Picking up those brushes again.

Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.

I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.

I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.

Monday 30 May 2011

Brunswick black.

Black is an interesting challenge to shade and highlight. For the latest commission I used my own mixed dark grey charcoal colour. This was a mix of Humbrol 67 (Tank Grey) and Matt Black. This was used for the main undercoat. I then want to pick out specific areas of deeper black and this was done with the neat black for the shako , belts and packs. Once dry the whole figure was then give a light drybrush of light grey. Additional detail was painted in with thin strokes of grey. Faces as per normal. Facings in 3 shade triad of Vallejo Red and Green for the different units. Muskets and metallics added.  Some thinned Vallejo black was painted in on some deeper folds. These were then  matt varnished and once varnish had dried overnight I did a little  "refresh" of the metallics and a light flick across the "highlight" of the facings to add a bit more brightness.

The figures are old "Connoisseur" and are a simple uncomplicated paint job. I was short of standard bearers however so a couple of officers had to have additional work adding belts from green stuff to carry the standard. Flags are from GMB (Fixed using white PVA and then hardened with varnish - about 4 coats altogether applied once each is tacky dry). The flagpole was made from brass wire and the finials were formed by flattening the end with a hammer and then working in into spear point using a carborundum cutting disc on the mini drill, takes no more than 30 seconds per flagstaff and way cheaper then buying them.Horses are both "Elite miniatures" completed in the last batch of horses.



4 comments:

  1. Great painting!! They look very impresive!

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  2. Dave,

    Very nice. Would you use the same technique with a gloss finish? I find black clothes tricky - currently i just use a light grey drybrush over pure black...which is OK but not quite right, no doubt charcoal grey would be a better base. Cheers.

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  3. Hi DC. Most definitly this would work better under gloss. The challenge with these was actually to brighten them up which Gloss would do naturally. Neat black under gloss does not work IMHO, just looks like patent leather!

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  4. Lovely work!

    I've steered clear of Brunswickers because of the black-on-black uniforms. I might give it a go now after your tutorial.

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