Painting WWII Soviet Infantry - Part 3:Basing Tips & Tricks

Articles In This Series
Part 1: Series Introduction, Plus Ranks & Insignia
Part 2: Summer Tunics & Trousers
Part 3: Basing Tips & Tricks
Part 4: Winter Uniforms
Part 5: Painting Guides
Part 6A: Finished Black Tree Design 28mm Infantry
Part 6B: Finished Black Tree Design 28mm Infantry
Part 6C: Finished Black Tree Design 28mm Infantry

Series Overview
This is the third in an ongoing series of articles documenting the research I have been doing for painting my 28mm Black Tree Design miniatures for 1:1 skirmish gaming. Finding historical information on Soviet uniforms that gamers can use was very difficult, with much of it scattered across various Osprey and other books, along with some websites. I hope folks find this series of articles helpful and might even stir some interest in gaming the Eastern Front. While I painted 28mm miniatures, nearly all this information is useful for all miniature sizes.

Getting Started With Basing
Having some free time yesterday afternoon, I finally worked some more on the bases of my Black Tree Design Soviets. Several weeks ago, I had smeared Elmer's Wood Filler across the bases. When that dried, I painted the edges of the bases and much of the base itself using Ceramcoat Autumn Brown. When that dried, I sealed the paint on the bases using Americana's brush-on matte varnish, though it dried with more of a shine than I would like. Normally, I would have sprayed the bases with Dulcote, but it's been too humid here in Central Florida. I'll have to do that once the humidity lets up.

Using Ballast (not Sand) as Ground Cover
So yesterday the figures got some ground cover. You can see my set up in the top photo below. For these figures, I used a mixture of fine, medium, and coarse brown ballast from Woodland Scenics. In a small bowl, I mixed some of each. Since I was shooting for a rubble-look, I used more medium and coarse ballast than I normally would have.

Though a few years ago I tried using plain old sand and then painting it, I've found using model railroad ballast works just as well. Plus, model hobby shops sell ballast in many different colors and rock mixtures, not just the few colors that Woodland Scenics offers. Check them out when you get a chance.

This beings me to another point. Why did I use brown ballast if I was thinking of doing city fighting, like in Stalingrad. Wouldn't grey ballast and rocks be better, along with grey painted bases? You know, at first I had been planning on doing just that. Then I began thinking that grey bases would be too limiting, switching to basic brown earth instead. After all, cities have lots of earth, especially around blown up buildings. Earthen bases wouldn't look as out of place in city fighting as grey bases would look in countryside fighting. Kind of trivial, I guess, it was something that ran through my head.

Painting on the Glue
Ok, so I have all my bowls of rocks on the table. I then thin down white glue about 50/50 with the same distilled water/flow improver mix that I use when painting. Using an old brush, I paint the glue onto the base. Here is a little trick I figured out: licking my finger, I rub the ring of the base to get off any excess glue so my base edges don't become rock-covered.

Rock On!
Next, I take the figure and dip it deep into the ballast mixture, swooshing it about. When I pull out the figure from the mix, I make sure to keep the ballast piled on top. I then use an old bristle brush and pat down the pile of ballast, making sure the ballast settles into the glue. I then tap off the excess ballast, rub off any ballast around the edges, and move onto the next figure. This is the easy part, I always feel.

Base Details: Rubble, Rocks, & Grass
Now comes the fun part that make or break the look of a base and its figure. What details do I put on the bases? I want an autumn/early spring look to the figures, after all many are wearing bits of winter uniform. I'd love to do winter bases, but that specialized project will have to wait!

The other containers in the photo have Woodland Scenics coarse brown talus and coarse grey talus, along with some Cajon sandstone rip-rap. What's nice is that these packs also have bits of other rock colors in them, so I can pull them out to look like brick bits maybe. These rocks can be used for nearly any other project as well. Finally, I have some autumn grass tufts from Army Painter. You don't see any static grass because I don't own any autumn colors, only summer farm pasture, which won't work too well here. (Besides, I'll be placing an order with Scenic Express next week for more scenery stuff, like autumn grass.)

You can see in the photo that I experimented a bit with a few figures. A couple of them I glopped on some glue and then dipped them in either the grey or sandstone talus, looking for that pile of rubble look. Some rocks I just glued in place as I felt. I'm not sure if it capture the look of rubble, but since I don't have a bits box of rubble junk, they'll have to do for now. I don't think I'll do this to many of the bases.

