WORKBENCH and SALUTE

Salute has been and gone and I am now working my way through all the goodies that I purchased. The next batch of pictures will show you what I have on my work bench at the moment.
First up is the Empress Miniatures High Command, Lord Chelmsford and all his followers. These were pre Salute but still need varnishing and basing and then I will show them in a later post in an appropriate setting. 

The next pictures show my goodies form Salute. My plastic mountain has now gone from nine to fourteen boxes.

The following pictures show me slowly working through the prep stage with a mixture of periods.

Here we have some Empress Miniatures figures from their new character packs and a Redoubt Enterprises figure. I have based three of them to use as ammunition runners for Isandlwana when the Brits start running low of ammo and are a bit too far away from the supply wagons. Also they will be used for the Rorke's Drift setting along with the Surgeon Reynolds base.

I purchased some Perry ACW horse holders which I can use not just for my ACW but as I have kept the horses separate from the horse holder, I will be using them for my Zulu war, Sudan and NWF projects as well.
In the background you can see that I have been basing a lot more plastic tents on old CD discs ready for Isandlwana.

The next picture was kindly given to me by Steve Hall of 1066 BLOG and has been assembled ready for painting. I think this is a TM TERRAIN building.

And the last picture for now is a close-up of his Lordship.

I have finished my Zulu War artillery and rocket team and also a very long supply column which I will submit in future blogs.   

  

Painting and varnishing Figures.

Gary, here is the answer to your question.

I paint using a white undercoat.

One layer base coat. Use a lighter shade than normal, apart from flesh, I use Foundry flesh 5A. For most colours you would probably go with the mid shade if you were painting using a tri layer method. (hope this makes sense)  

Wash the whole figure using Winsor and Newton Artists Acrylic Raw Umber mixed with Winsor and Newton Acrylic Flow Improver. ( I have been using Games Workshop Washes on Zulu flesh and on horses.)

Highlight flesh and any other lighter colour you may think that needs it. British scarlet and plate armour I highlight but tend to leave most other colours with just the wash effect.

Gloss and Matt varnish the figure using Daler Rowney Soluble Varnish.

The last picture shows the following, using various methods of painting I have used in the past.

The Foundry AWI figure on the right was painted using a black undercoat and then three layer method. Probably gives the best results but for me I find it takes the longest.

The Perry plastic Napoleonic figure in the middle was painted using the Army Painter method. A very fast way to paint figures but I wanted a bit more control in the finished result.

The Empress Zulu War Miniature on the left was painted using the white undercoat and raw umber wash. This method is not quite as fast as the AP method but three or four times faster than the black undercoat three layer method and still produces a reasonable standard.

Hope this is of some use.

NATAL NATIVE HORSE

Empress Miniatures Natal Native Horse (NNH).
Once again, some lovely sculpts by Empress. I will be purchasing the latest Zulu War releases from their trade stand at Salute tomorrow along with a shopping list as long as my arm.  

In the last picture, the Zulu's closing in on the firing line are the old style Zulu miniatures from Wargames Foundry, which are more compatible in size with Empress Miniatures.

Rorke's Drift Buildings and Donga's

I have made some terrain which will represent one of the Donga's at Isandlwana which I will be submitting in a later post.

The buildings are from Redoubt Enterprise with some modifications by myself. I have also given all the doors hinges so that they can be opened and closed.

Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Blue and Murrey

  My latest batch of Perry plastic WotR figures with a few of their metal figures mixed in. I have gone for speed with painting these, just a base coat and wash, with a highlight on the flesh and metal. I have not bothered to paint any badges on them either so that they will be more versatile with any blue and Murrey retinues, just needing to change the flags/banners. 
 I am looking forward to picking up a couple of boxes of their new plastic mounted knights at Salute later this month and with all those spare heads the first two plastic box sets will be even more versatile.

More Zulu War to come in the next couple of posts.