Swiss and desert distractions

Decided to check how the various Swiss contingents I had painted matched with each other colour wise and what they would look like all together.

There are rather a lot of  Swiss now.....

Some shots of massed pike

In the attack

Flankers

Must get the bases painted and the figures varnished and based properly.

Having obtained my copy of "Not Quite Mechanised" by Chris Kemp:

https://notquitemechanised.blogspot.com/

https://notquitemechanised.blogspot.com/2021/06/follow-not-quite-mechanised-on.html

I have been thinking of Western Desert WW2 as well as how well they will work for Arab-Israeli 1967 (to say nothing of Indo-Pak 1965). This has mostly consisted of digging out boxes of stuff, mulling over orbats and wrestling with how many infantry to put on a base.....

I thought I was going down the Megablitz route which in 20mm has two figures in a 40mm square base. NQM is more agnostic on base size and it seems Chris happily uses all sorts together. As NQM is hex based, it's more about how many SPs are allowed in a hex, each standard battalion having 3sp, with maximum occupancy 7-9 SP.

For Megablitz (starting with AIW) I had moved to the idea of 2 mechanised or 3 foot infantry on a 40mm square base.Now I'm contemplating 50mm wide bases with 4-5 figures, partly due to realising how quick I can paint up 20mm plastics and aesthetics (I think 4-5 infantry look nicer). However, I have to think about what will fir in a hex. Most of my hex cloths use a 100mm / 4" hex which means 50mm width is probably the max - it also has to fit with vehicle bases which are likely to be 40-50mm depending on the vehicle; experiments with card and figures is inconclusive. 50mm starts to look crowded, so I'm now  dithering between 3 on a 40mm base or going for something like 60x30mm and 4-5 but that takes up a lot of space.....

Decisions, decisions..... 

Zinnfiguren progress

A bit of a photo dump this time. The (hopefully) last of the Swiss....

Command /flag stands - since these photos I have fettled obsessively with the flags and added more flesh highlights and corrections....

Pike

Zweihander

Arquebus

Painting progress report

With the success of my new painting technique of Contrast paint, AP wash and highlights in acrylic on flats, I thought I'd try on fully round figures.....

Some 20mm Revell 8th Army were the experimental volunteers:

Contrast Paint

Army Painter Strong Tone

Highlights to uniform, helmets, webbing and flesh

Total 30 infantry, approx 15 minutes per figure.

Some more Swiss Zinnfiguren have also had paint splashed on them...

Contrast

The perils of flats, besides extra arms and legs to look out for, you have to remember to paint both sides!

AP wash

Basic highlights

Final result after fettling and touch ups...

Did not measure the time taken for these, but not pictured are another 8 pike at finished stage and another 29 figures which have reached AP wash stage. So far two afternoons, I suspect another afternoon, but as rough calculations it's looking like 15-20 minutes per figure.

As can be seen, if you take your time a basic job of Contrast, AP wash and highlights produces nice results. For some people, they will be happy with only one or two of the stages. I cannot help myself doing the little bit extra....even then the results are worth the time put into it. By contrast (forgive the pun) painting SSM using black undercoat and basic blocked in colours probably takes around 5-6 hours for 8 figures or 4 mounted that works out at around 45 minutes per figure......