Launch Angle

While the challenge of matching the basing of the weapon teams to the display board was fun, it definitely presented a challenge.  For those of you who have seen the Monte Cassino display board, you know that the shattered arches were a big part of it.

However, they did present a great opportunity to do some dramatic basing!  All the little nooks and crannies allowed me to create additional story telling moments, with ammo cases and other items scattered about.

I used Apoxy Sculpt to make the sandbags, which I thought might make the position look that much stronger.  The arches and most of the broken marble/stone were created using baked Sculpey clay.  The advantage of the baked Sculpey is the ability to break and carve it after it has been baked.

I have a number of basing videos available to my patrons right now, including a series on working with the Sculpey clay!

More to come on the individual infantry, and how they were based, so stay tuned!

A link to the Patreon Page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Lannister Charge!

While I have enjoyed all the figures in the Song of Ice and Fire game, the cavalry units in particular really appeal to me .  I love cavalry forces, as you can probably tell by my Lord of the Rings armies!

The Lannister cavalry is particularly ornate, and I have some very fun plans for the painting on these.  Of course, it all starts with basing, and I went through the same process on this movement tray as I did with previous units.

Here's a peek at how the process works.  This is something that I include in every Army Painter video series, including the most recent Series 4 on the Lannister Halberds:

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/10/ground-attack.html

After a few rounds of Badger Stynlrez primer, they are all set for painting!!

I will be making some tutorial videos for the Lannister cavalry as well, since there's going to be a lot of dramatic freehand on the barding, blankets and cloaks.

Those will be available to the members of my Patreon Page, some for as little as a $5 pledge each month... along with all the other tutorial videos!  Check that out here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Up and at 'em!!

I have been waiting for a while to utilize my Rubicon Sdk 250 Alt transports, and the Monte Cassino army seemed to be a perfect time!

The idea was to have a force that seemed to be somewhat cobbled together and ad hoc, taking advantage of the bombardment of the monastery. 

This was painted entirely with brushes, as I didn't have the time to do the usual airbrush techniques.  It also had to be acrylics so that it would be dry in time!  That meant I put my Secret Weapon paints to good use.

Another reason I had such dramatic differences in transport types and camo patterns was to be able to tell one unit from another!  As you recall, there was no playtesting of this army whatsoever before the event.  I had no idea if I was even going to have units to match order dice the night before dice were gonna roll!

I tried to take advantage of the fact that by this stage of the war, may different uniforms were being warn, and this gave me a chance to secretly "color code" units.  The side benefits were that I had more fun painting that variety, and they looked more interesting.

I have done a number of painting videos on Bolt Action infantry and vehicles.  Here's an example of one of my Patreon videos, from the "Army Painter" series two.  In this set of 5 videos, I tackled every phase of basing and painting my Winter Soviets.  

Each video is about 2 to 2.5 hours long, and it really covers the process and planning involved:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsU7M9EIFnc

I will be making more Army Painter series, especially on my upcoming Desert Armies!  I have Italians, DAK, British 8th, Free French, and even Vichy.

Here's a link to the Patreon Page.  The Army Painter level is $15, and it will give you access to all previous series, along with other single episodes covering other effects:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Girl Power

Up next from Victoria Miniatures are the Svargan Shock Soldats!

It was very interesting painting these so soon after painting my Winter Soviets for Bolt Action.  The equipment was similar enough to the actual units to really make me think twice about what I was doing.

These would certainly make an interesting Guard Army.  As always, there are lots of extra bits and options for heads, torsos, arms, weapons, etc.

There are 10 man squads available in male or female options.

The snow technique that I used this time around was a more basic application of Vallejo Snow Texture, sprinkled with Woodland Scenics snow flock before it dried.

Getting a bit of the snow on the figures themselves is very helpful in making them seem like part of the environment.  I know that just walking to the store 2 blocks away during a snowfall can leave my jacket and hat covered in snow/ice!

Here's a link to the website where you can find the Soldats:

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/regiments-of-the-galaxys-finest/products/svargan-shock-soldats-10-woman-squad

Steaks for Dinner

I suppose that working on all the Bolt Action artillery pieces have been the perfect training for creating some fun basing around the new Builder Scorpion crew sets for the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game. :-)

Each box contains two of the bolt throwers, with full crew as you see here.

When I looked at the box art, I noticed the steaks that the Knight's watch had built in front of it.  That seemed to be a very fun way to create the proper setting for the basing.  

Using the same Oxide Paste, glue, sticks and gravel that I have on all of my artillery pieces, I built up a little terrain around the crew, which will get some additional textures after painting.

Sharpening the sticks with my wood carving tool gave the steaks that hand chopped pointed appearance...

I will put mud on the base and the figures, along with snow (and even some icicles!).

You can see a bit of the mud effects on this artillery crew:

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/01/mud-and-guts_19.html

Once the mud is applied, then I can do the snow and ice effects.  I want to have parts of it be melted, or at least look trampled on by the crew.  Perhaps even some footprints!

After a quick spray of Badger Stynlrez primer, it's all ready for painting!  I will be creating a tutorial video on the basing that you see here for the Patreon Page.  There are more war machines coming for Song of Ice and Fire, and we want to be ready to make those look great!

Here's a link to the page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Amidst the Rubble

After painting all my early war armies, this project was a long anticipated challenge.  I had not done very much in the way of camo patterns aside from one of my Charlemagne Division units.

To make things more complex, by the time of Monte Cassino, my Fallschirmjagers had gone through a number of possible uniform colors and patterns.

Adding further to that complexity was the need to match the bases to my display board.  You have already seen those episodes, and how important the broken archways and rubble piles were!

All of these pieces were measured to the board itself, so that the support weapon teams could exist in that rubble and seem as if they had turned it into strong defenses.

As I continue to show images of the rest of the army, I will talk about the various uniform options, and what affected those choices.  Since this was also a brand new army (with no chance to playtest it before the event!), it would be a severe challenge just to know what represented what!

While I had assembled the figures well in advance, the gear they were using was essentially alien to me, as none of it is part of the armies I have been playing for the last few years.

Going from summer of '41 as "late war" to mid 1944... it was going to be a shock to the system!

Stay tuned for more! 

Stark Choices

I think most of you know that I LOVE painting horses!  So much, in fact, that I did two different painting tutorials as part of the Painting Pyramid series.  One covered Appaloosa and the other Dapple Grey. 

I love painting horses even more when they are sculpted this well, and the Stark Outriders from the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game definitely are!

With so many nicely sculpted muscles, I was able to do some very fun color shifts in the shadow areas.  I am not sure if you can see it, but you might notice that the shadow colors are not merely a darker tan shade.  In fact, they are green!

Because there is such a predominance of blue, along with yellows, having that green in the shadow areas is not very noticeable, and registers as grey to the eye instead.  This is not the only place where the green was used.  I also placed in on every metal piece as well.

These fun subtleties in shadow and mid tone areas are not very difficult to work out, ad adding them creates so much additional depth to the piece.

As the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures are a slightly larger scale, this also means you have a bit more surface area to work on.

I will be doing a number of Cavalry tutorial videos for the Patreon Page.  While some will be for the Army Painter series, you will also be able to get access to some for the $5 pledge level as well!

These would also cover specific breeds of horses, such as the two Painting Pyramid videos that are already available to the patrons... here's a link for you!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel