So I post a long-winded 2013 update and, of course, less than an hour later I get an email from another local gaming acquaintance that throws my plans into upheaval.
It looks like 28mm Napoleonics is back on the front burner again so it’s time to order some more Russian figures. I’m still not happy with the quality of painting I’m doing with 28mm Horse & Musket figures so I’m going to try some new techniques (again). The upshot of all this is that my second battalion of Sash & Saber Russian Musketeers is going back in the pickle jar for paint removal yet again. These poor bastards should be used to it by now. First I was multiple attempts with a black undercoat, then one with a white undercoat. Now it’s something completely different.
I’ve been watching videos on YouTube regardind different airbrush techniques, and one I plan to try out now is zenithal shading. In a nutshell, basically you prime the entire figure in a dark primer (black in my case), then shoot the figure with a lighter-colored primer (Grey) from above at a 45 degree angle, putting a lighter base on the areas that you would expect to be hit with sunlight. Finally you pick out the areas of interest or topmost parts of the figure with white primer. This allows some natural shading & highlighting that you then overspray with thin coats of color, so hopefully allowing some built-in shading.
I’ve been frustrated with trying to get clean paintjobs over dark foundations, so instead of slopping on the black & dark green paint & then trying to do a decent job with belting & shako cords I’ll get the white details sorted first & then carefully fill in with the darker colors. We’ll see how this goes.
My goal is to use the S&S miniatures as guinea pigs so I can have a technique figured out before I start working on Perry, Foundry and/or Warlord Games’ ranges of figures.
The Great Redoubt 
Hey Bart, there’s a new Bolt Action escalation league starting up at Village Games, so we’ve decided to focus on WWII stuff for now…
Not funny? 😉 Honestly I hope to get painting on my Prussians tonight and get some good quality painting time in the next few days. Taking advantage of the nice weather to get the figs primed, and hopefully I’ll have the prototype fig finished soon
I’ve been painting over black primer for years now with no problems, so I expect the same going in to Napoleonics. Still, might have to figure out a new technique anyway if my old one turns out to be too slow. I have an old airbrush (originally for micro armor) and a few friends have picked one up over the holidays. So I’m curious to hear from anyone who incorporates it into the rank and file painting that we’re doing.
Hopefully we’ll get to meet face to face sooner than later and can shed that “acquaintance” tag. 🙂 I feel even worse now for not getting to reply to your e-mail on the 23rd sooner and having you type up your previous post.
Trying to focus on Nappys as best as I can to finally have something to show for it. Lots of cool stuff out there to distract, especially Bolt Action and SAGA to add to the normal 40k, Warhammer, and LotR stuff. Honestly, I’m going to give Bolt Action a real hard look once the Perrys finally get around to releasing their plastic Afrikakorps and British 8th army boxed sets.
Either way exciting times! 🙂