Painting White on Figures

Painting white uniforms or clothing has been a challenge for me in the past as I did not want the uniforms to be white! Hunh? In other words, I wanted my figure's fabric to look textured and realistic with shadows and highlights. I have achieved that effect easily with other colors by starting with a base of black, and then wet brushing with the base color to get the desired effect. Then I would highlight with a lighter color. Unfortunately, starting with black did not get the results I wanted until I stumbled on a painting guide for "Gandalf the White" on the Games Workshop website. As I primarily use Games Workshop paints, it was perfect for me and I like the result. You can see the completed Gandalf above.

Since I am painting the British Foot Guards (sorta, I really need to finish them before the French Dragoons come), I took some quick pictures to show how I am painting the coveralls white.

After priming in black, I paint the pants with a base of GW's Bestial Brown.

Wet brush with Bone White being careful not to cover up the folds of the figure which leaves a nice shadowing effect.

Highlight with Skull white - Tah Dah! You may notice that I have not done the straps of the figure with this painting technique. I wanted the straps and lace to be "whiter" and stand out more. For this, I just use Skull white in several layers until I get the desired look.

Remember the first rule of painting - if you make a mistake, just paint over it!

Below are some French Napoleonic Troops from Wargames Foundry that I painted that illustrate the technique:

Perry Miniature French Napoleonic Dragoons

Just got the word that my Perry Minature French Napoleonic Dragoons are on the way. I haven't done much painting in July - combination of work and having fun with my family! Looking forward to getting this miniatures! The box has 13 mounted figures, 8 dismounted and 6 French and British infantry casualties. These will be painted as French Dragoons in the Peninsular for Volley and Bayonet - 3 figures a base will give me 4 brigades of dragoons. I will probably make one detachment of dismounted dragoons and use the rest of the figures and casualties as markers.

Now I really need to get that new light bulb!

The Start of the British Foot Guards

Just a quick preview of the British Foot Guards that I am doing for the British 1st Division in the Spanish theater during the Napoleonic Wars. As mentioned earlier, I'm mounting them for Volley and Bayonet. I'm painting them as the grenadier company of the one of the Foot Guard regiments as the base will represent Guards Brigade for my Anglo - Portuguese Force. Most of my British Infantry has grey coveralls so I thought I would paint the Guards with white coveralls to make them stand out more.




Speaking of Portuguese - though not exactly Portuguese, these British Flank company figures are a pretty good "proxy" for Portuguese Cacadores (hunters or light infantry).

No Light Bulb!

Yikes!!! The light bulb of my high speed, super great light burned out. I use the 18 watt Ott Lite natural light floor lamp. Time to order!

Looking for that light bulb

Warlord Games does it Again

I have been enthusiastic about the trend of miniature manufacturers to produce quality miniatures in hard plastic. Warlord Games has been an industry leader, especially, in my opionion, with their "Pike and Shotte" range.

Even though these are not hard plastic, their latest entries are forces for Montroses' Irish Troops. From the Warlord Games website: http://shop.warlordgames.co.uk/irish-brigade-3680-p.asp

The Irish Brigade were a Brigade of three veteran regiments brought over from Ireland by Charles I. They were all largely Irish and Catholic and had been fighting for some time in the Thirty Years War in Continental Europe. They formed the hard core of the Marquis of Montrose's forces in his titanic struggle for control of Scotland for the King.
Arguably, because of their experience and coherence of having fought together abroad, this brigade may well have been the most deadly units in Britain at the time. They were quite wild men, used to living from the land and looting as they did when they raided Aberdeen and took what they needed.

Desperate men, foreigners and Catholics in a Protestant country, the Irish fought hard knowing that defeat could mean disaster, and capture, execution or worse (like watching the World Cup - wow, another 0-0 score). Warlord brings you the Irish Brigade with its colourful flags, richly attired Officers and wild and ragged pike and shot, all eager to get to grips with their mortal enemies.

Montrose Irish contains 4 metal pike, 4 metal command and 16 metal musket as well as a full-colour leaflet with full colour flags.

Starship Troopers - The book, not the movie

"I always get the shakes before a jump . . ." thus starts one of the greatest military science fiction novel of all time, Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein. Even today, the book has stood the test of time, and was a big influence on my decision to be an Infantry officer. When I attended the Command and General Staff College, I was pleasantly surprised to see the novel on the required reading list. Today, the novel is still on the reading list for the US Army, Navy and United States Marine Corps.

This is a poster for the movie directed by Paul Verhoeven who admitted he never finished reading the book. Please don't watch it . . . you'll thank me later. Not only does the movie miss most of the points of the book and, as a retired infantry officer (Regulars By God!), it's embarrassing to watch. One of the worst scenes in the book is when the platoon is defending an outpost and the bugs are coming. I can see the nuclear rockets strapped to the backs of the (so called) Mobile Infantry! So what do they do? Break out the SMALL ARMS (sigh). How about the scene when the platoon surronds a bug in a circle, and then they all fire at the bug! In a circle? They would have hit each other.(Note: That's a safety violation) And please don't get me started on how they portray Lieutenant Rascak.

Anyway . . . I still have the board game by Avalon Hill. This will be an upcoming Dining Room Battle.

Read the book . . . "for the everlasting glory of the Infantry"