At Least My Excuse Is Consistent

Ugh. I am still really struggling to match the colour of Canadian WWII Battledress. I need to get out to the museum but haven’t had a chance. All my sources are images which aren’t always accurate when it comes to colours. Tonight is a bit of a double-post since my picture processing software ate last night’s images, then spat them back out when I was processing tonight’s shots.

A mix of Artizan and Crusader WWII British miniatures half basecoated.

Back when I first started painting it was recommended that all the basecolours be applied in a single step, followed by the various shading and highlighting steps. I was never patient enough for this and always applied all the highlighting and shading to a single section before moving on. I didn’t paint many miniatures back then. Now I have the patience, but hadn’t attempted to paint in this order. In this batch I decided to give it a try. It also allows me to show the different levels of highlights as I apply them instead of seeing each colour completed.

Here we have the basecoating completed on the helmets, flesh, battledress and webbing. Left is the wood, metal and gas capes. I also painted the base at the same time. I think I prefer this method. Not so much for things like the battledress, but for those little details that always tormented me at the end of a paint job. I started with Games Workshop so there was always a moment where the main sections were done and you were faced with an array of little greebles that seemed to take twice as long as any other step.

The downside is that some of my highlights are just my base with a lighter colour added. This means more wasted paint. This bothers me because when I started painting I scraped together pennies to buy paint. Now I have a good selection and can afford the occasional $4 to replace a colour. I’ve actually had to replace half-full bottles which had thickened too much from lack of use. I’ve decided to not let the extra paint wastage bother me.

Basecoating completed, first highlight begun. Crusader and Artizan WWII British.

As of tonight I have all of the basecoating finished and have painted the first highlight on the flesh, helmets and battledress. The BD has come out far too green. It looked good as the basecoat but the highlight looks lime green. I think I know what the problem is – I darkened my basecoat with Olive Drab to darken it. This added some more brown to counter-act the green. Oh well, I will finish this batch as is with perhaps a brown wash to knock down the green, then try again for the next batch. It’s frustrating, I had painted some samples on heavy card primed with black gesso and though I’d found the right colour.

The good news is that the unit will look like a bunch of soldiers who’s uniforms have faded in different ways. On the table it may even add extra visual interest. If I had perfected the colour on the second or third batch I’d have ended up with just 4-8 figures in different shades with the rest completely uniform.

Tomorrow I’d love to finish the entire batch, minus any basing. That’ll put me at 14 figures painted with 22 left. Once I finish this batch I’ll be ready to provide a comparison review of Artizan vs. Crusader.

Tyler