Belgian command stand August 1914

[Leman (Andy)]

I finally completed the command stand today so thought I would share the process.













The car is from the WWI Russian range. Two officers had headswaps with the Belgian cyclist head, the driver with a SCW Isabellina cap head. Painting was pretty standard blocking then a magic wash a la Fat Wally (aka Kev), followed by some highlighting. Most of the colours used were Vallejo - Magenta for the car body, black highlighted black grey for the hood, beige brown for the leather seats, olive for the green uniforms, leather brown for the gloves (but light grey for the green clad staff officer passenger). The dark blue used in the Belgian army at this time was very dark and I initially used Anita's Midnight blue, highlighting with Vallejo intense blue. Other figures are: mounted, Freikorps 15 FPW chasseur a cheval (I think, although could be the officer from the hussar pack); the other is a Wurtemberg officer. The two standing figures are from the Peter Pig Belgian generals pack.

The basing was a new departure for me, based on seeing a basing tutorial on Miniature Realms on You Tube. The road was done using Vallejo white stone to enable me to make it look rutted and puddled. The roadside and figure bases were first done using Vallejo grey undercoat followed by Scale 75 Petroleum Grey. Next a good coating of Vallejo Dark Earth texture was brushed and dabbed on to try and disguise the bases. Next I gave this a wash with GW Seraphim Sepia, but I think it was probably too light. Next time I'll try Army Painter Strong Tone. The next stage was just to dust on some Vallejo Light Siena Pigment (no need to fix it). Then random dabs of Vallejo European thick mud and then some grass tufts of varying length, two by Mininatuur and the longest by Joefix. Finally some purple wild flowers, again by Mininatuur to round it all off.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Very colourful and tasty, Andy - thank you for sharing both the recipe and the results!

Simon

[martin goddard]

I like that Andy.
It will join the other ones for the MILL.
I believe you were wise to keep the base not too overgrown. Sometimes bases are too "busy".


martin

[Grey Heron]

Lovely work on this command stand.

Cheers,
Helen

[Sean Clark]

Outstanding effort Andy. I'm giving it the inaugural Billy Goat Wargaming seal of approval. It's a worthless accolade, but you deserve it.

[Leman (Andy)]

Thanks for that Sean. I'm going to have a go at a fort next - Liege/Namur type, guns, machine guns and garrison. Then it will be on to rebasing my Belgians into proper SB units.

[Smoking gun]

Very nice Andy, I like the composition of the scene as well as the painting ad basing.

Best wishes,
Martin Buck