new British for the Somme.

[Sean Clark]

I'm finishing up the infantry for the British who in less than three weeks will be going over the top on the Somme. It has struck me as I painted these that we often see wargames figures painted in pristine parade ground uniforms. Now that's just fine if you like that sort of thing, and there are some very fine examples of this in just about every wargames magazine ever published. But my style of base colour and ink/dip was never intended to achieve this. For these figures I've added a light drybrush of skeleton bone prior to a wash with Reikland fleshshade on skin and everything else washed with Agrax Earthshade. I quite like them. And they're super quick. I can paint a battalion of 12 figures in around 30 minutes. I've done 14 battalions in a couple of weeks, with 4 more to do.



Modern phones are wonderful things with excellent cameras. I was messing around with the above image and turned my newly painted figures into green flesh eating zombies. Tasty!

[martin goddard]

Looking forward to the game Sean. Just loading up my machine gun whilst you calmly walk across the landscape. Don't forget your officer's stick! You would not want to face jerry without your stick.

[Sean Clark]

Private Baldrick: I have a plan, sir.

Captain Blackadder: Really, Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?

Private Baldrick: Yes, sir.

Captain Blackadder: As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?

Private Baldrick: Yes, sir.

Captain Blackadder: Well, I'm afraid it'll have to wait. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad. I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?

Captain Blackadder: [whistle blows] Good luck, everyone.

[Simon]

They look good.  What base colours did you use?

Thanks

Simom

[pbeccas (Paul)]

Nice work Sean.

[Sean Clark]

I think the base colour is British Khaki. It's the spray from Plastic Soldier  Company for Brirish infantry. I then added a few details before the drybrush with Army Painter skeleton bone followed by Reikland Flesh wash for skin and Agrax Earthshade for everything else.

It's a departure for me as I have been using Army Painter dip (brushed on) for years. But I'm liking the GW washes more and more. And it feels cheaper than buying a £20 tin of what is essentially woodststain.

The one advantage with Army Painter is the hardwearing coat it gives your figures but I think a good Matt varnish will still give a decent protection.

I have 16 days left to complete this project. The basis for the foyr villages of Serre, Beamount Hamel, Thiepval and Ovilliers were done last night.  These will be the objectives for the first day. The scenario is a very much reduced squashed and squeezed abstract of the first day covering around 10 miles of the front.  I've basically borrowed and extended a scenario I found on the Storm and Steel blog which I'll put a link up to in due course. 

[Stewart 46A]

Looking good Sean, how are your Huns?

[Sean Clark]

All done apart from varnish. I may need you to provide a few figures....not quite finalised the OOB yet. Do you anticipate 6 players?

[Quebec]

Cool work indeed, Sean. Well done! I'm also going down the WWI route again ...Using Peter Pig figures and Flames of War trenches and using my Wings of War/Wings of Glory games.

For a laugh, I'm going to bunch up up my British companies (London regiments) in football team supporting platoons ( Team colours beneath the white PP bases) ...eg; West Ham suppporting squad took the observation trench, whereas the Tottenham supporting Mk VI has only gone and broken down....things get tough, send in the four Millwall bases and so on

It's been years of playing serious WWI related games, just this time, I'm going to lighten it up a bit.

[Sean Clark]

Excellent idea!

[Sean Clark]

http://stormofsteelwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/1st-july-1916-square-bashing-aar.html

I said I'd post a link up to th Storm of Steel blog. I've posted this up before. The author plays Squarebashing and used the standard game to recreate the first day of the Somme. I'm essentially taking his scenario and expanding it out to a 6'x3' table and including Ovillers just north of the Albert-Bapaume Road. My forces will be expanded to cover the actions over roughly 6 miles of the front line. It will be a tough day to be sure for the British and Commonwealth forces. Their objective will be to take at least 3 of the 4 fortified villages just beyond the German lines.

There will be room for 6 players and I am happy to umpire if there are enough players. As a result of expanding the game my original intention of sculpting terrain boards had to go on the back burner, but hopefully my efforts will look ok!

[Quebec]

Woah!

Sean, those photos are really inspiring...excellent! Would you care to elaborate on the origins of trenches, explosions etc...they all look much better than the FOW stuff.

Incidentally, that cat... right at the end...scared the life of me!

[Stewart 46A]

Sean I am sure your boards will look good, let me know before you travel what if any troops you need

[Leslie BT]

Looking forward to the game.
The troops looking good.
Been looking into the Canadians and NZ troops for WW1.

[Sean Clark]

Stewart

The cloth with laid on the top terrain should look pretty good. I placed an emergency order with Martin on Thursday so some last minute painting mm will be needed. If I don't get them done I'll let you know. The rest of the figures should be done by the end of the weekend.

The order of battle is looking something like 18 British/Commonwealth battalions and 12 German battalions. Plus mg's/guns/casualties etc. Plus around 18' of trench, 4 destroyed villages and more she'll holes than you could imagine. And some poppies.