A short break from F4 FTU allows me to dip into my archives and forward the enclosed for your use it desired. It is advice I sent to a novice wargamer at Ramstein Airbase in Germany about six months ago on painting techniques. I started painting toy soldiers some 35 years ago, and while still just an amateur, my skills improved with practice and over time. Here are some tips to get you started. I use mostly acrylics but do have some oil based enamels in my tool box - start with one or two of the paint kits over in the BX shoppette (I'd pick up one acrylic set and one enamel set - I think Testor is the brand carried there). Pick up a couple of good brushes (start with 0 and 00) - the craft shop in the basement of the North Gym has some, or the BX at Vogelweh is another source (not to mention the millions of neat craft/hobby stores 'on the economy'.) You can add various colors as you go along (standard craft acrylics work great, lots in the craft shop in North Gym, certain to have any color you need also useful to pick up some metallic colors there or regular metallic enamels in the shoppette - silver, copper, bronze for starters, 'steel' and gold can also be useful). You will also need a clear gloss paint and a can of clear flat spray paint both in shoppette. For the final wash, get a small can of Minwax stain, dark walnut best, in the BX, and a small can of thinner. A full list of materials is at the end of this. First thing to do is to study the historical makeup of the figures to be painted. Encyclopedia, library, Osprey, and especially art history books are most useful. Plan your attack on the paint job accordingly! Next step is to clean up the figures - use a sharp craft knife (X-Acto or similar) to cut away any flash, and a flat tile to flatten out the bottom of the figure's base (so it will stand up on its own) and the file or Emory board (steal it from your wife) to get rid of any lines caused my mis- alignment of the mold or unwanted equipment, or other imperfections. Look especially between the legs of the figures (horses are terrible for that). Next, wash the figures with an old toothbrush and warm soapy water (this removes any flux left over from the molds). If you don't do this the paint will peel or flake off very quickly. Once you have washed them, do not touch them with your (greasy) fingers since the oil from your hands will also detract from the adhesion of the paint to the white metal. Once washed handle the figures with a piece of cotton cloth or a paper towel, or only touch the base of the figure. Unlike some folks, I do not use an undercoat or primer (I used to do that but have found that it just adds thickness to the paint thus covering up details of the sculpting plus adds time to the process I've tried white, black, and grey primer and all work ok if you want to try it - suggest you start without a primer and experiment with it down the road). I just start painting. I do a production line, painting an entire unit at the same time. I attach 3 x 15mm figures to a Popsicle stick with putty (I use 'Blutack' but I think you can get some Uhu - find it in the school supply section, it is used to stick pieces of paper to reports, etc). I usually paint the major clothing items first, all the same (historical) color for regulars, different colors for irregs. The higher the class/quality troop generally the more colorful they were - hordes/Irreg E could not afford fancy duds!! So use various off-whites, browns and blacks for their clothes. Next I do the hair, then flesh, then weapons, belts, shoes, helmets etc. Do armor last - I usually leave it the original white metal color if it is to be steel and coat it with clear gloss at the very end of the process (details below) - works okay and is quicker than painting it silver or steel. If there has been any paint spill over from clothes, skin etc onto the armor, you can touch it up with silver paint before clear gloss coating. For shields, there are some good decals out there, especially useful for regulars (Romans, Macedonians, etc.). If you are going to use decals you need a perfectly flat surface (i.e. no raised points on the shield) and I paint the background color first, cover that with a coat of clear gloss, then put on the decal, then another coat of clear gloss. For horses, elephants, camels, baggage critters, etc get some color photos and attempt to copy the coloring. Don't go overboard with patches on horses unless you are really intending to create the Appaloosa effect! Generally, horses manes and tails are a different and darker color than their coat, and paint all your elephants with the same color gray to avoid weird effects on the table! The minwax wash (see below) is especially useful for tails and manes. I generally paint the rider and horse separately (if they come that way) and glue the rider on after finishing painting both. Don't forget to paint the base of the figure brown or green (match the color you will use on the element base) - I use light brown or tan. When painting, I dip the brush into a little dish (paint lid works) of plain water (thinner if using oil-based enamels), dip off the excess on the edge of the dish, then dip into the paint jar, again stroking off the excess on the bottle edge. Then flow the paint on the figure. What you are trying to