This was a break from my normal style, with a specific brief. I'd had these Russians lying about for a while and thought it was time to get them ready for the table. So I set myself a week to get them done.
That meant it would have to be a very stylised approach using all the short cuts. Ww1 can be a bit drab and normally I try to make the most of what colour there is, on this occasion I wanted to get a very mono tonal look, an army that had been on campaign where the uniforms had been beaten you the elements, and had been replaced ad hoc , giving a rag tag appearance. I aimed that this army could cover the Russian forces from 1904-18, in a very generic way. It wouldn't win any painting competitions but would pass the 2' test and would be shaved off the lead mountain .
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So in a break from tradition I based the troops first, so no lolly sticks were hurt during this process. I had done something similar with some Vietnam painting I had previously done so I understood the requirement. So figures were prepped, glued and bases sanded. One thing I regret here is that I didn't spent long enough cleaning up the figures. The castings must have been quite old and there were a few mobile lines that really show up using this method. Normally I base 4 figures per base for SB but in this case I didn't quite have enough and I wanted to make more of the landscaping of the base. To this end I got out the milliput and made some impromptu shell craters using a cocktail stick and the rounded end of a paintbrush. I'd done this on my late war Germans and liked the effect .
Once all the bases were assembled. So 12 unfantry battalions , 5 cavalry , 4 guns , 6 MG and various armoured cars and tchankas it was ready for priming.
Step 1 place whole army flat on boat and give a coat of corax White . Any good white spray will do. It's doesn't have to be a massively solid coat enough just to lift the base colour in step 2
Step 2. Spray the whole army with olive drab or English uniform aerosol. I used PSC primer as it was to hand, but you might airbrush. For this method you probably don't want to brush on this stage as you want a flat a colour base as you can.
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Step 3. Heavy dry brush GW karak stone , in stage 2 you want to make sure all the undercuts are filled I as this method will use a heavy dry brush and is undermined my any thin base colour showing through. This is for the whole base,figures and sand
Step 4. Medium dry brush of GW ubshanti bone. Lesser coverage again over the whole thing
Step 5. Highlight dry brush with a white , I used the GW technical dry paint whose name I forget ... The sandy one.
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Step 6. Finally a light white dry brush.
The effect I'm trying to get is a very subtle contrast that is highlights all the raised detail. We will be washing it down later. So you just need faith at this point. For these stages I'm doing the whole army at each stage, so it's no taking long. Up to this point there is about 4-5 hours of effort.
The comes the detailing . This is breaking the painting down into battalions .
So for me I'd do 2 battalions per sitting. (1 hour ) typical painting session per weekday (after work)
Step 7. Using a limited pallet of greens and Browns. I used GW paints thinned with lahmian medium. I cannot recommend this enough. Don't use water or other acrylic mediums ... I find they all dry with tidemarks. So pick out a few uniform details with each. So no two uniforms are the same per base. Then faces , rifles and maybe any detail that needs a pop. Nothing too fancy, or time consuming. The drybrush should have pre shaded so just the wash to pick out the colours.
Where there are horses I did a majority chestnut with a AP acrylic shade
Step 8. Once the whole army is complete then brush on AP light tone from the tin. Over the whole figures and base... Leave to dry for 24 hours
Step 9. Matt varnish .. I use railmatch Matt aerosol this without doubt is the mattest varnish out there .. It literally sucks the light out of the miniature. Testors Smestors ... Warning there is lead chromate in rail match so and outside job,be we are all grown ups here right !
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So finally it's a case of detailing .. A dead grass flock with tufts .mi like to do a last stage of weathering powders either MiG or Secret weapons this just breaks things up a bit .. And that's it just over 7 days in elapsed time from bare metal to table.
When I have chance I'll try to get some photos of the finished army. It won't win prizes but is workman like and certainly looks the part for gaming.
Than you Lurkio - I find this kind of step-by-step tutorial approach extremely useful.
And congratulations on the results!
Simon
Another excellent guide. Many thanks.
This is excellent. Just the sort of approach to painting I approve of....painting the army not the individual. Well done.
Having seen these in the flesh yesterday, the photos don't really do justice to the efficiency of the results - really amazing that the whole lot were completed during spare time in just a week!