When I get my order from Scenic Express, I'll finish the bases on all 25 figures. At least with the ballasted bases they look a lot better than they had look the past several months in their black-primed bases!

Now I just need some buildings, most likely paper, and get these guys onto the table for some gaming. I'll keep you posted.

James P. Blaylock: Fantasy & Steampunk Novelist

Often times writing (and for you guys reading) this blog feels like I'm taking a car trip on a winding mountain road at night in the rain with only one working headlight and windshield wipers that scratch across the glass more than they wipe it clear. I'm not sure that that all means, other than some nights I feel rather nostalgic for the good old days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when gaming, computers, fantasy, and science fiction held a magical grip on my young imagination.

So where is this road leading me tonight? How about to one of my favorite fantasy and science fiction writers at the time, James P. Blaylock? Perhaps you've heard of him, though odds on you haven't. His first novel was The Elfin Ship in 1982, followed by The Disappearing Dwarf in 1983, which I accidentally read prior to reading The Elfin Ship! These were part of what would become his Elfin series of four novels. He wrote other novels as well, eventually being influenced by the emerging steampunk movement of the time, and he continues to write today.

Blaylock writes in a very off-beat, light-hearted manner, heavily influenced by 19th century British and American literature with a twist of Monty Python tossed in. Very odd and humorous, with numerous literary references and word-plays. We'd classify his style as "magic realism," placing him among writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, who wrote the novel 100 Years of Solitude. Blaylock's quirky humor has always fit my quirky sense of humor.

Of course, I knew practically nothing about that literary stuff at the time. I was just a young adult/kid working in my dad's store. I wouldn't become a literature major for a few more years. Still, I always had an interest in Victorian science fiction from reading Wells and Verne. Later, I would go on to specialize in 19th century British and American literature.

You can find most of Blaylock's works on the Nook for $10 each, though finding paperbacks seems to be easy enough as well. I've listed most of the Blaylock novels below that I've read. I stopped reading him after 1986, mainly because I had too much else to read as a literature major and he had worn thin for me. Homunculus, for example, juggles more characters and plot threads than Blaylock can really handle well. But his early novels are a breezy read. If you like Victorian science fiction with a twist of fantasy, check out James P. Blaylock, one of my favorite imaginative writers from the early 1980s.

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The Elfin Ship (1982)

Trading with the elves used to be so simple. Every year Master Cheeser Jonathan Bing would send his very best cheeses downriver to traders who would eventually return with Elfin wonders for the people of Twombly Town.

But no more...

First, the trading post at Willowood Station was mysteriously destroyed. Then a magical elfin airship began making forays overhead: Jonathan knew something was definitely amiss.

So he set off downriver to deliver the cheeses himself, accompanied by the amazing Professor Wurzle, the irrepressible Dooly, and his faithful dog Ahab. It would have been such a pleasant trip, if not for the weeping skeleton, mad goblins, magic coins, an evil dwarf, a cloak of invisibility - and a watch that stopped time.

Of course, the return trip was not so simple...

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The Disappearing Dwarf (1983)

Jonathan Bing, Master Cheeser, has been growing a bit bored in Twombly Town. So it’s no surprise that when Professor Wurzle suggests a trip downriver, Jonathan jumps at the chance. A visit to the Evil Dwarf Selznak’s abandoned castle leads to a treasure hunt, but also to the discovery that Jonathan’s old friend the Squire has vanished, and that Selznak may be involved.

Jonathan--accompanied by his wonderpooch Ahab, the Professor, and Miles the Magician--will have to set off to darkest Balumnia, to the city of Landsend, to find the treasure, and the Squire. And to make matters worse, Selznak will be there, too...

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The Digging Leviathan (1984)

Southern California - sunny days, blue skies, neighbours on flying bicycles ... ghostly submarines ... mermen off the Catalina coast ... and a vast underground sea stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Inland Empire where Chinese junks ply an illicit trade and enormous creatures from ages past still survive. It is a place of wonder ... and dark conspiracies. A place rife with adventure - if one knows where to look for it. Two such seekers are the teenagers Jim Hastings and his friend, Giles Peach. Giles was born with a wonderful set of gills along his neck and insatiable appetite for reading. Drawing inspiration from the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giles is determined to build a Digging Leviathan. Will he reach the center of the earth? or destroy it in the process?

