Friday 23 April 2010

Time to base


The end of the first part of my Punic Wars project is drawing very near. I only have about 40 figures to paint to play my first game.

The job I like least is basing things up. Not the base cutting, but the scenic element. I dislike it so much that I invariably put it off until the very last moment. This time I've left it until almost 700 figures have been painted. I decided, on a whim, to base half of them over the last two days; I'll do the rest after I've finished painting the 40. I finished the Romans this afternoon. I got a start on the 40, and even managed a few shots of the Romans deployed for battle. I think they look pretty good.




All figures are Renegade. All are painted in enamels.
Bases are 4mm ply wood. 'Earth' texture is sand, grit, ground oyster shell and cat litter on a thick layer of PVA. The 'earth' was painted with watered down burnt umber acrylic ink. This war dry brushed with raw umber artists acrylic then dry brushed again with raw umber acrylic mixed with ivory household emulsion paint. Grass tufts are from Mutineer Miniatures - in early and late fall colours, long. I used 3 packets for this lot. The effect is for a 'Spain' look.
Here is a link to Mutineer Miniatures:

10 comments:

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

Well you may not like doing the basing, but you're very good at it. These bases look wonderful as do all the lovely figures.

Ron said...

Looking good James. Did you mention the rules you are using for this project. I'm guessing FOB/PK...? It would be interesting to know how you determine the base sizes too.

Caliban said...

Very lovely; your production rate neves ceases to amaze me, James!

Paul

JAMES ROACH said...

Hi Ron,

Rules: I'm working on two sets, both for big battles. One is based on FoB / Ager Sanguinis mechanisms. The second is based on Command and Colours - kinda.

Bases:
Infantry:
Heavy (not armour type but tactical use), 5 to 6 figures on 60 x 60. Four stand units.
Psiloi (skirmishers with umph, includes velites and caetrati), 3 figures on 60 x 40. Four stand units.
Skirmishers (stand off types, includes Balearic slingers, Africans, etc.), 2 on 60 x 40. Four stand units.

Cavalry:
Horse (all types), 2 on 45 x 75. Four to six stand units.
Elephants, 1 + 3 skirmishers on 90 x 120.
Gallic chariots, 1 on 60 x 90. Three to a unit.

James

JAMES ROACH said...

Ron,

P.S. I'm using Renegade so the base sizes are large. Renegade are 32mm+ tall and chunky.

If I was using true 28s I'd reduce unit frontages by as much as 25%, and depth by what looks right.

James

Ron said...

Hi again James,

I think C&C has huge potential for gaming all kinds of periods as does FOB. Two systems with almost "bullet-proof" mechanisms. It will be interesting to see what you come up with. Are you going to make them available to the public?

Ron

JAMES ROACH said...

Hi Ron,

probably not 'officially', but once I'm happy with them I'll make the available on request for home use.

ZeroTwentythree said...

I usually dread basing too. It always seems like time that could have been spent painting more figures.

But for what it's worth, your bases look great!

Ron said...

Thanks for the info on the rules. Please mark me down as one interested in both the C&C and FOB/AS variants.

Ron

BigRedBat said...

Great looking army! I'm interested to hear that you are tinkering with C&C, as we've had a lot of fun with these rules.