The Grey Man

A while ago I purchased another squad of WW1 Musketeer British. As part of the squad there was this British infantry officer figure. Now to be honest my force is quite top heavy with officers as it is and I didn't really need another infantry officer for use with my WW1/VBCW army.

However as my WW1 figures often play the part of royalist regulars in VBCW games I thought I could use this officer for something linked to that but a little different. The fascist alternative government in VBCW is bound to have it's own security services. I imagine most of there time would be spent rooting out traitors and spying on the opposition. However my thinking was that if an attack was about to take place on a major hub of enemy action then the security services would be not far behind to hoover up intelligence and so forth recovered after the battle. Therefore occasionally the security services would need to don service dress and take to the field.

I didn't want to go with an overtly fascist black uniform and instead went for the above grey ensemble. My thinking on the paint job is as follows. More often than not members of security services are seen as "the grey man", meaning you could walk past them in the street and hardly notice them, or there quite bland and easily forgotten. Therefore I thought it would be ironic and reasonable justifiable for them to have grey battle dress.

Commonly red piping and hat markings are to symbolise staff or intelligence officers so I thought that the red would be a nice and justifiable contrast to the otherwise grey model. I really like how he turned out and I think will do rather nicely as "the man from the ministry" when in the field of course, the rest of the time this nefarious chap would be in a suit and bowler hat naturally.

I have another spare WW1 musketeer rifleman that I may have to paint up as his adjutant, in similar colours of course. All hail alternative wargaming periods that let me paint what ever the hell I want :)

Cutting edge comms

I picked up this post box from Paul Hicks, sold through his new venture Mutton Chop, a couple of weeks ago at Partizan. Only just got around to painting this earlier today, it was quite quick and a simple paint job. I recommend it to anyone looking for some little bits and pieces for their gaming tables. Pauls sculpt of Mr Toad for scale.

Final Empress Modern

I have this evening finished the last of my empress moderns. Sorry for posting a group shot again, but I wanted to use this image some where else as well and it was easy to host it hear. The latest, and last, model I have painted is the dude with the radio 1st on the top left row. I liked how he turned out although the DPM didn't come out quite how I wanted it too. But that's probably just me being a bit picky.

Anyways that's the last of my Empress Moderns, they have been great to paint, I've learnt a new skill, in that I can now paint good looking (in my opinion) camo and the models are nice. Once I have some more cash (so probably not anytime soon) I might get some more of the empress modern British infantry as they look rather nice.

Modern Warfare

For the last couple of days I have been painting up the eight Empress SAS models that I purchased a while back but never got around to painting before.  I have now painted all but one of the models, the only remaining model is a chap with a radio who I have not undercoated yet. However I have today finished off the above three figures.

I painted bits of all three of them in CS95 and tried to use similar colour themes on each model so that they look good together without looking to much like regular infantry. I am pleased with today's results, in particular the eyes on two of the above models which in my opinion are my best eyes to date!

Below there is a group shot of my progress thus far painting up these lovely empress figures. A couple of the models were painted some months ago in a slightly different scheme but I still think they look okay with the group. Once I have undercoated and painted the remaining figure I think I might have to invest in some of the new British Infantry figures which Empress are putting out, I will also have to get some baddies at some point.

Tutorial for CS95

At the request of a chap over on GWP I have prepared a short tutorial for how I painted CS95 trousers on an empress modern.

1. Undercoated the model as normal in my undercoat of choice, Halfords Grey Primer

2. Main colour blocked in with GW Knarloc Green, in reality CS95 is a bit darker than this but I am happy with the colour.

3. Main colour is highlighted up using a lighter shade of Knarloc Green, then add shadows using GW Badab Black Ink.

Thats the main bits (ie simple bits) out the way. Now I am lucky enough ( depending on your point of view) to have a pair of CS95's to refer too. If you google pictures of the pattern you will see that the main green has blocks of yellow, and then dark brown colour strips followed by black linking the three. The pictures are the best way I have of describing how to paint the 3 colours. However general advice is that the lines are never straight, and that the yellow should be thin, the brown should be thicker and the black lines should pass through all the other colours.

4. Yellow stripes are added these are not very thick and should not be straight also try not to repeat the shape of a line to much, and try and change there orientation on the trousers, ie not just up and down paint left to right, at an angle etc as well.

5. The brown is then added, this should cover over sections of the yellow, the lines should be thicker and almost blotchy in some places, again try and keep the pattern random, and vary the position, direction of the line.

6. Up until this point the pattern all looks a bit cack. However now add the black lines, which should be quite thin and pass through all three colours, ie each line should transcend a green, yellow and brown section. check out pictures of CS95 to make this clearer. Obviously there will be occasions where it will not be possible for the black to cross all the colours, just do your best.

And that is basically it, I think this method produces a good looking camouflage pattern which is a good representation of CS95. Hope that is of help to some people. The above model, but completed is below.

Who needs Deserts

Having been forced out of my bed rather early this morning as a result of shopping being delivered or something equally boring, I had plenty of time to crack on and paint this.

The figure is from Empress, specifically their Modern Combat range, one of the SAS sets. I have been very slow in painting these up, despite having bought them some months back I think I only have two others painted (one of which is in an earlier blog post).

I have not previously tried to paint any sort of splinter type camo as it looked tough. However I thought I would have a bash at it this morning. So having grabbed an old pair of CS95 trousers for reference I cracked on. In the end I painted the trousers and baseball cap in CS95 camo pattern, and I am very pleased with the results. I will definitely be painting some of my other Empress Moderns up in the same sort of fashion as I like how the camo turned out and as I think it makes the figure look really nice.

Anyway trumpet blowing over, I hope any observers like my attempt at splinter camo.

Crazy Quad

I spent yesterday evening painting up this little beauty sculpted by Paul Hicks, and purchased from his new venture "Mutton Chop". The model was great to put together, if a bit fiddly, but this was due to my cack handedness rather than anything else. Painting wise I went for a racing green frame. The driver is painted up in RAF uniform so that he fits in with my Wittering Defence Force. His armband (not fully visible in the pictures) reads "WDV" which stands for Wittering Defence Volunteers, the militia arm of my force.

I added the little flag and pole myself, for no other reason than I thought it would look good. The colours are the modern tactical flashes of the RAF, so not really period but I think it looks fine none the less.

I recommend this model to anyone who fancies painting up something a bit different. I should add the model does not come with a base, and strictly speaking does not need one. However as I will be gaming with this model I was a bit concerned that my cack handed gluing and sticking would not be strong enough and under the rigours of gaming the model might break, hence the base which is an old Victrix stand.