Collecting a Wargames Army 102

Here is the first unit of my army! As I mentioned in the last article, I based this unit on Samuel Jones' Regiment of foot, with the green jackets and white standard. For the most part I intend to fight fictional battles, but picking a historical regiment to serve as a model makes the painting process easier! The standard has been designed to easily slip off the pole so I can replace it with different designs and use the unit as another - say Col. John Hampden or the Earl of Manchester or one of the dozens of regiments about which the coat color is unknown. I paint all of my wargame models in a simple three-step layer technique using Foundry paints for the most part. Kevin Dallimore and Spencer Keen (see the links page) have excellent step-by-step guides on how to work in this style so there's no sense in my wasting space here to describe it in any detail, but I'll use this regiment as a brief example. In a nutshell this involves starting with a black undercoat. The next thing I always paint is the flesh tone. I painted these areas with Foundry's Flesh Shade (5A). Then I painted a layer of highlights with Flesh (5B) and was careful to allow the first coat to show in the areas of deepest shadow (the eye sockets, under brims of caps, between the fingers, etc). Finally I added a final highlight with Flesh Light (5C) to the tip of the nose, cheekbones, chin, and knuckles, again making sure plenty of the mid-tone remained visible. Note that I'm not blending anything. Foundry's paint system is designed in ranges of three complimentary colors that are effectively blended by the eye when viewed at arm's length (or on the wargame table).

The benefit of this technique is that it is very fast! I can paint a rank and file trooper to the standard seen here in about an hour. This unit consists of 20 models and I was able to complete it in about ten days of "spare time" painting (meaning lunch hours and the odd hour or two a night). I could probably do a unit in a long weekend if real life didn't keep intruding into my painting time! Another thing that speeds the process along is painting multiple figures at one time. I usually paint one figure first so I can make sure my color scheme works. In this case, it was a green coat, gray trousers, and black hat. After I like the way the figure looks, I dive in on 4-6 models at a time, painting the flesh on the lot, then the trousers, then the coats, etc. It saves lots of brush cleaning/paint jar swapping time! As much of the ECW soldier's kit is provided by himself, I varied the color of trousers, hats, boots, etc. It should be noted that all of the variations were kept to neutral shades (greys, browns, etc.). Finally, I based the unit on three square stands (60mm) to make mini dioramas. I'll direct you to Games Workshop's website for an excellent article on basing terrain, which is appropriate for stands of multiple figures. There will be more detailed shots in the gallery in a week or so. In a couple of weeks, I'll have Col. Ralph Weldon's regiment ready to add to these pages! I have the first stand of shot finished and am partially through the second. Stay tuned...