Contrast Paints and 10mm

 I have started using contrast paints for my 10mm figures. I was not sure how these would go as the figures can have less detail and smaller pieces of detail so I thought that there may have been some issues. But in the end they turned out quite well (in my opinion anyway) with the understanding that I am not a great painter.

Here are some examples

On the left League of Augsburg (LOA) Dutch cavalry in contrast paints and on the right Dutch Napoleonic cavalry in standard acrylics.
The contrast works well. Especially on the horses that receive just one coat of contrast paint. This defines the reins, face, and tail of the horse with sufficient variation. In contrast (ha ha) the standard acrylics needs different colours for all these.

Top down view

close up. For the LOA I did use standard acrylics for the cuffs, guns, sword, white line around the hat, and flesh for face and hands.
The blanket roll on the LOA figures came out very well with the detail of the straps highlighted.

Close up of some infantry. LOA in contrast paint on the left and Napoleonic's in standard acrylics on the right. 

Artillery. Same as before with LOA on left in Contrast and on the right Napoleonic's in standard acrylics. 

Different view. 
The gun carriage is painted in just one colour for the LOA but it still manages to bring out all the detail.
The cannon barrel is just a Army Painter contrast bronze (GW don't make metallics) and picks out all the detail.

Final thoughts

1)    Most importantly, close up photography of my painting should be avoided

2)    It is slightly faster to paint using contrast paints as less colours/steps are needed. Most apparent when painting horses and artillery.

3)     When painting cuffs and other parts with limited detail I think using standard acrylics is still the best.

4)    I found using the contrast paints easy. They do not run every where, and if I did use too much paint, it was easily soaked up with a cotton bud or a piece of tissue.

5)    As you need to use a white or light grey primer undercoat for contrast paints you need to be a bit more careful to not miss spots as the white undercoat will be more obvious than a darker undercoat.

6)    The painting style is sufficiently different that I would not use both methods in the same army as they would look significantly different.

7)     Contrast paints will work for me for 10mm and will speed up my painting somewhat.

Project Stew Part One

 Another post that should have been in 2024.

In July 2023 Stew of A terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth ran a competition celebrating his Six Years of Blogging which I won. Hooray for me!!

The prize was a $25 voucher to the wargame company of my choice. Being addicted to 10mm I chose Pendraken. I did not want to just add it as part of another army, I wanted it to be a discrete project that would remind me of my luck (and Stew's blog) I was struggling to work something out when Stew gave me the idea in response to one of the comments on his blog.

So with the project instruction set I just needed to work out the detail.

The Project

It is mid 1944 and the Emperor of Japan calls his generals to a meeting in the Imperial Palace where he makes the obvious point that the war is not going exactly as planned. The generals all shuffle about uncomfortably until one says that the next battle is sure to be decisive. The Emperor raises an eyebrow and states "just like the 30 battles before that. Your incompetence displeases me. Luckily I have a Sneaky Terrifying Exquisite War-Winning plan!"

The Sneaky Terrifying Exquisite War-Winning Plan (STEWW Plan)

The Navy will supply a large submarine to carry a special team consisting of the Court Necromancer and his Ninja guards. The submarine will transport the team to the entrance of James River where a small boat will take the team up the river to  Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond Virginia. The Necromancer will raise a horde of Confederate Zombies to be led by the famous Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart. Once the horde is raised they will march on Washington causing mayhem and dismay, bringing about the fall of the U.S.A. as an unstoppable Confederate Army once again marches.

Its all coming together

Luckily Pendraken produce CSA zombies infantry and Ninjas. USA cavalry will be provided by my existing US army forces and the apocalypse by WW2. Working very quickly in December I ordered Ninjas, CSA infantry, a General Stewart figure and a Necromancer which all added up to just under the voucher amount and so a perfect fit. 

So after a very slow start here are my purchases all poorly painted up.

The Imperial Necromancer and his Ninja Guards

General J.E.B. Stuart and one regiment of zombie troops

A slightly better photo

Another blurry photo

A little bit less blurry.

I have added flags to the standards so they look slightly better.

Next things to do.

Work out a 3 to 4 game campaign where the CSA zombie army fights the US cavalry (who will be riding jeeps) and ends with an assault on the White House and the Capitol Building. 

Rules: Surprisingly there don't seem to be any rules for an assault by Confederate Zombies on Washington DC anytime during the 1940's! So I am going to have to make something up. Probably based on the OHW rules with special effects for Necromancers and Zombies. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Thanks for reading and hopefully the next installment wont take too long.

Back again and 2024 Terrain

 Finally getting the enthusiasm to restart the stalled blog with some items that could/should have been posted in 2024.

Starting with some new terrain.

In previous posts you would have seen the snow white cloth used for my Fluffy games. This was "borrowed" from the table cloth cupboard. 😁  I also have a black (inky darkness of space) cloth that I used for my game "Disaster on the Zoological Explorer Ship Crikey" posted last September, although you can't really see it.

With these examples I was thinking about an alien landscape and thought that a red cloth would be suitably alien, or at least Martian. So I purchased this and then made some terrain to fit. Luckily I was looking during the lead up to Christmas otherwise I don't think there would have been any red table cloths around. 😂

All the terrain. Trees, roads and ruins, plants of various types and my mushrooms from long ago.

Close up of my pipe cleaner trees. I have since made some red bases for these.

More pipe cleaner trees in pink sponge plants. Close up of alien ruins.

A different set of alien orange trees.

Kangaroo Legionnaires move through the ruins while Platypus archers prepare to ambush them. Somewhere on the red continent. 

 While very basic I found that this worked quite well and took myself off to K-Mart for some more tablecloths.

First up my desert cloth. A proper tablecloth but only $12

The fort came from Aliexpress and is one of those foam card models. Less than $15 and about the right size.

I had to buy a fort to go on it. I already have a oasis (although it needs some camels). I also got to use the sphinxes that I purchased long ago.

Close up of the fort manned by some plucky Brits. Since this photo has been taken I have made some adjustments so that the tower in the bottom right is more useful.
A dervish desert army with lots of camels is in the painting queue.

Finally a water cloth (or plastic in this case). Nice and blue so no one will mistake it for oddly coloured grass. A bargain at $3. It comes up remarkably well with a bit of terrain on it. 

Large Octopus or Kraken about to give someone's ship a bad day.

So these cloths are all cheap and cheerful. An expense that I can justify to myself for something that will be rarely used. And now every time I go to K-Mart I wander past the tablecloth section just in case there is something new. 😂