Battle Plan

While I have been posting individual shots of the winter American force, I have not had the chance to post any group or army shots.

As I have mentioned in precious posts, winter basing is not something that I have had a chance to do for my own armies.  This will be rectified with FOUR winter armies... US, German, Soviet and even Hungarian.

The Hellcat is actually from Trenchworx, and here's a link to some live facebook sessions showing how that was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209553700813482/?type=2&theater

I also have some links to articles on how the infantry was done.  This army was also very unique in that it was the first where I used oils for the entire process!  Here's a link to an article:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/oil-slick.html

I had so much fun painting them with oils, as well as creating the urban theme bases for the first time.  I also have links to a series of articles:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/08/lets-get-happy.html

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/08/lets-get-happy.html

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/05/ground-cover.html

I will have many more articles and facebook live sessions on painting figures with oils, basing, etc., once Gencon and Nova Open have been complete.  Stay tuned!

Patrol

Back to the winter Americans, and the first squad painted with oils.  This unit was really ideal for that first test, since there were lots of muted colors, and they all needed to be blended together.

That process is very simple on a single figure, but it gets far more complex once you have to do that on 10-12 figures at the same time!  No need to worry about paint drying on the palette or on the figures!

I didn't have the Mig Ammo OilBrushers at the time, so I used the Windsor Newton oils and the Wilder paints.  Here's a link:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/oil-slick.html

Medic!

One thing the forces holding Bastonge will need is a medic!  Hopefully they have someone other than me rolling the dice, since those requisite 6's would not be forthcoming!

As with all of the Winter Americans from Warlord Games, these were painted with oils.  It was the first chance I had to try out such a process, and it was very fun!  Here's a link to a step by step:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/oil-slick.html

There will be much more to come from the winter armies, so stay tuned!

Halt!

We return to the front lines with the Warlord Games winter American figures.  This is a metal set which contains 10 sculpts.  There are also a number of support and command sets to complete the army.  

This was my first experience in using oils to paint an entire unit of 'regular' miniatures.  Up to that point, I had only used them on vehicles.  It was a lot of fun to use the oils on infantry figures, and this link shows you some of the steps involved.

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/oil-slick.html

There are a number of obvious advantages to the oils, such as the extended drying times.  Another upside to the oils is the ease of initial blending, and the ability to mix right on the figure!

I also used the Secret Weapon Miniatures crushed glass for the snow effects.

Also, the use of oil paints makes getting the muted tones quite easy, since you are already mixing the colors quite frequently.  I will be using the oils on subsequent armies, such as my Italians.  That extended drying time is ideal for working on mass amounts of figures all at once, keeping more consistency in the colors from one to the next.

Being able to come back after a few days to continue painting the figures means that I can be more relaxed in the approach, as the paint on the palette and the figures will still be workable for quite a while.

I will be incorporating more materials in the oil painting process, such as the Mig AMMO OilBrushers.  Stay tuned!

Ground Cover

Some of you have seen my initial posts on the winter American army for Bastonge... and the basing articles on how they were created.  I just discovered these work in progress images showing the method I used to get some leaves, dirt and dust onto the bases, along with some minor applications of snow.

I wanted to have a "little bit of each", with a few scattered leaves, some dirt and a touch of snow.  The previous basing article is here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/urban-warfare.html

Using the Green Stuff World leaf punches (and some previously pressed and dried leaves), I made a selection of different colors and shapes.

I have discovered that the Mig AMMO Sand and Gravel glue is amazing!  It has incredible hold, and dries with a matt finish.  This is designed to hold actual dirt and dust to vehicles, so why not weathering powders and snow?!

In this case, I used Secret Weapon weathering powders.  Image 1 shows the glue and leaves added to the base... all I need to do is scatter the powders gently over the top, which you can see in image 2.

Scattering the powders over the top of the leaves makes them seem like part of the base, as opposed to something that was just tacked on!  The dust also sinks down into the cracks, and generally adds a little more texture to the base.

This set of images shows the process again... place some glue where you want the leaves and dirt, then add your leaves, followed by the weathering powders.

At this stage, you could even scatter a few small piles of snow flock into the glue, which will resemble a dusting of snow.  If you combine that with some of the dirt colored weathering powder, it will look like muddy snow in the streets.

Here are some examples prior to the application of that snow... with only the leaves and dirt.

This one includes the machine gun team... finished images of that are here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/04/making-nest.html

The inset shows what a difference in texture this can make, especially in "rubble strewn" areas like blasted structures.  For those looking to base your troops in those ruined urban landscapes, this additional texture can be a nice touch.

And now for a sneak peek at the finished figures!  I also used the crushed glass method to create slightly bigger piles on some figures, and get some scattered snow onto the figures too.  Stay tuned for more completed images of the army!

Making a Nest

Next up for the winter Americans would be a little fire support in the form of a machine gun nest.

These are the new winter figures from Bolt Action and Warlord Games.  The wall and street textures were created by pressing sculpey into the Happy Seppuku moulds.  More texture was added with Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders and crushed glass for the snow.

This article is a review of the basing technique for the winter Americans:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/urban-warfare.html

I'm in charge here!

At long last, time to show the finished winter American force from Bolt Action and Warlord Games!  These were painted primarily with oil paints.

I had never had a chance to paint winter theme armies for myself, so these are a real treat!  I love all the earth tones in the greatcoats and balancing that with the snow.

This video was an introduction to the oil paints:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209553700813482/?type=2&theater

This Facebook live video gives you a view at how some of the weathering powders and dried punched leaves were done:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209478379330492/?type=2&theater