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Homunculus (1986)

In 1870s London, a city of contradictions and improbabilities, a dead man pilots an airship and living men are willing to risk all to steal a carp. Here, a night of bangers and ale at the local pub can result in an eternity at the Blood Pudding with the rest of the reanimated dead.

Space: The Bane of Every 28mm Miniature Gamer

This weekend, during a phone chat with a League member (aka my best buddy), he dropped a bomb on me. He had suddenly abandoned his years of 18mm Napoleonics in favor of 28mm, buying several boxes of Perry plastic French and Russian figures for new armies using the Black Powder rules and maybe a bit of skirmishing. IIRC the reasoning was that these 28mm plastics were cheaper than buying the 18mm AB figures he needed to complete his armies, plus he was tired of 18mm in general (long story there, I guess).

Ok, I can dig that. Money is always an issue with army gaming. But all we have are two folding tables for 5'x6' of space, the same tables on which we played our game of The Sword & The Flame last year. I really had my doubts about what type of game we would have, other than line up and move forward into the parking lot in the middle. This had been my only 28mm Napoleonic experience many years ago, and those guys used 15'x6' worth of tables and the CLS rules. Those are not pleasant memories.

Back to the present, he thought we could use 24-man battalions. Each brigade would have two battalions, with maybe two brigades, an artillery battery, and a cavalry battalion per side. Well, in Black Powder that probably would be a short and not very fun game. From what I know, we would really need at least three battalions of infantry per brigade. Two brigades might work ok, though there could be pitfalls. I'd prefer three. No way would we use brigade morale rules--that could be a very short game with small armies!

Still, we only have a 5'x6' table. I kept seeing a game looking like I4 during rush hour.

We also discussed basing sizes for 28mm, along with how to handle BP's various column formations. We seemed to settle into either 40mmX40mm or 60mmX40mm bases for the 24-man infantry battalions. I have come to really dislike moving lots of fiddly bases and having bits of figures sticking out beyond their bases, only to have those bits bend or break while poking my fingers.

In the end, I decided to make some paper counters that we could toss onto the table and play some test games with. We could then experiment with various base sizes without affecting the real miniatures. After all, many years ago I used to be the king of Warmaster Fantasy counters; Rick Preistly even thanked me for making them back in the day.

The photos below are the fruits of my efforts. Not being an artist, I took the line drawings from another game's counters and resized them for 28mm gaming. On Monday, I printed only the 60mmX40mm infantry counters, not the smaller 40mmX40mm counters. Cavalry is based for 75mmX50mm. Artillery is 60mmX60mm. Command uses 60mmX40mm and 60mmX60mm for the general. Not having any 28mm artillery, I kind of guessed and went by what I read in the book. I only now realized that I could have used my 28mm Western horses to see how the cavalry bases worked out (smacks head!) instead of guessing. Ah well.

On Monday, I set up the tables and tossed down the counters just to see how much space units take up in various formations. I also placed my 15mm Napoleon's Battles counters along side the 28mm just for my own comparison, especially since I'm very poor at visually measuring distance and figuring out spacial relationships. (Never ask me if the contents of Bowl A will fit in Bowl B unless it's totally obvious! Plus, I refuse to play any game where I cannot pre-measure distances! But I digress...)

The photos tell the story. Obviously, a 15mm brigade always takes half the space of a 28mm brigade. So playing a 28mm game on a 5'x6' table would be like playing a 15mm game on a 2.5'x3' table. There won't be much room for maneuvering. I'm sure we could be a bit more creative in deploying brigades and creating scenarios, but still I think more space is needed to avoid simply marching forward. But maybe this is what many 28mm Napoleonic gamers are used to doing? I don't know. Still, I doubt I'll be running out any time soon to start a 28mm Prussian army.

Now 5'x6' would work with 28mm Sharp Practice, which I bought during the last TLF sale. I wouldn't mind painting up some 28mm small units for that game, which being skirmish is more my speed anyway. But that is another topic for another day.

