Landwaster 2021

It's time again for another "Holding Myself to Account" set of blog posts. This time it's the wonderful Landwaster 2021, being held in Goulburn on the 21st of November (Regional NSW COVID-19 Restrictions pending).

Landwaster is a great DBA tournament, which I have not had the opportunity to attend previously. There are no restrictions on the army list which can be used.

III/53 - East Frankish

The Miniatures

I'm using the Early German figures from QR Miniatures, that I purchased from Olympian Games at Cancon 2019.

The List

3Kn (General)

4 x 3Kn

2 x 3Kn // 4Bd

3 x Sp

2 x Ps or 7Hd

I already decided against using the Cv, but still havn't made my mind up about the 7Hd.

Painting

1. Undercoat with Vallejo White
2. Light wash with Vallejo Sepia Wash
3. Skin with Vallejo Model Colour (VMC) Basic Skintone

Primary Clothing

This is for the Sp, Knights & Archers (Ps)

• Games Workshop (GW) Goblin Green
• GW Enchanted Blue
• GW Blazing Orange
• GW Golden Yellow

Hordes have standard muted browns, greys and beige VMC colours

Armour

• GW Chainmail
• Formula P3 Armour Wash

Leather (Belts & Boots)

• GW Snakebyte Leather

Pants

• VMC Green Grey

Horses

Swap body & mane/tail colour

• VMC Cavalry Brown
• VMC Medium Grey

Bridles & Reins

• VMC German Camo Black Brown

General

• VMC Off-White horse
• VMC Purple armour

Painting Journey

DBA v3 IV/59 - Post Mongol Samurai

Well, here I am just under a week from the tournament. My army isn't finished.

I still have the following to do:

1. Pike shafts

2. Pike blades

3. Wash armour on Samurai

4. All bows (on both Cv & Bw)

5. Bridles & stirrups

6. Base everything.

I do have the bases cut to size, and have stuck the magnets on. I hope to get the majority of the above done this evening; with the exception of the basing. I will get the gluing to bases all sorted, just wont have the fancy bits done.

Some of the works in progress

Another year, another project

The Idea

Once again I'm embarking on a quick painting project...

DBA IV/59b - Post Mongol Samurai Army 1465-1542

This was originally intended to be a different Samurai army for the MOAB competition, but life got in the way and they remained on the pile of lead shame.

The figures are from Eureka Miniatures, but from what I have seen may not exactly be from the correct period. I have had to purchase some Ashigaru with pike to fill the gap. I still havn't purchased the back-banners, but will do that sometime in the future.

The list that I will use is:

1 x General (6 Cv)

1 x Mounted Samuai (6 Cv)

3 x Samurai (4 Bd)

1 x Nobusi (4 Bw)

6 x Ashigaru with yari (3 Pk)

Painting

I'm using Ran as my inspiration for the colour scheme. I've found a few different examples on the internet for different paint schemes, but in pretty much all cases I don't have the ability to reproduce what has been done.

Plan

I am thinking that this could potentially increase into creating the armies of each of the three brothers from the film. In the film the three armies have Red, Yellow and Blue as their primary colours. The base of the armour for the armies of each of the three brothers is the plain ?black laminate.

I am torn on whether to paint the general of the army in white or orange, as the Warlord from Ran appears in both of these colours on a few occasions. Just from memory, painting white is very hard to do nicely, so I might just stick with orange.

I will attempt to accomplish something similar, working through the main base colours for the figures, then finally painting each base with the dominant colour. But I should really try to keep this as simple as possible, so it gets completed.

Paint Scheme

The paint scheme is as stated below

1.    Undercoat airbrush with Vallejo White

2.    Light wash with Vallejo Sepia Wash

3.    Flesh with Vallejo Sunny Skin Tone

4.    Laminate armour (including segments of helmet) with Vallejo Basalt Grey

5.    Trim of the armour Vallejo Carmine Red

6.    Horses: Vallejo Light Brown, Vallejo Cavalry Brown, Vallejo Medium Grey

7.    Wash laminate armor with Formula P3 Armor Wash

8.    Pants of Ashigaru Vallejo Green Grey

9.    Weapon blades Vallejo Natural Steel

10.  Boots / footwear Vallejo Cork Brown

11.  Pike & Naginata shafts Vallejo Beige Brown

12.  Belt & scabbards Vallejo Beige Brown

Painting WW2 Blitzkrieg Germans (pt 4)

Hi,
It's been a few days since my last installment. Work and life have gotten in the way of painting, but I got the chance to hit them again today.

