Krylon Ultra Flat Black;


• Duplicolor Sandable Primer (an automotive primer);


• Testors White Floquil;


• Plasti-Kote.

First of all, I wonder if the readers of my blog knows any of the aforementioned products - leave a comment, I look forward to you opinions! In particular: since I paint with water-based acrylics, are the above products compatible with this type of paints?
Second, I need to face an additional challenge: I live in Chicago, where spray paints are ban by law. It is a city ordinance against graffiti, one of the very stupid rules we have in this city (don't get me started about the pate' de foie gras fiasco!) As a result, in order to get spray paint you need to drive to the suburbs, which adds time and and make shopping less convenient.
Bottom line: buying a new primer should be a trivial issue, and it is turning into a little nuisance.

Dipping woes

Today I finally completed the first batch of Abyssinians. Sixty of them - it should amount to five units for Piquet - Din of Battle, or three units for The Sword And The Flame. I still need to base them, but the work is, by and large, done.
Nonetheless, I had to face some turbulence in the process. Apparently, something did not go the way I expected when the time came to dip the figures. I have to say: I was feeling pretty good when the painting job was done: this is how the miniatures look before I dipped them.

In general, I really like the effect of dipping: it adds depth and realism, and it covers up the small "painting sins." So I did not hesitate twice to proceed in what is by now a routine a step.
And yet... the miniatures came out very, very dark. I have a couple of explanations to account for the disappointment. Before dipping, I stirred the dip very thoroughly, and as a result it became rather thick, more than usual. Or maybe it was because I primed these miniatures in black, which tends to darken the final look of the figure. Anyway. I was not happy. I liked the white the way it showed in the newly painted minis, and I did not like to see that effect taken away by the dip. Fortunately, I had a second jar of dip in a much lighter color, and I promptly switched. The contrast was stark, as shown in the two following pictures.


The good news was the dip on the first group of mini had not dried yet, so I was able to repeat the process and use the lighter dip to clean up the excess of darkness. The final result was not bad at all, as you can see.

Actually, I am very happy with the final result, even if I took a circuitous way to get there. I am still ot quite sure about what lesson to learn for the future, though. Double dipping? Dilution of my Tudor Satin dip? I need to think about this.

Painting Abyssinian ras and negus: a follow-up

In his comment on my previous post, Tel mentioned his struggle to find inspiration to paint Abyssinian leader figures, ras and negus. I have a few pictures I found here and there over the web, and maybe these images will provide some inspiration! It is not much, and at the end I decided to follow my artistic (??) inclination, but I hope to trigger some good painting karma in my friends.

Per your request

Yesterday I was asked to post a shoulder-to-shoulder comparison between a "dipped" miniature and a "plain" one. As I was basing my latest Hungarian regiment tonight, I took a couple of pictures. Because of the bad lightening in the room, I struggled with exposure, but here I can offer you two decent shots.


The unit on the left was dipped; the one on the right was not. I actually believe I should have done exactly the opposite: the Hungarian base has enough color that a further highlighting of the whites is not necessary; on the other side, the Austrian base is completely white, tunic and breeches, and it might have benefited from some shading.
I like the effect of dipping on certain figures: the ones where whites prevail, as in the case of Arabs or Dervish. I do not think dipping will enter in the standard routine of my Napoleonic painting, but I will probably dip some Austrian and Saxon units on a "as needed" basis.
Hope this will be helpful - thanks, as always, for the much appreciated comments!