I Don't Get This Whole Zombie Gaming Thing

Could someone please explain for me the appeal of zombie gaming, other than "because it's fun"? I've really been having a hard time understanding why it is so popular, with many gamers devoted to the subject. There are miniature games, board games, card games, and I think even a zombie dice game. How much strategy and tactics are involved in a zombie miniature game, especially for those playing zombies? All I can see is "mindlessly shuffle towards enemy" as the main strategy. Am I alone in my confusion? Please use the comments section to educate those ignorant of zombies like myself!

Color Theory Tutorials: Why Didn't I Learn This Earlier?

You know, I love those moments when I really learn something I've always wanted to learn but say to myself "How in the world did I get from from where I started to here?" I'm sure this happens often to most of us. We sit down at our computers expecting to do a little hobby research on a topic but soon find ourselves veering off into something totally different because it catches our interest. Last night was no different for me. What started out as an expedition into making and using washes to paint faces on 15mm figures quickly turned into several lessons on color theory. Amazing.

In the past, I've tried to understand color theory but have had a difficult time with it. Sure, I understand all about primary colors, mixing them to make secondary colors, and then putting them on a basic color wheel, but I've never really been able to grasp much beyond that. I've read in How to Paint Citadel Miniatures the book's sparse section on color theory, but never quite understood the bits on complimentary colors, harmonies, discord, and so on. I've never understood how it relates to painting miniatures. Perhaps I'm just a bit dense when it comes to this subject. I don't know.

However, after watching some videos and reading some websites related to the videos, I have a much better understanding about color theory and why it's so important to understand when painting. I finnaly understand how to mix a proper shadow and highlight for any color. I understand warm and cold colors, for example the difference between ultramarine blue and cerulean blue and why that's important. I now understand why simply mixing white does not give us a proper highlight. And so on and so on.

Even if I don't want to mix my own shadows and highlights, which is quite easy it seems, I can at least know which of my 200+ bottles of paint will be a good match. I don't have to rely on Reaper or Foundry. I now am free! Of course, I have to rethink some of my painting habits but that is the fun (and frustration) of learning.

Anyway, that's enough blathering from me. Let's get to the meat of the matter.

The Basics, Shadows, and Greys:

"Mixing Paint with the 6-Colour Colour Wheel"

The fellow in this video, along with his companion website at Paint Basket, helped me understand color theory the best as it applies to creating colors suitable for making shadows and generally mixing colors. He also explains the difference between between the hot and cold version of each primary color and what happens when we mix them to create secondary and tertiary colors. For example, I always wondered about the difference between cadmium red and alizarin red.

He then explains how to create shadows colors for any color, using the various color wheels he creates. For example, I never knew that to create a shadow color for yellow we need to add violet to the yellow. Now when I have a color that I'm not sure what to use for its shadow, I can either mix it myself or take a look at these charts to get a good idea. Great stuff! I wish I had known this years ago.

Just make sure to look over his webpage after watching the video, and replay any bit of the video that may confuse you at first. I know that I had to do this a few times, but I readily admit that I can be a bit dense at times, especially late at night.

Highlighting (Plus Shadows and Color Wheel)

"The Color Wheel"

I also found this video from Paint Basket and its companion webpage to finish the missing pieces of the color theory puzzle. Whereas the video above delves into mixing colors to achieve proper shadow colors as well as proper gray tones, this video simply and clearly explains how to mix colors to achieve proper highlights, as well as how to make black. Simply adding white to a color to create its highlight is not the way to go. All that does is fade out the color. This video explains how to create highlights properly. This also was a major revelation for me. Be sure to check out the other videos at the Paint Basket's YouTube channel. They also discuss how to paint metallics and many other topics that might be of interest. I'm still poking through them, looking for new tips.

In-Depth Color Theory for Miniature Painting

" Colour Theory"

Finally, I want to mention the video series that got me delving into color theory last night. This is a six-part, detailed series of color theory presented by Romain at Beasts of War. Due to time slipping away from me last night, I haven't watched the entire series yet, getting through only the first two episodes. Each episode runs about 16 minutes. Romain has a very "Bob Ross" personality when it comes to explaining things, which I enjoy much more than the short-attention-span head-banging approach that many other hobby videos take on YouTube.