Today I painted the boots using Vallejo Model Color Black Grey. This gives a nice very dark, almost black-ish colour; which after I use a black ink (most likely Formula P3 Armour Wash, as that's the black I have) it will look dark enough to be the black leather boots, but also give enough depth and shadow.

I also changed my mind about painting the webbing and pouches in Vallejo Model Color Camouflage Black Brown, and instead used the Vallejo Model Color Black Grey (same as for the boots).

Boots, webbing and rifle ammunition pouches now painted (front view)

Boots, webbing, and rifle ammunition pouches now painted (rear view)

The next step of the initial base coats is the rifles. I'm going to use Vallejo Model Color Gunmetal Grey for the metal parts, and then potentially more than one of the various Vallejo Model Color browns that I have.

While I do recognise that I've left a few gaps, which is made more obvious through my choice of using a whiteundercoat, hopefully the dark wash that I'll be using will hide these sins.

Comments and criticism are more than welcome.

Please note, that these six figures is the first painting project that I will have completed in it's entirety; so I feel that I'm going quite well for someone who is extremely easlity distracted.

Painting WW2 Blitzkrieg Germans (pt 3)

Hi,
Welcome back to he next step in getting some painting done.

I was trying to match the colours listed in the Warlord Games Painting Guide: Blitzkrieg Germans (used to be free a few years ago, but now UK2.5), and was having a few troubles with matching the German Camo Dark Green.

I mixed in some of my 'mystery grey' (believed to be Vallejo Model Color German Grey) along with an equal amount of Vallejo Model Color Camouflage Olive Green. This was applied to the helmets and gas mask cannisters.

The bread bags were painting using Vallejo Model Color Light Brown. While it appears to be way too orange, this will be fixed up in a later stage when I apply a dark wash to this part of the figure.

The mess tins, helmet bands, grenade sticks and entrenching tool handles were paining using Vallejo Model Color Beige Brown.

The water bottles were painted using Vallejo Model Color Khaki.

Detail of the equipment on 2/3 of the figures (yes, the entrenching tool handle was painted after I missed it)

The other 2 figures (sorry for the poor light, there is an open window - it lets in amazing light for painting... not photographs).

Next time.... raincoats / overcoats (on the webbing), rifles, pouches and webbing.

These are intended to be used for Chain of Command, and also the WW2 version of In Some Corner of a Foreign Field (now being sold as Danger Close).

Painting WW2 Blitzkrieg Germans (pt 2)

Hi,
Well, yesterday I started the patinting of the six WW2 Germans that came on the cover of the January 2020 issue of Wargames Illustrated.

The next step was to paint the pants & jacket. I started the pants with my very old mystery bottle of Vallejo grey (the label has fallen off a long time ago, I've had the pot since 2002). From some comparisons it appears to be Vallejo Model Color German Grey. I then added a few drops of a black, mixed it around then painted the jacket with it.

Pants and jacket now done.

Given the darkness of the colour, I'll have to resort to a black wash (or Army Painter Dark Tone) to get the appropriate levels of definition.

The next steps will be to do the leather strapping and various bags / pouches that the figures are carrying. I'll more than likely be using the Warlord Games guide for WW2 Germans or for WW2 Italians. The main reason for using a pre-published guide is to ensure that I get sufficient contrast between each of the different elements on the figure; so they don't turn into one big mushy grey mess.

COVID Painting...

Hi,
Seeing I have an immense readership of one (myself), I'll use this post as a handy way of keeping track of paint schemes.

The January 2020 issue of Wargames Illustrated had a sprue of Warlord Games "Bolt Action Blitzkrieg German Infantry". As usual I base my historical 28 mm figures on the 25 mm round Renedra bases. Plastic figures have a 3 mm diameter magnet added, metal figures have a 4.75 mm diameter magnet added.

Bases removed from the sprue, drilled with the 3 mm magnet glued in place.

I went through the different options that were available, and decided on 4 riflemen (one with a scope) one armed with a MP40 and one prone with an MG42. The machine gunner was originally intended to have a rifle, but I changed my mind. The machine gunner was also added to a 50 mm round base from Renedra (similarly magnetised).

All glued together, ready for undercoating.

I am undercoating all my figures the same way, using a white Vallejo airbrush primer, then after they are dry using a light coat of Vallejo sepia wash (from the 200 ml bottle).

All primed and ready for the sepia wash.

I paint the way that I was first shown, back at the Games Workshop store on Pitt Street (back in 1994); from the inside out. The flesh colour I am using is Vallejo Model Colour 'Flat Flesh' (018).

Wash and flesh done.

Stay tuned, as next time we start the uniforms...