Painted scenery

What a fun day today. We played two games of One Page Rules - Grimdark Future, each with 2000 point armies. Robots vs Humans. This was the first time that I had a complete set of my own fully painted miniatures.

I had been rushing over the last couple of weekends to get some scenery painted and some terrain pieces finished so we have less unfinished scatter on the battle mat.

I've designed and printed some modular gothic building pieces and put together some simple foliage, based on plastic plants. 

The bulk of the plant pieces are based on faux moss. This proved difficult to work with. The structure was far too loose, I would not buy it again for terrain modelling. It took a lot of watered down PVA to give it any strength which I did not think would dry in time, but it did, just.

I'm pleased with the buildings. The inspiration comes from Notre Dame in Paris and St Vitus Cathedral in the castle in Prague. I've used OpenLOCK clips to join parts together to have different building shapes from the same component pieces.

I found it difficult to get a consistent paint effect over all the pieces, but the end result still looks good when setup on the table.

OpenLOCK

OpenLOCK clips are open-source released by Printable Scenery. As far as I can tell, the original intended use was for 3D floor plans but they also work for scenic buildings. For tabletop wargames it is inconvenient to have a step up to the ground floor level, so I have adapted the layout of clips to suit the scenery that I wanted. Mainly, this is so that there are clips to hold upper storeys together and no need for a ground floor layer. I have stuck, near enough, to imperial inch sizes and spacing.

My layouts are based on a 3" (76.2mm) square wall section. It also works down to 1" wide.

I have used 1" (25.4mm) spacing between centres horizontally but to avoid overlap of the sockets I had to use 19mm (3/4") spacing vertically. I deliberately wanted them to print without supports and without the break-off mini-pillars used in the original example files.

As the sockets are 4.2mm wide, the minimum wall thickness that I could have used is about 7mm, however, for a bit of extra strength, I've gone with 8mm thick walls.

So far, I've been able to design everything to print without supports on my FDM printer using PETG filament.

Scale Anomalies

I struggle with accepting the scale creep of miniatures. Years ago a popular size for tabletop miniatures was called 25mm and now they have crept up to 32mm. Generally referred to as 28mm. 

The following is how I rationalise it so that I can work with consistent rules.

1:56 Characters: The notional size is 28mm to a normal human's eye height, which is a top of the head height of about 32mm for say a  5'10" (178cm) tall person. To the nearest common model scale, that works out about 1:56.

1:35 Buildings and vehicles: These look too small at 1:56 scale, probably because of the exaggerated features of many of the models and that they sit on, typically, 4mm thick bases. I find a scale of 1:40 works better for most scenery. The most appropriate common model scale is 1:35. This puts the 3" tall ceiling height at about 2.7m (9') and garden walls and low hedges that look right are about 30mm to 35mm (1.25") tall.

Knowing this, helps me design models to suit.

==

Painting an army

Painting an army is not the same as painting an individual figure. I'm sure it could be done the same way, but for me, there needed to be some compromise to be able to get enough done in an acceptable time scale.

I have limited the number of colours and only painted the details that add significantly to the overall appearance. They need to look good at a distance, it's a bonus if I can also get them looking good close up.

What I have learnt is that, perhaps, the thing that makes the most difference for me is the colour scheme. If I can use a wash, it is faster. Because of that, the tan uniforms were much quicker than the blue cloaks.

The models also have a significant effect on the efficiency to paint. This is fairly obvious, that the ornate miniatures take a lot longer than the simpler jump suits and by far the fastest are chunky models like space marines. Vehicles are relatively quick but the amount of paint coverage needed, even with an airbrushed base coat, means that they take a while.

Another significant factor for me, is painting faces. I'm not particularly adept at it and frequently going over the same tiny detail adds to the time and the thickness of paint, spoils the result. I'll be on the lookout for more models with full face helmets.

There are other factors that can get in the way! Cats, for example :-)

All that said, I'm pleased with the results.