Episode 1 mainly deals with the importance of understanding color theory and why it's so important for miniature gamers to get outside and look at how color works in nature instead of simply slathering paint onto a miniature, something I like to call paint-by-numbers. Of course, this leads to the great divide amongst miniature gamers: those one one hand who enjoy painting the figures to look as artistically nice as possible and those who just want to get the little metal things done so they can play the game.

I'm beginning to think that many mass-combat gamers lean far closer to the latter than the former, at least from what I've seen at conventions and on TMP, whereas small-unit or skirmish gamers tend to want their figures to look more artistic. Of course, I'm generalizing here, brushing over the many possibilities in between. I enjoy the artistry side of miniature painting much more than I enjoy the gaming side, but there are times when I just want to do everything paint-by-numbers and get something done! Being all artsy-fartsy can be very frustrating at times. I guess this is the great dilemma of miniature gaming.

Anyway, Episode 2 gets more into the color wheel, mixing colors, and learning to paint with harmonies. Romain taught me the importance of using no more than three main colors on a figure and how to make the colors work with each other. Ironically, I had learned the same thing decades ago in college when I got into publishing, except there my professor limited me to using only three fonts on a page--anything more he felt created dissonance and was hard to look at.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. Perhaps these videos and websites will help you understand color theory a bit better and help you select the best colors for your miniatures. As I mentioned, they're making me rethink a lot of what I thought I knew about shadow, base, and highlight colors. Good stuff.

If you know of any additional good painting videos, websites, or books, why not point us to them in the comments section below. Until next time, take care.

Priming Miniatures: Gesso

Gesso used to prime a resin building.

Probably one of the most important questions miniature gamers have after they purchase their miniatures is "What primer do I use?" Several years ago, I heard some fellows on the Warmaster email list singing the praises of gesso, so I decided to try it for myself.

What is Gesso?
For those who don't know, artists for centuries have been making and using gesso to prime and seal their canvases. Today, many manufacturers make acrylic gesso sold in tall bottles or wide-mouth jars. Gesso commonly comes in white, black, gray, and clear. I would imagine one could make other colors by adding dies to the white gesso, though I haven't found a need to try it. I have used only black and gray.

Why Should I Use Gesso?
A quick search on model and miniature painting forums quickly reveals the many reasons for using gesso.

First, you apply gesso using a simple paint brush. This means that you can prime your miniatures at your painting station instead of carting everything outside to spray paint or investing in an expensive spray booth. This is a nice plus for those of use living in Florida during the hot and humid summers.

Since gesso is orderless, this makes painting indoors that much more convenient, especially if you live in an apartment or have a family member who is sensitive to paint fumes.

Since most gesso today seems to be acrylic, it's non-toxic and cleans up easily with water and soap like any acrylic paint.

Gesso is also quite flexible, especially since it's made to seal painting canvases, which are themselves flexible. I accidentally have bent backwards rifles of gesso-primed soft plastic figures without the gesso showing any signs of cracking.

Gesso is very durable, assuming you follow the instructions on the bottle. This means letting the gesso dry at least 24 hours before touching or painting it, even if the figure looks dry. Now, I will be honest here. I've had some problems with gesso. Gesso doesn't like pointy tips, so I tend to apply a second coat to those spots as well as any spots, like hats and rifles, that might get handled or bumped a lot when painting them. Also, gesso can rub off when applied too thinly because there is little gesso between the rubbing finger and the metal figure. I've also had some problems with certain brands of gesso and have gotten confirmation from a certain popular brand about how they changed their formula, causing problems. (More on that below.) Overall, though, gesso can be very durable and rock hard, requiring sharp fingernails or blades to remove.

Gesso doesn't obstruct details because it shrinks as it dries, making it fine for small-scale as well as large-scale figures. Yes, it looks super-thick when it goes on but dries snugly to the model. Below is the now-classic time-lapse of gesso drying on a miniature.



How is Gesso Applied?
Artists use wide, stiff brushes to paint gesso onto a canvas and then work it into the material, filling and sealing the porous holes. They usually apply two or three coats in a cross-hatch pattern. Decades ago, I used to help my sister do this when she was an art major in college. Little did I know back then that one day I would use gesso to prime models! Below is a short video from Dick Blick showing how to prime a canvas using gesso, in case you were wondering how it was done.



