Thirty Years War 6mm progress 5: drybrushing the bases

I had to patch the basic dark brown coat twice as a result of my mistake in using a white gesso undercoat instead of a black one. I am repeating this as a penance and to sear it into my brain for next time. White undercoats are appropriate for figures that are going to be painted with washes but not for block painting.

The next step was to dry-brush the ground, avoiding the figures as far as possible. The recipe - in fact the whole base-before-painting approach - came originally from Nik Harwood and is executed with successive applications of the following Citadel colours: (1) Mournfang Brown (formerly Calthan Brown), (2) Zamesi Desert (formerly Bubonic Brown), and (3) Ushabti Bone (formerly Bleached Bone).

The Mournfang Brown barely shows but it’s probably important in achieving the overall effect. Owing to the closeness of the figures I'm applying the dry brushing only to the outer rim of these figure blocks.

I assume these names mean something in the Games Workshop universe. I was helped in tracing the name changes by this very useful colour chart.

The Zamesi Desert is a strong mustard colour up close but after applying it the bases then look sort of greenish from a distance.

Using four colours just for the ground may seem excessive but the ground is going to be the most important area after the dark brown shadow between the ranks of figures. Lightening the ground makes a major contribution towards lightening the whole figure block.

Finally, the Ushabti Bone lightens the overall effect. The Croat Light Cavalry, the Dragoons (above), the Cannons and the Commanders are looser and require some paint between the figures.

With this amount of dry brushing to do I'm not being particularly careful. I'll be adding patches of 2mm Static Grass later in the process and this will cover any unsightly 'splodges'.

With this stage done I think the bases are already beginning to suggest how economical and effective this ultra-minimal approach is going to be.

Curse of the bendy pikes in 28mm

Eureka Mycenaen spearmen as they arrived:
how could anyone live with these ridiculous whippy extensions?

I bought some Eureka Mycenaen spearmen from their new UK outlet to supplement the Foundry Aegean Bronze Age (Mycenean/Minoan) army I bought at the 2019 SELWG Show for Dragon Rampant/Lion Rampant. They are basically nice sculpts and a good match for Foundry, but they present a particularly bad case of the curse of the bendy pikes. There is no way I would attempt to keep them as they are. I just don’t understand why the designer, manufacturer and other customers should want them like that.

Replacing them is straightforward: it just requires a waste of time, effort and cut fingers.

Clippers, Scalpel, Pin-vice hand drills, Files

First step is to cut away the unwanted cast spears (or whips?). Scalpels might seem the obvious tool for this job but these days I tend mostly to use Clippers and Files. Clippers are great for cleaning up (and conversions). It's surprising how much or how little you can remove with Clippers without damaging what's left behind. Files give a smoother, more rounded finish.

After removal I drill out the hands using a succession of ever-larger Pin-vice hand drills. I have three drills preloaded with different bits. It saves a lot of time changing bits. I think I'll get some more.

North Star wire spears and superglue gell.

Next step is to replace the pikes with wire spears from North Star and other suppliers. I used to use piano wire for pikes, but these days you can get wire with shaped heads and they are only slightly more lethal. These are glued in place with my favourite superglue of recent times, Gorilla Super Glue Gell.

The Foundry Aegean Bronze Age figures are open handed, while the Foundry Nordic Bronze Age figures (which I also bought at the SELWG Show) have thick spears with a reasonable prospect of survival.

Eureka and Foundry spearmen with fitted North Star spears.

I'm prepared to replace a few spears/pikes here and there but I must remember that my next spear/pike army (if there is one) will either come with robust spears or empty hands or be composed of 2mm blocks.

Thirty Years War 6mm progress 4: the main colour

An impressive array, but further patching is needed because of the white undercoat and inconsistent mixing and application of the brown paint.

I wet painted the figure blocks (including the bases) with Vallejo Charred Brown. This may be thin paint but it's not supposed to be a wash. Controlling the consistency of the paint is a bit hit and miss. However you mix it, it tends to separate and to dry out.

The brown needs to be solid as it will be the finished colour of at least 50% of the figure blocks. This brown functions as the base colour of the ground, the shadow between the ranks of figures and any and all parts of the figures which I don't subsequently paint with any other colour.

The blocks may be only 60mm x 30mm but given the indentations represented by the figures and the sand on the bases, they have a very large surface area and positively drink paint. Getting 100% coverage is vital. I don't want any white spots in the middle of an area which is supposed to be deep shadow. The blocks therefore have to be touched up in good light.

It was at this point that I realised I should have undercoated in black gesso according to the original ‘recipe’. Had I done so, covering the undercoat completely wouldn’t be so important. As it was it took quite a lot of time to eliminate any white spots and I still have to go over the blocks again as the brown is a bit thin in places. I am currently awaiting a new supply of Charred Brown!

I know some people may think that basing before painting is a little eccentric, but had I painted the figures first I would not have been able to get at the ground between them given the way in which they are so packed together.

Thirty Years War 6mm progress 3: undercoating

Cannon and Commander: a black undercoat
would have been better...

Since my last report I snipped off all the pikes and improved the bases that had gaps in the texturing. I then used a scalpel to scrape off any sand that had got onto the figures.

Having completed the texturing of the bases I glued the guns in place. That wasn't done until this stage because the crew had bases needing to be hidden by the filler but the guns just sit on top.

I then applied a 50% solution of white gesso undercoat entirely covering the figures and bases and touched this up in good light. White on metal is not always easy to see in the middle of a 6mm pike block, but I expect the coverage was at least 95%.

Using white was a mistake. I should have used black gesso. It would have been easier to see against the bare metal and easier to cover in the next stage.

That concluded the preparation stage. The next stage is painting.

Thirty Years War 6mm progress 2: Curse of the bendy pikes

Bendy pikes.

I levelled the bases with Tetrion filler and then textured them with thinned PVA and fine sand. In larger scales I’d have brought this right up and around the feet of the figures to hide the integral figure bases, but for most of these unit bases I was able only to run the filler and sand around the outside border. This means that the figure bases still show on the insides as in the photo of some Swedish Horsemen below. The photo actually makes the gaps look accessible but I think I would have got Tetrion and PVA on the figures if I'd tried to texture in between them.

There’s not much I can do about it, and I’m hoping the gaps will be lost in the deep brown shadows which will which will be be basis of figures, unit base and all.

At this stage I had to think seriously about the pikes. I hate bendy pikes even more than exposed figure bases. Indeed, I’ve even ‘campaigned’ against cast pikes on 6mm (Baccus) and 10mm (Pendraken) figures in favour of separate wire pikes, but it drew little support from other punters. For some time it completely held me back from doing a pike army in 6mm or 10mm, but how could I be right and everyone else wrong? 

All Tetrioned and sanded.

 I had very serious reservations about the thin, fragile pikes on the 6mm Baccus figures but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Well, I should have trusted my instincts. Despite my best attempts to straighten the pikes and to avoid touching them, the simple process of basing, undercoating and general handling has already proved to me that they are a total disaster. And this is nothing to the bashing they are going to get in use on the table. They are going to end up looking like floppy spaghetti prior to eventually breaking off.

Swedish Horsemen: Untextured gaps to be lost in shadow...

I now realise I have no choice but to snip all the pikes and replace them later. Snipping will be easy but replacing them is going to be fiddly and time-consuming. I'm inclined to snip them now which will give me a little better access to paint the pikemen, even though my painting will be minimal in the extreme and may come as a shock to some readers! I’ll then fit the flags attached to dress pins and finally replace the pikes with brown brush bristles. It can be done as shown here.

The pikes have been niggling me. Having made this decision I am feeling a lot more positive about this project.