achieve is a shadow effect; where the paint flows into the folds of the metal and settles there in tiny puddles thus the higher parts of the figure will be the lighter color while the deeper folds are deeper in color. I put a wash on some of my figures. I use Minwax dark walnut, thinned way down with normal paint thinner. You will have to experiment until you get the right level of darkness. The purpose of the wash is to really fill in the crevices of the figure, darken them, and to bring out the details of the figure's sculpture. It also dulls down bright colors, so be careful if you want those colors to stay bright, Also be careful it you want armor to stay bright - I normally do not put the wash on armor. Lastly, use care if washing over oil-based enamel as the thinner in the stain can wash away that enamel. I've also used just plain thinner on oil- based enamel to reduce the thickness of coat of paint and wash out the color - the effect is similar to using acrylics - the thinned enamel flows into the crevices of the figure, the thinner evaporates leaving deeper color in the crevices. If doing this, use care not to wash too much of the color off the high spots or into crevices where you don't want it (turning some guy's face green can be one result!). I sometimes do not wash the figure, you might want to not put any wash at all on your figures (to start) and experiment with the wash on some hordes to see if you want to go with that at all. If the acrylic paint is done right, you won't need to use a wash! After all the painting and washing is finished I base the figures. For bas66 I use beer coasters pilfered from local pubs, cut to the proper size and spray, painted brown. I also put magnetic film on the bottom of my bases in order to keep the finished product from sliding around the bottom of my metal toolbox during transport (I use the German style blue metal toolbox). You can get the magnetic she Is in most craft stores - get the kind with adhesive on one side and just stick squared off beer coasters directly to the magnetic sheet, then cut the whole shebang to the correct size with a pair of scissors. Some people do it the other way 'round - use thin steel sheet metal for the base (you can buy metal stands cut to the correct sizes from wargaming supply stores or cut you own with a pair of tin snips), and some people use wood, plastic, or poster board for bases - experiment! To affix the figure to the base, use carpenter's glue (in the BX). Spread the glue fairly thickly on the entire element base, then set each figure on it and, using a toothpick, spread the glue onto the figure base being careful not to get too much on the legs or feet of the figure. Next, slide the element base (with all figures affixed but not yet with the glue dry, so be careful) into a tray of sand. You can use craft sand, or get some from the local beach. I use sand collected from the dunes surrounding the Great Sand Dunes National Monument (not from inside the NM since that would be illegal) - I like this sand because it is a dark grey/brown and has bits of wood in it. Some folks use model railroad green flocking - that looks too unrealistic for my taste. I leave the stand of figures in the tray of sand until the glue is dry (4 or so hours is plenty, although half an hour or so is normally good enough). When the glue is dry finish off the base by gluing on some moss, sticks or small rocks to give it a 'real' look, and by filing down any sand that has spilled over onto the edge of the base and finally painting the edges of the base a dark brown. I then spray the entire thing with a dull/matte clear coat. Finish the figures off by brushing on a clear gloss coat on anything you want to stay glossy (armor, highly polished leather, etc). There is a decent article in one of the recent Slingshots (check the SOA website) on spray painting figures. For quick work on vast numbers of troops, this guy advocates gluing the figures to the element bases, spray painting the whole mess a medium brown, then slapping on various colored 'washes' (acrylics thinned waaay down to be almost colored water), touching up the flesh, arms, etc, putting on the walnut stain wash, gluing some flock to the element base and dull coating the whole thing. I've even gone a step beyond that and spray painted 120 horde and irreg bow a dozen different colors (I put 3 popsicle sticks with 3 differently posed figures each on the floor of the garage, spray painted each set of 3 x 3 a different color of standard flat spray paint), touched up the flesh, hair and weapons, threw on the walnut- stain wash and dull coat. Worked okay and they look pretty good but those particular units keep getting wiped out on the competition table, so my conclusion is that spray painting is bad for your troopers' morale! Enjoy! LIST OF MATERIALS NEEDED Beer coasters Magnetic adhesive backed sheets Clear flat/matte spray paint Dark brown spray paint Clear gloss coat Assorted acrylics Assorted enamels Metallic colors (silver, copper, bronze) 0 and 00 brushes Larger bristle brush (for glue) Toothpicks Carpenters glue Walnut stain Paint thinner X-acto knife Flat file Emory board Toothbrush Popsicle sticks Blutack/Uhu putty Grey/brown sand Back to Dispatch December 2000 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com