While it's nice knowing how to apply gesso to a canvas, knowing how to apply it to a miniature is more important. Ironically, the technique is basically the same! However, I use a large, standard, cheap paint brush to paint on the gesso. Though some manufacturers say their gesso could be diluted slightly, while others on modeling forums insist on thinning everything brushable, I have never thinned gesso, achieving fine results.

Too many people paint gesso like it was a regular acrylic paint, putting on a thin layer. They are dismayed and upset when they find that their figure has many bare and thin spots, resulting from the gesso shrinking while drying. So then on the next miniature they decide to slather the figure in gesso so that the figure looks like a mound of gooey gesso more than a figure. Now they discover a new set of problems: there is so much gesso on the figure that it's beginning to run down the figure and pool into large puddles where it shouldn't be.

The key to painting on gesso is what I like to call "glopping." Not too thin and not too thick. You just have to experiment a bit. Plus, I like to work the gesso into all the nooks and crannies kind of like they do in the Dick Blick video, jabbing my brush as I glop on the paint and working into into the figure. Remember, the gesso will shrink as it dries.

What are the Downsides of Gesso?
While all of the above sounds like I absolutely love gesso and will never consider using anything else, gesso has some serious downsides.

What I have been calling "webbing" is a serious complaint I have about gesso. While brushing gesso onto your miniature, you might notice that a thin web of gesso suddenly forms across a narrow opening. Perhaps this could be an area between the gun and the body, or between the legs of a 10mm figure. I usually blow a bit on that area to open it up, and then try to reapply some gesso where my breath thinned it out too much.

I've also experienced bubbles in my gesso after the figure has dried, leaving all sorts of pock marks on the figures. These marks are impossible to remove or disguise, leading to the only possible solution: stripping the figures in a bucket of Simple Green. I had this happen to me because I shook my bottle of gesso. Sure, I mixed the pigment into the solution really well but added a bazillion little bubbles into the gesso at the same time. So, do as James Bond would not do: "Gesso. Stirred, not shaken." (Good advice when mixing brush-on varnish as well!)

Are All Gesso Brands and Colors Created Equally?

The simple answer is: No. They are not all equal, and people will tell you that, often with a sports fan's fanaticism for their favorite brand. But it just makes sense that, like everything in life, some brands would be better than others. Though I'm far from being a gesso expert, I will pass along some of my own experiences.

When I began using gesso years ago, it seemed that people leaned toward Liquitex being among the best brands. While nominating anything as "the best" can cause a cat fight among even the stoutest and most reserved of men when it comes to hobby related issues, I found Liquitex to be good and reasonably priced. The black applied quite well, once I learned to handle it. Sure, some webbing occurred when I was sloppy but the finish was solid, no rubbing off.

Then I tied their gray gesso, but found their gray to be too thin and runny, causing it to pool too easily, and too shiny, creating less tooth for the paint than black gesso. Plus, Reaper paints can have problems "cracking" when painted on surfaces that are too smooth--I learned this the hard way and even got official confirmation from Reaper, though they can't quite figure out why this happens. So the bottle of gray gesso went in the trash.

Recently, I began having problems with Liquitex black gesso. The gesso seemed to rub off easily and not apply as well as before. I chalked this up to my gesso being a bit old, though it was in their newer label bottle. I was no longer a Liquitex fanboy, and for a while even left gesso for spray primers (which I might write about later).

But a few weeks ago I decided to give gesso another chance. Setting out to discover what "real" artists thought was the best brand of gesso opposed to what gamers thought of gesso, I read that Liquitex has changed their gesso formula, making it weaker. If what people are saying is true, I had one of the newer, weaker bottles. The company assured people that though they are using less pigments or whatever the gesso is still perfectly fine. Many disagree.

So what gesso should I use? Artists kept recommending Golden acrylic gesso as their favorite brand, being much better than the new formula Liquitex is using. A few weeks ago at our local art store, I decided to pick up a jar of Golden black gesso. Ironically, I had little choice because black Liquitex gesso was no where to be found at the local craft and art stores. We'll see how this Golden gesso goes, and I'll report my findings.

So What Do You Think?
Regardless, if you have any experiences--good or bad--or recommendations about gesso or priming miniatures in general, feel free leave a comment. And a big thanks and welcome to the blog's new followers. I hope you enjoy what you see.