==

Prague city break

We spent a couple of days in Prague, Czechia.

What a wonderful place. 

St Vitus Cathedral in the castle.

The astronomical clock.

The Dancing House, designed by Vlado Milunić and Frank O. Gehry.

Lots of very interesting buildings.

==

Painted gold visor effect

I have a lot of sci-fi miniature infantry to paint and many of them have closed visors. Inspired by Halo's Master Chief, my initial idea was to paint the visor gold. With a few images in front of me I soon realised that needed more thought.

I stumbled across an easy method that I think works to produce an acceptable visor at a distance.

To be clear, I am sure there are more attractive solutions with layering and blending, but that is time consuming to do for a tabletop army.

Step 1 - base coat in black

Step 2 - brown dry brush

This looks best with a midtone or dark brown colour. It helps to give some depth and variation to the lens.

Step 3 - gold lines

To get an initial reflection effect, I paint two vertical metallic gold lines. They both have a gap between the peak and the start of the line and end before the lower edge of the visor. The first is about a third of the way round the visor facing the assumed light source. The second is shorter and between that line and the centre line.

Step 4 - gold dry brush

Next, I dry brush the same metallic gold very gently over the whole lens.

I have a narrow makeup brush that I use for this. It is small enough to restrict the area the dry brushing affects.

The effect usually looks acceptable at this stage. The next step is optional.

Step 5 - gloss clear coat

Adding a gloss clear coat is not essential. I usually clear matt coat the entire model to protect it for handling. The gloss clear coat is added only to the visor area, after the matt coat has dried.

==

Airbrush rack

To make it easier to use my airbrushes, I have squeezed in a storage rack for them near to my painting area.

There is space in the rack to fit all the alternate needles and nozzles and some trays for the cleaning brushes and tools.

==

Army bases

Now I have played a few games of One Page Rules - Grimdark Future, I need to paint more miniatures so I can use my own army.

Even before I'd played any tabletop games, I had decided that miniatures in groups look better if they all have the same style bases.

For one off display miniatures, I may produce a more unique base scene, but for the army en masse I've settled on a simple grass effect with the odd tuft of vegetation on some bases.

The photo shows the materials I use. 

Base Layer

I use a brown artist water based acrylic paint that is very thick. I dab it on in lumps with an old brush to give texture to the ground. 

Plants

Where I add vegetation, I clear away a bit of the acrylic paint and put a drop of PVA glue. These are stick on plants in various styles and colours. Although the tufts have sticky pads, they do not stick very well to the wet acrylic.

Grass

For this I use fine green or brown coloured scenic grass flock. I've settled on Earth Fine Turf. I dust a thick layer over the acrylic paint while it is still wet and tap the model to remove the excess.

Grime

I like my models to look a little weather worn. I often use a little weathering powder, Vallejo earth pigment. It's a dry powder which I apply with a brush to the lower parts of the miniature.

Edge

I like the edge of the base to be a uniform black which I paint on after the scenery has been applied.

Protective Coat

I let the base dry for a few hours then spray the whole lot with Rust-oleum Crystal Clear matt. This protects the paint for handling but also helps to keep the static grass and weathering powder in place.

Unrelated to basing, but very occasionally I may have a model with a section that should be shiny. I overpaint that area with a clear gloss layer after the protective matt clear coat has dried.

==

Paris

Yesterday we took a day trip to Paris.

An early Eurostar out and an evening Eurostar back. Plenty of time to fit in the sights and we arrived in time to have some lunch before going into the Louvre.

It was forecast for heavy rain, but we had some luck. For the worst of the rain we were in taxis.

We had 13:30 tickets for the Musée Du Louvre. Even on this rain soaked winter day, Paris and the Louvre were crowded.

There was enough gap in the showers to walk along the Seine.

Past Sainte-Chapelle to Notre Dame.

The focal point for everything gothic.

A flying visit to the Eiffel Tower then back to the Gard Du Nord via a couple of Chocolate Soufflés.

==