Today, Duncan is back to look at getting his new Great War Germans tip top and table ready – Buntfarbenanstrich and all!
Hi, Duncan here and today I going to be looking at painting your Great War German troops and getting them on the table ready for the final push to Paris.
Paul Tonks at Inside Out Terrain was kind enough to help me out with this guide to make sure that my Germans all fitted snugly in with those already done so a big thank you to him again.
Proper Preparation
The first few steps are all about the set up and preparation of your figures – it’s the grunt work upfront that will give you the results you are looking for at the end of the process. Normally I’d assume that most veteran gamers know these steps but will cover them off for completeness.
Step 1: Build the models, as you normally would, making sure to clean flash and mould lines of with files and hobby knife – the Great War stuff wasn’t too bad in terms of additional material.
Step 2: The battlefields of the Great War will be strewn with craters, shell holes and other detritus. This is where you can add some life to the plain plastic bases. Simple materials like good old air drying clay from Hobby Craft can be used to great affect adding small craters and dirt mounds to give the ground a bit of texture and height to the figures bases. You need to leave this to cure for a good couple of days to make sure it is rock solid and ready for the next stage.
Step 3: More texture. This time in the form of a course and fine sand mixture. Cover the base with a basic PVA glue – again Hobby Craft PVA is perfect – you can then dunk the base into the sand of your choice. I like a mixture of fine and course sand; somewhere around 75/25 to give you some bigger chunks of rocks and rubble. Again you need to be patient and allow the glue to dry for a couple of hours and then you can seal the sand with a simple mixture of 50/50 PVA glue and water to give it some robustness – basically this stops the sand leaping off your base and onto the table top with the first brush past a tree or bush!
Step 4: The final stage of preparation; prime everything black. I favour GW black spray just because I have easy access to it, but there a plenty of options out there. Finally drybrush or, if you have one, airbrush on the flat base colour Vallejo Model Air (VMA) ‘Panzer Dark Grey’.
Painting Production Procession
This section is the meat and potatoes of getting your forces ready for bullying off for the final chukka. Following some internet wisdom I changed up the order in which the paint was applied on this particular project:
Step 5: Paint all the skin parts faces and hands with Citadel ‘Kislev Flesh’. Normally I do hands, faces and other exposed skin as the last major step when completing a model. Tackling this early on was beneficial but slightly odd – I think that getting a cleaner edge to the skin was more easily achievable but you have to be super careful layering on the other base colours afterwards.
Step 6: After you are happy with the coverage of the skin tone – you may have to do a couple of thin coats to get a nice flat colour – next up is all the metal pieces. Paint all the guns, artillery pieces, knives, water containers etc. with Citadel ‘Leadbelcher’. The Citadel Metallic range is, in my opinion, the best there is around at the moment.
Step 7: Paint all the wooden and leather parts (boots, gun, pistol holsters etc.) with VMA ‘Cam. Medium Brown’. The Vallejo Model Air range has some lovely tones in it and, as the paint is pre-thinned for an airbrush, it flows beautifully from a conventional brush too.
Paint the few artillery shells with VMA ‘Bright Brass’ or Citadel ‘Relictor Gold’.
Step 8: Paint all the bases and some cloth parts on artillery weapons with VMA ‘Sand Yellow’.
Step 9: Give all of the exposed skin parts a good wash of Citadel ‘Reikland Fleshshade’.
Adding All the Awesomeness
Step 10: Add some buntfabenanstrich! While the flesh shade dries, paint spots on the odd helmet with VMA ‘Hull Red’, ‘Cam. Light Green’ and ‘Middlestone’ for the camouflage effect.
Step 11: Create some barbed wire by wrapping thin electrical wire around a small paint brush – a dab of superglue will hold it all in place. Sprinkle around the wire on your bases to suit.
Step 12: Give all the models a wash with Citadel ‘Agrax Earthshade’ – this will leave it a bit shiny and glossy but once a good application of Dullcote is delivered this will matt right down.
Step 13: The final stages; paint all the rims of the bases with VMA ‘Medium Brown’ and PVA glue some static grass in places. Finally give everything a coat of matt varnish (Testors ‘Dullcote’ is my preferred weapon of choice – never had any issues and the finish is wonderfully flat).
Well that’s how to get your Great War Germans table top ready – next time it’ll be bullying off for the final chukka and going over the top in an AAR vs. the Dough Boys of the Rainbow Division.
All the paints used in this guide