Painting - the "wash and brush-up" method

As promised, here's an attempt at a step-by-step guide to the evolved painting method using Contrast Paint and Army Painter washes followed by acrylic touch-ups / highlights.

As I was painting, I did think of a new name - the "Henry Cooper" method - as in the Brut adverts "splash it all over" although to be fair the later bits are more Tommy Cooper - "just like that"  😆😆

Minifigs 15mm Celts (Gauls / Britons) - grey spray primer.

Step one Contrast Paint

I just try to keep it as neat as possible, but inevitably some colours splash over parts you don't want. Instead of touching up - re-priming and reapplying Contrast, I just cover up the errors with step 2...

Step 2 Army Painter ink wash - in this case Dark Tone t replicate the black undercoat method. You could use Strong Tone, especially for flesh. Note it results in a "what have I done...." reaction first time. If possible, I try for a "pin wash" in the deeper recesses, but often, as here, the whole figureis covered.

Step 3 highlights in acrylic - here I have just done flesh simply to show how just this lifts the figure.

Now the same for the main colours...

Step 4 Fine detail - in this case the black and white, with shield designs in black, followed by white, red and yellow normally - it also allows for a mix of white, yellow and red foe hair and moustache highlights

Final stage, metals, a lighter flesh highlight to faces and raised areas and any corrections. Also the base got a coat of Vallejo khaki - read somewhere covering the paint splashes on the base makes a big difference.

Hopefully this is of interest - just my way of trying to match black undercoat figures.

The Contrast Pain and AP wash were a couple of sessions after work, maybe an hour at most. Rest of painting was about 4 hours yesterday and two today so maybe 7 hours total for 20 figures - roughly 21 minutes per figure - more than the WW2 in simpler uniforms.

Marching ever forwards......progress filler report

Or as Stew would have it a "PBJ post"!

I was conscious I had not posted since June. Truth be told, weekends had produced little of note - heat, exhaustion from work meant minimal progress. 

I took a week off as a much needed break from work, thinking I could clear some backlog of painting. Alas! I trusted to the weather forecast as being "less hot" only to find how wrong that forecast was!

Stuck in the amber zone with temperatures reaching 30 degrees, painting has been minimal. The first part of the week was windy enough to prevent spray priming, so sadly it doesn't feel like much was accomplished....

I did manage some painting using Contrast Paint, Army Painter ink washes as when the heat allowed, touch up with acrylics. My patent method I now think of as a "wash and brush up"....

Today I got around to basing the previously painted cavalry.

The excess basing "slop" ( a mix of Polyfiller, PVA, acrylic tube burnt umber and a bit of sand) was used for some hastily constructed ditches...

I also varnished the painted Celts, a mix of Essex, Freikorps 15 and Minifigs (all second hand eBay purchases), the latter being already basically painted received a wash and retouching with a bit of detail added here and there.

Here's the near completed stuff.

I also managed to clean up and prime more bits:

Remaining Celts

Germans and baggage:

Original German host awaiting paint:

So you may ask, why do I need more barbarians?

The answer lies in the potential choice of rules. After considering many, I am beginning to settle on Strength & Honour, nominally designed for 2mm. I see no reason why you cannot use 15mm, it being the base that's important.

I'm aiming for 80mm wide bases. 50mm deep for Legions and close order warbands, 65mm deep for loose order - 5x DBA elements for Romans, 6x elements for barbarians. Cavalry 4 elements on a 80mm by 65mm base. Skirmishers thinner with just 2 elements side by side unless massed.

This meant looking at how many bases the figures would fill and what additional painting was needed.

Camping it up....

Due to work and the heatwave in the UK, progress has been slow. Attempts at painting being hampered by the paint drying on the brush....

I did manage to finish off the barbarian camps that had been prepped....

In addition to the simple palisade, a simple ditch and bank.....

Then a wagon laager...

While I had some base mixture left over, some Gallic auxiliary cavalry were finished off.

My attempts to make progress on the Imagi-Nation Interwar Balkans was frustrated by the hot weather. Some highlights and touch-ups were made.

Ruritanians

Graustarkians

Transbalkanians

Hopefully, with cooler weather forecast, more progress can be made with painting in the coming weeks.